SOUNDTRACK: JOSEF K-“Sorry for Laughing” (1985).
In Stuart David’s book, In The All-Night Café, he lists the songs on a mixtape that Stuart Murdoch gave to him when they first met.
Although I’ve been a fan of Belle & Sebastian for a long time, I knew almost none of the songs on this mixtape. So, much like Stuart David, I’m listening to them for the first time trying to see how they inspire Stuart Murdoch.
In the book, David writes how much he does not like “rock,” especially music based around bluesy rock. Most of these songs, accordingly, do not do that. In fact, most of these songs are (unsurprisingly) soft and delicate.
Josef K were a Scottish band named after the main character in Franz Kafka’s The Trial. I had never heard of them, but they are apparently hugely influential (despite releasing only one record).
Josef K are quite unlike anyone else on the mix tape thus far. They are far darker (in a Joy Division sort of way). I mean look what they based their name on. And there are drums. But they are also very un-rock–playing sharp angular guitars and lead bass lines.
“Sorry for Laughing” opens with a snapping drum and a rumbling, almost out of control bass line. The guitars are quieter, playing sharp chords. It’s catchy in a dark sort of way. The weirdest part comes at the end of the bridge when the bass seems to play a tiny riff that doesn’t quite work–it’s almost an anti-hook and it happens twice.
The middle of the song has a kind of bass solo while the vocals make a chk chk sound. This must have been an incredibly unique song at the time. And you can definitely hear how a lot of bands were influenced by them.
[READ: January 20, 2021] “Bohemia”
This story, set in the 1950s, is about Willie, a young Indian man traveling to London for the first time.
He is going to London for school–an un-famous school it turns out–modeled after Oxford and Cambridge.
Willie didn’t know much about London–Buckingham Palace and Speaker’s Corner were the extent of it. He was disappointed by both when he saw them. He felt the Maharaja’s palace was far superior, and the people in Speakers Corner were mostly irritating.
His father had given him the names of people to get in touch with. Willie didn’t want to do that–he wanted to succeed on his own. But he found things very tough going. So he looked up one of the men–a newspaper reporter. The man was very proud of his work and very proud of his paper But Willie knew nothing of the paper or even enough of London to know what the paper wrote about. It was not an auspicious meeting. (more…)
On September 17, Monster Magnet was the first band on my concert schedule to realize that our government couldn’t do anything and there’s no way a concert tour could happen in January.
I love going to see Cirques–all kinds of fun acrobatics and stunts on display. When my kids were younger, we went to a lot of them. Then we stopped for a while and I felt it was time to do it again.
