Belle & Sebastian
For a little over 20 years, Scottish indie band Belle & Sebastian has been racking up acclaim, if not album sales, thanks to touring and grassroots social networking that pretty much bypasses the usual starmaking machinery. That’s begun to change since signing to major labels in the U.K. and U.S., Rough Trade and Matador Records, which is probably why they’re headlining their first local appearance in three years at Observatory North Park on June 22. At this writing, they’ve released two of a three-EP series that began in December and wraps later this month, with the final installment of How to Solve Our Human Problems. It’s kind of a Radiohead-meets-Stevie-Nicks affair that offers lilting acoustic POVS as seen through the eyes of children who, over the course of the EPs, then become teens, who then become parents, who come to an end that inevitably recalls where it all began. Ambitious stuff for a band once written off as Cranberries-lite.
The bill includes Japanese Breakfast, touring in support of Soft Sounds From Another Planet.