Sinister: Stephen Dalton, you're just being silly...

robhalcrow at lineone.net robhalcrow at lineone.net
Sun May 9 19:45:58 BST 1999


Hello Sinsiterines everywhere.
 Did you see Stephen Dalton's hilarious NME Bowlie thing where he said the bands embodied "the whitest, wettest, most sexless and soulless trends in guitar music"? OK, maybe he doesn't like "wet" music, whatever that is. "Sexless"? Don't really get that. Isn't intelligence sexy in a way? "Soulless"? I find more soul in B&S and The Delgados than in the vocal histrionics of Whitney Houston, for instance. But the worst criticism was "whitest".  Are white people not allowed to sound white? Should they try and sound black?  (Like Ronan Keating?) Jamaican? African-American? Chinese? And should black people try and sound white? I'm confused but I suspect Mr Dalton is just being silly.
  On the subject of emotional response to music I find ""The Boy Done Wrong Again" one of the most affecting in terms of lyrics. Stuart just sounds as if he's had enough. (I also think the 'wrong' notes enhance the song, to refer to an older topic. Isn't that one of the charms of lo-fi music? the imperfections? the ramshackle nature of the music?) (Isn't "ramshackle" a brilliant word?)
  More often it is the music itself that gets me, such as the instrumental into last verse of "Get Me Away..." where it seems to take off. It's all subjective though, isn't it? I was near the front of the Mogwai set at Bowlie and found the wordless "..Helicon" incredibly moving, especially when they got very loud and the lights strobed etc. A couple of days later I read Stephen Eastwood (B&S type at C4's Planet Sound) dismiss the set as "slo-mo metal guff". Hmmm...(to be said in a Marge Simpson voice, with a furrowed brow if possible). I'm with Katrina (not literally, obviously. I'm on my own): the best bands at Bowlie were B&S and Mogwai.
  I've got a sore throat now and I'm playing a gig next Sunday. I need Locketts. And sympathy. *cough* *splutter* *generally offensive guttural noises*
Love
Rob

"on Saturday I was an angel shining fair..."			
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