A Thread For School of Seven Bells Love!

Surely you mean 'not digging ASDIG'

our own dearly departed Fluffy Bear just turned me onto School of Seven Bells this week; pretty cool stuff I intend to investigate further

theyre playing the paradise in like 3 weeks fyi

I'm enjoying the new ASDIG so far, but then again I have almost infinite capacity for that sort of looped ethereal girl singer thing. It's a bit less melodic and a bit more droning than the last one, but hey, I'm a dirty dronerock girl and not Geir, you know.

however, if you live anywhere near any of those tourdates above ^^^^ GO AND SEE SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS. They're even better live than they are on record.

What Kate said, it's v much another level live, so if you like the studio stuff, Dan, definitely go to the Boston show.

FB said the same

Dan, seriously - if you don't like the show, I will personally refund yr cash via paypal. They're one of the best bands I've seen in years.

Also, if you don't wear earplugs, you are insane. LOUD band.

i just want to stare at claudia

daylight's for the birds used to share a rehearsal space with my old band so i used to see her a lot. no more :(

Claudia's lovely. I have a girl-crush on her myself. Hell, I have a crush on ALL of them.

Been completely KILLING it tonight.

have they learned how to pronounce "cabal" yet

The evening summarized:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2422/3986766606_38c36ef6af.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3468/3986022421_31462deb7b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2557/3986784906_e09ae6e6de.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3431/3986029737_11d1eff215.jpg

Have I mentioned how FREAKING JEALOUS I am of you?

What a killer bill.

It was pretty great! I am now sort of awake.

Photos

Blog post

Yay.

Glad to see Warpaint getting some love around here. We were one of the openers for them last year and are just terrific live.

Speaking of Warpaint, I see on iTunes that their mini-album came out this week! Hurrah! d/l-ing now.

A report from the field:

School of Seven Bells show a couple hours ago was holyshitamazing. I've caught their show 2 or 3 times before and it was great, yes, but went into tonight's thing expecting more of the same. So they were 30 min late to the stage... "My Cabal" came and went as song #1, it was enjoyable and sounded great (glad that long soundcheck was put to good use). So that was that; I was expecting them to breeze through "Fast Asleep," "Disguise," "Connjur" and the rest on autopilot, pretty but predictable.

Nope. Song 2 was brand new, same with 3, 4, 5... All a BIG progression from Alpinisms, waaaayyy wayy better (and I say this with Alpinisms being one of my most played, and favorite, albums of the past few years).

The new songs are more confident, less fleeting and the vocal interplay has been really pushed forward. They still do the dual vocals thing but I dare say it's improved, been spotlighted at the front of each song, more complex harmonies, just absolutely gorgeous. Meanwhile Ben Curtis has gone more in a Kevin Shields direction, guitar parts less Cocteau ambient-wash, more muscular, straight out of Medicine's "5ive" or "Aruca" era stuff, blasts of feedback stabbing between Spector-y vocal harmonies. Song tempos are all faster, easier to dance to; they've kept the drum machine but added a live fourth member who compliments it well. First new song had me floored, almost at tears, just incredibly beautiful and absolutely the right direction for their sound to go next.

Watch out... This new album is really gonna be something to fuck with.

― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Friday, March 19, 2010 9:54 PM

OK that made my evening.

man that just sounds fantastic. I've never seen these guys live, but after reading this & Ned's blog post (linked to above), I will certainly go out of my way to, given the opportunity.

alpinisms continues to be vastly rewarding.

The new live drummer was great, btw; he let the drum machine hold its own, didn't overdo it with the drum fills or go Bonham all on that shit. Not sure if it's been noted here on ILM, or elsewhere (or everywhere) but the thing that kills the Secret Machines live show is their hulking gorilla of a drummer who just pounds the fucking shit outta his skins without any hint of subtlety, skill or texture; it's depressing. I was really worried when the SVIIB live drummer sat down that this was gonna be the same thing, given the Curtis connection to Secret Machines, but I'm pleased to say the drummer made the songs sound "bigger" while letting the drum machine do its thing appropriately. Same style, but a bit more stadium-sized now. And that's fine with me; these guys deserve to be huge, and the new drummer gives the songs some rhythmic muscle that will be needed as they move on to bigger venues.

Huh, I thought the Secret Machines drummer guy was the other reason everyone listened to the band in the first place (the first reason being Ben of course).

Ned OTM x10.

OMG this excites me in ways I can't even begin to express!

psyched

Via Pfork:

New Release: School of Seven Bells: Disconnect From Desire

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/bells.jpg

Artist: School of Seven Bells
Album: Disconnect From Desire
Release Date: July 13
Label: Vagrant/Ghostly International

Tracklist:

01 Windstorm
02 Heart Is Strange
03 Dust Devil
04 I L U
05 Babelonia
06 Joviann
07 Cammarilla
08 Dial
09 Bye Bye Bye
10 The Wait

Notes: New LP from this New York dream-pop trio, made up of former members of On!Air!Library! and the Secret Machines. Produced by band member Benjamin Curtis.

Please oh please let track 9 be an *NSYNC cover.

lmfao

Hahaha

Anyway, v. cool. This will rule.

Very good news. Love the debut.

Oh wow, awesomeness. I have a demo of Cammarilla somewhere, great to hear it finally reach the light of day.

This is likely to be my album of the year, I'm guessing!

hyped

"ilu"!!! <3

trying to imagine SVIIB reading ONTD now

Here we GO:

http://pitchfork.com/news/38814-new-school-of-seven-bells-windstorm

Interesting addition to the Vagrant line-up, thats for sure.

The Echo, eh? Might be able to make that...

Oh yes oh yes oh yes!

The Scala? Damn. They moving up in the world.

Sounds less etherial, more pop. But god yes it's yummy.

::does twirls of happiness::

Found this one on YouTube, also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDz9XuVLYLI

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