Sinister: washington city paper review

[Damon Seils]

Hi, you cutie.

For the archives...The following review of Tigermilk, Up A Tree, the DC
Looper gig, and the Gentle Waves appeared in this week's issue of the
Washington City Paper (former haunting ground of Miss Pam Berry, and
current home to other listees too, I believe). Enjoy...

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HTTP://WWW.GLASGOWHOLIDAY.COM/FAQS
by Glenn Dixon

   -------
   Tigermilk
   Belle and Sebastian
   Matador

   Up a Tree
   Looper
   Sub Pop

   Looper
   At the Black Cat, July 22

   The Green Fields of Foreverland
   The Gentle Waves
   Jeepster
   -------

If you're on this Web page, you're probably kind of new to the coolest,
prettiest band in the world, Belle and Sebastian, so I'll try and bring
you up to speed before you start pestering all the old fans. Maybe a
friend of yours has If You're Feeling Sinister (the red one) or The Boy
With the Arab Strap (the green one), but you should get them yourself.
Here goes:

1. Who are Belle and Sebastian?
	Belle and Sebastian are characters in an old French TV show about a boy
and his dog, but the Belle and Sebastian we care about are:

Stuart Murdoch (vocals/guitar)
Sarah Martin (violin)
Stevie Jackson (guitar/vocals)
Chris Geddes (keyboards)
Stuart David (bass/vocals)
Richard Colburn (drums/percussion)
Isobel Campbell (cello/vocals)
Mick Cooke (trumpet/French horn)

2. Where are they from?
	Glasgow, Scotland (where we got the name for the site). They got
together for a school project in a music-business class at Stow College
in 1996. That's how they put out their first album, Tigermilk. The class
put out 1,000 copies on vinyl. I've heard of copies going for $800, but
I don't know if I believe that. I got a bootleg CD for around $20, and
it has the B-sides from their 1997 EPs on it. Lots of people have it on
tape. (News about this record later!)

3. What are their influences?
	Everybody says Nick Drake, Tindersticks, Donovan, Love, the Smiths, and
the Velvet Underground, and some people say the Go-Betweens, Jarvis
Cocker, and Momus, but they don't really sound like anybody else. They
aren't as *serious* as Tindersticks and Nick Drake (isn't he a bit of a
bore?) or as trippy-dippy as Love and Donovan. They don't play anything
near as loud as "White Light/White Heat," they have way more melody than
Pulp and the Go-Bs, and they aren't such big wiseasses like Momus that
they're afraid to mean what they're singing about.

4. Which is B&S's best album?
That's Sinister, their second out of three. I'm pretty sure all the
songs are Stuart M.'s, and he's the best songwriter. His songs are witty
and smart, always beautiful, sometimes sad or scary. His darker lyrics
can be a bit like Morrissey's, but he isn't so stuck on himself. You
know how when you listen to a really good record a lot, first you have
one favorite song, then another, then a different one? Sinister's like
that. Leave it in the changer for a few weeks and just about all the
songs will be your favorites. He writes a lot about school and
relationships, as well as death and stuff from church. He actually sings
in a choir (I think he also cleans up the church and they give him his
apartment for free or something), but he says he doesn't follow any
particular organized religion.

5. What's all this he-goes-with-boys/she-goes-with-girls stuff?
		I dunno. There's several songs about it: "Seeing Other People" on
Sinister, "The State I Am In," "Expectations," "She's Losing It," "Mary
Jo" on Tigermilk. A couple of these mention school, so maybe it's the
British boarding school thing, but I don't really think so. People get
uptight about it. Look up Sinister on amazon.com and "A music fan from
Tokyo, Japan" says, "I like Belle and Sebastian. This album is great. I
am not gay." Maybe he just shouldn't worry about it.

6. Where can I get a copy of Tigermilk?
	You can buy it--even if you don't have a trust fund! It just got
reissued by Matador. A friend of mine called othermusic.com last week,
and the guy on the phone said it was Belle and Sebastian week there.
Everyone was ordering Tigermilk. I just got my copy at Vinyl Ink, and
it's great. The sound is much better than the CD bootleg. If you don't
have it yet, you should. The band already had their sound together early
on, and Stuart M. sings about all the things he sings about on Sinister,
sounding sweet and fragile without being wimpy. The songs gallop along
just like you like with that cooled-downed Loaded feel. Some people
don't like "Electronic Renaissance"--they say it sounds too early-'80s,
but I think they are just getting ready for Arab Strap's "Sleep Around
the Clock," which is their Another Given World moment. The black metal
pole in my basement rings in the same key as "The State I Am In" :)

7. What are some of the other bands members of Belle and Sebastian are in?
	They've played in lots of bands and on a lot of people's records,
including Mojave 3, Ex-Cathedra, Polarbear, Hefner, Snow Patrol, Camera
Obscura, and the famous Arab Strap. Check out their Web site from the
links page if you want to see who did what-or what an arab strap is.
	Stuart David has a side project called Looper with his wife, Karn. If
you liked "A Space Boy Dream" on Arab Strap (I thought it seemed out of
place there), you'll like their new record, Up A Tree, which came out
several months ago. There are more story-songs, Stuart just going on and
on in that soft accent of his, and he mixes things up with some
hiphop/electronica-style beats. It's a little like Beck, but much more
low-key. It starts out with some loops that sound like that midget that
raps with Kid Rock, but there aren't any lines about being "3-foot-9
with a 10-foot dick." Instead they've got a wonderful story about how
they wrote each other letters for years before they ever met or got
together. They repeat it in the liner notes, but when you've got a story
that romantic, you might as well tell it a lot.
	I got the chance to see Looper last week when they played D.C. I had
really high hopes. When B&S played there the day before Halloween, the
Black Cat never sounded better. You could hear *everything*. But last
week it was all back to normal. The bass was up so high (not Stuart's
bass--you could barely hear that--the bass on the rhythm loops) that you
could barely make out the words, and the words are so important on his
songs. Anyway, he wore this funny-looking light headset that made him
look like one of those deep-sea fish so he could see the music stand
where he read his stories. There were two screens where Karn showed her
films and videos (on one) and slides (on the other). There was a row of
TVs up front, but I wasn't close enough to see them most of the time--I
think they just showed what was already on the screens. The thing is,
her stuff looked pretty amateur, osrt of art project-y. I like it when
Stuart sings about Dave the Moon Man lying drunk on the grass with the
dew soaking through his jacket, but when you see someone doing it at the
same time, it makes it seem less special. There were lots of baby
pictures and park scenes, but a video of some guy dancing under a tree
with headphones on always is boring if you don't know the guy. There
were also some pictures of that big thing in Brussels that looks like an
atom--that was kinda cool. I liked the songs better when I was listening
to them in the kitchen juicing key limes (yum!). I know Karn is Stuart's
inspiration and all, but her visuals really don't add that much.

8. Are Belle and Sebastian twee?
	No! Sometimes ignorant people who hate the band say they are, but
they're not. Looper can get a little close, and the Gentle Waves
definitely are, but B&S are not. It doesn't help that most of the B&S
button designs ("badges" if you're from the U.K.) and te early T-shirts
make them look like a twee band, schoolbuses and kids riding bikes and
stuff. I know Isobel did some of the designs.
	Twee is what happens when liberal arts students flunk out and go back
home to live. They can't face the fact that they've got no future, so
they pretend they are still children. Everything's all candy and ice
cream and stuffed animals and kitty-cats. Yuk. But it is possible to
write about things when you were young without sounding like that.
That's why Stuart M.'s so great.

9. Why are you always so mean to Isobel?
	I'm not always so mean to Isobel. I think she's got a lovely voice and
she's a good cellist. But she's a better backup singer than a
singer-songwriter. Anyone who likes her leading a band can buy the
Gentle Waves disc that came out this spring, but I don't recommend it.
There's a fine line between gentle and precious, and she's so far past
it she can't even see it anymore. Her melodies sound like she just
started making up stuff when she should have been practicing more for
her piano lessons. And she hasn't learned much from Stuarts M. and D.
about writing songs. "Evensong" sounds like she stole the tune from  a
1970s game show, and she sings it like she's pretending she's got a
harelip. It makes my skin crawl--between her voice and some mosquito
bites I got at a picnic last weekend, I've been feeling like Dennis
Potter during one of his "spells." ;)
	She dedicates "Rose I Love You" to the guy who wrote The Little Prince,
but she ought to be thanking the Penguin Cafe Orchestra for that
arrangement. And she thinks trees need her to sing them lullabies. I
actually think it's good Isobel's got an outlet. The songs she writes
may seem like Belle and Sebastian songs, but only if you've got them on
in the background. Maybe now they'll be less likely to show up on the
new record B&S is recording in the fall. If you're worried your
Tullycraft and Bunnygrunt CDs are getting lonely and you think they need
a little company, be my guest, but is it wicked not to care?
	Thanks for visiting!
	<return to Glasgow Holiday homepage>   CP
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