"A Guide For The Daylight Hours" by ballboy

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Second album by the Scottish primary school teachers, no doubt to be compared incessantly to Belle and Sebastian by tertiary-rate IPC hacks, because God knows there's only two bands from Scotland, isn't there? A combination of great song titles ("I Wonder If You're Drunk Enough To Sleep With Me Tonight", "Sex Is Boring"), songs dispariging people that work in record stores, and, horror of sodding horrors, actually good music.

In a year where indie music has been unamped piss in a bucket, this is the kinda thing that can make a guy start believing again. Anyone else heard it yet?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 26 October 2002 12:22 (twenty-three years ago)

it is not out yet is it? i heard four of the new songs when i saw them on tuesday(well three one was the new electric version of sex is boring) and i liked them very much. it will not be released in the usa for six months, not sure why. ballboy is probably too stereotypically 'indie' to escpae scorn.

― keith (keithmcl), Saturday, 26 October 2002 16:22 (twenty-three years ago)

According to the sticker on the front of my copy, it comes out November 11th, so I'm probably jumping the gun, but hey... And, yes, they are the sort of band 90% of ILM would probably want to destroy without mercy. Which of course makes them great.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 26 October 2002 17:45 (twenty-three years ago)

yueah, and then i could go on about how the keyboard player is cute and get even more 'indie'. i liked that when the singer guy was playing his guitar he rarely changed chords, a band i could emulate. i am distressed by the discontinuation of the strong dollar pollicy though, pennyblack has the album listed for $19.75, ouch. i would have been pleased if they had simply brought the album with them to sell on tour, i could have listened to it in the car instead of sitting through gedge act all bored and sleepy.

― keith (keithmcl), Saturday, 26 October 2002 20:39 (twenty-three years ago)

''And, yes, they are the sort of band 90% of ILM would probably want to destroy without mercy.''

ILM destroys 90% (or more) of everything dom.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 26 October 2002 20:43 (twenty-three years ago)

but ballboy have everything that is a menace to people here overly clever titles and lyrics, they play guitars, it is white guys, they have a song about how all the records on radio are shite and one about people not liking them because they aren't avant garde enough.

― keith (keithmcl), Saturday, 26 October 2002 23:46 (twenty-three years ago)

they have too many ace rock moments to be twee, and too many twee moments to be rock. therefore they rule.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Sunday, 27 October 2002 23:17 (twenty-three years ago)

I caught them on tour by chance, opening for cinerama. I have to admit I wasn't overly impressed, but not for the above mentioned reasons. The singer vacillates between singing and doing that spoken-over-the-music king missile thing, which in my opinion often didn't work for king missile either. They were promoted like crazy, too--even had someone walking around passing out flyers for their album during their show, which was a little odd. Cute bass player, though, but I'm a sucker for girls who play bass.

I actually went to the show to see VHS or Beta. I couldn't believe that the entire ballboy/cinerama crowd went and sat down during the VHS or Beta set. If you can watch this band live without getting your groove on, I genuinely feel pity for you.

― webcrack (music=crack), Monday, 28 October 2002 01:57 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah vhs or beta were great, that hillbilly disco was awesome. the fact that they looked like they were trying out for a junior high talent show with their muscle shirts and bad hair was perfect. cinerama was a bit of a dud when i saw them, gedge seemed put out by having to play to a tiny crowd. handing out flyers is promoting like crazy? it was clear no one here had heard of them so they handed out the flyers here as well, i wish they had had copies of the new album at the show.

― keith (keithmcl), Monday, 28 October 2002 02:19 (twenty-three years ago)

I will be getting my copy through the post very, very soon. I am just a little bit thrilled at the prospect. No band that introduces a song as being about a girl who works in a record shop telling the singer that he isn't avant garde enough, then opens with the lines "The girl, who works in the record shop, well she says that I, am not avant-garde enough - well so what? She only works in a record shop ... she only works in a record shop, and I don't give a fuck what she says or she thinks about me!" can be entirely without merits.

― Mr Swygart (mrswygart), Monday, 28 October 2002 09:32 (twenty-three years ago)

i heard a ballboy song a couple of years ago. it was good!

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 28 October 2002 09:42 (twenty-three years ago)

one month passes...

I've seen Ballboy live a lot in Edinburgh... they're a better live band than they are a studio band. I've even been to the "record shop" in Edinburgh (Avalanche) although it was..err..to buy records rather than as some kind of perverse indie pilgrimage.

― Sarcastic, Monday, 2 December 2002 12:22 (twenty-three years ago)

I actually know the girl who work(ed) in the record shop in question.

― alext (alext), Monday, 2 December 2002 17:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Ballboy's bass player is a bloke, though...

― Mr Swygart (mrswygart), Monday, 2 December 2002 23:08 (twenty-three years ago)

I actually know the girl who work(ed) in the record shop in question.

What's her take on the whole shebang then?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 02:05 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

anyone know what this band is up to? "Nobody Really Knows Anything" still sounds pretty good.

― mox twelve (Mox twleve), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 10:50 (twenty years ago)

i honestly can't cope with listening to this band anymore.

― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 10:53 (twenty years ago)

They released an album last spring, right?

Saw them at a gig in July, here in Edinburgh (and they played in December, too). Someone was OTM, up-thread, when they said that they're a better live band than a studio one. (Although, live, I do long for more audible lyrics.) I can't say that they've done an LP that's grabbed me as strongly as that first singles comp thing, Club Anthems... "Day in Space" and "I Hate Scotland" (and that first version of "Sex is Boring") are ace, ace, ace.

― sean gramophone (Sean M), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:15 (twenty years ago)

otm

― marc h. (marc h.), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 12:08 (twenty years ago)

They released an album last spring, right?

and it was immeasurably tedious, especially after the magnificence of "the sash my father wore".

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 12:47 (twenty years ago)

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