Still here then are we? Seems like there's been a veritable explosion of Sinister recently. Which may be why I now have Ken splattered all over my keyboard. So, there's this new album coming out then. I've not seen any reviews yet. I thought it would be better to just listen to it myself rather than having a pre-judgment thrust upon me. The three songs I have heard (the two on that website film thingie, and the single that's been played on Radcliffe & Maconie) have left me distinctly whelmed so far, I'll admit. But maybe that's a good thing - the best music always grows on you (like a mold, but the good kind of mold that makes cheese tasty, not the bad kind of mold that makes your sandals smell). And it's certainly a brave move of them to return from a four year absence with a concept album devoted to the psychedelic stylings of Arthur Lee. As others have similarly opined, I have mixed feelings about the band's re-emergence from hibernation. Yes, I'd love to hear some more stuff that's as good as LLPJ or the last album. But at the same time, B&S will always be intimately associated with a certain time of my life. A lot has happened since then, and it's a comforting form of nostalgia that reminds me of the days before I moved from England to Oregon. Not that the new life is bad - I still love Portland to bits, I've got a house and a new fiancee, I like my job and pretty much everything about my life (although I could do without the heart transplant *). As much as I enjoyed the old days of traipsing around the country to see shows, with happy memories of Manchester Town Hall at Christmas, the Royal Albert Hall picnic and the Fans Only DVD shoot, things inevitably move on and that's no bad thing. But there's a reason nostalgia is so popular. Still, I'll get the album when it comes out, and inevitably listen to it repeatedly until the hidden gems therein reveal themselves. And yes, I am looking forward to their show here next month (and desperately hoping it's not while I'm in hospital). After all these years, I can forgive B&S practically anything. Even being good again. Big Stu * Um, yeah, I'm not joking about that bit by the way. After five hospital stays over the last four years, I'm currently on the waiting list to receive a heart transplant. It might not happen until next year. Or the phone might ring before I finish this email and I'll jump in a cab to the hospital (**). Que sera sera and all that. ** If you're reading this email, that probably means that it didn't. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+