Sinister: why this is important?

[duke of harringay]

Stuart Gardiner wrote:

> > In so many ways, Belle and Sebastian feel like
> the band I've been
> > waiting for for a decade, the fulfilment of
> all my pop dreams of the
> > perfect fusion of songs and beauty and youth
> and so on and on. I might
> > be being unfair but I have the highest hopes
> for them and I am desperate
> > they don't blow it, blow this unique position
> they've found themselves
> > in. They could be so important while taking a
> critical stance on the
> > tainted music industry. Or they could be
> another brilliant band playing
> > music that we love, by the rules.
>
> Important in what way? No band is ever going to
> change the way the music
> industry works, and frankly I don't see why they
> should.

no, but you might see why they should WANT to,
yes?  From a Political point of view...

> The important
> thing about music, the ONLY important thing for
> me, is what it sounds
> like.

well see my post about 'selling out to majors' for
part of my views on this one.  It's just i think
in amazingly different terms to you, and i think
that when you talk about art, you're NOT talking
about just the way it sounds, or looks, you're
inevitably going to be thinking about a host of
different factors, simply by the fact that your
life is not amazingly simplistic.  I agree that
for a moment you might be just thinking and
feeling 'it sounds fucking great', but after
that.. what?  If you just let it go, i dunno... i
don't think you can, because there's always the
moment, the fact of hearing it and feeling.
There's the scent of the sea, or the sunlight on
the autumn leaves, or the distant sound of
fireworks.  Anything.  Everything else in life is
intrinsically tied to your moment of that music,
and it's no longer 'just' the sounds of music.
And am i being pretentious?  I hope so :-)

> Now I don't particularly like having to wade
> through hoards of Take
> That / Spice Girls bandwagon-jumpers every time
> I turn on the radio; but
> the fact is that that is what people want to
> hear.

arguable one this.  because are we hearing what
'we' want to hear or are we hearing what media and
business want us to hear, or in other words what
they want us to buy?

> That's why I rarely
> listen to daytime radio.

well i just don't listen because i don't have the
time and frankly i'd rather listen to the sounds
of birds and traffic passing, or overheard
conversations :-)

> Personally I would rather hear more variety, but
>
> not just variety for the sake of it; I want
> variety so that I can find
> more music that I can love, music that moves me.

but you won't be moved by it so much if you hear
it on the 'populist' radio because it's no longer
difficult to find.  I maintain that part of the
beauty of the musics that 'we' like is the
relative obscurity, the fact that actually we
probably have to work pretty hard to get it, find
it, whatever.  If it's easy we often just don't
bother.  I don't mean this to sound snobbish or
whatever, it's just more to do with the thrill of
the expedition than the discovery itself. (and i'm
generalising of course!)

> I'm on the lookout for similar music in the hope
> that it may have the same
> effect on me.

ah, but this is what i found so special about B&S,
the very fact that i'd kind of given up hoping
that such music WOULD affect me in this way.  I
maintain that although the sonic qualities have a
lot to do with it, the thing that makes me feel
this way is actually indefinable.  I don't want to
be spiritual, but Harry Smith said, 'something was
directing it, it wasn't arbitrary, and there was
some kind of what you might call God'.  Well i
think maybe Stuart would go along with that, but i
dunno.  All i know is that there's this mythical
It that makes us each respond in some possibly
spiritual way to different sounds, and images.
And if we take it too literally we never find the
same effect.

> we'll get other bands trying to make similar
> (but probably not
> identical) music (maybe there are some already,
> they just haven't had the
> exposure yet which would surely come if B&S made
> it big); surely that has
> to be a good thing? After all, many bands have
> tries to copy the Smiths
> (Gene anyone?), but with various variations, and
> the result can't be all
> bad, can it?

or can it?  how many bands trailed along on the
coat-tails of the smiths?  how many were even
approaching any good?  how many made you feel the
way smiths did?  And yet they 'sounded' similar.
But they didn't have It.  Go on, try and define
what was different in very precise terms... (this
is where someone goes all scientifically musical
on me and lists thinsg like usage of minor chords
and f sharps and all sorts, to which i then go
'blah')

> hear all the material; but it does mean making
> things that are released
> as widely available as possible, and releasing
> as much as possible
> (including Tigermilk), and maybe even (shock
> horror) doing a decent number
> of gigs, including supporting other bands.

i like the idea of off-shoot things though, like
the limited Nurse With Wound/Stereolab single for
example.  I think it's important that bands don't
treat all their releases in the same way. As for
'supporting' other bands, well they did do the
dates with Tindersticks.

> Let us all go forth and spread the word - I'm
> sure most of us do already -
> about B&S, because then more and more people
> will get to hear these
> wonderful refrains, and we can spread a little
> happiness into the world.
> Let's make B&S popular. But then, that would be
> "selling out", wouldn't
> it?

you're painting people's definitions of the phrase
'selling out'.  Some people might see it like you
suggest they do, but others don't.  I'm out there
proclaiming the greatness and magic of Belle &
Sebastian as much as the next person, but i think
that 'selling out' would be to start giving
concessions to the media and record company
bosses, not spreading the word and getting people
to buy their records.  I think Tim misunderstood
about what i said about Tigermilk too, i was
saying that i could SEE that happening, not that i
wanted it to.  I was kind of being cynical,
assuming, unkindly perhaps, that b&s will end up
like our other hopes, capitulating to the record
company whims and wishes.  And assuming unduly i
hope...

> (Not even using words like homogenising...)

i always had a problem with that word!  it was
only recently that i started to get a grip on what
it meant.  Same with 'juxtaposition', i remember
when i was doing architecture at uni, just started
as a fresh faced first year, and someone was
saying 'the juxtaposition of forms' and i though
hey that sounds cool, so i said it too and i
didn't have a clue what it meant :-)  The i found
out and it all made sense.  I think i used a what
do you call it? A dictionary ;-)  Sorry for the
sarcasm there, it comes of too much teaching.

again, sorry for the length of this one folks.  Or
the two folks that read it.  Hi Tim.

keep the faith,

the duke


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