tape me!


	1	ASTRUD GILBERTO "the face I love" (Beach Samba-1967)
		MARIO: A nice summery song from Astrud. This song reminds me of "my favorite things" from the sound of music. i think it's mostly the lyrics and parts of the melody. i love astrud's voice and her ex-husband, joao gilberto, has one of my favorite voices as well. i love the line "down comes the rain, but it's raining confetti!". ROSE: I just love Astrud’s voice. It’s very sultry and sophisticated. This song would be a great opening theme to a 60s movie, something with Audrey Hepburn or Brigitte Bardot. It sounds like city-strolling mustic. If I was in a good mood walking down 5th Avenue in New York, this is what I’d like to walk to.
	2	HARPERS BIZARRE "small talk" (b-side, 1968)
		ROSE: These songs are definitely putting my thinking in movie terms. This would be a perfect song for a first kiss scene in a coming-of-age film. It’s very mellow and it makes me think of those 50s-60s beach films where everyone is sitting around a bonfire in their bathing suits and the breeze is blowing and the surfers wrap their arms around the shoulders of their girl. Someone pulls a guitar out of no where and pretty soon everyone is swaying and smiling. MARIO: I wasn't familiar with this song or band before i heard this tape, but i really like this song a lot. hopefully marina will reissue some of their albums rather than just this one song. the lyrics are really cute. it takes something that can at times be seem so meaningless, and puts it up on a pedestal. it kinda reminds me of another 60s band called chad & jeremy.
	3	SCOTT WALKER "duchess" ("Scott 4"-1969)
		MARIO: I don't think I've heard this Scott Walker song before. I don't own any of his records, but our friend, Matt from Le Grand Magistery, really loves Scott Walker so i've heard a lot of his material. I tend to like about half of Scott Walker's songs and this is one that i do like. the orchestration is really nice. it's not overwhelming, but it adds a nice touch. ROSE: This song doesn’t appeal to me very much. I think it’s the chord progressions. And the way he manipulates his voice reminds me of a Las Vegas lounge singer. And not a very good one at that. I think Matt would kill me for saying that.
	4	EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL "on my mind" ("Night and Day Ep"-1982)
		MARIO: EBTG are one of my favorite bands, especially around the time of "eden". this song came out just before "eden" so it's much more minimal, but it's still wonderful. however, i think there's something wrong with your copy of the record or your record player or something because this version that you taped sounds warped and slow. it's kinda painful. :). ben watt's guitar playing style circa "eden" has been a major influenece in how i play guitar. ROSE: What’s up with the speed? It sounds a little warped. I think it is physically impossible to say anything bad about EBTG. This song sounds so lonely and distant and rainy autumnish. I picture someone sitting by a window and the leaves have changed color and the are falling and blowing around. I can see a girl looking out the window and feeling very empty inside. She thinks, “Now what am I going to do without him?”
	5	THE FIELD MICE "sensitive" (single-1989)
		ROSE: This song reminds me of Mario. I don’t know why every Field Mice song reminds me of him. He is tres wimpy! I absolutely love when the other snare drum comes in, driving the chorus. They have the coolest bass lines! It’s as if he’s declaring that his is how he feels, and damn-it everyone is going to know it! MARIO: Obviously, the field mice have been a huge influence on me musically. the first time i heard them was on the shadow factory compilation and i instantly fell in love. i heard "sensitive" a couple of weeks after that when i bought the "air balloon road" comp cd. ever since i had heard the wake's "here comes everybody" LP, i was looking for similar music and i found that in the field mice. it seemed like every time that i would hear a field mice song, i would find some way to apply it to my own life since the lyrics were so down to earth. when i was falling in love with rose, she had a boyfriend so i couldn't really tell her how i felt. instead, i made her a tape of songs that kinda said how i felt about her, but i didn't tell her that's why i made the tape. i was hoping that she'd hear the lyrics to all of the songs and catch on. the first song on the tape was "canada" (he doesn't love you, i'm the one who loves you...i'm the one who loves you). "if you need someone" and "everything about you" were on there too. unfortunately she didn't catch on and i had to break down and tell her one night.
	6	PET SHOP BOYS - "being boring" ("Behaviour"-1990)
		ROSE: This song rules! It has all the components of a great pop song- key changes, wah guitar, kick-ass bass line, poignant lyrics and a super melody and chorus. Oooh- and harp flourishes too! Neil is a brilliant lyricist. This too, has a cinematic effect, and a sexy accented vocal. MARIO: I used to love the Pet Shop Boys growing up, but them for some reason i just lost track of them. when "very" was released, i started to listen to them again and i brought out all of their old records and listened to them from a different perspective. they quickly became one of my favorite bands with "behaviour" being one of my favorite albums of all time. "being boring" reminds me of high school. i think i was in 11th grade when this song came out. the lyrics are really clever how they start in the 20's, then move on to the 70s and end in the 90s. the bass line that starts out the song sounds like the beloved.
	7	STINA NORDENSTAM "little star" ("Little Star" 12" -1994)
		ROSE: Stina is my idol! Seriously, she is absolutely brilliant. If I could follow anyone around for just a day, it would be her. Her voice is so captivating, her lyrics are so profound! Her songs are treasures. You can’t top Stina. Period. MARIO: This was the first stina song that i ever heard. rose discovered the "little star" promo cd single at the radio station where we used to dj (i still dj there). when we first heard "and she closed her eyes" we didn't like it much. then we listened to it more and read the lyrics and realized how brilliant it was. my favorite part of the song is the little boy's choir. it's so perfect for this song
	8	LE MANS "cancion de si tu me quieres" ("Entresemana"-1994)
		MARIO: This is my favorite Le Mans song along with "mejor dormir"...i think that's it's so wonderful to hear good spanish bands because i'm cuban/spanish. the lyrics to this song are really sad because it's her singing about all of the things that she would give up if a certain other person would love her. i don't understand the last verse...it sounds like it's in another language. ROSE: I wish I knew more Spanish. This song always relaxes me- like I should be sitting outside underneath an umbrella with an iced coffee. It could be the background music for a commercial about a beach resort. She seems like she is a very elegant woman. She knows what she wants and gets it.
	9	THE MAGNETIC FIELDS "the man amplifier" (b-side-1995)
		MARIO: This is a nice song, but it's a bit too repetitive for me after a while. There really are no changes in it. i prefer the magnetic fields songs that stephin writes. even his "loop songs" aren't this boring because he usually changes the vocal melody in the chorus. ROSE: A sleepy song, almost like a lullaby. I feel tired all of a sudden (yawn). Oh- thank goodness it’s over!
	10	LES SOEURS WINCHESTER "les problems" ("Les Soeurs Winchester"-1997)
		ROSE: It sounds very tropical, hawaiian. I’m not conviced by their accents. They sound like they are stumbling through the French. The music is cute but I wish Katerine was singing instead. MARIO: When i heard this song i instantly liked it. Katerine is one of my favorite current artists. his records are wonderfully produced and engineered, especially his last 2 albums, "la education anglaise" and "mes mauvaises frequentations". i finally found the les soeurs winchester cd in new york and i don't like it as much as i thought i would. i think about 1/2 of it is really good.
	11	BELLE AND SEBASTIAN "she's losing it" ("Tigermilk"-1995)
		MARIO: Belle & Sebastian are another of my current faves especially this song. the trumpet solo is so wonderful, especially when the strings come in the middle of it. wow! seeing them live was an experience i'll never forget... ROSE: This song reminds me of Brit Pop nite at this club we used to go to every Wednesday. I love dancing to this song. How could you not dance to this song? The trumpet is brilliant! Feel-good music, everyone can jump up and dance when this song gets played.
	12	VALERIE LEMERCIER & THE DIVINE COMEDY "Comme Beacoup de Messieurs" (single-1996)
		ROSE: This song is charming. Very funny too! I can make out most of the French. I’m surprising myself! MARIO: I like both Valerie Lemercier & the Divine Comedy quite a bit, but i like the regular version of this song off "casanova" much better. this version just doesn't sound right to me. the vocals are way too loud and it makes it sound like valerie and neil are singing karaoke to divine comedy music.

THE SECOND PART: THE SHOESTRINGS TALK ABOUT.... THE SHOESTRINGS

.....................................................................h i s t o r y.....................................................................

shoestrings started in 1994 i think. rose and i were both in another band where she played keyboards, i played guitar, our friend, mario, (yes two mario's in one band!) sang and played bass, and we had a drummer named brian. the other mario wrote the songs and we played pretty much what he wanted us to play. it was fine for a while, but then i started writing songs and they sounded nothing like what we were doing with the band so i decided to start a solo project.
i bought an 8-track and started working on my songs and asked rose to add some vocals to an early demo that i had of "timeline". i told her she could change the lyrics too and she did change a little over 1/2 of them. she also sang and played a bit of keyboards on "some things never change" after that we just started writing songs together and the other band just kinda fell apart (i don't even remember how or why).
i sent demo tapes to about 10 or 15 labels and i got a nice rejection from setanta saying it was "not their thing", i nice letter from richard waaah (written in crayon of course) saying that he liked it, but he's not really releasing records anymore, and a really enthusiastic answering machine message from albert sunday (elefant wrote 3 months later asking if we'd do a single, but we had already decided to do a single with sunday...we hope to do a single and possibly more with elefant in the future).

............................................best and worst of The Shoestrings career..........................................

Mario: i think our worst is that first sunday single. i didn't even have a bass guitar yet and so i used bass keyboard and it really bugs me now. also, i had just started singing and my voice really bugs me on that record. my favorite songs of ours haven't been recorded yet, but they will be really soon and will appear on our next album. one of them that doesn't really have a title (we just call it "the jan song" for now) is my current favorite along with this other one called "sarah" (it's not about sarah records).
i also am really happy with the song that we contributed to the kindercore/mind the gap compilation cd that's coming out really soon.

.......................................................................l a b e l s.....................................................................

Mario: we're quite comfortable with le grand magistery. matt's a great friend and we hang out all of the time. he's a great designer and he knows how to run a label. our experience with albert from sunday seemed like he wasn't too enthusiastic about running a record label anymore. it seems like he was getting to the point where he'd release records just because he thought people expected him to or something. maybe i'm wrong, but it almost seemed like he didn't care so much.
we were going to release our cd with sunday, but we weren't too excited about the idea. at the same time, matt was thinking of starting a label, and we were talking with him about our situation with sunday. he was saying how he wished that he had an american band on his label like us, rather than bands from the UK (momus and mr wright). one day he made us an offer that was much better than sunday's and so went with what felt right. i know we made the right decision, especially after seeing the butcher job that albert did on the they go boom!! "atlantic" cd. i remember seeing what it was supposed to look like. paradiso designed it and it had a map of the world on it or something like that. it looked really nice. i guess you can't win them all.