From: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org (support-system-digest) To: support-system-digest@smoe.org Subject: support-system-digest V2 #203 Reply-To: support-system@smoe.org Sender: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk support-system-digest Monday, July 12 1999 Volume 02 : Number 203 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: explicit lyrics [Dennis Junkoo Kim ] Re: Aimee Mann [Jason Long ] C'mon, Billy! [Juvenilia@aol.com] Explicit Lyrics [JWongmoon@aol.com] Lilith Phair Report!!! [Jonefelgd@aol.com] Drug overdoser ["Sally Mae" ] Aimee Mann [Elizabeth Gould ] dead rock stars ["John A. Johnson" ] not much ["Nicole W." ] lots of stuff-smiths,dp,general hospital, maggie estep, deirdreflint..blah,blah [baggytrousers@mindsp] All the people we all know are wasted away.... [Katie Lynne ] pj fan [Kelly Scofield ] c'mon billy and liz fans everywhere! [Valerie Barry ] Article on Aimee Mann from today's issue of New York Times Magazine [Jaso] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 02:53:18 -0400 (EDT) From: Dennis Junkoo Kim Subject: Re: explicit lyrics fuck me if i'm wrong, but i think the EXPLICIT LYRICS warning label is a totally voluntary thing on the part of the record company/distributor. - --- "Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good." -Samuel Johnson "A'nta baka?" -Asuka d. www4.ncsu.edu/~djkim2 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 04:11:15 -0400 From: Jason Long Subject: Re: Aimee Mann Tad wrote: >For all you Liz fans who like Aimee Mann,she's coming to Philadelphia on >August 11th at the TLA which is where Liz played last October. This theatre >is in my opinion, spectacular! >Grungy,dirty,cement peeling off the floor and walls,but just awesome sound. The Philadelphia show is part of a small tour Aimee is embarking on towards the end of this month, which includes four dates with Lilith Fair. You can find the rest of the dates for the tour by going to the official Aimee Mann site at . There's also a short message there from Aimee herself that was posted recently, in which she talks about her current situation of trying to buy her new record back from Interscope (who are declining to release it) so she can put it out herself. She also mentions that she will have a 10-song CD ready to sell at the upcoming shows, and while it's not the completed new album, many of the songs from it will be on the final release. Also, there's a great article about Aimee in today's issue of the New York Times Magazine. It's fairly in-depth, and documents not only her career, but her many struggles within the major-label system. It makes for an interesting read, not to mention a good commentary on the current state of the music industry. I'm debating about posting it, since there quite a few Aimee fans on the list, but at the same time, the article is really long and wouldn't be of interest to everyone. Jase _______________________________________________________________________________ "From my perspective, record companies are looking for people who are almost freakishly multitalented, and music's the last on the list. People who are really attractive, so that they know how to model, because making videos and taking photographs is an enormous part of it. And you also have to be like an actor with an enormous capacity for schmoozing and talking to hundreds of people and making them like you, so there's a politician element to it. And you have to have an enormous amount of physical stamina to travel a lot and to be a big all-around entertainer, onstage and off. The music has become just a soundtrack to the whole enterprise of celebrity. If Jackie O. could sort of carry a tune, she'd be perfect." - Aimee Mann _______________________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 04:53:08 EDT From: Juvenilia@aol.com Subject: C'mon, Billy! Hey listers.... To all who don't know me - I'm Robbie. I don't post a lot but have been a member of this list for a long time. I just wanted to answer Craig's query about "C'mon, Billy", the song by Polly. It's from her album, 'To Bring You My Love' which of course has been her best-selling album - and for good reason to. I suggest you buy it, Craig. No Liz content, unfortunately. Okay, back to eavesdropping I go.... Sometimes, Robbie The Slick Divide http://valmccown.com/lizphair.html > To any PJ Harvey fans: I was listening to my 120 Minutes Live CD and > she has a really cool song on there called "C'mon Billy" I was just > wondering which album this is off of? Great song! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 05:43:01 EDT From: JWongmoon@aol.com Subject: Explicit Lyrics In regards to explicit lyrics stickers: Again, I'm not sure how the USA works but usually in Canada it is only the Major Label Company product that is stickered. Independent stuff rarely if ever is. EIG in Canada was never distributed by a major label. I was under the impression that in the States, only the majors really followed PMRC stickering, unless it was rap. I also thought that stickering albums was not mandatory but I could be wrong on that one. Mid 1985 - present MUSIC LABELING Due in large part to pressure created from groups like the PMRG - the Recording Industry Association of America developed a stickering system to indicate that the product contained explicit lyrics regarding drugs, sex, violence, or other potentially objectionable material. While supporters of the stickering system said it would not lead to censorship - the chilling effect of "stickered product" was felt almost immediately. Fearing sale of obscenity charges, many large record chains would not sell any stickered product to any under 18 (several large retailers would not carry them at all). Some genres of music, such as heavy metal and rap were especially hard hit - almost disappearing from some record stores. Some record labels would release two versions of an album: one as the artist created it, the other with questionable materials removed or with different artwork. While not as heavily utilized today, the stickering system is still used by several recording companies. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 06:13:25 EDT From: Jonefelgd@aol.com Subject: Lilith Phair Report!!! Hey everyone! I just arrived back from Lilith at George, WA on Saturday. WOW!!!! What a show - Liz being THE highlight, of course. So, if any of you were in reserved seating, my friend and I were the only ones standing and I was the black haired, white t-shirted boy making a COMPLETE fool of himself, jumping and screaming like mad. So, Liz was absolutely radiant - her hair is getting so long and she was wearing the sexiest dress. Some great surprises in the setlist, but first the songs we know: Mesmerizing, Never Said, Johnny Feelgood, Polyester Bride, Supernova, Divorce Song, 6'1". AND 2 NEW SONGS!!! The finale was called "Love/Hate", a totally playful rocker that had Liz bouncing around like mad and doing a series of high-pitched wails. And, to my total surprise, she redid "Hello Sailor" into "Stranger", so now it goes "hello stranger, buy you a drink"...and no "buy you a fuck". Liz said both these songs would be on the new album! Yay! She was wonderful, plus she got a 45 slot in the middle of the show, unlike her half hour opening sets she usually does. Liz also came out at the end to sing "Put a little love in your heart" with the whole Lilith crew, but she seemed really tired...like me. Good night all!!!! -Jeff D. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 04:42:50 -0700 From: "Sally Mae" Subject: Drug overdoser Craig, someone you missed on your death of drugs list is Kristen Pfaff, Hole's bassist on Live Through This, who died of a heroin overdose on June 15th 1994. Re: explict language labels, I think that all cd's are not really judged fairly e.g. Celebrity Skin had one of these stickers on it *well they do in Australia* but it only has one swear word on it yet Live Through This has more swear words but it doesn't have one of these stickers on it! I don't think EIG didn't get a sticker because of Liz being Female but I think whoever determines whether these stickers are put on might be a bit judgemental e.g. Celebrity Skin, they might of thought that because it was a Hole CD it would have to have heaps of swear words on it or something like that! Thankyou for the post about Courtney in Canada! Sally "hey you, so bored and cynical, its fucking wonderful they sold you out" Playing Your Song-Hole *********************************** chickclick.com http://www.chickclick.com girl sites that don't fake it. http://www.chickmail.com sign up for your free email. *********************************** ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 05:03:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Elizabeth Gould Subject: Aimee Mann I've never posted on the support system before, but I've been subscribing for about a week now. I've seen a lot of talk about Aimee Mann, and I was reading today's New York Times Magazine this morning and saw a big article on her! There's even a small mention of Liz, "When alternative rock's perenial sweetheart, the singer-songwriter Liz Phair, met Mann bacstage at a concert a few years ago, she knelt before her." Just thought you would like to know. Also, if you get MuchMusic and you see the Spotlight on Lilith Fair they show the Polyester Bride Video! I was so surprised flipping through the TV channels a few days ago to see Liz singing! I'm sure they'll play it again soon! Well, that's all for now! Liz _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 08:05:01 -0400 From: "John A. Johnson" Subject: dead rock stars On Sat, 10 Jul 1999 09:37:31 -0700 (PDT) Craig King wrote: >As the 28th anniversary of Jim Morrison's death >passed by (July 3) I was thinking of just how many people are on that >list. Here's what I came up with: > [snip] >Is there anyone I'm missing? I was saddened by the following deaths: Duane Allman, guitar player for Allman Brothers Band, motorcycle crash. Jim Croce, guitarist, singer, songwriter, plane crash. Mama Cass Elliot, singer for Mama's and Pappa's, heart attack. Terry Kath, original lead guitarist for Chicago, played Russian roulette and lost. Keith Moon, drummer for The Who, drug overdose. Harry Chapin, singer and songwriter, car accident. Frank Zappa, guitarist and composer, Mothers of Invention, prostate cancer. Laura Nyro, singer, pianist, songwriter, ovarian cancer. For anyone so inclined, there's a comprehensive-looking list of dead rock stars at: http://users.efortress.com/doc-rock/deadrock.html - --John "And the license said you had to stick around until I was dead But if you're tired of looking at my face, I guess I already am." ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 11:31:16 -0400 (EDT) From: "Nicole W." Subject: not much Well, I don't have anything to post but I just feel like posting. Don't you hate those posts? Actually I have a question. I wrote this entry into a sort of traveller's log/journal thing I'm sort of keeping on my trip, and at the end I wrote "we were talking..." in quotes like that, I guess it's a song, but now I can't remember WHAT the fuck it is! I keep wanting to say "I was talking not two days ago..." (<-- see, this is how it's Liz content!), but I know that's not it, because a) i wouldn't quote Polyester Bride at the end of a journal entry, and b) that's "I was talking" not "we were talking." Anyone have any insights or clues? its' bad that one day after I wrote something I can't remember where I pulled it from. It seems to be important or something, and Id just like to know what I was trying to say to myself. Ick. Like the only drink besides Pepsi adn Pepsi Max that they had in the machine here was Light 7Up and it's nasty. But I hate Pepsi. What's Pepsi Max? is it like Pepsi One? I've never had either anyway,b ut I'm just curious. Maybe it's Pepsi Max Headroom. THey stole him from Coca-Cola or something. Man this five hour time difference bothers me cuz I can get on AIM from the internet, but no one is going to be on at fucking 11:15 AM on a sunday. but for me it's 4:15 PM, and I'm just bummed today and it's fucking hot out (in london, no less, it's fucking sweltering), and I don't feel like doing anything besides bumming on the computer. or sleeping, but I figure i'll just stay up til at least 10:30 or 11. god and then if i try to sleep i'[ll have to deal with my cunt-like, inconsiderate, loud roommate. sigh. i just hope when i move to U of M this fall, my roommate is cooler than the one i have here in london. she fucking wakes up adn slams teh door and the cabinets and shit... among so many other things... dont' get me st arted, because I can and will list. Hmmm about Craig the not really king adrock's list of rockers who died young... okay so Shannon Hoon wasn't really all that talented, but allright. Other people who died: Kristen Pfaff of Hole, Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone (the precursor to Pearl Jam), That Milli Vanilli guy (joke), oh and that guy in Skynyrd is Ronnie Van Zandt, not JOhnny. Umm who else? well there was some chick called Mia Zapata who was in the Gits... she used to be from my home town and then she was in Seattle and she was murdered, would you count Stu Sutcliffe? Umm... etc. Pretty tragic, eh? HOw about Paul McCartney? Paul is a dead man... Miss him miss him miss him. Shit I hope I didn't just jinx him. Well it's not really Paul anyway, it's like William Campbell or something. Okay well... god how to curb my boredom and depression? Sigh. ...bang bang you're dead... hole in your head... Allright well... I'm going to let you all rest... bleh. Later, Nicole I'm a wreck, I'm obsessed, I'm insane. Literally. ("I can't sleep, I can't stop my brain, you know it's three weeks, I'm goin' insane! You know I'd give you everything I've got for a little piece of mind.") ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 13:48:03 -0700 From: baggytrousers@mindspring.com Subject: lots of stuff-smiths,dp,general hospital, maggie estep, deirdreflint..blah,blah From: Danaldj@aol.com |Someone else said they held Morrissey's hand, I said was is warm and sweaty? |That's also kewl. hmm..well it was rather warm and dry and he looked at with this quizzical look on his face because i was rubbing his thumb while i held his hand..he has the most amazing blue eyes as well... |Anyone like/heard of Maggie Estep? |I think Liz fans would, cos she's kinda got the same type of vocabulary. |She's more of a spoken word/female comic, not as much of a singer, but very |entertaining. You should check out one of her albums, it'll make you laugh. |I'd suggest "No More Mister Nice Girl" or "Love is A Dog From Hell" |I think she did a Lollapalooza stint a few years back. i got a promo of her..cant remember what it was called though..i used to like the shorts she did for mtv..they used to have one by murray lachlan young standing on a rooftop..i like him more than her i think..he runs along the same lines in style..i actually managed to see him in the world tent at t in the park last summer..also was lucky enough to see kristen hersh as well...she was mindblowing... |<<.i love that nobody can sing just the lyrics of a smiths/morrisey song |without imitating his disticntive voice. you don't just hum a few bars or |mumble the words, 'cause it's kinda fun to exaggerate the accent.>> |That's soo true! It is fun! but it can get embarrassing when you are caught doing it at a stoplight..especially when you have no a/c and the windows are open...sound travels so well..but now i have a/c and can sing to my hearts content...liz has been on continous play since some swell people have traded tapes with me.... ohh...cheers to whomever sent me the VIP liz @ the opera house thing...theyre from AZ but i didnt see the name..i know i sent them a sessions tape though...youre brilliant! i finnally heard the lounge axe performance as well and i am so jealous that ive never seen liz live..she seems like such an awesome performer...i think the next show i will be going to is Ween..its kind of hard when you work nights...not too many good shows this far south and on a weekend roberta ICQ #27407066 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I may be an adult now but i was shocked to find out how much of my youthful idiocy was still entact .....you may be part of society now from the eyes of a 15-year old but I'm completely still sitting on the fence between in and out, and us and them. -Liz Phair ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 10:56:43 -0700 (PDT) From: Katie Lynne Subject: All the people we all know are wasted away.... Craig wrote: "Here's what I came up with: Jum Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Jerry Garcia, Buddy Holly, Shannon Hoon, Elvis, Hilel Slovac (original RHCP guitarist), Cliff Burton (original Metallica bassist), John Bonham, Sid Vicious, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Johnny VanZandt. Is there anyone I'm missing? I know there is." Forgot the name of the original bass player for Hole. There's also Karen Carpenter and Laura Nyro. Turned out that I also wrote a poem as a tribute to all of the musicians who passed away. I dunno if anyone cares to read it. Katie ();) === ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ All apologies don't apologize. Explain It To Me, you shall hear my heartbeat. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 13:36:29 PDT From: "M.L. Magdalene" Subject: [none] >...i used to bring up pj real, real often, but it seemed as though >there >was >very little interest in her latest effort, 'is >this desire', which i think is an absolute treasure. It's entirely possible that i wasn't on the list at this point or was, but did more lurking then posting. Anyhow, 'Is This Desire' had potential, but it reminded me to much of 'To Bring You My Love'. I'm not entirely sure what it was, just something that could have been souly in my head. 'Dry' is still by far a work of brilliance though...and i'd probably commit a third degree felony to get to see her live. >Yeah, I went to log on yesterday and everything was different. What a >surprise! >I'm not sure that i like it, but it does look a bit nicer, it's just >new >stuff to get used to now. Well apparently they're new corporate flair fucked with something cause like all Saturday i couldn't get on at all! >To any PJ Harvey fans: I was listening to my 120 Minutes Live CD and >she has a really cool song on there called "C'mon Billy" I was just >wondering which album this is off of? Great song! "C'mon Billy" is off of "To Bring You My Love" which is over-all and excellent album(in my humble opinion). >Jum Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, >John Lennon, Jerry Garcia, Buddy Holly, Shannon Hoon, Elvis, Hilel >Slovac (original RHCP guitarist), Cliff Burton (original Metallica >bassist), John Bonham, Sid Vicious, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Johnny Van >Zandt. Mama Cass, That guy from Sublime(i'm not a huge fan so..), Shannon Hoon.... Ho-Hum...back to the salt mines... M _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 15:20:49 -0700 (PDT) From: Kelly Scofield Subject: pj fan I wanted to say that I am also a big pj harvey fan and am glad to hear that some of you are also. I have Is This Desire and think it is amazing. I am not sick of it even after listening to it for almost a year. So, since we are on the topic, I heard a song by pj harvey and bjork (who I also love) covering Satisfaction and was wondering if anyone knew what it is from????? _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 18:32:37 -0400 From: Valerie Barry Subject: c'mon billy and liz fans everywhere! >To any PJ Harvey fans: I was listening to my 120 Minutes Live CD and >she has a really cool song on there called "C'mon Billy" I was just >wondering which album this is off of? Great song! great song indeed! it's on "to bring you my love..." exposed another friend (one with impeccable and diverse music tastes, i might add) to liz in the car last night - she liked it, and i left EIG at her house in hopes she'l listen to it on purpose and be converted. also met a very nice 16-year-old girl liz fan yesterday who will probably join the list...yay! just got back from bridesmaid dress shopping...UGH! must make dinner... *********************************************************** "...well look at me i'm frightening my friends..." - -Liz Phair ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 19:33:37 -0400 From: "jw" Subject: Re: support-system-digest V2 #202 > < plastered over EIG > either..>> > > >>I was wondering that too. Any thoughts? I believe that it is up to the members of this list to demand--yes, I say, DEMAND--that this increbible injustice, this ATROCITY, be corrected IMMEDIATELY!!! Write to your local right wing church groups! Contact Wal-Mart! Blame Liz for Columbine! Blame Liz for Kosovo! Damn it, blame her for the Holocaust and hope that nobody notices that she wasn't born yet! I mean, it's like Lauren Bacall never getting an Oscar, or Bob Dylan not getting a Grammy until he became a born again Christian! Which brings up a whole 'nother idea--maybe if Liz becomes a born again Christian SHE'LL insist on a warning label! Or she'll re-record it--just imagine the track list: "Pray and Run" "Stratford on Jesus" or the new lyrics to "Flower" (renamed "Jesus"): "every time I see your face I start to pray/ I bend my legs" "I want to be your pray-er queen" "I'll pray until my knees are blue". jw NP: Camper Van Beethoven and this really shitty live band next door ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 01:05:41 -0400 From: Jason Long Subject: Article on Aimee Mann from today's issue of New York Times Magazine Okay, what the hell, I've decided to go ahead and post the article. My apologizes in advance for the length and off-topic nature of this. Cheers, Jase **** What's a Record Exec To Do With Aimee Mann? Critics loved her, but she couldn't remake herself as a 90's pop star. Now, with the industry in turmoil, she may not have to. By JONATHAN VAN METER I should be riding on the float in the hit parade/instead of sitting on the curb behind the barricade/another verse in the doormat serenade. -- "Put Me on Top," Aimee Mann July 1999: Aimee Mann can't sit around these days waiting to hear what the record-label executives think of her new album. She is far too busy doing things for herself -- choosing press photos, writing her own bio, running to Fed Ex and, literally, licking stamps. But things weren't always this way. July 1998: Aimee Mann is holed up for the fourth day in a row in the windowless, hyper-air-conditioned bunker that is Mad Dog Studios in Burbank, Calif., recording two new songs for her third solo album, trying her best to create some magic. Outside, the sun is ridiculously bright, the heat stifling, the whir of traffic numbing. Adding to the unreal out-of-time feeling that 10-hour days in a dimly lighted, soundproof room can produce is the fact that the singers Sheena Easton and Jeffrey Osborne are in the next studio shooting a Christmas video. Mann is here today because shortly after she delivered seven new songs to Geffen Records, she was told by her manager, Michael Hausman, that the A&R executives "didn't hear a single." A few days after she got the bad news, she said, more resigned than angry: "There's never a single unless you're earmarked for greatness in the first place. I wish it would be called for what it is. Like, 'These are good songs, but they're just not grabbing me for some reason.' Or, 'Production-wise, this doesn't fit into the format of radio right now.' Or some sort of practical thing. But it never is. 'Well, it's just not a single.' How can I correct that? 'Oh, well then I'll write some magical thing that will put you into a trance.' But having said that, sometimes I think it is magic. Sometimes I think _they_ think it's magic. So they're waiting for magic." She heaved a big sigh -- and then gathered steam. "But don't tell me it's not a single. A single is a record company's job: to pick out a song that they think is good and make sure people hear it. It's also incidentally, their job to come up with a way of selling records if, say, I don't have a single at all. What I still have is a great record with great songs." I asked Mann if she is ever tempted simply to give them what they want. "I've sort of tried to do it," she said. "I'll keep it in mind. I'll think, 'Well, _this_ is pretty catchy' or 'I've kept _this_ simple enough lyrically so that any moron can understand it.' But anytime I do that I get bored, and then I don't know how to finish the song. I really have to force myself to write and get into the studio, because this is the only career I have." So, having resigned herself to the necessity of incanting some magic and delivering a single, one of the two songs that she is recording at Mad Dog today is called "Nothing Is Good Enough." Mann is known for writing clever, disappointed love songs that can also be read as damnations of the music industry. Lyrically and musically, they are sharp and subtle, angry and vulnerable. Her last solo record's title -- "I'm With Stupid" -- was a sardonic reference to her choice in both lovers and labels. "Nothing Is Good Enough," however, is a bit more direct. It's a song about defeat and the misery of delivering new material to an indifferent record executive. "It doesn't really help that you can never say what you're looking for," she sings with aching sadness over a beautiful piano arrangement that brings to mind the classic pop of Burt Bacharach and Carole King. "But you'll know it when you hear it/know it when you see it/walk through the door/so you say, so you've said/many times before." It's a testament to her melodic gift and emotional phrasing that such a subject could sound so lovely, so memorable. It sounds -- could it be? -- like a single. The next day, Mann, the session musicians and a producer, Buddy Judge, are back in the studio, and Judge, who worked on the song after Mann left the night before, plays a polished version of it. Mann is unhappy. She fears that the piano is too pretty, too "ballady," and sounds too much like another song on the album. "It's not the Moody Blues 70's flavor I was looking for," she says, slumped in a chair. "It's one thing to have a song be played as a gentle, sad ballad and another to be played as an '[Expletive] you,' which is what it's supposed to be. That anger can certainly be shown and be played. It's very hard for me to show it in the vocal, which never translates." A decision is made to bring in a different drummer, and Mann tells the piano player to play his part as if he were "a drunken clown." Hausman suggests a "John Lennon, immature piano player" approach. While waiting for a new drummer, Dan MacCarroll, to arrive (he is also an A&R man at a small, independent label), Mann sits down with Hausman for a talk. "If this record doesn't sell," he says grimly, "Geffen's going to drop you." Mann, who calls Hausman, her former boyfriend, "Boo," sinks farther into her chair and says nothing. "I just want you to know the worst-case scenario and to begin to think about what you're going to do." Hausman -- ever the optimist -- throws out a few suggestions: go on a small acoustic tour! Start a new band! Play bass for someone else! "Goddamnit, Boo," Mann says with mock indignation. "Look at me. I can't even sit up. I don't even have the energy for good posture." Before long, MacCarroll arrives. As Mann strums out the song for him on her bass guitar, MacCarroll says, "What beat do you want me to play it in?" She stares at him for a few seconds through her poker-straight, bleached white hair. "How about the hit-single beat?" she says, and they both snicker. "You're an A&R guy now. You know the hit-single beat." As she steps into the booth and puts on her headphones to record the song once more, she says into the microphone -- her dry, reedy voice now amplified through every speaker in the studio: "Whatever you do, don't ruin it for me. This is my last chance." If this truly is Aimee mann's last chance, it will be a small tragedy. At 38, she is widely considered by her peers and music critics alike to be one of the finer songwriters of her generation. She has collaborated with Elvis Costello, Jules Shear and Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze -- all purveyors of the same kind of sophisticated pop music that gets little airplay these days. When alternative rock's perennial sweetheart, the singer-songwriter Liz Phair, met Mann backstage at a concert a few years ago, she knelt before her. Writing in Time magazine in 1996, David Thigpen called "I'm With Stupid" one of the "catchiest pop albums of the year, brimming with poised three-minute mini-masterpieces," and said that "Mann has the same skill that great tunesmiths like McCartney and Neil Young have: the knack for writing simple, beautiful, instantly engaging songs." And yet she remains largely unrecognized by radio and the music-buying public. Bad timing, dumb luck and a rebellious attitude are partly to blame, but Mann's history of being mishandled by three different labels over a full decade reads like a cautionary tale about the struggle to be a serious recording artist in the contemporary music market. She carries with her the distinction of having had not one of her three solo albums released on the label it was recorded for, and the fate of her latest effort -- which Jim Barber, her A&R representative, says is Mann's best work yet -- is still up in the air. It's a sad, sorry tale that she is all too happy to spell out in her bittersweet songs. "You pay for the hands they're shaking/The speeches and the mistakes they're making/As they struggle with the undertaking of/Simple thought," she sings on a song from "I'm With Stupid." These digs at the label can be seen as brave, foolish or a little of both -- but they've certainly not helped her case. Mann is not a complete stranger to fame and commercial success. One of the first songs she ever wrote by herself, "Voices Carry," went to No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985, and the album went on to sell more than a million copies, and made her band, 'Til Tuesday, early MTV favorites at the height of New Wave. By the second and third 'Til Tuesday albums, Mann was flowering as a serious songwriter, and the synthesized dance-pop of the first album gave way to a more mature acoustic sound ("Strummy songs in D," Mann says), which did not go over well with either her label or her bandmates -- even as the acoustic sound of Suzanne Vega and Tracy Chapman was becoming popular. Mann recorded three 'Til Tuesday albums for Epic Records in the 80's and then left the label after a rancorous battle over creative differences. It took her three years to get out of her contract, and all the while Epic wouldn't let her record elsewhere or release any new material. "That was the beginning of the funk," Hausman says, "the record-company roulette with contracts and lawyers. That really changed Aimee." Dick Wingate, who originally signed 'Til Tuesday to Epic and was the executive producer on "Voices Carry," quit the label after the first album, leaving Mann with no champion. "She's the model of an artist who has been chewed up and spit out by the music business," Wingate says. "But Aimee herself is a pain. She's not a good people person. She's never really allowed herself to be close to anyone at any record label, including me. And the more bad luck and disappointment she had, the more distanced she became from the process." In 1991, Mann released the material she had been working on for Epic as her first solo album, "Whatever," on Imago, a new independent label owned by Terry Ellis. Just as her second solo record was about to be released, Imago lost its distribution deal and financing and went into a tailspin; Ellis would neither release her album nor let her out of her contract for almost two years. Ellis finally sold the album to Geffen, which then signed Mann in 1994 and nearly a full year later released "I'm With Stupid." In 1997, Mann married the singer-songwriter Michael Penn (Sean's older brother), another critics' darling who, like Mann, had a hit single, "No Myth," early in his career in 1990 and has since suffered through two labels botching his next two releases. (Penn has a new album due out in September from 57 Records, a division of Epic.) The couple have been keeping busy, though, cobbling together a new kind of middle-class rock career making music for films and performing Tuesday-night shows together at Largo, a sort of mellow rock supper club in West Hollywood. Since Largo opened two and a half years ago it has become the home for a group of wayward singer-songwriters, including Elliott Smith, Fiona Apple, Rufus Wainwright, Jon Brion, Grant Lee Phillips (of the band Grant Lee Buffalo) and the godmother of the underappreciated, Rickie Lee Jones. Their music can best be described as adult alternative pop. Put more simply, it's mature music. Jon Brion shot a pilot for VH1 that tries to transport the Largo vibe to TV, and some have suggested that Largo is the perfect model for the kind of smaller, focused record label that could lovingly and successfully break what the industry deems "difficult" artists like Mann. Another comfort zone for both Mann and Penn has been the film industry. He has found work as a composer for the director Paul Thomas Anderson's movies, including "Boogie Nights" and "Hard Eight," while she has had songs on a dozen soundtracks in the past few years. Anderson, a Largo habitue and Fiona Apple's live-in boyfriend, has practically written his new film, "Magnolia," starring Tom Cruise, around eight Aimee Mann songs. "Simon and Garfunkel is to 'The Graduate,"' Anderson says, "as Aimee Mann is to 'Magnolia."' Music artists stand to gain from the independent movement in the film industry. Elliott Smith's song "Miss Misery" appeared in Gus Van Zandt's "Good Will Hunting" and was nominated for an Academy Award. His performance on the Oscars in 1998 surely provided him with the largest audience he'll ever reach. Says Brion of Mann's work on "Magnolia," due out later this year, "That might be an alternative way of letting the world see that this is really a good batch of material." It is, to put it mildly, a lousy time to be making popular music that's not aimed at teen-agers. On Dec. 10 last year, Seagram, which owned Universal Music Group, bought Polygram's musical holdings for $10.4 billion and collapsed the two organizations into one giant company -- which now accounts for 25 percent of the U.S. and European music markets. Honoring a promise to shareholders to unload assets and save $300 million a year, Seagram dismissed 3,000 employees and dropped some 200 artists from its rosters -- most of them album-oriented rock bands that have failed to thrive in today's teen-pop, singles-driven market. When the Seagram buyout was reported in The New York Times a few days before Christmas, the article was illustrated with a big picture of Mann, sinking into a couch, looking glamorously forlorn -- as good a visual representation as any of the despondency and uncertainty in the music industry. In the merger, Mann's label, the alternative-rock-heavy Geffen -- founded as an artist-friendly oasis in the 70's by David Geffen and sold to Universal (then MCA) in 1990 -- was swallowed up by Interscope, a nine-year-old success story that has made most of its money from gangsta rap. Many artists and executives were on tenterhooks for weeks, waiting to hear whether they still had jobs or record deals. Jim Barber found out early on that he was moving to Interscope, but Mann, who presented her new album just after the news of the merger broke, remained a question mark through January. "It changes every day, and she's on this shifting line," Barber said then. "Aimee has been marketed as an alternative artist, and she's really a classic, straight-up singer-songwriter. Alternative rock isn't selling because alternative-rock bands aren't making records that anyone wants to buy. The reason all these bands are getting cut is because the labels hadn't totally dealt with that fact." Says Jon Brion: "Everybody's talking about the implications of this whole Seagram's buyout, and in the near future they're terrible. But when it is made impossible for musicians to play for people who want to hear them, other systems develop. What a dumb thing for a record company to do when it's getting closer and closer to Internet trading for somebody without a major label becoming a reality. They're absolutely _encouraging_ artists to be sovereign." Brion has a point. With the example of artists like Ani DiFranco, who successfully started her own label, Righteous Babe, and the hotly contested MP3 technology, which allows listeners to download music from the Internet, artists suddenly have more motivation than ever to circumvent traditional -- some say soon-to-be-moribund -- means of distribution. Many artists believe that the industry's blindered focus on youth and singles will force their hands. Nowhere has the shortsighted 60's manifesto "Don't trust anyone over 30" been taken more to heart than in the business of popular music. "People in my demographic aren't considered the juicy part of the record-buying public," says Gail Marowitz, 40, vice president of creative services at Sony Music (and Mann's personal art director and best girlfriend). "They think we're already old -- even though we buy plenty of records." Says Brion: "There's a whole culture for whom buying records -- _new music_ -- is an important thing. That is a _type_ of person." Earlier this year, the Recording Industry Association of America released its annual consumer profile data for 1998, revealing a significant increase in music-buying by older women (the second year in a row that women bought more records than men) and a drop in purchases by consumers ages 10 to 29, with the worst slip among 20- to 24-year-olds, an age group that bought just half the records that the same age group did 10 years ago. The conclusion that many in the industry are drawing from these statistics is that young people today don't feel the need to own the music they listen to -- and that they're distracted by the Internet and video games. In other words, MTV and the radio will do just fine, thank you. "There's an accepted wisdom that says, 'It's not a marketplace, don't market to people over 30,"' Mann says late one balmy night as we sit outside at an empty cafe on Melrose. "Well, who's buying all those Yanni records? Kids? From my perspective, record companies are looking for people who are almost freakishly multitalented, and music's the last on the list. People who are really attractive, so that they know how to model, because making videos and taking photographs is an enormous part of it. And you also have to be like an actor with an enormous capacity for schmoozing and talking to hundreds of people and making them like you, so there's a politician element to it. And you have to have an enormous amount of physical stamina to travel a lot and to be a big all-around entertainer, onstage and off. The music has become just a soundtrack to the whole enterprise of celebrity. If Jackie O. could sort of carry a tune, she'd be perfect." Ladies and gentlemen/here's exhibit A:/didn't I try again?/and did the effort pay?/wouldn't a smarter Mann simply walk away? -- "Nothing Is Good Enough," Aimee Mann Back at Mad Dog Studios last July, Mann and I head outside to the parking lot and sit at a picnic table under the shade of an umbrella, sharing a cigarette. "I have to hammer out a new thing," she says softly. "Can I pretend having a record deal is the greatest thing on earth that will lead, automatically, to success, and people will love you for _who you are_? In no way can I do that. Knowing the enormous pitfalls of the music industry, I can't really pretend that anybody at a record company really _believes_ in me or art at all. It's not their job to believe in art and me. I can't assume that anymore. And I really used to." She stops talking and stares out at the traffic, searching her inventory for the right words. "I think I've just learned from experience too well." She pauses for an unbearably long time and looks as if she is about to cry. "I don't believe in it anymore. I think I just gave up the dream. And the dream was not to be rich and famous or sell a lot of records. The dream was that I would work with people and they would be helpful, and if I was having a tough time, they would be understanding and we'd all sort of work together. But that doesn't happen, and I don't believe it ever will. It's so _distasteful_ to me, the idea that I could once again go on tour and feel like a constant disappointment. And you are a constant disappointment. If you're not really on top of it and you want it so bad that you'll make love to everybody that comes near you -- those kind of people aren't disappointing. Their fans are people who meet them and say, 'What a great guy Garth Brooks is!' He's got a limitless hunger that translates into success. It's an ability that I just don't have. I'm tired of feeling like a loser in that respect." Another long pause. "Musically, I don't feel like a loser at all." The riddle of Mann's existence is that she wants respect from an industry that only rewards respect -- and artistic freedom -- to those who make it a lot of money. Warner Brothers surely did not tell Madonna, "We don't hear a single," when she turned in her last album -- one that sounded like nothing on the radio. Setting out to write hit singles carries with it the not-so-hidden danger of selling out -- and, consequently, the potential loss of critical respect. "There's a fine line," Mann says, "between singles and jingles." It's more than a little odd that just a few hours after Mann told me that she "gave up the dream," she went back into the studio and recorded a song called "Red Vines" that Jim Barber said he believed was, at long last, magic. "I think 'Red Vines' is a hit," he said to me in January. Of course, he also had to deal with the sting of "Nothing Is Good Enough," a song he felt was aimed directly at him. "I take offense to that line 'You'll know it when you hear it walk through the door,"' he said. "I was way more specific than that. I said to her: 'Aimee, this is why your choruses aren't working. This is the kind of chorus you should write.' I made her this tape once of songs that I think have good choruses." By late January, Mann is "a changed person," according to Hausman. Though the news of her getting picked up by Interscope kind of trickled in -- no big call from the boss saying, "Welcome aboard" -- she is happy that things are moving forward. She has presented a dozen songs for an album that she plans to call "Bachelor No. 2." She is told that everyone loves it. One day in January, I get an E-mail from her in which she jokingly refers to the new "positive me." The songs "sound great," she writes. "For the first time, I'm actually excited about my own record." Gail Marowitz explains: "Basically, I think she's coming to a point in her career where it goes down a _little_ easier to play by the rules than it used to. When we were discussing her album packaging a couple of weeks ago, I said to her, 'O.K., Aimee, come on, be honest with me -- you wanna sell records?' And I hear this dead silence. And I'm, like: 'Come on, Aim, come on. Whaddaya think?' And she says, quietly: 'Yeah ... yeah. I wanna sell records.' And I'm, like: 'Good. _Good_. That's the first step."' One morning in January, Mann says over the phone: "I've had this revelation about singles. I've suddenly realized that if I have _one_ song that they think is a single, they really don't care about the rest of the record. Then I can make the rest of the record good. This is my new philosophy -- I actually want to be a one-hit wonder. It's only to my benefit." And the good news keeps coming. She is asked to join this summer's Lilith Fair, in the coveted slot of closing act on the second stage. Then, on March 22, she has a big meeting with the three principals at Interscope -- Jimmy Iovine, Ted Fields and Tom Whalley -- plus Barber to discuss her album and, she thinks, a marketing strategy. Hausman, who lives in New York, flies out for the meeting, and Mann, buoyant, actually looks forward to it. Iovine is late, so the others start without him, telling Mann that they love her record, and begin discussing its release. But when Iovine finally arrives, a red flag goes up. He hasn't listened to the record, but says, "The record's not done until it's done," and suggests that she write some more songs. Iovine tells Mann he'll listen to it and call her in two days. He never calls. After five days, Mann contacts Iovine's office, only to discover that he has gone on vacation for two weeks. He does not call her while he is away, nor when he returns. It is now mid-April, three weeks after Iovine said he would call in two days. Mann is enraged. "The problem is, I'm not hearing nothing because they _love_ it," she says. "When I finally hear from them, it's going to be something like, 'We really think you need to rerecord four songs.' So I'm waiting for bad news. I just don't know how bad the news is. I'm two inches away from saying: '_Keep_ the record. I've had it. I'll make another one at home, and I'll be shed of you people once and for all."' What's most troubling to Mann is that it's now almost too late for her album to be released in time to go on tour with Lilith Fair. "Their vast indifference is costing me my career," she says. "I started recording this album two years ago. So it would be a three-year-long project, four years since my last record to come out, when I was waiting for people to care. They're never going to care. They're never going to have that excitement about me as they do about the new Britney Spears. They consider Beck or Alanis Morisette edgy and risk-taking, which is crazy, because they sell millions of records. Jewel is way out there on the edge! That's what I've come into. It's the new legacy." By the next day, the truth -- the bad news -- finally comes. "They don't like the record," she tells me. "This is actually the worst it's ever been for me. Iovine actually said to someone: 'Aimee doesn't expect us to put this record out as it is, does she? If Aimee just wants to put out a record for her fans, this is not the place to do it.' It's so disingenuous, because they're trying to position it like: 'Doesn't Aimee want to be a big star? Because that's what it will take.' Yeah, you know, I've decided not to be a big star. I've decided I can't handle success. I'm doing this because I wanted to be my own boss, because I couldn't take orders from people. And all I get are more orders about something that can't be ordered around: go write a hit song." True to form, Mann sums up with a relationship analogy: "Part of the problem was 'Magnolia' -- that Paul Thomas Anderson was so interested in me. It raised my profile enough for them to go: 'Hey, maybe we shouldn't break up with our girlfriend. Look at all the guys checking her out.' But it didn't make him love her any more. It's the same rotten relationship it always was. It just made him hold on a little tighter." By the following week, Mann is beginning to feel a bit more sanguine about her situation. And she is finally taking steps toward doing something she probably should have done long ago: becoming sovereign. Her lawyers are negotiating a price to buy back her master recordings from Interscope. Hausman has hired someone to build a Web site. And he and Mann are exploring the possibilities of starting their own label. Mann would like to call it Superego Records. "If Aimee sold 70,000 records independently," Marowitz says, "she would be making more money than if she sold 300,000 on a major label. And Aimee's good for 70,000, and she'll get major distribution. Ultimately, it's a very good thing." And then more good news: Hausman gets a call from Dick Wingate, who is now the vice president of content development at Liquid Audio, the only Internet music company thus far to be endorsed by the Recording Industry Association of America. (In April, Liquid Audio enabled the first-ever promotional download of music on Amazon.com.) Wingate, who hadn't talked to Mann in years, remained a fan. "This technology should encourage disenfranchised artists like Aimee," he says. "The Internet allows artists to distribute their music the moment it's done if they want to and not have to wait for the typical cycle that a record company requires. Artists want to communicate directly with their fans." Indeed, Liquid Audio is only one of several companies competing for primacy on the Internet. Alanis Morisette has become a partner in MP3.com, while Microsoft and AT&T are weighing in with their own formats. The paradigm is shifting. In June, Mann gets booked on four Lilith Fair dates in early August: Buffalo, Boston, Hartford and Jones Beach -- and says that there may even be a record for sale by then. "I'm feeling good," she says of her newfound independence, "because I'm tapped into something that I'm more suited to." The decadelong major-label nightmare is finally ending. As is her way, Mann turns to a metaphor to describe how she feels: "I really picture somebody sitting in front of a big book and getting totally fed up and slamming it shut, and a big puff of dust comes up from it," she says, laughing. "_I can read no farther_. I don't _want_ to know how this book ends. I _hate_ this guy's writing. It's _over_." She laughs again, not yet knowing if it's the last laugh. She knows this much, though: "I'm never going to open _that_ book again." ------------------------------ End of support-system-digest V2 #203 ************************************