8+

"Carnage Visors: The Soundtrack" by The Cure which clocks in at 27:51

When I think back to the old days, the wild wild west days of the world wide web, one of my fondest memories is the massive amount of musical self-education the early internet offered. With nothing more than a whispered inclination of what you wanted to listen to you'd soon find yourself knee deep in endless MP3 options. Crazy cover songs? Yep. Pre-release stuff? Yep. Just about anything your little heart desired? Yep, yep.

What I'm talking about here is Napster. No, not that Napster. The 1999-2001 Napster that brought to my ears more unreleased, unavailable, and out of print stuff than I could've ever possibly imagined. I know that there were a lot of people using the service as a means to compile massive libraries of pirated music, but I have always maintained that I spent more money on music, more than I ever have before or since, back when Napster was in its heyday. My general methodology would include researching artist influences, or songs that had a certain instrument on them that interested me (like when I wanted to hear everything I could that featured an ARP Odyssey), and then taking directives from this information and using it to explore music on Napster. Very often this led to me purchasing albums by the artists I'd just discovered at my favorite local record store. It was a happy time. My musical knowledge, taste, and collection grew exponentially and then stupid Metallica and Dr. Dre destroyed everything. I digress...

What we've got here is one of the many songs (thousands if I'm being honest) I first found thanks to Napster. At the time I was already a fan of The Cure, had been for years, and was most certainly a fan of their music from the album Faith. I was also most certainly on a search. I had decided that my band at the time needed, nay NEEDED, to spice things up by getting a Fender Bass VI. I wanted that guitar so damn badly (still do) but the problem was that I simply couldn't find one at any music store near me. Ever. I searched for years, nothing. I knew at the time that I couldn't afford a vintage Bass VI, so I was looking for one of the Japanese reissues. But honestly, any Bass VI would do. I just wanted to pick one up and (at least) play it for a while in a store to affirm the fact that this guitar and I were meant for each other. No dice. As a substitute I bought a Danelectro Baritone from EBay. Crunchy, lots of growling low end, but just not the same. Then I decided to turn my obsession inward and began seeking out every song I could find that featured lots of Bass VI action.

This search brought to my attention a song by The Cure that I'd never even heard of, Wikipedia explains:

Carnage Visors (an antonym of rose-coloured spectacles) is a short film made by Ric Gallup. It was made as an opening act for The Cure on their 1981 Picture Tour instead of an opening support band. The Cure used this film on some of the gigs they played and it featured animation of several dolls in different positions and stances. The film has since disappeared and only Lol Tolhurst, Robert Smith, and Simon Gallup own copies of it. The soundtrack of Carnage Visors was first released on tape as a B-Side of the album Faith by Fiction Records in May 1981. The soundtrack appeared on CD in 2005, when Rhino Records re-released Faith in a Deluxe Edition.

Pound for pound "Carnage Visors: The Soundtrack" features more atmospheric Bass VI action than any other song out there. And given that I'm currently obsessing over Bass VI's again, it should come as no surprise that this song should show up here this week. It's also one of the longest songs you're likely to find here in 8+ land, so sit back for half an hour and enjoy.

Buy Faith [Deluxe Edition] HERE on Amazon.

EAR FARM's 8+ is a weekly feature that showcases songs longer than 8 minutes. In the recent past these songs were featured on EF's 8+:
Aphex Twin - "Ziggomatic V17"
Agalloch - "In The Shadow Of Our Pale Companion"
Explosions In The Sky - "It's Natural To Be Afraid"
Guns N' Roses - "Locomotive"
Guns N' Roses - "Estranged"
Guns N' Roses - "Coma"
Guns N' Roses - "November Rain"
Sleep - "Jerusalem (Pt. 4)"

To see a full list of every song featured in EAR FARM's 8+ click HERE.