A Thread For School of Seven Bells Love!

Do you always need to be surprised by music?

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.

*listens to 3 songs*

o fuk there's snoopy AND gnipgnop

...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.

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.

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!

"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.

Last night...

What a time for YouTube to get blocked! I shall have to watch at lunch.

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. :-(

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.

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.

But, subsequent listens have changed that opinion.

It does seem like a grower! And there's nothing wrong with that, for sure.

half asleep is the best!

this is the first song in forever that i have wanted to read the lyrics to

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.

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.

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.

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.

Pictures, pictures, pictures...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3367/3207192146_ca6852eec6.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3398/3206415653_cd45c7c48f.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3259/3206649341_dd0676856d.jpg

Is it wrong to be interested in a band based on three pics uploaded?

(He asks, as if Kate is going to say yes...)

Inaccurate, if positive, reviews always seem to poison a record for me.

I loved this until people started sticking their perceptions on it.

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.

Why do you play these games on this board? They're hurtful. Stop provoking me. :(

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.

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.

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.

It's easy to say that while LJ is banned.

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.

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?

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.)

re: SVIIB, 'iamundernodisguise' is probably my favourite - i love it when the vocals slip so smoothly into a different key.

Sounds like Dido to me

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.

tbh the comparison just makes both them and dido sound better

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

when you suddenly start hearing gorgeous harmonies in dido songs it means you're getting old and boring.

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.

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.

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.

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).

Throwing Muses are kind of folk or roots influenced

????

i can't imagine you've really heard any

Ya TMs have some plenty harmonious tuneful bits! I dunno abt comparisons to these guys but thats because ive only heard the Guthrie vers of "My Cabal" and ive a feeling that isnt representative of them?

I spent the morning of New Year's Day listening to this while making omelettes and waffles. It was a good morning.

No, the Guthrie version really isn't representative.

I made the TM comparison mostly on the basis of early demos - songs like Tartomundeo and the first version of White Elephant Coat had a much stronger TM vibe in terms of instrumentation, but the album got much more electronic.

But the vocals arrangements *do* remind me of TM, a lot of those kind of sparkling harmonies that they hit. And the way that one will take lead and the other will kind of wind a harmonic phrase around the other - and then they switch.

As a long term Throwing Muses fan I gotta say - I really like this record.

Really loving this, like finding a record that's been slap bang in the middle of my collection for years that I'd somehow never got round to hearing. A big melting pot of all my favourite bits of lots of other things. Surprised there aren't more comparisons (at least here) with the Cocteau Twins as I hear them sprinkled all over this album.

ha ha ha ha ha! I saw them last night, and I was wondering to myself whether boy-unit School of Seven Bells would count as a Dirty Drone Rock Boy. Now we know.

On balance, I am underwhelmed by this band. Live, they sound a bit too much like a Curve tribute act, while on record they seem a bit like weedy electronica. But I will persevere.

Benjamin Curtis = so total DDB katebait that if you looked up DDB in the dictionary, there's probably a picture of him there. Oh yes.

I am seeing them tomorrow! Exciterated! (Well, hopefully - my friend knows I love them so so much that she says that she will sell me her ticket even if they forget to guest list me as the show is, amazingly and happily enough, totally sold out.)

Live, they sound a bit too much like a Curve tribute act

SHIT, I wish I'd been able to see them in Glasgow last night ;)

Onimo sums up the album beautifully: it's so Grimly-tastic that I find it hard to believe I haven't been listening to it since I was 16.

the show is, amazingly and happily enough, totally sold out

oh no! i didn't realise they were playing as have been in deadline-induced hermitude...do you know who's doing the PR kate? could you email me if you do? i'd love to see them live...

A proper video:

Though, to be honest, I'd never associated SVIIB with being stuck in traffic.

SO. GOOD. LIVE.

CAN'T SPEAK. TOO HAPPY. SO GREAT.

i was just thinking about reviving this thread a few days ago after "Scavenger" came up on shuffle

same, miss them a lot

Still very much do.

The Conga Room here in LA recently closed after a long run. The club is legendary as a Latin music venue but occasionally would have an out-of-place booking - including this spectacular 2011 show with Benjamin in full guitar-hero mode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5IRzQMG8zs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGR9oiMOpMc

I believe that is the amazing Chris Colley on drums (...and hard to tell but is he also triggering the electronics?)

i was just thinking about reviving this thread a few days ago after "Scavenger" came up on shuffle

same, miss them a lot

― Roz, Tuesday, March 19, 2024 11:31 PM (one year ago)

yep