From:    -candice mack- <mackc01@STUDENT.UCR.EDU>
Subject: short curve article in apr. '98 issue of spin

don't know if this has been posted yet, but i just rec'd the latest issue
of _spin_, and there is a large pic of toni halliday (in the foreground)
with dean garcia looking a little fuzzy/out of focus in the background.

learning curve: former shoegazers curve uncover the art of darkness

when curve vocalist toni halliday sings "Friends and enemies are all the
same," on _come clean_, she's not simply being coy. the london duo's first
album in five years, _clean_ is a bewildered, glammy excursion inot the
urban underbelly--a move from the outfit's original shoegazing antics
toward nastier pleasures. "we've always been fascinated with the kind of
corruption and the underhanded things that go on in any city in the
world," halliday explains.
the disc's gritty sound is just as likely a result of the duo's strained
relationship. halliday and guitarist dean garcia split up for three years,
reuniting in 1996. "we were tired, exhausted, banging our heads agains the
wall," halliday recals. "after that, you have to reevaluate what you're
doing." indeed, the early sessions for the album were as much experiments
in interpersonal dynamics as they were musical bull sessions. "like, if i
went up to dean and said, 'i don't think we should have 20 tracks of
guitar on this,'" halliday remembers thinking, "would he say, 'no, i think
that's great'?"
once they agreed not to disagree, the twosome hunkered down for a
year-long recording session, which netted electronica-tinged rejections of
such everyday biped needs as friendship ("Chinese Burn"), romance ("Dirty
High"), and comfort of any kind ("Dogbone"). so are the two really
friends _and_ enemies? sort of. "we can kind of detach and bring it back
when it feels right," garcia says only half-convincingly. "we're very
close like that."
                --ethan smith

interesting. the caption to the photo also reads "girl against boy: toni
halliday and dean garcia"

Date:    Wed, 25 Mar 1998 10:07:08 -0500
From:    Joseph Burns <jaburns@ASTRO.OCIS.TEMPLE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Come clean....
 
Come Clean is still growing on me. There are good things and bad things
about it IMHO. The best thing about it is that its more Curve. Everything
you loved about Curve before is here - the big grinding guitars, the
crunching techno loops, the ice-bitch-from-hell attitude. The one thing
that has sorta bugged me about it so far is that they seem to be trying to
'out-Curve' Garbage. Which shouldn't be too hard since they _are_ the
original thing... but a couple of tracks seem to be trying a little too
hard.
But there are definately some real gems in the middle or so of the
album - Coming Up Roses, Forgotten Sanity, Dirty High and others are
really wonderful. I think its a pretty graceful move into more
'electronica' areas than they experiementsed with before - and Alan
Moulder behind the mixer proves he is as good with beats as he is with
guitars. I do however wish they would give us a little bit more of the
melodic (almost ballad-esque) songs that appeared on 'Cuckoo'