Belle and Sebastian and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Belle and Sebastian was founded by Stuart Murdoch and his friend Stuart David for Murdoch’s music class at Stow College. Murdoch had been dealing with chronic fatigue syndrome prior to attending college and wrote stories and music in his free time as a way to cope with the illness. Originally, Murdoch was assigned to record one demo for the class’s label Electric Honey. However their professor was so impressed that he allowed the group to record a full LP entitled “Tigermilk.” The original Belle and Sebastian consisted of guitarist Stevie Jackson, cellist Isobel Campbell, keyboard player Chris Geddes, and drummer Richard Colburn.

Jeepster Label released Belle and Sebastian second album called “If You’re Feeling Sinister” in November 1996. By this time, the group had a cult following. After Sarah Martin joined the group as a violinist, the group released a triad of EPs in 1997: “Dog on Wheels,” “The Lazy Line Jane Painter,” and “3…6..9…Seconds of Light.” The last EP made the Top 40’s chart in the UK.

Shortly after the debut of their next album “The Boy With the Arab Strip” in 1998, Belle and Sebastian was awarded “Best Newcomer” at the 1999 BRIT Awards. In the early 2000s the band toured internationally despite the news that founder Stuart David and cellist Isobel left the group.

Belle and Sebastian changed record labels to Rough trade in 2003. The change seemed to be a good move since the album “Dear Catastrophe Waitress” had a few songs chart in the UK, such as “Step Into My Office Baby” and “I’m a Cuckoo”.

The band continues to make music and have played at historic venues like the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, US. Their music has been described as whimsical and has been compared to bands like The Smiths.

Their sound often channels the jangle-pop sound heard from bands like the Smiths, New Order, and early My Bloody Valentine. A few publications have exclaimed that their music sounds as if it could seamlessly back a John Hughes film. With the groups overly ambitious sound and exuberant hooks this really does seem like an excellent comparison. The group also takes substantial influence from C86-eque bands like the Field Mice and Black Tambourine.

The group is largely the vision of lead singer Kip Berman. Berman was originally from Philadelphia, but moved to Portland, Oregon. In Oregon he attended Reed College and formed multiple short lived bands. After his time in college he moved to New York City and met future bandmate Alex Naidus who was his co-worker at the time. The two shared a similar love for music particularly dream-pop and 90s noise rock groups like Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins. The two recruited Peggy Wang as the keyboardist and started playing very concise sets to small audiences. One of their first gigs was at Peggy Wang’s birthday party. It was just Berman, Naidus, Wang and a drum machine at this time. The band went on establishing a fan base for themselves and put out their debut EP through their self-created label Painbow.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart would eventually leave Painbow to join Slumberland (a label that many of the band’s idols were on including Black Tambourine). The group went on to release their self-titled debut album through this label. Their first LP was not only critically garnered, it was also commercially viable going all the way to number 9 on the “Billboard Heatseekers Chart”. The band’s sophomore album “Belong” came out on 29 March 2011 to rave reviews. “Belong” was produced and mixed by British audio engineer Alan Moulder. His resume is impressive to say the least. He has worked with shoegaze legends like My Blood Valentine, Ride and the Jesus and Mary Chain and influential post-punk revivalist such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Nine Inch Nails and Interpol. The band toured extensively for this album playing alongside Twin Shadow for multiple shows.

The band’s follow up album “Days of Abandon”, released on 13 May 2014 saw a change in the band’s line up. Founding members Naidus and Wang both left the group as well as drummer Kurt Feldman although he was present during the recording of this album. Jen Goma from A Sunny Day in Glasgow and brass player Kelly Prat joined the band to help make the record. Andy Savours who is credited for producing music for My Bloody Valentine and Sigur Ros contributed in the recording process for “Days of Abandon”. The group’s line up continued to evolve during this period. Anton Hochheim, brother of Christoph Hochheim and co-member of the band Ablebody stepped in as the band’s new drummer, Jacob Sloan filled in as bass player and Jessica Weiss of Fear of Men fame replaced Wang as keyboardist. The band’s sound still kept its shimmering sound, but was perceived as being more articulated. Critics paralleled the group’s sound to that of the Smiths, the Cure and the New Pornographers (a band who Pains of Being Pure of Hearts would open for in support of their third album).