Sinister: "There is a perception that lyrics don't really matter but writing song lyrics is a craft" MY ARSE!

[Nick.Dastoor at xxx.uk]

I may start a Stephen Trousé cuttings file.  I may not.  There's already one for
Robert McTaggart, you know.  He's a dead Scottish MP, so don't be too hard on
him for not posting so much these days.

That Washington D.C. review:

>>
8. Are Belle and Sebastian twee?
No! Sometimes ignorant people who hate the band say they are, but
they're not. Looper can get a little close, and the Gentle Waves
definitely are, but B&S are not. It doesn't help that most of the B&S
button designs ("badges" if you're from the U.K.) and te early T-shirts
make them look like a twee band, schoolbuses and kids riding bikes and
stuff. I know Isobel did some of the designs.
Twee is what happens when liberal arts students flunk out and go back
home to live. They can't face the fact that they've got no future, so
they pretend they are still children. Everything's all candy and ice
cream and stuffed animals and kitty-cats. Yuk. But it is possible to
write about things when you were young without sounding like that.
That's why Stuart M.'s so great.
>>

Lesley Jo said "Jeez! Someone's bitter" but I liked the twee tirade.  I also
liked Sarah's Isobel tirade a while back.  And Lesley Jo's opening and closing
but  no noise coming out response.  It's good when girls get catty.  Although I
watched a film all about that sort of thing on late night cable TV a while ago
and it wasn't as much fun as I had hoped.  I did try shaking hands with the
unemployed but they spat in my face.  I think that used to happen to David Hunt,
but Tory ministers must be used to that sort of thing.   Yuck!

Anyway, this wasn't what I meant to write at all.  I meant to write about why I
had appreciated the thing above.  I know, it's not the done thing to admit that
any music journalist has anything worthwhile to say ever, but I thought this was
pretty good.  I think he's a bit off the mark with his college flunkers theory
though.  I think it's more likely to involve academically competent kids who
can't face settling down into sensible buttoned-down lives, but never liked the
idea of being a hippy either.  Of course, it's admirable to succeed in living a
double life (accountancy by day / fluffy squirrels by night), but there is the
danger of this placing an intolerable strain on some people, resulting in
psychotic illness OR WORSE.

I don't really mind if people want to be twee (although I do have an irrational
objection to people using the word as if they don't realise that it was ever
even a pejorotive term to be 'reclaimed' in the first place) - I just
wholeheartedly agree with those who draw a distinction between Isobel's
tendencies and those of the rest of the band.  Mind you, Stuartemmmm  did say
once confront his critics by saying "You may lambast me for not being "rock"
enough. But I've always preferred baby animals and cake to rock.'.  And he did
fall in a river whilst trying to save a moth from drowning a while ago.
Interestingly,   the word 'lambast' has only ever been used once on Sinister.
As has 'castigate'. 'Slate' has been used seven times.

I have just read over this post and there is no discernable narrative thread.
But the characterisation is excellent.


Nicholas xx





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