Belle & Sebastian

I had trouble growing up finding bands that I really liked during the '90s. I liked Blind Melon, Radiohead, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Tragically Hip, Beck and Ween, but none of them ever made an impact like the Beatles, Stones, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin or David Bowie. They wrote cool music, but never stunned me with albums like Rubber Soul, Exile on Main St., Animals, Led Zeppelin or Ziggy Stardust, albums that I listened to over and over again, and still love listening to, they're simply outstanding.

I figured I was being unfair because '90s bands were new, meaning I couldn't pick and choose amongst multiple albums, many of which had been lauded for decades.

Still, none of the aforementioned '90s bands were releasing albums like the ones I've mentioned which led to disappoint if not boredom, a sense of feeling disconnected from the times, not really much of a concern, but I couldn't really talk about music without boring people and often didn't know what people were talking about when they talked about music, which was isolating, when circumstances weren't lighthearted.

People would recommend things, I didn't like their recommendations, and so on.

Then one day I came back from working in the bush two hours north of Cochrane, Ontario, to bush camp, and I heard some co-workers listening to this band I had never heard before. While I listened, I had a Twin Peaks moment, a moment of instant overwhelming fascination, a moment where I realized I had to figure out who this artist was and then listen to/watch/view/read as much of their material as possible, the same thing happened while reading my first paragraph of In Search of Lost Time, and while I watched John Elway lead The Drive; I asked them who the band was and they snottily replied, Belle & Sebastian.  

After the contract was finished and I returned home, I went and picked up a copy of Tigermilk and was completely blown away. Here was an album that was on par with my favourite material from the '60s and '70s yet different enough to forge its own unique identity. Songs about misfits who didn't fit in yet still longed for friendship or companionship, I listened to it over and over again, still listen to it, I tried to quit smoking once and listened to it 7 times in a row, I had found a '90s band that really worked for me, and it was amazing.

None of my friends liked them.

Until years later.

But their lyrics, Stuart Murdoch's lyrics, and some of Stevie Jackson's, Belle & Sebastian's George Harrison, stuck with me, I mean, he worked the word melancholy into a song and it didn't sound pretentious, it was like bliss, if their characters were sporty they were stars of track and field, so many wonderful songs about people who didn't fit in, I absolutely loved them, still love them, still love listening to them regularly, you can compare them to people, but I think Murdoch's lyrics defy direct comparisons, they're that original.

I never tried to write like him, I always write like my myself, I have plenty of influences, and Murdoch's definitely one of them, and I let what I listen to/watch/view/read percolate in my subconscious and it undoubtably formally surfaces while I'm writing my own material, but if it hadn't have been for that sense of, "we're isolated weirdos and that's awesome" that I got from listening to Belle & Sebastian, I probably never would have had the confidence to keep going for so many years.

It was like I was part of a community.

In my head anyways.

They also use strings, horns and keyboards regularly which all usually fit into the music I love. I can never understand why bands don't incorporate strings, horns and keyboards into their music if they can; all they do is enhance the music.

Nicky Hopkins.

Who's a contemporary Nicky Hopkins?

Tigermilk, If You're Feeling Sinister, and The Boy with the Arab Strap rival Zeppelin 1-3, Let it Bleed-Sticky Fingers-Exile on Main St., and Hunky Dory-Ziggy-Stardust-Aladdin Sane in terms of back-to-back-to-back mind blowing consistency.

I already love Nobody's Empire.

Can't wait to hear all of Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance.