From: MHB@MITVMA.BITNET (Michael H. Bloom)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Subject: I bought a marimba yesterday!
Date: 12 Nov 92 20:07:23 GMT
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU

It's a used instrument, it needs new felts and stuff (some of the keys make
horrible clunking noises if you hit them too hard, which I always seem to do),
and it's antonishingly heavy and clumsy for an instrument that only plays two
octaves. But I'm having a swell old time with it! I made a couple of mallets
by drilling holes in a couple of Superballs (the little ones you can get in
gum ball machines in supermarkets) and impaling them on a pair of chopsticks
(and yes, before you ask, "Chopsticks" is one of the few tunes I can play :-).
I've got it set up in the living room, and I played a little jam on it before
I left for work in the morning. The guy I bought it from, Craig Schildhauer,
a real good improvising bassist, suggests I come up with a whole rack system
to mount all my idiophones, like the bonang gongs from Java. This could easily
get way out of hand... which of course gives the idea a certain preposterous
appeal. These ad hoc mallets don't sound very good on the lower-pitched gongs,
though-- too hard.

Urban Ambience is playing at the Mobius fundraiser on Saturday, November 21.
Mobius is at 354 Congress Street in Boston-- get to Museum Wharf and head a
couple blocks further toward the docks-- and our set is between 10 and 11.
I may debut the marimba there, but not likely-- it's too bulky and heavy for
the constraints of this event (four bands plus performance art).

Flash: I also just heard that _The Great Deceiver_ is ready for release!
This is Robert Fripp's box set, four discs of live material from the Cross/
Wetton/Bruford band (apparently no Jamie Muir :-( ). As in _Frame by Frame_,
there's gonna be a huge booklet with lots of reviews in it, this time the
reviews of the previous box set-- and in fact the reason I got told about it
now is that I'm one of the reviewers quoted, and apparently Fripp took me to
task about some of the word usage in the stuff I said. (Just what I need, an
overly prissy guitarist/composer as an after-the-fact editor!) So I'm being
sent my review copy today, and it should be in the stores Real Soon Now.
Next year there will be a two CD set of the earlier Crimsons in concert,
both the original band with Greg Lake, Michael Giles, and Ian McDonald,
and the _Islands_ lineup with Mel Collins, Boz Burrell, and Ian Wallace.
There may also be some material by Fripp and David Sylvian, and something
called _No Pussyfooting 2_. Boy, it can be such fun when record companies
call you at work!

And now we return you to our regularly scheduled debates:

From:         WK7@CORNELLC.BITNET
Subject:      Studio demo

>                                          ... Another bummer - a bar owner
> and prospective gig-payer just told me tonight she's laying off the live
> music because off pressure from BMI and ASCAP who want money annually for
> any live band or recorded tapes that might infringe upon royalties. Just
> when you thought the economy was recessed enough, ya know ??

Unfortunately, BMI and ASCAP are legally in the right on this issue. When you
publish a piece of music, part of what you're getting for your trouble is the
right to be recompensed for any (profitable) use of that song. BMI and ASCAP
are organizations that you license your song to, and they collect royalties
on your behalf. Obviously, if Steven Spielberg decides he wants to use your
song in his next blockbuster movie, you stand to make big bucks from that.
Less obviously, if I'm in a Holiday Inn band playing "Feelings" in a futile
attempt to make the barflies look more kindly at each other while they size
each other up as potential bedmates for the lonely night yet to come, in a
certain regard I'm making money as Morris Alpert's representative in that
Godforsaken bar, and he's entitled to his cut, which ASCAP will extort from
the bar owner in Alpert's behalf. The ASCAP reps are almost as persistent,
and obnoxious, as tax collectors. They don't actually listen for your abuse
of their licensed music, unless they're gathering evidence for legal action;
business as usual is that they prepare a bill based on capacity of the bar,
amount of the cover charge, and a bald faced assumption that all the music
performed belongs to them, and collect that amount from the operators of
the fine American business establishment where you used to get work. The
premise is actually a good one, but as it works itself out in the market,
it generally enriches the people who don't need it, like Michael Jackson
as the copyright owner of the Beatles' book, and further porks the little
guy, like yourself.

From:         "Leonard Watkins" <ISTS024@UABDPO.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Studio demo

>  .....I'm always ready to play somewhere whether we practice or not
> so i tend to sit in, with alot of people...just to get my rocks off

I must confess I like to do this too. One of the most fun times I ever had
playing was a backyard barbeque at the home of Erik Lindgren, composer for
Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, and big '60s aficionado. He had a cheesy Wurlitzer
electric piano, a drum kit, and a bunch of amps set up in a little pavilion,
and of course the majority of the partygoers were musicians who'd brought
their guitars... I borrowed this horrible Japanese guitar and tuned the low
E string down to D, and proceeded to play bass on that. We did a totally
tacky repertoire, from "Sea Cruise" to "In A Gadda Da Vida," and did one of
those Hendrix covers from hell too at the special request of Birdsongs' new
guitarist. This was 1991; in 1992 I brought my own bass so I could play for
real, but this year's partygoers weren't as fearless (or as good).

Leonard, where do you play, do you need a bass player, and does it pay well
enough for me to afford to get there from Boston? :-)

From:         MMLRICK@UBVM.BITNET
Subject:      Re: Anyone recognized these lyrics?

> The moral, I guess, is to learn Shanty before you play a gig in certain bars.

No, the moral is, play solid body instruments, so you can hold your own against
the beer bottle wielders :-)

From:         MMORSE@YORKVM1.BITNET
Subject:      Re: What Makes It This or That

> The process of creating and using labels for genres always amazes
> me. Why, do you think, do we have such a need? Most of us decry it,
> especially when *asked* to define or defend, but it seems we all
> indulge it; as if there were some point to it. What is it?

Consider the record store as distinct from the supermarket. There are bins
full of records (okay, CDs and/or cassettes), usually filed alphabetically by
artist name. I go into a record store looking for new stuff. I see bunches of
names I didn't see the last time I was there (let's assume I only go to the
record store once a year, to buy Christmas presents for nieces and nephews).
How do I know by inspection the difference between a Pearl Jam and a Primus,
and which one the nieces and nephews will like better? In the supermarket,
at least, all the dishwashing detergents are on a shelf together, and if I
don't think I'm interested in dishwashing detergents I can go to the next
shelf with a totally different washday miracle. But if I know my nieces are
into heavy but not into funky, I'd better not get them the Primus, they're
just not gonna like it, they'd rather have Pearl Jam.

You may notice that the need for genre labels is closely allied to the view
of music as product. I couldn't agree more! The people who run the record
companies are full of pseudo-science and sociology about what constitutes
the key record-purchasing demographics, and they make their decisions on who
to sign and how to promote the records on that basis. When a new sub-genre
is discovered, every company suddenly has to sign up a representative act:
after G'n'R, for example, every company in LA went out trolling for screechy
metal acts with prominent tattoos and drug problems :-)

For me, the labels are primarily a filter. If you tell me Pearl Jam is the
latest and greatest thing in Seattle grunge, that tells me a lot: it tells
me I don't need to hear them, because all Seattle grunge sounds the same
to me :-)

From:         mjferzig@MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU
Subject:      Re: What Makes It This or That

> a cappella - singing without accompaniment of melodic instruments.

Originally this meant "chapel style," and referred to the practice of music
for a homogenous group: all viols, or all krummhorns, or what have you. It
became "all voices" as a relatively modern usage.

From:         RTURNBUL@TOROVM1.VNET.IBM.COM
Subject:      A machine of a dream...

> On a similar subject, I was listening to "Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)"
> from the same album the other day and once again pondered who the song may be
> about. Did anyone ever hear if this was actually written with a particular
> person in mind? If so, it was a pretty vicious attack (ya gotta love it)!

It was their first manager, who tied them up in some extremely obnoxious
contracts, and they had to duke it out with him in court for a while. One
other song in their repertoire is supposed to be inspired by this leech, I
think it's something on the _Sheer Heart Attack_ album, but the name escapes
me right now...

From:         "Leonard Watkins" <ISTS024@UABDPO.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: What Makes It This or That

> Pride & Joy is it blues, Sweet Little Angel nothing sad going on in this
> song and many others.........Regarding music 'The Blues" has nothing to do
> with sadness, however feeling , mood, and emotions play a big part. I don't
> know the answer, but it's not sadness.....LW.

It's not exactly sadness, but it sure isn't happiness! The particular
poignancy that characterizes blues, in my opinion, comes from being able to
stare down an unpleasant emotion and turn it around, that blues wouldn't do
what it does if it started from the Pollyanna assumption. The critics talk
a lot about "transcendence" in this context, and it's also related to the
idea of salvation, the Christian notion that earthly existence sucks and is
just a way to pass the time until you get to go to heaven-- this is how you
can get to gospel from blues. In a more recent (and more secular) example,
notice how Led Zeppelin's blues tunes generally didn't measure up as blues,
until "Nobody's Fault but Mine," written after Plant's son's death-- this
was the first time in his extravagantly privileged rock star career he had
something to really feel sorry about!

From:         SWELTON@ESOC.BITNET
Subject:      Re: Errmmm...CBMSTW

> Can White Men Sing The Blues is by....um..it's on the tip of my tongue...

Bonzo Dog Band.