A Listener's Diary

 
Saw Belle & Sebastian last night, Oct. 30th, at the Congress Theatre in Chicago. (My ticket says the events is sponsored by Clear Channel!?! Have any of their radio stations ever played a B&S song?) Stuart M. had a chest infection, I learned earlier in the week, when they cancelled a second show in DC. And in the first third of their performance last night he was really spaced out. He missed cues, forgot lines, etc. Some of his bandmates looked concerned. I was glad to get to see them and figured that even a second-rate performance would be better than nothing, which is what I would have gotten if they'd cancelled. Luckily, they pulled out some first-rate moments and really started to get a groove going as the night went on. The band was fun and down to earth, just as you'd expect. And I could see that at peak energy, the band could be awesome live. I was forgiving of their stumbles, though, as I myself had a bad cold and was medicated.

A rough, reconstructed set list:

• opened with a quick instrumental
  
• launched into Dear Catastrophe Waitress
  
• Step Into My Office, Baby
  

Also, but I can't remember the order:

• Piazza, New York Catcher
  
• Asleep on a Sunbeam (loud applause for Sarah's first lead vocal)
  
• Expectations
  
• You Don't Send Me
  
• Wrapped Up in Books (which had been stuck in my head--it was my icing-on-the-cake hope)
  
• Roy Walker
  
• I'm a Cuckoo
  
• Beautiful
  
• Judy and the Dream of Horses (to my surprise, perhaps the strongest audience reaction)
  
• You're Just a Baby
  
• The Stars of Track and Field
  
• Seeing Other People
  
• Sleep the Clock Around
  
• My Wandering Days Are Over (?)
  
• The Wrong Girl (done, by Stevie, Johnny Cash-style, as a tribute)
  
• Get Me Away From Here
  
• Stay Loose (closer--they claimed it was their first live performance of it--totally rocked)
  

There was also one song, sung by Stevie, that I couldn't i.d. If I find a more accurate set list, I'll link to it.

I'd see them again in a heartbeat. Great fun. And the opening act was Hidden Cameras! That ultra-queer band I'd heard some good things about--they were surprisingly likable despite my not knowing their songs at all. Very pretty at times, one vocalist reminding me a bit of Jimmy Sommerville, and the cute lead vocalist looked like a lost member of the Proclaimers. I saw at least two local record store employees in the big crowd, which reminded me of the classic Onion piece.



- posted 10/31/2003

 
I read that Elliott Smith died at 34, apparently of suicide. I can't say I was his biggest fan, but I was a fan, and I'm saddened by the news. I was immediately taken in by his voice when I heard Either/Or in a record store one day, and made what was for me at the time a rare impulse buy. I had the sense that there were great albums yet to come from him--in fact, I'll be surprised if the last album he was working on, Basement, doesn't see release soon. His style was sad and sweet and soulful. Cinematic, in many ways. I recently watched The Royal Tenenbaums, where Wes Anderson used one of Smith's songs for a powerful suicide-attempt scene. So in some ways, I wonder if the man's fate--or his action--was already in his music. These sad young men who sing their music for us--I always hope they have a boundary they can cross for safety. But all too often, it seems, they don't.





- posted 10/22/2003

 
A few misc. items of interest:

• First, a Top Ten "musical novels" chosen by author Joyce Hackett for the Top Ten-mad Guardian Unlimited.


• Next, a fun little site that shows beautiful old-fashioned radios from the Soviet Union, where the tradition of family gathering around the radio instead of tv apparently lasted a little longer than here in the States.


• And lastly, a tool from the Columbia Journalism Review for finding out which mega-huge corporations own which radio stations (check out the infamous Clear Channel), record companies, etc.

- posted 10/17/2003

 
I'd heard before that Woody Guthrie scrawled on his guitar the words "This machine kills fascists," which is pretty damn cool, but I'd never seen a picture before. Wow. He looks great. Check it out on the biography page of the Woody Guthrie Foundation & Archives web site.

- posted 10/15/2003

 
Yet another NYTimes article on CDs versus selling music online ran Sunday. I like the idea of being able to buy just one song affordably. But I think the whole issue is more complicated than meets the eye. Hidden costs for me: maintaining that computer equipment, buying blank CDs, the time spent downloading, managing, printing, etc. Plus, I don't have a high-speed connection, and I haven't yet found it worth the expense. I really don't understand how so many people have so far, unless they've just been seduced by technology for technology's sake. But, then, I don't think having a cell phone is worth the hassle, either. I think I'd personally prefer to have CDs be cheaper--but that still leaves the problem of times when you only want one song from an album. In such cases, a place like the Apple store is a great idea. Problem is, of the first 10 songs I've searched their store for, I've found maybe 1 available for sale. I wish these stores would expand already.

I worry about how illegal downloaders may be destroying an old architecture out of selfishness and with no worry for the future architecture. Again, it's like phones. Now that cell phones are popular, how easy is it to find a working pay phone? They're dying out, if you hadn't noticed. They aren't making money anymore. The Internet's wonderful, but what industries (and jobs) will remain 20 years from now after the shakeout? I worry there'll be fewer. And I worry that when you figure the cost of computer equipment and connections, music will be no cheaper and much more time-consuming to purchase.

- posted 10/14/2003

 
"L-O-V-E Love, it's Coming Back!"

Last night, in celebration of the new Belle & Sebastian CD being released today, I assembled a "Best of Belle & Sebastian" mix. It was tough choosing what to leave off. I had one of those "if that's what they left out, what they kept in must be pure gold" experiences. If this mix doesn't completely addict you to the band, then, congratulations, you're immune to fun and other human emotions. My track list:

TRACK - ALBUM

the state i am in - tigermilk

expectations - tigermilk

she's losing it - tigermilk

you're just a baby - tigermilk

the stars of track and field - if you're feeling sinister

seeing other people - if you're feeling sinister

like dylan in the movies - if you're feeling sinister

the fox in the snow - if you're feeling sinister

if you're feeling sinister - if you're feeling sinister

le pastie de la bourgeoisie - 3..6..9 seconds of light

it could have been a brilliant career - the boy with the arab strap

sleep the clock around - the boy with the arab strap

is it wicked not to care - the boy with the arab strap

ease your feet in the sea - the boy with the arab strap

simple things - the boy with the arab strap

legal man - EP legal man

winter wooskie - EP legal man

waiting for the moon to rise - fold your hands...

women's realm - fold your hands...

jonathan david - EP jonathan david

i'm waking up to us - EP i'm waking up to us

storytelling - storytelling soundtrack

22 cuts, drawing heavily on the first three albums, as well as the later EPs (which is more or less how I categorize Storytelling), which feature a lot of my very favorite songs. Fans/critics bemoan the trend where Stuart Murdoch has stepped back and let other band members sing & write, but I for one think it has been a good way to keep the band growing artistically, though I also concede now that Fold Your Hands... is a rather awkward transitional album. I only pulled two tracks from that album. Since then, they've become more upbeat, orchestral, groovy, and unique. I like the direction, and I hope it bodes well for the new album. My final two choices are among my absolute favorite songs ever.

I was saddened to read recently that Isobel Campbell (Belle!) left the group (last year!), though consoled that her solo album is coming out tomorrow, too. I always found her contributions sweet, if sometimes vocally weak (though that could sometimes be a charm). It may also explain why the band covered "The Boys are Back in Town" on their last tour (which I wish I could have heard)--if the gal is ditching them, then at least they're going to have fun with it. I don't fully understand the dynamics at work here. I just hope they keep making fun, pretty music. The new album is getting great reviews ("return to form")--I'll find out soon.

- posted 10/06/2003

 
Just read about the latest pointy-headed queer anthology, Queer Episodes in Music and Modern Identity, ed. by Sophie Fuller and Lloyd Whitsell. Sounds like it has some interesting material.

- posted 10/06/2003

 
CD and Concert Review

Picked up Gillian Welch's new CD Soul Journey at her Sep. 16th concert at the Vic in Chicago. My first impression of the CD was that the production was flat, but that notion lessened some as I gave a full listen. Listening to this album, produced by Welch's partner David Rawlings, side by side with their first album, produced by T-Bone Burnet, this album sounds simpler, and if anything the vocals are happily emphasized a bit more. Track by track: "Look at Miss Ohio"--I swear I've heard her perform this song a couple years ago, or perhaps it just has a classic familiarity. Strong lyrics. "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor" is trad., hearkening back to the dust bowl days. "Wayside/Back in Time," one of my favorites on the album, could almost be a pop song on the radio--just when, I'm not sure. Alongside Steve Miller in the 70s, perhaps? It also nicely continues from previous albums Welch's overt theme of loving old-time music. "I Had a Real Good Mother and Father," another trad. track, a Christian song in the vein of previous songs, nice enough. I like "One Monkey" musically--Welch give its some soul--but the lyrics are strange, to say the least. "No One Knows My Name" sounds traditional. I expected carbon-dating to reveal it to be a contemporary of "She'll be Coming 'Round the Mountain," which it resembles in form and style, but it's original. Still, it plays pretty well, partly because you don't often hear songs in this vein, partly because the form is simple and direct, and partly because the lyrics are a dramatic and profound, though it does seem at this point that Welch has played out the orphan/parents theme. "Lowlands" is a bit repetitive, and it stretches Welch's vocal range a bit too much (in the lower register, naturally). "One Little Song" is charming and pretty, a song about the challenge of writing a new song--hasn't everyone said it all before? But there's more to it than that. "I Made a Lovers Prayer" is a bit slow and long for my taste. "Wrecking Ball" reminds me of Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," which might be its inspiration. All in all, the album (released on Welch's independent label Acony, as in the flower she sung about on the first album) is good, but it somehow lacks some of the fire of previous albums (compare it to the amazing "I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll" from Time, the Revelator). The cover art/photos are unappealing--the whole thing has a bit of a "quickie" feel.

The truth behind the Gillian Welch records is that the act's really a duo, not a solo. I suspect they chose the solo angle because of the success of female singer-songwriters in the folk and Americana genres. Welch and Rawlings are fantastic in concert, where the arrangements are by necessity simple and the focus is on their beautiful harmonies, which can get buried on records that feature excellent studio backup bands. There's also the pleasure of their joshing humor and the thrilling excitement of Rawlings' virtuoso solos, which fire up the crowd to the point of cheers and applause mid-song, something which has never been captured on disc. (I wish they'd release a live disc. I also wish they'd incorporate more of that excitement on their albums.) You wonder, though, if those virtuoso solos threaten to upstage everything else. That we see a male/female duo on stage inevitably brings certain "couple" dynamics to the act, and the first time I saw them, it was easy to imagine Welch and Rawlings as two young lovebirds flush with the excitement of their new success. This time, Welch and Rawlings had a bickering element to their act, which was funny but made you wonder--hope these two don't mean it! But it seems to me they're smart enough to incorporate the tensions into their act, and I suspect that's what they were doing. In an amusing twist on the jealous lover routine, Welch took a moment to point out that the first time David ever lay hands on his beloved guitar was during their very first recording session--and that they'd been inseparable since, a charming piece of lore. Later, they joked about being unable to go off the set list--David jerked his arms like a robot--then did to play a request. (So many acts won't.) Rawlings did a stunning solo version of Big Rock Candy Mountain (after some amusing hemming and hawing about what to choose, adjusting a clip back and forth), which in tempo and emphasis sounded utterly fresh and unique, different from the other versions I've heard. Welch was personable and sweet when signing autographs after the show. I highly recommend seeing them, any chance you get.

- posted 10/05/2003