Brad W. wrote: <...People, people -- Belle & Sebastian is flat out boring, and they are musical thieves to boot (unless Lou Reed is collecting <royalties...) Alex Tobin wrote <it must be extremely difficult for budding songwriters with a love of music to actually chuck out all of the music they listened to in <the past and come up with their very own unique sound. <So, now I'm curious about further Lou Reed connections... Is Isobel the Nico of the band? Should we make Stevie the John Cale <to Stuart's Lou? Who will fulfill the role of Andy Warhol (any takers out there?)? Likewise Bowie or Iggy Pop (Aidan Moffat?)... If there are ANY truly original bands out there who are not influenced by other music someone please let me know, but make it a good one 'cos I've been around a long time and I ain't found one yet. The point is what do they do with the influence when they have it. There's a thin line between tribute/clever pastiche and just plain copying; a thin line but one that glows in the dark. I reckon B&S are well on the right side of the line as opposed to eg. Blur, whose LPs are basically compilations of their favourite bands ("There's a bit of room at the end lads what shall we have, a Kinks or another XTC?"). I thought the Velvet Underground influence on B&S was fairly obvious but that just goes to show that not everyones ears are the same. Lazy Line Painter Jane particularly. I'd say Stuart M was the Nico of the band; just listen to Belle & Sebastian or Beautiful. Oddly enough amongst all the other recommendations that appear on Sinister I've not heard anyone mention Chelsea Girls the first Nico LP which sounds remarkably like a lot of B&S songs. I think thats one of the reasons why B&S are my favourite band; because they sound like all my favourite bands. Just to throw another couple of logs on the fire, does anyone else think they sound a bit like Pentangle (Rollercoaster Ride, Stars of Track & Field) and doesn't Spaceboy Dream sound like that other Glaswegian genius Ivor Cutler? Honey wrote: <Next week is "Everyone On Sinister Phone In Sick Week" so we'll stay in bed and eat jam sandwiches all day together ok? I have to get up at 0530 and come into work to read the mail but I work at the seaside so "it's like a holiday whenever you go round". So it's cheese butties in a comfy chair OK? Martin -------------------------------------------------------------- "Boo to the business world." -------------------------------------------------------------- +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". WWW: http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "jelly-filled danishes" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+