Sinister: There's more to life than smut, you know. But not much more.

[Nick.Dastoor at xxx.uk]

>> i was walking about campus the other day & saw a flier that said, "Depressed
>> and have low self esteem? Listen to (radio station) playing Morrissey, The
>> Smiths & Belle & Sebastian"
>>
>> I thought that was rather funny that they said that B&S is low self-esteem
>> music.

Ailsa wrote:

>Doesn't anyone else think this? Maybe they're not low-self-esteem "I
>hate myself and I want to die" stuff, but as a long-term bullying victim
>with chronic self-esteem problems I identify far too much with certain
>lyrics, especially "Mary Jo", "the one thing that I learned when I was
>still a child was to take a hiding, if there's one thing that I learned
>when I was still at school was to be alone", parts of "She's losing it"
>and "Expectations", OK, maybe not what you'd all call low self esteem
>music but I see myself in a lot of (especially earlier) Belle and
>Sebastian lyrics and that's part of why I started to listen to them.
>I'm pretty sure there must be a couple more people who see them that way
>too? Yes? No? I mean there are a million other reasons I love them
>too, but that's my view on the low-self-esteem thing anyway.

Sometimes we get a bit overly flippant on this list.  It's nice to find someone
drawing attention to the sad side of the songs for a change.  I wonder whether
people are shy of it because 'angst-ridden teenager' is such a looming, uncool
stereotype.  Even when you're 26.  Or 43.  Oh dear, I think I'm heading down a
road where I'll have to put my finger on what Belle and Sebastian are about, or
why they're unique, and I don't feel up to the job.  But here goes.  I suppose
ever since I was about 14  I've felt uneasy about any dark and doom-laden music,
especially that made by contemporary white indie bands.  It always just seemed
so ridiculous.  Pretentious, I suppose.  (Maybe it says something bad about me,
but I never felt the same way about misery-laden deep soul music). Even if I
told myself they really did have pain in their lives, their way of expressing it
just did nothing for me.  Or it just embarassed me.  I don't know.  Which is why
I always preferred music that dealt with life's knocks in a more playful, or at
least detached way.  What the detractors might call clever-clever.  There's
something about the observational, third person nature of most of Stuart
Murdoch's lyrics, along with the smallness of his voice and the fragility of the
music that makes all the tales of persecution and awkwardness that Ailsa
mentions so bloody affecting.

But some people will never see it.  I pissed myself laughing at Steve
Sutherland's quote in this week's NME Verve eulogy.  It's a brave man who
allows:

"Blur release an album called 'Modern Life Is Rubbish' and The Verve release an
album called 'A Storm In Heaven'.  It's a matter of scale"

to be blown up in big letters across the pages of the paper he edits.
Especially when the quote continues ".. A matter of dimension.  A matter of
embracing the anti-matter, if you like".  Tee hee.

Different strokes, different strokes, man.  Not that I'm wanting to closely
identify Blur with Belle and Sebastian, you understand...

Anyway, Ailsa soon reverted to smut:

>Oh, and Big Stu said

>> (more Economy Tarts anyone?),

>which is no way to talk about Nick Dastoor in my opinion, even if he
>does behave like an inordinate slut for under a pound :)

>Wishing I had sold myself more effectively for a couple of listcrush
>votes,

Look, I'm not sure I like this Sinister slut label anymore.  There was a lovely
24 hour period between Saturday and Sunday night at Camber Sands in which I was
'Sexiest boy on Sinister'.  That was much better - can't we go back to that?  I
would just like to set the record straight that NONE OF THE SLUTTISH BEHAVIOUR
at Bowlie was initated by me.  I was always the passive partner lured astray by
others.  I've donated all my ill-gotten gains to charity.  Filthy lucre.  And I
completely refute the suggestion that it was a cheap listcrush vote-winning
exercise.  I had three votes in the old count so at least one person's gone off
me as a result of all this nonsense.

Nicholas xxx








+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
   +---+  Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list  +---+
  To send to the list mail "sinister at majordomo.net". To unsubscribe
   send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to
  "majordomo at 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" +-+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+