Centered around re-recorded versions of four songs from the band's two Wilde Club singles and the seven minute lovelorn "Black Metallic" - which was referred to as the "Like a Hurricane" of the 90s - the deeply rich Ferment firmly established Catherine Wheel amongst the shoegaze contingent of the early 90s. The band would proceed to denounce the shoegaze tag, but it was a fitting one, at least with everything they released prior to 1993's harder edged Chrome. Along with bands like Lush, Ride, and Slowdive, Catherine Wheel buried their sing-along melodies in wafts of distortion and blurry production values. Rob Dickinson had yet to find comfort as a lead singer, so his somewhat fey and dazed emoting blended perfectly with Tim Friese-Greene's comfy production. A fair amount of the bands thrown into the same category as Catherine Wheel were criticized for lacking knowledge of their instruments, but a couple listens to Ferment should prove that they were hardly amateurish. The employment of numerous guitar pedals didn't serve as a smoke-and-mirrors ruse, and Friese-Greene knew enough to allow room for bassist Dave Hawes and drummer Neil Sims to flex their able muscles. Dickinson and lead guitarist Brian Futter were immensely skilled and complementary to each other from the band's inception; certainly they were one of the most unrecognized guitar duos of their stylistic brethren. Like all fine debuts, Ferment is varied emotionally, ranging from lust ("I Want to Touch You") to bliss ("Shallow" and "Salt"). It's a record that makes you want to crawl inside its sleeve and remain. It's as welcoming as it is insular and sheltered.
Wow, I just posted a little "blast from the past" on Anna's MOG, and it got me thinking about my old favorite (aw hell, still high up there) band, Catherine Wheel. I watched a movie a few months back called "Millions," which, among other things was about a young boy who was obsessed with saints. One day in school, he spoke of St. Catherine of Alexandria. I'm not Catholic, so I knew nothing of...
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Remember when "Black Metallic" came out, and people thought Catherine Wheel was a shoegaze band? Whoops.
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Catherine Wheel formed in 1990, comprising singer/guitarist Rob Dickinson, guitarist Brian Futter, bassist Dave Hawes, and drummer Neil Sims. Hawes had previously played in a Joy Division-influenced band called Eternal. They took their moniker from the firework known as the Catherine wheel, which in turn had taken its name from the medieval torture device of the same name. The band's debut albu...
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Remember when "Black Metallic" came out, and people thought Catherine Wheel was a shoegaze band? Whoops.
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my musical mind is like a maze of random notes, chords and lyrical refrains. i start with something that is often random and often it twists and turns and winds itself into something else, and then another something, and then upside down and around again. tanya donelly's acrobat led me to catherine wheel's sun staring that led to this song that always gives me those surface of the skin and down...
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Now who could it be? Download | Black Metallic by Catherine Wheel It's Ryan Gosling! SEXY BACK A solo Ryan Gosling walks around with a BIG HOLE in the back of his "Thrasher" t-shirt while out and about in Los Angeles on Thursday. Recent rumors state that Ryan was passed up as the Green Lantern in the upcoming superhero flick. Producers extended the offer to Gone Baby Gone st...
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Wow, I just posted a little "blast from the past" on Anna's MOG, and it got me thinking about my old favorite (aw hell, still high up there) band, Catherine Wheel. I watched a movie a few months back called "Millions," which, among other things was about a young boy who was obsessed with saints. One day in school, he spoke of St. Catherine of Alexandria. I'm not Catholic, so I knew nothing of...
More >
Black Metallic, the single of The Catherine Wheel’s Ferment album, peaked at number nine on the Billboard Modern Rock charts back in 1992. Today, The Catherine Wheel is no longer, but lead singer Rob Dickinson still plays their songs solo (the download is Rob’s acoustic version). He was recently signed to Universal Music Canada, and the [...]
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Texture |
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| 2 I Want to Touch You |
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| 3 Black Metallic |
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| 4 Indigo Is Blue |
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| 5 She's My Friend |
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| 6 Shallow |
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| 7 Ferment |
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| 8 Flower to Hide |
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| 9 Tumbledown |
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| 10 Bill and Ben |
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| 11 Salt |
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| 12 Balloon |
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 "Ferment")
