SHOOT THE SEXUAL ATHLETE Now I'm in a band people try to make me do things Kiss arses and pay tribute But I'm inclined to do those things anyway And I don't care who hears it 'Cause I'm a fan of the Go-Betweens A fan of Robert, and I always have been But I like Grant, now that I've met him Because he's charming Of all the stars, and all the would-be stars I'd take him home, to my mum and dad Yeah, he's charming, but he's a trouble-maker too He amuses me greatly I like Lindy and I saw Vickers Pete stole the set list, and the itinerary He wrote my name down as 'Tour Rent Boy' It was hard, but so is life [terrific violin break] I was making button badges And I had too much time on my hands I coloured them in by hand Pere Ubu and the Sugarcubes Kids came in to watch me But Pete & Sean just scorned Just like they scorned Robert But I secretly liked the big guy He dressed liked Sherlock Holmes And he fixed us with a quizzative eye Before singing such romances That only the sods trampled underfoot by Thatcher Could appreciate their love Could appreciate their love But it doesn't really work without the music. In one way, it sounds like the kind of novelty record that makes it into the Festive 50 at no.31. But in another, it has restored my faith in Belle & Sebastian. Sure, it's a minor piece, but there's so much life on it. No fucking 60s inflections or overloaded string sections or 'what instrument shall we use next'. Instead, just an instinctively great vocal delivery, weird phrasing, experimental instrumentation (is the band doing a kind of human beatbox thing at one point?) and all. Like nothing you've ever heard them do before, yet the effect on *this* listener was to be thrown straight back into the ear-to-ear grin that I had when I fell in love with them in the first place. Incidentally, I think they have made up the word 'quizzative'. I assume it's a conflation of 'quizzical' and 'acquisative', probably meant to mean the former, if I know Robert Forster's looks. And I'm not sure about the I got the 'Pete & Sean' line right. It could be 'Pete Shotton' for all I know. THE MAGIC OF A KIND WORD (for Poppa) I understand the opening lines of this song were met with grimaces when they played it live in Glasgow. "NO! ISOBEL! PLEASE NOT ANOTHER BREATHY SONG FEATURING THE WORD 'SORROW'!" They're tricksters though, and it soon mutates into one of those 60s pop pastiches they ermm.. love. I guess it's OK if you like that sort of thing. Not as overproduced as it might be if they were doing it on their own time NOTHING IN THE SILENCE Y'know, I even quite liked the last Gentle Waves album. But a side-project is a side project. By this point I was just thinking "Hmm.. this session started in the best way possible and now it's just gone to shit. But at least this means the last track is likely to be another Stuart one" MY GIRL'S GOT MIRACULOUS TECHNIQUE Yep, Stuart's back. Peel called it 'My Baby's Got Miraculous Technique' at the end, but I think he was right the first time. I have it down as a grower. Hello everyone. It's nice to be back. I really got excited last night when 'Shoot The Sexual Athlete' came on and I just wanted to tell you all about it. Nick xx +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+