TVB!

The Violet Burning
Sting Like Bees And Sing
©2009 Independent
HYPERLINK "http://www.thevioletburning.com" www.thevioletburning.com

Oh, man! How do I act objectively on behalf of the Violet Burning? I’d never heard of them 2 years ago and through a strange series of events, they’ve become one of my favorite bands. I mean, to the point of scouring the internet to amass a pile of their recordings, some familiar and some obscure. Enter thecannyshark, yet again, to hook me up with some rare tracks, as he’s been a fan for a billion years.

In all of this, I’ve never seen them live. What motivation would MJP and the band have to visit the bleak snowy tundra of the northeast and forego the laconic neverland of so Cal? As they’re currently on tour in Europe, I guess we’ll likely not see them anytime soon.

As one that can never explain matters of taste, my favorite recording of theirs is “The Loudest Sound in My Heart.” It’s probably because the DVD of this tour is a pretty stunning primer of the band also showcasing their popularity in places like the Netherlands, as well as their cult-like following here at home. Songs like “Moon Radio” and “Gorgeous” off TLSIMH left me wondering why they weren’t huge in the US?

Fast forward to the present. Most of us TVB fans have been waiting with baited breath for any output from the band, as Drop Dead was the last we’d had a real chance to listen to. Sting Like Bees And Sing is a home grown live affair, and kudos to the band for not needing/wanting/having a label to drive this release. If nothing else, it helps keep the profits where they deserve to be, with the band. It’s well recorded for a live disc (very hot levels) that was probably done without a huge mobile truck and high-end digital equipment. Live recordings are about performance, no digital trickery can add conviction where there is none or provide energy to a band that is mailing it in that night. TVB bring it on this recording, performance is solid and MJP’s banter with the crowd is great. I think I have this Cornerstone performance on DVD somewhere and there’s a power outage in the middle of the set, but it doesn’t get them down. You’d never know it from the energy of this performance. The material is great too. Most of it avoids being overlap from TLSIMH, which is great for fans. It’s predominantly material from the s/t (pomegranate) album to the present.

Okay, here’s my only minor gripe, and I hate myself for bringing it up because, as I mentioned earlier, I am a huge fan. There are some pretty direct references to Cure material. More quotes a phrase from the song “Just Like Heaven” and “Rewind” quotes a musical motif from “A Forest”. No, neither song is a rip-off, and while I can't presume to know the motivation for using them or even if it’s a subconscious glitch that called them up in the writing, they exist never the less. For those of us who are big fans, they do pop up pretty noticeably in the disc.

You’ll get no poor reviews of TVB from me, they are just too great not to be huge, and I admit my bias.

9/10 kilts