Current listening = the Delgados new record. No opinions forthcoming at this time. Not like me really, is it? No opinions I mean not the listening to the Delgados. My apologies to anyone dismembered by my barbs about sharing opinions on non-public-yet records. In the spirit of the times then, I made some notes on some things not-yet-public. Seasoned readers will want to press delete right now. The Visitors Miss album is a collection of little known pop, Im sorry, Pop gems that stab at the very heart of What It Is To Be Sixteen. Thats Sixteen, clumsy and shy probably or at least sixteen, angry and drunk. Perhaps both. Some songs are penned and warbled by some self-proclaimed fat, ignorant drunk. Top quality Not due for anyone to be hearing until at least June I expect. Who mentioned the Smiths and the Go-Betweens recently and suggested that they merely scratched at the nether regions of the charts? Pah. The Go-Betweens never so much as sniffed the charts, not even when Beggars Banquet tried silly marketing ploys like traffic light shaped packages or some such nonsense. Double pah. It just goes to show how stupid people can be (for not buying the Go-Betweens records I mean, not for suggesting that they sniffed the charts because obviously thats a question of interpretation and maybe Streets Of Your Town reached 41 or something ) And The Smiths? Well, hell, The Smiths were regularly top, top twenty (to be sung as in the Undertones tune ) tunesters, and didnt Panic go top five or something ridiculous? Its all so long ago and I know my mind is dulled by too much work and wine, as well as many other things. I dug out my old Smiths singles the other week and made up a tape for an ex-pupil who told me he saw them on MTV and remembered me saying how good they were and he was surprised I was right hmmm. The Smiths on MTV, how strange that would have sounded back in 1984 when we swore they were the very epitome of anti-chart pop. These were the days when the Razorcuts would write Top 40s not where its at anymore on their sleeves and we would jump up and down and say yessum, it is indeed so. For it was. I used to think that Belle & Sebastian were godlike in their rejection of all things rock and roll, that they were treading very strange avenues indeed with their refusals and perusals and odd meanderings. Then they seemed to grow up and become dull. Which is just my opinion. I feel kind of disappointed. Actually I feel very disappointed, but thats the prerogative of artists, just as it is the prerogative of other artists to do what the hell they like and not have to explain it all away to anyone like me. Especially if what they do seems to be a bit dreary and weak willed. Someone recently called me a bitter pill, which I thought was pretty spot on. Honey, my students call me worse than that all the time its true I must be picking up bad habits from them. I was talking about things that werent released yet, wasnt I? (Hey Aimee! Tell your English teacher to stick it up his bum. My students do this all the time and I dont even tell them they are great. In fact the exact opposite. The tears Ive had from being honest this is crap is always a good one for that. Its the new brutality ) well when the new Aislers Set album is released in a couple of months time you must all promise me that you will head out to the stores and buy it. Thats if you can find it I seem to have endless difficulties in finding ANYthing I want in the local stores. I want, and I mean I WANT the Stars record but has anyone even heard of it? No siree. I am driven to ordering it through CDNOW in the USA, who have it as an import so I am getting an exported import. Or something. That s if their back ordering service even works at all. Meantime anyone who can furnish more details (like record label?) much appreciated. Endless praises be to MP3s. And they do a storming cover of This Charming Man. Which is enough Smiths for one post by FAR. Ailsers Set yes, yes, and thrice YES. Theres a song by Wyatt that goes on about being drunk on the streets of Chicago for fourteen days on end and I tell you, it SENDS me every time. And another of Amys that says something about heading up to the New York border that is just sublime. Honest, I had a minidisk of the Aislers Set album, and one of the B&S album when I was on the plane to New York last week and do you know what? The B&S one didnt get a look in. But Im not telling you why not. Oh no. Theres a book that comes out next month and its called Powder and the NME says Read it. Of course you know by now to never trust the NME (unless you dont, in which case you are fifteen and thats understandable give it time) but really this book should be avoided at all costs. It is written by the bloke who used to be the manager for the Farm. Hands up who remembers THEM? No sniggering at the back. I mean it I wrote this book when I was 16. No really, I did. Some of it anyway. Ask my friends oh wait, I didnt have any. Which is why I wrote the book. Hmmmm. All of this says much more about the lack of quality in Powder than it does about any quantity of it my writing when I was 16. I mean, look at it now. How much better can it have gotten? Answers to be kept to yourselves especially Peter Miller, who I just mentioned because I know he loves to see his name in print. And hey, Miller, the fat ignorant drunk and I were arguing about which of us it was you were taking the piss out of in your recent Papercuts outing? I insist it was him because theres no way Id have said such things about Hip Hop. I am too ignorant And on that unarguable point, I shall withdraw, perchance to dream of seeing the Magnetic Fields in July what a super start to our summer hols! Still keeping some kind of strange faith The Duke +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+