The Cult

BORN INTO THIS baby!

It’s awesome. Go get it.

I loved The Cult when I was in high school and college (roughly 1985-1992). Their last album didn’t thrill me though. Is this one similar or more like their old stuff?

Old shit. It’s a cross between Electric and Sonic Temple. Produced by “Youth”, bass player for Killing Joke.

New drummer is John Tempesta formerly of White/Rob Zombie. Astbury says he left Riders on the Storm to cement his own legacy and this record is a great start on doing just that.

I love it. The only thing that sucks is that they’re not coming to Seattle during their tour. I might have to head to SF and catch them at the Warfield. (They played there during their Beyond Good & Evil tour, and it was amazing.)

I heard an advert for this on the radio about ten minutes ago. This is the first I’ve heard of or thought about The Cult in about ten years, except for an odd moment a week ago when I felt an inexplicable need to listen to “Star” on repeat for about a day and a half.

It’s odd how these things work. I don’t know why I came to qt3 first before going to download it. Thanks for the reminder!

I will never forgive Rick Rubin for turning The Cult into a pale AC/DC clone on Electric.

My friends and I worshipped Love when it came out. “She Sells Sanctuary”, in retrospect, feels like a blueprint for all the decade of alt-rock that followed - hell, it even predates Jane’s Addiction. We loved how it was swirly and psychedelic but rockin’ at the same time. Even better it was easy enough that even I, the world’s worst teenage guitarist, could play it - D D D D / D D D D / C C C C / G-G G! And to cap it off, Billy Duffy plays a sweet-ass white Gretch in the video. The rest of the album was pretty great too - “Rain” especially, although it’s essentially a rewrite of “She Sells Sanctuary”.

So we were pumped for Electric. I still remember watching the video for “Love Removal Machine” - which admittedly has one hell of a riff - and thinking it was some weird joke on the part of the band. Why would they strip away everything that made them interesting musically? Why go from the crazy psychedelic density of Love to being just another cock rock outfit?

Well, I guess the answer to that was “to make shitloads of money”. And fair enough, really. Enough time has passed that I can see Electric as the terrific rock record it is. (The rest of their canon, Sonic Temple included, is pretty awful though.) But at the time, boy howdy were we ever pissed.

<obligatory link to the lyrics to Hooker With a Penis go here>

Yeah, I… I don’t like it.

Sorry, Ian! The J train has left the station! Next stop, Recycle Bin!

It’s getting better with every listen and I dug it the moment it spun in the CD player. Dirty Little Rockstar should be a hit single. That’s the kind of song that defines The Cult and why Billy Duffy is the heart of the band with his strong riffs and cool licks.

Contemplating getting tix to see them on this tour. I haven’t been since they were opening for Metallica on …and Justice for All in support of the Sonic Temple record.