1 | English alternative group comprised of singer-songwriter Toni Halliday and guitarist/producer/everything else Dean Garcia. Their music is best categorized as {{Shoegazing}}; their best-known song is likely "Chinese Burn" from their 1998 album ''Come Clean'', which was prominently featured in the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "Bad Girls" and used as the intro music for the Season 3 DVD menus. Active from 1991 to 1994, and again from 1996 to 2005. |
2 | |
3 | Both Halliday and Garcia have since formed new bands, Chatelaine and SPC ECO, respectively. |
4 | |
5 | Partial discography: |
6 | |
7 | * ''Doppelganger'' (1992) |
8 | * ''Pubic Fruit'' (1992, EP compilation) |
9 | * ''Cuckoo'' (1993) |
10 | * ''Come Clean'' (1998) |
11 | * ''Open Day at the Hate Fest'' (2001, album-length compilation of new music, online only)[[note]]released to protest Universal Music, who was threatening to shelve their next album, which had at that point been ready for nearly 2 years.[[/note]] |
12 | * ''Gift'' (2001)[[note]]finally released by Universal's sub-imprints Hip-O in the US, and Artful in the UK.[[/note]] |
13 | * ''The New Adventures of Curve'' (2002, online only) |
14 | * ''The Way of Curve'' (2004, GreatestHitsAlbum) |
15 | * ''Rare & Unreleased'' (2010, a compilation of rare tracks and remixes, via [[http://http://curve.bandcamp.com/album/rare-and-unreleased Bandcamp]]) |
16 | |
17 | ---- |
18 | !! Tropes associated with Curve include: |
19 | |
20 | * AddledAddict: |
21 | ** "Coast is Clear", from their early ''Pubic Fruit'' EP, seems to be about one: |
22 | --->''It's just a little too late\ |
23 | It's never enough to swallow those pills\ |
24 | Now I'm sick, always will be'' |
25 | ** ''Come Clean'' as a whole has this as its central theme, most prominently on "Dirty High" and "Forgotten Sanity". The latter is a particularly disturbing example: |
26 | --->''I've forgotten how to write\ |
27 | And I'm giving up on speech\ |
28 | I can't remember how I look\ |
29 | Or the day of the week'' |
30 | * AlbumClosure: "Recovery", the last track on ''Come Clean'', is a SurprisinglyGentleSong about a RecoveredAddict. The effect is enhanced by the speed and volume of the preceding title track, which builds the album to a crescendo before the {{Denouement}} of the final track. |
31 | * BoleroEffect: Done in miniature during the intro and outro of "Forgotten Sanity", with a repetitive, distorted guitar riff that starts out soft and gradually grows louder and shriller until it sounds like a screaming air-raid siren. |
32 | * BreakUpSong: ''Cuckoo'' has a few songs that seem to be about failed relationships, with "Turkey Crossing" being the most obvious: |
33 | -->''I'm finished with you, please be finished with me\ |
34 | I've had it with you, you've had it with me'' |
35 | * CarefulWithThatAxe: The outro of "Split Into Fractions" features a lot of distorted screaming... and then one particularly piercing scream that is ''not'' distorted, and will freak you out if you're not expecting it. |
36 | * EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Toni Halliday. |
37 | * EpicInstrumentalOpener: The intro for "Chinese Burn" lasts for 58 seconds. Being the first song on ''Come Clean'', it also acts as one for the album as a whole. |
38 | * TheInsomniac: "Fait Accompli": |
39 | -->''Every night, sleep wanders on its own\ |
40 | Never once does it kiss me with its chloroform'' |
41 | * IntercourseWithYou: The middle part of "Unreadable Communication" seems to be about particularly rough intercourse, especially when you factor in the ''incredibly'' intense guitar riff that plays over the lyrics: |
42 | -->''I would like to invite you\ |
43 | To my mother's house, to my bedroom\ |
44 | To play those old records\ |
45 | We all know the words to\ |
46 | And I would like you to kiss me\ |
47 | To crush me, to lick me\ |
48 | 'Til I beg you to stop\ |
49 | 'Til you drive me crazy'' |
50 | * LastNoteNightmare: Well, more like Last Minute Nightmare, but the final track on ''Gift'', "Bleeding Heart", [[FakeOutFadeOut appears to fade out normally]], then suddenly starts back up again at a ''much'' higher intensity. Amusingly, the first lyric you hear after this happens is "Should've seen it coming". |
51 | * LimitedLyricsSong: The title track of ''Come Clean'' has its verses assembled from different combinations of the same four or five lines, and a chorus consisting of the same line repeated four times. Between the subject matter, and the loud, frantic delivery, the effect is that of a desperate, pleading attempt to get through to someone. |
52 | -->''When will you wake up?\ |
53 | When will you wake up?\ |
54 | When will you wake up?\ |
55 | When will you wake up?'' |
56 | * MadnessMantra: |
57 | ** "Forgotten Sanity", quite fittingly, contains a few: |
58 | --->''I've forgotten how, I've forgotten how...''\ |
59 | ''Decay, decay, decay, decay, decay, decay...''\ |
60 | ''Put me out of my misery! Let me go for my sanity!'' |
61 | ** The end of "Bleeding Heart": "Should've seen it coming, should've done something, should've seen it coming, should've done something..." |
62 | * NonAppearingTitle: A couple on each album: |
63 | ** "Clipped" from ''Pubic Fruit''. |
64 | ** "Fait Accompli" and "Doppelganger" from ''Doppelganger''. |
65 | *** In each of the first two examples, the album title itself also counts. |
66 | ** "Unreadable Communication" and "Turkey Crossing" from ''Cuckoo''. Additionally, the first single from the album was called "Blackerthreetracker" - none of the songs on said single are actually called that. |
67 | ** "Sweetback" from ''Come Clean''. |
68 | * OneWomanWail: In a few of the band's earlier songs. "Horror Head" and "Doppelganger" might be the most prominent examples. |
69 | * PerishingAltRockVoice: Mostly in the band's early material, but downplayed even then compared to other alt-rock bands of the time. Averted almost entirely from about ''Come Clean'' onwards. |
70 | * PrecisionFStrike: Possibly the only one in the band's entire repertoire, in the second verse of "Chinese Burn": |
71 | -->''She gets what she wants, then walks away\ |
72 | And she doesn't give a fuck what you may say'' |
73 | * RecoveredAddict: ''Come Clean'', appropriately, ends with a song called "Recovery" that appears to be about one. |
74 | * StepUpToTheMicrophone: Their last album's last song, "Joy", is the only one sung by Dean Garcia. |
75 | * SurprisinglyGentleSong: The final songs on both ''Doppelganger'' ("Sandpit") and ''Come Clean'' ("Recovery") both count. "Unreadable Communication" from ''Cuckoo'' is a subversion, as it starts off gentle and remains that way for about two minutes... and then it ''explodes''. |
76 | * TakeThat: As noted above, the very existence of ''Open Day at the Hate Fest'' was a TakeThat against their record label for refusing to release their fourth (and ultimately final) album. |
77 | * TitleOnlyChorus: "It's hell above the water, hell above the water..." |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Music / Curve
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load