Music Banter - View Single Post - Badlittlekitten's top 50 indie/alternative tracks of this century so far.

Badlittlekitten · 12-22-2010, 08:31 AM

39
The Beta Band - Gone
Hot Shots II
2001

Edinburgh Scotland's much missed Beta Band were a eccentric hippy folk collective of scruffy beards. Like many other groups brimming with invention, their record sales suffered, mainly because they were always ten steps ahead of everyone else, and, well, maybe because they were to to happy in their stinky clouds of super skunk to care. Their music is an effortless mash of stoner folk, Krautrock, hip hop, trip hop, funk, acid house and electronica. Yet, despite all this delicious diversity, I chose the song that sounds like bloody Pink Floyd. 'Gone' is a dark brooding thing, made up of just a Roger Waters bass line, dread inducing guitar chords and some subtly haunting backing vocals . Frontman Steve Mason sounds like he's been struck with swine flu rather than his usual cold, and he mourns, "Won't you think of me, when I'm gone" as a simple piano figure that's full of hopelessness washes him astray. It's bleak, depressing and is more suspicious of fun then any other Beta Band track, and it could have been the best track that was never on Floyd's Meddle, thanks to its intensity and emotional conviction.

A few years later The Beta's would split, frustrated that their critical adulation didn't translate into commercial success. They inspired many inferior bands like Gomez, Oasis, The Mystery Jets and Arcade Fire, who inevitably were hugely successful. Such is the renegade rock cliché.

12-22-2010, 08:31 AM	#22 (permalink)
Badlittlekitten And then there was music Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Near Wild Heaven Posts: 287	39 The Beta Band - Gone Hot Shots II 2001 Edinburgh Scotland's much missed Beta Band were a eccentric hippy folk collective of scruffy beards. Like many other groups brimming with invention, their record sales suffered, mainly because they were always ten steps ahead of everyone else, and, well, maybe because they were to to happy in their stinky clouds of super skunk to care. Their music is an effortless mash of stoner folk, Krautrock, hip hop, trip hop, funk, acid house and electronica. Yet, despite all this delicious diversity, I chose the song that sounds like bloody Pink Floyd. 'Gone' is a dark brooding thing, made up of just a Roger Waters bass line, dread inducing guitar chords and some subtly haunting backing vocals . Frontman Steve Mason sounds like he's been struck with swine flu rather than his usual cold, and he mourns, "Won't you think of me, when I'm gone" as a simple piano figure that's full of hopelessness washes him astray. It's bleak, depressing and is more suspicious of fun then any other Beta Band track, and it could have been the best track that was never on Floyd's Meddle, thanks to its intensity and emotional conviction. A few years later The Beta's would split, frustrated that their critical adulation didn't translate into commercial success. They inspired many inferior bands like Gomez, Oasis, The Mystery Jets and Arcade Fire, who inevitably were hugely successful. Such is the renegade rock cliché. __________________ 'Said do you feel it? Do you feel it when you TOUCH ME?. THERE'S A FIRE! THERE'S A FIRE!' The Stooges. Dirt. https://soundcloud.com/bad-little-kittens My Top 100 LPs My Top 52 Indie Tracks Of The 21st Century (incomplete)