what do people think of the spinanes and rebecca gates?
a friend of mine bought me two spinanes albums some time ago--strand and arches and aisles.
strand strikes me differently roughly every other time i listen to it. i don't think it's a great album, but sometimes i can live with it, other times it sounds gratingly "arty" and thin on musical ideas. arches and aisles (i guess this is basically a r. gates solo record) is a very dependable album of its kind--i'm not sure i can say precisely what "kind" that is, but it has something to do with a kind of low-stakes indie that i mostly stopped listening to five or so years ago. i would really like to hear more than the few early spinanes songs i know.
i think gates is a very good singer, and i'm not sure the spinanes' records always make that evident. i've seen her perform solo several times in the post-spinanes days, and while her songs were hit and miss, she had an unerring sense of how to sing them. at a curtis mayfield tribute you, she sang "the makings of you" and her improvisations on the melody had great merit. she has good control over her voice too.
anyway, i last saw her perform maybe two years ago, or a year and a half. she was opening for smog and the crowd was way too noisy for her music to come across at all. sometimes i think the direction she seems to be moving in (fairly melodically simple, if sometimes intriguingly structured, songs with very delicate and thought-through vocals) has kind of made her obvious performing milieu (indie clubs) a risky bet.
anyway, anyone know what she's up to now? does she still live in chicago?
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Monday, 20 September 2004 04:42 (nineteen years ago) link
some of the production on their records is patchy and the songwriting on the third album wasn't quite as consistently strong as the first two, but i think the three albums are a pretty strong body of work in general. her voice is wonderful. and when she did a solo tour in australia she played a cover of the pretenders' "talk of the town" and melted my heart completely.
― the surface noise (slight return) (electricsound), Monday, 20 September 2004 05:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― roger adultery (roger adultery), Monday, 20 September 2004 05:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― the surface noise (slight return) (electricsound), Monday, 20 September 2004 05:47 (nineteen years ago) link
Best mix-CD segue I've ever done: the semi-famous recording of postal workers at the University of Ghana post office canceling stamps --> "Spitfire."
― Douglas (Douglas), Monday, 20 September 2004 06:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― BlastsOfStatic (BlastsofStatic), Monday, 20 September 2004 13:59 (nineteen years ago) link
? Do tell me more, please.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 20 September 2004 14:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― BlastsOfStatic (BlastsofStatic), Monday, 20 September 2004 14:36 (nineteen years ago) link
Scott Plouff's (sp?) drumming on MANOS is KILLER JAMZ.
― ddb (ddb), Monday, 20 September 2004 14:45 (nineteen years ago) link
i should really hear manos. the title always reminds me of manos: the hands of fate--serious cognitive dissonance.
― amateur!!st, Monday, 20 September 2004 15:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― zappi (joni), Monday, 20 September 2004 15:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!st, Monday, 20 September 2004 15:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― dlp9001, Monday, 20 September 2004 16:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― roger adultery (roger adultery), Monday, 20 September 2004 16:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 25 December 2005 10:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― curmudgeon (Steve K), Sunday, 25 December 2005 18:17 (eighteen years ago) link
"Hawaiian Baby" coming up later today unless someone does it first.
― sleeve, away, Sunday, 25 December 2005 20:17 (eighteen years ago) link
Hawaiian Baby
― nickn (nickn), Sunday, 25 December 2005 21:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― jon dale, Sunday, 25 December 2005 23:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 26 December 2005 00:27 (eighteen years ago) link
god bless you, merry gentleman. i will now use it for a mix cd.
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Monday, 26 December 2005 01:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― humansuit, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 09:14 (sixteen years ago) link
― electricsound, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 09:37 (sixteen years ago) link
― A. Begrand, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 10:02 (sixteen years ago) link
― humansuit, Thursday, 17 May 2007 14:17 (sixteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 17 May 2007 14:22 (sixteen years ago) link
― sleeve, Thursday, 17 May 2007 14:57 (sixteen years ago) link
― Trip Maker, Thursday, 17 May 2007 15:03 (sixteen years ago) link
― humansuit, Thursday, 17 May 2007 15:28 (sixteen years ago) link
― dlp9001, Thursday, 17 May 2007 15:42 (sixteen years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 17 May 2007 15:57 (sixteen years ago) link
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 17 May 2007 16:07 (sixteen years ago) link
― humansuit, Thursday, 17 May 2007 16:12 (sixteen years ago) link
Too bad she's not more prolific, I adore her Spinanes work but found her solo record completely unmemorable. I'm sure she's got more great music to offer the world.
― Mr. Odd, Monday, 30 July 2007 21:09 (sixteen years ago) link
Reposting from http://www.marfa.org/2008/09/ballroom-marfa-sessions.html
The Marfa Sessions, curated by Regine Basha, Rebecca Gates and Lucy Raven presents a series of individual sound projects, each engaging some aspect of Marfa's geographic, historical and unique social character. Basha, Gates and Raven have selected fifteen artists with specific interests in sound work and its potential as a transgressive medium within place and geography. Seven of these artists have been invited for individual site visits and residencies in Marfa, Texas in the year before the exhibition to collect field recordings, record interviews and document the landscape. The Marfa Sessions includes new contributions from Nina Katchadourian, Christina Kubisch and Kaffe Matthews, as well as collaborative work by Deborah Stratman/Steven Badgett, Steve Roden/Stephen Vitello and Steve Rowell/Simparch. Pertinent work from Emily Jacir, Louise Lawler, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Angel Nevarez & Valerie Tevere, Dario Robleto, and Julianne Swartz will also be featured in specific locations for the exhibition.
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 15 September 2008 22:27 (fifteen years ago) link
portland, oregon september 16 with corrina repp and aux eutresmarfa, tx september 20,21brooklyn, ny november 17 union pool
I bet that Arthur Russell thing she did in the spring was nice.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 02:11 (fifteen years ago) link
nothing new from her?
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Sunday, 13 May 2012 17:31 (eleven years ago) link
new album in a month, in fact
― mookieproof, Sunday, 13 May 2012 17:45 (eleven years ago) link
:D!!
― Evan, Monday, 14 May 2012 01:07 (eleven years ago) link
I love the Spinanes, and they are very much not-the-sort-of-thing-I-usually-like.
― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Monday, 14 May 2012 01:08 (eleven years ago) link
Manos is really great, every song, particularly "Sunday."― BlastsOfStatic (BlastsofStatic), Monday, September 20, 2004 9:59 AM (7 years ago)
Good, I found what I would have said.
― Evan, Monday, 14 May 2012 01:16 (eleven years ago) link
Very good news. I think she's been working on that thing for a while. The Spinanes are great and Ruby Series was also great. I'm way looking forward to this.
She opened for the Decemberists show I saw. She was really good, and I was sooooo thrilled that she performed "Hawaiian Baby" (one of the best songs ever), but I got the distinct impression that 99% of the audience could not give even one tenth of a fuck. Such a shame.
― Bob Bop Perano (Deric W. Haircare), Monday, 14 May 2012 02:05 (eleven years ago) link
Manos was one of my favorite records in high school, haven't heard it in so long. I never heard any of the following albums, would like to hear her covering Arthur Russell!
― JacobSanders, Monday, 14 May 2012 02:33 (eleven years ago) link
We are about to begin fund-raising in order to complete and release the album.
Hopefully this has worked. She's on tour in the US SW now I see.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 14 May 2012 02:53 (eleven years ago) link
would like to hear her covering Arthur Russell!
it was so good!
I know I said this already but Imp Years is some of the finest indie rock the 90's had to offer.
I will totally listen to this new rec, need to catch up.
― sleeve, Monday, 14 May 2012 02:53 (eleven years ago) link
I wanna clarify, because I'm surprised by the relative lack of discussion of it in this thread (aside from the general agreement that it is, indeed, fantastic), that "Hawaiian Baby" is one of the best songs ever because it's maybe the best breakup song ever. It's pretty much the Platonic ideal of utilizing very specific and very personal details in the service of encapsulating a universal experience (in this case, the melancholy of sorting through post-breakup memories and miscellany).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvr75rZmZ2A
― Bob Bop Perano (Deric W. Haircare), Monday, 14 May 2012 03:07 (eleven years ago) link
Manos and the stars are insane both remind of great high school late nights.
― JacobSanders, Monday, 14 May 2012 03:31 (eleven years ago) link
Also wanna rep for Arches & Aisles. That album is super underrated. It's different from the first two, but it has that amazing and sunny late-'90s John McEntire production and feels of a piece with TNT (and maybe Dots and Loops, to a lesser extent).
― Bob Bop Perano (Deric W. Haircare), Monday, 14 May 2012 03:47 (eleven years ago) link
the first time i heard the spinanes was on a mixtape i got from a girl who lived in houston (her grandmother lived down the street from us which is how we met, she had green hair and i was in love) anyway she made me this tape with Helium, Tsunami, Crayon field mice, even the Sundays and the Smiths and Spitfire by the Spinanes. i was a bus boy on the weekends and mowed lawns, after her first few tapes, i started spending all of my money through mail order catalogs.
― JacobSanders, Monday, 14 May 2012 04:13 (eleven years ago) link
Also wanna rep for Arches & Aisles. That album is super underrated.
Co-sign. Just the way it starts, with the chippy-happy bongos (or whatever) immediately brings a smile to my face.
I was really underwhelmed by her solo mini-album, though. There was just... something... missing.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 00:51 (eleven years ago) link
I wish they'd done a whole album....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPFXsdfjIII&feature=youtu.be
― dlp9001, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 02:13 (eleven years ago) link
Stupid youtube...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPFXsdfjIII
― dlp9001, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 02:14 (eleven years ago) link
"Kid In Candy" = pretty perfect pop.
― I serve at the pleasure of Dr. Dre and a team of Sorbonne scientists. (R Baez), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 02:22 (eleven years ago) link
Gates was at the time experimenting with R&B, covering songs by Aaliyah ("Are You That Somebody?") and TLC ("No Scrubs") in concert, and the sultry vibe of that genre also informed her singing in the studio.
Haven't found these on youtube. I saw her do "No Scrubs."
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 02:44 (eleven years ago) link
Rebecca has a full-length solo album out, "The Float". I've listened to it a couple of times and it's growing on me, though it's mostly gentle and I miss the swagger of The Spinanes. Still, the closing track in particular is great.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 5 July 2012 17:47 (eleven years ago) link
More tour dates for Gates and the Consortium. But grrr, I will be away on vacation when she's in my neighborhood
07/20/12 – Philadelphia, PA – Milkboy07/21/12 – Brooklyn, NY – Rock Shop Brooklyn07/22/12 – Somerville, MA – Radio Bar07/26/12 – Washington, DC – Black Cat DC07/27/12 – Chapel Hill, NC – Local 50607/28/12 – Columbus, OH – Double Happiness07/29/12 – Chicago, IL – The Hideout
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 5 July 2012 19:16 (eleven years ago) link
oh fuck i missed those dates, was kind of hibernating in july. dammit.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Friday, 5 October 2012 21:14 (eleven years ago) link
moving down on taylordinner with your fatherlooking for a mailboxsomeone's rolling in the mudsomeone does it just because
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 6 June 2023 04:50 (nine months ago) link
I should listen to them again. Always liked them. I think Gates is living In Portland again but I don’t think she’s put out any new music in a bit.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 6 June 2023 18:28 (nine months ago) link
my love is well documented itt but I now realize I don't have that Stones covers 7", so thanks for revive mookie
― broken breakbeat (sleeve), Tuesday, 6 June 2023 19:11 (nine months ago) link
just heard "kid in candy" for the first time in ages and it is still a terrific pop song
― tylerw, Tuesday, 6 June 2023 21:44 (nine months ago) link
It’s so good
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Wednesday, 7 June 2023 12:11 (nine months ago) link
As a NZer, did not expect the extended G.Downes nods in "Hawaiian Baby".
― etc, Thursday, 8 June 2023 03:21 (nine months ago) link
Snippet of her Arthur Russell cover here:
https://m.facebook.com/lacastanya/videos/10155247285851737/
― etc, Thursday, 8 June 2023 03:23 (nine months ago) link
happy 30th to manos
― mookieproof, Thursday, 26 October 2023 22:17 (four months ago) link