response 74 of 131:

May 13 01:35 UTC 2000

Department of Family Vacations:  Leslie and I are just back from a week-long
trip to the east coast, including a visit to the Baltimore Opera and a 
big CD pigout on British Isles folk imports at the last retail shop 
which I visit regularly which carries such goodies.  Details to follow
in various items over the next few days, I hope.

response 76 of 131:

May 19 19:30 UTC 2000

  The problem with an enthusiastic review for a Patti Smith album
  is that it's sometimes hard to tell whether the critics are 
  enthusiastic about the album or about Smith herself.  I've always
  had the impression she was a critical favorite out of proportion
  to her work, mostly because of her strong "cool" factor.

response 78 of 131:

May 23 06:01 UTC 2000

Mike in resp:76 ::  Aw, man, Patti is one of my rock heroes, and she has 
been ever since I got those scratched-up used LPs of HORSES and RADIO
ETHIOPIA back in 1977 or so, back when those albums had gone out of print,
if I am remembering correctly.   She sounded so much different than 
just about everyone else back then.
 
I had not been keeping up with her albums since she started working 
again, but the early reviews reported that her old guitarist Lenny Kaye
and most of the rest of her old band were back together for this new
album, and that's always been a sound I've loved.   I just played GUNG HO
again tonight, and I'm really happy with it -- there were two songs which
had me hitting the track skip button, but that's usually been the case
for me with her albums.  The songwriting seems pretty good -- better than 
most performers from the 1970s are managing 20 years after their peak --
and the sound is classic, it sounds like the new album was recorded 
just a few months after EASTER or WAVE, her late-seventies work.
 
Only 27,000 sold?  Gack.  Maybe America's not ready for a twelve-minute
song in praise of Ho Chi Minh.

response 80 of 131:

May 23 21:32 UTC 2000

There is probably something to be written about the relationships 
between sales, critics, and "importance," whatever that might be.
 
I'm reminded of a claim that the Velvet Underground's last studio 
album LOADED only sold about 5000 copies in its initial release, 
but almost everyone who bought one started a band.
 
Also an article from a 1980-era "High Fidelity" magazine, which 
argued that with the exception of Elvis, the Beatles and (one other
performer, it was either the Stones or Dylan), the best selling artists
throughout the rock era has almost immediately been consigned to the 
historical dustbin, while the artists who came to be viewed as important
generally had middling sales performance.   Hmm, I wonder if the 
MSU Library still keeps its old stock of "High Fidelity?"  That was 
a good magazine, I miss it.
 
This risks impinging on the MP3 item, number 240.  
 
The way the record business used to work is that it had a lot of 
producers and executives in it who were well aware of the cultural
importance of the lesser-selling work.  They knew they had to turn in 
a profit overall, but they had some latitude in their personal realms
to sponsor artists and projects for their artistic importance.
 
In the current era, with a mantra of profit above all, and with the 
Soundscan program accounting for each and every sale as it happens,
such executives are getting squeezed out at the major labels.  
Clive Davis' forced retirement
at Arista is one sign of this, although the guy is 66 years old, which 
is above the corporate parents' retirement age.  But look at the artist
reaction.  Carlos Santana wants out of his Arista contract; Clive Davis
stood by him and kept him in the business for many lean years, and suddlenly
Santana spawns a monster hit album with legs.  Davis was renowned as 
a manager who took care of his stable of artists.

I'm meandering...

response 82 of 131:

May 24 18:24 UTC 2000

Patty Smith looked pretty rough the last time I saw her.
For half of the preformance, actually, Julie and I thought that she was Joey
Ramone.

response 84 of 131:

Jun 5 23:53 UTC 2000

stereolab and sonic youth will be in pontiac sunday

response 86 of 131:

Aug 8 19:15 UTC 2000

Ooooh, big triumphant find at Elderly Instruments yesterday...  
I found the first two, out-of-print solo albums by Pal Shazar in a 
used CD clearance bin, for $2.50 each.   I never got around to ordering
these when they might have been available, and I have never seen them 
before.

Pal Shazar was the woman lead singer in 80's pop duo Slow Children.
Slow Children were critical favorites in their day, but their career went
nowhere and somehow I doubt you'll hear them on the Big Sonic Heaven 
radio show, though I think they would fit right in.   Slow Children 
were produced for at least one of their albums by Jules Shear, 
who Shazar later married for a time, if that provides any context.

response 88 of 131:

Oct 2 00:31 UTC 2000

  I haven't bought a Laswell-related project in at least three years..
  I bought several lemons in a row just before I cut way back on my
  CD budget when I went back to school and due to several definite 
  misses and a couple of mediocrities, I quit buying the Laswell stuff
  unheard.  And since there really wasn't much opportunity to hear it
  before buying (because of course it would be morally WRONG to download
  it to check it out) I haven't bought any at all since then..

response 90 of 131:

Oct 17 19:40 UTC 2000

  I'd been thinking of buying that one, since I had liked his previous
  effort to include hip-hop elements in his music (Material's "The Third
  Power") despite its flaws, and I'd wondered if he'd managed the combination
  on "Intonarumori" without some of the borderline cheeziness that afflicts
  "The Third Power")

response 92 of 131:

Nov 21 17:08 UTC 2000

I've also been listening to news radio in the car lately, to follow the 
election fuss.  It takes a lot to get me to listen to news radio.  An 
earthquake will do it; so did this.  (But I did not listen to one word 
about O.J. on the radio, and a total of only about 5 minutes on TV.)

response 94 of 131:

Nov 22 04:20 UTC 2000

I usually make and effort to turn off the news after 30 microseconds and plug
in the CD player..

response 96 of 131:

Nov 24 20:49 UTC 2000

NP: Ben Harper, "The Will to Live."  I heard one song from this album,
"Glory and Consequence," by accident on the MSU student radio station
while I was trying to find the NPR station.  I was intrigued enough
to call the station to get the song ID.  

I like a lot of what Harper is doing in the instrumental side of this
album, with his guitar playing and his blues influences, but I'm 
disappointed that he's such a weak singer.  Still, I'm giving it 
more chances to grow on me.

response 98 of 131:

Dec 4 21:29 UTC 2000

Hee!  All Things Considered has been running a series called the NPR 100:
the greatest moments in American popular music of the century.
Today's entry:  The Ramones.