Pitchfork: The Cure's Curiosa Festival Takes Shape

The Cure's Curiosa Festival Takes Shape
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As reported last month, The Cure are going the festival route for their upcoming summer tour. And check out this initiative: Rather than waiting around for a festival to invite them along, they've created their own! The Curiosa Festival will feature a whole mess of bands stretched out over two stages: the main stage will feature The Cure, Mogwai, Interpol, and The Rapture, with the second stage featuring (depending on the date) some combination of Melissa Auf Der Maur, The Cooper Temple Clause, Muse, Cursive, Thursday, and Head Automatica.

According to The Cure's website, there will be "other stuff going on at every show," and they're looking for suggestions. Ours-- an Aqua Net-sponsored hairtease/freakshow tent, a Porl Thompson lolfest, and rounds of our self-invented "pool darts" competition-- were keenly rejected, which we didn't like at all. In the meantime, we've got dates for you. And those of you who don't live in one of the following cities may be in luck yet-- The Cure's website alludes to future additions to the itinerary. For now:

07-24 West Palm Beach, FL - Sound Advice Amphitheater
07-25 Tampa, FL - Tampa Amphitheater
07-28 Nashville, TN - Starwood Amphitheater
07-29 Atlanta, GA - HiFi Buys Amphitheater
07-31 New York, NY - Randall's Island
08-01 Camden, NJ - Tweeter Center
08-03 Cincinnati, OH - Riverbend Music Center
08-04 Cuyahoga Falls, OH - Blossom Music Center
08-06 Columbia, MD - Merriweather Post Pavilion
08-07 Mansfield, MA - Tweeter Center
08-09 Toronto, Ontario - Molson Amphitheater
08-11 Clarkston, MI - DTE Energy Music Theater
08-12 Tinley Park, IL - Tweeter Center
08-14 Dallas, TX - Smirnoff Music Center
08-15 Spring, TX - Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
08-17 Denver, CO - Coors Amphitheater
08-18 West Valley City, UT - USANA Amphitheater
08-21 Seattle, WA - TBA
08-24 San Diego, CA - Coors Amphitheater
08-25 Phoenix, AZ - Cricket Amphitheater
08-27 Carson, CA - Home Depot Center
08-28 San Francisco, CA - TBA
08-29 Sacramento, CA - TBA

Of course, Curiosa isn't just about getting a bunch of gloomy motherfuckers together to play and/or listen to music-- it's about selling lots and lots of copies of The Cure's new album, The Cure. As previously reported (dead horse alert!), the eponymous LP was produced by Ross Robinson, and will be out on June 29th in the U.S. via Geffen/I Am Recordings. And if you're the sort who likes that kind of thing, be on the lookout for a deluxe edition that includes a DVD with a 30-minute behind the scenes look at the making of the album. Here's the finalized tracklist, including various alternate tracks only available on import and vinyl versions. Start saving... now:

01 Lost
02 Labyrinth
03 Before Three
04 The End of the World
05 Anniversary
06 Us or Them
07 alt.end
08 (I Don't Know What's Going) On
09 Taking Off
10 Never
11 The Promise
12 Truth, Goodness, & Beauty (UK, vinyl, and Japanese only)
13 Going Nowhere (non-US only)
14 Fake (vinyl and Japanese only)
15 This Morning (vinyl only)

And finally, The Cure have got their summer festival tour plans hammered out, and we would be remiss if we didn't include 'em. And we do not wish to be remiss. They've settled on lucky number 12, so here you go:

06-19 Imola, Italy - Heineken Jammin' Festival
06-20 Naples, Italy - Neapolis Festival
06-25 St. Goarshausen, Germany - Loreley Festival
06-26 Sheessel, Germany - Hurricane Festival
06-27 Neuhausen Ob Eck, Germany - Southside Festival
07-01 Werchter, Belgium - Werchter Rock Festival
07-03 Six Fours, France - Les Voix du Gaou Festival
07-04 Aix Les Bains, France - Nuisilac Festival
07-09 Manchester, England - Move Festival
07-10 Dublin, Ireland - Oxegen Festival
07-16 Santiago De Compostela - Xacobeo Festival
07-17 Vilar De Mouros, Portugal - Vilar De Mouros Festival