I feel really sorry for Stuart Murdoch for not having any proper friends at university. I didn't have any proper friends at university either. And neither did any of my proper friends. It was terrible, we all used to sit around supporting each other through the traumatic experience of not having any proper friends. Those interested in rectorial duties should point their browser at: http://www.src.gla.ac.uk/rector and if they are tooled up with Acrobat, directly at: http://www.src.gla.ac.uk/rector/rector_role.pdf where all will be revealed. The most interesting thing from our point of view is the frightening fact that the rector has a full-time secretary, Noreen Jennings. The role of rector appears to call for more than "empathy and understanding". I doubt our candidate has read it, to be honest. Always keen for a bit of rough and tumble with the Pinefox, I went back for a go on the Lloyd Cole listening post. It was the same result as before, No More Love Songs well out in front, with a late challenge from the last song. I didn't have the patience for Vin Ordinaire to get going, so that might be another contender. I did notice at least two references to LA and one to Amsterdam, where Lloyd famously once spent a lost weekend in a hotel, of course. I must admit that one thing did slightly raise my hackles. Lloyd sings, "she called collect," when surely "she reversed the charges" would have been more appropriate for someone from Derbyshire. But overall it sounded like a good album, although I got a bit bored by the end. I think this shows one of the basic problems with listening posts, we expect instant gratification, and it's all too easy to press the skip button, or accidentally lean on the bit where the headphones rest when not in use. And they don't let you listen to the whole song. Not a good way to form a judgement. Better to take a risk, I think. I also had another go on the Magnetic Fields listening post, getting as far as Love Song number 10 this time. They were all absolute shit, I certainly couldn't tell which ones were jokes and which ones weren't, unless a badly played banjo indicates humourous intent. No one sang like an angel. Everyone sang like indie rockers. The tunes were appallingly leaden. Amazon.co.uk have chosen it as one of their Valentine's Day recommended gifts. I foresee many broken romances. What I like most about Tangents is that it's the only place where I can read middle-aged men showing off about getting free records. There's an excellent example at the moment, in Duke's article about Limp Biscuit. It's particularly good because he follows it up with a reminder that we mortals have to pay money for records, like the sad sacks of arse that we are. I think the Duke talks a lot of shite, but I really miss him when he disappears for a few weeks. He is our friend. Tangents is like his spiritual autobiography disguised as a hip Sunday supplement. I wish I got free records :-( Sister Disco +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+