If your heart is not on my side, then you're not on my side anymore

July 18, 2016 11:20 AM

The return of Belly. (sltheGrauniad)
posted by Kitteh (29 comments total)

Yay! I love her stuff!
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:34 AM on July 18, 2016

It took me embarrassingly long to get that this is not an essay about the return to fashion of the bare midriff. Even after seeing that there was a 90's band named Belly.
posted by cmoj at 11:35 AM on July 18, 2016

Tanya Donelly's solo albums are so underrated. Lovesongs for Underdogs defined a huge chunk of my early 20s.
posted by Kitteh at 11:44 AM on July 18, 2016 [5 favorites]

Tanya Donelly's solo albums are so underrated. Lovesongs for Underdogs defined a huge chunk of my early 20s.

Yes!
posted by not_the_water at 11:48 AM on July 18, 2016

I went to a Belly show in the heyday because of a guy, and had the great experience of being totally blown away unexpectedly.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:54 AM on July 18, 2016

I mean really, some of the best songs from the 90s. And Donelly was a rock star.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 12:08 PM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Wow, how 90s is that Feed the Tree video? It is the most 90s. None more 90s.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 12:14 PM on July 18, 2016 [7 favorites]

Had to guess, Tanya Donnelly band or DMX movie? Thankfully the former. Although, as I understand it, the latter has not gone away.
posted by kevinbelt at 12:39 PM on July 18, 2016

Got tickets for the Portland show. Can't wait. Belly Belly Belly Belly Belly.

The way she plays with music and sound and music is just awesome.

Also caught one of the SF King tour shows... it opened with the bassist, Gail Greenwood, skipping out onto the stage scattering cigarette butts from an ashtray, la la la. Great stuff - and they're a great live band.
posted by emmet at 12:46 PM on July 18, 2016

I'm so excited to see them in August!

Tanya Donelly's solo albums are so underrated. Lovesongs for Underdogs defined a huge chunk of my early 20s.

Yes! Though maybe more like 18-20 for me, it came out right around when I arrived in college. One of my formative memories was apprenticing for my radio show with someone who I thought was the coolest person alive, and I played Swoon from that album. The guy gave me an approving nod and I pretty much swooned for reals.

Belly's Star remains one of my favorite albums to crank up on road trips.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 12:56 PM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Thank you for posting this! We saw the second show in Newport just before they left on tour. Such an old hometown feel. I messaged a friend during Feed the Tree because we used to live in Newport in the late eighties/early nineties and it felt so familiar (except the show was not at 3's but what used to be called Cafe 200--this is a true RI way of describing something btw). Only 140 people per show because the venue was not rated for larger crowds (sprinklers, I believe). I was stunned to see the crowds in the UK so far but am so happy for them to be having such success. Gail Greenwood is a rock god, funny, and has great dogs. We usually heckle her mercilessly but did not because it didn't seem appropriate to the tone of the reunion.
posted by Saddy Dumpington at 1:09 PM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

This (along with the news the Garbage is putting out a new album soon too) is make-my-week news, srsly. I just referenced Belly for unremembered reasons the other day and I felt the two-albums-and-done discography was such a sad, stunted lifespan.

Belly's Star remains one of my favorite albums to crank up on road trips.

DITTO. (Also Weezer's green album, which is the least Weezer-y and somehow the best.)
posted by psoas at 1:22 PM on July 18, 2016

I revisit King fairly regularly, but just realized I haven't listened to Star for ages - probably because I don't think my copy ever made the transition from tape to digital. And they're coming to my town, and playing the same venue where I saw them about 21 years ago! This is so great; thanks for posting!
posted by nickmark at 1:36 PM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

(along with the news the Garbage is putting out a new album soon too)

It came out in early July and is fucking magnificent.
posted by Kitteh at 3:36 PM on July 18, 2016

I am peeing myself with excitement. I really, really hope there are still tickets when I get paid.

(Also, did you hear that last Sleater-Kinney album? Really great!)
posted by lumpenprole at 3:43 PM on July 18, 2016

Meh....it's OK i guess....
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 4:50 PM on July 18, 2016

It came out in early July and is fucking magnificent.

Oh, that's so bizarre - I went to their website where it still says "preorder" and I went on my merry way.
posted by psoas at 4:55 PM on July 18, 2016

No criticism of the post title intended, but just for the record, we would also have accepted "If you bore me you'll lose your soul to me" and "Stick your finger in your eye, that's the only way you cry."
posted by nickmark at 6:14 PM on July 18, 2016

(Bursts into tears for lost youth and lost decency)
posted by aramaic at 8:48 PM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I was like "oh, ha, I bet this won't actually be about Tanya Donnelly's band because there's no way that reunion is happening" but I should've known better because we live in a universe where Lush is touring again, and if Lush can get past all their baggage to do that, then of course Belly can get back together.
posted by chrominance at 9:29 PM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

TDonnelly was in the original lineup of The Breeders. Pod is such a great album.
posted by Robin Kestrel at 4:03 AM on July 19, 2016 [4 favorites]

Robin Kestrel, it's often considered alternative rock heresy, but for me, Pod is my favourite Breeders album hands down. (Nothing against Last Splash at all, but Pod just resonated more with me.)
posted by Kitteh at 4:24 AM on July 19, 2016

"it's often considered alternative rock heresy, but for me, Pod is my favourite Breeders album hands down"

Is it? Pretty much everyone I know* who has heard Pod prefers it to Last Splash. It has always seemed to me that that is a way to tell someone who really knows their stuff from someone who just heard of Last Splash because "Cannonball" was on MTV a bunch.

*Except myself, although my preference for Last Splash is entirely due to "Divine Hammer", which, in my opinion, is one of the top ten songs of the nineties.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:17 AM on July 19, 2016

I love Belly so much. I saw them close to the end of the King tour and it was incredible. Somewhere I still have one of Chris Gorman's drumsticks.

My daughter is almost 11 years old, and has begun expressing an interest in playing the guitar. She also has mentioned to me recently that she feels like there's just not enough girls in books and movies that are main characters. It seems to me that Belly would be a good show to take her to, since the upcoming shows at the Teragram in LA are all-ages shows. And Tanya and Gail are awesome. I'm just not sure what sort of ear protection is necessary for 11-year-old ears, or if the recommendation for ears that young is just "don't". I'm also not sure she'll be interested in all us old people and our classic rock. I've played some Belly for her, and she seemed to feign some polite interest, but she may just have been grumpy at the time. It's hard to tell.

Maybe I should point her at whoever the Tanya Donelly/Kristin Hersh/Emma Anderson/Kim Gordon of today is. Whoever that is. Wow I feel old having said that.
posted by curiousgene at 10:36 AM on July 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

Sometimes I feel like The Breeders and Belly saved me. Throwing Muses was great, too.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:47 AM on July 19, 2016

Random thought: you can't call a band by a name like 'Belly' any more. It'd have to be 🔔-E or something for SEO.

I'm a little sad that the tour dates are basically "Acela corridor, west coast, Chicago and Mpls" leaving out a huge chunk of the US. Still, they played provincial UK cities, so the people of Bristol and Norwich can feel happy.

I missed seeing Belly back in the day, but saw Tanya Donelly solo w/ backing band touring Lovesongs for Underdogs in the later 90s, which was awesome.

And I'm very much pro-reunion tours: the bands I loved in my twenties deserve the chance to go back on the road when they're older and wiser and can have more fun and less grief doing it.

Maybe I should point her at whoever the Tanya Donelly/Kristin Hersh/Emma Anderson/Kim Gordon of today is.

For some subconscious reason, most of the shows I've been to this year are young[er than me] guitar-playing female artists or female-fronted bands, and they've all been great: Speedy Ortiz, Waxahatchee, Hop Along, Angel Olsen. HAIM aren't stereotypically indie, but their live show rocked my socks off. I'll be seeing Jenn Wasner aka Flock of Dimes later this year. I very much like, but haven't yet seen Courtney Barnett and Lucy Dacus and Mitski and Julien Baker. The kids are all right.
posted by holgate at 11:53 AM on July 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm just not sure what sort of ear protection is necessary for 11-year-old ears, or if the recommendation for ears that young is just "don't"

I would be super interested to know the answer to that! I can't wait until I can drag my son along to a few all-ages shows (he's almost 6, so still way to young to be out late or deal with waiting around between sets). I have seen some middle-school aged kids with their parents at shows I've been to recently, so it's definitely a thing some people are doing.

Maybe I should point her at whoever the Tanya Donelly/Kristin Hersh/Emma Anderson/Kim Gordon of today is.

In addition to holgate's awesome suggestions, I can add to the list: Allison Weiss and whatever Anika Pyle (ex-Chumped) is up to now.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 12:41 PM on July 19, 2016

Looking forward to seeing Belly; never saw them. I was once mocked for liking them in the 90s because they weren't grunge (ugh) enough. Not enough machismo, too 'girly' I guess because of her singing not being a raspy scream. Star is a great album; fuck grunge.
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 8:04 PM on July 19, 2016

So many new awesome things to listen to! I'm especially enjoying Courtney Barnett and Hop Along. I'm trying to give all of these an ample amount of listening time, but those grabbed me right off the bat. (Courtney Barnett possibly because she's playing a Tele in that video on the front page of her site and I have a soft spot for people playing Teles.)

I asked my daughter if she wanted to go see Belly, and she was cautiously interested. "I... kind of want to go." I can't tell if she's humoring me or if she just thinks I want her to want to go, or if she really doesn't have strong feelings. I'm going to ask her pediatrician what his recommendations are about noise and ear protection.
posted by curiousgene at 9:24 AM on July 20, 2016