Once again: bienvenue, wilkommen and good afternoon to the ladies and gentlemen of the jury. A cautionary note: this email contains griping. That Muse cover of Feeling Good that's all over the radio like a rash at the moment - Nina Simone must be spinning in her black-suede-lined coffin. Has she, in fact, *passed over*? Must have: wild-livin' jazz laydee = tragic early death and guaranteed legendary status. What's _really_ annoying about the present cover is that I can't help singing along and putting in the descending bass line that those pesky nu-rock tykes have forgotten to record. Which makes people look at me strangely. Tchah. It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life, and I very much doubt that Matt Bellamy is feeling good. Do nu-rockers buy their skinny black jeans from the same shops nu-metallers get their unfeasibly wide blue ones from, or are there separate universes of emporia for such musical hair-splitting? What's with the adulation of indie boys who aren't actually fantastic singers, just good at wailing, having *discovered* themselves at 6th form parties whilst ripped to the tits on Diamond White? I mean, possessing a less-than-impressive falsetto range and howling like a bleedin' banshee does _not_ equal Grand Opera (Grand Guignol possibly). As if that's a good thing to aspire to in the first place. 'Operatic' singing involves some kind of breath control, for one thing. Gets my goat, it really does. Shag Pop - bang on the nail, my son, whoever came up with that one (sorry, no web access at work, otherwise my anal nature would force me to cross-reference to the Nth). It's that classy sleaziness (or Faded Glamour, for fans of Animals That Swim) that gets me every time. Mmm the ineffable allure to a nicely-dragged up liberal girl of louche pop songs performed by appetisingly lank young men. Also, the presence of a french horn or two on a record is pretty much guaranteed to get it sounding tasty. Who's that jazz chap the film Young Man With A Horn is about? Heh. I may well have gone on about Tindersticks before but, frankly, I love them and their filthy minds. Drunkenly staggering (with ballet-worthy poise) along the fine line between sweeping melody and bombastic arse, or sparse arrangement and lacklustre texture, is, well, kind of difficult. And yet listening to Cherry Blossoms never fails to leave me staring blankly into dusty space (3 a.m., six feet down, already up with the lark). Which is why I can't listen to the second album while driving. On the other hand, it can all go horribly wrong in the world of Shag Pop: see My Life Story for evidence. There's a routine Bill bailey does in which he describes the efforts of a juvenile bandmate to emulate (upon the synthesised keyboard) JS Bach as played by Rick Wakeman, but who ends up sounding like the Ski Sunday theme tune. Well. Kirsten, the Coventry Carol is sinister, in both the conventional metaphorical sense (cheery Christmas fayre about murdered children) and that of being in keeping with the present context (melancholy gorgeousness). Also, it's lovely as lovely can be, so carry on playing it for yer Ma and I'll join you from across the Atlantic. I think I'll spend the afternoon envying the humble cabbage-white/ his honest idiocy of flight. Beats earning a living. Liz D :x - I was not woken by the rooster, nor by the crow's tough song But the midnight cry of a blood red bird brought this sleeplessness on - +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+