saint etienne

saw them last night in L.A., fantastic show. that band is *great*, and very very tight. I am always amazed at how packed their shows are and how enthusiastic the crowd always is, without fail.

Yeah I was just thinking something similar this morning -- for a band that has never once truly broken through on any meaningful level over here beyond the randomly subcultural, hopping labels like crazy etc, they not only have a dedicated fanbase but almost a kinda crazy one, and the SF area definitely has a vocal and loud 'middle-aged bald/balding gay dudes with beards' contingent out in full force based on last year's show and this year's. The amount of homemade shirts and things at the Saturday show was notable -- one guy came dressed in a formal suit with _Home Counties_-style stickers and patches on him, someone else had "Saint Etienne/Home Counties" in the font stitched up on the back of his denim jacket etc. And the merch line was *insane* -- stretched back into the venue and then curled around again on the floor. Rather glad I got there before most, didn't have to wait long (and I rather assume they sold out fully of the 150 allotted vouchers for that night).

at the LA show i spotted a guy with Home Counties-font patches sewed into his vest bearing the names of other SE songs, like PALE MOVIE

the band was absolutely wonderful and yeah, super-tight. debsey got a huge reaction at this show too, the crowd actually started chanting DEB-SEY! DEB-SEY! after sarah introduced her. ‘good humor’ isn’t really my fave SE but it was still a treat to hear that material live - “been so long” sounded really fabulous, and i was psyched to hear them play “goodnight jack” and “mr. donut” (the latter of which made me tear up a bit). and as ever, i loved that a sizable contingent of the audience was 40-something-ish gays

didn’t get the pre-release voucher, and i guess they must have run out of shirts after the last gig because i didn’t see any at the merch stand, sadly

merch stand was all vouchers and $1 buttons. I had heard from a source that the show was definitely not selling out, but the place was pretty packed in the end. Coincidentally my companion was a middle aged bald bearded gay dude, since my w1fe had to bail on account of a cold.

I told Ned that he and I had too much hair for that show. He said we had both too much and too little, given that we were beardless.

the band was absolutely wonderful and yeah, super-tight. debsey got a huge reaction at this show too, the crowd actually started chanting DEB-SEY! DEB-SEY! after sarah introduced her.

Yeah huge loud cheers for her as well. She really is the not-so-secret weapon and the polite frugs she does are amazing.

I told Ned that he and I had too much hair for that show. He said we had both too much and too little, given that we were beardless.

Yeah I was definitely...atypical.

So, Bob isn't with them? I saw him posting on Twitter about some movie that was on 'Talking Pictures' so..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L04zUYuBuh8

https://wiaiwya.bandcamp.com/album/camel-coat-little-chef

20th anniversary of Good Humor show at the British Library on Sunday was amazing! A few people were slagging off the sound quality afterwards, but seemed fine to me (although was right at front by the speaker stack). Not a space designed to ever have gigs anyway. Genuinely surprised not to see any [at least former] ilxors among the crowd (maybe some went on Saturday).

Great dj set from Lawrence to kick things off - does he only have one set of clothes? Maybe he has lots of those blue & white caps.
Delightfully obscure naturally - the three most recognisable tracks he played were Sheena Easton's Machinery, Argent's Hold Your Head Up and Trainspotters' High Rise.

Current band are awesome. Drummer (whose name I didn't catch) and Gerard Johnson on keys dressed like Austin Powers. Bennett brothers were good, Debsey astounding - provided triangle, shaker, cowbell and melodica as well as backing vox.

Setlist:

Good Humor:
Woodcabin
Sylvie
Split Screen
Mr. Donut
Goodnight Jack
Lose That Girl
The Bad Photographer
Been So Long
Postman
Erica America
Dutch TV

Hit List:

Hill Street Connection
Hug My Soul
Take It All In
Magpie Eyes
Camel Coat
Like a Motorway
Tonight
Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Nothing Can Stop Us

Encore:
Hobart Paving
You're in a Bad Way
He's on the Phone

And my copies of Mondo Casino and Surrey in hand. A fine thing!

How is 'Surrey?'

Asleep At the Wheels of Steel and Foxbase Beta are the next vinyl editions being released.

I have lots of spare St Etienne ltd editions, looking for the Tonight 12" if anyone has one and wants to trade for something else.

Hey that is the one with our (Club Clique’s) remix on the B-side. It’s one of the better things we did I think, if I do say so myself.

Asleep At the Wheels of Steel and Foxbase Beta are the next vinyl editions being released.

― omar little,

That's great news about Foxbase Beta. I was hoping they'd do that one. Any idea when it's supposed to be coming out?

Ok, it looks like the pre-order is going up next Wednesday. Cool!

Reminder - preordering now

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DyKBVeyXQAEa9t5.jpg

holy SHIT

The RSD2019 single is now on Spotify and I assume other streaming services:
https://open.spotify.com/album/2LhbBZHNtRb8lDynsqAS72?si=QLq61U6YS-OhnOoL-9HU-w

New vinyl pressing of Misadventures Of Saint Etienne with free signed Christmas card and CD available to pre-order from Friday here…https://t.co/vs8sc8177b pic.twitter.com/aGi2FA23iB

— Saint Etienne (@bobpetesarah) November 19, 2019

The cd is two new tracks

no Christmas gigs then?

Misadventures is the last of the vinyl LPs I need from Saint Etienne, so i'm so happy this was announced. I didn't want to pay $$$ for a copy on Discogs.

Available to order now. Their Greedbag site is being a bit buggy this morning (extra traffic?) so you may need to refresh a few times before you can bag stuff.

Woke up super early, just in time for them to pause the sale for US folks like me to have a chance to buy. Doh! Oh well, hopefully it doesn't go live during my commute to work.

Part of a new song on their Instagram, seemingly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hau8CF-jzs

I've Been Trying To Tell You out 10 september

Music Again
Pond House
Fonteyn
Little K
Blue Kite
I Remember It Well
Penlop
Broad River

they've described it as their first sample-based album since So Tough

One longs for Sound of Water/Places to Visit part 2 and maybe this will be it, approx? Lush textures and wordless cooing is the most gratifying StEt mode and it did feel like they had decisively stepped away from this sort of thing over the past 3 albums, so, fingers crossed

Imagery and video is very Dazed magazine 🤔

Their website has details of the various versions. The 2cd Good Humor was easy to find as a Seattle fan, but missed out on the original Words & Music 2cd drop. Hoping for a similar 2cd version with outtakes, but pre-ordered the DVD/CD version. Hearing Jane Weaver's "Solarised" has me stoked for new St. E.

Waaaahh...so much good stuff on their website sold out/out of stock...it's not fair!

Fell off the wagon after Finisterre (which I really liked) but the teasing of this new one has me intrigued.

omg

yes

new song sounds great! new album cover with shirtless dude putting girl in a headlock is less awesome

he's putting his arm around her...?

pond house sounds goood, perfect vibes technopolis otm

Headlock wtf

I don't care for it

Oh, it's a Dualdisc!

So, CD on one side, DVD on the other...

how did they find these 20 year old models lmao

Although the pictures don't suggest that... (re: DualDisc)

haha, Dualdisc™️ releases ended in 2009 nobody manufactures them anymore

That's what I thought, but you wouldn't put it past them..

(it says "dual disc" format, but)

I'm not totally sold on these new songs. The opener really feels like a slog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWs4uXfI8KE

How dare you (have a perfectly fine and valid individual opinion that might still be wrong somehow but anyway :-D ).

Is there a remix disc? That was the best part of the last one.

St Etienne without bangers seems wrong.