Issue #42: August 8th - 14th, 2003
(Short Holiday Edition)

Reuben on the Celestial Sphere/The cat doesn't like to chat, just lie/Will I die with socks on
The universe, he said, when I was a child, was not like this;/the speed of matter and collusion of particles were different.
By Sonia Luthold & Chrissy Thomson

An interview with a band called Handsome Train
September is just a song that is made of and wants to create a special mood by telling a story about loss. Different fragments of pure thoughts are combined into a song that definitely tells you something, but not in an explicit way.
By Dimitra Daisy

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Reuben on the Celestial Sphere

The universe, he said, when I was a child, was not like this;
the speed of matter and collusion of particles were different.
around Africa the sea’s blue-green electrons glowed,
and Wells and Verne would plot their shining-ocean paths there,
oblivious to the application of temporal theory
in real time.

Thin, white-fingered,
I watched him and thought of Galileo.

Speak, he said, of the prison walls of science,
the unutterable paradox,
that the laws which tempt the shining perihelions of fate
and seek to calculate the right ascension of Omega Centurii,
the declension of Sirius,
are not in fact universal,
or understood as such.

Apply the laws of geometrics to love, he said,
divide the people by the raw tangent of justice,
calculate the sine of democracy,
the cosine of peace.

Tonight, he said,
we march on Babylon.

Sonia Luthold

The cat doesn't like to chat, just lie.

The cat doesn't like to chat, just lie.

If he did chat a drawly cat chat,
fat, lying on the mat,

you wouldn't listen to the fat cat on the mat
you wouldn't hear his sleepy drawl.

He knows this, and lies accordingly.

Will I die with socks on

Will I die with socks on,
on a road or holding a hill would pain me dearly,
in a bed or in a ward or in a cell would doubtfully find me well,
as to the cause, in case and will.

Find me naked, please, regardless. No smock, no chain, not ill,
for any way will be harder than life that's lived until.

The socks should not be dirty but pungency's allowed,
it's rude to take them off the ticklish tissue which they bound.

I hope they have some colour, some brightness in the ground,
so voles and moles and earthworms will notice what they've found.

A happy degradation for in the knowledge I'll be sound,
that opposing hair in dark dank situe, my length is easy found.

Chrissy Thomson.

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An interview with a band called Handsome Train

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Hansome Train make ingenious music, sweet, passionate, exciting, slightly strange - strange enough to make you wonder where it comes from - music to fall in love with. Morrissey, Belle and Sebastian, the Lucksmiths, Cure, the Housemartins - in the six months I've been aware of their existence, I've heard them being compared to more bands than any other band I know, I think. I had also said I would like to meet them and find out more about them, and I can quite proudly tell you at least half of my wish has come true! Here's the proof:

1. What is the first thing someone who has never heard about you before should know?

It’s more exciting the less you know, right?

2. How did you choose the name Handsome Train?

Well, writing lyrics is the hard part of being a band. John once wrote a love song where someone missed someone who went away by train. Then she returned (in the train) and the train was a symbol of lost love, you get the picture. Rather ridiculous, actually. Anyway, the song didn’t make it, but we used the phrase as our name.

3. Did you always dream of being in a band? How did the dream come true?

Yes! All of us dreamed of being a band. After having played different music with friends from school, we wanted to play the kind we really liked. So we formed Handsome Train.

4. What's the best thing about it?

Playing great music and having fun together!

5. And what are your dreams for the future? How do you plan to make them come true?

It would be wonderful to be able to make a living of our music. Unfortunately we don’t have a plan for how to achieve that! In the short run, we want to have more concerts and release more; hopefully that will be the case!

6. Is the world magical? What do you have faith in?

Well, sometimes you wonder... but, no. None of us are religious or have any beliefs in any way. We’re young enough to dare being realistic. When you get older and death and sickness gets closer maybe that will change.

7. Who are your heroes? Who do you admire? Who inspires you?

We have many heroes. When it comes to music these are worth mentioning: Morrissey, The Smiths and Belle and Sebastian. Of course there are loads of others.

8. And what inspires you to write songs?

Everyday life as well as the usual great topics make up our themes. But often you just sit and play and suddenly you’ve made a new song without having any thought behind it and without having been inspired. The mood you're in is decisive.

9. And, may I ask, what's the story behind September?

There’s no actual story behind it; September is just a song that is made of and wants to create a special mood by telling a story about loss. Different fragments of pure thoughts are combined into a song that definitely tells you something, but not in an explicit way.

10. Do you think your music has the power to change the world in any way? At least make people happier?

Not necessarily happier, but music can be - and sure is - very important for the mood people are in and thereby it affects everything. We don’t believe in our music as a political instrument.

11. What's the last record that made you jump with joy? For the moment these are the ones:

John: Mercury Rev - All is dream
Linnea: Ultrasport - Mieto
Mårten: Brideshead - In and out of love
Sara: Free Loan Investments - Youth will understand

12. Do you like festivals?

Yup. At least Mitt nästa liv! Different festivals have different charms: the small ones are cozy and the big ones are hypnotizing because of their size. Usually we prefer the small ones, though.

13. What's living in Sweden like?

Great! Come and visit us.

14. And finally: what would the ideal summer holiday be?

A trip to Greece! :) And the impossible combination of total silence, music, money and vacation.

www.handsometrain.com

Dimitra Daisy   

(more by this author)   

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