Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Date:         Thu, 19 Nov 1992 11:14:19 EST
From:         "Michael H. Bloom" <MHB@MITVMA.BITNET>
Subject:      I eat one-liners for breakfast

From:         The Chrome-Plated Megaphone of Destiny
              <ALEVIN@RCNVMS.RCN.MASS.EDU>
Subject:      Genesis' New Edition

> I have a hard time deciding which band makes me more ashamed to admit that I'm
> a musician from Massachusetts, the New Edition and their spawn or New Kids
> on the Block.
>
> MAURICE STARR MUST DIE!

You should suggest this to Mojo Nixon as a song title. Don Henley recently
joined him on stage to sing "Don Henley Must Die," and, after telling Henley
he had balls the size of doorknobs, Mojo decided he'd better stop doing that
song!

From:         Kristin Kelly Buxton <kkb55224@UXA.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Genesis Live: Good disc/Bad disc


> I picked up the Genesis album yesterday and found it quite good.  I am waiting
> to get the second volumn though because I caught their concert over the
> summer (from the tour they recorded these on) and found that the songs
> they saved for the second album were some of the best of the concert.  The
> last song "Drum Duet"  was awesome in concert.

If I get any of this stuff, I'll pick up volume two.

Been conducting this debate with Steven Feigenbaum, proprietor of Wayside
Music-- he's been reissuing the Richard Pinhas and Heldon material (and BTW,
he expects to do the whole catalog eventually, so you don't have to go out
scrambling for the the French editions, McIntyre!) and I've been complaining
about how self-similar it sounds. Then I went and wrote this glowing review
of Pinhas for Boston Rock, and Feigenbaum fell off his chair. By now I have
become enough of an old fart to feel that even the lamest of the old stuff
is way better than the spiffiest of the new...

From:         Tim Johnson <ST402711@BROWNVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Sundry items

>   Maybe because Wittgenstein and Tolstoy and Dickinson and Proust and
> Cervantes and Flaubert are all dead - they haven't written anything
> new in a long time.

Wait'll I write my oratorio on the _Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus_; it'll
put Wittgenstein back on the map! It'll be crypto-minimalist, like Philip
Glass does the Four Freshmen :-)

From:         gmgettie@THAMA1.APGEA.ARMY.MIL
Subject:      More stuff than can fit on a subject line

> They released a 2 part video set the other day. The title of it is _A Year
> and a Half in the Life of Metallica_. It has been released as 2 separate
> tapes. One of the videos from it, "Sad But True" has been on eMptTVee for
> awhile.

Yes, and it's lame, like Soundgarden at their most shamelessly Sabbathoid.
WRT the Zeppelin/Hendrix/Deep Purple thread, I think you gotta include Black
Sabbath as an important (not to say useful) component of where contemporary
metal is at, *especially* the Seattle scene.

> I have it set up using dBASE III. You can probably pirate this software from
> almost any company, or you can buy it for ...oh...say...about $400. It allows
> you to design your own database, i.e. you pick the columns, you pick the
> sizes. It's very simple to use.

dBASE is probably the most user-hostile database software in common use!
I'm told that dBase IV eases some of the constraints on the user interface,
but I don't care; there's so much easier stuff to work with. In particular,
how in the dBase environment are you gonna be able to list songs on your
albums, and then cross-reference your albums by the songs they contain--
or (common ALLMUSIC research task) search the whole database for songs with
the word "RAIN" in the title? :-)

If you really want to use the dBase programming paradigm, I heard about a
shareware program called WAMPUM, or something like that, that's supposed to
be fully compatible. But if you have to design your own database, why not use
DBMS software that's actually pleasant to work with, like Borland's Paradox?

> This cracks me up. If you are going to be on the list, you must learn this:
>
> Generally, all music (musicians) that is popular, sucks. Yes, even Led
> Zeppelin. It's an allmusic rule. No matter how great you think someone is,
> there will always be someone on this list to tell you how clueless you are. I
> must admit, they have opened my eyes a bit, however I'm not yet critical
> enough to realize that Robert Plant was losing his voice by the time
> _Houses Of The Holy_ came out.

I'm still waiting for the ALLMUSIC anti-Sharrock critical backlash-- just
as soon as Sonny sells a few records, of course :-)

I agree Page was sloppy. He also didn't have quite the attention span to
make entirely good albums: _Physical Graffiti_ et seq. contain an awful lot
of filler, all that "Boogie with Stu" nonsense. And in response to somebody's
earlier suggestion that "Since I've Been Loving You" was Zeppelin's pinnacle
of blues, I used to think so too, but I have grown to believe that it's just
a formal exercise, without real passion...

And speaking of blues...

From:         Leonard Watkins <ISTS024@UABDPO.BITNET>
Subject:      Blurbs

> It has to be 'payola' to get the blurbs that some albums/artists receive
> the one that killed me the most was Tinsley Ellis it said:
> 'Stands along side Johnny Winter and SRV and that ain't hype' the quote
> was on the album and credited to Guitar World (which IMHO is useless anyway)
> There's no way anyone could really feel that way, especially from T.E.'s
> albums......It's payola right...........L.W.

No, you give a relatively unsophisticated bluesman good enough drugs, then
let him hear something, and he'll think it's cosmic :-/ Then you just write
down whatever he babbles... well, maybe it is payola after all, since you're
*giving* him the drugs.

Interview with Duke Robillard in the Boston Phoenix not long ago, where he
was talking about getting over his coke habit. He describes trying to come
to grips with playing straight, calling up Stevie Ray Vaughn (who sponsored
him in Narcotics Anonymous), complaining, "I can hear *all* the notes now,
not just the good ones!"

From:         Leonard Watkins <ISTS024@UABDPO.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Louie Louie

> On Tue, 17 Nov 1992 20:01:10 GMT J.P. Prenger said:
> >
> >What do  you mean, does anybody have the right to 'allow' anything an artist
> >does? Remember the first amendment of your constitution, pal!
>
> Yes they do that's why child pornorgraphy is illegal, some states have tried
> to ban the Confederate Flag, Ole Miss (Rebels) can't fly a confederate flag
> over a certain size......etc the list goes on. I guess you think Maplethorpe
> was an artist. My point was how can the artist get away with but not the DJ
> I was not saying that the artist shouldn't get away with it. If someone wants
> to use racial slang in tv or radio they should be able to if they want to talk
> about killing a cop they should be able to....but so should the DJ. Look at
> what happen to Jimmy The Greek, and Andy Rooney where was there 1st amendment

Well, as has been amply demonstrated in the past, we take the First Amendment
*very* seriously here on ALLMUSIC. My personal opinion is, the state of the
union being what it is nowadays (i.e. clueless and slightly slack), the most
useful tack to take WRT freedom of speech is to support the amendment wherever
you can without getting yourself into a totally morally repugnant position--
i.e. you don't have to defend a child pornographer if you don't want to, but
don't lead a witch hunt either, and *certainly* don't dredge up the tired old
canard that Robert Mapplethorpe constitutes or leads to kiddie porn...

The First Amendment's having a rough time of it, folks. I'd sooner lend my
support to it than dump on it for its comparatively few faux pas.

The original thread here, if I recall correctly, was "Louie Louie" and what
the dirty lyrics were. I never heard them except in _Animal House_, where
they were just as slurred as the original vocal! I recall something like

"Every night at ten, I'll lay her again...
Gonna fuck that girl all kinds 'a ways..."

I remember when the record store in my home town handed out mimeographed
copies of the published lyrics, in an attempt to squelch rumors about how
dirty the song was. It's got couplets like: "On the ship I dream she there /
I smell the rose in her hair" and of course we would all go Nudge nudge,
wink wink, we all know what female bodily organ the rose is *really* a
metaphor for (and we'd say it even louder if we *didn't* really know :-).
As Tom Lehrer once said, "Filth, I'm glad to say, is in the mind of the
beholder!"

From:         The Chrome-Plated Megaphone of Destiny
              <ALEVIN@RCNVMS.RCN.MASS.EDU>
Subject:      RIP

> John Cascella, keyboardist with John Mellencamp died Saturday of a
> heart-attack at the age of 45.

Too much cholesterol from all that meat-and-potatoes music, I guess. I was
surprised to discover how good a drummer Kenny Aronson was, when he toured
with Richard Thompson...

From:         Thumper <watson@HG.ULETH.CA>
Subject:      amy denio and the tone dogs

> Prepare for some actual musical content, eh!

Yeah, batten down the hatches!

> I've decided to throw out a calorie soaked reviews of the second release from
> the Tone Dogs, _Early Middle Years_.  The Tone Dogs are (woof):
>
>   Fred Chalenor: Guitar, Bass, Kurzweil, Vocals
>   Amy Denio: Bass, Guitar, Musette, Alto Sax, Vocals
>   Will Dowd: Drums, Electronics

Unfortunately, that should read "The Tone Dogs were (whine)."  They endured
what Amy described as The Tour From Hell in Europe last year, and broke up.

> (Yes... that's Amy Denio, the inducer of Bloomie's woodies (and probably woj's
>  too)).

That's right, she's unquestionably my new Dream Date. She's such an amazing
vocalist, plays great bass & sax and decent guitar, and my wife says Amy's
one of very few people in the world that talk faster than she does :-)

> This release is like a German bakery (or is it barkery?) -- full of flakey
> goodies!  The specials of the day?  Lemme see, you have lot's of gooey
> percussive sounds lightly iced with liquid vocals. You should also sample the
> fluid bass lines sprinkled with powdered spacey electronics.  Also featured:
> funk filled pies with nutty repetitive vocals topped with sugar sweet scat
> singing. And don't forget the klezmer turnovers and the little Orbian balls of
> beeps, blurps and other ambient sounds.

The bass lines are particularly charming, although it should be made clear up
front that they're not gonna compete with Primus for hard funk power. If you
need a label for the Tone Dogs, try post-punk Canterbury: they have the same
semi-gratuitous melodic complexity :-) and something of that sense of humor...

> Sound yummy to you?  Well it is...  :)  My favorite slices include:
> "Salvatore" with it's Eno-esque electronics (ala Roxy Music) and reggae-ish
> beat;

This is the tune with the phrasebook Italian lyrics I told Marco about.
It's considerably faster than typical reggae; you could probably sneak it
by a ska fan.

> "Tumbling" which features way cool fuzzy guitar sounds, assorted electronic
> noises, fluid bass and infectious vocals (plus the "throw me down the laundry
> chute" lyrical snippets reminded me of some silly things we did with our cats
> when we were kids);

Here Amy uses doing the laundry as a metaphor for making love very playfully,
rolling around on the floor and such. This is why she's my dream date :-)

> a warped version of "Spanish Eyes" complete with clunks and
> clangs, scat-like (meow) singing, tempo changes and an interesting choice of
> words (probably selected for how they sound instead of what they mean) in the
> lyrics; "Waltz" for it's dreamy feel and soothing guitar; "Traffic Island
> Psycho" and "Major Minor" which feature playful and slick guitar and bass
> licks (*slurp*); "Good A.M." which can play me awake any old morning; and

This is the best wakeup song since the Beatles' "Good Morning." I shouldn't
just harp on Amy as the reason for the splendor of this group; this one is
Fred Chalenor's song, and he's swell too. Will Dowd is fine too, but they
weren't dependent on particular drum styles-- they'd just lost a drummer
when they went to record their first album, so they borrowed Matt Cameron
from Soundgarden. (They're from Seattle, but they don't have anything to
do with the _Singles_ scene.)

> "Three Fell Swoops" because I like the Orb.   :)

Very similar technique-- they recorded a bunch of space jamming, and invited
their engineer Drew Canulette to mess with the tapes however he wanted. (In
fact, there's one more return of that strange hollow groove that I edited off
your tape, Carol, because it just didn't fit :-( ) The original intention was
to put this thing out as a CD single, but then they parted company with their
original label, C/Z Records in Seattle (who put out their equally gorgeous
debut album _Ankety Low Day_-- and I haven't a clue what that means!).

> High calorie listening folks!!  And it won't put inches on you (unless you're
> MHB's woody).     ;)
>
> Unfortunately, this stuff is probably hard to find... jump in Michael... :)

It's an hour long CD on Soleilmoon Records, and I don't have the Soleilmoon
address on me, but it and _Ankety Low Day are available from Wayside Music,
P.O. Box 8427, Silver Spring MD 20907.

From:         Little Inquisitor <U33963@UICVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Mindless melange

> POP QUIZ!! BLOOM, who is Harry Breuer, and why is he relevant to a recent
> discussion on the list? No fair cribbing.  Upchuck all over the net.

Sorry, you got me there. I woulda guessed you were 48, but somebody else
guessed that rather early in the game...

From:         Dave <USTS060@RUST1.DPO.UAB.EDU>
Subject:      Rev's picks

>     I'd also reccomend Bob Mould's latest venture with a band called
> Sugar....and Godd*mnit I can't remeber the blody title to their CD...
> Jesus, that really pisses me off...Shit.  Anyway the band is Sugar.

And the record's called _Copper Blue_. Pray to Ganesha for me, please.
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