Tindersticks - supper club tosh?

goddamned macintosh.

i like 'tiny tears v much'. its a bit like trance tunes, almost obscenely manupulative in terms of your emotions.

Here however is proper Tindersticks and, to my ears, is now more of a Tindersticks song than a Pavement number.

Initially I didn't believe that The Tindersticks attempts to adopt a more overt soul sound would amount to much. Thing is, though tentative, it does work. 'Simple Pleasures' is ace - Pretty Words, I Know That Loving and Before You Close Your Eyes open out their sound nicely and prove that 'soul' doesn't simply equal sweat. They could do to beef up the horns though. 'Can Our Love' doesn't quite get there with a couple of old-style dirges spoiling the flow, but Sweet Release may be their best moment yet.

I suppose if I had to keep just one 'sticks album I'd go for 'Donkeys' - the best singles, two good covers, Tiny Tears and the magnificent For Those.

I think the first half of Curtains is fantastic, but the second album is my favorite. I haven't heard their cover of "Here" but it sounds like something they could do in a really fantastic, plinky way-- sort of like "Cherry Blossoms" almost. Oh, and the swing version of "Rented Rooms" is primal tosh. I wish they'd do a Bond theme.

The specific virtues of the first two albums are too far from each other for me to express a preference for either, but the first grows better with time for me, while the second is the most instantly amazing (Ambrose is dead right about "Tiny Tears": I have never been drained so deeply and sent so far by one song). After that, well, like Marcello I associate them with Stereolab, ie irrelevant and useless to me after a specific moment of my life which is hard to pin down but I know it instantly when I think about it. I bought "Curtains" when it came out, played it a few times, tried to love it and then just realised it had nothing for me (I thought that was because I was discovering Wu-Tang or whatever but now I realise the truth: They Were Going Around In Circles and "Ballad of Tindersticks" was infinitely worse even than B&S's "Seymour Stein"). I have deliberately taken no notice of their recent work precisely because I don't want to spoil the memory of the moment when I thought they were the greatest band of the 90s.

If you only know the first two albums and build your life around them and become obsessed with them you might think the same. But then I was completely fucked up at the time, so it's probably better just to listen to and love them (and you will, unless you're old sourpuss Ewing).

tindersticks are one of those bands i would like to like more than i do. i only have donkeys, and musically they have many virtues -- very smart arrangements, excellent playing and interesting lyrics. but stuart staples' singing just kills it -- god, his voice is even worse than leonard cohen's (god, just about anything traceable to leonard cohen is shit)! it's because i find staples' singing so awful that i just stopped with donkeys. should i go deeper or not?

so, yes, tindersticks = tosh.

You go to hell! You go to hell and you die!

I only have Curtains. But I don't care what anyone says, it's laaahvly. Don't Look Down, Bathroom, Fast One and Walking are all fantastic. And the rest of them are pretty damn fine as well.

i've heard a rumor that Satan sounds a helluva lot like Leonard Cohen (and that Leonard Cohen's music is Hell's soundtrack).

as i said before, i like the tindersticks' music ... and i suppose i could get used to staples' voice (the way i got used to robert smith and ian mccullough, though neither sounds like Leonard Cohen and that helps immeasurably). the tindersticks' music is light-years' better than Cohen's music, too.

Stuart Staples is HOTT. All the spazzy mannerisms that would be unbecoming singers of less charisma were totally mesmerizing and sexy when performed by him. He knows exactly what to do with his limited voice. The band was remarkable, and performed each song in the familiar LP arrangement without fuss. It reminded me more of a salsa show or something than a rock show, in how professional and tight the band was.

I still think Simple Pleasure is by some distance their finest moment, partly because I like the focus their Hi Records obsession gives them and partly because I just like ballads. But they performed a wide swath of their back catalog live --only two songs from S.P. IIRC--and while not all of the songs were my favorites from the LPs, it was like infinitely engrossing variations on a single sound. (There was one fairly boring number, to be fair, which I think is from the new record b/c I didn't recognize it.)

* Actually I've been to one supper club, it was owned by my best friend's girlfriend's dad and we stopped in to use the washroom. They had a guy playing medleys on the piano and he was terrible. We made a quick exit after taking care of business.

I'd like to hear them re-record I've Been Loving You Too Long now, 'cos the original's a clunker but I've got a feeling they might be able to carry it off well now.

Saw them do an open-air gig with a full orchestra at Somerset House last year and it was breathtaking.

He's in another band too isn't he? Their name escapes me right now, but somewhat surprisingly, they make very very good South london-based dub/ragga/electro stuff...

i liked the 3head single i heard too

It's true. And it was good. I saw Nancy Sinatra there too.