Any Sea and Cake/Tortoise fans here?

Cafe Society
1

I’ve been listening to / practicing bass along with The Sea and Cake for the past few days heavily. I’d always been a fan of them but since I found some videos on Youtube of an amazing live show at a small venue with great sound quality, I’ve really been getting back into them. Here are some of the videos, if you’re interested:

The Biz (my favorite.)

Parasol (my second favorite.)

Middlenight

Crossing Line

There are tons more on Youtube, too, but I like these the best.

Anyone else here into The Sea and Cake? I just think they have this amazing, understated energy to their music that I adore listening to and practicing along with. The rather minimalistic guitar parts give me a lot of freedom to improvise new basslines, although it’s hard to improve on Eric Claridge’s restrained but effective playing. Vocalist Sam Prekop just has the most “floaty,” ethereal voice, and I find his face really interesting to watch while he plays - he’s got this quiet intensity to him. He looks like he should be an actor or something. His rhythm guitar playing is very good, for a vocalist. Lead guitarist Archer Prewitt (who is also an artist, as Prekop and Claridge are) provides a perfect counterpoint with his lead guitar playing, staying in the background and offering subtle melodies. And as for the drummer - John Mcintire (also of Tortoise) - well, all I can say is, he’s one of the most badass-looking and badass-playing drummers I’ve ever seen. His drumming is just perfectly locked in with the rest of the band, but unique enough to stand out in its own way.

Any other Dopers in love with TSAC, or related post-rock group Tortoise?

2

I never really listened to Sea and Cake, so don’t know about them. Tortoise’s first album is still probably in my top 25, I used to be big into them when i was in high school/college in the 90’s. I really liked Seam then too, you’d probably enjoy them.

3

Totally, dude! I have all the SATC and Tortoise albums. Faves for each would be The Fawn and TNT. Was majorly bummed when SATC weren’t playing when I was in Chi in January 2001. They played just before I got there and just after I went. I had to try and console myself with excellent gigs from Chicago Underground (feat. Jeff P on that occasion) and Aluminum Group.

Saw Tortoise live down here in November 1998 and then again in (to the best of my recollection) early 2005 - great shows both.

4

Heh. Well I guess that answers the question - there are 2 and a half Sea and Cake/Tortoise fans here, as of now.

I would love to see those bands live.

5

Where do you live?

I kinda feared this thread wouldn’t be overwhelmed with replies, but had hoped it would be more than just you and me.

6

I live in Bloomington, IN.

Is there any earlier band that sounds anything like The Sea and Cake? They’re sort of unclassifiable - they’re rock, I guess, but also sort of jazz. But not the way that, say, Steely Dan was.