Howdly doodly Sinisterinos First I just wondered if any of you are going to see Marine Research next Thursday (July 8th) at Stalag 13 in Philadelphia. It should be a good time...feel free to drop a mail if you are. I can't guarantee that you'll get felt up there as my subject header ominously predicts, but if you're looking for that kind of treatment, dress accordingly...:) (What???) Secondly re: Felt starting points. There are a few routes you could take. Felt can roughly be carved up into three categories: a) Jangly spindly guitar atmosphere period aka Maurice Deebank era (Crumbling The Antispetic Beauty, The Splendour of Fear) b) Jangly spindly guitar + keyboards period aka Maurice Deebank and Martin Duffy era (Ignite The Seven Cannons, The Strange Idols Pattern And Other Stories) c) Somewhat jangly guitar + heavy keyboards period aka Martin Duffy era (Forever Breathes The Lonely Word, Poem Of The River, Let The Snakes Crinkle Their Heads To Death (instr.), Train Above The City (instr.), Pictorial Jackson Review, Me And A Monkey On The Moon, Space Blues, and I'm sure I'm missing something else) Categories B and C yield some interesting similarities to Belle and Sebastian's sound, but A is my personal favorite. Somewhat like the Cocteau Twins without so much chorus and delay, and slightly "worse" (more like more unique!) vocals. However it could get a little too sparse and depressing for you (I believe they could gloom it up with the best of 'em back then), and things get poppier towards the end. You could try period B for a bit of both and decide which way you want to go. This is probably best summed up with _The Strange Idols Pattern_ and _Ignite The Seven Cannons_. The CD (can't remember which album, since they're both on the one disc) contains "Primitive Painters", a very epic slow groove song with the Cocteau Twins' Liz Fraser (Robin Guthrie produced) that's amazing, even if the guitars get a little too processed under Guthrie's heavy hand. Don't be too shocked at Lawrence's voice though. That's probably the make-or-break element to the band, 'cause the music otherwise is pretty enough and not quite as distinctive, relatively speaking. He's not exactly always in tune but you can hear passion and drama in his voice. He don't sound nothin' like Stuart, that's for sure. More like Lou Reed + Bob Dylan + David Byrne + Bryan Ferry + ? Actually I take that back. Maurice Deebank's guitar (as has been discussed before) was as distinctive as Lawrence's voice, just more in tune and waaaay more articulate. _Me and A Monkey_ is a bit country (not that there's anything wrong with that) and a bit synthy (bad clav sounds...but good Moog sounds, very ahead of their time) and bit more convetional, song-structure-wise. Still good though! And it has some deliciously creamy pedal steel on "I Can't Make Love To You Anymore." This post probably fits well under the "Too Helpful" category heading, doesn't it? Well, there are probably nine million other Felt-heads here, so please feel free to add or correct or elaborate. You may find yourself born in the back of a mobile shack, Xavier BXK M o t h e r , M a y bkim0@dept.english.upenn.edu I S l e e p http://www.english.upenn.edu/~bkim0 W i t h D a n g e r ? X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". WWW: http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "jelly-filled danishes" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+