A kung fu fighter in a disco

hehe, there is NO WAY they're going down in this poll though.

also they are great, although now they are more rubbish than they used to be when they were completely great.

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Pro:

1. I like their inclusive spirit.
2. I like a lot of their tunes.
3. Indirectly responsible for me knowing lots of my friends.

Anti:

1. Their inclusive spirit extends to letting people who aren't Stuart Murdoch do the songs.
2. I haven't liked many of their tunes since about 2000.*
3. Indirectly responsible for Snow Patrol.

*they are another of those bands my listening life is littered with who got rub pretty much as soon as I started liking them. Except for "Stay Loose" which is grebt in bits.

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come on, blaming them for snow patrol is pretty damn harsh.

otherwise OTM.

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OK "Indirectly responsible for How Does It Feel" then, arf arf.

Have they inspired anything good musically? (As opposed to socially)

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braisedbywolves.livejournal.com

Related to your last question: are they in any way actually afilliated with Camera Obscura?

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There's something faintly repulsive about Camera Obscura even when I enjoy an individual song or two.

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Stuart Murdoch did some producing for them - the divine Eighties Fan was one of his I think.

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braisedbywolves.livejournal.com

That was the track that made me go "must have more now"

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It was Your Sound in the middle of the night on 120 Minutes that got me.

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catsgomiaow.livejournal.com

He was also going out with the singer - dunno if he still is as my nindie gossip skillz are not up to scratch (also I don't care).

My B&S verdict: the first 3 albums great (and the EPs), the rest rather rub.

(they were sort of responsible for tompaulin, in that Jamie decided to form that band at the first Bowlie Weekender)

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no, stuart and tracy-anne split up aaaages ago.

however, belle and sebastian were why their keyboard player moved to glasgow...

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not really no. i think most of the similar bands that came after them were influenced by the same bands as b&s and thought "hey we can do that" rather than being directly influenced by b&s.

i can't even think who ppl might say were influenced by them (camera obscura definitely don't count)

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I own two records by B&S - Tigermilk and the "I'm A Cuckoo" CD single.

I wouldn't part with them (or with "Lazy Line Painter Jane" if I owned that, which I don't). But I still voted to send them down. They have no place on Poptimists. Confine them to

indieguilt innit.

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blue-russian.livejournal.com

Why not?

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zenith.livejournal.com

Crazy talk! In what sense is something like 'Step Into My Office' not pop?

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Absolutely - if anything they've gone more pop as time has gone on.

Jonathan David - one of the great lost pop hits of our time - channels the uber-pop spirit of The Kinks, and it's not even a Murdoch song! It's punchy pop underdog Stevie Jackson who turns the singles out, I reckon.

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My problem with the non-Murdoch songs isn't the songwriting so much as the singing. On Jonathan David for instance there's that wretched quavering "you're still kiiiing" bit that always always throws me out of the song. Murdoch seems to have a much better idea of what his voice can and can't successfully achieve.

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He sounds like Ray Davies to me, and so the quavering is sublime. But I can understand the opposition.

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Most pop is neither wimpy nor shy. B&S use wimpiness and shyness as a selling point. I hate wimpiness and shyness! Lack of social skills more like.

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Time to get Lex into Frazier Chorus!

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Really? I think that ideas of wimpiness or shyness are projected onto the band rather than inherent in their music, which is more often than not passionate and flirty. Introspective? I'd certainly accept that but not as a criticism. Coyness is a fair accusation, but I bet Mr Murdoch would be the first to quote back Morrissey on that...

I think if you went back over the singles they've put out, that none of them are remotely wimpy or shy but nearly all of them are pop. They are NINDIE, which many find confusing.

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I think something B&S capture very well sometimes is the flare of passion, or undercurrent of passion, in an apparently repressed life.

I've been trying to think why their recent stuff has left me so unmoved: I wonder if they worry too much about good taste.

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no, it's because it all sounds the same.

unlike their old stuff which sounded a better all the same.

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actually i think their could be a taste issue, a lot of the last alBUM is kind of hipster jazzfunk nonce-sense. i blame StuD for leaving (and smelling of wee), when it was him and Struan writing it was effectively a different band to struan and stevie...

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braisedbywolves.livejournal.com

I don't think they're all that repressed at all, there at least one song about people AT IT on their earlier albums, and their best single (Lazy Line Painter Jane), is gleefully carnal (but not filthy). I think this was part of the thing, that they were hardcore twee, but acknowledged that even the type of people who've been listening to this sort of thing since (EG) The Wedding Present did occasionally play football and kiss girls and stuff.

I would also suggest that being Scottish helped sell them down south as a slightly wilder type of indiebods, but I might just be being racist there :)

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Is NINDIE distinct from mere INDIE, and in what way? I am unfailiar with either but I suspect that while the latter is an umbrella covering a few things I like, the former is NOT.

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I'm using it to describe poppy and possibly a bit jangly guitar music. There's probably a big sixties and soul influence. There is nothing that will frighten your gran.

eg Slint are indie but they are not nindie.

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yes, NINDIE seems to be a synonym here for REAL ACTUAL PROPER INDIE, ie postcard/cherry red/sarah influenced, jangly/acoustical gtr. stuff.

distinct again from PROPER INDIE which is early 90s post-baggy, non-grunge uk gtr pop (eg tfc, boo radleys etcetc)

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a Venn Diagram might be helpful* at this point

*on

indieguilt where I can't see it, not here obv

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Hmm I think I hate both of those.

What sort of indie are PJ Harvey, YYYs, The Knife, The Gossip, LCD Soundsystem et al, ie the music I like which makes people accuse me of being indie?

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MODERN INDIE

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Ha ha! They are ROCK!

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atommickbrane.livejournal.com

I think there's a good point to put forward HAIRCUT INDIE again m'lud (but not Peej!!)

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I didn't say they weren't pop. Of course they're pop. But that does not give you a free pass into poptimists. We have standards. :)

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also B&S-fan baiting is FUN

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awesomewells.livejournal.com

I thought this was supposed to be about the Young Persons Music, surely even the youngest B&S fans are into their mid-20s now?

I hate them as you all know, for all the most obvious reasons. And yet so many people I like seem to love them.

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I was convinced you were an ex Sinister person!

Belle & Sebastian are seriously fvcking dreadful. I would complain more but frankly nothing so-called Poptimists do any more surprises me.

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JUDGE POP must judge the oldsters as well as the juves.

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jel-bugle.livejournal.com

If they'd split up after their first two albums and their EPs, they'd be free to go. As it is, they have become most criminal.

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piratemoggy.livejournal.com

Great things by Belle and Sebastien:
'Get me away from here I'm dying' (or whatever it's called)

Bad things by Belle and Sebastien:
Nearly everything else

Really fvcking horrifically awful things by Belle and Sebastien:
Funny Little Frog -AARGH. [No I have not confused it with Lord Crazy of Frog, it is just really really bad all by itself. :(]

Sometimes I can deal with twee but very rarely and it generally requires a certain not killing my ears aspect. My boyfriend tells me that I listen to a lot of twee music, however, so maybe I am just in denial.

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Crazy Little Frog is actually quite a nasty song!

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