How We Get Into Things
I'm interested in how people get into music, film, TV, theatre, books, etc. Often (especially if it's obscure) there is a story behind it, or a memory, or a string of other things.
For example, lately I've been listening to Rip Rig & Panic a lot (one of Neneh Cherry's pre-solo groups). I first heard them in an episode of "The Young Ones"; it was ( Read more... )
For example, lately I've been listening to Rip Rig & Panic a lot (one of Neneh Cherry's pre-solo groups). I first heard them in an episode of "The Young Ones"; it was ( Read more... )
In september of 2001 my friend jess visited and we went to see belle and sebastian in LA. While in Tempe we picked up copies of Venus magazine with Quasi on the cover. In the magazine was a review of 2 shannon wright cd's and 2 little pictures. I had never heard of this person but she looked somehow really interesting. I didn't think much of it for a while. bout a month later or so my friend sent me a letter recommending me some songs to download, 2 of them were shannon wright songs, so I tried them out. They were particularly affecting in some weird way and I started playing 'dirty facade' over and over and over. AT that time I had just had a string of horrible incidents relating to the relationship I got out of and I was extremely depressed and whatever she was saying was just working for me at that point. I promptly went out and bought her more recent album. I listened to it quite a lot for some months while taking sleeping pills and crying in bed because I was barely functional, until the memory association with sleeping pills made it difficult to listen to again.
later a friend lent me her 2 earlier albums and I got more obsessed and went out and bought one of them. another friend doing freelance music writing had a gig interviewing shannon for the local college paper and she had free tickets to the sleater-kinney/shannon show which I had noted with some interest while visiting tucson (more so for her than for s/k though i didn't mind seeing them either.) she offered to take me on her free journalist pass. the day of the show I was not feeling happy or well or awake and I considered not going at all, but at the last minute thought oh what the hell. so we went to the show. and it would be hard to describe exactly what happened inside my brain during the hour or whatever that she was on stage but it ended with me feeling this burning need to personally thank her for what she was doing. and now I have seen her nine times in seven cities. thank you.
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how did you get into belle and sebby?
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i like to compare myself to other b&s fans, because i'm a pretty early fan for an american. ;) i like to make it a competition, basically. "ha ha, i got into them before you, neener neener." i have this weird ownership over them (b&s) whenever i talk to "newer" fans... LOL. i'm horrible.
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it's unfortunate, but i've somewhat lost interest, too... when i do listen to them it's usually their early stuff- the lazy jane box set, tigermilk... sinister was the first i heard of them so that holds a lot of memories... and i do like their newer stuff (fishyclap, nice ;)), but not nearly as much...
i had a conversation with my psych prof about them, because she has a similar take on them, and we both got into the decemberists because they were recommended to us as b&s fans. and both of our "fanness" of the decemberists has skyrocketted, particuarly with picaresque, and we see them as a band that's definitely getting better with time. whereas b&s is definitely not. i mean and obviously they've been around for longer, and the line-up change and all that- when fishyclap came out i just thought that maybe it was a fluke, this change, but then catastrophe came out and it became an undeniable pattern. i'm not even saying it's not good, i just like the old b&s better. :)
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I wish I knew where it started with their decline, I think Murdoch let too many others have a hand in the soup, I really strongly disliked "Chickfactor" and that Spaceboy whatever song on Arab Strap despite liking most of the album quite well. ANd Catastrophe Waitress... I dont' even know what to say about that, what I have heard of it sounded like some alternate universe charicature of the band or something. I couldn't get into it at ALL. I still like Sinister and Tigermilk and the first EP's, and some other scattered songs along the way. It does seem like the Decemberists will have more staying power. It's really a shame. a damn shame.
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i did like stuart david's stuff (spaceboy), not as much of course, though he is very different stylistically, and so in a way his leaving to do more looper wasn't so bad. i'm all about looper.
and then of course, my pet-peeve... beyond the sunrise!? i shudder at the memory.
dcw has some gems, or almost-gems if you're comparing it to b&s history. when listening to it i kinda have to forget who it's coming from, you know? otherwise i get nostalgic and will just change it to the early stuff. :) but if i'm in more of an upbeat kind of mood it can be nice. and there's a riff in the last track, "stay loose", that always gets to me. and "piazza new york catcher" or whatever is nice cuz it's more their old style.
do you like the other lps (outside of the 3 lazy jane box set ones) that i don't know as well? like legal man, modern rock song, waking up to us?
it is a shame about b&s, but i guess all things have their place, right? maybe it's kinda how i feel about abfab- the newer series will compare to the original 3, because it was just so set in a particular time period. there are of course things that transcend time, but b&s doesn't seem to be one of those things. someone describe them to me as "extending their adolesence as far as it could go" and maybe now, they're all pushing or have past 30, it's officially stretched. ;)
that also does seem to be a phenomenon of people that start projects like that when they're younger- whereas the decemberists aren't as young (i don't know how old they are, but not one of them looks less than late 20s).
blah blah blah!!!
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I like the other Ep's too for the most part, including waking up to us, modern rock song... legal man not so much, it had that godawful instrumental on it... and shockingly, i really like "Jonathon David" and the other songs on that one. OK I also like "wandering alone"... with those two Stevie sort of redeems himself, as much as I despise Chickfactor and The Wrong Girl (UGHH!!) And I am a fan of some of the Gentle Waves songs too.
AbFab has a new season??
I don't remember Beyond The Sunrise... was that on Fishyclap? I really dislike "family tree" and a couple other songs on there that I can't remember. Oh, The Wrong Girl. I hate that goddamn song. WHen I found out they were putting it on an album, having already had more than my fill of live recordings, I was like NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! DAMN YOU STEVIE!!!!!! It has a nice chorus but that's about it.
I can take or leave Looper, I suppose... I saw them live in DC but dont' remember much about it, but I have a picture of Stuart David with lighted glasses on.
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