I came late to the Field Mice. I think it was in 1998 when Bernard Lenoir played Sensitive (probably for the tenth time or so) and I listened to France Inter on the long waves on 160 KHz in our old apartment in Gravenbruch. The reception was bad. A lot of hiss and noise. Which just went well with this addictive noisy pop gem. Which has only one major default preventing it from being my fave song of all time. It stops abruptly in the middle of the drone. Which breaks my heart every time I listen to it. It should bloody go on forever.

At the time I didn't know that the band had been history for seven years already. A couple of months after their retrospective double CD <a Where'd You Learn to Kiss that Way with 36 of their 45-50 songs was released. I bought it instantly. It is out of print now and catches up to 150 US-$ on ebay. And it is worth all those bucks. Because it is the best compilation in the world. Of one of the most underrated bands ever. The Field Mice were on the Bristol label Sarah standing for twee indie pop. I don't like that term and most of the Field Mice members neither. But it is not totally off the mark. Their music is mainly jangly guitar pop (but not only, there is a strong New Order influence) with heavenly hooks.

Robert Wratten their lead singer (now Trembling Blue Stars) writes amazingly frank and pure lyrics on love stories not working out and all those heartbreaking things. Think Morrissey without the irony. Here is their last concert at The Dome in London, November 21, 1991. I like the end of the review in the Melody Maker:

More links:

• Yahoo! Groups : fieldmice (discussion group)
• The Field Mice: Cl*ss*c Or D*d (I Love Music thread)
• Field Mice Biography
• The Field Mice on TweeNet
• The Field Mice (all Sarah releases)
• The Field Mice - Sensitive (Lyrics and tabs)
• sarah (Lyrics to 12 Field Mice songs)
• bull3-0: "Field Mice- 'Other Galaxies'" (long obscure song)

P.S. It isn't forever is another phantastic shoegazer song before shoegazing started. I think that the Field Mice were more innovatvie and had more potential than My Bloody Valentine.

Trans Am - Uninvited Guest

My music discovery of the day. Robin Proper-Sheppard's Sophia. Proper-Sheppard used to be the head of God Machine, a short-lived goth/heavy metal band coming from San Diego which moved to London. After just having finished their second album their bassist Jimmy Fernandez died of a brain tumor. Subsequently Proper-Sheppard started Sophia which was a musical U-turn if there ever was one. From rough hardcore to mellow sadcore. On their new album People Are Like Seasons they sound like American Music Club without Mark Eitzel's crooning baths in self-pity. The more experimental and rockier songs make me think of Sparklehorse, especially the distorted voice bits. This is a gorgeous melodic wistful songwriter album which has just jumped on top of my wishlist.

Ninety second snippets of all ten tracks of the cd can be streamed on Sophia's homepage. Four full songs in real audio are over here at the Euroranch. They will be in Frankfurt at the Mousonturm on March, 23rd. I hope I will make it there.

kommentieren kann ich da auch nicht. hab mich zwar mal registriert, aber angeblich passt das passwort nicht. und es kommt dann so eine fehlermeldung. TypeError etc. dilettantismus hoch drei.

p.s. kommentieren sollte jetzt doch gehen, da ich die e-mail mit dem freischaltlink doch noch gekriegt habe.

P.S. I wrote him an e-mail. And I am very curious about the reaction. The real one after the immediate robot reply.

P.P.S. No e-mail response yet but Mr Kerry vanished from my referrers. Just a coincidence? In any case I wish him best luck to beat that other guy in autumn, what was his name again?

P.P.S. JK is a loser.

weblogs which i have read for a while and where i maybe even commented who never gave a toss about my weblog (or deleted me from their links) and who will leave my blogroll right now. additionally they are not interesting enough to make me waste a permanent link. yes i am in a bad mood. but bad moods rule sometimes:

• traveler's diagram
• auspicious fish
• mosaikum
• naked maja
• glorious noise
• wortwerkstatt dagbok
• be.jazz
• slap dee barnes
• splinters
• difficult music

will be continued.

P.S. I have changed my mind again and linked back to the crossed out blogs. Yes I know that this post is probably the most embarrassing I ever made. I leave it here as a mirror showing myself my ugly face.

The Second Version Of The Random Smiths Lyrics Generator (thanks to tiefseefisch)

From here:

1. First record you ever bought? Manfred Mann - The Roaring Silence

2. First gig (who and where)? Udo Lindenberg with the Panikorchester and Eric Burdon in the Grugahalle, Essen (?), around 1979.

3. Best gig (who and where)? Yo La Tengo, Berlin Knaack Klub 1997

4. Gig you wish you'd been at? Joy Division, Preston 1980

5. What's in your CD player at the moment? Piano Magic - Seasonally Affective

6. A record that makes you laugh? John Cage - 4'33''. Though I must say that I have never heard it. ;-)

7. A record that makes you cry? Sorry, only a song. I cannot cry for thirty or more minutes in a row. Beatles - Across the Universe

8. A record that reminds you of school or college discos? Golden Earring - Radar Love. I can still see all the girls kneeling on the dance floor spinning around their long hair.

9. A record which sounds better in the dark? Cure - Seventeen Seconds

10. A song you wish you'd written? Julia

11. A record you'd like played at your funeral? Without having put too much thought into this. The Parsifal Vorspiel.

12. Soundtrack for a long car journey? Winter night: Wipers - Youth of America (on repeat) Summer day: Yo La Tengo. All albums in chronological order.

Joni Mitchell Library: "Currently featuring 1079 articles, reviews, interviews, opinions, and news items."

Martin Scorsese's Blues. A blues series in 7 parts available on dvd, the 2nd film is by Wim Wenders on Blind Willie Johnson.