man, i'm excited. the magnetic fields are finally coming to olympia. i thought stephin merritt had decided he never wanted to play anywhere but the east coast. and i'm being careful not too expect too much, as he's a reputation for being a little less than polite sometimes, and it seems totally reasonable that the live versions of the songs might not have the oomph of get lost (by far my favorite MF album). but i haven't been this excited about a show for a while now. also, for what it's worth, sleater-kinney covered 'more than a feeling' on, i believe, the 'welcome to villa villa kula' compilation. seamus
-----Original Message----- From: brad [SMTP:parachute@earthlink.net] Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 1998 1:54 AM To: sinister@majordomo.net Subject: Sinister: subject
it's 4:40 a.m. here in georgia and i just drove three hours from atlanta to get back home and i'm tired, but i'm such a sad little fuck that i had to check my messages before konkchoo land.
so i'll go ahead and fill you in.....duke, pay close attention.
i would've posted this to the magnetic fields list, but they seem to be a bunch of pretentious farts, so i'd rather let ya'll hear about it.
i just got back from the best damn show in years in the best damn club i've ever been to. i'm speaking of magnetic fields and damon and naomi and the wonderul wonderful great local band, seely. seely was a bit of a surprise. i have their albums cause i know the drummer from when he worked at this record store called wuxtry. but i had never seen them live. they were fucking amazing. they were layin down grooves that would make stereolab want to pack it in. i'm gonna have to go back and listen to those albums some more. they're on too pure if anyone's interested.
then, damon and naomi. ahhhhh. i had never seen them live either. one word.......magical. damon on acoustic, naomi on bass and sometimes this weird little organ that was kind of like an accordion except you didn't hold it. she had to keep pumping this thing in the back i guess to send air for the notes. they didn't play 1969, but they did play laika and the first song off the new album that i can't remember the name of and this car climbed mt. washington. but they didn't play 1969. oh well....can't win em all.
and then the man with the master plan.....stephin merritt. i had seen them twice before, once in d.c. when they weren't that great, once in atlanta last year when they played for three hours and it was the best show i had ever been to. both times the setup was two guitars, cello, drums. a far cry from the electronics of the albums. this time however, there were no drums. claudia was on piano, stephin on guitar, that cello guy, and then the other dude was playing a banjo. yes, you heard it...a banjo. but it worked really well. there wasn't as much friendly banter from stephin this time as last time, but i didn't expect it. they played about seven or eight new songs along with lots of other stuff. and if the the songs on the new album sound anything near as good as they do live, we're gonna be witnessing history in the making (not that "holiday" and "charm of the highway strip" weren't...they were also). there's one that blew me away where the chorus is "i've been kissing this bottle wishing it was you". they even played "the tiny goat" off the gothic archies thing. the gothic archies stuff works much better live than on cd in my opinion. and stephin was actually hitting some falsetto notes. when he sang "josephine" off of the distant plastic trees album, he actually did the high part on the lyric "science fiction about you" just like the girl who sang it did. he also got his voice lower than i had ever heard it on one of the new songs. it sounded like he swallowed a foghorn. i saw about three people go up to the merchandise booth and ask which cd they should get. they all walked away with "charm". there was even this drunk fratboy who was asking me about them saying he had never heard them, but "this is the best shit i've ever heard".......makes me think maybe people aren't so bad after all.
oh yeah, and they covered "more than a feeling" by boston. i couldn't take the stupid grin off my face.
i'm off to sleep. -brad ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". . To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or . "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net" . List rules, FAQ etc., http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . >>> B&S new LP worldwide release 7th September, tour news etc. at <<< . >>> http://www.majordomo.net/sinister/news.html <<< . Nee, nee mun pish etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -
. This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". . To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or . "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net" . List rules, FAQ etc., http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . >>> B&S new LP worldwide release 7th September, tour news etc. at <<< . >>> http://www.majordomo.net/sinister/news.html <<< . Nee, nee mun pish etc. -----------------------------------------------------------------------