A Thread For School of Seven Bells Love!

Ha ha, with "this is a promotional item" voice over and everything.

OMG this album is gonna be so amazingly good if these snippets are anything to go by.

"windstorm" is really really cool

Saw these kids supporting Bat For Lashes last year. Amazing.

two months seems like a long time right now

cant make that windstorm stream work for shit tho

Love'em.

Ace! Really love Alpinisms, thought it got a bit overlooked when it came out (in the UK at least)

Oh! I forgot to revive this thread last night!

Windstorm single is out on iTunes now. Plus a really lovely floating-on-beds-of-clouds MBV-esque ethereal B-side.

GOGEDDIT

Roxor. Am hoping to be able to catch them tonight but we'll see...

I only took one photo last night, but for those who demand such things

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4006/4666071664_553a6bef34.jpg

I want to see them so bad, but I have to wait until July.

::sadface::

So first of all, if you haven't yet seen SVIIB live yet do so immediately as the next time they tour I expect them to be at much bigger venues (and a different crowd too - more on that later). Their basic sound is the same as from when I saw them the first time, but man is it revved way up and yet refined. Ben and the drummer (didn't get his name) work very well together, each branching off appropriately from the drum machine's basic framework but never clobbering the harmonies or each other. The only criticism I ever really had of them before was that there was very little power to all the sound that was coming at you (all voltage with little current) and, well, that simply isn't the case anymore. Almost all the songs were new, but I didn't care. They've tapped into a big vein of Something New, and for the first time ever a band has finally superseded all that nuGaze nonsense and used Loveless as a jumping off point into the unknown rather than as some sort of cosmic ideal to strive for.

Bottom line: fuck yeah! New album now please.

Very unusual crowd for The Echo though... Lots of KCRW signs everywhere and relatively few of the Usual Gang Of Drone Rockers that I always see at these types of shows. Huge crowd though. Couldn't quite pin it down, but I did think of the AOR/Dido namechecks upthread. Not sure if it means anything and if anyone deserves to play big shows it's them. Guess the secret is out now.

Also: All nuGazers need to take heed and stop dragging around entire music stores with them on stage. SVIIB has *less* equipment now and yet have a bigger sound.

Drummer? Again?

Oh yeah, more people need to play Hagstroms. That is all.

Drummer? Again?

Yes, they're now a four-piece live but as noted upthread he naturally fits into the band as if he was there the whole time but never calling attention to himself (think Jon Mattock on Lazer Guided Melodies).

Sounds like the set I witnessed back in March! Everything is bigger now. And better.

Sounds great! I was a little too wiped and exhausted for my part to make it, oh well -- next time!

The only criticism I ever really had of them before was that there was very little power to all the sound that was coming at you

Venue might sometimes explain it? At the more claustrophobic Detroit Bar that power was definitely there last year, less so at the Troubadour, so perhaps having the drummer helps bridge that gap as they play bigger spots. No bad thing, of course!

Pssst! London fans!!!!

Free tickets to a secret instore at Pure Groove if you pre-order the album through them...

https://www.puregroove.co.uk/itemview.aspx?item=1424

did I miss a west coast tour? tell me they didn't play SF and I slept on it.

Looks like this was their only West Coast date for this tour so you're good. Will be interested, per Chris's description, where they play next time.

Occurs to me that a double bill of them and the xx would be a heck of a show (and would also possibly explain where some of the new fans are from, indirectly).

so great.

vagrant has the new stars record too. good signings.

Venue might sometimes explain it? At the more claustrophobic Detroit Bar that power was definitely there last year, less so at the Troubadour, so perhaps having the drummer helps bridge that gap as they play bigger spots. No bad thing, of course!

Perhaps... I wasn't at either of those two shows, but it certainly seems that they've zeroed in on "their sound" (however you want to describe it) and are making it (as ilxor says) "bigger and better"

Next step world conquest.

Unrelated directly to SVIIB, but had to mention this observation: show etiquette

OK, so I'm listening to a live recording of The Echo show and the version of "Sempiternal / Amaranth" with the live drummer is even better than how I remember it being. With apologies to Kate, it's essentially Shimura Curves + "Hallogallo"

Hey, I'm not saying nothin' but just remindin' you that I gave Benjamin a CD of Noyfriend at a Sonic Cathedral back in ... oh, I don't even remember what year. But he was still in Secret Machines, and I was making pretty krautrock-styled shoegazetronica with a pair of sisters.

I give him the CD, and six months later, HE'S off making pretty krautrock-styled shoegazetronica with a pair of sisters.

COINCIDENCE!??!?!?

OK, probably. But still.

Hand over this live recording, dammit!

Upcoming instore in Brighton:

http://www.resident-music.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/resident-instore-appearance-school-of-seven-bells.pdf

Nice shop, that.

xxp - not to burst yr bubble MB, but I'd guess that the collab came about as a result of Secret Machines & On!Air!Library! touring together while opening for Interpol in 2004. Just a guess ;) - tho yr story is much better!

That was a terrific triple-bill btw

Ha ha yeah, I know your point. And there's actually more to the story than that. A lot more. (As admitted in my making THE SAME JOKE 2 years ago, on the start of this thread.)

(I do actually have that On!Air!Library! record - doesn't really sound particularly like SVIIB much, though you can obviously hear the germination of their sound.)

I <3<3 SVIIB, but "Bread" is still my favorite track of theirs (& one of my top songs of the 00s tbh).

The rest of the OAL lp was not quite as grand iirc, at least when weighed against the comparative strengths of Alpinisms

Kudos to Sam V. IV & Ghostly for releasing these records. After ten years of Factory-style cash drops on uberpremium sleeve design for niche IDM shit, he deserves to have a runaway hit & this next SVIIB record probably is probably better poised to perform as such than anything Ghostly has put out since... Alpinisms?

That was a terrific triple-bill btw

Yes, I was there. Remember when Interpol was actually kinda good?

I'll rep for interpol as a live act, but then: tight rhythm section + cavernous reverb guitar wash = I am a total stooge for it. Sam Fogarino is the undersung hero of that band. Now that I'm thinking about it, I believe he actually had something to do with the OAL record & that was the connection for that tour. Too bad Magnetic Morning (Fog + Adam Franklin of Swervedriver) turned out to be so dud.

To be fair, the Magnetic Morning album was still better than Our Love to Admire.

Interpol was good on record from 2002 to 2004. After that, fuck it.

I say brief things, my love's temporal, the hype's ephemeral.

How disappointed am I when I see that this thread has new answers on it... and they're about bloody Interpol. Do not wake me from mine slumber unless you have things to say about SVIIB k thx bye

Kate, you make Paul Banks sad.

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/33521279/Julian+Plenti+275779.jpg

HE IS WINKING @ U W/ A CULINARY EYE

Ew.

Get that thing off my nice clean thread and replace it with something pointy nosed and ginger if you please.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/96/215120003_fe34e0090f_o.jpg

Kudos to Sam V. IV & Ghostly for releasing these records. After ten years of Factory-style cash drops on uberpremium sleeve design for niche IDM shit, he deserves to have a runaway hit & this next SVIIB record probably is probably better poised to perform as such than anything Ghostly has put out since... Alpinisms?

the album is out on vagrant.

Both labels:

http://ghostly.com/releases/disconnect-from-desire

http://www.vagrant.com/artists/media/36-school_of_seven_bells?release_id=253-disconnect

...

hmm. maybe ghostly truly is INTERNATIONAL.

pillbox your DN is XD