Tindersticks

[danielmak]

I'm going with a broader thread for this band even though I have a specific question. Tindersticks did a cover of Pavement's "Here." However, I'm only finding a listing for the song on a Sub Pop 7" single. Does anyone know if this song is on any Tindersticks CDs? I assume it would be added as a bonus track to something.

[Benjm]

I think it's on their Donkeys 92-97 compilation.

[Etienne]

It was a b side to Bathtime. Along with a cover of Kathleen by Townes van Zandt. As this is the only Tindersticks single I owned, you struck lucky.

[Etienne]

It is on Donkeys too, of course.

[danielmak]

Thanks for the listing.

It's a great cover of, for me, one of Pavement's best songs. I get that the Tindersticks have a limited range. Even as a fan, I can't see listening to more than one record at a time since every song is more or less the same. But I love their sound.

[Jah Womble]

Tindersticks II (to distinguish it from its predecessor) had more variety to it - the eight-minute My Sister is quite something, with its spoken monologue by Isabel Monteiro out of Drugstore.

I've seen the band just the once, headlining ATP at Camber in 2004: as I've suggested before, the fact that Stuart Staples et al were top of the bill became something of a bone of contention to the artist who felt he shouldn't have had to play second fiddle - the late Mr Arthur Lee out of Love.

Who may well have had a point.

[ad hoc]

A good friend of mine, Dickon, joined Tindersticks when they became Tindersticks (prior to that the other members of the band were very localised to Nottingham under the name Asphalt Ribbons). Dickon did the strings basically, as well as the orchestration in the relevant tracks. I think he a was key part of their success (though I probably would say that). He does film music now (pretty successfully)

[Benjm]

I've got an indelible impression of Tindersticks' sound and ambience but it is almost entirely based on their work before the millennium. My current sense of them is that every so often they turn up at the Barbican (or another comfortable, seated arts venue) with a show that is likely to have some twist rather than being a straightforward concert; full orchestral accompaniment, say, or live soundtrack recital. That's not a criticism; it's a sensible way of working for an art rock band of near 30 years standing with a loyal audience.

[Jah Womble]

Noted Irish musician David Kitt contributed a fair bit to their output over the years, too.

For some reason, Tindersticks were absolutely massive in Greece during the nineties, as were Six By Seven. With The Verve rating as the best-selling act there in 1998, it seems that your Athens-massive were pretty mad for their darker alt-rock at that time.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I've got an indelible impression of Tindersticks' sound and ambience but it is almost entirely based on their work before the millennium. My current sense of them is that every so often they turn up at the Barbican (or another comfortable, seated arts venue) with a show that is likely to have some twist rather than being a straightforward concert; full orchestral accompaniment, say, or live soundtrack recital. That's not a criticism; it's a sensible way of working for an art rock band of near 30 years standing with a loyal audience.

I was about to start with "I saw them recently..." and thought I'd better check that and indeed it was actually over four years ago - but anyway it was (new) album in full, with film projections and so on, and there was a definite event feel to it (and it was in the seated Sage). I was looking at going to see them on this year's tour, which may become next year's tour, which, etc.

[Etienne]

Their sound did evolve substantially between their first album (which is a very good indie rock album) and their fourth album Simple Pleasure which is basically a soul album. Since then their albums have been much of a muchness, but with steadily diminishing returns. I think they do miss Dickon actually. Tindersticks do film soundtracks too, including almost every film done by Claire Denis, and they are very good at that - possibly because Stuart Staples voice which has become more affected over time isn't there.

[Etienne]

I think l am damning with faint praise there. I should clarify that I think Tindersticks 1, Tindersticks 2 and Simple Pleasure are great albums, Curtains is very good, and you could make a brilliant compilation from their subsequent work if you cut all the filler.

[MsD]

A good friend of mine, Dickon, joined Tindersticks when they became Tindersticks (prior to that the other members of the band were very localised to Nottingham under the name Asphalt Ribbons). Dickon did the strings basically, as well as the orchestration in the relevant tracks. I think he a was key part of their success (though I probably would say that). He does film music now (pretty successfully)

I'm mates with their first drummer, Al. Who drums part-time with a jazz outfit now, teaches art the rest of the time.

[danielmak]

I'm sort of repeating what I posted above, but the Tindersticks for me have always been Nick Cave's ballads only. So, if Cave is going to release albums with nothing but ballads, that is going to get old. It's going to be cool for one record, but it will get old. I probably have 5 CDs from the Tindersticks but I'll be damned if I can figure out why I choose one or the other to listen to in the car whenever I pull one out. The only song I can name is "El Diabolo en el Ojo" (pasted below). Again, it's a band I like but it's also a band that I am shocked continues to exist. Of course, to bring it back to the my OP about the Pavement cover (and to derail the thread a bit, which is fitting for OTF), Pavement's song is good but also reflective of a band also kind of shocks me. Pavement was a band who could produce a couple songs on each their albums that had really catch melodies but no choruses. So they were a critic's darling but I don't know if that love was fully merited compared to other bands from that same time that were perhaps more interesting or that might have found a broader audience had those other bands received the same amount of ink that Pavement received.