From: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org (idealcopy-digest) To: idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Subject: idealcopy-digest V1 #79 Reply-To: idealcopy@smoe.org Sender: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk idealcopy-digest Tuesday, July 14 1998 Volume 01 : Number 079 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: wirst wore/ the vurst etc.... [Stephen Harper ] More on Wire video [ubaran@iclretail.icl.com] Re: Alone on Piano [Andrew N Westmeyer ] more of the worst [Andrew N Westmeyer ] Re: more of the worst [CliveNice@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 02:36:31 -0700 (PDT) From: Stephen Harper Subject: Re: wirst wore/ the vurst etc.... Aaaah, never in the field of musical appreciation have so many great songs been so greatly maligned. "Feed Me" has some problems, true. But "Manscape" and "Children of Groceries" are among my faves (yes, and "Cheeeking Tongues"). These are among the "great lyrics" songs; perhaps that's the sticking point for some? As for "It Can't Be True Can It?", it's been in my top ten since I first heard it on Coatings. It's insanely hilarious, and the lyrics are great. What about "restlessly picking the pockets of angels" etc.? Oh, and Eric, you're not alone in cloud cuckoo land: that sample in Pieta always reminds me of Knight Rider too. Section me now. Stephen _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Jul 98 07:48:44 -0400 From: Subject: Re: wirst wore/ the vurst etc.... >Aaaah, never in the field of musical appreciation have so many great >songs been so greatly maligned. This is so very true! I think someone else mentioned that he had seen many of his faves knocked down on this list, and I feel the same. I think the only entries listed for worst "song" that made me gasp with amazement were "Mutual Friend", "Second Length", and (like many ) "Feed Me". It's interesting how so many opinions vary, but given the large body of work in their repertoire and their two most distinct phases (well, probably more if we get technical), it's no surprise! >At the risk of playing the list pedant I don't think you should ever worry about this. Intelligence is a lacking commodity these days, and the more of it you display the better! If anything, you helped show how detailed and subtle all of Wire's lyrics and references are! Have a Good Day All! Eric auteur@ix.netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 15:42:23 +0100 From: ubaran@iclretail.icl.com Subject: More on Wire video Dear All, Thanks for the responses to date all of which I have or am following up. One thing I need to do is determine the likely volumes which I need for a pricing calculation. So will all those who would be interested in purchasing a Wire video (it will contain at worst a good copy of Rockpalast and at best quite a lot more) please let me know of their interest. It's also worth mentioning that it will be expensive, to keep the quality high, I need to use expensive professional equipment and everything costs much more in the UK compared to USA (usually 1£=1$ or worse). Thanks Uri ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 11:10:40 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew N Westmeyer Subject: Re: Alone on Piano Excerpts from mail: 12-Jul-98 Alone on Piano by CliveNice@aol.com > Anyone have the Sheet Music for it? or know where i can get it > How about OutDoor Miner/Piano while i'm at it.. I've tried (to varying levels of success) to get guitar tab on the web page. Outdoor Miner has been tabbed, without the piano. The piano progression is just the same as the rest of the song though, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. Anyhow, check out the web page for that one. (A)ndrew Westmeyer qwerty@cmu.edu www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~qwerty "What a blessing that so much of humanity is able to be alive at the same time as myself." -Cecil Adams ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 14:44:05 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew N Westmeyer Subject: more of the worst For those who don't already know, the music magazine i/e has unfortunately shut down again. The last issue had the first of (what would have been) a series of "Newmanisms", written by none other than Colin himself. (The magazine also had contributions from Charles and Ibrahim, both of whom are on this list - apologies if I'm forgetting anyone else!) Anyhow, here is what would have been the second article by Colin. It consists largely of his take on the worst in music, so it's appropriate to the "Worst of Wire" thread... Andrew - --- I/E - March '98 For the last 6 months we have had a new (legit) Radio Station in London called XFM. It trades on a concept which may seem laughable to North Americans when coupled with the word new , it being an alternative radio station, however I'd say it's appearance is timely. It's a funny thing but London is a place of extremes and in no place is that more obviously manifest than in the radio on offer to it's citizenry. If you want mega-mainstream, Brit/Brat/poll topping ear candy or soul/jazz/classical/talk you can have it in spades. If you want the latest (and only the latest) street stylings the pirates will give you it large (as they say). BUT if it wasn't mainstream, mainstream-genre or pirate you wouldn't have found it anywhere until 6 months ago. Of course daytime XFM still carries a lot of crap but at least you stand a chance of hearing something you like either for the first time or re-hearing something afresh after many years. Tuning in the other day I heard the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man", A Guy Called Gerald's "Voodoo Ray" and Lionrock's "Rude boy Rock" all within half an hour, a strange enough mix. The Stones tune, a classic right, you know how it goes? Or do you? I thought I did but actually it suddenly revealed itself as a rather bizarre combination of strange tones and off kilter rhythms held together by a very loud drum sound and a classic shouty-pop vocal. A very long way from being a bit of styled tepid "blues rock". "Voodoo Ray" comes on with acidic bleats and syncopated rhythms yet deliciously intertwines an ethnic vocal, again sounding fresh despite it's 10 year absence from my ears. The Lionrock track is a cheeky cut up of old school ska (and I mean real old school, not the 80's retro ska pop of Madness and the Specials) strung together with enough verve to make it a sound of now without giving in to any of the genre stylings which are supposed to indicate the late 90's vintage. So what does this purely arbitrary selection of popular music have in common other that the fact that some DJ decided to program them in his drive-time show? Quite simply these records all have very loud and clear the sound of someone doing something for the very first time. What you hear on these records (and many others from any time in our illustrious history) is not someone sitting down and trying to work out what will be successful in the marketplace in the current climate but rather people having a bit of an idea that they think someone might not have done before, trying it out to see if it works, and coming up with something that they were probably just as surprised about as anyone else!! Of course most popular music is not like this, brilliant execution, wonderful marketing/ promotion and huge sales will never add up to great art unless that flash of the transcendent is there. There are millions of people who will disagree with me but then perhaps popular music occupies an entirely different place in their lives. I certainly wouldn't deny them the right to disagree, after all I'm sure that even the appalling "gods" of Dadrock, Weller/Cast/Ocean Colour Scene etc. all consider, in that self-deluding way that too much money and not enough ideas can sap the brain, that they are carrying on a great British tradition but in truth they, like countless others before them, belong in that great category of "Johnny-Come-Latelies" and also-rans that keep the great god of commerce satisfied. However irrespective of how average not only these bands but also other stuff which passes for chart pop is, they can't hold a candle in ghastliness to one group which has truly proved that old adage "if you thought it couldn't get worse, think again". This group is called Space. Hopefully you have never heard of them. Hopefully you never will. This group seems to start from the premise that Karaoke, 3rd rate advert jingles and light entertainment are a worthy mix from which to construct their execrable stew. Look, we can all disagree about whether The Clash were a great band or not or whether Bert Bacharch or Armand Van Helden tickle our fancy, it's normal that everyone has their own taste BUT I've yet to hear anyone say anything other than Space are actually the worst band ever (and I don't mean in some kind of post-modern retro-kitsch "they're so bad they're marvellous darling") people actually spend hours talking about how bad this group is. For example someone recently told me that they hadn't heard them but their girlfriend had spent half an hour on the telephone telling him how bad their latest single is! There is a tradition in this country of more or less selling your self by crapness, ageing rockers do it all the time, they know that the British public will never buy an Elton or even an Ozzie if they claim some kind of dubious "relevance" so they become sort of general entertainment figures, at which they often excell, and hope that either no-one will notice how bad their records are, or (Great British irony at it's most, er.. ironic) making a feature of their badness! However both Elton & Ozzie can claim to have been groundbreaking (well at least to some degree) at some point but Space seemed to have missed out the necessary introduction and gone straight on to the crap bit. I suppose you could say that they avoid the obviously retro stylings of their Britpop predecessors but that's about it. The most infuriating thing about them is that they are hauled up there as the latest pop-style kids. Paraded on both the essential "tweenies marketing" Saturday morning kids show and the "after the pub, all back to my place to skin up and watch some youf telly" show. Not only that but the latest offering features them in duet with the singer from Catatonia who themselves only miss the vacant depths of Space by a whisker. My God it's enough to make you want to man the battlements and drive out the heathen hordes!!! Perhaps the greatest irony here is that there's not a lot to say when something is brilliant, the best reduce words to mere gibberings, but the truly crap? Well we've always got something to say about them haven't we!! Colin Newman ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 19:20:29 EDT From: CliveNice@aol.com Subject: Re: more of the worst I don't quite understand what Colin's point is! Where's the Mystery? If Space knows they are crap, we know they are crap, and the media knows they are crap, then why do they get so much attention? That's an easy one, it's Pop Art previously manifested in Warhol's paintings and (Some) of his movies Planting it's hearty Flag on the face of Music, Right? I sympathize with Space....I can only claim brilliance out of 1/10 (if that) of my creations, the rest are at least laughable. So, I propose a toast to Mediocrity (and bad spelling) ------------------------------ End of idealcopy-digest V1 #79 ******************************