or a rumour monger as the case may be. Hello you lot: Well, hmm, at the risk of receiving a swift -- and probably well-deserved -- kick to the shin from Mummy I risk making a massive faux paus for help in solving a Looper-related (and by extension a B&S-related) puzzle. The story goes as such: A reputable alternative newsweekly here in Chicago has a curious listing this week indicating that the Flaming Lips are scheduled to play at a place called the Cubby Bear -- a ridiculous sports bar located in the shadow of an organized professional team sports stadium and is more apt to house high-fiving, white-hat wearing former frat boys whose autumn weekends rise and fall on their success betting on American football than mind-bending bits of lovely music. Normally, one would accept these concert listings at face value and think, "Wow! The Lips are coming back! That's great blinking news!" However, the combination of the oddball venue and my already being in possession of tickets for a live "Kids in the Hall" performace that night necessitated further investigation to confirm that the listing wasn't a mistake and to see if it is possible to attend both in the same night. (And to see whether the Lips announcement is a bit of a gaffe and I should instead purchase Elliot Smith tix that go on sale tomorrow for the same night. Spoilt by choice, I know.) OK, after being unable to confirm the news from any other local sources, I tried www.flaminglips.com and there is no official listing there for any shows except for a US tour warm-up show in Oklahoma City in early February, but they promise that official dates would be announced soon and indicated that Looper would be the support. I *know* that everything will be duly reported and such when it is official (there is nothing on the Jeepster site or the Treehouse announcing Looper dates), so I should wait, but maybe we could plead with Jeepster to do a bit of investigative reporting work. scott [to Jeepster]: I know that you can't provide any information directly yourself, but I thought that I could make a statement, put forth a theory, and you could correct me if any of my information is false. Ready? Are Looper supporting the Flaming Lips on an upcoming US tour? Jeepster: [silence.] scott: I'm sorry, Jeepster. Did you not hear the question? Jeepster: We heard it, but you didn't hear us say anything, did you? scott: Ah, no. Great. So, are Looper playing in Chicago on Feb 26? -- and so forth. Leaving that well-constructed fantasy world that insulates me from reality (sorry), this opens up many a can of beans, namely: 1) Does this mean that the new B&S album is completed? 2) What of the B&S tour dates that the Jeepster site says they hoped to do in Feb., March and April? 3) What is the status of the Looper LP that they hoped to release around April? So, now that I infected our list with heresay, is there any reliable information out there? Jeepster? scott. +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+