It's a helluva hullabaloo
In both ears
Dear fans, friends, and followers,
‘Hullabaloo’ seemed like an apt word to describe not only the newsletter you’re presumably about to read but also the world in which it is being sent, received, and generally consumed. (It also appears in the song ‘Because of Whirl-Jack,’ which I’ve been humming lately and I’m convinced it’s a song about a plushy.) Everything feels, in a word, heartbreaking, and ‘hullabaloo’ makes it seem somehow less terrifying, although I doubt anyone is really buying that. So, thanks for reading. I’m sure you have about a million other things you could be doing.
When we’re feeling shattered at the end of the day, the multisensory mood-altering influence of music is one of those sacred things that helps heal and reconstruct all the pieces of us that have come apart. It can be stabilizing and re-orienting, helping to fortify ourselves for getting back out there and persevering, despite what sometimes feels like overwhelming odds and soul-crushing despair. It’s a kind of magic that can sustain us through the grief.
In the spirit of feeding that energy, I’m breaking a few months’ worth of silence to share with you a cornucopia of Cocteau Twins updates and ephemera, with the hope that one of two of these send you down a delightful rabbit hole of joyful discovery (or re-discovery).
Peace and love to you.
Simon Raymonde reveals title & cover of forthcoming memoir
In what is by far the biggest headline of this newsletter, our Simon — who has teased this book for quite a while now — has revealed its title, In One Ear: Cocteau Twins, Ivor and Me, and the gorgeous cover, featuring a portrait of himself taken by Paul Cox Juergen Teller during the Heaven or Las Vegas era. The book is published by Nine Eight Press (who also brought us Miki Berenyi’s fantastic memoir, Fingers Crossed, a couple of years ago), and will debut in — appropriately — September. There will be two versions: a standard hardcover and a deluxe, limited-edition signed and numbered version in a special case designed by Chris Bigg at 4AD.
Posting the announcement to social media, Simon wrote:
“So I wrote a book. You know, like a big grown up kinda thing to do. It covers all the good and bad bits, falling over, getting up, shorts, big boy pants, Ivor, and a big ole love letter to Cocteau Twins too. But I can’t tell you everything here that would be silly. You’ll have to read it yourself in Sept when those very nice people at @nineeightbooks will release/unleash it into the world.”
Early praise has come from obscure people like award-winning actor Cillian Murphy and the legendary Sir Elton John, no less, who says “This is a wonderful book of pop music history. A man obsessed with the beauty of creative artists and wanting to create his own legacy and to enable other musicians to have a voice by releasing their magic. We need more of people like him in a world full of mass-produced mediocrity.”
You can get more details at cocteautwins.com.
No doubt Simon will be making appearances here and there throughout the next few months where you’ll have a chance to hear him talk about In One Ear, including the upcoming Krankenhaus Festival in the UK in August.
(Simon has access to this Substack, by the way, so he may be dropping in to say a few words of his own sooner or later.)
Four-Calendar Café and Milk & Kisses re-re-remastered and re-re-reissued
So, I guess the third fourth time is the charm? These two LPs — released on Fontana in 1993 and 1996, respectively — were first remastered and reissued in 2006 with extended sleeve notes, subsequently remastered for vinyl in 2017, and then included in the Fontana retrospective box set Treasure Hiding in 2018.
Aaaaand they’re back! This time properly remastered again by Robin Guthrie and released by the band’s first record label, 4AD, on digital, CD, and vinyl. So now all the Cocteaus’ LPs can be had on 4AD, which I suspect will be exciting for some people.
Robin had hinted at this last year, saying there were some exciting things forthcoming (and yes, there’s more).
According to sound engineers who know about these things, these latest reissues are by far the best quality of any of their predecessors, and it sounds like — anecdotally, anyway — fans seems to agree.
What’s this? Another re-master/re-release? Why, yes it is, apparently. Maybe.
Robin hinted at things to come in 2024, including with 4AD, and it seems as though that will include a re-master and re-release of The Moon and the Melodies, the 1986-era collaboration of Cocteau Twins and the late great Harold Budd.
Guthrie posted a somewhat cryptic picture of the master studio reels of The Moon and the Melodies to his official Facebook page in May.
Released by 4AD under the name “BUDD/RAYMONDE/GUTHRIE/FRASER” (and still considered by pretty much every Cocteau Twins fan to be a proper Cocteau LP, even though it isn’t), it has become a classic. The track “Sea, Swallow Me,” for example, is consistently one of the top 10 streamed Cocteau Twins songs on Spotify (and other services, as well). Unlike all other Cocteau Twins records, though, it has eluded the re-master/re-release treatment, so perhaps this newfound popularity makes it financially worthwhile to do now. Rumour has it that the refreshed version will be available on vinyl 23 August.
Speaking of Mr. Guthrie
A new two-part interview with Robin dropped recently. Andrew Rose met up with Guthrie for a nearly two-hour conversation as part of the “Pristine Masters” series for DKFM Shoegaze Radio.
Part one focuses on the Cocteau Twins’ early formation and career — not a lot of new information, but still interesting — while part two is more about Robin’s many collaborations and side projects since Cocteaus’ breakup.
Pitchfork (RIP) hearts Head Over Heels
Pitchfork has been steadfastly pro-Cocteaus for much of its history, and so it was with some sadness that due to recent changes in their corporate structure (oh, and a lot of layoffs), it is safe to say it may cease to exist in the near future as it becomes inexplicably integrated into, uh, GQ.
Anyway, in January they ran a retrospective review of Head Over Heels — kind of like “Here’s what Pitchfork probably would have said in 1983 if we had been around then.” Giving the album a 9.6 (out of 10), Simon Reynolds wrote:
Head Over Heels is the perfect title for this record. You’re not meant to cogitate or extract profound literal meaning from these sounds, as was the case with so much post-punk in the immediately prior years. You’re supposed to tumble into its cascading bliss.
Cocteau protégés The Veldt finally release Guthrie-produced LP, Illuminated 1989
In the last newsletter (come on, you remember!) I mentioned the release of the track ‘Everlasting Gobstopper’. Now, more than three decades after it was recorded, The Veldt have finally been able to release the Robin Guthrie-produced version of their first LP, Marigolds, under the title Illuminated 1989 (featuring guest vocals on one track from Liz Fraser).
As the story goes, this version didn’t please the record executives at Capitol at the time:
While originally intended to be the band's first album, their label Capitol Records shelved the recording and sent them back into the studio with producer Lincoln Fong (Moose), resulting in their first album released with the title 'Marigolds'.
Marigolds was wonderful — it was produced by September Sound’s own Lincoln, after all — but very different, and without several of the tracks on this version (including that one featuring Liz). It’s a great listen. Stand-out tracks like ‘Everlasting Gobstopper’ and ‘Aurora Borealis’ really showcase that Guthrie “magic.” (Bonus points if you can make out Elizabeth’s vocal contribution in ‘Aurora Borealis.’)
Robin had this to say about ‘Everlasting Gobstopper’:
“What a song this is. I'm really happy this is finally getting released and that you'll get to hear the album. Just remember, if you can, what was going on in 1989 and what the world was like. Perspective and context everyone. Hopefully the album release will be before 2058.”
I personally had the electrifying pleasure of seeing The Veldt live in 1991 and 1994 — both times in support of Cocteau Twins. I had little idea what to expect, but I was speechless — both times — at the power of their performance. These songs especially, in 1991, shimmered and pulsed — the ideal warm-up to a Cocteau show. I dare you not to love it.
CocteauFest 2024 announced
I can’t know how many of you know what a ‘CocteauFest’ is, much less whether you’ve attended one, but this year’s will once again be hosted by Dancing Ghosts at the Cat Club in San Francisco, CA on 16 August (details here). This event will include a live performance by Cocteau Twins tribute band Sugar Hiccup.
Personally, I haven’t been able to attend one in years, but I co-organized the original — in Boston in 2003 — with the late Leesa Beales. Granted, 2003 was a lot closer to the Cocteaus’ era than 2024, so it was really well-attended! (It was also pre-social media and smartphones, so there aren’t many artifacts from it.) Folks even flew in from Europe and elsewhere to be there, and I must say we did a great job and had a wonderful time. The following year we moved it to Los Angeles, where an anonymous benefactor donated the funds to cover the venue costs and some other things so we could host a much larger crowd and live performances from a couple of LA-area bands. It was fantastic. The last one I attended was Toronto in 2005 at the legendary Lee’s Palace. The ‘fest has been hosted all over since — London, Manchester, Berlin, Santiago, Sao Paulo, Paris, New York, and San Francisco, even Lake Muskoka, Ontario!
Social Media Corner
So, look — I have no idea the age of any of you folks, so I can’t assume anything about your internet proclivities, or whether you, like I, have, um, mixed feelings about social media and the destruction it has wrought on society, but that conversation is best reserved for another newsletter written by someone else. To be sure, though, one upside is that it has made it easier than ever (sometimes overwhelmingly so) to discover new music, or music that’s simply new to you. At least one and a half generations have followed the breakup of Cocteau Twins, and it feels like they’re more popular now than ever before. One special thing about social media is that it can give creative people with a distinctive talent, some personality, and maybe a little bit of that je ne sais quoi weirdness to find huge audiences. And you know what? Cocteaus’ music shows up more often than you’d think in such places.
Case in point: US teenage pedal steel musician Noah Faulkner, his brother Nate, and their dog Kara, a delightful combo who perform unique interpretations of songs from a deep, wide, and impressively cool catalogue for their online audience of thousands with just a pedal steel, bass, and drum machine.
So far, they’ve taken on several Cocteau classics — “Carolyn’s Fingers,” “Heaven or Las Vegas,” “Sea, Swallow Me,” and “Cherry-Coloured Funk.” The duo — er, trio — have made an appearance at SXSW and appear to be rising stars.
Cheers to great folks like the Faulkner brothers (and Kara!), who make the internet (almost) worth the trouble and remind us that not everything sucks.
There’s also this that someone made with Lego.
Coc-tail Corner
PRESENTED BY SCOTT HEIM (Twitter: @Scott_Heim / Instagram: @scottheim926)
(If you don’t drink, skip to the end.)
In this edition of original cocktail recipes inspired by Cocteau Twins songs, we have “Pepper-Tree.”
In a (refreshing?) break from ingredient-heavy past recipes, this one is basically a very dry gin martini with the addition of black pepper, a tiny bit of olive juice and piri-piri pepper juice, and two olives stuffed with super hot piri-piri peppers.
3oz. dry London or Japanese gin
1/2oz. dry vermouth
1/2oz. juice from olives stuffed with piri-piri peppers
Stir vigorously in pitcher or shaker with large ice cubes—do not shake! Strain cold into pre-chilled martini glass. Garnish with two olives stuffed with piri-piris; crack fresh black pepper over the top of the martini while listening to “Pepper-Tree.”
Hearts / In small parts / Leave you searching*
(* I’m guessing, but I like these words.)
I believe that’s all I can manage, though I’m quite sure I’m leaving out some things. Be kind to each other and yourselves.
With every good wish,
Michael
P.S. - I totally forgot! Pitchfork posted these interviews with ALVVAYS and The XX praising Heaven or Las Vegas. Cool, right?!
P.P.S. - Also? The amazing Trace Lysette wore a Milk & Kisses-era tee shirt in the film “Monica.” Did anyone else catch that? I mean, it was a smallish indie film, but still super good.
Pretty sure that’s all. xx