Chalkhills Digest, Volume 5, Number 246 Thursday, 12 August 1999 Today's Topics: Cobain Conundrum Re: The Bears.....grrrrrrrrrrrrr! Wielding influence re:penneth worth More on Bears Re: Stin' Tortoise Blur Japanese band Seagull Screaming... OBVIOUSLY...oh, Nevermind On the subject of controlling 7 stations Video off of Vol. 2? Extra Apple Venus T-Shirts The Art of Business / The Business of Art Dave Gregory Cooking Vinyl Update SEC : UNCLASSIFIED Guided By Voices - New Album (no XTC content) Re: The Bears Re: Nevermind Administrivia: To UNSUBSCRIBE from the Chalkhills mailing list, send a message to <chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org> with the following command: unsubscribe For all other administrative issues, send a message to: <chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org> Please remember to send your Chalkhills postings to: <chalkhills@chalkhills.org> World Wide Web: <http://chalkhills.org/> The views expressed herein are those of the individual authors. Chalkhills is compiled with Digest 3.7 (John Relph <relph@sgi.com>). You boys will tire of these games.
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <000001bee1df$cb1721c0$54f9abc3@default> From: "David Seddon" <D.Seddon@btinternet.com> Subject: Cobain Conundrum Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 21:50:07 +0100 Dave Gershman said: >I'm not going to try to convert you to Nirvana, but let me just point out >something to the anti-Cobainers here that you seem to be willfully >overlooking or selectively forgetting: Cobain and Nirvana *were indeed* >considered very important even before his death! They were pretty much the >biggest (and best) thing going in rock in the early '90s, and his death >may have increased his personal legend, but the band was *not* merely >considered just another rock band before his death. > >As for your question: "What exactly was it that he or his music are deemed >to have done that was fresh, interesting or musically new?," let me quote >from the All Music Guide to help answer that: > >> Prior to Nirvana, alternative music was consigned to specialty sections >> of record stores, and major labels considered it to be, at the very >> most, a tax write-off. After the band's second album, 1991's Nevermind, >> nothing was ever quite the same, for better and for worse. Nirvana >> popularized punk, post-punk and indie-rock, unintentionally bringing it >> into the American mainstream like no other band before it. While its >> sound was equal parts Black Sabbath (as learned by fellow Washington >> underground rockers, the Melvins) and Cheap Trick, Nirvana's aesthetics >> were strictly indie-rock. They covered Vaselines songs, they revived >> New Wave cuts by Devo, and leader Kurt Cobain relentlessly pushed his >> favorite bands -- whether it was art-punk of the Raincoats or the >> country-fried hardcore of the Meat Puppets -- as if his favorite >> records were always more important than his own music. While Nirvana's >> ideology was indie-rock and their melodies were pop, the sonic rush of >> their records and live shows merged the post-industrial white noise >> with heavy metal grind. And that's what made the group an unprecedented >> multi-platinum sensation. Jane's Addiction and Soundgarden may have >> proven to the vast American heavy metal audience that alternative could >> rock, and the Pixies may have merged pop sensibilities with indie-rock >> white noise, but Nirvana pulled at all together, creating a sound that >> was both fiery and melodic. . . . The band's legacy stands as one of >> the most influential in rock & roll history. Glad to debate this with you, Dave, tho' I still cannot agree! Here are some points: 1. Is this book, which you quote from, purely American biased? I'll take a few of the quotes here and ponder them: In the UK, alternative music was not consigned to speciality sections! As I said in a previous post, if this is true, it just shows the unimaginative, boring mindset of average American music buyers and makers. I visited the USA in 1990. No one there had heard of The Happy Mondays, yet they'd been big for a couple of years over here. Before that we had the Smiths (can't stand them personally...something to do with Morriseys whiningly monotone voice), New Order and many others. We had Probe Records etc... a whole gamut of very successful Indie Labels and stars out of nowhere e.g. Frankie Goes to Hollywood (big nod to Trevor Horn, there) etc from the early 80s. Indie was a way of life over here! Students in particular were into all sorts of groups like the Inspiral Carpets. It was mainstream here!! 2. Tho I am no Metal fan, I have to agree that Nirvana were repackaged 80% metal, 10% punk and 10% indie. Neither interesting or original as has been said by others on the list. Now I may get attacked by Dom for this (which would be fair enough as I know about as much about metal as he probably does about flower arranging) but here goes. It seems to me that Nirvana have none of the qualities that would mark them out as classic metal acts: They are not great writers or musicians or bluesmen in the vanguard, like Led Zeppelin; they are not weird or off the wall like Kiss or Alice Cooper; they are not arty like Queen (in their early days); they are not amusing and self-depreciating like Motorhead. They were simply energetic and were there at a time when Americans were waking up to the fact that they needed to be rebellious, catch up to Europe, and not be stuck up a 20 year old piece of musical intestine (they are again now in my opinion...didn't last long did it?). 3. The reviewer himself says at the end that they just combined a lot of other sounds. Did they go on from that, or rather could they have done had Cobain lived? I doubt it! I'm not a Brit pop fan, but one has to say that Daman Alburn and Jarvis Cocker, to name two contemporaries, have tried to be more original, or to make more interesting (and occasionally positive!) comments about life in the 90s. Please don't take that as me saying that I'm a Brit Popper, but to my ears even (dare one utter this word!) Oasis are more interesting than Nirvana, even if they are similarly derivative and self-obsessed (and not a little uncouth). Their lyrics are crap, their tunes are borrowed, but at least they have tunes, at least you could hum something in the lift. 4. I'm not saying (and we've had this debate before) that melody is the only important thing in music, but it is one of three or four prerequisites. I don't think Curt had a clue! 5. "One of the most influential in rock and roll history" ... I can't see it. Seems to me that anyone who's been interesting since was not much influenced by Nirvana, whereas they were influenced by loads of bands before them. In short they made cul-de-sac music, terminus music...music that drew together what went before and brought it to a (thankfully) crashing halt. Not a sublime pinnacle of an important genre that will stand the test of time, rather a rusty column that will fall crashing, exhausted and spluttering to the ground. 6. I can understand why Americans may value him (tho' I think it's bogus and hollow...as in what I said about JFK), but I cannot for the life of me see why any European would be taken in by this hype. We had too many far better talents around at the same time as him. It seems to me that America has produced some truly great people (Lincoln, Ford, Frank Lloyd Wright, Gershwin, the Wright Bros etc etc etc), yet it seems that such is it's need for heroes that it too often elevates nobodies to positions of importance. Us Europeans could name many! Cobain is one of the latest. This doesn't tend to happen so much in Europe. People can be big for a few years, but if they're not substantailly good, they soon fall off their pedestal and are even mocked. This may be crueller, but it is more honest. I still don't see what was new or interesting about Nirvana.
------------------------------ Message-ID: <37AFB6E9.1D1EB2E5@pobox.com> Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 01:21:45 -0400 From: Jefferson Ogata <ogata@pobox.com> Organization: The Antibozo Subject: Re: The Bears.....grrrrrrrrrrrrr! WESnLES@aol.com wrote: > Rumor has it > that the Bears are preparing to reunite, and that a new cd will soon be > released.....keep your paws crossed. In fact, they did reunite several years ago on tour with Adrian. The remaining Bears were at the time known as Psychodots, and they were peddling a release on the Strugglebaby label called "On The Grid". I haven't followed them since then so I don't know what happened next, but if you're looking for Bears material, you should look also for Psychodots, though they lack what you might consider the key ingredient. Still, "On The Grid" has some good numbers on it. XTC content: I haven't listened to AV1 in at least four weeks! -- Jefferson Ogata. smtp: <ogata@pobox.com> http://www.pobox.com/~ogata/ finger: ogata@pobox.com ICQ: 19569681 whois: jo317@whois.internic.net
------------------------------ Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19990810091428.0096ca30@smtpgw.ametsoc.org> Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 09:14:28 -0400 From: David Gershman <dgershmn@ametsoc.org> Subject: Wielding influence Dunks pointed out: >Oh puh-leeease!! Calm down. Cobain, Bowie, Marley, bla bla bla. You say >potato ... OK we all have our favourites; we all have our own ideas about >who is or is not important. Personally I agree with all of them to a >greater or lesser extent. That brings up a good point, actually -- the mere fact that there's even any debate at all about whether or not Cobain, Bowie, Led Zeppelin, or whomever were influential suggests that indeed, they were. We aren't debating the influence of the Starland Vocal Band, Toni Basil, or Shannon Hoon, for example, now, are we? Like them or not, denying that bands like Led Zeppelin or Nirvana were very influential is nothing less than ignorant. Dave Gershman
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 09:18:53 -0500 (CDT) From: John Fulton <fulton@ssc.wisc.edu> Subject: re:penneth worth Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.95.990810085159.13687A-100000@guy.ssc.wisc.edu> David - If I haven't done so already, I herewith join the ranks of the some of the duller arguments around here, those of the "my music is better than thine" sort. Here are some brief replies: "I don't think he wrote any music people are going to want to cover in 10 years time." I have heard dozens of Hootie covers. So they're great? But I don't recall them on your list. "and he wasn't that great a musician." Please, don't make me come hit you with the nerf guitar. This is rock and roll, not a night at the Blue Note. "The Nirvana albums bored the life out of me and I found it very hard to discern any sort of melody thru' the noise." A valid complaint I suppose, but one person's poison is another's carrot stick. "What exactly was it that he or his music are deemed to have done that was fresh, interesting or musically new?" I presume you don't really mean "exactly" here ("it was that C-sharp minor with heavy fuzz in bar 17 and 1/2 of ..."). BUT they brought a dark though humorous sound long since AWOL from MOR. Plus concise songwriting, very snappy tunes (IMHO), and, I don't know, they just plain rocked. A friend of mine described the sound of Nevermind as "lush and sensuous," which describes it pretty well for me (angst over commercial overproduction notwithstanding). "Finally, he also became 100 times more important after his death and that gives the game away for me!" Yeah, but I would argue this also happened for Hendrix, Lennon, Holly, the Big Bopper, Patsy Cline, chunks of Lynyrd, S.Ray, well, you see where I am going with this. How do we know who among these was not "important" before death? More interestingly, what part does death play in the "importance" of a particular artist? I am of course thinking of the Van Gogh phenomenon. Cheers, John. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- - John A. Fulton fulton@ssc.wisc.edu - =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
------------------------------ Message-Id: <199908101420.HAA02220@sparrow.prod.itd.earthlink.net> Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 09:16:11 -0600 Subject: More on Bears From: "Bob O'Bannon" <batchain@earthlink.net> >Anybody remember Adrian Belew's >80's pop band the Bears? I've read nothing but great things about 'em. I >know their CD's are out-of-print. Anybody heard them? Any plans for >re-release? I wouldn't say the Bears were necessarily "great" (that word is so overused anyway), but they definitely wrote some irresistible songs, and Belew's hyperkinetic guitar playing gave them that edgy quality that would appeal to XTC fans. They were a little too slick for the alternative crowd, but too oddball for the mainstream. The non-Belew members of the Bears actually went on to play as Psychodots after the Bears split, and their albums are just as catchy, but a little less interesting. Now the leader of that band, Rob Fetters, has been doing solo stuff of his own. And the closest thing to the Bears that Belew has done on his own is his solo album "Inner Revolution." Lots of gems on that one. Bob O
------------------------------ Message-ID: <37AFD038.5DDCCE5B@connectfree.co.uk> Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 00:09:44 -0700 From: Robin Holden <rhoblidnen@connectfree.co.uk> Organization: RPHolden Software Subject: Re: Stin' > From: John Yuelkenbeck <jy@tomrussell.com> > > The thin' that bothers me most about Stin' when he sin's is the way he > drops his g's: > > "Every Little Thin' She Does Is Magic" > > "It's the same old thin' as yesterday" > > etc. Well, wot d'ye expect frum a Geordie lad such as is'self, eh? D'ye expect 'im tu prunounce everythin' proppallee, d'ye? It's like asking Andy Partridge to stop going 'errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr' on his R's or Colin to stop saying 'Stoat' when surely he means 'Stout.' Not that you're asking him to stop, that is. Just pointin' out a few thin's. R
------------------------------ Message-ID: <37B03AEC.66B38199@yahoo.com> Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 07:45:06 -0700 From: "d. Taylor Singletary" <graysweaters@yahoo.com> Subject: Tortoise In Issue #5-245.... I had the pleasure of seeing the word TORTOISE. Now, this pleasure sent a tingle down my spine, activated [fired] receptors in my brain. Why? Because Tortoise is what is hip. Three albums were released in the past two years that could take you into a complete other dimension of sound, space, humanity. A place where the people look a little different, perhaps think a little different. This place is what I call the Techra-zone. The albums: XTC's Apple Venus, Beck's Mutations, & Tortoise's TNT. Play these albums in succession, in any order, just these three albums... and you will know what i mean. A similar feeling, an other-worldliness. Thanks for mentioning Tortoise. Buy Tortoise. You will never be sorry.
------------------------------ Message-ID: <001101bee316$9bf0fc80$b51017d4@smj> From: "Stephen Jackson" <smj@zen.co.uk> Subject: Blur Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 10:55:39 +0100 Wes said.. >Hear for yourself. I have read that Andy's ideas are especially evident on >"Sunday Sunday" and "Chemical World." I have to agree here, "Chemical World" sounds particularly like "Braniac's Daughter" Steve. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Two steps forward, six steps back.
------------------------------ Message-Id: <199908101555.IAA03455@scaup.prod.itd.earthlink.net> Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 08:54:17 -0700 From: Dan Pinder <dpinder@earthlink.net> Subject: Japanese band Seagull Screaming... Anyone catch in the latest Billboard the mention of the Japanese band Seagull (sic) Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her? No surprise, then, that Billboard would list some of their influences and completely fail to mention a certain West Country band what spawned their name...
------------------------------ Message-ID: <37B01E60.721C@realtime.com> Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 13:43:11 +0100 From: chris vreeland <vreecave@realtime.com> Organization: Vreeland Graphics Subject: OBVIOUSLY...oh, Nevermind "Don't ask me nuthin' 'bout nuthin' "cause I just might tell you the truth"- Bob Dylan This just in: Liking XTC does not necessarily mean you have good taste in music! Chalkhills is full of some wonderful camaraderie, and insightful commentary as well as occasionally being a source of information about the band, XTC, and its members. I stand amazed, however, at the number of subscribers who seem to know better than one another what constitutes "good" or "bad" music. Opinions are offered, and feelings are hurt. Sure the internet is good clean fun, and we certainly aren't all busy here determining the fate of Bosnia, or high-level radioactive waste, so rest assured I don't take this all that seriously- this is just the logical avenue for musings brought on by the dialogue I read here. The problem with considering, yourself an arbiter of taste comes with at least one pitfall that I can see. You can spend your life carefully listening objectively to music and amassing a collection of recordings to reflect your knowledge and wisdom. Odds are 99% (because of the western culture thing) that any Tibetan, Maori, Aleut, or El Salvadoran would view your Mighty Collection as rancid Moose vomit. (on the other hand the Maori and El Salvadoran would likely not have personally experienced Moose. Forget that.) Chew on this anyway, whether you accept it or not; it's only food for thought: "Good" music is what speaks to you. It is not what professionally employed critics proclaim to be "good". It is not what record companies proclaim to be "good". All music has the power to be simultaneously good and bad, and that depends ONLY on which way it moves the listener. What moves me to ecstasy might move you to puke. That in no way means I'm right and your wrong, and to even imply so would be closed minded. Besides, are you all suffering from collective amnesia? All this hand wringing and gnashing of teeth over the most important bands of the last thirty years, and nobody even mentions Frank Zappa! Certainly he's much better and more influential than all those bands I don't like as much! (closely followed by the sound of flame-throwers charging up) Chris "destined to take the place of the Mud shark in your mythology" Vreeland
------------------------------ Message-ID: <3AE4C7B8CC1BD31194140008C7B14DE878D0B8@hfd-exch008.aetna.com> From: "Witter, Karl F" <WitterKF@aetna.com> Subject: On the subject of controlling 7 stations Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 15:29:00 -0400 Just curious: If all the personality is being squeezed out of music radio, is that why people are listening to talk radio more? I hear lots of "NPR" on this list and if it's not too despicable, I'd like to mention a show: Colin McEnroe, oddly intellectual, radio 1080 AM in Hartford, CT 3p-6p weekdays. The signal is clear-channel and carries pretty well in the fall and winter. >Erik: "On the subject of having 7 stations, who cares." I'll defer to your current purgatory in commercial radio, to dancing with the devil to keep your family (or is it just a cat?) fed, but I care about 7 stations in a market. Since radio stations stopped being in-house curiosities run by insurance companies, stores, and grain processors (WTIC Hartford, WLS Chicago, WCCO Mpls-StPaul), owners have had to do something for money. That's understood. But in the modern era it been less about running a radio station and more about retiring debt created by your new owners. Why should you care? For the same fucked-up reason that when somebody buys your corner bank for five times its worth, all your fees go up. The winners present you with the pyrrhic spoils of a battle you didn't even fight. It's all about having false choice, about selling an image to listeners that they don't realize. The cock-rock, country and alternativo station owned by the same entity as the pipsqueaking N'Synchies and the diva soft-rocker? Don't tell that to fans of Zep, Travis Tritt and Rage Against the Machine; they like to think they're politically incorrect. Ain't hardly nothin PC anymore except money and the compliance it forces. >Chris V: "as long as there are those who will risk the >wrath of the FCC in order to broadcast for the sake of >the art of music" Actually, that may be changing. Look up LPFM (low-power FM) proposals, try the FCC's website. At least one judge has ruled in favor of a pirate defendant. A notion gaining credibility is that something was screwed up between the concept of "public airwaves" and the reality of the money required just to keep a 1kw daytime AM station on the air. I've been a radio amateur for 22 years (you call yourselves geeks! HA!), and I studied for my license. I have a technical obligation every time I transmit to not screw up someone else's legal device. Hams are to serve the public interest, which I do several times a year. Now broadcasters renew their tickets for an 8 year period with a postcard. Whoring upcoming shows? That's "non commercial content". Mars-Mattel Choco-bot Hour? AKA "educational requirement". Those neo-Father Coughlins and Beltway Blowhards? "Public interest". FCC enforcement of broadcasters is at an all-time low, allowing technical violations from operating with too much power to interference with air traffic control and radar (look up www.fair.org). Well, I want my airwaves back. Waiting for ABC News to cover Disney sweatshops, Karl
------------------------------ Message-ID: <37B0AEEB.14@gte.net> Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 18:59:55 -0400 From: george toledo <guitarc@gte.net> Organization: home Subject: Video off of Vol. 2? I was told by either a tvt or cooking vinyl rep, that there would be a video released for volume 2. I'm curious if anyone knows what song is going to be released- or if anyone has any good guesses. Also, I'm new to this newsgroup and I'm shocked by the amount of Sting related posts! Why?
------------------------------ Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19990810175422.0092dd40@pophost.micron.net> Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 17:54:22 -0600 From: Phil Corless <philco@micron.net> Subject: Extra Apple Venus T-Shirts I have 4 extra Apple Venus t-shirts...... 1 XL White 1 XL Ash 2 Large White These are brand new, never-worn, Hanes Beefy-T, professionally silk-screened, etc. etc. I'm selling these on a "first-come, first-serve" basis...... The first emails I receive will get them. $25 each. That price includes shipping in the US. For Canada and Mexico, add $2. Everywhere else, add $5. - Phil
------------------------------ Message-ID: <19990811005616.68440.qmail@hotmail.com> From: "Duncan Kimball" <dunks58@hotmail.com> Subject: The Art of Business / The Business of Art Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 17:56:15 PDT ***Shock!! Horror!! Flash! This just in! Musician accepts money?!?!?!? Apparently, Dane Pereslete" <peresd@tcwgroup.com> thinks this A Bad Thing: >Fresh off the Wall St. Journal presses: Sting signs an agreement >with Compaq Computer to allow Compaq to advertise using his >"Brand New Day" single, neatly coinciding with the release of the >album of the same name and fall tour (heavily sponsored by you- >know-who). Well, Dane, at least he was asked, *and* got to choose the song - a new one too - **and** (presumably) gets the royalties. >Furthermore, the CD cover prominently features >Compaq, and Sting may appear in their adverts displaying (and I >quote) "how Compaq technology affects Sting's professional and >personal life" making this the first time that advertiser and artist >have worked so collusively. Collusively? Puh-leease! Collusion implies secrecy. This was in the Wall St Journal, was it not? Nothing very secrective about his website. Pretty up-front if you ask me. "The first time that advertiser and artist have worked so collusively??" As if !! Do the names "Michael Jackson" and "Pepsi" mean anything to you? And is what is wrong with Sting doing a bit of spruiking for Compaq? Is that any better/worse than the millions of dumbass punters who pay for the "privelege" free billboards for Nike and Adidas and Coors and what-the-hell-ever else? What's on YOUR T-shirt, buddy? >This contract extends through December 2000. >Still in disbelief that these strange bedfellows could possibly >be that close?... check out Sting's website - sting.compaq.com Oh, wake up! I fail to see what is so bad/wrong/naughty/immoral about any of this. Sting is a free agent. Sting is a highly successful businessman in his own right. And Sting's record company is unlikely to give anything like the kind of support that Compaq are willing to provide simply for him doing a bit of harmless spruiking. This is just plain hypocrisy, Dane. When someone we LIKE gets a record contract with a multinational entertainment conglomerate, we cheer. When oil companies shell out some tiny fraction of their galactic extortion proceeds into art exhibitions or ... (pauses to suppress gag reflex) ... opera ... the Arty Smarties swoon and laud them as Good Corporate Citizens. (Personally, Id'love to see more businesses get involved in sponsoring modern music. The record companies obviously don't give a shit.) What the hell is the difference, anyway? Music may be an Art Form, philosophically speaking, but here in the real world it's just another job. It is an integral part of the capitalist system. It is a product. Why is Sting taking money from Compaq more "uncool" than Sting taking money from Polygram? I'm a "social democrat", politically - I believe in funny, outmoded concepts like welfare, and public transport, and free education - but I'm also a realist. This is the system we have. It works the way it works. You can use it and deal with it, and try to improve it, or not. Your choice. But don't pretend to me that turning an honest buck is some sort of fall from ideological grace. Sting made a business deal. He didn't cheat anyone, he didn't rob or exploit anyone, as far as I can see. What IS the problem? This is the very reason I am barfed-out by wankers like Manic Street Preachers, who assume some laughable pose of politically right-on-ness simply becasue they've read a bit of Marx and happen to be "working class", whatever that is these days. So fucking what? When they start giving their records out free, I'll start listening; until then, they can shut the fuck up. When was popular music ever anything other than a form of commerce? You work for a record company, you get paid money from record company profits. You charge admission to gigs. You sell t-shirts and posters ...etcetera, etcetera ... It's business. Get over it, and get on with it. Yours profitably, John D. Dunks-erfeller
------------------------------ Message-ID: <37B0D2F0.2EF7FC43@tmbg.org> Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 21:33:40 -0400 From: Ben Gott/Loquacious Music <gott@tmbg.org> Organization: http://listen.to/loquacious Subject: Dave Gregory Gang, Damn! Guitargonauts.com is awesome! Dave is finally getting the love and respect he deserves! Well, from people other than AMANDA, that is. ;-) I just bought an XTC poster from WorldwidePoster.com...It's the great Westerberg photograph from the Nonsuch sessions (the brown-washed picture with Andy in front and Colin & Dave in back.) There is *one* left, last I checked, at http://www.phil-a-arts.com - it's 18" x 24", and it'd look great on your wall, as it looks great on mine! More on the commerciality front: Gap is using Madonna's "Dress You Up" in their (spectacular) vest ad, Nissan is using Lenny Kravitz's "Fly" (the song in which he rhymes "fly" with "butterfly") to sell their new Xterra SUV, and Johnson & Johnson is using "Life in a Northern Town" to advertise Acuvue contact lenses! Any time XTC wants to use "Mayor of Simpleton" to advertise the upcoming U.S. Presidential debates, they should definitely feel free to. (I don't usually watch this much T.V., by the way...I just love those "Must See TV" Tuesdays with "Just Shoot Me!" and "Will & Grace"...) I continue to look forward to "AV2." Rock on, Andy and Colin! Cheers, Ben +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Benjamin Gott . Loquacious Music . Salisbury, CT 06068 AOL: Plan4Nigel . Telephone (860) 435-9726 . Mobile (207) 798-1859 "Son," he said / "Grab your things, I've come to take you home." +----------------------------------------------------------------+
------------------------------ Date: 12 Aug 99 10:29:05 AES From: Paul.Culnane@dcita.gov.au Subject: Cooking Vinyl Update Message-ID: <0001hbjbvbnh.0001ecaeukki@dcita.gov.au> Chalksters I just checked the Cooking Vinyl website. All reference to the release of the Greenman single have been removed, but this paragraph has appeared in its place: >>Upcoming releases from Cooking Vinyl include brand new albums from Michael Nesmith (Sept 20), Chuck Prophet (Sept 27), The Wedding Present's "Singles 95-97" (Sept 27), and the XTC "demo" collection, "Homespun" (Sept 27)...<< Oh, I must say, Guitargonauts, the Dave Gregory website, is rather fab. Mark and Debi have done a magnificent job and DG himself has supplied a shitload of great info. Highly recommended! ~p@ul
------------------------------ From: Iain.Murray.70428176@army.defence.gov.au Message-Id: <4A2567CB.0003CC5F.00@stagemaster.army.defence.gov.au> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 10:48:40 +1000 Subject: SEC : UNCLASSIFIED Guided By Voices - New Album (no XTC content) Having heard a fair bit about Guided By Voices on this list, I thought I'd post this review from the Sydney Daily Telegraph (August 12th). +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ **Guided By Voices - Do The Collapse** Guided By Voices have been around for years and years, but chances are you have probably never heard of them - and it is hard to see why. Is it not that sweet melodies, catchy vocals and an unashamedly pop sound is loved in radio land? They even have that buzz-saw guitar thing going, and some nice little synth and piano hooks. All this and more, including some quite poetic lyrics. So why no big-time success? At least one played-to-death hit? Maybe it's the curse of being labelled a critics' favourite. Perhaps it is the sameness that's caused the band to miss the boat ; there are a squillion other tight pop bands out there peddling the same sounds. "Do The Collapse" is a worthy album if you're into blissful guitar pop of the Teenage Fanclub variety, but please remember the myriad Aussie bands who are now just as capable. (Three stars out of five) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
------------------------------ From: CCooli9575@aol.com Message-ID: <bb8d897d.24e383d6@aol.com> Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 21:56:38 EDT Subject: Re: The Bears In a message dated 8/5/99 11:51:37 PM, <owner-chalkhills@chalkhills.org> writes: << O.K. Chalkhillers.... help me out here. Anybody remember Adrian Belew's 80's pop band the Bears? I've read nothing but great things about 'em. I know their CD's are out-of-print. Anybody heard them? Any plans for re-release? >> Got both albums. Love 'em. Even more than Belew's solo material, of which I only have Young Lions myself. Highly recommended. They remind me of a much more cheerful and quirky Badfinger, in that all four of them write(the drummer less than the others, though)and sing very well. Chris
------------------------------ From: CCooli9575@aol.com Message-ID: <2c116a7d.24e383da@aol.com> Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 21:56:42 EDT Subject: Re: Nevermind Sorry to draw this out, but one thing we have Nirvana to thank for is effectively killing the success of all those hair-metal bands. Come to think of it, in the fall of '91 I was in a local band that covered "Territorial Pissings" from Nevermind even before the album exploded commercially; they were just another cool new alternative/punk band to cover at the time. They didn't help Nonsuch's sales, much, though... Chris
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12 August 1999 / Feedback