Music News, Reviews, and Gossip on Idolator.com » Robert Smith

Maura — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:30:52 +0000

“I imagine we are all, like cassettes, thoughts wrapped up in awkward packaging. : ),” says Erika Iris Simmons of her art project Ghost In The Machine–in which portraits of musicians are crafted from the innards of cassettes–and you know, she might have a point. Simmons has crafted images of musicians like Ian Astbury and Tom Waits out of this pretty ingenious source material, but my favorite one has to be Robert Smith, because his hair looks absolutely perfect. [Flickr; HT Dan R.]

Everybody Hates Radiohead

Maura — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:45:00 +0000

Poor Thom Yorke. He just wants to make his music and post cryptic blog updates, and everyone has to be getting in his face, whether it’s about his band’s digital-distribution experiments or their Grammy antics. Why can’t people just leave him alone? Ha ha, because it gets them press, of course.

First, there’s Robert Smith, who was banging on about the band’s “pay what you want for the low-quality MP3s of our album before we release it properly” experiment:

“The Radiohead experiment of paying what you want – I disagreed violently with that.

“You can’t allow other people to put a price on what you do, otherwise you don’t consider what you do to have any value at all and that’s nonsense.

“If I put a value on my music and no one’s prepared to pay that, then more fool me, but the idea that the value is created by the consumer is an idiot plan, it can’t work.”

Hmm. I wonder how Bob feels about In Rainbows‘ fixed prices for all its physical formats? Oh wait, nobody asked him about that because every lazy reporter out there misunderstands the whole “Radiohead model” concept. Sigh. Someday, maybe they will learn.

Then Kanye West got into the act, whining during a taping of VH1 Storytellers that took place on the Friday after the Grammys that he was annoyed by Thom Yorke snubbing him at the awards show. Apparently these comments were so controversial they were cut from the broadcast—and yet they weren’t too controversial to be leaked to the press the day before said curiously underpromoted broadcast aired. Whew!

During the taping, according to a Reuters reporter, West was aggrieved that Radiohead singer Thom Yorke had allegedly snubbed him backstage at the Grammys five days earlier. That hurt, West told the audience, because he idolizes the British band, and considers it one of his few creative rivals.

“So when he performed at the Grammys, I sat the f—- down,” West said.

And yet West thinks that Chris Brown should get a break because “everyone makes mistakes in life.” So you tell me: Does dude need a heavy dose of perspective, or a self-esteem boost since he obviously needs more results on his personal Google News alerts?

Robert Smith blasts “idiot” Radiohead [Music Radar]
Kanye West’s Radiohead tirade cut from VH1 Storytellers [Reuters]

Robert Smith Is Full Of Despair… Over iTunes’ Pricing Methods

Maura — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0000

You’d think Robert Smith would be in a pretty good mood this week, what with a new EP by the Cure, Hypnagogic States, being out and featuring remixes of the band’s new songs by young turks like Patrick Stump and an unidentified member of 30 Seconds To Mars. But he’s less than pleased–not because of the music, but because of the price point that was bestowed on his album by whoever placed it to the iTunes Store’s shelves. Which is why he penned a blog post today that began “PLEASE DONT BUY HYPNAGOGIC STATES EP FROM ITUNES FOR £7.99.” Smith’s all-caps missive to the iTunes powers that be–which features, as he puts it, “colourful language”- after the jump.

DEAR…

I FUCKING DESPAIR
AGAIN

HYPNAGOGIC STATES EP IS NOW UP ON UK ITUNES…

5 TRACKS FOR £7.99?
FOR FUCKS SAKE!

AND THE PACKAGE IS COMPLETEY MISSING THE EXTRA BONUS TRACK (65DOS ALT REMIX OF “THE ONLY ONE”)

SO
YOU CAN BUY THE FOUR REMIXES BY 30STM/AFI/MCR/FOB INDIVIDUALLY FOR 79P EACH…

BUT YOU ONLY GET THE 65DOS “EXPLODING HEAD SYNDROME” REMIX OF ALL FOUR SINGLES IF YOU PAY £7.99 FOR “THE ALBUM”…

IE YOU ARE BEING ASKED TO PAY £4.83 FOR THE 65DOS REMIX… !!!
WHO THE FUCK IS GOING TO PAY THIS AND NOT FEEL TOTALLY RIPPED OFF?

IT’S NOT A FUCKING ALBUM!
IT’S A 5 TRACK EP
AND YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO GET AN EXTRA FREE TRACK (THE 65DOS REMIX OF “THE ONLY ONE”) IF YOU BUY IT AS A 5 TRACK EP
AND ITS SUPPOSED TO COST LESS IF YOU BUY IT AS A 5 TRACK EP THAN IF YOU BUY THE 5 TRACKS INDIVIDUALLY…

THAT IS WHAT WAS AGREED

THIS IS SO TOTALLY WRONG
I REALLY DO FUCKING DESPAIR

WHY IS IT SO INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT TO GET ANYTHING DONE RIGHT?

PLEASE FIX THIS NOW

No word on whether Smith’s e-mail-long yawp has resulted in things getting fixed over in the UK, but here, you can buy the six-track EP (with digital booklet!) for $3.99:

Or you can just download it illegally somewhere, I guess. Anyway, I look forward to Smith’s next bit of ire being directed toward the user reviewer whose review was headlined “I Wish I Could Say It Was Great.” (That’s a play on words, right?)

ITUNES UK HYPNAGOGIC NONSENSE [The Cure]

The Cure Are Still In Love With You

anthonyjmiccio — Thu, 15 May 2008 02:00:00 +0000

The Cure is back and in radio-ready swoon mode, with Robert Smith hitting high notes and the guitars jangling behind his giddiness over the physical rapture you provide him. Porl Thompson (looking not unlike Boy George with his eyeliner and skull tattoo) is back in the recording line-up for the first time since 1992’s Wish, and I’m glad to see (or at least hear it–ugh, that skull tattoo). Hey, maybe that’s why this sounds so much like “High!”

Every listen to this song reveals it as less and less a tired retread of that classic and simply another worthy entry in Robert Smith’s bag of happy hits. But even if it came off hollow, I’d still be grateful that he bothered to revisit this mode, which might be my favorite of his many moods.

“When I see you sticky as lips, as licky as trips, I can’t lick that far.” Robert, you dog!

The Cure – The Only One [YouTube]
The Cure – High [YouTube]

jharv — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 02:17:53 +0000

If you were hoping to hear the new Cure album sometime before spring 2008, you’re S.O.L.: it’s been delayed yet again. Fat Bob is still deciding on producers, format, and just about everything else from the sound of it. Maybe don’t write so many songs next time, pal. [Reuters]

Track Marks: How The Robert Smith/Ashlee Simpson Team-Up Became This Week’s Biggest Rumor In The World

Brian Raftery — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 08:50:53 +0000

Welcome to another edition of Track Marks, in which your Idolators perform an autopsy on the latest band burning up the MP3-blogger charts. Today, however, we’ll take a look at one of the week’s most blogged-about rumors:

Artists: Robert Smith, Ashlee Simpson
Project: A rumored collaboration on Simpson’s upcoming album.
First mention: A March 22, 2007 story on Entertainment Weekly’s website.
The Build-Up: For whatever reason, NME randomly picked it up this morning–a full week after EW ran it.
The Dam-Break: A few hours later, ripple reports appeared on Stereogum and Pitchfork, the latter of which called the news “perplexing at best, disheartening at worst.” And, of course, it’s now on every other blog in the world. Unfortunately, none of them picked up on the fact that even EW’s Cure-Simpson news-break is merely “reportedly” happening. In summary: No one knows what the hell is going on–or if anything is going on at all.