Subject: Re: Laika's graphic design
Subject: non-4ad: bowery electric and astrobrite
Subject: Speculation about Artistic Intention
Subject: Re: Seeking info on Unrest's Tinking of S.E. lp
Subject: Detroit-shaving the pavement tour..
Subject: Re: Lush review by Joanna
Subject: i have mine
Subject: Re: Speculation about Artistic Intention
Subject: Lush - Addicted to noise?
Subject: Re: lush tickets
Subject: austin people
Subject: STP
Date: Sat, 30 Mar 1996 23:32:48 -0600
processor" at Mar 31, 96 00:01:26 am
> On Sat, 30 Mar 1996, David Mccallum wrote:
> > Meanwhile, the package-with-stamps-and-string look of Silver Apples of the
> > Moon now appears to have been copied by...Cracker (gag).
>
> But then the CD design that looks like "package-with-stamps-and-string
> wasn't very original with Laika either. Nothing comes to mind right now,
> but we've all seen that design before.
Flipper's "Album-Generic Flipper" from 1982 comes to mind as being quite
similar. No, the really unfortunate design redundancy in Moonshake's
progeny is the concurrent arrival on the world stage of Finland's Laika
and the Cosmonauts, a hoppin' surf band.
D. Stephen Roy //\\ Die in your thoughts every morning and
[email protected] \\// you will no longer fear death - Hakakure
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 03:00:44 -0500
i just returned from the first day of the 'infrequencies' show in
cleveland which included, among others, astrobrite and bowery electric.
my reason for posting this is to implore, no... BEG you to go see bowery
electric if you have the chance. i was utterly and completely blown away
by the live show. lawrence uses two marshall amps on either side of the
stage, and the resulting sound is absolutely HUGE. the cd is NO
indication of the amount of sound he puts out -- one person should NOT be
able to make that much noise! they played mostly material off of the
cd, culminating in an even longer version of 'slow thrills'. i don't
think i've ever experienced a show where i was left as flabbergasted and
speechless as i was after their set. so if you own the cd and like it, or are
a fan of early slowdive-ish wall-of-sound type groups, i would HIGHLY
recommend seeing them live if they head your way (the next date i'm aware
of is a show with astrobrite may 8th in chicago).
astrobrite was, as always, excellent as well. they sounded a bit
different without andrew, who was still there when i saw them the first
time, but scott put out enough noise by himself and the sound didn't
suffer at all. they also seem to have sped up the tempo for most of the
songs, which makes them sound a bit more conventional and less
lovesliescrushing-y. i knew going in that they would be wonderful, and i
wasn't at all disappointed.
also playing were the ladybug transistors, saturnine, and poem rocket.
the first two were your noisy-pop type groups, with the addition of a
farfisa organ by the ladybug transistors. and poem rocket was downright
scary -- sort of a pixies/sonic youth hybrid with an evil tinge. when
the singer/guitarist (sorry, son't know his name) glared at the crowd, he
was almost more frightening than the most menancing of beth thompson's
(of medicine) stares! all three were quite good as well...
unfortunately, i couldn't stay for day two, which meant i missed trans am
and labradford, among others (anybody make it to this show?). but the
take home message is: if you get a chance to see bowery electric and/or
astrobrite, don't miss it! i expect even greater things from both in the
future...
brian
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 09:03:17 -0500
I like a good debate about the nature of music criticism. This particular
one, about whether it is productive, interesting or legitimate to wonder
how an artist's personal life factored into the making of the work, in this
case, Lush's Lovelife, is especially meaty (or should I say tofu-y, being a
vegetarian?)
A few points I want to add, being basically in favor of lots of speculation:
o If we knew about the personal life and thought processes of the artists,
they could be interesting and illuminating. Reading Deborah Curtis'
'Touching from a Distance,' her biography of Ian Curtis, forever changed my
view and understanding of Joy Division's work. (And confirmed what a
bastard Tony Wilson, head of Factory Records, is. Although maybe it was an
inspired idea to give Ian a bunch of Frank Sinatra lps before they went to
record 'Love Will Tear Us Apart.')
o Often artists are unwilling to talk about themselves, and many are
incredibly inarticulate and lack much insight to the meaning of their own
music. For instance, to stir up a hornets nest, I've never seen the
Cocteau Twins say much of any interest or illumination about their own
music.
o That means that the critic is often left only with the option of
detective work and speculation. In the case of Lush, there may not be much
to go on, but we do have a good idea who writes the songs, what culture
they live in, and for all I know, tabloids such as the Sun or even music
papers might give lots of gossip about who in the band is bonking who at
any given time.
o We speculate about the influence of the artist's life in every other
artform, so why not pop/rock. Don't you want to know about the personal
lives of Sylvia Plath, Ann Sexton, Norman Mailer, Martin Amis, or even
Ludwig van B.?
o Post-structuralism may have said the author is dead, but a proper
postmodernist cheekiness should allow up to invent our own artists.
Christian,
from Lexington KY, where people were dancing in the streets last night.
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 13:34:26 -0500
Unrest's TeenBeat 14? is that the State Champs release?
that's a hard one to find, and if you're a die-hard unrest fan probably
worth it. But I think you must be looking at a reissue; the original doesn't
have a live photo on the cover, it has an oldish sports hero picture and
All-American Football type. Plus I think you could get it elsewhere - either
a straight 4ad reissue, or parts of it on the Wakefield comp. The song
quality will be very high school garage-ish (as the band was still at
Wakefield - my current digs! - when the album was released).
According to the liner notes in Fuck Pussy Galore: it was recorded in August
of 86 and released in October of 87. 1000 pressings in the States and 2000
in Belgium. Songs 6 through 21 are on FPG, so maybe it's not worth it..yr call!
drew
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 16:56:24 -0400
Hello all,
Does anyone in the MI area know when tickets go on sale for shaving the
pavement tour in Detroit at St. Andrews? Or have they already? Also if
anyone has the tix master number for that area that would be swell....
thanx...
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 16:43:26 EST
well brian. in an interview with lush they say that they are embarrased by
the production in some of my favorite records of theirs like "spooky." they
say that the production on this new disc is really good. i agree that the
production is real great, but disagree that the others like "spooky" were
really bad. i like all the lush albums because you never know what your
gonna get. it's like a warren defever side project. ivo is the same way.
those three entities (lush, warren, and ivo) are great because of that
eclectic approach to their muzik.
.
i have been listening to lush lately. i played spooky, then split, then
lovlife. the lyrics are so amazing. it is exactly like a breakup. in
spooky, lush showed us how sensitive and depressing it is ending relation-
ships. on spooky lush showed us how we can feel when we realize we have to
go on. lovelife is that stage of revenge and that stage you can be so mean
in. does that mean the next album lyrically will be about getting on being
single or getting on being lonely? i don't know, but i'm looking forward to
it.
star vein
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 17:17:40 EST
the detoit show at st. andy's are on sale. i've got mine. they were ten
dollars after service charge. they are gen admission, so there shouldn't
be a rush.
star vein
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 17:18:53 -0500
> o Post-structuralism may have said the author is dead, but a proper
> postmodernist cheekiness should allow up to invent our own artists.
'inventing our own artists' IS the death of the author. This is a pretty
twisting thing so I'll try to be brief. We can never truly know what the
connection is between an artist's personal experience and the form
his/her expression in an artistic endeavour. If we want we can claim that
Lush is making 'Lovelife' Because they are all trading boy toys etc. Or
we can say Van Gogh painted like he did because he often ate lead based
paint, or that Michelangelo ended up a great sculptor because his
wetnurse nursed him when after cleaning the studio and the infant
ingested plaster and marble dust along with the milk (dont laugh these
theories have been propouned in more scholarly forums than this).
All we can know is the form that the artist's experience takes when its
expression is received by us as an audience. We can learn about an artist
and make lose connections between his/her life/culture/sexual history
/whatever, but in the end what remains are lose connections to what is
primarily a sigular aesthetic experience - that of you the listener and
the song. The singer disappears.
Of course the myth of the artist as genius/creator/pop star whatever has
been aestheticized in many ways and in some genres is part of the
experience of the art form... but anyway you slice it, you will never
walk a mile in their shoes, or for that matter REALLY know what it was
for Emma to look at Manet's _Olympia_. YOu can experience the work of art
designed to communicate some of the experience, but to try to take that
communication as an inroad into the mind/experience of the artist, even
if you are coupling the art form with textual data, you might as well be
dissecting a corpse. Its impossibe to re-invent the singer through the
song.
'Post-everything' DOES suggest to 'invent' our own artists. But the
importnant thing is that the artist is NOT some Other, but instead the
Self, in that it is the Self's engagement with the work of art that
produces meaning. If that self in doing so choses to resurrect some sort
of frankenstein, then fine, but lets not delude ourselves that this
walking corpse is anything like the original artists themselves.
The author doesnt matter cause s/he's dead. All that's left is the text
and the reader.
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 16:13:46 -0800
Hey!
Is lush going to be the feature issue of ATN next month? All I
know is that they have a boatload of images and songs at their storage
bin or whatever you call it. To check out the images and songs go to:
Http://www.addict.com/Music/Lush
/Images/Lush
Brian
P.S. I don't remember if the M in music and the I in images is to be
capitalized.
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 21:26:39 -0500
well, i went to the Irving Plaza box office on saturday, and i got my tix!
i made sure to point out to the dude there that it was Mojave 3, and
not 5. he said he would change it, since other people mentioned
it to him. so i got the last Mojave 5 tix. :)
show will be on may 2nd, so i am looking forward to meeting some of ur
nyc area listies members. :)
sometimes love;
J. Henrique R.
"learn to love me, assemble the ways..."
Moz
On Fri, 29 Mar 1996, lorelei tremolor wrote:
> more misspellings! the tickets i got today for the new york show say
> that lush is playing with "mojave 5 and sheer."
>
> talk about worst day to stand outside waiting for the box office to open...
> it was snowing huge flakes with gusty winds, oh it was so horrid, and i
> showed up at the wrong time and everything, coz the Voice said tickets
> went on sale at 10am sharp, but the box office actually only opened at 12.
>
> the things i do...only for lush.........
>
> xx
> lor
>