You'll probably feel better if you stay and play with yourself
February 23, 2013 3:45 PM   Subscribe

Record review website Pitchfork has released a documentary about the creation of Belle & Sebastian's If You're Feeling Sinister. The film is part of the Pitchfork Classic web series.

The site has released documentaries about The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips and The Lonesome Crowded West by Modest Mouse. The documentaries lead in with some info about the founding of each band & their previous records. For you K-records junkies, the last includes some interview footage with Calvin Johnson.
posted by Going To Maine (30 comments total) 45 users marked this as a favorite
 
Fine, if you want to listen to old sad bastard music, go ahead.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:55 PM on February 23, 2013 [8 favorites]


I remember going into an ex-girlfriend's bedroom and being instantly attracted to her collection of Belle & Sebastian b-sides. I've loved this band for decades. Thanks for this.

Want To Come Back To My Room And Listen To Some Belle And Sebastian?
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:00 PM on February 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


That's my favorite kind of music! In fairness, The Soft Bulletin isn't too sad.
posted by Going To Maine at 4:01 PM on February 23, 2013


but as Sinister nears the two-decade mark,

I am so old.
posted by Shepherd at 4:11 PM on February 23, 2013 [7 favorites]


Fine, if you want to listen to old sad bastard music, go ahead.

Huh? Belle & Sebastian are pretty poppy now with songs like 'Funny Little Frog' and 'Step Into My Office' (which I don't like - luckily Camera Obscura carry the torch) and they were never really sad - only melencholy. Even 'Get Me Away From Here I'm Dying' is more the luxurious sadness of a long lonely day than the true sadness.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:38 PM on February 23, 2013 [1 favorite]




I think m_c_d was trying to quote "High Fidelity", Charlemagne.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:49 PM on February 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


I first heard this album on my 18th birthday, December 26th 2002. On Christmas Day, my sister and mother and I had gone to see Kiki and Herb, who covered Fox in the Snow. The next morning, my mother started asking about the song, and my sister popped on the album.

And I swear, nothing better to turn 18 to. It felt like saying goodbye to childhood but refusing to say goodbye to it all at once. It's just a tremendous album--the only one whose perfect my husband and I are in total agreement about. Such a beautiful work of art. Thanks for this, Going to Maine.

(And nice username, btw.)
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:55 PM on February 23, 2013 [5 favorites]


I think m_c_d was trying to quote "High Fidelity", Charlemagne.

To wit: "Put on some old sad bastard music, see if I care."
posted by gompa at 4:57 PM on February 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


An album, a band that mean more to me than I could ever say. This record, that band, and their charming fans kept me alive at a very dark time.
posted by willpie at 5:49 PM on February 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


(By which I suppose I mean thanks for the link.)
posted by willpie at 5:50 PM on February 23, 2013


but as Sinister nears the two-decade mark,

It probably won't help Sinister, with it's legendary poor recording, but I am looking forward to the 20th anniversaries of so many classic albums from the 90s. Here's to hoping they all get the ludicrously extravagant remastered-box-set-180g-vinyl-every-outtake treatment 70s stuff has been getting for way too long.

When I ordered this album on vinyl from the UK, you could tell it had been sitting in the back of some warehouse for 15 years. As someone who generally cares about audio fidelity and has no nostalgic memories about Belle & Sebastian at all, I still say this is one of those perfect albums that is better now than ever. And anyways, if you turn it up loud enough it sounds fucking great.
posted by Lorin at 5:55 PM on February 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


Yeah, thanks for posting this Going To Maine.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:01 PM on February 23, 2013


I've been meaning to watch this this week because the Modest Mouse Lonesome Crowded West doc was really good. Maybe I'll put it on the big screen for mrs. eyeballkid this evening, who is a bigger B&S fan than I am.

Also, is Going To Maine a Lovecraft in Brooklyn sockpuppet account? and shouldn't Charlamagne In Sweatpants' profile location be Hostile, Mass? I have so many questions. (kidding, of course)
posted by eyeballkid at 6:17 PM on February 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'm an old sad bastard. Maybe I should listen to Belle & Sebastian.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:51 PM on February 23, 2013


The Modest Mouse one is actually about Built To Spill, which is ok by me.
posted by Ad hominem at 6:57 PM on February 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Just got done with the B&S one. Really, really good. Like Behind the Music for music I care about.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:06 PM on February 23, 2013


I'm an old sad bastard. Maybe I should listen to Belle & Sebastian.

Where should an old sad bastard begin with Belle and Sebastian, anyway?
posted by homunculus at 7:56 PM on February 23, 2013


Let's go to Maine out on the east co~oast!
Let's go to Maine right now!
posted by deathpanels at 8:00 PM on February 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


Where should an old sad bastard begin with Belle and Sebastian, anyway?

I say Tigermilk, the debut album. I started with Fold Your Hands, Child--but didn't really dig it til I got Tigermilk.
posted by Kafkaesque at 8:40 PM on February 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


I am no sock puppet! And I'd say that both Tigermilk & Sinister work as good old sad bastard intros. They also did a soundtrack for a Todd Solonz movie, which might work. Not having heard it, it seems like a gamble.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:24 PM on February 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


I am no sock puppet!

Oh, I know. That was just a poke at Charlemagne in Sweatpants, really.
posted by eyeballkid at 9:44 PM on February 23, 2013


MetaFilter: I am no sock puppet!
posted by homunculus at 10:14 PM on February 23, 2013


Sinister was the first album from "overseas" I ever ordered: "Marbles", the Tindersticks mailing list I was on at the time, was all over the release in '96, as the two bands had played some shows together. A frustrating search revealed that none of the record stores in Adelaide that I frequented had a copy. So, after a long wait for delivery from the UK, and a frightening $36, I had my ears on a copy: it's amongst the most perfect of perfect-pop, and has survived the 17 odd years without losing any of its freshness. The snob in me instantly wanted a copy of Tigermilk, but that wasn't readily available until some time later, unless you were prepared to cope with a copy of a copy of a rare-ish cassette.

(Sad old bastards should definitely get their mitts on a copy of Tindersticks first couple of albums, and especially "Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre 1996", if you can still find it. They lost the magic for me after that: irony was upped, lustre was lost, etc etc)
posted by pjm at 12:05 AM on February 24, 2013 [1 favorite]


The Storytelling OST isn't that great, 2010's Write About Love is surprisingly ace though. Their 2000s output is a bit variable, the 90's stuff is all great though.

The career spanning Push Barman To Open Old Wounds is a nice introduction to classic era Belle & Seb as a tonne of good stuff is on the mid 90s EPs.
posted by brilliantmistake at 3:38 AM on February 24, 2013 [2 favorites]


Where should an old sad bastard begin with Belle and Sebastian, anyway?

Most people of my generation who love them came in at Sinister or The Boy with the Arab Strap, which were their first two albums released in North America. They're both excellent. Tigermilk is also great but was hard to find until years later.
posted by dobbs at 8:37 AM on February 24, 2013


If you're feeling sinsiter, I highly, highly recommend the 'Live at the Barbican' release, in which B&S played the entire album through live, in order to address their dissatisfaction wit hth e recording of the original album. I think I've only played the original version once since hearing the Barbican version. It's fantastic.
posted by kaibutsu at 10:59 AM on February 24, 2013


I remember paying way over the odds for an nth generation bootleg CD of Tigermilk back in the (pre widespread internet) day, it was a badge of pride for nineties shy indie youth.
posted by brilliantmistake at 11:43 AM on February 24, 2013


There are plenty of albums I've listened to and enjoyed at the time, but don't quite hold up when I revisit them in later life. For reasons I don't quite understand, If You're Feeling Sinister is an exception. Somehow or other it's one of those (increasingly rare) records that gets better with age. Great post, thanks.
posted by El Brendano at 5:46 AM on February 25, 2013 [1 favorite]


>but as Sinister nears the two-decade mark,

I am so old.


I love the band but I rarely listen to them at all because revisiting the music reminds me that so much time has passed. Heartbreaking actually.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:40 AM on February 27, 2013


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