Chalkhills Digest Volume 8, Issue 56
Date: Wednesday, 9 October 2002
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 8, Number 56
Wednesday, 9 October 2002
Topics:
Noteworthy
put your thinking/dreaming caps on
Look Look
Re: the Cage / Batt battles
shameless theft from cardiacs-chat@anyware.co.uk
Best Band You've Never Heard
re: a moment's silence
The Whoring Silence
THE XTC POST... it's alive!
Re: Silence
Wallpaper for the Soul
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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 05 Oct 2002 14:07:25 -0400 From: Jefferson Ogata <ogata@antibozo.net> Subject: Noteworthy Message-ID: <200210051807.OAA02221@mx.antibozo.net> Organization: The Antibozo Notes on a couple of recent items... Cage v. Batt: I don't have a copy of the score to 4'33", but in a documentary I once saw (I believe it was an American Masters production), Cage himself stated that 4'33" was written "note by note" -- that it is not mere silence, but an actual composition (in three movements, IIRC), and that all of the notes are merely played tacet. I think this could certainly undermine any claim of infringement. You'd have to be infringing the concept, and Cage's concept isn't silence: it's music whose notes are not played. RIAA v. MP3: the principle reason record companies exist is to provide a marketing & distribution mechanism; the principle reason LPs and CDs exist is because it's not worth packaging single tunes for distribution -- this is why 45s and CD-singles are a virtually non-existent market. When a method for micro-payments ($0.50 or less) on the Internet becomes convenient, it will be much more worthwhile for artists to distribute direct to the consumer, who will be perfectly delighted to pay $0.25 or $0.50 per track for the tracks they want, instead of $18.99 for a CD full of unknown tracks. (I'm not going to address the art of album compilation here other than to say that record company marketing drones and the limitations of CD media have traditionally stifled artists' ability to arrange albums to their liking.) Piracy exists because there's no middle ground where people can get that one track they're interested in without having to shell out for the whole album. Jim Smart v. the rest of the Pacific: doggone it, I was just in Waikiki but didn't see the invitation to his pad in Kahala till after I got back, so no listening party. Ain't that a scrape of the rat's bum? Oh well, mahalo, anyway, and we'll do it next time. I gotta say, BTW, there're some damned good musicians playing the hotel circuit on Oahu. Finally, congratulations to Molly on her newly-acquired state of aunthood. Wield it in peace. We expect the niece to be a lifelong XTC fan. (That'll have to do for XTC content.) Aloha. -- Jefferson Ogata : Internetworker, Antibozo <ogata@antibozo.net> http://www.antibozo.net/ogata/ whois: jo317/whois.networksolutions.com http://www.antibozo.net/ogata/pgp.asc
------------------------------ Date: Sat, 05 Oct 2002 11:52:41 -0700 From: becki digregorio <ziglain@earthlink.net> Subject: put your thinking/dreaming caps on Message-ID: <B9C482F2.22A2%ziglain@earthlink.net> greetings xtc folks, first, a mighty big thanks to wes long for his post and compliments about my new album. happy to hear you're enjoying it!~! and i've a request of all you cool 'hillians out there. i'm getting ready to write a paper for a dream class i'm taking, and want to tie in music that is written about/based on *dreams.* not the kind of "ooh, i'm dreamin' of ya' baby" song -- more along the lines of what people actually do dream about, the images and symbolism. xtc's "red brick dream" is close, though it's more an ode to andy's hometown. what i'm looking for is more along the lines of genesis' "scenes from a night's dream" which is based on the "little nemo" comic strip, w/ lyrics like "dragons breathing fire, but friendly / mushrooms as tall as houses..." that kind of thing. might any of you be able to recommend some songs that might work?? i'd really appreciate it. kindly write to me off-list. thanks!~! --becki "Sometimes we're attached to our bodies for very good reasons." --William S. Burroughs
------------------------------ Date: Sat, 05 Oct 2002 13:16:54 -0700 From: strwbrry <strwbrry@tidepool.com> Subject: Look Look Message-ID: <3D9F48B4.24F2A0FD@tidepool.com> > Can we talk about something else besides what has been talked about > here lately? I know, why don't we talk about when or if any XTC > videos will come out on DVD? Or is there already a whole DVD > compilation out there now? > > Molly, just voicing her opinion Well, I don't know the latest on any upcoming DVD, but I can say that I finally got my hands on the Look, Look video from 1982 and how charming it is to actually see some zany performances after all these years. It also gave me a new found appreciation for the first album. The video for This Is Pop (which kicks the video off) is sheer delight. Stephen strwbrry
------------------------------ Date: Sat, 5 Oct 2002 17:37:26 EDT From: KINGSTUNES@aol.com Subject: Re: the Cage / Batt battles Message-ID: <49.24df3dae.2ad0b596@aol.com> Chalkers, my two cents on ownership of silence...... There. So sue me. TK %-)
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2002 09:44:34 +1000 (EST) From: mwotton <mwotton@rhialto.cse.unsw.EDU.AU> Subject: shameless theft from cardiacs-chat@anyware.co.uk Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.33L2.0210060935570.24184-100000@rhialto.cse.unsw.EDU.AU> Ian K-Skinner on the cardiacs-chat list noticed this first, but I thought you lot might be interested. The intro to "Fiery Gun Hand" by Cardiacs (which, by the way, is an absolutely ripping track) sounds almost identical to the intro to "Wake Up". You know, that offbeat rhythm at the start? by the way, we'd love to see some of you in alt.music.xtc. Quiet as a tomb, it is, despite Drude's efforts... mrak -- and when the gas runs out, just wreck it, you insured the thing -- Circles, Soul Coughing
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2002 06:09:50 -0700 (PDT) From: Jackson <jydson@yahoo.com> Subject: Best Band You've Never Heard Message-ID: <20021006130950.94165.qmail@web10808.mail.yahoo.com> Greetings Chalkhills, I had the pleasure of seeing New Rhythym and Blues Quartet (NRBQ) at Ram's Head Tavern , Annapolis, Maryland last night. Great venue, great music, great beer, great show! If you've never heard these guys,often referred to as "America's Best Barroom Band" you don't know what you're missing! Always Sincerely, jack
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2002 23:05:58 -0400 From: "Danny Phipps" <phipps@schoollink.net> Subject: re: a moment's silence Message-ID: <002701c26dae$766bab60$d58c04d8@phipps> re: the excellent missive submitted by dr. crane -- this blew me away! i-i-i-i-i am simply........speechless!! (does this mean that my silence will have me appearing next on the court docket?) ;-) great one, doc!! /danny
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2002 14:16:18 -0700 From: "Richard" <rjpa1@attbi.com> Subject: The Whoring Silence Message-ID: <081b01c26d7d$9cc6a980$05081fac@verisity.com> [this post is 100% XTC free] " ...Batt, who is releasing "A One Minute Silence" as a British single this week, has tweaked the Cage people further by registering hundreds of other silent compositions, ranging in length from one second to ten minutes." ...the "best of" these tracks are to be released on a two-CD set entitled, 'Come Again?' (I think '2:17' and '6:54' are probably the highlights of the set.) I hope someone encodes it as MP3 so that file traders can kill Batt's revenue stream. I mean, he _totally_ ripped of John Lennon's "2 Minutes of Silence" from the 'Life With The Lions' LP (the track which I regarded as "performance art" - the needle had been picked up near the beginning and laid back down near the end so often that each time one listened all the way through it was different! Sheer brilliance! Lennon really got me good when the track developed a skip and would play until you smashed the @%#$&* thing to bits!) ...but I have questions!! Has Cage's "4:33" ever been digitally remastered for CD? The fidelity of the Naxos original is so _old_ sounding! Does Cage's publisher get royalties when a DJ screws up and sends out "dead air" on the radio? (the silence slowly fades out and then the DJ says, "That was an exerpt from John Cage's '4:33')? What about the space BETWEEN tracks? Do artists need to credit Cage? Do I owe him money when I am NOT playing a CD? Don't you wish Andrew WK would cover an extended version of "4:33"? What about the different colors of silence? White Silence? Pink Silence? And what about the loudness contour? Silence based on the Fletcher-Munson curves for listening to silence at low volume? Keee-ryst! Next thing Mickey Rooney is going to be suing Batt for being short! okay... okay... I just couldn't resist. Cheers, Richard "Intentionally Blank" Pedretti-Allen
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2002 18:59:05 -0700 (PDT) From: Wes Long <optimismsflames@yahoo.com> Subject: THE XTC POST... it's alive! Message-ID: <20021007015905.16116.qmail@web14903.mail.yahoo.com> Well, bless my pink thing... http://www.optimismsflames.com/newspaper/thextcpost.html wesLONG www.optimismsflames.com
------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Oct 2002 17:20:24 -0500 From: "BRUCE HAUSTEIN" <hausteinb@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: Silence Message-ID: <F194aWnsXf9zvZd0HfD0001bf2e@hotmail.com> Dear Friends: It would seem that Mike Batt and the folks at the Cage Estate would all do well to be wary: If any of these pieces is "played" by more than one instrument at a time, they risk the imaginary copyright infringement upon Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkle. R. B. Haustein (I know, titles cannot be copyrighted)
------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2002 19:25:13 +0100 From: "David Edwards" <davidedwards1@onetel.net.uk> Subject: Wallpaper for the Soul Message-ID: <011c01c26fc1$36bca860$8f5a4ed5@oemcomputer> Chalklings While everyone waits to shave the fuzz off their warbles (careful with that Bic Eugene!), you might want to take a listen to a truly extraordinary French band that is 'big in Japan' (and France?) but is all but unknown in the UK, that I know about - Tahiti 80. The latest, just-released album, Wallpaper for the Soul (not available in the UK yet, or perhaps ever, I don' t know) is out of this world. Apparently they worship Ray Davies, the Kinks, the Beatles, and so on. You can hear XTC (Pale and Precious, World Wrapped in Grey, Humble Daisy) -style moments of bliss in there. You can hear the lovelier moments of Beck and earlier Blur, and there's a Jellyfish or two plopping about. But this doesn't remotely do it justice - be warned there is so much sheer human sweetness and beauty on this album that it's actually exhausting; it totally overdoses you with loveliness. I'm not making this up. The previous album, Puzzle (which +is+ available) is also full of treasures. It seems to be mainly the inspiration of singer/songwriter Xavier Boyer, who is clearly totally in touch with what he finds transcendentally beautiful, and is able to communicate it. Believe me, I've got nothing to do with this band - I'm writing this for people who swooned over Then She Appeared. You know who you are! Best wishes David
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