Sinister: Felt Up at the Philly Marine Research show...

[FourJacksAndAJill]

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 at 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 at majordomo.net". To unsubscribe
   send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to
  "majordomo at 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"                   +-+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+