From: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org (idealcopy-digest) To: idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Subject: idealcopy-digest V2 #208 Reply-To: idealcopy@smoe.org Sender: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk idealcopy-digest Thursday, October 28 1999 Volume 02 : Number 208 Today's Subjects: ----------------- disco/mzui [paul.rabjohn@ssab.com] Re: d+b [Ian Grant ] Re: disco/mzui [Obie Sanders ] re: elegant and moving ["Jack Steinmann" ] elegant and undark ["MackDaddyD" ] New to the List - Ray Ciscon ["Ciscon, Ray" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 11:36:32 +0100 From: paul.rabjohn@ssab.com Subject: disco/mzui er , i certainly wouldn't call "start me up" or "under cover" disco tracks (would anyone? boring old rock tracks maybe?) i was thinking about things like "miss you" where they went very much for a "style" of its time. personally i lost interest around "angie" but there you go. yes michael , you probably are the only person who loves mzui australia i'm afraid but so what. i am still trying to track down the original MZUI and failing so its a shame this seems to have fallen off the end of wmo's "to do" list. unlike some rarities i suspect it'll turn up occasionally , i do remember seeing it around a few years back.p ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 12:53:30 +0100 From: Ian Grant Subject: Re: d+b >From: paul.rabjohn@ssab.com >>>>> bit harsh. i think what annoyed people about acts like the stones and roxy going "disco" was it was seen as cashing in. difficult to level that accusation at something like "bastard" which is so far from the mainstream (i'll take a guess that's the album you're thinking of?). you can't really complain at people taking new sounds on board if they do something interesting with them , i think 90's wire/solo stuff has used those influences to produce some great stuff. The point is that most d+b bandwagon-jumping loses any spark or thrill in the search for credibility...as, indeed, did the d+b scene itself for a couple of years. Most bandwaggoners seem to ignore the fact that much of current cutting edge d+b (Ed Rush / Optical, Ram Trilogy, etc) hardly uses the trademark sped-up breakbeats at all, and consequently end up sounding ludicrously out of date. The tracks on "Bastard" sound nothing like anything else in my record collection. They may use old d+b building blocks, but they assemble them into something completely different. They avoid the usual pitfalls as a result. Since this is my first posting, a quick introduction. I got into Wire in the mid-eighties when they were being championed by Big Black, Chicago noise monsters, borrowers of "Heartbeat" and my guiding lights at the time. I tend to use and discard bands in the most fickle way...but, uniquely, Wire have stayed with me ever since and I find myself returning to them endlessly. I've never heard a band that can sound so rich, dense and oblique, and yet frequently so elegant and moving. Favourite songs: "French Film Blurred", "Silk Skin Paws", among dozens. Cheers, ig. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 09:14:14 -0700 From: Obie Sanders Subject: Re: disco/mzui I agree , the Stones where definitely on the "band wagon" with a few tracks , most noticeably was "Miss you" , i'm sure that got played to death at "studio 54". Undercover (which is one of my fav. Stones LPs) was definitely more on the "we want to be New wave/punk trend". But a fairly daring departure for the Stones at the time. Maybe it's boring rock music now though :-) paul.rabjohn@ssab.com wrote: > > er , i certainly wouldn't call "start me up" or "under cover" disco tracks (would anyone? boring old rock tracks maybe?) i was thinking about things like "miss you" where they went very much for a "style" of its time. personally i lost interest around "angie" but there you go. - -- **************************** Obie Sanders/ System Administrator ADN - --------------------------- osanders@adnc.com/ext.273 **************************** ------------------------------ Date: 27 Oct 99 11:36:57 -0500 From: "Jack Steinmann" Subject: re: elegant and moving Reply to: re: elegant and moving Ditto for me. "Silk Skin Paws," "Boiling Boy," "A Touching Display," "Used To," "Private Place" ...no other "band" compares. Jack On 10/27/99, Ian Grant wrote: Wire have stayed with me ever since and I find myself returning to them endlessly. I've never heard a band that can sound so rich, dense and oblique, and yet frequently so elegant and moving. Favourite songs: "French Film Blurred", "Silk Skin Paws", among dozens. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 12:37:50 -0500 From: "MackDaddyD" Subject: elegant and undark hi - the d&b comment was not a barb (direct or otherwise) at bastard, rather, the point was supposed to be that it is entirely subjective whether an artist is jumping on a bandwagon in a vainglorious attempt at sales, an attempt (successful or otherwise) at relevance or working within an attractive idiom. i actually think of david bowie in terms of these questions. he has been genre-hopping through most of his career, sometimes perceived as being on the cutting edge, sometimes as a bandwagon jumper. it's alltogether possible even he doesn't know which he's doing at a given time. most artists i really like seem to shift gears with some regularity so...for me, the real test of a work is simply the purely subjective criteria 'do i like it?' myself - as i have said before - i like all wire (and related) things i have heard some more than others , perhaps, but i really cannot think of one item i would never listen to again that said anyone else pick up pearls+umbra (russell mills new 'un) i am quite fond of it , but still having trouble finding contributions amongst the heap (except sylvian's vocals which couldn't be buried if you tried) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 17:31:58 -0500 From: "Ciscon, Ray" Subject: New to the List - Ray Ciscon Hello All! I'm new to the list, so here's my 'happy, chirpy' intro note. My name is Ray Ciscon, and I'm a Wire addict. Otherwise I'm a happily married, 36 year old computer professional who lives in the suburbs of Chicago, and my wife hates 'Drill' for the exact same reasons I love the song. My first experience with Wire was hearing 'Eardrum Buzz' on a local Chicago radio station, WXRT to be specific, in the late 80's. I picked up 'IBTABA', gave it a listen and liked about half the album and then pretty much put it aside. Intrigued by the combination of simplicity and complexity in the album, I checked out their other releases at my local record store, which consisted of a single copy of 'A Bell is a Cup...'. Seeing that several of the songs from 'IBTABA' were on 'A Bell...', specifically 'Finest Drops', I bought it. At first I was disappointed because of the stylistic differences between the two releases... IMO, the 'live' version of 'Finest Drops' is far superior to the studio version on 'A Bell...'. 'Manscape' was then released, and I was totally disappointed with that CD. I thus put my three wire CD's aside and didn't really listen to them very much for the next couple of years. Fast forward to 1993 when I spotted 'The A-List' in my local record store. Looking at the label and seeing several Wire songs I was not familiar with, I decided on impulse to pick it up... it was a decision that would have lasting ramifications! It provoked one of those 'moments I'll never forget' periods when I got out of the record store and into my car, popped open the CD and put it into the CD-player in the car. The first four chords in 'Ahead' came out of the speakers and the moment was like a light bulb going off over my head! Next came the 'perfect pop symphony' of 'Kidney Bingos'... a song I already owned on 'A Bell...', but probably never listened to because of my initial disappointment with that albums version of 'Finest Drops'. Just about wearing out the 'A-List' CD made me do several things: go back and really listen to the rest of 'IBTABA' and 'A Bell...', in both cases, my appreciation for the albums grew by leaps and bounds. At this point I've got all of the 'official' Wire releases and several CD's of the side work, particularly Colin's work, and Lewis' 'He Said' and 'HALO' stuff. I hope to eventually add the rest of the stuff, my next targets being the various 'Dome' releases. As far as my tastes for Wire's historical output, I'd have to say my favorite era is the 80's 'Beat Combo' stuff, followed by their Wir phase. I can enjoy the 70's stuff, but it just doesn't connect with me the way the 80's stuff does. As for favorite songs, right now they would probably have to be: 'Ahead', 'The Offer', 'Madman's Honey', and 'Kidney Bingos'. The news of the Wire reformation has me excited! I've already been dropping hints to my wife that I'll be attending any Wire concert that swings Chicago way, but after I dragged her to the Orbital / Crystal Method show earlier this year and Kraftwerk last year, she'll probably want me to take her to see Neil Diamond or Yanni! Whooo the things we do for love! Does anyone on the list know if Wire are planing on getting together to compose some new pieces, or is the reformation strictly for touring? Thanks! Ray Ciscon ------------------------------ End of idealcopy-digest V2 #208 *******************************