Ian Watson was talking about the brunettes album, and he was spot on cos it's a great record. And they are indeed from New Zealand. When I listened to it I started wittering on about how it was like Michael Chabon's book 'the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay', and the bit where Dr Wertham's Seduction of the Innocents is published and the national outcry against comics resulted in mass comic book pyres across the USA. It's all to do with the embracing of fantasy, or at least imagination... I then went on to compare them to Phantom Lady's hair. Which made sense at the time. Uh, the review is here http://www.tangents.co.uk/tangents/main/2002/dec/phantom.html if anyone is interested. Oh and Ian, did you get a Brunettes colouring book with yours? Sorry if that sounds like snobbery or elitism or something, but actually it leads me to my next topic which is, ah, the whole notion of elitism and 'ownership'... I've argued long and hard in the past (archives... archives...) about how some of the most essential ingredients of the whole Pop experience are notions of elitism. I just think it's inescapable, if only for the fact that the Pop moment is a personal one, and you can't get much more elitist than that. There's also the sense of elitism based on not wanting to engage with the mainstream, for whatever reason; perhaps because the thought of being with too many other people who all 'share' a similar aesthetic terrifies (or repulses) you, perhaps because you just don¹t like people that much, period. Whatever. And ownership of art, well, in a mediated culture that's the interesting part; how one takes ownership of the art by making a commitment to it, by engaging with it, making it a part of your own world. By doing so you change the 'meaning' of the art irrevocably (even if it's only a slight change) - in simple terms the song is about 'x' to the songwriter or band, but it's about 'y' when I listen to it. It becomes personal. This was always something I loved about B&S in the first instance; they seemed to me to understand that and to play with the whole mediated ownership thing. Looking back now it seems less important, and the whole point seems to have been clouded. And that's fine because we all change. So yeah, my point was going to be something along the lines of 'does it really matter to you if B&S 'make it' with this record?' Does it change your ownership of the moments? Does it make your moments any less personal or magical just because loads of other people may all start frothing at the mouth and before you know it the air is filled with mutterings about johnny come latelys and bandwagons... Well, does it? I used to hate being accused of being a snob because I stopped listening to a band when they became 'popular'. Such was other's interpretations of my musical tastes: I only liked stuff if it was obscure and 'difficult'... It was partly true of course, and playing the part of the truculent old git was always appealing up to a point (and still is), but nevertheless it irked me and it still does because it was and is so untrue. Usually I stop liking someone because their records start to bore me or I just got excited by something else and couldn¹t afford the time, energy or cash outlay to keep up to date with so and so's latest record which all the kids were raving about or blah blah blah. Nothing to do with 'popularity' per se. So personally I say 'yay!' to Belle and Sebastian on the radio, playing their songs for children and adults who meander along in an eternal state of prolonged adolescence... I say 'hurrah!' for radio DJs and journalists proclaiming B&S their favourite band and making a song and dance about the new record because hey, you know what? It deserves a song and dance being made about it because it's ACE. And if it goes to number one and all the kids start wearing tasteful retro 'dog on wheels' hoodies then I'll grin and whoop along (quietly so no one can actually hear me of course) with the best of them. Because it wont change my memories, it wont change my moments. Belle and Sebastian will still belong to ME. And finally, thanks to Robin Stout for his suggestion we all start picketing B&S to come play at my school. I think we should all email Banchory with an email subject 'play at the Duke's school! do it to/for the kids!'. Go on, you know you want to. And again, finally (honestly), apologies if this mail was even more unhinged than usual. Just got back from the Open Evening... Bleugh. My head is mush. Keep those dreams burning forever. The Duke www.tangents.co.uk the home of unpopular culture PO box 102 . Exeter . ex4 6yz . UK +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the 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 +-+ "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 +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+