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The hister d-bag's over at pitchfork out together a slowdive documentary based mostly on the making of souvlaki. As much as I dislike pitchfork in general, it was a really good documentary, good insight into the songs, good gear shots, Alan McGee being fat/bald/asshole as per usual.

I highly recommend it if you have an hour...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjr6esFXJl4

stoked to watch it! thx for sharing

"I wasn't too happy to have two goths in my indie band." Oh god, that's everyone I've been in a band in back in school.

As much as I've loved the gazing of shoes, I've never been into Slowdive. Let's see if this changes my mind...

finboy wrote:Alan McGee being fat/bald/asshole as per usual.

unfair comment. mcgee is a riot of a man. up there with malcolm mclaren and tony wilson as one of the all time greats of the british indie scene.
if it wasn't for mcgee stepping in when he did, with his characteristic indulgence and imagination, slowdive could so easily (really easily) have ended up supporting the soup dragons and emf for a miserable half-starved year before chucking it all in to go off to study sociology at ucl (like a million other long-forgotten shoegaze also-rans of that time). that list is endless. they were lucky to have his indulgence, he was lucky to have their talent. end of.

re 'souvlaki', i (and most indie people i knew at that time, journos, musicians, etc) instinctively suspected buller might have been the wrong man for the job, coming straight off the back of producing suede's debut singles and album. he seemed to be a singles (tight, polished) producer and they were an album (spacious and atmospheric) band.
in a perfect world shields would have undertaken the mixing and production duties (possibly under the benevolent and unobtrusive oversight of eno). mcgee probably even considered it for a perfect-but-mad second. but having just been brought to the point of bankruptcy and nervous breakdown by the whole overdue 'loveless' palaver, mcgee (justifiably) wouldn't have been able to trust shields to flush a toilet at that point, let alone mix an entire semi-ambient album. so it had to go to someone who could deliver an even remotely saleable result to deadline. hence buller got the gig. and credit to him, he delivered a beauty for all who still cared. even if the kids’ attention had by then turned elsewhere.

in a way (as mcgee and the band admitted in the doc) the whole album issue had already become something of a vanity project well past its sell-by date, as the british alternative teen market was utterly besotted with kurt, brett/damon (interchangeable) by that time.
that mcgee held firm in his belief and still stumped up the time, energy and expense to follow through on his commitment to the band, almost certainly knowing that he was totally pissing into the wind in commercial terms, is a gesture that would certainly not have been wasted on the band. and 'souvlaki' is the legacy of that relationship and commitment.

even on a bad day i think you'd be hard pushed to find any member of slowdive refer to mcgee as an asshole. then or now.

Japan's incredible yet largely unknown answer to Slowdive.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMuNjgULtE8[/youtube]

This was a great documentary and very enjoyable to watch. I was delighted to see them live -- they had a huge sound and the light show was perfect for the music.

sonidero wrote:

Japan's incredible yet largely unknown answer to Slowdive.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMuNjgULtE8[/youtube]

not really 'an answer to' anything to be fair ('an answer to' suggesting 'engaging in' a dialogue). this is more echolalia and pure imitation offered in the absence of genuinely formulating 'an answer to'.
not to say it isn't listenable. if you like an original you can't help enjoy something about a very close copy, however anachronistic and a dead-end in creative terms. but artistically speaking, this is no more than holding a mirror up to something someone else is doing. pointing in lieu of creating. but am glad you posted it for consideration. it's still worth a listen.

historically, japanese culture has long held a kind of devotional-and-meticulously-crafted 'imitation as an artform in itself' in a higher rank than more indivdualitic western cultures. don't mean that in a perjorative way, it's just a different cultural perspective that can be factored in when considering this kind of thing.

there's a very illuminating and informative chapter in simon reynolds book 'retromania' on the shibuya-kei scene of the 1990s (chapter called 'turning japanese; the empire of retro and hipster international') that explores the japanese copy-band phenomena. recommended reading.

I, embarrassingly, hadn't heard of Slowdive until this. I enjoyed the documentary, very much. And, will probably look into them further.

Funny how the doc had footage of an FX500 on Soft Focus when they recently said they didn't use that patch. I'm assuming that wasn't archival footage, then.

I think they just didn't use they default patch.