Hi! In response to Toby's plea: "Louder Than Bombs", definitely. More songs off the singles! I just got back from a vacation (I had a nice time, thank you), and while I was perusing the local "alternative" newspaper ("The Reader", I think it's called, for the San Diego/North County area), came across a review of FYH: *** An eight-man ensemble from Glasgow, Belle & Sebastian plays pop music that's unabashedly fey. Sprinkled with purring violins, cellos and flutes, "Fold Your Hands Child", the band's fourth album, stays true to the same light, pop formula that has made the group cherished among indie-rock fans who often prefer louder and angrier music. [Q'ua??] The reason the band can get away with playing such gentle harmonies is singer-guitarist Stuart Murdoch. The principal songwriter, Murdoch, much like the Smiths' Morrissey, inflects his songs with a subtle sense of sorrow and loss. Whether he's pining over lost friendships in "I Fought In A War" or recounting a childhood rape in "The Chalet Lines", he finds poetic ways of expressing sentiments that, in other hands, would come off as melodramatic. Even the other members of the group, who write a handful of songs on "Fold Your Hands Child", can't match his great execution. anywhoo..................... Lawrence said a while back:
Anyone ever sent stuff to members of the band? Did they reply?
I actually did, about a year ago. I sent them a letter saying how much I loved their music, how it dragged me out the of the pits of Spring despair where you hate everything and made me feel great (or something like that). I also asked who was on the cover of Arap Strap (Hey, I was a new fan; and it was (and is) one of my all-time favorite covers). I was very surprised when about a month later I got a small, handwritten envelope in purple calligraphy ink from the UK. Inside was a letter on a piece of notepaper written in smallish handwriting saying that the boy on the cover is "my friend and bandmate, Chris Geddes" then talking about how the photo came to be during the filming of the "Is It Wicked Not To Care?" video, and that "I'm glad you don't hate everything anymore". Signed---> Stuart Murdoch!!!!!! I nearly passed out then felt absolutely great for about a month. As sort of a thanks I sent them a picture I had picked up in an antique store of a country-western looking singer in a recording studio, with something written over the picture (I can't remember what, it called the singer the "Cowboy of Verseille" or something like that). I hopefully imagined when they got it they pasted it up on a fridge or something and that they're enjoying it. Re: The Flaming Lips--I saw them on a while back with Looper. They were, to borrow a classmate's phrase, "the shit". [I saw them at Nita's Hideaway in Tempe. Any fellow sinisterines there?] Looper was excellent (there Stuey D was!! a foot away!!); but by the time the Lips came on my feet were falling asleep and I was cold. But with a crash of a gong my senses came back to me, and I enjoyed one of the most pleasant 2 hour chunks of time. And when I came home I was coooooovered in confetti. Writing this post with the "Woodstock" documentary on tv in the background. My favorite part is Country Joe's Vietnam singalong song: "One, two, three, What're we fightin' for? Don't ask me I don't give a damn, let's stop this Viet-nam! Five, six, seven, Open up the pearly gates, Ain't got time to wonder why-- Whoopee! we're all gonna die!!" Happy Fourth everybody Rachel W. :-) +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "peculiarly deranged fanbase" "frighteningly named +-+ +-+ Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+