Campus CD Collection Blowin' Indie Wind British Band The Tindersticks Seduces the Indie Rock Scene

Author: Erika Mercer

Picture a dark, smoky ballroom. Picture it in black and white. It's early morning and there are only a few solitary people left sitting around, each shrouded in smoke and floating in whiskey. The floor is dirty and the windows are draped with heavy, velvet curtains, but the room has not lost its character.
An elegant chandelier hangs from the ceiling, dripping wax from its candles, a grand piano sings from one corner of the room, and ornate golden frames hold valuable oil paintings.
In one glance, the scene is both striking and subdued, distressing and amusing.
The British band The Tindersticks was developed in 1992 out of the Nottingham-based Asphalt Ribbons. They currently hold base mainly in London, Bristol, England and Prague.
With the combined talents of five other band members (Dickon Hinchliffe on violin, guitar and vocals; Neil Fraser on guitar, David Boulter on keyboards and percussion; Alasdair Macaulay on drums and percussion, and Mark Colwill on bass guitar), lead vocalist and guitarist Stuart Staples manages to sound dramatic and tender, seductive and foreboding, all in the same moment.
Often slow and measured, the music rarely adheres to the common 4/4 time, taking on a unique sound all its own, a sound that will lure you into a mesmerized state of listening.
The lyrics are, at times, poetic and heartrending and at other times, ironic and humorous.
The Tindersticks is a band that threatens, with Staple's deep, dramatic, tobacco-stained drone weaving in and out of the affecting ebb and flow of a string-heavy orchestra, to outdo itself, yet somehow it never does.
Instead, The Tindersticks' music gains a grandiose, epic quality that cannot be matched, and which, has earned them international Indie popularity.
Since their first single, "Patchwork," the six-member band has released over a dozen CDs and EPs, although many of them are still difficult to lay hands on in the U.S. The album "Curtains" follows two self-titled albums (1993 and 1995) and the soundtrack to a Claire Denis film, "Nenette Et Boni." It is the Tindersticks' fourth full album to be released in the United States.
Masterful and profound, "Curtains" is arguably the most satisfying and mature of The Tindersticks' albums.
The opening song on the album, "Another Night In," begins like the heave of a sob, a breath swept up by mournful-sounding strings. The sob swells then falls quietly, stifled, sinking back into the rhythm of even breathing, a rhythm masking the suppressed grief and lovesickness.
Staples sings, "Regain your balance / Doesn't matter where she is tonight / Or with whoever she spends her time." The song, through the even sway of its rhythm preserves a sort of stoicism, and expresses a controlled sadness through Staples' deep, despairing voice and the rending sound of the string instruments crying beside him.
In total contrast is the second song on "Curtains," entitled "Rented Rooms." This song opens with Staples' voice, which immediately takes on a sarcastic, almost stinging tone, compared to the smooth, sad tone employed in "Another Night In."
Yet, the orchestration often parallels the dark and coarse nature of the song, where at times it seems to reach brighter moments than the lyrics it accompanies and prevents the song from becoming overly raw.
Ranging in sound from soft lullaby-like melodies to piercing, intense sounds, the result is an emotional and inspired collection of songs, which even features a stirring duet between Staples and actress Isabella Rosellini.
The Tindersticks are not background music; they clench your attention and don't let go until the album concludes.
Since the album "Curtains,"The Tindersticks have released, "Can Our Love…" in the United States. in 2001, followed by their most recent album, also released in 2001, the soundtrack to the film, "Trouble Every Day."
Their next album is scheduled for release in mid-2003.