Houston Calling

This is music…

May 4th, 2008 · 2 Comments

Long-time readers know my affinity for Britrock band The Verve. I was a late-comer to the group’s music, like much of America, but quickly became an obsessive fan and gobbled up the back catalogue as quickly as I could. When they broke up after Urban Hymns, I was saddened and–although I enjoyed most of it–never felt that Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft’s solo work measured up to his songs with his former band.

In late 2007, NME.com posted a 14-something minute track of the newly-reformed group called “The Thaw Sessions,” which was taken from a session in the studio and showed that the band hadn’t lost its spark. Over the past week or two, the band played shows in California (including a set at Coachella — watch new song here), Las Vegas, and New York City.
Local musician
and HUGE fan of The Verve, Ron Rushing, traveled to NYC for the gigs (he also went to England last November for their reunion shows, which you can listen to on the MySpace site he set up — you can also see photos of Ron with the band). He tells me, “First show they did ‘Gravity Grave’ on a totally whim. Si Jones starting playing the bass line and people FREAKED out, so Richard says, ‘He’s dying to play that one. Should we do it? Yeah, let’s do a 15-minute funk jam.’ Turned out to be 6 or 7 but it was very kewl to see them mix it up some.” Lucky man…

Anyway, the band’s new album reportedly comes out in June August and includes new songs “Sit And Wonder” and “Love Is Noise” — can’t wait to hear the rest of the stuff. I was always partial to these lines from “Life’s An Ocean”: Imagine the future / Woke up with a scream / I was buying some feelings / From a vending machine / Say that I will see / Something more than I have / There’s something inside of me / Crying out for something else / And if someone hears my scream / Put it in a letter to me.

There’s plenty of video of their recent performances out on the web, but I suggest checking out this site.

Tags: Miscellaneous · Music

2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Ron fr Inner Lights // May 4, 2008 at 9:41 am

    Thanks for the mention, one small error though, the new album is now slated for a August release, just FYI.

  • 2 David A. Cobb // May 4, 2008 at 9:45 am

    Thanks. Can’t wait…

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