SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Tindersticks [the red one] (1993).
Tindersticks are a fascinating band. The first distinctive thing about them is Stuart Staples’ voice: a deep rich bass that he uses almost like a whisper. The second thing you notice is the music. It’s an orchestral/chamber pop collection of dark rockers with fantastic moodiness to it. And then you notice the lyrics: dark songs of lost (and decayed) love.
Yet despite the description of chamber pop, the nad is really much darker than chamber pop suggests. The band has a very noir sound: organs that penetrate through walls of sound, tinkling pianos suring hushed moments. The horns and strings add dark atmospherics (strings zing like a Hitchcock movie). And the minor key chords are rich and loud.
You also get a song like “Whisky and Water” which genuinely rocks hard (loud guitars are featured). Or a simple acoustic guitar driven song like “Blood.” Throughout the disk you get these fantastic melodies that play off of Staples’ voice and the twisted lyrics. “City Sickness” and “Patchwork” are just two of the tracks that are very catchy.
And then there’s the fantastic “Jism” with its awesome noir organ. Or “Raindrops” with its accents of vibes and the beautiful piano trilling at the end (and the detailed and emotional lyrics: What we got here is a lazy love / It mooches around the house / Can’t wait to go out / What it needs, it just grabs / It never asks / We sit and watch the divide widen / We sit and listen to our hearts crumble”). “Her” follows up with a wonderfully flamenco-infused spaghetti western number.
And lets not forget “Drunk Tank” a propulsive song that is as sinister as it is catchy. Oh heck, I could just keep raving. But there’s 22 songs! Four songs are about a minute each, and the disc is about 75 minutes (not bad for a debut!). And the disc never loses momentum or its sense of purpose.
What really distinguishes this disk is the mood of the music. Like the best soundtracks, you can feel the emotions and imagery with the music alone, but when you add Staples’ evocative lyrics and powerful voice, it’s a deadly potent combination.
The disc was reissued a few years ago with a bonus disc of demo tracks. The demos are surprisingly rich (they’re not at-home recordings or done without accompaniment) so they don’t differ that dramatically from the originals. But they have a slightly less polished feel, which doesn’t hurt the band at all. There’s also a demo of the fantastic “For Those…” which doesn’t appear on the original disc.
I have to thank my friend Lar for getting me into this band. (Thanks Lar).
[READ: October 19, 2009] McSweeney’s #32
The concept for this issue is this: McSweeney’s asked several authors to “travel somewhere in the world–Budapest, Cape Town, Houston, any sleepy or sleepless outpost they could find–and send back a story set in that spot fifteen years from now, in the year 2024.”
And so, all of the stories are vaguely sci-fi-ish in that they are future related, but they are all grounded very heavily in reality, in particular, the reality of individuals trying to live in this future world. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 