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
Is it wrong to be interested in a band based on three pics uploaded?
(He asks, as if Kate is going to say yes...)
― Mark G, Monday, 19 January 2009 09:41 (4 years ago) Permalink
Inaccurate, if positive, reviews always seem to poison a record for me.
I loved this until people started sticking their perceptions on it.
― u s steel, Monday, 19 January 2009 09:58 (4 years ago) Permalink
Mark G, visual presentation is a totally important part of a band's appeal. Some bands, you can tell that you will like them just by looking at them. (Not always accurate, but sometimes you can just tell.)
u s steel, I cannot process your statement in any way that makes sense to me. Do you not have a mind or opinions of your own? You listen to a record, you either like it or you don't. What on earth do other people's opinions - whether or not you agree with them - have to do with your enjoyment of something?
I simply can't process what you're saying.
― Get Cake. Wear Cake. Fly. (Masonic Boom), Monday, 19 January 2009 10:45 (4 years ago) Permalink
Why do you play these games on this board? They're hurtful. Stop provoking me. :(
― u s steel, Monday, 19 January 2009 10:46 (4 years ago) Permalink
OK, my take on u s steel's comment:
"They take what My Bloody Valentine started, and made it more tuneful" would be enough to send me away from a band.
Which may well be unfair. Often, it's only when I get to hear said band and go "who they? OH THEM!!!" alright!
I simply don't get to hear enough to make untrammelled evaluations of everyone. Still, there's no substitute for actually hearing the band. But, as you say kate, seeing the bands image can at least show where they are coming from.
I remember buying the Lemon Trees single based purely on the pic, and being sorely disappointed with the lameness of the music/song.
― Mark G, Monday, 19 January 2009 11:06 (4 years ago) Permalink
I'm not playing games, I'm asking a question, because I don't understand what you are staying in the slightest.
I don't think that I could ever read something in someone else's opinion of a piece of music that could make me dislike that piece of music. I mean, I can think of situations where someone has explained something in a piece of music as to why they liked it, which made me understand the music better. But I can't see how someone's *opinion* would make me like a piece of music less.
If I hadn't heard a band, reading something negative about them could make me less likely to seek them out and listen to them. Or even ILX hype can turn me off something - but this is about the decision to listen to something. (Because there is so much out there, how do you decide what's worthy of time/attention/money?) But don't you make up your mind about the music itself by listening to the music, not by reading about it?
As to a band's image... I think it's fine to like or respond to a band's image, so long as that is not the *only* thing you like about them. It's like an added extra special bonus plus.
― Get Cake. Wear Cake. Fly. (Masonic Boom), Monday, 19 January 2009 13:31 (4 years ago) Permalink
It's easy to say that while LJ is banned.
― caek, Monday, 19 January 2009 13:42 (4 years ago) Permalink
Like, saying they sound like Throwing Muses is completely inaccurate, and makes me go "ick" that someone with a tin ear likes this. It's like I can't get that sentimental "ick" out of my mind when listening to them, because I know that sentimental "ick" people with no ears (they simply do not sound like these bands!) are listening to it.
I'm just sensitive that way, I don't know why you feel it is so important for me to explain myself to you. You act as if it is a personal failure of mine if I don't make sense to you.
― u s steel, Monday, 19 January 2009 13:43 (4 years ago) Permalink
tbh starting to dislike a record just b/c you've seen some muddle-headed comparisons to it in print does seem like a personal failure. how do you like any music at all?
― lex pretend, Monday, 19 January 2009 14:05 (4 years ago) Permalink
To me, the harmonic structure of the vocal arrangements sounds very similar to Throwing Muses. That doesn't mean I have a tin ear, it just means that perhaps I'm clueing in to different things than you are. If you don't like TM, that's your loss. You're welcome to disagree with the comparison. But how on earth could that comparison affect whether you like the music or not?
Even if you think I'm an idiot, or have no taste - and you can think what you like about me, it doesn't affect who I am or how I feel in the slightest - then why on earth would my opinion of this band be relevant to whether you like them or not? Surely my supposed "tin ear" would make my opinion less relevant?
Disliking a band because of who you think listens to them is as stupid and pointless as *liking* a band just because other people like them. Just sounds to me like you have some really strange issues. I don't understand this way of thinking in the slightest. Whether you feel that's a personal failure or not is your business - I was just trying to understand or get clarification on a statement that I wasn't clear to me. Thank you for clarifying.
Though ha ha, Caek, I guess I see your point. Louis actually succeeded in making me feel embarrassed about liking stuff like LOTP and Youthmovies. I guess, like... I didn't want to be associated with him in any way. But what's objectionable about him isn't his taste, it's his actions. Brings up the whole can of worms about whether you should judge a band by their fanbase, but that's not for this thread.
(I think - hope - that defining yourself or others entirely by your musical taste, and its converse of judging a band by its fanbase is something that one grows out of, as one gets more secure in one's own personhood. But I know that's debatable.)
― Get Cake. Wear Cake. Fly. (Masonic Boom), Monday, 19 January 2009 14:12 (4 years ago) Permalink
re: SVIIB, 'iamundernodisguise' is probably my favourite - i love it when the vocals slip so smoothly into a different key.
― lex pretend, Monday, 19 January 2009 14:15 (4 years ago) Permalink
Sounds like Dido to me
― X-101, Monday, 19 January 2009 14:20 (4 years ago) Permalink
I really love Half Asleep, but I must admit the Dido thing stalks them a little bit too closely not to feel slightly uneasy about my liking.
― GamalielRatsey, Monday, 19 January 2009 14:36 (4 years ago) Permalink
tbh the comparison just makes both them and dido sound better
― lex pretend, Monday, 19 January 2009 14:43 (4 years ago) Permalink
like, you suddenly start hearing gorgeous harmonies in dido songs, and realising that SVIIB have that latent MOR tinge is an interesting & effective aspect to their shoegazey droney aesthetic
― lex pretend, Monday, 19 January 2009 14:45 (4 years ago) Permalink
when you suddenly start hearing gorgeous harmonies in dido songs it means you're getting old and boring.
― Pfunkboy Formerly Known As... (Herman G. Neuname), Monday, 19 January 2009 15:43 (4 years ago) Permalink
I don't really hear the Dido thing, TBH - but I haven't listened to much (OK, read: any) Dido, and suspect it's not so much an observation as an insult.
There was *always* a kind of adult-oriented-rock tinge to a lot of shoegaze - think later period Cocteaus and a lot of Slowdive - that *is* just a danger of that sort of music. That it can wibble off into dullness. But the trick is to have an element of danger, of offness, of... *noise* behind the music that saves good shoegaze from being yuppie cocktail wallpaper music. Yes, it's adult. But just because something is "adult" doesn't mean it has to be boring.
Beauty can get boring. And SVIIB are - possibly problematically to some people - unrelentingly pretty. I don't have a problem with prettiness, so long as there is something *more* to it - and yes, I think there is *more* to SVIIB, there's enough interesting things going on texturally and melodically.
They could just as easily have gone too far in the opposite direction and been so "ooh, look at us, we so QUIRKY!!!" aesthetic which is irritating in a different way. I like how understated they are, how they're not particularly attention-seeking or wacky, they just get on with making really beautiful music.
It's music like how Matisse described his paintings - beautiful things to sink into at the end of a long and tiring day. If that offends you, then, you know, go and listen to some doom metal or something.
― Get Cake. Wear Cake. Fly. (Masonic Boom), Monday, 19 January 2009 16:56 (4 years ago) Permalink
Okay, so I picked up the Face to Face In High Places ep a while back, and have some moderate like for it. It's pretty, but not too pretty, and slots into my mental filing system somewhere between shoegaze retro and contemporary art weirdos like Health. Haven't heard the Ghostly LP though. How does it compare to this EP I've been sort of digging? From all the pretty-pretty talk in this thread, I'm getting the feeling I might not be able to handle it.
― Calling All Creeps! (contenderizer), Monday, 19 January 2009 17:13 (4 years ago) Permalink
It's probably that I like it and think it's great in some ways - I liked enough to pay for it - but it appeals to emo types and maybe the bad review brought that out or made me more aware of it. Should I even bother?
Throwing Muses are kind of folk or roots influenced and I'm just not hearing that here.
― u s steel, Monday, 19 January 2009 20:32 (4 years ago) Permalink
Last.fm says "Broadcast" is the comparison.
I haven't listened Broadcast in a long time, but sounds about right. It just seems like reviewers (as opposed to critics) are less interested in encouraging people to learn about different artists ("who the hell knows Broadcast"?) as they are hitching a viable artist to something that was a proven commercial success (i.e. 4 AD and shoegaze).
― u s steel, Monday, 19 January 2009 20:42 (4 years ago) Permalink
Throwing Muses are kind of folk or roots influenced
????
i can't imagine you've really heard any
― Cooking From A Stovetop (electricsound), Thursday, 22 January 2009 01:06 (4 years 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 (3 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 (3 months ago) Permalink
oh no..
― downton arby (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 8 February 2013 17:38 (3 months ago) Permalink
Holy shit :(
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Friday, 8 February 2013 17:41 (3 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 (3 months ago) Permalink
whoa
― akm, Friday, 8 February 2013 18:11 (3 months ago) Permalink
Oh lordy.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 8 February 2013 18:13 (3 months ago) Permalink
dang :(
― steaklife (donna rouge), Friday, 8 February 2013 18:14 (3 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 (3 months ago) Permalink
tough news, i hope the outcome is good.
― goole, Friday, 8 February 2013 19:45 (3 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 (3 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 (3 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 (3 months ago) Permalink
fuck, poor dude :(
― call all destroyer, Monday, 11 February 2013 22:14 (3 months ago) Permalink
: (
― ☻ີ☻ັ☹ີ☻ີ☻ᵌྉ (cozen), Monday, 11 February 2013 23:00 (3 months ago) Permalink
:(((
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Monday, 11 February 2013 23:45 (3 months ago) Permalink