I've not totally fallen for the whole of this album just yet, but I'm a huge sucker for the straight-up swoony stuff. Half Asleep is getting played so much, such a perfect chorus, loving those backwards cymbals. Something sort of japanese about the melody too, isn't there?
― NickB, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 14:49 (4 years ago) Permalink
I was going to start this thread a few days ago. I love the orderliness of the singing and how much of the music is sort of clean and bright-sounding. To actually pull that off for an entire album is pretty impressive (see also the last Mahogany album which I love for the same reason). That melody in "Chain" has been stuck in my head more than anything else this year.
― vampire baseball (call all destroyer), Wednesday, 3 December 2008 15:07 (4 years ago) Permalink
Yeah, as much as I like the Robin Guthrie My Cabal, the original is kind of... bouncier. (The demo is, of course, the best of all - but I would say that.)
The vocal riff to Prince of Peace really encapsulates everything I love about the way the harmonies work - they sing really really close together on the verse, and then on the chorus, as the music widens and becomes more... intense, the vocals fan out and break from unison into harmony and it's the best thing ever.
Yeah, I totally hear the Mahogany thing. The other obvious comparison is Asobi Seksu, I think - but kind of less *rock* than Asobi and more electronica.
It makes me a bit sad, because this is very much what Shimura Curves second album would have sounded like had the band not imploded. But hey! It means I can be lazy and listen to this instead. Heh.
― ...it's all just a learning curve (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 3 December 2008 15:09 (4 years ago) Permalink
this album is wonderful. claudia, please marry me.
― cutty, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 15:10 (4 years ago) Permalink
ditch that prefuse 73 moron
Yeah, I was gonna say, you've got *some* competition there!
― ...it's all just a learning curve (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 3 December 2008 15:19 (4 years ago) Permalink
i like this lots. "connjur" is my favorite, if i remember correctly
― k3vin k., Wednesday, 3 December 2008 15:22 (4 years ago) Permalink
i had the unfortunate luck to meet her while he was present. he was totally cockblocking.
― cutty, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 15:28 (4 years ago) Permalink
Ha ha, and *I* get called a fangirl! She's really lovely, though. They both are - hell, they all are.
I long ago accepted that I am *never* going to marry Benjamin Curtis but good god, it made me really really happy that he goes out with someone who is so dead cool and creative and talented. Like, it makes me have more appreciation for boys if they have good taste in a partner.
OK, now enough of the creepiness. Back to talking about how amazing their music is.
― ...it's all just a learning curve (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 3 December 2008 15:33 (4 years ago) Permalink
The second half of "For Kalaja Mari" feels oddly Christmas-y for me, can't put a finger on why.
― Maciej (maciej recognizing trill), Wednesday, 3 December 2008 16:26 (4 years ago) Permalink
They're at The Airliner in L.A tonight which is basically like seeing them in your living room. See you all there!
― Chris Barrus (Elvis Telecom), Thursday, 4 December 2008 00:49 (4 years ago) Permalink
just snuck into my personal top ten
― k3vin k., Thursday, 4 December 2008 01:35 (4 years ago) Permalink
my mom just wrote me this morning telling me how much she likes them!
― chick korea (jaxon), Thursday, 4 December 2008 01:46 (4 years ago) Permalink
Ditto.
― ilxor, Thursday, 4 December 2008 07:33 (4 years ago) Permalink
can i just thank masonic boom for introducing me to this on the best of 2008 thread? good, thanks m.b. a few times in the last couple of days i've been wandering round town with my ipod on and gone "what IS this amazing song that's just come on again?" and it's always 'connjur'.
― or something, Thursday, 4 December 2008 08:33 (4 years ago) Permalink
yar cheers kate! lovely record.
― Disco/Very (Roz), Thursday, 4 December 2008 09:51 (4 years ago) Permalink
Yay! I am always glad to share the love.
It's the open fifths in the vocal harmonies - it's a classic Xmas carol trick.
Aw, Chris, if you read this before you see them, can you tell Benjamin I said hello? And ask them to plan a NYC show the week that I'm over there. Why couldn't the LA gig just WAIT three weeks until I'm in California? I'd have flown down to LA for that.
― Sampling Potter's Nipples (Masonic Boom), Thursday, 4 December 2008 13:53 (4 years ago) Permalink
My impression upon first listen was that the songs are good and often lovely but they've been badly served by whoever produced it. There really should be more in the way of texture and build and dynamics and intimacy but the production job just flattens everything out. I get this problem with a lot of nu-shoegazey stuff really.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 4 December 2008 13:55 (4 years ago) Permalink
i kind of know what you mean, but i think it's meant to be slick and clean, like of texturally like kraftwerk. some of the synths will be slightly abrasive in a nice way. i'm going to go to the mercury lounge show in a week or so, which might be fun.
― schlump, Thursday, 4 December 2008 14:09 (4 years ago) Permalink
I didn't like the production on the album (especially compared to the demos) at first, but it really grew on me with repeated listens - especially listening on headphones. It is very understated, but deliberately so.
Awww, when is that Mercury Lounge show? It's not when I'm in NYC, is it, bah!
― Sampling Potter's Nipples (Masonic Boom), Thursday, 4 December 2008 14:11 (4 years ago) Permalink
No, dammit. Why couldn't it be a month later? Oh yeah, coz they'll be in Japan.
― Sampling Potter's Nipples (Masonic Boom), Thursday, 4 December 2008 14:12 (4 years ago) Permalink
uh huh :(
― schlump, Thursday, 4 December 2008 14:25 (4 years ago) Permalink
I'm downloading this now :)
― I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE UP TO (Colonel Poo), Thursday, 4 December 2008 14:34 (4 years ago) Permalink
thanks for letting us know
― cutty, Thursday, 4 December 2008 14:55 (4 years ago) Permalink
np
― I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE UP TO (Colonel Poo), Thursday, 4 December 2008 14:58 (4 years ago) Permalink
Hmm, yeah, this is nice.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 4 December 2008 15:01 (4 years ago) Permalink
Still, I don't know. There's something faintly unsatisfying as well in all this, like there's no actual surprise beyond 'oh, they put that bit of noise there.' I actually like the beats the most, and they seem to be the element that gets the most prominence in each mix.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 4 December 2008 15:08 (4 years ago) Permalink
Agreed though that "Connjur" is the best song they've got so far, it's as if they took the generally good ideas they have elsewhere and recombined them to best effect; also seems to be the song where all three main parts of the band's music (vocals, textures, beats) have an equal balance.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 4 December 2008 15:12 (4 years ago) Permalink
Do you always need to be surprised by music?
I think, for me, the surprise was, OHMIGOD THIS IS THE CULMINATION OF EVERY SINGLE THING I REALLY REALLY LOVE AND WANT MUSIC TO BE.
Hearing them for the first time was like the feeling that someone had been raiding my notebooks and taking EVERY SINGLE ELEMENT I REALLY LOVE and putting it all together in some giant "how to make Kate happy musically" recipe book.
It doesn't need to be surprising. It feels like... like walking into a stranger's house and finding the exact replica of your childhood bedroom, only even BETTER than you remember/imagine it.
― Sampling Potter's Nipples (Masonic Boom), Thursday, 4 December 2008 18:13 (4 years ago) Permalink
and even less creepy than finding a replica of your childhood bedroom in a stranger's house
― schlump, Thursday, 4 December 2008 18:40 (4 years ago) Permalink
xpost looking fwd to this now
finding a replica of your childhood bedroom in a stranger's house*theramin sounds*
― Booker van Permalink (Hunt3r), Thursday, 4 December 2008 18:44 (4 years ago) Permalink
Not creepy, just coincidence. I mean, there's a picture of what looks almost exactly like my childhood bedroom on the inside of a Smallstone album - *that* freaked me out.
But... erm - you know what I mean! I hope.
I like the theremin sounds anwaysy wweeeeeooooooweeeeeooooooooohhhh
Oh sod it I'm going to go to the Pier and buy some paisley cushions and make the whole world look like my childhood bedroom.
― Sampling Potter's Nipples (Masonic Boom), Thursday, 4 December 2008 18:50 (4 years ago) Permalink
Not at all. But this was a pleasure of the expected, and its impact is less than it might have been. In contrast (say) right now I'm listening to the Birdsongs of the Mesozoic compilation that's just out on Cuneiform and while it's no less derivative in many cases, I'm sure, its reference points are less immediately familiar to me, which I appreciate very much.
I get what you're saying in re: combinations of music coming together just right in terms of what one wants and expects -- this in large part explains my Smashing Pumpkins love in the 1990s, as Billy Corgan was hotwiring a LOT of my record collection and musical contexts at the time. I don't know if I'll necessarily have that moment again, or even if I want to have it, if that makes sense. That's a bit like me now wanting to have an experience like listening to "Soon" for the first time, the whole point is that it was unplanned.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 4 December 2008 18:59 (4 years ago) Permalink
*listens to 3 songs*
o fuk there's snoopy AND gnipgnop
― Booker van Permalink (Hunt3r), Thursday, 4 December 2008 19:04 (4 years ago) Permalink
...christmas tree lights and my weird stuffed horse's head made of purple and orange paisley...
DAMN I forgot to go to the Pier. Tomorrow. I need glitter.
Sometimes one wants comfort and familiarity. Or a perfected version of something that seems like your own private world. This album sounds like the inside of my head. I'm going to shut up now.
― Sampling Potter's Nipples (Masonic Boom), Thursday, 4 December 2008 20:07 (4 years ago) Permalink
Sometimes just finding balance of preexisting elements is enough. "iamundernodisguise" is an Enya track with the saccharine backing shunted aside by indie sweat. And that's just what we sometimes need - emotionally uplifting music that doesn't give us the candy bellyache.
SVIIB does wear their influences on their sleeve. Spot the Loveless backing vocal rip, the Neu! riff, a rhythm borrowed from M.I.A. I'm perfectly okay with that.
― derelict, Thursday, 4 December 2008 20:38 (4 years ago) Permalink
saw the word "christmas" ^ somewhere and reminded me of the first tune. anyone else think the vocals are kind christmas carol-y? in a good way!
― k3vin k., Thursday, 4 December 2008 21:28 (4 years ago) Permalink
"iamundernodisguise" is an Enya track with the saccharine backing shunted aside by indie sweat. And that's just what we sometimes need - emotionally uplifting music that doesn't give us the candy bellyache.
The mention of 'sweat' makes me think very obliquely of a comparison I was drawing in my head earlier, namely to Seefeel and Quique, and that album's almost preternatural cleanliness and precision. There's something there I'd love to tease out further, which has less to do with either band and more with larger signifiers already being applied to this group, as evidenced on the thread. Hm.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 4 December 2008 21:39 (4 years ago) Permalink
Last night...
― Chris Barrus (Elvis Telecom), Friday, 5 December 2008 09:06 (4 years ago) Permalink
What a time for YouTube to get blocked! I shall have to watch at lunch.
― Sampling Potter's Nipples (Masonic Boom), Friday, 5 December 2008 10:01 (4 years ago) Permalink
Good lord, have they switched their hair back again? that's too confusing.
Extra laptop = extra BEATS which I like.
Also, Claudia is using a different synth - I don't recall her having a Nord the last time I saw them, she had something more compact.
Not enough Benjamin. Barely a whiff of ginger. Boo hoo hoo. :-(
― Sampling Potter's Nipples (Masonic Boom), Friday, 5 December 2008 14:29 (4 years ago) Permalink
my initial reaction to this album was the same as ned's, it actually struck me as just kind of generic. It really reminded me of mark van hoen stuff, Locust or something, but not as good. But, subsequent listens have changed that opinion.
― akm, Friday, 5 December 2008 14:39 (4 years ago) Permalink
i don't understand why connjur is getting attention ahead of half-asleep. half asleep is the best!, and fits with the generally awesome this-sounds-new start to the record.
― schlump, Friday, 5 December 2008 14:52 (4 years ago) Permalink
But, subsequent listens have changed that opinion.
It does seem like a grower! And there's nothing wrong with that, for sure.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 5 December 2008 15:25 (4 years ago) Permalink
half asleep is the best!
this is the first song in forever that i have wanted to read the lyrics to
― schlump, Friday, 5 December 2008 17:47 (4 years ago) Permalink
It's funny, I was just thinking this morning, how good Half Asleep is. I've had it stuck in my head all day. But then I got distracted by the video and forgot to say.
No, this album really really *is* a grower.
It's also weirdly sequenced, like, it's *really* back-loaded - that the poppy upbeat songs are towards the end. But Benjamin probably did that on purpose coz he is perverse like that. That you have to listen to the whole thing to get to the poppy bits, and that makes you do multiple listens to the earlier songs and then you get sucked into them and you realise every time you listen to them you notice something different and then one day you wake up and realise you cant' live without hearing the album again and again and again.
it's not an immediate high. But it gets better and better every time you listen.
― Sampling Potter's Nipples (Masonic Boom), Friday, 5 December 2008 18:18 (4 years ago) Permalink
It seems like they're still figuring themselves out, but the album is definitely a grower and I love how it reconstitutes the familiar into something seemingly new (though Kate was onto it first!). I'm reminded of the Raveonettes.
― Chris Barrus (Elvis Telecom), Friday, 5 December 2008 19:49 (4 years ago) Permalink
I know that you could sling lots of comparisons around, but I was thinking the other day that Half Asleep specifically sounds a bit like nineties Yo La Tengo with a multi-tracked Georgia H. There's a simplicity in the singing there that makes it feel very emotionally direct, even though I don't really have a clue what they're on about half the time.
― NickB, Friday, 5 December 2008 20:03 (4 years ago) Permalink
Saw them live again in NYC, oh my god, they're SOOOO GOOOOOD live. Those harmonies are just spectacular live.
It's strange, that for something so baroque and textural and nu-gaze, they're actually quite minimal, I really like that. These kind of sleek, tight, elegant, sinewy beats all the better to hang these melodically and harmonically really complex things over the top, and Benjamin in the back generating sonic haze like the guitar equivalent of a smoke machine. (cough cough) I love the way he does not play guitar like a guitarist.
― Get Cake. Wear Cake. Fly. (Masonic Boom), Monday, 19 January 2009 08:15 (4 years ago) Permalink
Pictures, pictures, pictures...
― Get Cake. Wear Cake. Fly. (Masonic Boom), Monday, 19 January 2009 08:17 (4 years ago) Permalink
well i thought the lil wayne cover was just a nice curio when i first heard it but inexplicably it's totally kicked in to the point of obsession this week
― lex pretend, Friday, 28 September 2012 08:27 (8 months ago) Permalink
Thanks for reminding me of that. Haunting.
― Chewshabadoo, Friday, 28 September 2012 15:46 (8 months ago) Permalink
yeah I love that cover. Played it a lot during the Olympics, went really well with montages of heartbroken athletes.
See I just want you to know / That you deserve the best / You’re beautiful / You’re beautiful... yeah.
And I want you to know, you’re far from the usual / Far from the usual
― Roz, Friday, 28 September 2012 16:00 (8 months ago) Permalink
New tour EP has a cover of the Silver Apples "Lovefingers" that's pretty excellent
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 28 September 2012 18:58 (8 months ago) Permalink
SVIIB cover >>>>>>>>>>>> Weezy original, which is just him sliming all over an acoustic guitar.
― Matt DC, Saturday, 6 October 2012 12:47 (8 months ago) Permalink
that's what makes it doubly remarkable. the original is so bad! how did they find something amazing in it! worthwhile alt covers of rap songs are rare enough, but a brilliant alt cover of a dreadful song by a rapper?
― lex pretend, Saturday, 6 October 2012 13:27 (8 months ago) Permalink
The album (& "How To Love") have been really growing on me as the weather's turned. With their string of excellent covers, I reckon they could do a great version of All Saints' "Pure Shores", heh.
― etc, Thursday, 11 October 2012 23:17 (8 months ago) Permalink
Was that an epic troll?
― Chewshabadoo, Saturday, 13 October 2012 00:37 (8 months ago) Permalink
still need to listen to their latest album - I'm srs behind the times.
― 'Anti-Rolling Stones Cannon' (Pillbox), Saturday, 13 October 2012 00:43 (8 months ago) Permalink
"Put Your Sad Down" from their tour ep is great. Wish it went on for 12 more minutes.
― van smack, Saturday, 13 October 2012 00:46 (8 months ago) Permalink
worthwhile alt covers of rap songs are rare enough
Are there any others?
― Andy K, Saturday, 13 October 2012 01:24 (8 months ago) Permalink
'ecstasy' by jj is sorta a lil wayne cover too, isn't it? if so, that.
― 'Anti-Rolling Stones Cannon' (Pillbox), Saturday, 13 October 2012 01:27 (8 months ago) Permalink
these are the only other two i can think of
― lex pretend, Saturday, 13 October 2012 07:00 (8 months ago) Permalink
The tour EP has been "polished up" for release as the Put Your Sad Down EP, due November 13.
01. Put Your Sad Down02. Secret Days03. Faded Heart04. Lovefingers05. Painting A Memory
#!
― in the Land of the Yik Yak (Sanpaku), Monday, 5 November 2012 17:31 (7 months ago) Permalink
psyched for this
― bell biv devo (Stevie D(eux)), Monday, 5 November 2012 19:38 (7 months ago) Permalink
Haven't listened to it yet but the EP is up for streaming. :D
http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2012/11/album-stream-school-of-seven-bells---put-your-sad.html
― Roz, Friday, 9 November 2012 17:28 (7 months ago) Permalink
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 27 November 2012 03:21 (6 months ago) Permalink
Neat use of the Animoog app. But Alejandra could definitely use a monitor - painfully flat in places.
― Chinchilla! Chinchilla! Chinchilla! (Sanpaku), Tuesday, 27 November 2012 19:45 (6 months ago) Permalink
Singing sounds absolutely fine to me.
― Chewshabadoo, Wednesday, 28 November 2012 10:16 (6 months ago) Permalink
I'm 10 minutes into the first song of the new EP and this is already better than Ghostory so far.
― goya cézanne (Stevie D(eux)), Thursday, 29 November 2012 02:39 (6 months ago) Permalink
"Put Your Sad Down" has been on repeat the last week; is this the best thing they've ever done?
― whoop i. goldberg (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 17:06 (4 months ago) Permalink
If it hasn't been pointed out before, School of Seven Bells are big Killing Joke fans. FACT.
― Alex in NYC, Tuesday, 29 January 2013 20:46 (4 months ago) Permalink
http://www.facebook.com/schoolofsevenbells/posts/10151475475961063
Dear Friends,It feels so surreal to be writing this to you. In fact I still can't wrap my head or my heart around it, but here it goes. A few nights ago Benjamin was admitted to the hospital for symptoms that have been getting worse for a few weeks now. After a dozen tests and scans (which he's endured like a champion) , the doctors say it's T-cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma. It developed pretty aggressively, and the chemotherapy to treat it will be pretty aggressive, but the good news is that it's TREATABLE. These next few months will be tough, but he is the toughest person I know (even while here, he was trying to figure out a way to sample the MRI). I wanted to share this with you all, because you guys are such a huge and important part of our lives. Send all of the light and love that you can his way. Every bit will count towards a strong and fast recovery. I believe that with all of my heart. I will be doing the same. Love, Alley
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 8 February 2013 17:35 (4 months ago) Permalink
oh no..
― downton arby (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 8 February 2013 17:38 (4 months ago) Permalink
Holy shit :(
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Friday, 8 February 2013 17:41 (4 months ago) Permalink
I don't ever like to hear the word "aggressively" in relation to cancer, treatable or no.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 8 February 2013 18:05 (4 months ago) Permalink
whoa
― akm, Friday, 8 February 2013 18:11 (4 months ago) Permalink
Oh lordy.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 8 February 2013 18:13 (4 months ago) Permalink
dang :(
― steaklife (donna rouge), Friday, 8 February 2013 18:14 (4 months ago) Permalink
Its not good news, but this is one of the more treatable neoplasms. About 90% complete remission rate. The cyclophosphamide B. will probably get in the R-FC chemo will regrettably ruin the best hairdo in dream pop.
― Sanpaku, Friday, 8 February 2013 18:52 (4 months ago) Permalink
tough news, i hope the outcome is good.
― goole, Friday, 8 February 2013 19:45 (4 months ago) Permalink
If I had to go through this, my hairdo would be the last thing I'd be worrying about.
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Saturday, 9 February 2013 18:51 (4 months ago) Permalink
"The love you've all shown me this weekend has touched me in a way I've never felt before. It's such a huge feeling that, despite the terrible circumstances, I can't help but feel like the luckiest guy on the planet to be surrounded by such beautiful energy. The cancer has affected my eye in a way that makes it a bit hard for me to read and type at the moment, but I do hope to respond to as many of you as I can as that changes. Please bear with me. Until then, keep your thoughts with me and I'll be keeping mine with you. I'm gonna beat this for you just as much as I am for myself. xB"
Photo via his Instagram, comment from FB.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 11 February 2013 21:57 (4 months ago) Permalink
god that pic is making me happy and breaking my heart at the same time. they're both so beautiful.
― Roz, Monday, 11 February 2013 22:09 (4 months ago) Permalink
fuck, poor dude :(
― call all destroyer, Monday, 11 February 2013 22:14 (4 months ago) Permalink
: (
― ☻ີ☻ັ☹ີ☻ີ☻ᵌྉ (cozen), Monday, 11 February 2013 23:00 (4 months ago) Permalink
:(((
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Monday, 11 February 2013 23:45 (4 months ago) Permalink