holy shit and a half. i haven't posted here in a while... i moved from new jersey to st louis to attend college at webster university, but i've been lurking, and boy, has the list gotten exciting again. here's my two cents on some different debates/discussions going on in these parts: **Isobel/B&S Songwriting/Etc.** well, i don't know how the songs are written either, but i asked stuart david about it a while back when i did an interview w/ him (it's up at miss print dot com), and this is what he said: "Mostly with B&S someone writes a song and brings it in finished, and if whoever wrote it has any ideas for what the other instruments should play then the other instruments play that part. Otherwise everyone just plays whatever they want to. I think they've been doing things a bit different recently, but I haven't been there for a while." not the greatest explanation, but it clues us in a bit more. it all sounds good to me anyhow. i had asked him because i was simply curious how the band arranges the songs w/ all the various instruments. In terms of Beyond the Sunrise (which is one of my faves off the new album), I had originally thought it to be a Stevie song after reading something the band's manager said to Select magazine regarding Fishyclap. After I found out that it was written by Isobel, it made me look at the Gentle Waves in a more positive light. Though I liked the Gentle Waves CD already, I enjoy it much more for some reason. Both Legal Man and Fishyclap have become my favorite B&S records (replacing 3..6..9 and Tigermilk) because the band feels more confident, yet still as beautiful as before. The songwriting from all parties turned out very strong... I'm hoping Sarah comes up with some more songs in the future especially. Well, seeing how I'm going on a tangent... **good records I've gotten recently** i've gotten lots of grat music, new and old, this summer in my travels. these are some of my faves, and they are all highly recommended (though it varies in styles quite a bit): **Blonde Redhead "Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons" (my favorite record of the year so far. simply beautiful and menacing at the same time) **Sunshine Fix "Future History of..." (Bill from Olivia Tremor Control. Psychedelic slow jams and hoedowns) **Goldfinger Original Sound Track (indeed, James Bond Goldfinger) **The Good the Bad and the Ugly Soundtrack (Ennio Morricone. wild.) **Lee Hazlewood "Cowboy in Sweden" (Beyond "Beyond the Sunrise".) **Trans Am "Red Line" (robot skateboarding music) **Mouse on Mars - everything **Stereolab "First of the Microbe Hunters" (i recently started working at the Gap in the STL Galleria (!) and they played all 9 minutes of "Outer Bongolia" in the kids store! if only the kids could appreciate that title. to make things even more demented, they played hanson right afterwards.) **Boredoms "Vision Creation Newsun" (sun-worshipping psychedelic exotica) **Martin Denny "Exotica" (the man the boredoms pay tribute to. psychedelic in a totally different way- jungle cats & bird calls.) well, if you haven't all died from boredom due to this post, i'll stop now. if you have died of boredom, then I'll miss you. rest in peace. gracias and aloha, mike j PS- yoko is my favorite beatle +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "peculiarly deranged fanbase" "frighteningly named +-+ +-+ Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+