Back on the Codeine

Like so many other people I have watched and enjoyed retailer John Lewis' new Christmas ad, obviously it led me to go to youtube to listen to the original 'Please, please, please, let me get what I want' by The Smiths. It was released in 1984 and has been covered by tons of artists and used in many soundtracks.



I listened to a couple more Smith tracks like that and then, the magic of Youtube operated: on the right hand section there were some rubbish recommendations as often but...omagaaaad I have forgotten about Codeine, I used to love that band. I avidly listened to available tracks and here we are!

Codeine formed in 1989 in New York and were part of the Slowcore mouvement, like Low, Red House Painters, Galaxie 5000, Bedhead,... However, they were labelled as pioneers of a more indie type of slowcare (yeah, this is a bit silly)
So basically you have the monotonous, bleak lyrics and repetitive hypnotic guitars but with bursts of indie rock here and there. nice.

Perfect example: Sea on their 2nd album "The White Birch"



Their discography is very simple as it only encompasses 2 albums:
Frigid Star in 1990 and The White Birch 4 years later. The band, led by Stephen Immerwhar split the same year, in 1994.

3 Angels was on their first LP




The good news is that Mogwai have managed to get Immerwhar & co out of their Codeine hiding and the band will perform on May 26th at Alexandra Palace for the Mogwai curated event I'll Be You Mirror.
Hopefully they'll have fun and tour some more afterwards. we can only keep our fingers crossed.