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Scott Timberg on Creative Destruction

British Sea Power invades the West Coast

April 8, 2011 by Scott Timberg

JUST a quick note to say that I remain convinced that British Sea Power is one of the best live bands from the dreary isle. Your humble blogger has caught the Brighton band on all three of its Los Angeles appearances — two at Spaceland and now last night’s at the Troubadour.

The goofy faux-military costumes are gone, but their blend of early ’70s Bowie and early ’80s is stronger than ever. The band’s propulsive rhythms are matched by disciplined, precise guitar playing (except for in the proggy, overlong finale.) Every member of the group really pulls his/her weight. (Is the violinist, whose instrument seems tuned to the intonations from My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless LP, a recent addition?)

Their best songs may still mostly be on their debut record, The Decline of British Sea Power, but the live show, I think, has just gotten better. Can’t wait to see the lads again.

Here they are playing “Carrion.”

Filed Under: brit culture, indie, west coast

Scott Timberg

I'm a longtime culture writer and editor based in Los Angeles; my book "CULTURE CRASH: The Killing of the Creative Class" came out in 2015. My stories have appeared in The New York Times, Salon and Los Angeles magazine, and I was an LA Times staff writer for six years. I'm also an enthusiastic if middling jazz and indie-rock guitarist. (Photo by Sara Scribner) Read More…

Culture Crash, the Book

My book came out in 2015, and won the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award. The New Yorker called it "a quietly radical rethinking of the very nature of art in modern life"

I urge you to buy it at your favorite independent bookstore or order it from Portland's Powell's.

Culture Crash

Here is some information on my book, which Yale University Press published in 2015. (Buy it from Powell's, here.) Some advance praise: With coolness and equanimity, Scott Timberg tells what in less-skilled hands could have been an overwrought horror story: the end of culture as we have known … [Read More...]

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