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Posted in music | tour dates on June 3, 2010

original Modern English lineup releasing an album, touring

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Modern English - It's OK (MP3)

Modern English

While "Melt With You" may be the only thing anyone remembers about them, the album that song came from, After the Snow, is actually a really solid platter of goth-tinged pop which, you may not remember, came out on 4AD (home of Cocteau Twins, Pixies, This Mortal Coil and The Wolfgang Press). It also contains the absolutely brilliant single "Life in the Gladhouse," probably the best thing the band ever did. The two albums that surrounded it (1981's Mesh and Lace and 1984's Ricochet Days) aren't bad either. I have no idea who is in this version of the band -- certainly singer Robbie Grey, maybe guitarist Matthew Shipley -- or whether they're any good, but Modern English were more than a one-hit flashback fave.
That was written about a year ago when Modern English were supposed to play The Studio at Webster Hall. It turned out that the group that was to play featured no original members of the band. Legal action was threatened and the show was rightly canceled.

A year later, the real Modern English are back, with all original members, a new album and a U.S. tour that includes a 7/16 NYC stop at Le Poisson Rouge. (Tickets are on sale now.)

The details of Modern English's new album, Soundtrack, are promising if you're a fan, having reassembled the entire team that gave us After the Snow: the original line-up of the band, producer Hugh Jones and they even got Vaughan Oliver (of 4AD's legendary in-house design shop 23 Envelope) to do the cover art. You can check out samples over at Darla records -- I gotta say lead track "It's OK" is pretty catchy. But don't expect the dark, heavy-on-the-toms sound of After the Snow, this is more straight-up pop (a direction than began taking with Ricochet Days).

Cover art to Soundtrack and all Modern English U.S. tour dates are below...

Modern English

Modern English - 2010 U.S. Tour Dates
7/10 Louisville, KY Forecastle Festival
7/11 Chicago, IL Double Door
7/14 Foxboro, MA Showcase Live
7/15 Toronto, ON Lee's Palace
7/16 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge
7/17 Las Vegas, NV Red Rock Casino

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Tags: Modern English
posted at 1:13 PM on June 3, 2010 in music | tour dates | Comments (16)

Comments (16)

A few years ago, I recall listening to modern english's song, "melt with you" as I was driving through Arizona. It must have been 100 degrees, and I was rather hungry... So I reached into my bag and removed a small container of hummus and the consistancy was altered from the high temperature in the car. It was one of the strangest coincedences in my life.

Posted by Anonymous | June 3, 2010 1:19 PM

I certainly would have called my first single in decades something different than "It's OK."

Posted by blackhat | June 3, 2010 1:59 PM

taco bell commercial

Posted by Anonymous | June 3, 2010 2:13 PM

I remember when they were going to play the studio at webster hall for trash but dj jess had too much hummus and michael t was eating chips and then the band showed up and had a contract for the show but were presented pizza pies. then brendan james was eating pork tacos. good times.

Posted by Anonymous | June 3, 2010 2:22 PM

The fauxhawk needs to die. And it's even more unbecoming on a 50-year-old.

Posted by LKJ | June 3, 2010 2:59 PM

That man on the right is incredibly handsome!

Posted by Anonymous | June 3, 2010 3:19 PM

Modern hummus.

Posted by Anonymous | June 3, 2010 3:28 PM

daddy on the right, yum!

Posted by Anonymous | June 3, 2010 5:07 PM

Matthew Shipley played keyboards on the latest Modern English offering "Soundtrack" and a damn fine offering it is too. A total return to the form that got them there in the first place. And the handsome man on the right...thats guitarist Steven Walker...!

Posted by Anonymous | June 3, 2010 5:09 PM

This is going to be one great show!

http://www.ModernEnglish.me

Posted by Anonymous | June 4, 2010 3:40 AM

what's up Wald? ;)

Posted by Anonymous | June 4, 2010 9:31 AM

is gary in that photo, i see robbie, stephen, mick, richard, but is that gary on the far left

Posted by sam meister | June 4, 2010 4:40 PM

No Sam it's not, that's Ric who's gonna be drumming on tour. Gary wasn't in the country at the time and a picture was needed for promo stuff for the tour. Gary will be snapped with the rest of the boys very soon..!

Posted by Modern English on a Vespa | June 5, 2010 7:35 AM

Saw them in the late 90's in the Hamptons at The Galaxy.Still talk about the show to this day,one of the best shows of my life:)

Posted by Anonymous | June 7, 2010 9:32 PM

The performance at Forecastle was fantastic and I was lucky to sit around and have a long chat with the guys...all very cool guys...hopefully i can catch the LPR show as well

Posted by Cory | July 13, 2010 4:19 PM

Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie were really good albums. Got them when they came out, still throw them on at times and think they're great. It saddens me when I hear bands from that era when I was a teenager and hear their new stuff and it's so clear how they've lost it, they sound desperate to recapture a sound/magic that they haven't had in 15 years (holy shit).... And then I realize that is not unlike a lot of us.

Posted by منتديات | January 22, 2011 7:59 AM

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