WTF: Robert Smith collaboration with Ashlee Simpleton Simpson??
Technorati tags: Rumors, Robert Smith, Ashlee Simpson, The Cure, Music, CRAP
Robert Smith, frontman of The Cure, has done a number of unexpected and offbeat things in his music career. Included in his catalogue of strange collaborations include singing on a Blink-182 song, doing a Bee Gees cover on Billy Corgan's album (source: Filter's open letter to Robert Smith), and of course, battling Barbara Streisand on one of Walski's all-time favorite episodes of South Park - Mecha-Streisand.
But when Walski got word of his next possible collaboration (hat-tip to Walski's goth guru, Lord Panda), it was time to send out myAsylum's intrepid CRAP squad to investigate.
Could this odd collaboration actually be true??
(original images taken from here and here)
Robert Smith collaborating with Ashlee Simpson (on her upcoming album)? Good heavens! That would be as weird as Carburetor Dung, featuring Mawi (as suggested by Panda). Or even stranger still, Siti Nurhaliza collaborating with GWAR??
The intrepid squad of CRAP quickly came back with a cookie trail that led back to the source of the supposed collaboration - an article that appeared on Entertainment Weekly (EW.com), posted on March 22, 2007.
In this article, EW quoted Ashlee's father as being the source of the news. Her father, Joe Simpson, told EW about Ashlee's upcoming album, and mentioned various collaborations, such as with John Legend, and Keane's Tim Rice-Oxley.
And then the shocker of 'em all - that Robert Smith would also be featured.
(Truth? Or mere speculation, in the full post)
The last paragraph of the EW report, now identified as the source of the story:
The bigger shocker? Ashlee's also reportedly collaborating with Robert Smith. Yes, as in the legendary frontman of Alternative Nation icons the Cure. Could their mutual buddy, Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz, be the connection? When asked by our west-coast counterpart Shirley Halperin, Wentz demurred. ''I doubt I had anything to do with it, 'cause they were friends since she was performing in Chicago [in London last year]. But I definitely only have good things to say about Ash — I think the collaboration could be great!'' Indeed; whatever these two Lovecats come up with, it's bound to be interesting!
The EW piece was duly picked up by numerous entertainment and music sites, such as NME, VH1's Best Week Ever, FMQB, AntiMusic, Yahoo, Whiskey Soda, All Headline News, New Zealand Herald, The Guardian, Moldova, and Tonight, among others (source: Cure fansite Chain of Flowers - scroll down to the April 3 entry). All of them, essentially, have been repeating what was contained in the Entertainment Weekly piece.
And it appears, according to Chain of Flowers, Robert Smith has denied such a collaboration (from the same April 3 entry).
So, from there the CRAP squad went to The Cure's official website to dig deeper. Nothing on the main or news pages. However, the forum section of the site has an entry by Robert Smith himself stating that "it hasn't happened". Here's the entry:
UMMM...
4/3/2007 10:28:13 PM - by CURE:ROBERT
It kind of pisses me off that The Cure had these so called “fans” who would stop liking them after Robert did this, even though it’s not official.
AND I WONDER WHY "ITS NOT OFFICIAL"?
MAYBE BECAUSE I DIDNT ACTUALLY DO IT?
WOW...
COULD BE EH?
ANYWAY
BACK TO THE CURE ALBUM
WHICH IS ALMOST DONE
AND I'M SURE COULD HAVE BEEN DONE SO MUCH SOONER IF I WASNT OFF IN CUCKOO LAND SINGING WITH THE JESUS FAIRIES...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
I AM 'OFFICIALLY' NOT GOING TO BOTHER DENYING ANY MORE RUMOURS THIS YEAR - IT'S WAY TOO STUPID A WASTE OF MY TIME
(AND AS FOR MY WEEKLY GH ROUNDUP CONTAINING THIS GEM:
Have you been paying attention over the last 3 or 4 years? GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
SANCTIMONIOUS ****... )
SO
I AM OFF TO COOL DOWN...
SINGING A CURE SONG!
LATER!
RSX
So there. No such collaboration. The Cure fans can rest easy for now! And no, Walski doesn't know what are "JESUS FAIRIES" either...
And yes, another album from The Cure is in the works, although there's no confirmation on when the release is actually going to be. However, it's expected to be sometime this year.
Even better news: The Cure just might be coming to Singapore in August this year! Although no details have been released, The Cure will be headlining the Fuji Festival in July, and are slated to play Hong Kong on July 30th, then Singapore on August 1st (source: The Cure official site, registration may be required). Walski will definitely keep you posted on this. The last time he saw them in concert was in New Orleans, September 17, 1989, on the Disintegration tour - one of the best concerts Walski's ever been to!
Meanwhile, Walski would still like to see a Siti collaboration with GWAR...
Walski's CRAP footnote: The acronym CRAP, for those of you new to this blog, stands for Cybernetic Remote Autonomous Para-roaches, originally introduced in this post. Walski sends out the intrepid CRAP squadron whenever there's any investigation that needs to be done...
