There’s a satiny lining to the rich textures that are the exterior of the Big Pink’s songs. The sonics are intense, violent at times. But as a whole, the British band’s music goes down easy — like icy lemonade on a 100-degree day.
The Big Pink could have existed in the mid-’80s amid the Jesus and Mary Chain’s excessive “Psychocandy” and Love and Rockets’ stilted “Express.” The Big Pink could have supported the Cure on its “Disintegration” tour and played alongside the Psychedelic Furs at European festival dates — its songs are that packed with undeniable pop melodies, indulgent layering and, yes, ’80s revisionism to share.
That said, the Big Pink — called “London’s coolest new stars” by the tastemaking, if hyperbolic, magazine NME — is hardly doing anything new. But the band’s songs are delightfully listenable regardless. One listen to its single “Dominos” is all it takes to hear that this band knows its way around a catchy, if sonically perverted, tune.
The band’s “A Brief History of Love” was all over critics’ Top 10 lists at the end of 2009, and it’s an album we still visit on a regular basis.
We caught up with the band’s Robbie Furze last week for a chat before his headlining date at the Bluebird Theater tonight. We talked sonics, love and Record Store Day.
Q: You all are touring with A Place to Bury Strangers, a band you share certain sonic characteristics with. Those guys are freaks about the sounds that come from their instruments, and I’m curious if you and Milo are the same way — very particular about the sounds/sonics/ fuzz coming out in the studio/live performance.
A: Yes, the sound is very important for us because we try and find new ways of manipulating it night after night — the sounds coming from our machines and our guitars. We are effect junkies, and we spend a lot of time trying to enhance the sonic arena that is our live show.
Q: You all are putting out a previously unreleased track, “With You,” on a special 4AD vinyl release timed to Record Store Day (April 17). Tell us why your song “With You” is a hint at what is to come from the Big Pink, as your website suggests.
A: That’s in fact an old song that we always loved but didn’t make it onto the record. I think it’s more a sound of what we were when we first started but not a representation of where we are headed, but we do love it.
Q: I won’t ask you about the name of the band (as that’s obviously a nod to the Band record), but would you mind telling me about the title of the record, “A Brief History of Love”?
A: “A Brief History of Love” was just the title of the song, and when we were asked to title the record, it just seemed to tie up the whole sentiment. I think many musicians feel the same way in that their songs exercise their emotions within each song, and playing them night after night is a way of exercising these feelings.
Q: Tell me about making the record at Electric Lady. Why did you go all the way over there, from England to New York City, to record?
A: We wanted to get the album mixed by Rich Costy, and his studio was in Electric Lady Studios. We were able to do tracking in Studio A, and it was an incredible experience due to the incredible history of the room: Hendrix, the Stones, the Clash and Bowie.
Q: What’s your experience been like this last year, being at the center of buzz as you guys (and The xx and Local Natives) have?
A: I’m having the best time of my life. Every day beats the last. It gets better and better. We are a great band, and we deserve it.
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com; Twitter @RVRB
THE BIG PINK.
Rock/shoegaze. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., with A Place to Bury Strangers, Boyhollow. 8 p.m. today. ticketmaster , 866-448-7849
