Belle and Sebastian In Brief
A Concise Guide For The Impatient
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Belle and Sebastian Links
Belle and Sebastian Official Website
Belle and Sebastian On MySpace
Matador Records Band Website
Matador Records
Jeepster Records
Belle and Sebastian On Wikipedia
About Belle and Sebastian
From Wikipedia: Belle & Sebastian are a Scottish indie pop band formed in Glasgow in January 1996.
The band rejects the "twee pop" label foisted on them early in their career. Belle & Sebastian have much in common with influential indie bands such as The Smiths and Felt, and also take in the influences of northern soul and funk. Their sense of irony and humour are traits also not usually associated with twee. Audiogalaxy classified Belle & Sebastian music as chamber pop, as they use instruments such as flute, cello, trumpet, as well as a regular violin string-section.
After releasing a number of albums and EPs on Jeepster Records, they are now signed to Rough Trade Records in the United Kingdom and Matador Records in the United States. [more]
From The Band's Website: Coming ten years after going public with their debut album, ‘Tigermilk,’ Belle and Sebastian’s sold out show with the L.A. Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl offered both a fitting way to mark the anniversary but also served as a reminder of the group’s longevity and decade of quiet achievement.
The arenas and contexts could not have been more different. In 1996, the musical climate in the U.K. did not look promising (Oasis were the biggest band in the U.K. and Britpop / lad culture was rampant) for the modestly brilliant songs on ‘Tigermilk.’
These had been assembled by Stuart Murdoch over the preceding years, and were brought into focus by his recruitment of kindred spirits, Stevie Jackson (guitar), Isobel Campbell (cello), Richard Colburn (drums), Chris Geddes (keyboards) and Stuart David (bass). Recorded for Electric Honey Records - as part of a Stow College student project - 1000 copies of the album were pressed on vinyl. [more]
From Matador's Website: After making seven albums, Belle and Sebastian have just made the most forceful record of their career. Most people may think they’ve got them pegged as fey cuties, but the band have cut the feet out from under everyone with a record of startling clarity, accomplishment and impact. 'The Life Pursuit' is nothing short of a revelation. [more]
From Jeepster Record's Website: Belle and Sebastian were formed in an all-night café in Glasgow, January 1996. Stuart Murdoch (singer/songwriter) and Stuart David (bass guitar) met on a government-training scheme and recorded some demos, which were picked up by a Jeepster scout who was taking part in the Stow College Music Business Course. The course, run by ex-Associate Alan Rankine, produces and releases one record every year on the college label Electric Honey Records, usually a single. However in the case of Belle and Sebastian they had enough songs to record a whole album, and so the elusive Tigermilk was born. Recorded in three days and one thousand copies released on vinyl only, it now changes hands for up to £400 per copy. [more]
Belle and Sebastian Discography – Albums and Singles
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You can also listen to Belle and Sebastian FREE on Rhapsody.
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LateNightTales: Belle & Sebastian (2006)emusic Amazon Pitchfork Rating: 6.8 Pitchfork Review Listen for FREE on Rhapsody From Amazon.com: Belle & Sebastian are the latest in a long line of acclaimed artists to share their music collection with fans on Azuli’s celebrated CD series LateNightTales. Compiled by the group, LateNightTales is the perfect representation of their eclectic tastes and musical influences. Belle & Sebastian’s take on LateNightTales is fresh, varied and effortlessly hip. Never tied to any scene in the first place (and still further out on a limb 10 years later), these Glaswegians seem to have developed as a band that can draw influences from just about anywhere. Pure pop, ‘60s psyche, ‘70s rock, West Coast harmonies, beat groups, folk balladeering, punk, indie, girl groups and bossanova, are just a few of the slants to crop up without musical contradictions within the Belles’ own work. [more] Track Listing |
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The Life Pursuit (2006)emusic Amazon Pitchfork Rating: 8.5 Pitchfork Review Pitchfork Interview - 3/6/2006 Listen for FREE on Rhapsody From Amazon.com: Oh to be free and frivolous, like Stuart Murdoch and his extensive cast of players as they engage The Life Pursuit. There's no "Take Your Carriage Clock and Shove It" or "Get Me Away from Here, I’m Dying" on this disc. Life has gotten easier, it seems, since Belle and Sebastian's early days. To boot, since 2003's Dear Catastrophe Waitress, the Belle cast has indulged a more 70s-era set of influences: Isn't that Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" beat on the funny "White Collar Boy," a near sequel to "Step Into My Office, Baby"? And how about the T-Rex touch on the opening of "The Blues Are Still Blue"? No worries, Belle and Sebastian retain their gleam flawlessly. [more] Track Listing |
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Funny Little Frog (single) (2006)emusic Amazon Listen for FREE on Rhapsody From Amazon.com: The first song lifted from Belle And Sebastian's seventh (and best) album, The Life Pursuit. 'Funny Little Frog’'is a genuinely enthralling dark parcel wrapped up in the most cotton candy pop perfection, sharing a positive and propulsive piano feel with 'Boy With The Arab Strap', whilst managing to mix in the bittersweet mordancy of the Minder TV theme to boot! [more] Track Listing |
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Push Barman To Open Old Wounds (2005)emusic Amazon Pitchfork Rating: 9.2 Pitchfork Review Listen for FREE on Rhapsody From Amazon.com: At long last, all seven of Belle And Sebastian's "Jeepster" EPs have been collected into a convenient 2-CD set. Often considered their best work, and previously only available as hard-to-find imports or in a box set, the EPs, consisting of 25 songs recorded from 1996-2001, are now available for the price of a single frontline CD. The four tracks from the EP "This Is Just A Modern Rock Song" have never been released in the US before. [more] Track Listing |
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I'm A Cuckoo (single) (2004)emusic Amazon Pitchfork Rating: 7.8 Pitchfork Review Listen for FREE on Rhapsody Track Listing |
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Books (single) (2004)emusic Amazon Pitchfork Rating: 8.3 Pitchfork Review Listen for FREE on Rhapsody From Amazon.com: All 3 Import versions of Books packed into 1 handy & very reasonably priced CD. Featuring "Wrapped up in Books" (from Dear Catastrophe Waitress) + 3 new tracks. Also includes lots of enhanced special features. [more] Track Listing |
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Step Into My Office Baby (single) (2003)emusic Amazon Pitchfork Rating: 6.9 Pitchfork Review Listen for FREE on Rhapsody Track Listing |
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Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003)emusic Amazon Pitchfork Rating: 7.5 Pitchfork Review Listen for FREE on Rhapsody From Amazon.com: Just when they seemed sure to fade away into twee-pop irrelevance, this obscure Scottish indie-pop act releases their strongest album in seven years. [more] Track Listing |
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Storytelling (2002)emusic Amazon Pitchfork Rating: 6.5 Pitchfork Review Listen for FREE on Rhapsody From Amazon.com: Given Belle & Sebastian's eccentric way of doing things, it's hardly surprising that their soundtrack to the Todd Solondz movie Storytelling did not work out quite as planned. Plenty of bands have written scores to imaginary movies. Belle & Sebastian, however, have composed an imaginary soundtrack to an existing movie; only six minutes of this music was actually used in the film, and much of it was completed after the film was released. The weird thing is, it all fits together rather nicely. [more] Track Listing |
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Fold Your Hands Child You Walk Like A Peasant (2000)emusic Amazon Pitchfork Rating: 6.7 Pitchfork Review Listen for FREE on Rhapsody From Amazon.com: All the twee kids have a new hero--Belle & Sebastian front man Stuart Murdoch has replaced Morrissey in their pantheon of kindred spirits. But Murdoch is less Morrissey than Salinger, eschewing the former's moody, self-centered moroseness for the latter's wide-eyed, nostalgic innocence. And while it's easy to get lost in his witty literary narratives and precious brogue, you have to remember that Belle & Sebastian are a sum of their parts, each member contributing to Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant, letting Murdoch shy away from the limelight. That varied palette gives Fold Your Hands Child a wide-ranging expression and subtlety not found on earlier albums. [more] Track Listing |
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Legal Man (single) (2000)emusic Amazon Listen for FREE on Rhapsody From Amazon.com: Those wacky Belle & Sebastian kids, apparently killing time between exceedingly sensitive art-pop albums, toss out a smirking ode to legal professionals that's awash in fake sitar licks and chipper Mamas & the Papas harmonies. Along with the title track, we also get the thankfully instrumental "Judy Is a Dick Slap" and the Bacharach-tinged "Winter Wooskie." The latter, with its wistful piano, airy vocals, and innocent penny whistle, is the closest thing to what we've come to expect from the U.K.'s most refined pop band. On reflection, this EP is a bit of a throwaway, really, but if you're a Belle & Sebastian fan, you'll want to own it. [more] Track Listing |
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Lazy Line Painter Jane (2000)emusic Amazon Pitchfork Rating: 7.9 Pitchfork Review Listen for FREE on Rhapsody From Amazon.com: The three four-song EPs that Belle and Sebastian released on their own Jeepster label in 1997 are regarded by many fans to be their most enjoyable artifacts, and it's hard to argue. Like a Peel session, there is a looser feel to these recordings; they're less perfectionist than the proper albums they bookend (Tigermilk and Sinister). And this is their charm: Stuart Murdoch and friends augment their preciously fey, orchestral pop with cross-genre elements and two great songs with spoken word on top that remind one of similar experiments conducted by the Mekons in the mid-'80s. [more] Track Listing |
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The Boy With The Arab Strap (1998)emusic Amazon Pitchfork Rating: 0.8 (no, that's not a typo!) Pitchfork Review Listen for FREE on Rhapsody From Amazon.com: Belle and Sebastian follow up the considerable promise of 1997's fantastic If You're Feeling Sinister with an album that is, unbelievably, even better. The Boy with the Arab Strap is an immediately infectious and delicious pastiche of fey, Nick Drake-ian vocals; lilting pop melodies; shimmery arrangements; croony wonder; and tortured, lit-smart lyrics. Belle and Sebastian are smarter than the Smiths, wittier than the Beach Boys, more fun than the Velvet Underground, and even more inscrutable than R.E.M. That's heavy company, but The Boy with the Arab Strap proves they deserve to be belles of the ball. [more] Track Listing |
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This Is Just A Modern Rock Song (single) (1998)emusic Amazon Listen for FREE on Rhapsody Track Listing |
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If You're Feeling Sinister (1997)emusic Amazon Listen for FREE on Rhapsody From Amazon.com: Whimsy and preciousness is an integral part of 'If You're Feeling Sinister', along with clever wit and gentle, intricate arrangements - a wonderful blend of the Smiths and Simon & Garfunkel, to be reductive. [more] Track Listing |
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Tigermilk (1996)emusic Amazon Pitchfork Rating: 8.4 Pitchfork Review Listen for FREE on Rhapsody From Amazon.com: Tigermilk is simply gorgeous, an unaffected debut equal to the Smiths' finest work, and seemed to arrive fully formed out of nowhere in May 1996. In songs like the pastoral, shimmering "The State I Am In" and the wonderfully naive "We Rule the School," bandleader Stuart Murdoch had already laid the seeds that would later come to such full, poignant fruition on If You're Feeling Sinister and The Boy with the Arab Strap. The 10 songs here have such a natural pop sensibility, such a grace and resonance, it's hard now to believe that Tigermilk was only originally intended as a small-time project between seven Glaswegian friends (the original vinyl release was limited to 1,000 copies). Whimsical, surreal, and beautiful, this reissue is well worth the wait. [more] Track Listing |
Belle and Sebastian Album Reviews
From Pitchfork: LateNightTales
From Pitchfork: The Life Pursuit
From Pitchfork: If You're Feeling Sinister: Live at the Barbican
From Pitchfork: Push Barman to Open Old Wounds
From Pitchfork: Step into My Office, Baby EP / I'm a Cuckoo EP / Books EP
From Pitchfork: Dear Catastrophe Waitress
From Pitchfork: Storytelling
From Pitchfork: Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant
From Pitchfork: Lazy Line Painter Jane
From Pitchfork: Tigermilk
From Pitchfork: The Boy with the Arab Strap
Belle and Sebastian Articles and Interviews
From Pitchfork: Interview: March 6, 2006
Belle and Sebastian T-Shirts, Posters and Other Goodies
The Official Belle and Sebastian Online Store
Feedback And Credits
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