![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I had pulled out The Catherine Wheel's Chrome CD this morning and as I listened to it on my way to work, I quickly remembered why I consider it probably my favorite album of the 90s (well, next to Radiohead's The Bends). I began to compose a fanciful LJ post in my head about the feelings it provoked in me, but much of that has now been lost to having to shift gears into a heavy workload here at the office today.
Still, as the business begins to wane, I still wanted to write something about it and how exciting an album it was/is to me. I believe it had been sometime around 1993 when I heard it first and, between the greatness of the album itself and an amazing performance I was to catch of theirs that year, I was truly in love. Before that I'd heard a song of theirs here and there with their minimal airplay, but it was certainly those two aforementioned experiences that cemented things for me.
The show I was lucky enough to catch was for about $5.00 (hell, it might have even been free, I can't recall) on Georgia Tech's campus of all places. They were in town during a stint touring with INXS at the time and on the day before their show with them at the now-defunct OMNI, they played this small gig. It was hardly publicized, but I had a good friend of mine (then a co-worker, but someone I'd been friends with since 6th grade) that went to Tech (I went to Georgia State at the time) tip me off about it and we went together. I think it was right around then that I also picked up their then-current release, Chrome. If it wasn't before the show, it would have certainly been after as I found their show very impressive and somewhat mind-blowing.
The album itself though fit nicely in with a lot of the "shoegaze" bands I had a hard-on for at the time -- Ride, Lush, My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and the Mary Chain, etc. It was truly beautiful with its impenetrable wall-of-sound of swirling guitars punctuated vy singer Ron Dickinson's engaging vocals. Funny, it sounds as fresh to me now as it did then (if not more so) and I can really see now, in retrospect, how much their sound impacted bands to come, such a Radiohead and countless indie bands. It was an album somewhat before it's time and sadly, that's probably why the album was largely looked over.
Don't look it over now though. It's probably lingering in some discount bin somewhere near you. Pick it up. I do think you would enjoy it.
Still, as the business begins to wane, I still wanted to write something about it and how exciting an album it was/is to me. I believe it had been sometime around 1993 when I heard it first and, between the greatness of the album itself and an amazing performance I was to catch of theirs that year, I was truly in love. Before that I'd heard a song of theirs here and there with their minimal airplay, but it was certainly those two aforementioned experiences that cemented things for me.
The show I was lucky enough to catch was for about $5.00 (hell, it might have even been free, I can't recall) on Georgia Tech's campus of all places. They were in town during a stint touring with INXS at the time and on the day before their show with them at the now-defunct OMNI, they played this small gig. It was hardly publicized, but I had a good friend of mine (then a co-worker, but someone I'd been friends with since 6th grade) that went to Tech (I went to Georgia State at the time) tip me off about it and we went together. I think it was right around then that I also picked up their then-current release, Chrome. If it wasn't before the show, it would have certainly been after as I found their show very impressive and somewhat mind-blowing.
The album itself though fit nicely in with a lot of the "shoegaze" bands I had a hard-on for at the time -- Ride, Lush, My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and the Mary Chain, etc. It was truly beautiful with its impenetrable wall-of-sound of swirling guitars punctuated vy singer Ron Dickinson's engaging vocals. Funny, it sounds as fresh to me now as it did then (if not more so) and I can really see now, in retrospect, how much their sound impacted bands to come, such a Radiohead and countless indie bands. It was an album somewhat before it's time and sadly, that's probably why the album was largely looked over.
Don't look it over now though. It's probably lingering in some discount bin somewhere near you. Pick it up. I do think you would enjoy it.
