Search And Destroy: Belle And Sebastian

yeah, that's a great set of songs. similar to the stereolab ep collection, Oscillons from the Anti-Sun, in the pleasing way it offers well-known songs alongside relative obscurities, and yet it all flows well

barman was the first b&s record i bought, in high school, mainly off the enthusiastic pfork review. probably the best introduction to them i could've gotten, disc 1 has all the mystery and sweetness of the early records and disc 2 has many of the best examples of their playfully-arranged full-of-personality later sound

they're almost my vote for best band to listen to when you're sick

they're also*

My only gripe with Push Barman is the inferior version of The State I Am In

oh lord that's a great call xp

i actually think barman has the superior "state i am in," but it's the first one i heard

this is my fear, that people will hear that version and get used to it, for some reason this seems terribly wrong

arab strap was the first one i heard and all i've needed despite attempts to connect w/ the others, even if some of them are p good

xp at the time that's how most people would've heard it (as I did) because Dog On Wheels came out before Tigermilk was reissued. tbh I can't remember what the difference is

I didn't much like The Boy With The Arab Strap when it came out and I never listened to anything they did after that, did I miss anything? Oh, actually I did buy the Legal Man single. But that's it.

i think the life pursuit is kinda exhausting as an album but on an individual song basis it’s still p great

this is very otm, and i love that album

this was my favorite shirt in high school, and then someone STOLE it!

I still have that one! Didn't even make my top 3 B&S shirts tho, which is probably why it has remained in remarkably good nick.

1. Study At Stow with Belle & Sebastian (still got, faded)
2. BELLE & SEBASTIAN SUPPORT THE WORK OF THE CLYDESIDE HUNT SABOTEURS (still got, faded)
3. A Legal Man era skinnyfit ringer (STOLEN! by someone who was prolly only in it for the shirt, but I'd be too old and fat for that now anyway).

Whilst looking for those just now I also found the Bowlie Weekender one with Julie Driscoll, and "Rod And Emu: Welcome To Cambersands", presumably acquired at the same festival which, whilst maybe peripheral at best, still take me down memory lane to when this band was MY LIFE...

Going to rep for the Richard X remix of ‘I didn’t see it coming’, which turns something charming and messy into a neon lit eurodisco stomper.

Favorite band ever. I stayed with the all the way through Girls in Peacetime, but I've got a special place in my heart for all the stuff they released while they were still mysterious and wouldn't do photo shoots or interviews.
Sinister > Arab Strap > All the early EP's > Tigermilk > The Life Pursuit > Storytelling > Dear Catastrophe Waitress > Girls in Peacetime > Fold Your Hands > Write About Love

In Pitchfork doc on If You're Feeling Sinister, Stuart says that he knew, at the time he was writing them, that this was going to be his best batch of songs ever.

Storytelling is a great listen! And Arab Strap is underrated imo

I didn't realize anybody listened to the Gigi record, that's nice!

I forgot they did that Storytelling stuff. Fuck that director, I don't know who I like less, him or Neil LaBute.

I have not and will never get the love for Sinister, a weaker album than both Tigermilk and the first three EPs IMO.

it's because of all the incredible songs

Seeing Other People is good, Me & The Major too, the end of Like Dylan and the end of a few others too, actually the instrumentals at the end of the tracks are usually the best bits, but the songs themselves, I do not find to be incredible, sorry.

i prefer tigermilk slightly but it and sinister are about even imo. i didn’t get sinister for a very long time though, the songs took a while for some reason

the title track of sinister is maybe the best b&s song

B&S was the first band I learned about on the internet <3

Does not get better than the first side of Tigermilk for me, second side is good too except I don't care for the last two tracks.

To answer something from way upthread, The State I Am In was played almost every night by Mark & Lard on Radio 1 in 1995, between that and Sinister it was the only song of theirs I knew.

second side is good too except I don't care for the last two tracks.

*quietly moves “i don’t love anyone” to first place on tentative ballot*

it's great that so many people love them but nobody can agree on which tracks

We can probably agree that they are one of the few bands, like Led Zeppelin, who wrote a bunch of good songs but could still probably be well captured or defined by the first song on their first album.

*quietly moves “i don’t love anyone” to first place on tentative ballot*

― princess of hell (BradNelson), Monday, 26 November 2018 23:25 (twenty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

Tigermilk = an album culled from the first few EPs > Sinister >>> Arab Strap = Dear Catastrophe Waitress >>>>>>>

poll: which is better right now, this thread or POLLercoaster Ride - ILM Artist Poll #94 - Belle and Sebastian - Discussion/Campaigning Thread

Kind of insane how many ILXors love this band - are they the ultimate ILX band?

(They're a mystery to me, tbh)

i actually think barman has the superior "state i am in," but it's the first one i heard

same

xxp Are you, or have you ever been, a member of sinister?

I have not and will never get the love for Sinister, a weaker album than both Tigermilk and the first three EPs IMO.

I personally (PERSONALLY) think “Sinister” is an awful album, just the pits, and embodies some of the worst aspects of this band, as well as “twee-ness”/deliberate amateurism in general — just as surely as “Tigermilk” displays this band at its best, and embodies “twee-ness” / amateurism at its most charming and effective.

The naive drum crescendos and ducking French Horn solo on the opening track alone make me wish I could lash the album to a Wes Anderson Criterion Collection box set and launch the whole stinking package into the gnarliest tar pit on earth.

i bought Sinister on day of release due to hype having never heard a note the band ever recorded. It's one of the last things I remember buying that way (the other being the first Strokes album). can't imagine anyone thinking it's awful.

Kind of insane how many ILXors love this band - are they the ultimate ILX band?

― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Tuesday, November 27, 2018 1:23 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

When ILX first started, a lot of the first 'members' came from a B&S fan board which closed down.

(That right? A simplified version of what happened?)

the few bands, like Led Zeppelin, who wrote a bunch of good songs but could still probably be well captured or defined by the first song on their first album.
I feel a thread comin' on...

When ILX first started, a lot of the first 'members' came from a B&S fan board which closed down.

My memory of it is that someone on the Sinister mailing list referenced a (typically fine) bit of pop writing by T0m 3w1ng, and a few of us sought out his website, got in touch and started contributing to articles and discussions (and hanging out socially) and out of that came ILM. ILM probably would've happened without the Sinister contingent but they were in at the birth.

So, yeah, I'm not here without B&S. I met my future partner at a B&S gig in '97 and most of my social circle was drawn from the Sinister list when I moved to London in spring '98. It's quite hard to separate anything that's happened in my life in the last two decades from the moment I heard the Radcliffe session in '96. It set the ball rolling.

One day I might try and listen to those early records again (I've not heard anything since Pursuit) and see if I can get anything out of them. It's been a long time.

I think it was me who referenced Tom's essay but maybe I'm building up my own part.

Yes! I think it was you.

Wow that's awesome! Interesting to hear how it all began. Is Tom's essay available online anywhere?

Don't worry in 10 years time someone will make a documentary on ILX and all will be revealed.

Was it maybe this?
http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2000/07/belleseb/

(TBH, I don't know even recall whether Tom was writing about B&S in the article Alba linked).

I think it was a best of the 90s thing

Ah, ok.

Still, the above article does have this priceless line:
"Stuart Murdoch, in fact, knows the insides of a track better than anyone this side of Pan Sonic, and is house music’s greatest loss in our generation."

It was Stevie T -- he, characteristically, knew about Ewing's writing before anyone else, and he took me to meet Ewing in Notting Hill in, I think, May 2000. The Sinister / FT crossover started there.

In fact even before that, Stevie had written in praise of Ewing's writing in PAPERCUTS.

Now that does make it feel a long time ago.

I happened to be looking at ILX and on seeing that one of the Newest Answers was Michael Jones on a Belle & Sebastian thread, thought I might have fallen back in time by about 17 years.

Which would have been good.

Come on, Tim Roger!

I have a cold