‘Winter Wooskie’ is the third track on Belle & Sebastian’s 2000 Legal Man EP, released back in the days when the band would put out new material on singles in between their full-length albums.
The 25 songs they released this way between 1997 and 2001 combine to rival any of their LPs, and in fact the whole lot were released on a double disc in 2005 with the title Push Barman to Open Old Wounds.
My desert island countdown continues (see Monday’s post for the full explanation).
Desert Island Musical Artists – Honorable Mention – Belle & Sebastian
The Scottish septet very nearly made my top five but the tough competition edged them out to the unofficial sixth spot.
Eight full-length albums and a couple of dozen B-sides and EP tracks should keep me in twee indie-pop heaven for quite awhile.
In Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, my favorite novel, the protagonist Rob Fleming is obsessed with making lists. Lists about life, love and art — mostly about art.
At one point in the book he, as a record store owner, is asked to provide his top five favorite songs for a column in a local magazine. The prospect of having one of his lists set in stone and published for all the world to see scares him to death.
I feel about Belle & Sebastian the way Pulp Fiction‘s Vincent Vega feels about Europe — they’re similar to other alternative bands but just a little bit different.
It has something to do with the makeup of the band, I’m sure. Seven members, several of whom trade off lead vocals, playing traditional rock band instruments as well as cellos, violins and plenty of woodwinds. You’re pretty much guaranteed to have a unique sound given that lineup.
I’m not sure how much I can really say about a two and a half minute instrumental track from an album of Belle and Sebastian b-sides.
This song has that familiar surf rock sound, which I like. It conjures up a modern western vibe, memorably tapped into by Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction.
Meet Me In Montauk 