Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Date:         Tue, 5 Jan 1993 14:03:27 EST
From:         "Michael H. Bloom" <MHB@MITVMA.BITNET>
Subject:      Class warfare

Jeez, how can you all call me the classiest poster? Now I'm constantly gonna
feel like I have something to live up to-- even after I stop blushing :-)

Here's what I've been doing lately: the Chenrezi performance was pretty cool.
I made my own marimba mallets by drilling little holes in the tiny Superballs
kids can get out of gumball machines and sticking chopsticks into them. This
turned out not to be terribly secure-- when I really got cranking on marimba,
the balls would fly off the ends of the sticks and start bouncing across the
stage-- made for some amusing incidental dramatic interest :-) I had a couple
pair of wooden-headed mallets, which I eventually fell back on-- and they got
real loud, to the point of drowning out the bass. We didn't quite get what we
wanted out of the synth (a classic Arp 2600), but it was good enough for the
background noise we wanted. Overall, we felt real good about it, and we want
to do it again-- maybe with a saxophonist sitting in next time. The guy from
the Molecules was not a good bass player, but when he picked up a guitar it
got much more compelling.

On New Year's Day itself I tried to book some studio time to re-record my next
Ernest Noyes Brookings tune, "A Wedding," with Richard Sinclair on vocal. Much
to my chagrin, Richard doesn't read music-- although the stuff I'd written out
wasn't really where the problem lay, it was in how weird Ernie's scansion is:
Richard simply couldn't internalize where I wanted the emphases to fall in the
more awkward verses. What I shoulda done was copy out the lyrics and highlight
the downbeats... Basically I paid $20 an hour to rehearse! It's a good thing
I didn't get the higher-grade studio I'd wanted. I wasn't thinking too straight
anyway, being more than a little awed at finding myself in a recording studio
with one of my long term heroes, kinda like if Robert Cray rang Leonard up to
ask if he wanted to jam... But Richard liked the song, and we got enough of a
sketchy take of it that we both took copies home so we could listen to it and
learn it properly and think of ideas on how to do it better. Richard's plan is
to come back in March/April, and I should have some better backing tracks done
by then.

Now I've got piles of writing to do-- a story on the new Negativland debacle
(they're being sued *again,* this time by SST, who still believe they deserve
to use the slogan "Corporate rock still sucks!"), a story on the forthcoming
Curlew CD _A Beautiful Western Saddle_ (which you should all run out and buy),
liner notes for a Birdsongs of the Mesozoic retrospective, etc. And I've been
told I have obligations to list members I didn't even know about :-(

From:         mjferzig@MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU
Subject:      Marsha tries Bloom's method - mondopost!

Hey, counselor, have you never heard of look-and-feel copyright? You'll be
hearing from my lawyer :-)

> Bloom, I started that subject - don't blame Rosemary....I really can't
> stand Glass. I don't have anything against minimalism, but everything I've
> ever heard by Glass gives me a headache. Since I love X-mas music and hate
> Glass music, I figured it'd be a bad combo for my tastes. If you want to
> hear it.....go for it! Oh, and I never found him very churchy at all...

One of the cruelest things to do in a discussion like this is to say "Oh, but
haven't you heard..." and then mention something that's been out of print for
aeons, but that's what I have to do here. I kinda disapprove ("despise" might
not be too strong a word) of nearly all the Glass I've heard since _Einstein
on the Beach_ (making an exception for the _Koyaanisqatsi_ soundtrack, just
because I like the concept and the visuals so much-- rock video for grownups),
but the real early stuff that Glass released on his own label, Chatham Square
Records, remains magical. It's like this: minimalism was originally proposed
as a kind of Zen of musical performance, almost-but-not-quite utterly empty
of content, so the subtle little tweaks of the basic matrix, which seem so
subliminal at first blush, leap out at you once you get acclimated. Brian
Eno used to talk about the frog's eye, how it's optimized to notice flies--
it ceases to notice the real world background in all its lush diversity, but
comes to full attention when a little moving speck intrudes itself into the
visual field. (Hmm, minimalism turns you into an amphibian? That's not what
I meant to say...)

But anyway, what happened after _Einstein_ was, Glass got popular, and the
classical establishment (which isn't much more immune to fashion trends than
the rock world; consider the period instruments thread) decided they could
boost attendance and get more brownie points for supporting still breathing
composers if they let Glass (and Reich, John Adams, etc.) at the orchestras.
And a crucial facet of minimalism's definitive austerity-- the restrictions
on timbre-- went right out the window, not to mention that the performance
practices of the 19th century repertoire aren't much more relevant to Soho
minimalism than to early music :-), so basically, orchestral Glass sounds
IMHO like shit-- or, at best, like crudely done tape loops of Mendelssohn.
Reich and Adams did much better "post-minimalist" work by relaxing most of
the other constraints at the same time, preserving a kind of balance.

Maybe I should get Gary to shoehorn 8 minutes of _Music in Changing Parts_
onto the compilation tape? But will that be enough to convey the mood?

> Bloom, I don't know if you're referring to me, but my name is spelled
> Marsha, if you are. You're right, I can't tell them apart. But the thing
> is, I don't like metal music very much. Now, you could probably find a band
> loosely described as metal that I WOULD like, but the thing is, it's  just
> not my cup of espresso.

Re spelling, maybe Fripp's right, and I am clueless... sorry.

In general, metal is not designed to appeal to women-- that nad-pumping
scenario one of the Garys spoke of is pretty crucial to metal's appeal. I've
spoken before (probably before you subscribed) about the power fantasy that
metal represents: I believe metal is intended primarily for boys in the 18 to
24 year old demographic, who still live at home with their parents, hating it
but not having to pay the rent :-) So all their disposable income goes into
various power and escape fantasies: thundering music, muscle cars, unsubtle
drugs (anybody else still think central nervous system depressants are fun?),
etc. People who manage to take control of their own lives get into different
music in real short order, something smooth, kinda funky, something where the
message is not power but autonomy, being able to choose one's own pleasures,
and put them on the plastic all by oneself (even if daddy's still paying
the Visa bill ultimately :-)

> There are many types of a cappella music - "choral" (any high school
> chorus doing "church type" music), "religious" (Take 6), "causal" (Sweet
> Honey in the Rock, The Flirtations), "classic" (The Persuasions),
> "progressive" (The Nylons), "weird" (The Bobs), "college"
> (self-explanatory...) "jazz a cappella" (Manhattan Transfer, Bobby
> McFerrin)...... I think you get my point. Many people couldn't tell them
> apart either. I think that's good. People should just hear the stuff - be
> exposed to it! Play me some metal that I'll like! Find a country singer I
> want to listen to! Force me to call a rap thing "music"!!!! Whip me, beat
> me, make me write bad checks!!!!!

Hey, you left out plainchant, and all those ethnic vocal musics like Les
Mysteres des Voix Bulgares and Ladysmith Black Mombazo (sp?) and Tuvan
throat-singing...

One thing I did learn pretty early in the game is, if you want to get the
inside scoop on some little sub-genre of music, don't depend on the mass
media to do it for you! Ask an aficionado. I thought anything funky sucked
because of mass-market disco. Then I had a roommate who knew how to dance
and knew how to choose decent dance music, and discovered there was decent
stuff out there-- I still didn't *buy* any of it, but I liked his records!

From:         mjferzig@MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU
Subject:      Re: ALLMUSIC Awards / Dream Theater

> What, you think that just because I like a cappella , I don't like anything
> else? I've known about and liked DT for a long time! Like I said, I know a
> guy in the band! Yes, they are hard rock, but I've never really thought of
> them as metal. I'm not as sweet and innocent as I seem y'know.....

Where the Dream Theatre fans I know like to classify them is in "Progressive
Rock," that stuff with the tricky odd-numbered time signatures, intricate
countermelodies, 11th chords, and all the other academic musical devices we
used to think would hasten human evolution if we could get it on the radio.
Prog-rock took a dive in the 80s, and its carcass has been carved up and
devoured by the heavy metal and new age camps. Dream Theatre are obviously
more in the metal area. I believe the label exec who signed them was Derek
Shulman, the industry quisling who used to sing for Gentle Giant.

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

> I find it pretty strange (representative of today's music scene) that
> Brian May is opening-up for GnR I would think that if May hand to open
> up for someone it would be someone with a different type music and different
> crowd.

Oh no, Queen-- especially Brian May's compositions-- was heavily influential
on the direction of 80s metal. Actually it's no accident that you don't like
the stuff, because metal has been systematically purging itself of its blues
influence through the 80s. But now, with the success of G'n'R, apparently it's
okay to sound like the Stones again-- I've lately been hearing more of that
sound sneaking in.

> Picked up Rickie Lee Jones 1st album on CD, i forgot how good it was, it's
> suprising that with all her talent and the quality of material on the first
> album that she never even came close on the albums that followed..IMHO

Didn't she develop a sizeable substance-abuse problem right after that first
record-- trying to match Tom Waits drink for drink, or something? I do like
the first song on _Pirates_, though.

From:         Gary Hanley <0005642089@MCIMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Gary's Favorites for 1992. "Who Cares!"

>              FAVORITE CONCERT:
>
>              Big is definately not better here. Ministry was
>              one of the most intense shows I've seen in
>              awhile, and compared to the GnR/Metallica show,
>              well, there just wasn't any comparison. I liked a
>              reviewer's comments about Ministry's latest disk.
>              "These guys (Ministry) make Metallica seem like
>              they're having a tea party. Ministry sounds like the
>              fabric of the universe is being torn apart, and hey,
>              you can dance to it."  I couldn't have said it better.

Heh. Reminds me of what the mad scientist in _Repo Man_ says just before he
croaks. I like Skinny Puppy better, though-- _Last Rights_ is really perverse.

>              FAVORITE RECOMMENDED ALBUM:
>
>              Well, I like Hawkwind, which was highly recommended
>              by numerous sources, but I have to admit I love Richard
>              Thompson's _Rumor & Sigh_.  I'll be picking up more
>              from him in '93, probably the compilation with his wife
>              first.

That's not a compilation, it's stuff off the cutting room floor, so don't
start with that! I like _Sunnyvista_, albeit that's a minority opinion; most
critics would point you toward _Shoot Out the Lights_ on the grounds that
you can hear the crockery flying across the studio :-), plus the songs are
magnificent-- last time I saw him, that was the earliest stuff he played.

>              FAVORITE ALBUM:
>
>              This wasn't close. My favorite album for '92 is XTC's
>              _Nonsuch_.  From "...Peter Pumpkinhead" to "Books
>              Are Burning," I loved it all. Even the least favorite among
>              the XTC cult, "Bungalow," I thought was pretty cool.

My wife has limited tolerance for XTC, and _Nonsuch_ has been straining it.
Finally she came in to complain about "Bungalow," and I said something about
Colin trying to write for soap operas :-)

But I have to say I think most of it's weak. In particular, I can't hear any
of those really fucked up chords that only Andy Partridge knows, and there's
the matter of that stoopid big drum sound, and too much Broadwayesque piano,
and... There's a song about how I feel about the album: "The Disappointed" :-)
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