Psychocandy

Despite going to great lengths to alienate audiences, the members of the Sex Pistols never inspired a full-on concert riot. Yet somehow The Jesus and Mary Chain managed to incite <i>three</i> before the release of the group’s 1985 debut, <i>Psychocandy</i>. The violence was motivated, in part, by the group's unwillingness to strike the expected antagonistic pose. In fact, the Scottish foursome—led by brothers Jim and William Reid—strived to be non-confrontational. Onstage, the members stood stock still, riffing through short and catchy tunes that recalled the pop of bubblegum groups like The Shangri-Las, as well as the sound of such Brill Building teen idols as Neil Sedaka. The primary difference was that the Reid brothers played their tunes through a skin-crawling wall of distortion full of screeching feedback and white-noise harmonics. It all made for a wild racket, and when The Jesus and Mary Chain were performing, the sonic dissonance was enough to make even the most well-adjusted football hooligan throw a bottle at the stage. The unrest over the band was further incited by breathless hype from the UK’s weekly music papers, <i>NME</i> and <i>Melody Maker</i>. Both rags were staffed largely by veterans of the 1970s now-revered punk scene, as well as younger writers determined to recreate the excitement they had missed (at one point, three articles about the band appeared in a single week). The Jesus and Mary Chain had caught the hearts and ears of the press thanks to the savage fuzz of the group’s first 7-inch, led by the ultra-hooky “Upside Down”. And the noise would only grow louder with the release of <i>Psychocandy</i>. Songs like “In a Hole” and “Inside Me” sizzled with saturated and sustained high-end tones. But what wounded like a nails-on-a-chalkboard scree back in 1985 feels almost comforting now—like dozing off to the static of an old television set. And while <i>Psychocandy</i> would influence the next several decades’ worth of noise rock and shoegaze, the album's biggest song, “Just Like Honey”, has become the sort of indie-rock standard that gets played at hip weddings and inspires mainstage sing-alongs at music festivals. No one has tossed a glass at the band in years.