apparently booze leads to good music

How does a "super-group" begin? In most cases, alcohol is involved, as it most definitely was in this one. Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody, chief instigator of this new ensemble, says the world has Lou Barlow to thank for the emergence of The Reindeer Section, for it was at a Barlow gig in Glasgow where Lightbody ran around drunkenly asking people if they would join his band The Reindeer Section. They all said yes, so after sobering up the next day, Lightbody got out the old acoustic guitar and wrote an album's worth of songs.

In case you were wondering what exactly is "super" about the group, here are a few of its 15 or so members: there's Lightbody, who sings and plays guitar, keyboards, and harmonica, his Snow Patrol bandmate Jonny Quinn (drums), Mogwai's John Cummings (guitar), all four members of Astrid, Eva's Jenny Reeve (occasional vocals and violin), Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat (lead vocals on one track), Belle and Sebastian's Richard Colburn (occasional percussion and pigeon noises) and Mick Cooke (trumpet and flugelhorn on one track), Mull Historical Society's makes an appearance, since the album's folky, lo-fi, downbeat flavor is to some extent indebted to his stylistic experiments. It's worth a listen, but just to be safe have a cocktail in your hand when you press play. I've linked one of my favorite songs as my song of the week.