Highlights - Bands

Classical Noise

The Jesus And Mary Chain was made up of Jim and William Reid, two brothers from the town of East Killbride, Scotland. Their supporting band members such as drummers and bassists have been many, but the Reids have always been at the core of the songwriting.

  
 
 
 
 
 
 

William Reid was born October 28, 1958, and his younger brother Jim was born December 29, 1961, in Scotland. It wasn't until the early 80's that they decided to become a band. Their first single Upside Down was released in 1984, with their debut record, Psychocandy coming out the following year. Their sound was like nothing heard before, a rush of white noise and feedback layered over simple, 3-chord pop classics.
 
 
 
 
 
 
The follow-up, "You Trip Me Up," further perfected the formula, and led to their 1985 debut LP Psychocandy, which gift-wrapped sweet, simple pop songs in ribbons of droning guitar fuzz. After a two-year layoff (during which time Gillespie exited to form Primal Scream, and was replaced by John Moore), the Jesus and Mary Chain returned with Darklands, a dramatic shift in approach which stripped away the feedback to expose the skeletal guitar-pop at the music's core. After a sprawling 1988 collection of singles, B-sides and demos titled Barbed Wire Kisses, they emerged with Automatic, which introduced a more tightly-coiled brand of feedback while jettisoning Moore's live drums in favor of synthesized beats.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  Like the Velvet Underground, their most obvious influence, the chart success of the Jesus and Mary Chain was virtually non-existent, but their artistic impact was incalculable; quite simply, the British group made the world safe for white noise, orchestrating a sound dense in squalling feedback which served as an inspiration to everyone from My Bloody Valentine to Dinosaur Jr. Though the supporting players drifted in and out of focus, the heart of the Mary Chain remained vocalists and guitarists William and Jim Reid, Scottish-born brothers heavily influenced not only by underground legends like the Velvets and the Stooges but also by the sonic grandeur and pop savvy of Phil Spector and Brian Wilson.
 
 
 
 
 
After another long absence, the Mary Chain (minus Hart) resurfaced in 1992 with Honey's Dead, and earned greater U.S. visibility thanks to a spot on that summer's Lollapalooza line-up; the first single "Reverence" also won them renewed notoriety at home when Top of the Pops banned the song because of its opening lines "I wanna die just like Jesus Christ" and "I wanna die just like JFK." With 1994's gentle, largely acoustic Stoned and Dethroned, they even reached the U.S. pop charts thanks to the lovely single "Sometimes Always," a duet with Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval. Another collection of scattered sides, The Jesus and Mary Chain Hate Rock 'n' Roll, followed a year later, highlighted by the single "I Hate Rock 'n' Roll," a scabrous swipe which reclaimed the pure noise attack of their earliest work. Moving to Sub Pop, they returned with Munki in 1998.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  On October 12, 1998, at the House of Blues in Los Angeles, the band had a falling out on stage approximately 15 minutes in to their set before a sell out crowd. The band continued their US and Japanese tour minus William, and although it appeared that the band no longer existed, it was until October 1999 that the official announcement was made.