From: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org (idealcopy-digest) To: idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Subject: idealcopy-digest V9 #137 Reply-To: idealcopy@smoe.org Sender: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk idealcopy-digest Tuesday, May 23 2006 Volume 09 : Number 137 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [idealcopy] OT: TV's Songs and things........ [Derek White ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 04:45:34 -0700 (PDT) From: Derek White Subject: Re: [idealcopy] OT: TV's Songs and things........ Keith A wrote: Tom Verlaine - songs and other things /////// Last CD I bought myself, Keith. So, what do you reckon to it? Personally, considering it's been 14 years since "The Wonder" (apparently), there's nothing here to mark the passing of time:- all the usual TV trademarks are there:- warbly vocals, a killer guitar tone that's so clean, it's still wet . No evidence of a pro-tools 'cut'n'paste job here:- all the material sounds naturally gestated,[even if *is* only a couple of stages on from the 'first draft' stage]. No, there's no surprises here:- I suppose what you make of this record is largely determined by your regard for Verlaine's work:- I'm a big fan , so I swallowed it whole .*** Clearly there's stuff here that borrows from the rest of his back catalog- I found myself saying "That sounds like so-and-so off of 'The Wonder', and that's a touch like "Stalingrad" from 'Flashlight'........"etc- that isn't necessarily a bad thing... I guess it's to be expected, because the band most of the stuff is performed with are the usual suspects that most of his solo stuff has been done with...... Not his absolute best, maybe, but it's a decent enough return to the fray. Just hope it isn't another 14 years 'til his next LP of songs. I say that, because released simultaneously is "Around", an album of instrumentals, which, from what the guy in the shop (who is another TV fan) said sounded like "Warm and Cool" volume 2. That is, a whole lot of multi-tracked noodling, and something probably best left 'in the can' Interesting to note, though:- there's none of the new stuff on this disk that Television played when I/we caught them in Manchester, so a new Television LP may yet appear soon. Certainly, in a rare (and frustratingly unrevealing) interveiw for "Guitarist" magazine last month, he said it was just a case of finding dates to record it that suited everyone. ***(well, apart from the track that sounds too much like the spoken-word piece on the end of the 1992 Television album, and the piece stuck on the end of the "Miller's Tale" complication:- it blows, Tom. Don't do it again. If 'Once is enough' then twice was gilding the lily, and 3 times is taking the rip. Give it up, fella.) - --------------------------------- Be a chatter box. Enjoy free PC-to-PC calls with Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 17:42:16 +0100 From: "Keith A" Subject: [idealcopy] The Observer OMM A northern soul Our American friends here obviously wouldn't have been able to buy = yesterdays Observer, so if anyone of them are interested in the = Liverpool / Manchester music scenes of late 70's, etc, they might want = to read this Paul Morley article. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,1777016,00.html Keith np. v/a - psych out! (mojo cd) [demime 0.97c-p1 removed an attachment of type application/octet-stream which had a name of The Observer OMM A northern soul.url] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 15:15:48 -0700 (PDT) From: Derek White Subject: [idealcopy]:popmatters MarkBursa@aol.com wrote: Rare to see the point so spectacularly missed. Interesting to see someone try and shoot Wire down - and just how difficult they are to shoot down. The reviewer criticises Wire by saying:"With one eye on the future, Wire were pissing on the present and calling it art." Yet surely that was the general idea? Well, I certainly thought it was. I thought it was one of, if not THE first moves away from the Sunday tabloids idea of 'identikit' punk-by-the-numbers, the same three chords recycled ad nauseam, and endless mannered, mockney songs about hi-rises, unemployment, boredom etc etc etc. You know the form. But hell, what do I know. I'd argue that by the time P.Flag appeared, the 'present' was, musically speaking, only fit for pissing on. Extinguish, move on. How many times can you recycle 3 chords? If , as alleged, Wire called it 'art' whilst going about the micturation, good luck to them is what I say...................................... Furthermore...................as MB says: >>Wire: snotty, arty, arrogant fucks. No shit, Sherlock. Well he *would* say that, if his yardstick by which all music of the period is measured is *still* the Pistols. If ever a band was over-credited with influence way beyond the reality of things, they are it. ( Never mind Lydon's latter-day revisionism where he oft sets out to inflate the degree to which they had 'a plan' mapped out in advance, independantly of McLaren: IMO the Pistols were a bunch of chancers who got very lucky.) And they weren't first in the queue, but back to Wire. If the reveiwer wants to draw such vapid comparisons, then lets have some honesty and / or objectivity. When was the last time that you hauled out "Never mind the Bollocks" and played it for it's own sake, rather than nostalgia, a party novelty or whatever? And consequently, who's work has stood the test of time the best? It's not difficult to point to music where Wire's influence is apparent. If the popmatters guy can't hear it, perhaps it's ear-syringing time. As ill-informed, and frankly blinkered a piece you'd struggle to find. I think he thought of the "I come to bury Wire, not to praise them" bit first, and wrote to the headline.... ;-) ALSO:- Wireviews wrote: > What a load of pretensious bollocks. >And a stark contrast to the glowing review on the >often highly critical Pitchfork website. The problem I >have with the Popmatters 'essay' is that it's >sometimes inaccurate bollocks -- or at least >misinformed. >> If they're not going to include the extra tracks >> on the albums, then they should surely have >> included them on a bonus disc. I'd certainly >> be a *bit* more willing to spend 50 quid on >> the boxset then >This appears to be the main bugbear of the Popmatters >chap. I questioned Colin about the lack of extra >'tracks', suggesting that it was a bit strange that >they'd been ditched entirely. (I was expecting them to >appear on a bonus disk.) Apparently, this isn't Wire >or Colin dismissing them -- it's largely down to >rights reasons, and I didn't ask him to elaborate >further. >Craig The new re-issues and boxset are on their own 'Pink Flag' imprint, yes? Then Wire must have either bought the rights to, or license for, the three EMI/Harvest albums: given that this probably involved reasonable sums of cash changing hands, perhaps they felt that it was bad enough having to pay to re-aquire their own music included on the 'bare' albums, without having to stump up yet more to get the rights to use the bonus track material, which perhaps they felt didn't greatly add to the works ? I'm guessing here. FWIW, I too was a little peeved the extra tracks had been missed off: the 'contextual' argument for their omission from the reissues doesn't really hold up, what with this new-fangled device called the 'stop' button . ;-) - --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates. ------------------------------ End of idealcopy-digest V9 #137 *******************************