CUD - Louise

Friday. Named after the God of Thankfuckits. Welcome to the weekend  and welcome to a decidedly excited edition of thegeneral. 

Long, long ago, in far away galaxy (Lancashire) there lived an impressionable teenager who was desperate for something new and exciting to listen to. This impressionable teenager was watching The Chart Show, one Saturday morning in the very early 1990s (remember The Chart Show? A load of bands you'd never heard of with some really bad graphics and ad breaks thrown in) and came across a band called CUD and their 1992 hit "Rich and Strange". 

Well, that was it. thegeneral was blown away, hooked, in lust/love, bowled over, captivated and much more besides. This is one of the many reasons why - have a listen to 1994's "Neurotica":

Moving back to 1992, though - pocket money was saved up and not long after, spent on a brand spanking new copy of the band's album "Asquarius" and to be frank, it was played and played and played until one day the cassette deck spat it out and said "There are OTHER bands you know. What about a nice bit of Dire Straits or some Status Quo?" to which thegeneral replied "You have no taste, you're a talking tape player..." before going to Currys to buy a new HiFi. 

thegeneral then spent some time exploring the band's other stuff, their back catalogue and finding out as much about them as possible and it was a very happy voyage through some truly wonderful music. Leggy Mambo, anybody? (That's not an offer...it's one of their records...). Even the covers of classic songs they did offered a very unique and quirky take on music that other bands at the time would have avoided at all costs. Case in point. YOU SEXY THING:

Of course, times change, bands come and go and as with everything good things come to an end...

Last year thegeneral was excited to find that the band were reforming and touring. A blog post was written by me, here - blast-from-past-cud. Worth a read...

Even more joy, when just this last week thegeneral discovered that not only were they touring again, but there was a bloody bloody bloody new single coming out - yes, a bloody bloody bloody new single! You can watch it here:

"Louise" is just lovely. It's three and a bit minutes of joy and happiness - such a really nice, pure yet sexy sound. Carl's vocals were always richer than the average, perfectly pitched and luscious, and they haven't lost it one bit, if this song is anything to go by. It brought back so many happy memories of first getting into the band, discovering their sound and realising there weren't many acts that they could be compared to. 

The single is out on 11th November and you can order from here: cud.greedbag.com/ so please do, as it will be money well spent (and if people buy it and like it, they might stick around and record some more...)

In the meantime it is so nice to see CUD back. So nice. Long may they stick around to show the others how it is done.