In Praise of Kate St. Clair

Back this up more fully, please. I'd like to believe you because I do like Brad Laner, but my hatred for Medicine is boundless, so if he actually made an honest to goodness GOOD Medicine record...

excuse me while i change my underpants

I'm sorry if I'm building it up. I think perhaps the reason that I was able to accept it so quickly is that there was no build-up or hype for me. An old friend told me Medicine were doing a new album a few months ago, and I didn't believe her. So the fact that they actually produced a record at all was a happy occasion, let alone that it was such a good one!

Beth - and I love Beth's voice, don't get me wrong - was an early 90's indie pop girl singer. Which was good and fine and a beautiful thing. But the vocals on this album sound more ... I hate to use the word ... SOULFUL. (Ack! Ack! Bad visions of Kevin Rowland on TOTP2 last night! Beggone!) It's got that close-harmony girlgroup vibe going on. I hate to say it but it's like Brad has finally given way to his Prince fetish (I hate Prince, but Prince influences in other music are a Good Thing.) or something. The vocals are POP.

People don't keep talking about Manitoba to say that it's "like" Manitoba, but rather to say that "this record accomplishes what Manitoba set out to do and failed." In that it is a merger of psychedelic guitar rock and glitchy IDM - but Medicine add smooth, sexy, sleak Missy/Destiny/Sugababe-iness to the mix. You know, that close harmony singing that Radiohead don't do. ;-)

This is turning into the worst sort of hyperbole. So I'll stop. But I'm glad that someone else liked the record. I always used to say that there were two answers to the question: "Do you like Medicine?" One is "I've never heard of them" and the other is "Oooohh, yesssssss" (with a sort of hipsway and trippy gleam to the eye.)

Anyway... This thread should be in praise of Medicine, not me.

(Besides that fact, I wish *I* had made this record. I kinda wanna burn all EBA tracks and start again when I hear music like this. Except this is the direction in which we are starting to head anyway.)

But it's GIANT PUT-TOGETHER MOLECULE MODELS!!! How cool is that?

HSA knows the guy who invented them. He's very cross and trying to sue Damien Hirst for nicking them, apparently. But then again, I lose track of who's suing who in the art world lately.

GIANT MOLECULE MODEL KITS!!! THAT IS COOOOOOOOL!!!

(I'd be interested to know what you think of it, Nick.)

(Though he came home with two new Disinformation albums last night. OK, one of them wasn't new, but he got really upset when I called it a "Greatest Hitz".)

(Cue memories of Sonic bitching in NME article about "Jason kept disappearing down to London to see his mate. Turns out Jason was SHAGGING MATE'S BIRD AND YOKO ONO, O NO, GRRRRRR I HATE HER!!!" etc. etc, because he was so heartbroken at Jason's defection.)

(OK, even I couldn't get through more than 5 minutes of Data Rape, but still.)

So it isn't a surprise that i don't love kate.

but I do not hate kate, either.

(Or a teabagging as the case may be.)

Who is Pete Kember? It's too early for Noodles to be up yet, isn't it?

Oh, and I love Ned Raget.

And it's pronounced Kate Saint Claire. None of this Sinclair nonsense for me. It rhymes and alliterates and scans better if you pronounce the Saint.

Avril is Ned your 'SK8R BOI'?

(And Jason and Pete may recommence fighting over me any time now, please!)

Besides, I still have faith that Sonic still has the Great Lost Dronepop album some day (and the working with Randall Fuxa is promising).

And besides, Sonic Boom has played gigs with HSA (and there was some discussion of them making an album together) so he gets points that way. So there!

(But you can still try and woo me if you like!)

I need a new job. Why can't I just muck about with Reason all day long, I mean Be A Sound Artist?

And who would that someone be? Don't look at me, Im not going to do it if your not going to post pictures of Plungers. And I didn't name the band.

Who is Pete Kember? It's too early for Noodles to be up yet, isn't it?

Im up at 9, but you should know I have a rule, no writing emails or posting till Im done my coffee.

I hate trying to describe a record like this (see Kingfish's "all you were building it up to," above,) more than any other kind perhaps, because the points-of-reference both musical (MBV, Beach Boys, I hear Prince all over this thing too) and adjectival ("blissful," "transcendental," "bubblegum") are so freakin' fraught. It's a fine record...a half-dozen spins have only confirmed for me what I first thought. And Kate's exactly right: it's a POP record, which the other Medicine things I've heard were not.

I'll be curious to know what Nick Southall (whose boosting of the Manitoba record convinced me of that) makes of it...

(And yeah, Kate, this thread *is* in praise of Medicine really, but I'll take any excuse to bring Kember and Pierce into the mix around here as well...see, it worked.)

I'd say Ned/MBV but he's got that Cure wild card in there.

I don't mind listening to prince, but I really don't like watching him writhe around on the floor in all his skinny ickiness.

then there's my obsession:

http://catalog.com/mrm/zappa/images/young.jpg

The first time I ever saw Medicine they were supporting HNIA. Or was it the other way around? Can't recall. My sister and I got trapped backstage and Ed Ruscha Jr. guarded the toilet for us. That was funny. Heh.

Medicine are, fundamentally, a PSYCHEDELIC BAND who found yet more neat stuff (including computers) with which they could make PSYCHEDELIC SOUNDS TO FUCK WITH YER HEAD!!! Which is the very point of a psychedelic record. The Glitch isn't treated as a gimmick as - OH WOW-WOW-W-W0W0W-W-WOW we have a Glitch. It's just another thing thrown into the mix to make you think your head is melting.

Which makes me wonder how fast this record will date. (Will Glitches sound as dated in 5, 10 years as backwards reverb and phasing and other 60s psych tricks sound now?)

Anyway. Listen to the record some more. It's both an instant high *and* a grower.

http://www.safetycenter.navy.mil/MEDIA/images/a-m/Gun%20salute.jpg

Seems like yesterday we used to rock the show
I laced the track, you locked the flow
So far from hangin on the block for dough
Kate St Clair, they got to know that
Life ain't always what it seem to be (uh-uh)
Words can't express what you mean to me
Even though you're gone, we still a team
Through your family, I'll fulfill your dream (that's right)
In the future, can't wait to see
If you'll open up the gates for me
Reminisce some time, the night they took my friend (uh-huh)
Try to black it out, but it plays again
When it's real, feelings hard to conceal
Can't imagine all the pain I feel
Give anything to hear half your breath (half your breath)
I know you still living your life, after death

damn ned

Brad knows I've felt that way for years! And the thing is I love everything else he's done, pretty much. (New solo album's great.)