Chalkhills Digest Volume 8, Issue 57
Date: Wednesday, 16 October 2002
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 8, Number 57
Wednesday, 16 October 2002
Topics:
Re: NRBQ
Request XTC
Now That's What I Call Silence! Vol.1.
Biting the hand that feeds
Found My Way Upstairs
NRBQ
The most Mummerful time of the year
Going crazy in this hinterland
A drumming suggestion...
8-Track tape?
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Don't let them make you see ... red.
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 02:50:34 EDT From: Telehead@aol.com Subject: Re: NRBQ Message-ID: <fb.2d80a3a8.2ad67d3a@aol.com> In a message dated 10/9/02 6:59:39 PM, jack writes: >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! NRBQ are my favorite American band ... was that your first time seeing them, Jack? I have seen them at least twenty times in the last 15 years. I wonder what piano genius Terry Adams would do on an XTC tune ... the possibilities boggle the mind. Ever lurking, Warren in Sacramento, CA.
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 05:56:43 -0400 From: "Molly, the New Wave Queen" <mollyfa0000@worldnet.att.net> Subject: Request XTC Message-ID: <000401c27043$59189c20$8a00590c@vogmudet> Organization: AT&T Worldnet I don't know how many people here get VH1 Classic, but they just started a new show called, "All Request Hour". This is a show where the viewers request songs. I wanted to ask people in here who get this channel to go and request XTC videos (besides, "Dear God" and "The Mayor of Simpleton"). The e-mail address is vh1classicrequests@vht.com . Molly
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 19:45:06 -0500
From: "vee tube" <veetube@hotmail.com>
Subject: Now That's What I Call Silence! Vol.1.
Message-ID: <F87uCPpLAJMEOcwuFFp0001543d@hotmail.com>
Finally!
Here's a little tribute
We can all join in on!
It's VERY quite and I hope
It's FUN!
Feel free to submit your
contributions to...
...Silence@postmybail.com
@becki. Neon Meat Dream Of An Octafish by Captain Beefheart
comes to mind.
}---:)
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 12:09:27 +0100 (BST) From: Bert Millichip <juan_the_man2002@yahoo.co.uk> Subject: Biting the hand that feeds Message-ID: <20021011110927.4917.qmail@web14808.mail.yahoo.com> Good Lord, I've just returned from a couple of weeks enforced absence to find that my limited defence of record companies caused quite a kerfuffle. I would have been on safer ground defending Adolf Hitler or Phil Collins. Or dissing my old chum Harrison. I'd love to comment on *all* the points made, as I think this debate is a damn sight more interesting than the mutual sycophancy that has dominated Chalkhills of late, but the shrill voices of the "stop-talking-about-topics-I-personally-am-not-interested-in" brigade have already been heard, so I'll keep this brief. First, a general note: I made it clear (though not clear enough?) that *of course* the recording industry, like all big business, has been guilty of doing some abominable things. Therefore, those who have responded along the lines of "Look at this terrible thing XYZ Records did, this proves Bert was wrong" have kind of missed the point entirely. Of course there are plenty of people working in the music industry whose sole motivation is money. (Though this in itself does not necesarilly make them evil. Most of us go to work mainly for the money. Even that putative paragon of virtue, the small record store owner, is almost certainly in business because he wants some filthy lucre. In this respect he's no different from the CEO of Tower Records, it's just that the CEO of Tower Records happens to be a lot better at it!) However, I can tell you from personal experience that there are plenty of decent people working in the record industry who have a genuine love of music and want to bring as much good music to as many people as they can. It's in part thanks to these people that we all have so many great records in our collections - records which in many cases never had a hope of being commercially viable. All record companies, even the biggest major, use part of their profits to subsidise less commercial releases, of the sort that most people here seem to like. This is good. I'll finish by responding to the original poster, Mr Ribber: >>>Well, bert, you keep supporting the recording industry... (how many decent LPs worth purchasing came out last year? hmmmmm)<<< Hardly any - which is why I exercised my consumer rights and chose not to buy many! This is hardly the industry's fault anyway. The music just isn't as good as it used to be. I think few would dispute that, and this is shown by the fact that record sales are plummeting year on year. My own theory for this has nothing to do with MP3s or incompetent corporate suits. I believe that rock music as we have known it for forty years is reaching the end of its natural lifespan. It had to happen - all great cultural movements have seen their popularity wane eventually, and why should rock music be any different? Mark my words - in ten or twenty years, rock will be much like swing is today, the preserve of a dwindling band of ageing nostalgists, with perhaps the odd mini-revival now and again. >>>One note, though, re 'studio time' as someone already added, the artist gets charged for it, and ill add a note that studio costs are one of the most falsely inflated figures in any industry. These folks get the equipment at the lowest prices and it is rapidly paid for and this $$ is just more gravy for pig record execs to wallow in.<<< You really hate the thought of people making money don't you? I presume you live in a shack in the woods and live off fungi you find on trees. No, more likely you'd wallow in those evil $$ as readily as anyone else, given half a chance. Studio time is just one of many costs involved in releasing a CD. It's technically true that some artists end up paying for it out of their royalties, but that's a very simplistic way of looking at it. 80% of artists never sell enough CDs to cover the costs, so the record company ends up footing at least part of the bill. The record company will also pay all the costs for their top artists, of course. This leaves only a very small proportion of releases for which the record company recoups all the recording studio costs from artists' royalties. It is therefore very misleading to say that "the artist pays for the recording studio". Typically, the record company will give the artist the money for the recording up front. There may also be a separate advance, or the artist will be told he can "keep the change" if he brings the recording in under budget. The artist will NEVER have to repay any of this money out of his own pocket. If the CD doesn't sell a single copy, the artist won't have to pay back a cent. Is that realy such a bad deal? Imagine, dear Pawnee, if a suit came up to you and said: "I'll give you a hundred thousand bucks. Use it to hire the best studio you can afford. Spend the change on anything else you like. Have a blast recording an album; it'll be like a dream come true. We will then put your music in every record store in the country. If nobody buys it, don't worry, you won't owe us a cent. If it sells more than, say, 50,000 copies, you will get a handsome cut of the profits." Put like that, artists are not nearly as pissed on as you might think - which is why they tend to be *delighted* to take their chances and sign on the dotted line! >>>Didja know that a cassette costs the record labels 4 times as much as a cd to produce? How cum they're cheaper? Because they KNOW how gullible people like Bert are!!<<< I love the simplicity of your price function: Price = Costs x Q, where Q is a number you've just pulled out of your arse. Cost is not the only determinant of price. The most important influence on price is demand: the amount consumers are willing to pay. In a very real sense, the (supposedly) high price of CDs is as much the consumer's fault as the supplier's. In the case of CDs vs cassettes, the CD is a vastly superior product, therefore people are willing to pay a lot more for it than they are for cassettes. The fact that it costs less to produce is utterly irrelevant. I stand by my assertion that CDs are good value. When I look at the numerous albums in my collection, think of the price I paid for them, and compare that with how much music means to me and enriches every single day of my life, I remain convinced that $18 for a (wisely chosen) CD is about the best bargain on the high street. Can anyone think of a better one? Sorry folks, but that's as brief as I get. Bert.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 17:12:02 EDT
From: Hbsherwood@aol.com
Subject: Found My Way Upstairs
Message-ID: <a4.2db572de.2ad898a2@aol.com>
>From: becki digregorio <ziglain@earthlink.net>
>Subject: put your thinking/dreaming caps on
>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.*
[snip]
>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!~!
(Posted and mailed)
Dream Class, eh? Wow, wouldn't it be ironic if you didn't attend class all
year long and then discovered you had to pass a final exam? And you were
naked? Holding a fish?
Well, Becki, as a Cool 'Hillian in good standing (I can show you my card --
see? Relphie only charged me a buck extra for the lamination!), I think the
Mother and Father of all Dream Songs has got to be the Beatles' A Day in the
Life, right?
Dreams are interesting because of the *contrast* to objective reality that
they represent; the power of dreams is precisely that they are Not Real. If
all of life were lived in a dream-state, then that would be Reality, and
there would be no such thing as a dream. Waking up would be quite an
exercise! That's what I think A Day in the Life is groping for.
Structurally, it sandwiches two dreamy, druggy sequences that queasily
recount meaningless observations, pointless and absurd items seen in a
newspaper and imperfectly remembered, around a double-time, hard-edged
recounting of the beginning of a day ("Woke up, fell out of bed...") that
dissolves inexorably again into a dream (brought on by a "smoke" the narrator
has, hint hint). Connecting the two "states" of the song are those
unforgettable rising orchestral crescendos, which we are to interpret as
representing "waking up" from unreality (by "turning on," of course, but it
was 1967! What do you expect?)
The question the song suggests is the old Taoist riddle, "Am I Lao-Tzu
dreaming I'm a butterfly or am I a butterfly dreaming I'm Lao-Tzu?" Which
part of "A Day in the Life" is the "waking" one, and which the "dream?" And
if we're doomed to inhabit a this cycle of endless sleep and wakefulness,
each state equally meaningless, how do we break the cycle?
There is, of course, a Third Way, unknown to the Taoists and, for that
matter, only dimly seen by the Beatles. It holds the key that unlocks a
universe that I for one find it bearable to inhabit. It may perhaps be best
expressed in the form of the 'Pataphysical Maxim of Pope Zippy:
"Am I Lao-Tzu dreaming I am a butterfly, or am I a digital watch in a block
of Velveeta? Did you gain weight in the past 5 minutes, or am I just dreaming
of two broccoli florets lying in an empty gas tank? I will now continue
having this fun, and blame it on the Bossa Nova!"
Harrison "Gooble gobble, we accept her! One of us!" Sherwood
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 11:01:25 -0400 From: Centerpond@aol.com Subject: NRBQ Message-ID: <46ED2E1E.2F5173E7.0ACBB7EA@aol.com> Chalksters and Chalkettes; Jack wrote: >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! I've been listening to these guys since the late 60's when they did an album with Carl Perkins. Only Terry Adams and Joey Spampinata remain from that era. They are eclectic and eccentric, and could follow a Thelonious Monk song up with a children's lullaby, but I agree that they're terrific live. One thing, though; the official name of the band is "NRBQ", not "New Rhythym and Blues Quartet". They started out as a 5-piece, so the "Q" indicated "Quintet", but I have many (over 15) of their albums and the artist is listed as "NRBQ". You shoulda seen them when Big Al Anderson was the guitarist........ I also agree in principle with Jefferson Ogata's thought: >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. I would modify that statement to include the fact that a fair number of people use the technology to get much of their music collection for free, and others use it to obtain demo versions, unreleased songs, and live versions of material from artists they collect. Mike
------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2002 10:18:49 -0500 From: Brown <i.sundog@verizon.net> Subject: The most Mummerful time of the year Message-ID: <20021012151848.YPYP6394.out017.verizon.net@darkstar> Jello, everyone! Mummer Day is fast approaching again.. I know, I know, you're saying to yourselves, has it been a year already? Well indeed it has, my best beloved Hillians, so it is almost time once again to celebrate this sparkling little aural masterpiece that we know as Mummer.. A few of you have inquired as to the state of the 2002 Mummer Day plans, so here is a little update: We have not finalized our choice for this year's Mummer Day Grand Marshal. Contrary to some of the rumors you may have heard, we have NOT asked Justin Timberlake to preside over this year's event. (Actually, it's just the opposite..the pesky bastard has some how managed to get a hold of the # to my private line, but I can assure you that I am not returning his calls.) Frito-Lay has stepped up and asked to be one of this year's sponsors, but we have declined their offer as we do not feel that snack food products such as Cheetos(the cheese that goes crunch) and Cool Ranch Doritos fit in with the olde English atmosphere that we are attempting to create at our Mummer Day celebration. That's all the Mummer Day news for now.. stay tuned. Remember, Mummer Day is October 17th.. Mark those calendars, kidz!
------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 13:30:12 -0700 (PDT) From: Ira Lieman <ilieman@yahoo.com> Subject: Going crazy in this hinterland Message-ID: <20021014203012.68088.qmail@web11208.mail.yahoo.com> It's amazing how there's an XTC song for every occasion. And that's all I have to say about that. -ira, a thirty year old puppy doing what I'm told
------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 10:48:51 -0400 From: "Ben Gott" <bgott@rectoryschool.org> Subject: A drumming suggestion... Message-ID: <fc.00870b4a000fd1ac00870b4a000fd1ac.fd1b8@rectoryschool.org> Gang, How about Neil Conti as the drummer for the new album? -Ben (you give me Faron Young four in the morning)
------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 19:08:40 EDT From: Jdmack01@aol.com Subject: 8-Track tape? Message-ID: <69.2f019f8d.2adf4b78@aol.com> Were any of the early XTC albums released on 8-track tape? I would look this up in the online discography, but the Chalkhills website is acting very strangely all of a sudden (we find the site's not there). J. D.
------------------------------ End of Chalkhills Digest #8-57 ******************************
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