Nick Hornby: “A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You’ve got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention… and then you’ve got to up it a notch, and you can’t have white music and black music together, unless the white music sounds like black music, and you can’t have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you’ve done the whole thing in pairs, and … oh there are loads of rules.”
ECHO :03
The Dandy Warhols – Boys Better
Following Nick Hornby’s rules, I’m kicking this off with a corker. First time I saw the Dandys, they were touring for this album, their second, opening for Curve. I talked about Curve on Echo :02. That’s because I love them. See, ’cause back in the day, there was a thing called shoegaze, kids, principal examples of which were, among others, Ride, My Bloody Valentine, Jesus & Mary Chain and Slowdive–just these walls of sound that the bands would create whilst staring at their shoes. The Dandys were kinda lumped into that category, and for good reason. Just a bunch of great, bludgeoning, fuzzy tracks that make you wanna move.
School of Seven Bells – Dial
Benjamin Curtis and twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza were School of Seven Bells (SVIIB to the cool kids.) I say “were” because they are no longer a band. After this album, which came out in 2010, and right before I saw them play live, Claudia left the band. Literally, I think it happened the day before they played in Albuquerque. A shame, because I’ll probably never get to see them actually perform these gorgeous harmonies. But the real kick in the gut? Two years ago, Benjamin Curtis died of lymphoma. Shit gets complicated. And this band will be missed.