"thrilled skinny are the best band ever"

that phrase, this man once told us at a sarah gig in oxford, would be a great name for a fanzine. given that t.s were, loosely speaking, where indie-pop met discharge, we would go further and suggest that it would also be a not-too controversial statement of FACT.

when we were first alerted to shambling pop-drama "so happy to be alive" by the john peel show late one midweek evening it was one of those moments - like hearing "sensitive" or even "kik off" - where we just had to jump on the first train to the smoke that weekend and scour every 7" rack until we found it. in fact, "so happy" was one of their poppier numbers: as evidenced by the sadly underproduced blur that was their 22 track lp debut "they said they wouldn't but we did", their real raison d'etre was insanely fast, punky numbers with decidedly non-leafy and usually gloriously disjointed lyrics. they were also very big on household appliances and references to the everyday and the mundane - "another song about carpets and floorboards" was one title, in an indie scene that was indubitably fab but not always renowned for its self-deprecating humour, that epitomised their approach.

there is a good bit on their blog on how they mercilessly stickered parts of london - we can confirm that as wide-eyed teenagers venturing from the home counties to londres in the late 80s, we spotted those same stickers at seemingly every central tube station and genuinely concluded that t.s. were either (1) very popular amongst the capital's cognoscenti or at least (2) had the benefit of an astutely managed proto-guerrilla marketing campaign from some kind of indie street team. on both counts we were, of course, spectacularly incorrect.

some other fond t.s. memories include seeing them support the wedding present ("good evening, we're the stylistics and this is "i can't give you anything but my love"), picking up one of their absurdist lo-fi own-label comps with brilliantly funny sleeve notes (one of the best £1s we've ever spent), and arriving at university and chatting with a fellow fresher to find she had actually played violin on simon goalpost's extraordinarily wonderful solo 7" "off shopping trolley". very rarely have i been so impressed. also, we still proudly possess a postcard on which simon goalpost had scrawled a quick hello after we'd sent off for their later "teenage dream" 7"...

anyway, what brings our usual cock-eyed reverie to mind is that it is now possible to download four tunes from back in the (hey)day via their mysp. listen to the chugga proto-hardcore bassline on "psp" and at the same time marvel at the chaos this sort of thing caused when their tunes were cunningly sandwiched between the driscolls and strawberry story on pretty much any compilation tape you might care to mention. more good stuff here.

in dub with these times in spite of these times all time thrilled skinny top ten: 1. so happy to be alive 2. it's a good doss 3. let there be shelving 4. biscuits in the tin 5. common ground 6. teenage dream 7. love rut 8. media music part two 9. insecurity 10. quicker than the blinking eye