Melted ... Off Your Face

After a near 16-year absence from the road, My Bloody Valentine finally descended upon the Big Apple this week for two sold-out shows at the Roseland Ballroom. I never knew I'd have the chance to see the London foursome perform -- not even after frontman Kevin Shields divulged all of his plans to me for a new millennium My Bloody Valentine. To finally see them live, well, it was pretty incredible.

On Tuesday, my dear friend Brady and I were witness to one of the most fantastic shows of my young adult life. A perfect, ear-bleeding cacophony of pure noise; Bilinda Butcher's wispy vocals are as pristine as they ever were. Bassist Deb Googe, what a true badass. Colm O’Ciosoig's mad drumming is even more propulsive than on record. As for Shields, he's a bit ageless, but still as focused on his signature reverb-driven sound as he was in 1991. But decades on, it's MUCH much larger than I imagined.

You just knew the band couldn't hear the crowd's fangirl-like cheers, for the ravaged noise pouring from the stacked amps on stage ruled over all of us. "Only Shallow," "Soon," and "To Here Knows When" - AMAZING. "Feed Me With Your Kiss" and "Cigarette in Your Bed" - KILLER. There are just no words for the 18-minute closer, "You Made Me Realise." Brilliant doesn't suffice.

Earplugs? Psssh. Those didn't even matter.

In my 2007 interview for Magnet, Shields said that there would definitely be another My Bloody Valentine album. "A lot of people say the reason My Bloody Valentine didn't make another record is because we couldn't. That's mostly true, but not because we couldn't make another record, but because I never could be bothered to make another record unless I was really excited by it... We are 100 percent going to make another My Bloody Valentine record unless we die or something. I'd feel really bad if I didn't make another record. Like, 'Shit, people only got the first two chapters, but the last bit is the best bit.' It's just that it's taken me such an oddly long time for that to happen. How will that take to transpire into an actual physical record? I don't know."

... and lucky for us, Shields recently backed up that statement, telling The New York Times that there are plans for TWO new albums. Recording starts this fall.

Thank you. That's all I have to say.

Kevin Shields Speaks to Magnet

My dearest mackenzieland peeps, please check out the latest issue of Magnet! Not only does the gorgeous Chan Marshall grace its "2006 Year in Music" cover, my interview with Kevin Shields is also included! The My Bloody Valentine recluse squashes those nasty rumors of running Creation Records into the ground, and what really went on during the recording of Loveless.

Since the release of that album, Shields has recorded and performed with Primal Scream, played with Patti Smith at 2005's Meltdown Festival, contributed tracks to Lost in Translation, and remixed the Go! Team. Is Shields still the misunderstood genius he was once rumored to be? Here's a bit that didn't make the article.

"I do rub business people the wrong way. I’m not compromising on a lot of issues even though I think I’m easy going … it’s not so much me and that I’m so extreme, it’s that I don’t really have a manager between me and these people. A lot of people have my attitude in bands and stuff, but they’re smart enough to get someone to translate them in a manner that record companies can tolerate.

I just say it the way it comes out and they don’t like that, but that’s what most people think. I think I’m quite common in fact. I don’t think I’m unusual."