2009 US Winter Tour

TracyanneLovesTheGers wrote:

blurecu wrote:

Pen and Notebook from Rochester NY. Tracyanne sets the chatters straight at the beginning.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CygGoF2mTcA

You can take the girl out of Glasgow ...

You tell 'em hen!

aww HELL yeah!!
must've been pissed cause i never pegged her droppin the ol' f-bomb! laughed out loud!
tony

sorry ta post agin but hahahahahahahaha - watched it like 4 times now!! laughin my ass off everytime! thanks for the link!

Jeez, I bet she's a bit of a handful Quite right...but we got an attention seeker in the house

Pete

Get in the girl "shut the fuck up" in best Glaswegian love it.
Wished they'd played Pen And Notebook at the Barra's

Brilliant!
No one spoke a word during Pen and Notebook at the Atlanta show. Or during any other song. The Atlanta show was most excellent, best performance I've seen yet.
I'm heading off to the Athens show after some sleep.

I'm jealous! I would love to see them again tonight at the 40 Watt. Athens is actually a closer drive for me but I could only make the Atlanta show (which was excellent as you noted).

It's sure to be a later show since there are two openers (Venice Is Sinking
and Papercuts) and doors are at 9PM.

Here's a Q&A with Tracyanne from the local Athens paper.

http://flagpole.com/Weekly/Features/CameraObscura-2Dec09

Look forward to reading your review.

definitely jealous you're going to the last show on the tour.

anyone know if they've been throwing in any "rarities" in the last week or so? I doubt it... but would be cool.

ha! and I just watched that video... brilliant! I've heard her yell at talkers before... but that was the best! i almost drove up to that show... if it wasn't the night before thanksgiving i would have been there. almost glad i didn't go... crowd must have been super-douchey. oh, who am i kidding?! of course i would have wanted to be there!

blurecu wrote:

Here's a Q&A with Tracyanne from the local Athens paper.
http://flagpole.com/Weekly/Features/CameraObscura-2Dec09

love the lil synopsis TAC speaks of...

Quote :

I guess when you’re growing up and you’re listening to all this music, it ends up coming out in your music to a certain extent. But we’re not interested in being some pastiche band and we’re not interested in being just retro. And hopefully we’ve got one foot going forward and maybe one in the past, and I think that’s kind what we’re about

to me - that's what i find in a great band...various musical influences poking thru an original sound! CO in a nutshell!
great piece this is..i like the way they got her to speak of the ol' B+S comparisons and the like and the dodgy way she responds to some of the questions.. smart lady me thinks..

tonybolony wrote:

love the lil synopsis TAC speaks of...

Quote :

I guess when you’re growing up and you’re listening to all this music, it ends up coming out in your music to a certain extent. But we’re not interested in being some pastiche band and we’re not interested in being just retro. And hopefully we’ve got one foot going forward and maybe one in the past, and I think that’s kind what we’re about

to me - that's what i find in a great band...various musical influences poking thru an original sound! CO in a nutshell!
great piece this is..i like the way they got her to speak of the ol' B+S comparisons and the like and the dodgy way she responds to some of the questions.. smart lady me thinks..

I read all these interviews and they have the same questions over and over again. I'm sure TAC is getting sick of them, especially the B&S comparisons. I really want to interview the band myself so I can ask all the techie questions nobody ever does. Who cares what the album sounds like, I want the details of HOW they made it sound like that!

Thanks for the link. Some interesting things in among that actually, in particular that it was Jari H's idea to put the 'Bang, bang' stomp at the front of French Navy - presumably the original version brought to the studio was like the acoustic/radio session version heard a few times since? That's maybe the clearest indication of how much input Haapalainen has into the current CO sound ... I mean does anyone else think it's coincidence that CO, for me at any rate, got seriously great once he started producing them?

Tell you what though, I can hear Tracyanne sighing from here when the words Belle & Sebastian come up at least THREE times!!! I don't disagree that up until 3-4 years ago CO struggled to come out from the shadow cast by B&S but that was a long time ago now and for it still to come up in 2009 - it's just irrelevant!

Surely CO today, while still remaining at least partly informed by a world of Tunnocks teacakes, The Broons, Edwyn Collins and the Copland Road Underground Station are a Glasgow-Svenska group? The influence and various inputs of Peter, Bjorn and John and The Concretes has been very prominent since 2006, no?

In fact reading between the lines Tracyanne sounds a little terse and cranky in some of the responses. Who can blame her - the band must be bloody shattered by now!

yer absolutely right.. i said she was dodgy with those same questions ya hear on every american interview - sad but true! and yep she was gettin cranky - i want to hear her crank right out like at that show in Brooklin ...when she hears another damn comparison or how she puts the songs together...i want her to tell them to "shut the %$#@-up" !!!
i guess my sarcasm didnt translate on the computer too too well ..?
anyhows - i've said before that i just dont see the damn b+s in their music...blasphemy or not - i dont LIKE b+s and i'm freggin obsessed with CO (is it obvious?) so for me its an insult when i hear the interviews ALL asking that... whew - think i'm startin to crank out
i love what Jari has done with them and i have a special love for those first albums - wouldnt change em one bit...well, maybe more songs
bolony

tony you can say"shut the fuck up"your amongst friends.....as for b&s...well i am a fan,they are two seperate bands.........the interviewers obviously dont know the history as well as they think,and as mentioned must now draw a line under it............this is probably the ultimate site for knowledgable fans of the band we know better,they dont simple as that.....but unfortunately "they"will always mention b&s because of the history and association(i.e the early singles etc and the likes of this...

There are common reference points but in essence CO link back to that Glasgow working man's thing of loving C&W, the Grand Ole Opry etc.

Whether subconsciously or not, their biggest influence is probably Sydney Devine.

No, really.

I've got that T-shirt (in royal blue) and I am pleased to say it still fits me!

TracyanneLovesTheGers wrote:

Whether subconsciously or not, their biggest influence is probably Sydney Devine

hm - dont know him..sorry for my ignorance (?) - now hav to google em

and nice one with the t-shirt...once agin, green with envy!
tony

tonybolony wrote:

TracyanneLovesTheGers wrote:

Whether subconsciously or not, their biggest influence is probably Sydney Devine

hm - dont know him..sorry for my ignorance (?) - now hav to google em

Not knowing Steak and Kidney is not ignorance ... it is very, very locally specific knowledge ...

tonybolony wrote:

and nice one with the t-shirt...once agin, green with envy!
tony

What, that I have it, or that it still fits after 5 years?

TracyanneLovesTheGers wrote:

What, that I have it, or that it still fits after 5 years?

hahaha! both!!!

tonybolony wrote:

anyhows - i've said before that i just dont see the damn b+s in their music...blasphemy or not - i dont LIKE b+s and i'm freggin obsessed with CO (is it obvious?) so for me its an insult when i hear the interviews ALL asking that... whew - think i'm startin to crank out :)

I totally understand where you're coming from, though I love Belle & Sebastian dearly now, (hell I'm listening to If You're Feeling Sinister while I write this) when I first heard them I did not like the band AT ALL. I only even looked into them because I loved Camera Obscura so much and unoriginal interviewers kept comparing the bands. So I grabbed their first two albums, and hated them, Stuart's accent especially, I couldn't stand. (Which is odd because I absolutely adore Scottish accents, but Mr Murdoch's singing style is...well...very unique) I set the CD's aside and didn't listen again for months. Eventually I heard "Step Into My Office Baby" on Pandora (online radio service, I think it's U.S. only) and my interest was re-ignited, I thought the darkly metaphorical lyrics teeming with innuendo, and pop-style rhythm patterns infused with jazz chords were reminiscent of classic Steely Dan, my forever favorite musical duo. Hence I bought Dear Catastrophe Waitress, but again, I only liked about half the tracks from the album, I ripped it to my computer to create mixes with, but it stayed mostly on the shelf, digitally and physically.

Some time later, a friend of mine who used to be a major player in the recording industry back in the 80's and 90's was looking for new music to listen to, so I recommended Belle & Sebastian on a whim. She relented her hatred for them immediately. So as a joke, my signature on a forum we both administrate became "My new favorite band is Belle & Sebastian solely because Kelley hates them." And then I actually started listening, really listening to them, mainly so that my Last.FM profile would say I was. Only DCW and The Life Pursuit, at first, but eventually I fell so in love with those albums after very heavy rotation, that I went back to Tigermilk and Sinister, and after a few winces, fell in love with B&S's early style too, and so filled out the rest of my LP catalog.

Now I consider Belle & Sebastian like a shy friend who took forever to get to know, was always awkward and said the wrong things, but eventually it was those idiosyncrasies that made her so endearing. Now that we know each other well enough, I feel like she's been my dearest friend forever, whom I couldn't bear to live without. Music discovery can be such a bizarre experience. And it's so hard to describe the emotions and relationship one can have with a certain group, musician, album, even single song, to non-music people, they just don't "get it".

hmm - so what yer saying is i should give them another go ... especially since Kelley hates them!
reluctantly i tread forth...

I'm a little surprised that so many people here either don't like Belle & Sebastian or first started listening to them after listening to CO.

Admittedly, I have been a crazy huge Belle & Sebastian fan for years. I never quite stalked them the way I've been stalking Camera Obscura lately... but I've seen them quite a few times. Certainly every time they've played NYC (and seen them in DC once). Honestly, I first became interested in CO after hearing about Stuart's involvement with the early records (and artwork... like taking the cover photo of "Underachievers..."). But I never really saw too many similarities between the bands other than a sort of general "retro pop" sound. And as each of these bands matures and makes new records, they are both going in very different directions. "The Life Pursuit" and "My Maudlin Career" really couldn't be any more different.

And, although my love for Camera Obscura keeps getting stronger to the point it rivals my Belle & Sebastian obsession... I'm still totally obsessed with B&S and struggle to understand how anyone with good taste in music wouldn't like them.

If you haven't gotten into them yet... don't even start with the albums... listen to the EPs/Singles. The "Push Barman to Open Old Wounds" compilation is a terrific start. It contains all the EPs up until the "Dear Catastrophe Waitress" era. "Lazy Line Painter Jane" and "This Is Just a Modern Rock Song" EPs are absolutely perfect pop creations. One later EP that isn't on that compilation is the "Books" EP/Single, which contains the absolutely wonderful dance song "Your Cover's Blown". Anyone who has ever seen them perform that song live witnessed something totally awesome!

From there... I'd start with the middle albums... "Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant" and "The Boy With the Arab Strap". The first two albums aren't produced as well... but the songs themselves are bionafied classics. As many times (and versions) I've heard "Get Me Away From Here I'm Dying", it never gets old.

Not that I think anyone here needs to conform to my tastes... I just think you're doing yourself a real disservice by dismissing Belle & Sebastian.

Now... back to what's important here... the tour's over!!! Back to Glasgow for Tracyanne and co.

yep,an nice long deserved break..lets hope christmas brings them their wishes..i,myself even though i`m pretty skint am looking towards christmas with a joyous heart....anyways....back to b&s...i too think they are fantastic,i am with derek on this,push barman is a great start even though many songs on it are b sides,thats fine...its an awesome triple and there aint that many of them,sandinista comes to mind an thats it.........i was a late comer to b&s..i`ve mentioned this before,because i went from the smiths to the sound of young america(the replacements,rem,husker du,green on red,the long ryders,the dream syndicate,etc,etc) so i missed them and the baggy scene in england really...........but definately one of my favourite bands of all time......quality............

Q&A with Carey.

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/sweet_obscura_112509/

blurecu wrote:

Q&A with Carey.

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/sweet_obscura_112509/

An entire 14 words in before a mention of B**** & S********!

I saw the ad there for the jfp featured event 'In Concert: Campbell and McCutcheon' and just for a moment had this image of Tracyanne and Martine duetting on Perfect Moment. Nah, just me then ...?

Too many posts to respond to so I'm not even going to try to pre-reference my replies with quotes...
Anyways

Much agreement about the different directions B&S and CO have taken. BBHF and UPTH kind of, a teency bit, sounded like early-ish Belle & Sebastian. Specifically Arab Strap or moreso, Peasant. But both bands' 2006 albums (Life Pursuit v LGOOTC) were vastly different in styles, similar only in the sense that their influences both came from the same era of music. But that'd be like saying The Beatles were like Bob Dylan just because they worked inside the same decade, or if we're going for regional analogies, that Jethro Tull was like Pink Floyd, because they were both London bands. The comparisons fall completely flat if you put even an ounce of thought into it. And Maudlin only even further separated Camera Obscura from the shadow of B&S.

Kind of wish that signatures were turned on in the forum settings, if they ever appear, mine says "I'm in love with Camera Obscura but cheating on them with Belle & Sebastian. But, shhh...! It's a secret"