November 2001 - Sinister

Sinister: Stuart Murdoch interview
by idleberry 20 Mar '02

20 Mar '02

Belle and Sebastian: Scots of the arch antics Forget Travis: Belle and Sebastian are your real sensitive indie band - they just aren't quite as famous. As Stuart Murdoch tells Fiona Sturges, it wasn't all about the limelight 30 November 2001 When Belle and Sebastian released their first album, Tigermilk, in 1996, Travis were still trawling London's toilet venues, Coldplay were at university and Starsailor didn't exist. Since then, sad, sensitive bands have become hard to avoid. Yet Belle and Sebastian, who are probably the saddest and most sensitive of them all, have yet to reach the dizzying commercial heights of their peers. I meet Stuart Murdoch, the band's singer and chief songwriter, fresh off the plane from Japan, where they've been on tour. When I say "fresh", I mean just that. Tidily dressed in a black polo neck, he looks unfeasibly alert. He's full of stories from Japan � about how he stood in the street during an earth tremor, watching people go about their business as if nothing was happening, and how, with true Japanese hospitality, the band were treated like kings. He's a serious-minded and circumspect individual � he doesn't laugh much � but he's still good company. When I ask if he feels Belle and Sebastian have anything in common with Travis and Coldplay, he replies: "Well, we all have a crack at a tune." He pauses for a while, then continues: "I feel very lucky; I'm quite happy with my group. In fact right at this minute I've never been happier and I think we'll give them all a run for their money now. We'll give anybody a run for their money with the way we're playing." You have to admire his optimism. The fact is that Belle and Sebastian have always been better, avoiding the empty emoting and formal rock structures of Travis in favour of a more subtle and pastoral sound. Songs such as "Fox in the Snow" and "The Boy with the Arab Strap" set flutes and shimmering strings alongside Murdoch's fragile vocals and splashes of acoustic guitar. The band, who come from Glasgow, have eight members, none of whom is called Belle or Sebastian. When they go on tour, the numbers can reach 13 with the extra fiddlers and flautists. Murdoch is brimming with confidence about their live performances: "Playing live's been a bit of a pain in the past. I know we've sounded awful. But we're very organised now. We're learning all the time, but it's going like a dream." Still, it seems the recording process hasn't become any easier. Murdoch says he came "close to a nervous breakdown" last year while trying to finish their fourth album, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant. The recording of their latest single, "I'm Waking up to Us" � a fabulously embittered song about a dissolving relationship � didn't exactly go off without a hitch either. They hired Mike Hurst, whose previous credits include Petula Clark and Cat Stevens, as producer. "He's a great guy but he didn't deliver the finished product," Murdoch explains. "We had to work very hard afterwards to polish it up. We really need a catalyst, someone who can harness the creative chaos of the group. I suppose we're dreaming of a George Martin figure, but it's not going to happen." If Belle and Sebastian were ever to reach the levels of fame that Travis have achieved, you wonder whether they would cope. In their early days, the band were pathologically publicity-shy. For a long time they wouldn't have their photographs taken, going so far as to stick pictures of their friends on their albums' sleeves, instead of their own. Murdoch avoided giving interviews, leaving the talking to other members of the band. "We didn't quite push away the limelight, as that suggests we weren't looking for it in the first place," he states. "But we weren't interested in that side of things either. There were other things to be getting on with. The band was developing, and for a lot of the time we were in a real mess." Does he feel like an outsider? "Yes � but then it's very easy to be on the outside where British music is concerned. If you're just yourself and you don't bow to the demands of the press and the music industry, then you're bound to be seen as an outsider." They're certainly a hard-working lot. They've made four albums in five years, as well as a handful of EPs, and there are any number of Belle and Sebastian side-projects � the Gentle Waves, Snow Patrol and V-Twin, to name just a few. The band were also the brains behind the Bowlie Weekender, the springtime festival held at Pontin's Holiday Camp in Camber Sands, which later spawned All Tomorrow's Parties. More recently, there's their somewhat controversial contribution to Todd Solondz's latest film, Storytelling. At the mention of Solondz, Murdoch becomes visibly irritated. "To tell you the truth, it almost isn't worth it, what we did. We had lots of ideas, and Todd used very little at the end. I know he was having a really hard time finishing the film, but it was very disappointing for us. I'd really think hard about getting involved in something like that again." Murdoch's musical aspirations arrived late in life. Whereas most musicians spend their adolescence listening to John Peel in their bedrooms, Murdoch preferred being outdoors and, for a while, harboured dreams of being a runner. In the end, he says, he just wasn't good enough. After school, he tried a variety of jobs: as a caretaker, a farm-hand and � this one's hard to imagine � a barman at Butlins. He didn't even start writing songs until he was 23. Murdoch and Stuart David, the band's bass-player, met on a youth opportunity scheme. "It was something the Tories cooked up to get you off the unemployed list," recalls Murdoch. "We were learning to be musical engineers or something like that." The pair then moved on to do a media business course at Glasgow's Stow college, set up by the part-time producer Alan Rankine. Every year he helped a group of students to make a record, usually a single, and put it out on the college label, Electric Honey. On recognising Murdoch and David's talent, he made an exception and allowed them to make a whole album. "We had to do it quickly," Murdoch remembers. "In three months we had to get a full band together and make a proper record. We ended up recording it in just a few days. Obviously, we had luck on our side." That record was Tigermilk. A thousand copies were released at the time � original copies now change hands for up to �400 � though, two years ago, because of popular demand, the record was re-released. It was with "3.. 6.. 9.. Seconds of Light", the third in a trio of EPs released in 1997, that Belle and Sebastian finally troubled the charts, albeit at No 31. Greater success came with their 1998 album The Boy with the Arab Strap, which reached No 12. Just last year they played on Top of the Pops and performed a show at the Albert Hall. Those are landmark events in the lives of most bands, although Murdoch, as usual, is underwhelmed. Then, of course, there was the notorious Brit award. Belle and Sebastian bagged the best newcomer prize in 1998, to the outrage of the other nominees. Rumour has it that Pete Waterman, the man behind Steps, called for a re-count. "I didn't pay much attention," says Murdoch. "I certainly didn't know what a big deal it was until after we had got it. But I remember, we were recording in the studio the day after. All these television crews were coming in and out � the BBC, ITV, the lot. After we'd finished in the studio we bought a newspaper. Suddenly we were front-page news in the tabloids � one of them said "Scots Band Cheat At Brits" or something like that. At first we were really angry but later we saw the funny side." Then he adds, with a sly smile: "Let's face it, it's probably the first and last time we'll ever be on the front page of a newspaper." 'I'm Waking up to Us' is out now on Jeepster. Belle and Sebastian appear tonight on 'Later... with Jools Holland' at 11.35pm (BBC 2). The band play Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow University, on 20 December and Mandela Hall, Belfast, on 21 December http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/interviews/story.jsp?story=107508 ===== http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/corduroysmoke and the world did get covered in a thick haze of corduroy smoke. And it felt good. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: ease your virus in the sea (PLEASE READ)
by Kenneth P Y Chu 01 Dec '01

01 Dec '01

Please read: This is a public health message for sinister members. I think a few of you (especially those who have posted recently) would have been receiving mysterious e-mail messages from various members of the list. Titled Re: Sinister: whatever your message was. With some kind of attachments like Card.doc.pif or great music.mp3.pif. They are mostly characteristically 40k in size. And the tell tale sign is the ".PIF" extension in the file name, "great music.mp3.pif" may *look* like an mp3 file, but it isn't because the extension is actaully .pif which is a runnable program (and thus, probably a virus, why else would it be disguising itself as an mp3). I think this virus transmits itself by replying to every message you receive with a virus, and therefore something like this list would be very vulnerable as everytime you post someone would send you a virus (it's ok as long as you don't open the attachment) and so please, be careful. If you think you have a virus (e.g. if you've opened something like that recently - for example a supposed mp3 file that did nothing). Write me and I'll find out how to get rid of the virus for you. Or if you're a pretty girl looking for love, write me too. :-) Finally if you're an expert on virus removal please shed some lights as to how to get rid of these e-mail viruses. No puns today, with the seriousness of this virus talk I felt a pun would be ill-humoured. ahem. May all your computers be disease-free. Love and Red Bulls Ken _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

2 1

Sinister: Stuart Murdoch interview
by idleberry 30 Nov '01

30 Nov '01

for anyone who couldn't get a copy, its on the web... cheers, idles *************************************************** Belle and Sebastian: Scots of the arch antics Forget Travis: Belle and Sebastian are your real sensitive indie band - they just aren't quite as famous. As Stuart Murdoch tells Fiona Sturges, it wasn't all about the limelight 30 November 2001 When Belle and Sebastian released their first album, Tigermilk, in 1996, Travis were still trawling London's toilet venues, Coldplay were at university and Starsailor didn't exist. Since then, sad, sensitive bands have become hard to avoid. Yet Belle and Sebastian, who are probably the saddest and most sensitive of them all, have yet to reach the dizzying commercial heights of their peers. I meet Stuart Murdoch, the band's singer and chief songwriter, fresh off the plane from Japan, where they've been on tour. When I say "fresh", I mean just that. Tidily dressed in a black polo neck, he looks unfeasibly alert. He's full of stories from Japan � about how he stood in the street during an earth tremor, watching people go about their business as if nothing was happening, and how, with true Japanese hospitality, the band were treated like kings. He's a serious-minded and circumspect individual � he doesn't laugh much � but he's still good company. When I ask if he feels Belle and Sebastian have anything in common with Travis and Coldplay, he replies: "Well, we all have a crack at a tune." He pauses for a while, then continues: "I feel very lucky; I'm quite happy with my group. In fact right at this minute I've never been happier and I think we'll give them all a run for their money now. We'll give anybody a run for their money with the way we're playing." You have to admire his optimism. The fact is that Belle and Sebastian have always been better, avoiding the empty emoting and formal rock structures of Travis in favour of a more subtle and pastoral sound. Songs such as "Fox in the Snow" and "The Boy with the Arab Strap" set flutes and shimmering strings alongside Murdoch's fragile vocals and splashes of acoustic guitar. The band, who come from Glasgow, have eight members, none of whom is called Belle or Sebastian. When they go on tour, the numbers can reach 13 with the extra fiddlers and flautists. Murdoch is brimming with confidence about their live performances: "Playing live's been a bit of a pain in the past. I know we've sounded awful. But we're very organised now. We're learning all the time, but it's going like a dream." Still, it seems the recording process hasn't become any easier. Murdoch says he came "close to a nervous breakdown" last year while trying to finish their fourth album, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant. The recording of their latest single, "I'm Waking up to Us" � a fabulously embittered song about a dissolving relationship � didn't exactly go off without a hitch either. They hired Mike Hurst, whose previous credits include Petula Clark and Cat Stevens, as producer. "He's a great guy but he didn't deliver the finished product," Murdoch explains. "We had to work very hard afterwards to polish it up. We really need a catalyst, someone who can harness the creative chaos of the group. I suppose we're dreaming of a George Martin figure, but it's not going to happen." If Belle and Sebastian were ever to reach the levels of fame that Travis have achieved, you wonder whether they would cope. In their early days, the band were pathologically publicity-shy. For a long time they wouldn't have their photographs taken, going so far as to stick pictures of their friends on their albums' sleeves, instead of their own. Murdoch avoided giving interviews, leaving the talking to other members of the band. "We didn't quite push away the limelight, as that suggests we weren't looking for it in the first place," he states. "But we weren't interested in that side of things either. There were other things to be getting on with. The band was developing, and for a lot of the time we were in a real mess." Does he feel like an outsider? "Yes � but then it's very easy to be on the outside where British music is concerned. If you're just yourself and you don't bow to the demands of the press and the music industry, then you're bound to be seen as an outsider." They're certainly a hard-working lot. They've made four albums in five years, as well as a handful of EPs, and there are any number of Belle and Sebastian side-projects � the Gentle Waves, Snow Patrol and V-Twin, to name just a few. The band were also the brains behind the Bowlie Weekender, the springtime festival held at Pontin's Holiday Camp in Camber Sands, which later spawned All Tomorrow's Parties. More recently, there's their somewhat controversial contribution to Todd Solondz's latest film, Storytelling. At the mention of Solondz, Murdoch becomes visibly irritated. "To tell you the truth, it almost isn't worth it, what we did. We had lots of ideas, and Todd used very little at the end. I know he was having a really hard time finishing the film, but it was very disappointing for us. I'd really think hard about getting involved in something like that again." Murdoch's musical aspirations arrived late in life. Whereas most musicians spend their adolescence listening to John Peel in their bedrooms, Murdoch preferred being outdoors and, for a while, harboured dreams of being a runner. In the end, he says, he just wasn't good enough. After school, he tried a variety of jobs: as a caretaker, a farm-hand and � this one's hard to imagine � a barman at Butlins. He didn't even start writing songs until he was 23. Murdoch and Stuart David, the band's bass-player, met on a youth opportunity scheme. "It was something the Tories cooked up to get you off the unemployed list," recalls Murdoch. "We were learning to be musical engineers or something like that." The pair then moved on to do a media business course at Glasgow's Stow college, set up by the part-time producer Alan Rankine. Every year he helped a group of students to make a record, usually a single, and put it out on the college label, Electric Honey. On recognising Murdoch and David's talent, he made an exception and allowed them to make a whole album. "We had to do it quickly," Murdoch remembers. "In three months we had to get a full band together and make a proper record. We ended up recording it in just a few days. Obviously, we had luck on our side." That record was Tigermilk. A thousand copies were released at the time � original copies now change hands for up to �400 � though, two years ago, because of popular demand, the record was re-released. It was with "3.. 6.. 9.. Seconds of Light", the third in a trio of EPs released in 1997, that Belle and Sebastian finally troubled the charts, albeit at No 31. Greater success came with their 1998 album The Boy with the Arab Strap, which reached No 12. Just last year they played on Top of the Pops and performed a show at the Albert Hall. Those are landmark events in the lives of most bands, although Murdoch, as usual, is underwhelmed. Then, of course, there was the notorious Brit award. Belle and Sebastian bagged the best newcomer prize in 1998, to the outrage of the other nominees. Rumour has it that Pete Waterman, the man behind Steps, called for a re-count. "I didn't pay much attention," says Murdoch. "I certainly didn't know what a big deal it was until after we had got it. But I remember, we were recording in the studio the day after. All these television crews were coming in and out � the BBC, ITV, the lot. After we'd finished in the studio we bought a newspaper. Suddenly we were front-page news in the tabloids � one of them said "Scots Band Cheat At Brits" or something like that. At first we were really angry but later we saw the funny side." Then he adds, with a sly smile: "Let's face it, it's probably the first and last time we'll ever be on the front page of a newspaper." 'I'm Waking up to Us' is out now on Jeepster. Belle and Sebastian appear tonight on 'Later... with Jools Holland' at 11.35pm (BBC 2). The band play Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow University, on 20 December and Mandela Hall, Belfast, on 21 December http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/interviews/story.jsp?story=107508 ===== http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/corduroysmoke and the world did get covered in a thick haze of corduroy smoke. And it felt good. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: Stuart Murdoch interview
by idleberry 30 Nov '01

30 Nov '01

Belle and Sebastian: Scots of the arch antics Forget Travis: Belle and Sebastian are your real sensitive indie band - they just aren't quite as famous. As Stuart Murdoch tells Fiona Sturges, it wasn't all about the limelight 30 November 2001 When Belle and Sebastian released their first album, Tigermilk, in 1996, Travis were still trawling London's toilet venues, Coldplay were at university and Starsailor didn't exist. Since then, sad, sensitive bands have become hard to avoid. Yet Belle and Sebastian, who are probably the saddest and most sensitive of them all, have yet to reach the dizzying commercial heights of their peers. I meet Stuart Murdoch, the band's singer and chief songwriter, fresh off the plane from Japan, where they've been on tour. When I say "fresh", I mean just that. Tidily dressed in a black polo neck, he looks unfeasibly alert. He's full of stories from Japan � about how he stood in the street during an earth tremor, watching people go about their business as if nothing was happening, and how, with true Japanese hospitality, the band were treated like kings. He's a serious-minded and circumspect individual � he doesn't laugh much � but he's still good company. When I ask if he feels Belle and Sebastian have anything in common with Travis and Coldplay, he replies: "Well, we all have a crack at a tune." He pauses for a while, then continues: "I feel very lucky; I'm quite happy with my group. In fact right at this minute I've never been happier and I think we'll give them all a run for their money now. We'll give anybody a run for their money with the way we're playing." You have to admire his optimism. The fact is that Belle and Sebastian have always been better, avoiding the empty emoting and formal rock structures of Travis in favour of a more subtle and pastoral sound. Songs such as "Fox in the Snow" and "The Boy with the Arab Strap" set flutes and shimmering strings alongside Murdoch's fragile vocals and splashes of acoustic guitar. The band, who come from Glasgow, have eight members, none of whom is called Belle or Sebastian. When they go on tour, the numbers can reach 13 with the extra fiddlers and flautists. Murdoch is brimming with confidence about their live performances: "Playing live's been a bit of a pain in the past. I know we've sounded awful. But we're very organised now. We're learning all the time, but it's going like a dream." Still, it seems the recording process hasn't become any easier. Murdoch says he came "close to a nervous breakdown" last year while trying to finish their fourth album, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant. The recording of their latest single, "I'm Waking up to Us" � a fabulously embittered song about a dissolving relationship � didn't exactly go off without a hitch either. They hired Mike Hurst, whose previous credits include Petula Clark and Cat Stevens, as producer. "He's a great guy but he didn't deliver the finished product," Murdoch explains. "We had to work very hard afterwards to polish it up. We really need a catalyst, someone who can harness the creative chaos of the group. I suppose we're dreaming of a George Martin figure, but it's not going to happen." If Belle and Sebastian were ever to reach the levels of fame that Travis have achieved, you wonder whether they would cope. In their early days, the band were pathologically publicity-shy. For a long time they wouldn't have their photographs taken, going so far as to stick pictures of their friends on their albums' sleeves, instead of their own. Murdoch avoided giving interviews, leaving the talking to other members of the band. "We didn't quite push away the limelight, as that suggests we weren't looking for it in the first place," he states. "But we weren't interested in that side of things either. There were other things to be getting on with. The band was developing, and for a lot of the time we were in a real mess." Does he feel like an outsider? "Yes � but then it's very easy to be on the outside where British music is concerned. If you're just yourself and you don't bow to the demands of the press and the music industry, then you're bound to be seen as an outsider." They're certainly a hard-working lot. They've made four albums in five years, as well as a handful of EPs, and there are any number of Belle and Sebastian side-projects � the Gentle Waves, Snow Patrol and V-Twin, to name just a few. The band were also the brains behind the Bowlie Weekender, the springtime festival held at Pontin's Holiday Camp in Camber Sands, which later spawned All Tomorrow's Parties. More recently, there's their somewhat controversial contribution to Todd Solondz's latest film, Storytelling. At the mention of Solondz, Murdoch becomes visibly irritated. "To tell you the truth, it almost isn't worth it, what we did. We had lots of ideas, and Todd used very little at the end. I know he was having a really hard time finishing the film, but it was very disappointing for us. I'd really think hard about getting involved in something like that again." Murdoch's musical aspirations arrived late in life. Whereas most musicians spend their adolescence listening to John Peel in their bedrooms, Murdoch preferred being outdoors and, for a while, harboured dreams of being a runner. In the end, he says, he just wasn't good enough. After school, he tried a variety of jobs: as a caretaker, a farm-hand and � this one's hard to imagine � a barman at Butlins. He didn't even start writing songs until he was 23. Murdoch and Stuart David, the band's bass-player, met on a youth opportunity scheme. "It was something the Tories cooked up to get you off the unemployed list," recalls Murdoch. "We were learning to be musical engineers or something like that." The pair then moved on to do a media business course at Glasgow's Stow college, set up by the part-time producer Alan Rankine. Every year he helped a group of students to make a record, usually a single, and put it out on the college label, Electric Honey. On recognising Murdoch and David's talent, he made an exception and allowed them to make a whole album. "We had to do it quickly," Murdoch remembers. "In three months we had to get a full band together and make a proper record. We ended up recording it in just a few days. Obviously, we had luck on our side." That record was Tigermilk. A thousand copies were released at the time � original copies now change hands for up to �400 � though, two years ago, because of popular demand, the record was re-released. It was with "3.. 6.. 9.. Seconds of Light", the third in a trio of EPs released in 1997, that Belle and Sebastian finally troubled the charts, albeit at No 31. Greater success came with their 1998 album The Boy with the Arab Strap, which reached No 12. Just last year they played on Top of the Pops and performed a show at the Albert Hall. Those are landmark events in the lives of most bands, although Murdoch, as usual, is underwhelmed. Then, of course, there was the notorious Brit award. Belle and Sebastian bagged the best newcomer prize in 1998, to the outrage of the other nominees. Rumour has it that Pete Waterman, the man behind Steps, called for a re-count. "I didn't pay much attention," says Murdoch. "I certainly didn't know what a big deal it was until after we had got it. But I remember, we were recording in the studio the day after. All these television crews were coming in and out � the BBC, ITV, the lot. After we'd finished in the studio we bought a newspaper. Suddenly we were front-page news in the tabloids � one of them said "Scots Band Cheat At Brits" or something like that. At first we were really angry but later we saw the funny side." Then he adds, with a sly smile: "Let's face it, it's probably the first and last time we'll ever be on the front page of a newspaper." 'I'm Waking up to Us' is out now on Jeepster. Belle and Sebastian appear tonight on 'Later... with Jools Holland' at 11.35pm (BBC 2). The band play Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow University, on 20 December and Mandela Hall, Belfast, on 21 December http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/interviews/story.jsp?story=107508 ===== http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/corduroysmoke and the world did get covered in a thick haze of corduroy smoke. And it felt good. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: for the protection of our bridal gowns, please remove your shoes.
by caleb ben moore 30 Nov '01

30 Nov '01

so i'm sitting here listening to an absolutely SWINGING cd called "uh-oh!" by a group called Tipsy. it's totally tiki lounge music full of water bubble noises and strange vocal samples from old exotica records. i feel like i should be sipping a triple zombie on a white beach surrounded by groovy hipsters and the occassional foreign spy. in a word: KEEN. check it out. especially the songs "sweet cinnamon punch" and "neon tetra" anyway. its a grey day here in the bustling metropolis of minneapolis. there has been alot of talk, primarily by a certain sinisterine, about the bad qualities of Goths. well. he's right about all those bad qualities he listed. they are BAD. truly. BUT! seriously, dont those same BAD attitudes apply to ALL people who tend to pigeonhole themselves into some genre of society? be they goths, indiekids, punks, whatever. people need to be judged on their personalities, not on their dress or amount of eye-makeup. i love many old goth bands. i love many indie bands. i love scandinavian folk music. i love zydeco. i dress like me. thats my pigeonhole. you are all right, there ARE alot of avant-goths out there who are very snobby and pretentious. but i beg you all to see that there are just as many avant-indiekids also. and they are just as pretentious as the others. guys: who of us hasnt met a beautiful girl who is keenly dressed, introduced ourselves, and breathed a silent sigh of dissappointment and yes, JUDGEMENT, when she said "oh yeah i just got back from the EMINEM concert, it was ACE." you see? it easy to be judgemental. i'm very guilty of it myself at times. i would hate to be judged harshly as being an "avant-goth" by indiekids cause i have dyed black hair and write poetry and occassionally listen to bauhaus and sometimes wear a Dead Can Dance t-shirt. we are all different people, with different backgrounds and different friends, and we all need to IGNORE all the snobs out there, WHOEVER they are, and just make sure that WE ourselves arent being snobby or pretentious. whenever we point a finger, there are three pointing back at us. assumption starts with an ASS. ok , thanks for listening to my little ranting. i really have no ill-will toward anyone, especially not my fellow honorary rachel joe vester. i just hate people making blanket statements about people thats all. props to DAHLING for reading "a heartbreaking work of staggering genius" its awesome isnt it? i love love love it!! i'm currently reading "100 years of solitude" by gabriel garcia-marquez. its prolly my 5th time through it but its so full of detail i love it more each time. i send my love to all of you, but especially: ULLA for having such an adorable sleepy voice. JOE VESTER for getting me to think. ELISE in madison---you're not mad at me are you? SHAWN KRUEGER in MI. VU sleeper---sorry i havent called you, i've been really busy, but we must get together soon! ummm.....oh yeah KRISTEN KENYON for writing such beautiful and engaging posts. MARC in the netherlands for getting the sinister translation game off and running. LINDSEY BAKER for having a strong heart. thats all folks.......till next time, dont forget to blow out the candles before bed. -----caleb ben ===== "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle." ~Plato "Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction." -Antoine de Saint-Exupery __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: why don't you say the things you used to say? what makes you treat me like a piece of clay? my hair's still curly and my eyes are still blue, why don't you love me like you used to do?
by Richard Gillanders 30 Nov '01

30 Nov '01

kenneth got 'ejaculated' from a night club. I got ejected later. by the same guy. we reckoned it must have been his first night. he was throwing lots out. power-trip? I don't go in for that sort of thing myself. but-yes. my exit was much more contrived. YET. NOT AT ALL contrived. maybe I want 'engineered'. or maybe I have it. whether I want it or not. and later ladies looking for information pertaining to my persuasion. and telling me all about their flooded hotel rooms. and missing boyfriends. alasdair had a birthday party. I gatecrashed. with karl stockhausen. ignoring the number of varieties and singing the beatles. and soon it was all jeepers creepers. and ally wielding his instrument. briefly. and reflecting on age. and in pint glasses. and half pint glasses. much pool was played. I didn't realise just how much until afterwards. three times we didn't finish on the black. three times I shrugged. and a juicy one concluding the final game with three tremendous shots. it sure was fun. I wish I knew about parties I could actually gatecrash. or turn up uninvited to. david moore reckoned he looked... when talking briefly about the byzantine empire. I forget. how exactly that he thought he looked. and I cannot access the archive at the moment. I remember there was some...curling up in embarrassment? I can assure him he didn't look... not even slightly. I think he might have looked...knowledgeable instead. but. I forget. I was tired that night. tireder. lots of people say 'poor rich' when they talk to me. I get asked how I am and I tell that I'm 'okay'. sometimes I make a face. enforcing just how okay I am. I don't say much. and because usually what I do say is some sort of complaint. about. however. and they say 'poor rich'. and I say 'yeahhhh'. because I don't know what else to say. I got the new single. and saw some fantastic dancing. there were no mirrors. I like it. mostly. I had thought it could be a lot of fun. I also got the new chilly gonzales single. that's a lot of fun. 'the gillanders defence'? I stopped playing chess years ago. scrabble is preferred. even if my dictionary goes no further than 'w'. I don't have a television aerial. I do have a television. I'm going to amsterdam next week. missing dear jo-jo's birthday celebrations. unfortunately. I sort of don't want to. go. AND if I get to apologising in the future. I'll make sure there's an obvious WHO and an obvious WHY. I've decided not to smoke. here. I don't mean to sound melancholy. sometimes I think 'ouch'. sometimes I think 'ouch, ouch, ouch'. hello, richard. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: doggie style
by Archel Playforth 30 Nov '01

30 Nov '01

so, 'i'm waking up to us' arrived on monday in its frankly disturbing cover. sarah looking decidedly ruffled in the back seat with a post-coitally relaxed beagle. richard grinning madly in tight trousers, holding a small fluffy thing in a vice-like grip. isobel in her leather and her drugged, come-to-bed eyes, fondling that poor westie's collar like she might be about to strangle him. conclusion: belle and sebastian have finally come out as the filthy-minded boy and girl racers we always suspected they were. but what about the music? i've been mostly listening to it over breakfast, which is a fairly depressing way to start the day if you pay attention to all the lyrics... IWUTU: 'new' b&s in the same vein as jonathan david, and pretty much just a different angle on the same themes as that song, ie. 'she's with a guy/who takes the prize for everything i ever showed her', 'she grew up and she left the rest of us', 'i haven't changed, how could i?' stuart's enunciation is certainly odd, he seems to be going for a sort of old-fashioned cabaret sound? shades of scott walker is matt's verdict. ILMC: a novelty record by any other name... an nice big romp instrumentally, but will always have its greatest impact live i think. who could forget stuart finally letting it all hang out and doing the special car-worshipping jig at RAH? MAE: yay, back to the old school. shades of 'century of fakers' as well as 'take your carriage clock'. the ending is particularly lovely, and you know that only stuart murdoch would produce those lyrics: 'the girl just wants to be/left alone with marx and engels for a while/she's writing in the style/of any riot girl'. so, 7/10 this time, murdoch. but detentions all round for lewd behaviour. any chart predictions? luv archel xxx *************************************** archel(a)iname.com For the best in new writing on the web, visit www.buzzwords.org.uk Contact us on buzzwords(a)bigfoot.com +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Re: Sinister: The Independent
by robin stout 30 Nov '01

30 Nov '01

hey! <<There's an interview with the boy Murdoch in The Independent today.>> Thanks Neil! I had an unread copy in my bag which had doubled as a rainhat in the morning, was falling apart, and about to end up in the bin. But it was saved! The article's quite insightful I think. For all non-British listees (and all you British cheapskates) it's here; http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/interviews/story.jsp?story=107508 Hope that works, I never know with links. I'm trusting my mum to record Belle and Sebastian tonight. She'll be swotting up on the video instruction manual right now. Then I'll come home at Christmas and she'll say "I recorded that Boz Scaggs for you. Hope it's okay. What a lovely man. Groovy, I suppose you'd call it. I caught a bit of that nambly pambly group that was on before, but I didn't think much of them. Fancy getting so excited about an arab strap! Cock a hoop they were! Well, that's what we called them in my day! I remember..." Arghhh! Nooo! I was in a record shop yesterday and was surreptitiously putting "I'm Waking Up To Us" in front of all the Geri Halliwell singles. Ha ha! I still find the whole doggie concept a little terrifying. Not quite as terrifying as Ms Halliwell, though. On the subject of arab straps (well, my mum was anyway) I saw an advert once for something called a Love Glove. So did Stuart by the sound of it; "I could even find it in my heart to love my glove" Maybe I'll get one for Christmas... R x _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: In other news...
by Gardiner, Stuart 30 Nov '01

30 Nov '01

OK, to show that I'm really bored at work today... Here's the article from the Independent... Big Stu ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Belle and Sebastian: Scots of the arch antics Forget Travis: Belle and Sebastian are your real sensitive indie band - they just aren't quite as famous. As Stuart Murdoch tells Fiona Sturges, it wasn't all about the limelight 30 November 2001 When Belle and Sebastian released their first album, Tigermilk, in 1996, Travis were still trawling London's toilet venues, Coldplay were at university and Starsailor didn't exist. Since then, sad, sensitive bands have become hard to avoid. Yet Belle and Sebastian, who are probably the saddest and most sensitive of them all, have yet to reach the dizzying commercial heights of their peers. I meet Stuart Murdoch, the band's singer and chief songwriter, fresh off the plane from Japan, where they've been on tour. When I say "fresh", I mean just that. Tidily dressed in a black polo neck, he looks unfeasibly alert. He's full of stories from Japan - about how he stood in the street during an earth tremor, watching people go about their business as if nothing was happening, and how, with true Japanese hospitality, the band were treated like kings. He's a serious-minded and circumspect individual - he doesn't laugh much - but he's still good company. When I ask if he feels Belle and Sebastian have anything in common with Travis and Coldplay, he replies: "Well, we all have a crack at a tune." He pauses for a while, then continues: "I feel very lucky; I'm quite happy with my group. In fact right at this minute I've never been happier and I think we'll give them all a run for their money now. We'll give anybody a run for their money with the way we're playing." You have to admire his optimism. The fact is that Belle and Sebastian have always been better, avoiding the empty emoting and formal rock structures of Travis in favour of a more subtle and pastoral sound. Songs such as "Fox in the Snow" and "The Boy with the Arab Strap" set flutes and shimmering strings alongside Murdoch's fragile vocals and splashes of acoustic guitar. The band, who come from Glasgow, have eight members, none of whom is called Belle or Sebastian. When they go on tour, the numbers can reach 13 with the extra fiddlers and flautists. Murdoch is brimming with confidence about their live performances: "Playing live's been a bit of a pain in the past. I know we've sounded awful. But we're very organised now. We're learning all the time, but it's going like a dream." Still, it seems the recording process hasn't become any easier. Murdoch says he came "close to a nervous breakdown" last year while trying to finish their fourth album, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant. The recording of their latest single, "I'm Waking up to Us" - a fabulously embittered song about a dissolving relationship - didn't exactly go off without a hitch either. They hired Mike Hurst, whose previous credits include Petula Clark and Cat Stevens, as producer. "He's a great guy but he didn't deliver the finished product," Murdoch explains. "We had to work very hard afterwards to polish it up. We really need a catalyst, someone who can harness the creative chaos of the group. I suppose we're dreaming of a George Martin figure, but it's not going to happen." If Belle and Sebastian were ever to reach the levels of fame that Travis have achieved, you wonder whether they would cope. In their early days, the band were pathologically publicity-shy. For a long time they wouldn't have their photographs taken, going so far as to stick pictures of their friends on their albums' sleeves, instead of their own. Murdoch avoided giving interviews, leaving the talking to other members of the band. "We didn't quite push away the limelight, as that suggests we weren't looking for it in the first place," he states. "But we weren't interested in that side of things either. There were other things to be getting on with. The band was developing, and for a lot of the time we were in a real mess." Does he feel like an outsider? "Yes - but then it's very easy to be on the outside where British music is concerned. If you're just yourself and you don't bow to the demands of the press and the music industry, then you're bound to be seen as an outsider." They're certainly a hard-working lot. They've made four albums in five years, as well as a handful of EPs, and there are any number of Belle and Sebastian side-projects - the Gentle Waves, Snow Patrol and V-Twin, to name just a few. The band were also the brains behind the Bowlie Weekender, the springtime festival held at Pontin's Holiday Camp in Camber Sands, which later spawned All Tomorrow's Parties. More recently, there's their somewhat controversial contribution to Todd Solondz's latest film, Storytelling. At the mention of Solondz, Murdoch becomes visibly irritated. "To tell you the truth, it almost isn't worth it, what we did. We had lots of ideas, and Todd used very little at the end. I know he was having a really hard time finishing the film, but it was very disappointing for us. I'd really think hard about getting involved in something like that again." Murdoch's musical aspirations arrived late in life. Whereas most musicians spend their adolescence listening to John Peel in their bedrooms, Murdoch preferred being outdoors and, for a while, harboured dreams of being a runner. In the end, he says, he just wasn't good enough. After school, he tried a variety of jobs: as a caretaker, a farm-hand and - this one's hard to imagine - a barman at Butlins. He didn't even start writing songs until he was 23. Murdoch and Stuart David, the band's bass-player, met on a youth opportunity scheme. "It was something the Tories cooked up to get you off the unemployed list," recalls Murdoch. "We were learning to be musical engineers or something like that." The pair then moved on to do a media business course at Glasgow's Stow college, set up by the part-time producer Alan Rankine. Every year he helped a group of students to make a record, usually a single, and put it out on the college label, Electric Honey. On recognising Murdoch and David's talent, he made an exception and allowed them to make a whole album. "We had to do it quickly," Murdoch remembers. "In three months we had to get a full band together and make a proper record. We ended up recording it in just a few days. Obviously, we had luck on our side." That record was Tigermilk. A thousand copies were released at the time - original copies now change hands for up to £400 - though, two years ago, because of popular demand, the record was re-released. It was with "3.. 6.. 9.. Seconds of Light", the third in a trio of EPs released in 1997, that Belle and Sebastian finally troubled the charts, albeit at No 31. Greater success came with their 1998 album The Boy with the Arab Strap, which reached No 12. Just last year they played on Top of the Pops and performed a show at the Albert Hall. Those are landmark events in the lives of most bands, although Murdoch, as usual, is underwhelmed. Then, of course, there was the notorious Brit award. Belle and Sebastian bagged the best newcomer prize in 1998, to the outrage of the other nominees. Rumour has it that Pete Waterman, the man behind Steps, called for a re-count. "I didn't pay much attention," says Murdoch. "I certainly didn't know what a big deal it was until after we had got it. But I remember, we were recording in the studio the day after. All these television crews were coming in and out - the BBC, ITV, the lot. After we'd finished in the studio we bought a newspaper. Suddenly we were front-page news in the tabloids - one of them said "Scots Band Cheat At Brits" or something like that. At first we were really angry but later we saw the funny side." Then he adds, with a sly smile: "Let's face it, it's probably the first and last time we'll ever be on the front page of a newspaper." ------------------------------------------------------------- +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: Ladies of the Night
by mark w 30 Nov '01

30 Nov '01

idleberry said: >I went to this thing on Tuesday which was a >promotional night at the Holyrood Hotel in Edinburgh >for work. They were trying to sweet talk me and thirty >odd other women into making syure that we book all our >clients ingto their hotel. Hubba hubba! I didn't know the hotels encouraged that sort of business, especially respectable ones like the Holyrood, and I wouldn't have thought that they'd make a lot of money by the hour, but who knows? Hee hee hee *snort* ahem. Sorry, I'll get back in the lurker box. But not until I've said that the new single (it is a single, really, isn't it? Needs 4 songs to be an EP in the old-stylee way. IMHO) is fantastic once you've given it a chance. Iwootoo is definitely a bit of a grower, ILMC (anagram of MILK. Nearly. I mean, what are the chances????) is grate for stomping around during the brass solos, and Marx & Engels is just pure classic B&S. Right, back in the lurker box now. mark (P.S. - It's OK for me to make smutty inuendo's about idles, being the idlebloke. She'll still twat me for it though.) _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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