I can't be the only one that is pretty bored by the constant comparisons to Nick Drake, they are misleading at best.
lazy and ill-informed is what i'd say, but hey!
OK there is the plaintive vocals but the music is very different. I hate it when B&S are described as 'folky' too
um, i know what you mean, but there is nonetheless a folk tradtion in the songs, i think particularly in the narrative structure of many songs.
The first thing I thought of when I heard Mayfly (for instance) was 'Drumbeat for Baby' by Weekend. Have B&S ever mentioned Weekend???
not as far as i know, but then i suspect that Stuart Murdoch is at least familiar with the work of Alison Statton and Stuart Moxham, in their many guises. i suspect that, Stuart being the age he is and of the things he has mentioned like Felt, he is most proabably aware of things such as YMG and also a lot of the mid 80s indie groups like, say the great lost Emily, another group with whom i sometimes think B&S could be likened, if you wanted to do such things. I would really like to know, however, if he's familiar with the group McCarthy (Tim Gane of Stereolab was the guitarist, and they were members of the RCP at the time - Revolutionary Communist PArty for those who don't know... sounds rather quaint now doesn't it?!) because 'la pastie...' sounds like a McCarthy title if ever there was one! (they had a great song called 'we are all bourgeouis now', in fact!). McCarthy played in Glasgow quite regularly, and i wonder if Stuart was there?
Felt are mentioned, and at least I can kinda agree with that, though only early Felt, and only in a Durutti Column sort of way. Nothing past 'crumbling...' I would have thought.
i dunno, i get the feeling that Stuart was bit of a Lawrence obsessive, which i can entirely understand (been there, done that!), so i'd say that the whole Felt experience is important, rather than just the sounds they made. The B&S approach to the whole Pop deal has so far been very Lawrence-like. A bit odd, perverse even, certainly playing by slants on rules. And of course you can draw influences back and take Vic Godard who was a massive influence on LAwrence, and also on the POstcard thing, with which Stuart must have been familiar with... You could go on forever making assumptions, but without talking to the guy you'll never know. okay, i've rambled enough. the duke -- Tangents On-Line http://www.virtual-pc.com/tangent/ Tangents On-Paper: PO Box 102, Exeter, EX2 4YL, UK tangent@mail.zynet.co.uk ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister@majordomo.net -----------------------------------------------------------------------