Posts tagged: stuart murdoch

You know, elliot came on tour with us, in 1998 i think. He played some shows in the UK with us. He was quiet, perhaps he was a little shy of our numbers and our loudness (as people, not the sound of the group) but my impression was that he was very nice, respectful. I tried to get him to join in a little more, but he was happy where he was. I’m very glad we got the chance to play with him.
Stuart Murdoch, on Elliott Smith.
The Stars of Track and Field by Belle & Sebastian from the album: If You're Feeling Sinister

I get oddly sentimental when it comes to the changing of seasons, only because I have specific songs that I can only seem to listen to during certain seasons. I listen to Belle & Sebastian during every time of the year, but it always brings me back to the spring of grade 8.

My class and I went to Quebec, and I had a pretty impressive amount of spending money. I bought about four Belle & Sebastian albums, even though (slightly pathetic and embarrassing confession alert) I already owned one or two of them, I bought the same ones again, just in case of the slim chance that someone in my class occasionally listened to B&S but didn’t have any of their albums and wanted to hear one. I carried all of the albums in my hand proudly, specifically making sure that my hand wasn’t covering the part of the album that said “BELLE & SEBASTIAN”, so everyone would know what I was holding (I still do this with books and whatnot).

No one noticed/cared/had any interest in listening to them, but I don’t regret it, because most of the ones I bought (If You’re Feeling Sinister, Tigermilk, Live At The Barbican) have become some of my favourite albums. And what I did with the extra copies of albums was I cut up the album artworks and made binder covers out of them, so I could proudly hold my binders as I walked, and people would know what I listened to.

Your Cover's Blown by Belle & Sebastian

Your Cover’s Blown blew me away the first time I heard it. Even though I knew it was by Belle & Sebastian (Stuart Murdoch does have a pretty distinct voice), I just couldn’t quite wrap my head around that. Before I heard this song, I only knew the earlier Belle & Sebastian, and now, they sounded all confident (for some reason I always picture Stuart Murdoch strutting down a street while wearing sunglasses whenever I hear this), and it was such a nice surprise! Ridiculously ambitious song, right here.

Love this man.

Love this man.