Sinister: Adam's Curse

[Nick.Dastoor at xxx.uk]

Hello again...

>I'm glad that Nick Dastoor upholds romance, but when he says things like
>this:
>
>>There was once a terrific song by a band called Airhead went 'Funny how the
>>girls you fall in love with never fancy you / funny how the ones you don't
do'.
>>It predated the crap-breezy-indie-rock craze by several years.  Thinking about
>>it, Airhead are a perfect example of the artless product of a people who
aren't
>>artists. And that's why we can all relate to it so well.  Cuz you know it *is*
>>funny how the girls you fall in love with never fancy you.  And you know
what's
>>SO IRONIC - how the ones you don't DO.  Sheesh!
>
>I'm not so sure I believe him because isn't this a milder version of what
>he questioned Owen about?  Doesn't it become a fiendish power struggle
>because we think this way?  Isn't what Nick writes the precursor of
>questions like "Who likes who more?" within relationships

No no - I'm being entirely consistent, Youn.   I like consistency - it allows me
to chart the limits of my small mind.  Let me make it quite clear - I don't
think Airhead's 'Funny How' is a terrific song at all.  I was taking the piss.
It's fundamentally irritating in the way it invites the audience to nod their
heads in recognition of its asinine home-spun truths.  And yet... it's curiously
interesting because whenever I catch myself lapsing into the crass mode of
thought that characterises the song, it allows me stop and think "Whoops - I
might as well be singing Airhead's 'Funny How'!" .  That's what I was trying to
get at with the bit about artlessness.  I'm taking all this far too seriously,
of course, which is why I couched the paragraph in 'jokey' sarcasm.  I'll shut
up now.

Steve C (who I will always think of as Walkn10, one of those email addresses
that appears to bear no relation to the owner's name.   I'm sure he could
enlighten me.  But it might take me a while for me to understand - this is
someone who only recently realised that 'Archel' was subtle corruption of
'Rachel'.  Don't laugh.  And what was that about Andy Dean's address?  I still
haven't worked it out) was spot-on about how obscurock snobbery is a load of old
cack. Trying to be cool through having records that noone else has is a loser's
game.  Especially when it come's to rediscovering 'pop's forgotten classics'.  I
mean a few years ago it might have been 'interesting' to have own Nick Drake or
Big Star records.  But now everyone's at it.  So you move onto Free Design.
That's a cliche on Sinister already and the rest of the world can't be far
behind.  You end up having to make bands up.

>No offense to anyone on the list, but I find it ludicrous that because
>someone listens to the Velvet Underground, their opinions are more highly
>respected than the Rod Stewart fan.

Well indeed.  But I reckon that in fact, it's a lot *less* mainstream to be into
Rod than the Velvet Underground.  His 'early, good stuff' at least.  C'mon - if
someone sent you a tape with 'I'm Waiting for the Man' on, you'd groan. But some
choice cut from 'Every Picture Tells A Story' - now this is someone who clearly
knows their stuff.  Unless you've already got it.  In which case, you might need
to find decent something off 'Night on the Town' in order to impress. This is
still rock snobbery, of course.  Just a more hard-working take on it.  I still
think about a girl at university who thought it was a bit odd when she saw that
I'd just bought a Beach Boys record.  I think it might even have been some of
their 'early, shit stuff'.  It can't have been long before it seeped into her
consciousness that indie-kids liking the Beach Boys is far from unusual.

Nickie D,

upholding romance since 1973

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" +-+
 +-+                     "jelly-filled danishes"                   +-+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+