January 1998 - Sinister - missprint.org

Sinister: He drinks a lager tops, he drinks a shandy drink
by Keith Watson 14 Jan '98

14 Jan '98

Well, I can't tell you how sorry I am for being middle-class and university educated, not to mention breast fed. Thank God, I didn't go to public school. Tag That about sums it up Tag, it's a case of you're worth shit if you're not born working class, which is the sort of amazing double-standards I hate (oops, hang on, I take that back, double standards are something I practice on a regular basis). I don't know whether I'm OK actually - my family were working class, probably aren't now (I wonder if they celebrated their 'becoming middle class'). Am I working class? Well I do work, I suppose, I earn OK mind so I may be middle class. Hmmm, this is getting tricky now, maybe if I affect a really regional accent I'll be able to pass myself off as still worth something. Keith. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister(a)majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister(a)majordomo.net . We're all happy bunnies humming happy bunny tunes. Aren't we? -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Sinister: well's review
by Keith Watson 14 Jan '98

14 Jan '98

>i'm a little overwhelmed at how everyone is taking steve wells' review of the >band. so he slagged them off-so what? for those of you who want B&S to forever >remain "indie", his review could help dissuade the "masses" from buying into >our gang. for those(like me) who want this band to succeed beyond all >expectations, it's further proof that the band's decision to ignore the press >is the right way to go. Oh no, don't get me wrong about that, it's not the fact that Steven Wells gives them a slagging, it's the fact that you know what he's going to have written before he rights it, and that you know that it's because there's a "hidden" agenda on his mind rather than really reviewing a band. I'd however be the first to say that the first nights performance wasn't particularly good. Keith. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister(a)majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister(a)majordomo.net . We're all happy bunnies humming happy bunny tunes. Aren't we? -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Sinister: CENTURY OF FAKERS VIDEO
by ByTheSea6 14 Jan '98

14 Jan '98

In a message dated 98-01-13 21:48:21 EST, Yummycats(a)aol.com writes: << like Belle and Sebastian or Magnetic Fields (do the MF's even have videos?) >> Yes. I have two videos on this compilation put out by the Drive-In Records people in the USA and an Australian label in. . um....Australia. It's called Munch II, I think. It's a cool comp. Also has Hydroplane and Cat's Miaow videos on it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister(a)majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister(a)majordomo.net . We're all happy bunnies humming happy bunny tunes. Aren't we? -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Sinister: we get knocked down and we get up again
by mctag＠mcmail.com 14 Jan '98

14 Jan '98

It's so bloody predictable... Look NME sent Seething Wells (ex-people's poet) to review B&S. That it is was a slap on the wrists for their naughty unco-operative behaviour goes without saying - they wheel him out, pathetically and patronisingly in love with his 4-real class consciousness, doing a job they're too gutless or witless to do themselves. I don't blame SW ... he was never going to understand, let alone like, Belle and Sebastian, eight middle class kids playing non-rock music, they occupy a completely different world. It's like sending me to review Pavarotti. Maybe Belle and Sebastian don't 'do' politics in the conventional sense of the word, well, why should they, it would be absurd - they write about what they know. SW makes a lot of people laugh with his sardonic prose, I understand. Not me, I don't intend to be 'grateful' for the fact that he's better than most of the other NME writers. So the review, yeah, it was funny ... but only in the way that Mr Abusing is funny. And Stephen Wells is serious. Steven Wells wrote: >Nicely jumpered skinny students suck feverishly on white-pack Silk Cut >surrogate tits Hey! Amateur psychology. Stephen is dead hard so he gets through twenty lighters a day. >and titter tweely at >every feeble onstage witticism. Oh! It's all so oh-so coy >and warm and happy-clappy cosy! This ever-so-slappable crowd >of shit-eating indie-schmindie sheep Look Mummy - I can swear. >"Integrity seems to be the key word," mumbles singer Stuart >Murdoch (apropos absolutely f-ing nothing) to general >laughter and a smattering of clapping. "Wanky, half-arsed, >cackhanded and utterly insulting amateurism," would be >closer to the f-ing mark (don't piss on me and tell me it's >raining, twat). More grown up swearing. Big boy! >And yet, despite the fact that Belle & Sebastian's sole >trick is to combine piss-poor sub-Don McLean lyrics with >nicked Kirsty MacColl riffs, I like this, it's the sort of thing that gets indignant earnest fans writing in saying 'Were you even at the same gig as me?' >there is the merest whiff of >real magic here. Even the most cynical folkophobic would >find it hard not to twitch and shudder with near sexual >pleasure at the throbbing muscle layered upon tracks like >"The Stars Of Track And Field" and "The Fox In The Snow" Awww ... see, he can see both sides. 'Fox in the snow' - throbbing? Were you even at the same gig as me? >(the recorded versions of which remain puke-inducingly >whimsical and twee). The t-word again. >But it's never enough to overcome the >overwhelming stench of smug, cutesy-wutesy, mumsy-wumsy, >Jack Straw-approved suburban shite. Oh God, he's off... >Manchester Town Hall is an over-the-top, totally >in-your-face and utterly awesome shrine to late-Victorian >bourgeois triumphalism. Oh dear, Northy won't like that bit. >Today it showcases a band who, more >than any other, epitomise the tediously understated, >wilfully inadequate and teeth-grindingly irritating school >of aesthetically neutered and ideologically castrated >middle-class, too-thick-for-art-school Blair Rock. Personally I was much too clever for Art School. >A punter, seeing a hack scribble furiously, approaches and >demands that NME doesn't compare Belle & Sebastian to "Felt, >Nick Cave, The Smiths..." and a whole load of shit >anti--rock bands because "that would be lazy". Oh God, which idiot said that? Talk about red rag to a bull. >OK, how about The Carpenters without the camp? Burt >Bacharach without the balls? Jonathan Richman without th >jokes? Crowded House without the incisive lyrical insights? That's a joke, right? >Or maybe The Velvet Underground without the tunes, looks, >attitude, politics, style, asthetics, vision, talent, >charisma, sunglasses, black turtle-neck sweaters or f-ing >drugs? Clever stuff. Especially the 'f-ing drugs'. >That do you? I mean, you seem so easily pleased. Well, I can't tell you how sorry I am for being middle-class and university educated, not to mention breast fed. Thank God, I didn't go to public school. Tag ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister(a)majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister(a)majordomo.net . We're all happy bunnies humming happy bunny tunes. Aren't we? -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Sinister: Letter to PBS
by Matthew A. Neimark 14 Jan '98

14 Jan '98

Everyone who, at least lives in this great land of the free and home of the brave, should write to those bastards on PBS and DEMAND that they put the PBS sessions back on. It seems like every band they have there has either been around for 40 years, or has commercially crossed-over. The only true independent and contemporary band they had as of yet was Tindersticks, and they didn't even do so great a job. That makes PBS (didn't they show the Fleetwood Mac reunion tour and the incredibly pathetic music of John Tesch) just as bad as any of the major networks and that includes FOX. What will they have next, the Kathy Lee christmas special? What are they worried about? Higher ratings? Now I'm sure a lot of you guys are frequent contributors to PBS (I'm not) so you can use that as weapon when you write your letters. We will get them back on!! Matt PS The magnetic fields do indeed have videos. I believe most feature some sort of unisexual character that might be Stepen Merritt's current lover. I have "Born on a Train" and "Strange Powers" myself on the MUNCH II video compilation ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister(a)majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister(a)majordomo.net . We're all happy bunnies humming happy bunny tunes. Aren't we? -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Sinister: re: how high?
by GR Clarkson 14 Jan '98

14 Jan '98

Hello folks! > Much as I have enjoyed reading everyone debating how tall I am, I ought > to > put you out of your misery and say that I am 6ft 6. Which is about twice > as tall as Julia. So I'm probably the one who was standing in front of > you > in Manchester blocking your view... If I was in anyone's way, may i also apologise. I was only there on the saturday night but both me and my twin brother (we have a combined height of 13ft 6ins) may have got in some poor folks way. I'm sorry. As for tapings of Tigermilk, what do the band think? I would assume that anyone who goes to the trouble of asking for a copy from this list would be more than willing to buy the said album if it was ever re-released, it's just the only way of listening . Also, surely giving the opertunity to listen to Tigermilk to as many people as possible would benefit B+S by gaining more support and being able to play at places like the Royal Albert Hall, as well as boosting the sales of their current releases. Cheerybye Greg ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister(a)majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister(a)majordomo.net . We're all happy bunnies humming happy bunny tunes. Aren't we? -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Sinister: Photees
by Honey 14 Jan '98

14 Jan '98

OK - very hastily - photos of Isobel, sorry, B&S in Manchester now on the WWW site in a terrible fashion until I smarten them up, courtesy of jon "no h", who scanned them, courtesy of someone else who will get a credit, who took them. I'll create a proper page for them soon, I haven't even checked some of them, but at least it give Genevieve a chance to have a good oogle, Chris Leonard a chance to decide which one to fancy, and the band a good chance to check out their hair. Hopefully Jeepster will release a Baywatch style semi-nude calendar of the band soon. At: http://www.majordomo.net/sinister/Manchester , any more welcome, just send them to me (or Andrew Dean or one of the other WWW site people). Don't send direct to the list please. Stop. Honey xxx -- Smithers, release the hounds. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister(a)majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister(a)majordomo.net . We're all happy bunnies humming happy bunny tunes. Aren't we? -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Sinister: Piss Poor Band in the NME
by Stuart Maclean 14 Jan '98

14 Jan '98

Saw in the NME this week a bit about some bunch of losers whose "sole trick is to combine piss-poor sub-Don Maclean lyrics with nicked Kirsty MacColl riffs". Well, I was always the world's biggest Don Maclean AND Kirsty MacColl fan, so that must some damned fine band... ;-)))))))))))))))))) Oh, and hi to Nessie! Stu, who's still in search of a Sunday night (audio) tape. Any offers? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister(a)majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister(a)majordomo.net . We're all happy bunnies humming happy bunny tunes. Aren't we? -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Sinister: mm review of manchester
by Andrew.Dean＠BULL.NET 14 Jan '98

14 Jan '98

People just don't like Belle & Sebastian, they're hopelessly devoted to them. Among tonight's collections of hipsters, Habitat squares, C86 revivalists and out-patients, there are people who've trekked from America* and Japan. Why? Because the Belle & Sebastian songbook is crammed with tales of feckless idealists who, although hemmed in by boorish reality, demand the earth. We've a disquieting sense that they harbour the sane, giddy romantic part of us that age has whittled away. And they make our compromised spirits soar anew. We expect tonight to merely, if deliriously, confirm what we already know - that we love them more than life itself. And, bless their enigmatic Scottish socks, they've tried to make it A Special Experience. Hence the venue, a gilt-edged grand hall, and the following day's matinee performance. It's not quite Spike Island, but it's getting there. As opener "Put The Book Back On The Shelf" stumbles to a close, though, we're already beginning to wonder if we've fallen for a band we never really knew. There should be pandemonium, voices punching through the rafters, but the painfully quiet PA means that no one even murmurs. Stuart Murdoch attempts a shimmy during a jauntier "I Don't Love Anyone" and a few people take his lead. But it's hopefully self-conscious. During the interminable breaks between songs, as instruments are swapped and beers retrieved, there's utter silence. This reverence, or crippling awkwardness, wholly dissipates any gathering excitement. At time, as the band talk amongst themselves, it's like we're unwelcome guests in their rehearsal room. Gigs by bands that act as magnets for rock's outsiders have traditionally been wildly celebratory affairs; they're about bonding and blossoming. But nothing encourages that here, especially not eight new songs in a 14-song set. There are some fun moments though, such as Stevie ending his spectacularly spastic Orange Juice-esque solo during "Dylan" by playing the guitar with his teeth, but the cheekily charismatic bunch we'd expected are absent. They look baffled by our presence and often panicked at their own lack of cohesion. Perhaps they should, hey, practise a little and relax. There is a middle ground between The Pastels and M People, you know. It is possible, among the debris, to glimpse greatness. "Photo Jenny" and newie "Dirty Dream" hint at Belle & Sebastian's oft overlooked Northern-tinged pop potential. "Chick Factor", even with its wildly out-of-tune Mellotron, rolls and swells like you're falling in love - the Velvets at their most preciously Fisher Price. "Is It Wicked?" (sung by a terrified Isobel) is gorgeous and the closing "Rollercoaster Ride" features Stuart's voice at its strong, plaintive best. Marry this with some beautiful crescendos of Marr-ish guitar and mournful trumpet flourishes and it's something you're going to treasure for life. On vinyl. Manchester has rarely witnessed such embittered post-gig arguments. Indeed, the clap-happy souls, chuffed simply to be in the same room as their heroes, are undeterred But we, the sane, expected a gig (albeit a roughly hewn one) that would become a byword for everything uniquely elevating about going to watch a band. Instead, we got a rehearsal for a sixth-form revue. Comedy, someone once said, is the gap between expectation and reality. Clearly, they'd never seen Belle & Sebastian play live. Tony Naylor phew, so much typing. good practice for the chat room i guess... andy *hey, bun, they're talking about you 8) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister(a)majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister(a)majordomo.net . We're all happy bunnies humming happy bunny tunes. Aren't we? -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Sinister: nme review of manchester
by Andrew.Dean＠BULL.NET 14 Jan '98

14 Jan '98

Nicely jumpered skinny students suck feverishly on white-pack Silk Cut surrogate tits and titter tweely at every feeble onstage witticism. Oh! It's all so oh-so coy and warm and happy-clappy cosy! This ever-so-slappable crowd of shit-eating indie-schmindie sheep are apparently not even slightly pissed off that they've had to queue outside in the freezing rain for over an hour (while a B&S employee tossed them compensatory ice-creams). "Integrity seems to be the key word," mumbles singer Stuart Murdoch (apropos absolutely f-ing nothing) to general laughter and a smattering of clapping. "Wanky, half-arsed, cackhanded and utterly insulting amateurism," would be closer to the f-ing mark (don't piss on me and tell me it's raining, twat). This is the matinee show. Belle & Sebastian have sold out Manchester's amazing Victorian town hall twice in one day. The perform in the round, the stage a speaker-stacked black modernist slab slapped in the exact centre of a stunning gothic-arched and gold-leafed beige-stone Christmas cake. The acoustics are thus totally f-ed and the insultingly desultory attempts at audience communication (during the frequent equipment breakdowns) reduced to mere whispered mumblings. And yet, despite the fact that Belle & Sebastian's sole trick is to combine piss-poor sub-Don McLean lyrics with nicked Kirsty MacColl riffs, there is the merest whiff of real magic here. Even the most cynical folkophobic would find it hard not to twitch and shudder with near sexual pleasure at the throbbing muscle layered upon tracks like "The Stars Of Track And Field" and "The Fox In The Snow" (the recorded versions of which remain puke-inducingly whimsical and twee). But it's never enough to overcome the overwhelming stench of smug, cutesy-wutesy, mumsy-wumsy, Jack Straw-approved suburban shite. Manchester Town Hall is an over-the-top, totally in-your-face and utterly awesome shrine to late-Victorian bourgeois triumphalism. Today it showcases a band who, more than any other, epitomise the tediously understated, wilfully inadequate and teeth-grindingly irritating school of aesthetically neutered and ideologically castrated middle-class, too-thick-for-art-school Blair Rock. A punter, seeing a hack scribble furiously, approaches and demands that NME doesn't compare Belle & Sebastian to "Felt, Nick Cave, The Smiths..." and a whole load of shit anti--rock bands because "that would be lazy". OK, how about The Carpenters without the camp? Burt Bacharach without the balls? Jonathan Richman without th jokes? Crowded House without the incisive lyrical insights? Or maybe The Velvet Underground without the tunes, looks, attitude, politics, style, asthetics, vision, talent, charisma, sunglasses, black turtle-neck sweaters or f-ing drugs? That do you? I mean, you seem so easily pleased. Steven Wells (andy clutches his handbag in front of him and goes "oooooooo-ooooooooooooo") ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister(a)majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister(a)majordomo.net . We're all happy bunnies humming happy bunny tunes. Aren't we? -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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