Cush >> Try stickin' to the pool and the dive

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #50:

Cush - "The Touch"

(Northern Records, 2000)

There are two David Bowie references in the lyrics: "Ziggy is dancing up a recall" and "Major Tom."  It also references the Stones ("I've been lookin' for satisfaction") and the Beatles ("Hey Jude, is that the best that we've done?").  So it has several strikes against it from a lyrical standpoint, but luckily they are overcome by its melodic and instrumental elegance.

I dig male falsetto vocals, and I was pretty shocked to find out Cush's singer was white.  I found this possibly-factual bit of information on a YouTube posting of this song: "The legendary first release by the mysterious revolving membership band called Cush. This album caused quite a buzz in 2000, especially due to the Cush Manifesto that was accidentally circulated at Cornerstone 2000. This manifesto, reprinted below, best describes their sound.
In a declaration of Truth and its winding road, members of the Prayer Chain, LSU [Lifesavers Underground], Honey, Fold Zandura, Duraluxe, Bloomsday, The Lassie Foundation, and Adam Again, have agreed to document below (the CUSH Manifesto) in which all members will seek the Truth and its Consequences. The result, A New Sound.
CUSH."

(This is presumably a spoof of Valerie Solanis' notorious SCUM Manifesto.)  So Cush was apparently a Christian rock supergroup, but you would never know any of this stuff from the CD booklet, which is pretty bare-bones.  I got it around 10 years ago, I think after hearing about it on the Blisscent shoegaze mailing list, and its cover photo of someone doing a flamboyant ski jump still cracks me up.  Some other good songs on the album include "Porpoise", which is dark and choppy with a nocturnal trip-hop soul; the elegiac "The Bomb Was Brighter Than The Stars"; and the shoulda-been hit "Angelica".

Yesterday in Hammond I heard one of my favorite songs ever on the radio in a Goodwill while buying some books:

I would wager that Cush are probably Talk Talk fans.

I bought some book about guitars several years ago just so I could rip out this two-page spread on the Fender Jazzmaster and hang it on my wall:

It's the coolest, sexiest and best guitar / musical instrument ever, and you can See Cush's guitarist using one in this live clip of "The Touch."  It was the guitar of choice for surf and shoegaze bands, and was the main axe of Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr., Elvis Costello, Magic Dirt, The Surfaris, and Curve, plus newer acts like Film School, The Horrors, A Place To Bury Strangers, Marnie Stern, No Joy, etc.  And, uh... TAD used one too.  I could write a whole article on it, and I think I will at some point.

Planets with similar climates: Nation Skyline - "Cadence Of Water" (2001), The Sundays - "Blood On My Hands" (1992), Mercury Rev - "Car Wash Hair" (1991) & "Sudden Ray Of Hope" (1995), Yo La Tengo - "Pablo And Andrea" (1995), Catherine Wheel - "Indigo Is Blue" (1992), Talk Talk - "Life's What You Make It" (1986).