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Psychodandy: Jesus and Mary Chain-inspired clothing collection
07.01.2014
01:57 pm
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A few years back my wife and I walked past a skate park and laughed as we noticed that one of the pre-teen skater kids was wearing a mall-bought Clash tee-shirt, except that whoever manufactured it didn’t even attempt to copy their logo. No picture, it just read “The Clash” in Helvetica.

You can’t buy cool, which brings me to this…

Jim and William Reid, the Scottish brothers behind The Jesus and Mary Chain are many things, but since when are they style icons? Apparently Japanese designer Jun Takahashi sees the Reids as the height of fashion, hence his hideously expensive and deeply odd Spring/Summer 2014 Undercover clothing collection for men, inspired by them…

If dressing like a rock band from 30 years ago—and paying dearly to look like an absolute twat—seems like something you wouldn’t be ashamed of doing in public, you can order items from The Jesus and Mary Chain line at Undercover’s website. Takahashi and Undercover have earlier collections based on krautrockers Can and Talking Heads. What could possibly be next, I wonder?
 

Pretty tragic, right?
 

JAMC pants… because why not?
 

I’ll never understand
 

Nine million rainy days? No problem with your JAMC “You Trip Me Up” parka!
 

The living end? How’s about something’s wrong?
 

They didn’t even get the line right!
 

Okay, admittedly I would wear this one… it says “DOG” on the back.

Via Nick Abrahams

Posted by Richard Metzger
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07.01.2014
01:57 pm
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The Jesus & Mary Chain plan ‘Psychocandy’ anniversary dates


 
Music impresario Alan McGee has relaunched his Creation Management company with the signing of his first clients The Jesus & Mary Chain. McGee previously managed The Jesus & Mary Chain 30 years ago, and their signing coincides with the band’s plans to celebrate the impending 30th anniversary of their debut album, 1985’s Psychocandy, with three gigs in the UK in November of this year and further shows in 2015.

The Jesus & Mary Chain first formed in East Kilbride, Scotland in 1983. The band centers around the writing and performing partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid. Over three decades the band released a series of highly influential albums and singles. The band split-up in 1999, and reformed in 2007.

In an interview with Music Week Alan McGee said:

“The Mary Chain were the first band I ever managed when I was 23,” McGee told Music Week today. “That was 30 years ago and they exploded really fast. By the time I was 24, they were No.1 in Germany and other places. Jim [Reid] was 22, I was 24 and Douglas [Hart] was 17. It was fucking nuts, if you think about it. We were kids! Now, I’m 53 - I suppose that’s kind of the normal age of a manager in a lot of ways.”

The gigs in November will be the first time The Jesus & Mary Chain have played live in the UK since 2008 (or 2012 in the US). Discussing the forthcoming anniversary in NME, lead singer Jim Reid said:

Psychocandy was meant to be a kick in the teeth to all of those who stood in our way at the time, which was practically the whole music industry. In 1985 there were a great many people who predicted no more than a six-month life span for The Mary Chain. To celebrate the approaching 30th anniversary of the album, we would like to perform it in its entirety. We will also perform key songs from that period that did not feature on the album.”

Tickets for the trio of UK gigs go on sale 9am Friday 16th May.

McGee will continue to oversee his other record label 359 Music, which is run in conjunction with Cherry Red, while revitalizing Creation Management.

“Creation Management are going to sign a couple of baby bands, but the main thing for us is to do the Mary Chain right. We’re going to South America on Monday, then we’ll do some more American stuff, then there’s three British dates. Then really we’re [planning events for] the whole of next year - the festivals [in 2015] are going to be all about Psychocandy. And at the end of that, everyone will probably look at each other and go: ‘I want a year off!’”

Though Sony Music own Creation Records, McGee has full rights to Creation Management and publishing company Creation Songs. For the new Creation Management, McGee has teamed-up with businessman Simon Fletcher, dubbed “The King of Timber” having made millions in the wood trade.

Since leaving the music business in 2008, McGee has kept a low profile in Wales making money out of property. But there was only so long the talented maverick could spend “navigating his navel and watching everything weird and wonderful on the internet.” Over the past two years McGee has produced the movie Kubricks, appeared in the film Svengali, launched the new talent label 359 Music, and wrritten his bestselling autobiography Creation Stories.

“I’m only 53, I’m not that boring. Let’s go have some fucking fun. And who better to have fun with than Jim and William [Reid] - because they’re both fucking nuts, and I love it. William’s a genius, Jim’s a rock’n’roll star and I’m a fucking headcase. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?”

What indeed?

Here’s The Jesus & Mary Chain’s debut on UK television way back when.
 

 
Via Music Week
 
Bonus Mary Chain tracks, after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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05.15.2014
11:42 am
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The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Douglas Hart, this week on ‘The Pharmacy’
03.20.2014
03:37 pm
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Gregg Foreman’s radio program, The Pharmacy, is a music / talk show playing heavy soul, raw funk, 60′s psych, girl groups, Krautrock. French yé-yé, Hammond organ rituals, post-punk transmissions and “ghost on the highway” testimonials and interviews with the most interesting artists and music makers of our times…

This week’s guest is Douglas Hart, the original bassist of The Jesus and Mary Chain who played with the group from 1984 to 1991. Hart is a music video director with over 80 promo clips under his belt, including videos for My Bloody Valentine, The Stone Roses, Babyshambles, Primal Scream and Paul Weller.

Topics discussed include:
- Recording Psychocandy
- The JAMC’s notoriously short live sets and the rioting at their gigs.
- Why we join bands
- The influence of The Cramps and The Stooges and discovering the psych/garage records of the Pebbles and Nuggets sets and the effect they had on The Jesus and Mary Chain
 

 
Mr. Pharmacy is a musician and DJ who has played for the likes of Pink Mountaintops, The Delta 72, The Black Ryder, The Meek and more. Since 2012 Gregg Foreman has been the musical director of Cat Power’s band. He started dj’ing 60s Soul and Mod 45’s in 1995 and has spun around the world. Gregg currently lives in Los Angeles, CA and divides his time between playing live music, producing records and dj’ing various clubs and parties from LA to Australia.

Set List

I Wanna Testify - The Parliaments
I’m Rowed Out - The Eyes
Intro 1 (I’m Not a Young Man Anymore - Velvet Underground)
Rebellious Jukebox - The Fall
La fille de la ligne 15 - The Limiñanas
Russian Roulette - Lords of the New Church
8 Teen - Question Mark and the Mysterians
Intro 2 (Valmont’s Go-Go Pad -Ennio Morricone)
Jesus and Mary Chain Douglas Hart Interview PT 1
Taste of Cindy - The Jesus and Mary Chain
Shot By Both Sides - Magazine
Swamp Thing (Rx Organ Replay) - Mel Brown (Rx Remixed and played the Piano and Organ)
Candyman - Siouxsie & the Banshees
The Way You Do - Jimmy Nolan
Forever Filthy - LowLife
Intro 3 (Ghetto Organ - Jackie Mittoo)
Dandelion Seeds - July
Dreams Never End - New Order
6 am - Vacant Lots
Jesus and Mary Chain Douglas Hart Interview PT 2
Human Fly - The Cramps
Intro 3 (Grits - James Brown at the Organ w the Jb’s)
Mr.Pharmacist - The Fall
 

 
You can download the entire show here.

Posted by Tara McGinley
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03.20.2014
03:37 pm
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Aleister Crowley, UFOS and The Jesus and Mary Chain with Alan McGee on ‘The Pharmacy’


 
This week Creation Records founder Alan McGee, the man who signed The Jesus and Mary Chain, Ride, Oasis and Primal Scream. McGee is the author of Creation Stories: Riots, Raves And Running A Label and the head of 359 Records, a launchpad for new artists.

Gregg Foreman’s radio program, The Pharmacy, is a music / talk show playing heavy soul, raw funk, 60′s psych, girl groups, Krautrock. French yé-yé, Hammond organ rituals, post-punk transmissions and “ghost on the highway” testimonials and interviews with the most interesting artists and music makers of our times…
 

 
Mr. Pharmacy is a musician and DJ who has played for the likes of Pink Mountaintops, The Delta 72, The Black Ryder, The Meek and more. Since 2012 Gregg Foreman has been the musical director of Cat Power’s band. He started dj’ing 60s Soul and Mod 45’s in 1995 and has spun around the world. Gregg currently lives in Los Angeles, CA and divides his time between playing live music, producing records and dj’ing various clubs and parties from LA to Australia.
 
Setlist:

Intro
Swastika Eyes - Primal Scream
Search and Destroy - The Stooges
Shout Bamalama - The Pinetoppers
Funky Side of Town - JB’s
Alan McGee interview Part One
Loaded - Primal Scream
Look Back in Anger - The Television Personalities
Upside Down - The Jesus and Mary Chain
Can’t Seem to Make You Mine - The Seeds
Gbeti Madjro - Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou*
Nervous Breakdown - BLACK FLAG
Ultra Twist - The Cramps
Big Nick- James Booker
Alan McGee interview Part Two
When You Sleep - My Bloody Valentine
No Love Lost - Joy Division
Keep On Keeping On - Nolan Porter
Annalisa - Public Image
I Think I’ve Had it - The Gories
Sex Beat - The Gun Club
Alan McGee Interview Part Three
Shoot Speed Kill Light / Glider - Primal Scream / My Bloody Valentine
You Made Me Realise - My Bloody Valentine
Mr.Pharmacist - The Fall
Outro
 

 
You can download the show in its entirety here.

Posted by Tara McGinley
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01.16.2014
03:57 pm
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The snottiest, snoggiest Jesus and Mary Chain interview ever, 1986
10.01.2013
11:29 am
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I’m of the opinion that The Jesus and Mary Chain created some of the most beautiful, lulling, sometimes jarring sounds in all of rock ‘n’ roll. But they also gave some of the sourest, most testy interviews of the MTV generation. They were famous for deflecting questions, contradicting interviewers, and refusing to acknowledge any peers or comparable groups. They also lacked no ego when asserting the value and innovation of their own work, describing themselves as one of the few good bands at an overwhelmingly unimpressive moment in music history. Perhaps true, but still, guys!

But I found the best one. I found the best Jesus and Mary Chain interview of all. It’s not because their carefully feigned trademark annoyance and boredom is at a fever pitch. It’s not because they undermine every band compared to them, including The Sex Pistols, who Jim Reid later credited with inspiring he and his brother to start a band. It’s not even because Reid is totally screwing with the interviewer, making snide comments on the band’s commercial ambitions to compete with Duran Duran and Culture Club.

No, this is the best/worst Jesus and Mary Chain interview ever, because in the middle of a question, apropos of nothing, then-drummer Bobby Gillespie just starts making out with an unidentified woman on the couch. It is never explained, announced, or acknowledged, but Gillespie just keeps on macking away. The poor cameraman attempts to focus on Reid, who does most of the talking, and appears oblivious, but after a while the close-up feels awkward, and the shot has to include Gillespie’s stunt. While I find the whole thing amusing, I hope everyone on set got a raise for going with the mighty weird flow here…
 

 

Posted by Amber Frost
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10.01.2013
11:29 am
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Piano duo perform lovely cover of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s ‘Just Like Honey’
11.29.2011
06:42 pm
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Over at Boing Boing, David Pescovitz posted this lovely cover of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Just Like Honey” played on twin pianos.

They’re like a post-punk Ferrante & Teicher!
 

Posted by Tara McGinley
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11.29.2011
06:42 pm
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Upside Down: The Creation Records Story

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Upside Down: The Creation Records Story is a roller coaster of film, which tells the incredible tale of one of the most important independent record labels of the past fifty years - Creation Records

This excellent film reveals how the gallus Glaswegian Alan McGee started the label with a £1,000 bank loan in the 1980s, and went on shape music in the 1980s and 1990s, as he made Creation home to such talents as The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, Medicine, The Pastels, Teenage Fanclub, BMX Bandits, Super Furry Animals, The Boo Radleys, Saint Etienne, Momus, My Bloody Valentine, 3 Colours Red and Oasis - who were signed for £40,000.

McGee originally thought Liam Gallagher was the band’s drug dealer, as he told the Sun:

“I was up in Glasgow seeing my dad and I wasn’t sure I’d even go to the gig. I got there early by mistake. Oasis were on first, before most people arrived. There was this amazing young version of Paul Weller sat there in a light blue Adidas tracksuit. I assumed he was the drug dealer and that Bonehead, the guitarist, was the singer.

“It was only when they went on stage I realised it was the lead singer Liam Gallagher. I knew I had to sign them.

“Noel and I talked after the show and just said ‘done’ and he turned out to be a man of his word.

“I was lucky to be there. We didn’t send out scouts. Most of my signings were because I happened to see new bands. That couldn’t happen any more. If a new band as much as farts it’s all over the internet.”

Upside Down: The Creation Records Story brilliantly captures the creativity that came out of the chaos of the legendary McGee’s drug-fueled reign as President of Pop.

“I was on one continuous bender from 1987 until 1994. Until Oasis came along the Creation staff were more rock and roll than the bands we signed. Then Oasis came along and things got even crazier.

“I was permanently off my head on cocaine, ecstasy, acid and speed. We’d be awake for three days.

“We went one further than having dealers hanging around. We just employed them instead.

“But they were different times. If you behaved now like we used to people would phone the police.”

Upside Down: The Creation Records Story is now available on DVD, with a short cinema release, details here.
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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05.03.2011
07:43 pm
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