From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V5 #199 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Thursday, August 18 2005 Volume 05 : Number 199 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] history 101? [Jenny Grover ] Re: [loud-fans] history 101? [Jeff ] Re: [loud-fans] history 101? [Jenny Grover ] Re: [loud-fans] history 101? [Roger Winston ] Re: [loud-fans] history 101? [Jeff ] [loud-fans] music industry continues to shoot self in foot; wonders what is this metal thing and why does my foot hurt every time I pull this trigger? [] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 19:46:24 -0400 From: Jenny Grover Subject: [loud-fans] history 101? I just picked up Sufjan Stevens' "Illinois". Do I need to bone up on my history to write an intelligent review of this thing? Is it trying to tell any kind of linear story? Granted, I haven't had a chance to read all the lyrics or pay serious attention, but I have to admit I just don't know what he's talking about in parts of it. I do have frustrating memory problems, even for recent things, so my history knowledge is like Swiss cheese at this point. Jen ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 20:25:41 -0500 From: Jeff Subject: Re: [loud-fans] history 101? On 8/17/05, Jenny Grover wrote: > I just picked up Sufjan Stevens' "Illinois". Do I need to bone up on my > history to write an intelligent review of this thing? Is it trying to > tell any kind of linear story? Granted, I haven't had a chance to read > all the lyrics or pay serious attention, but I have to admit I just > don't know what he's talking about in parts of it. I do have > frustrating memory problems, even for recent things, so my history > knowledge is like Swiss cheese at this point. Well, if I recall a lot of incidents referenced on the album *are* historical, or personal-historical (in this case, friends of Stevens) - - the first of those you could research briefly online. As for the personal bits: didn't someone here post a link to a lengthy Stevens interview? I think he was also interviewed in the latest issue of _Magnet_. Me, I don't think you need to overworry about the historical content too much - first, at least if I were reading the review I'd want to know more about what it sounds like than what the words are about (because I at least have a hard time believing someone would want to buy a CD with interesting lyrics and music that sounds like ass...since you could probably just get someone to copy the lyrics for ya, which you could then input via an optical scanning biotechnology for processing by a skull-based wet-CPU unit)). Or you can always claim ignorance - "well, I don't know which of these tunes is true and which might be Stevens' fantasy - I'm pretty sure that the first Mayor Daley did not, in fact, have an extensible robotic steel fist - but they folk-rock so righteously my beard is growing thick and fast even thinking about them." (Good thing I'm not writing your reviews... Also, good thing you're *not* growing a beard) - -- ...Jeff The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 22:03:15 -0400 From: Jenny Grover Subject: Re: [loud-fans] history 101? Jeff wrote: >Well, if I recall a lot of incidents referenced on the album *are* >historical, or personal-historical (in this case, friends of Stevens) > > That's probably part of what's tripping me up. I probably have that interview link in my inbox somewhere with the other 1500 things I haven't had a chance to check into yet (no, that number is not an exaggeration). It sounded to me like past and present were getting blended together in places. >I think he was also interviewed in the latest issue of >_Magnet_. > > Okay, I get Magnet, so I'll have to look in it for that. >I'm pretty sure that the first Mayor >Daley did not, in fact, have an extensible robotic steel fist > Yeah, I would bet not. >- but >they folk-rock so righteously my beard is growing thick and fast even >thinking about them." > > Okay, now I'm scared to listen to it again! Do you think it's safe to just play Jacksonville over and over? Jen ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 20:42:09 -0600 From: Roger Winston Subject: Re: [loud-fans] history 101? At Wednesday 8/17/2005 07:25 PM, Jeff wrote: >music that sounds like ass... Is that good or bad? I don't get the slang you kids use. Latre. --Rog - -- Distance, Redefined: http://www.reignoffrogs.com/flasshe ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 22:35:37 -0500 From: Jeff Subject: Re: [loud-fans] history 101? On 8/17/05, Jenny Grover wrote: > Jeff wrote: > >they folk-rock so righteously my beard is growing thick and fast even > >thinking about them." > > > > > > Okay, now I'm scared to listen to it again! Do you think it's safe to > just play Jacksonville over and over? Don't mind me - I don't even own the album. Just makin' things up as I go along... - -- ...Jeff The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 22:55:59 -0500 From: Jeff Subject: [loud-fans] music industry continues to shoot self in foot; wonders what is this metal thing and why does my foot hurt every time I pull this trigger? Choice quote: "Kevin Gore, executive vice president of sales and marketing at RhinoEntertainment, which puts out various greatest-hits packages,compilations and boxed sets, says a _Best of Sugar Ray_  which theyrecently released  is valid, even if some may sneer. "'At the end of the day, there's a larger audience that will buy agreatest-hits collection than might buy the individual albums justbecause they've chosen not to buy the original albums,' Gore said. "'Let's say there's two hit songs on a record from five years ago, andthen there's another two hit songs from a record that's three yearsago,' he said. 'You have a greater opportunity to bring in a largeraudience because you're putting all the hits in one place.' " So why bother putting out the original albums in the first place?Illegal downloading is, among other things, a response to theindustry's inability to put out the equivalent of *singles* (at areasonable-to-buyers price) when it's otherwise a singles-orientedindustry. And what intelligent person who knows they like only the hits from analbum is going to buy the album, knowing that a hits collection willlikely be out in a year or so? They're trying to sell three-piece suits when nobody wears anythingbut the shirt (not sold separately), and shirts are available for freeon any street corner. Part of the problem is the industry relies so heavily on hits that ithas no idea any more how to market an album-oriented artist - which isto say, how to market to anyone with an attention span longer thanthree minutes... - -- ...Jeff The Architectural Dance Societyhttp://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V5 #199 *******************************