Who has heard of them and do you like them and why arent they more respected by critics?
I learned of them sort of second-handedly - David Byrne recorded with them and as a big Talking Heads fan I got to them through him.
Are you sure? If this is the album you are thinking of, it is music that was writen for a dance company (the name Twyla Tharp should ring a bell for some people). I do like the album, it has Big Business on it, which is my favourite track from Stop Making Sense.
I love Catherine Wheel. Used to go to every show they had in the area. The CW/Slowdive and CW/House of Love shows were incredible.
I don’t really recall the critical response they received. They were largely ignored by US press, I thought. Maybe because they kinda drifted between shoegazer and straight rock? Maybe because they were eclipsed by the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Lush, etc.?
This is definitely it - their whole sound and approach was predicated on imitating the british shoegazers, but (admittedly) watering it down and making that whole approach much more nonthreatening and palatable to a mainstream, M.O.R.-radio audience. It left them in that middle ground - a little too spacey and weird for the Gin Blossoms fans, but too safe and nonthreatening for the people that were buying Ride imports.
That might be true of their later albums what what about the first two, Ferment and Chrome?
Black Metallic caught my attention when I first saw the video for it on MTV’s 120 Minutes show back in the early '90s. I still crank the radio when it has occasion to be played.
I have all of the their albums (save the b-sides collection) (as per their discography) but was very disappointed with Wishville. Very bland and lacking in original content. That pretty much dropped them off my radar. I still pull Ferment & Chrome off the CD shelf once in awhile, the others hardly ever.
I’d say it’s more true for the earlier albums. Later albums seem to give up on the spacy/showgazy aspects of the first two and are more rock than the earlier ones. I think later on they just kinda lost relevance, as they drifted away from the sound that made them somewhat unique and towards one more generic.
Personally, I really liked the way they blended the shoegazer and heavier rock aspects. A lot of showgazers really didn’t. At the CW/Slowdive show I mentioned earlier, fully half the crowd left, never to return, after Slowdive finished their set.
And there was just something really cool about hearing them cover “Wish You Were Here” and then segue perfectly into “Black Metallic”.
The funny part is that although they departed from their sound, “Sparks are Gonna Fly” is better watered-down nu-metal/techno rock than most of its contemporary watered down nu-metal/techno rock.
I gave “Crank” the coveted opening slot on a mix CD that I made.
I guess that was what I was thinking of - I remembered the name in connection with David Byrne but had forgotten about the Twyla Tharp Dance Troup connection.