Date: Fri, 18 Aug 1995 08:41:21 -0400 From: "cholera" <rockie@neurosis.wariat.org> CAMBODIA : A ZINE FOR PEOPLE WHO FIND MUSIC TOO SLOW VOL 1 #7 Welcome to Cambodia. CONTENTS Art is not a Game H8UAL Travel Log Reviews, Etc Craw/Glazed Baby Tour Guide ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -Neil Chastain, drummer of craw has left said band. Will Scharf is the quick replacement 17 days before our next show (see next note below) - tour not affected. -Sept. 1, 2, 3rd - Euclid Tavern, Cleveland, Ohio - The jesus lizard with special guests Season to Risk (1st), Dimbulb and Cathouse (2nd) and Craw (3rd). Tickets on sale here now. Sell out imminent. Same weekend as rock 'n roll hall of fame opening. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ART IS NOT A GAME continued from last ish ... An Indie to Major Problem : Welfare is a bad idea because of this - the money supplied to those who claim not to be able to work for whatever reason breeds laziness. There is no initiative to go and find a job and whatnot. This then is base for much of the crime in lower class areas around the country. The pseudo comfort which the welfare program offers in turn takes away from the drive to produce anything of value. Yet not all welfare recipients are con artists and crooks so it does help the lady down the street with a kid and dead husband who wants to go back to school. Similarly there are parallels showing up when disecting the indie to major moves happening today. A band comes from relative obscurity, having to work countless shit jobs just to be able to pay rent all in the name of music and touring cause the indie label that is weird enough to take them on certainly can't afford to pay everyone's rent which would allow the band to concentrate on their music. The day to day stress from working and then coming home to book tours, anger at seeing bands who are clearly talentless become huge through mass media and clever promotion, touring clubs who may or may not feed you on top of the $75 they'll pay you, and the frustration of trying to remain in control of your art which in turn inhibits your growth because no magazine or reviewer or promoter will take you seriously without a manager, a booker, a publicist, a guitar tech and video - all this and more fuels the creative drive to create music for music sake. Take away that life and introduce the artist into a comfortable atmosphere where someone else is paying the rent and then some and someone else is handling every other aspect about the band and what have you got to think about? How much product do we have to move to pay all this money off? Granted that's kind of an important thing to think about but I'm sorry, it doesn't cut it for me. The removal of day to day trials, etc., dry up most once-indie bands with few exceptions - those being bands like surgery (rip), girls against boys and the poster children whose sound is already 'rawk' enough to do well, and the few freak bands who can't conform if their life depended on it (thank god) like melvins and steel pole bathtub. The conformity issue we've been over before, but in brief my theory is that the sheer amount of money that is presented to a band signing to a major, and which the band owes back as recoupable funds, narrows bands that were once way original and imaginative because they understand that they must move alot of product in order to recoup and avoid being either dropped, moved to a subsidiary label of that major or simply fucked like a pig til they kill each other and break up. As far as I can tell it is ridiculous being completely indie and still believing that you are not supporting the industry. It is going to happen one way or another. Even Dischord, who has a great mail order market (thereby eliminating the record store and distribution mark up which in turn supports the industry) is also distributed through a company called Southern Studios, which is related to sony or some shit like that. Where's the line there that separates them from Rage Against the Machine who preaches about the evils of this system yet is signed to Epic? Both seem kinda misleading. And neither, in my opinion is actually bad. Mackaye and the Dischord family have only done great things in the independent world and RATM introduced an entire brainwashed, zombified MTV culture to the events leading up to the arrest and imprisonment of Leonard Peltier, something which I personally have strong feelings for. RATM is a rare example of a band whom I feel are truly using the majors with good intentions. (Ethan, rebuttal?) I'm not a big fan of the music but for this argument that is beside the point. And obviously MacKaye and Fugazi are people whom I hold in very high esteem. So if I understand the indie argument so far its the following - Majors are bad cause they are controlling pigs who only want to make money no matter how, where music and art is second (or lower) to just about everything. Indies are good for the same opposite reasons. Now we all know that this is not a perfect world so there may be instances of genuinely decent people in the majors and greedy bastards in the indies, so right there things begin to cloud. Indies who deal with majors are bad cause they are supporting the anti-creativity regimes by allowing them to make money off of the artists and musicians who really just want to make music and don't want to deal with pigs in suits telling them who will produce their next album. But some indies deal with other companies who deal with majors and thats OK? And not all indie musicians are that adamant about controling their art if it means they will be able to make more money. So here we see more points which blow the indie doctrine away. What now? ... continued next ish ------------------- ... Jeff McLeod, whose band Bert has one tape out and another recorded by our friend and yours steve albundy out soon (both of which completely rock) sends cambodia this from the dark side of band life. Their single from the latest recordings will be out soon and I suggest you all write to jeff and buy it ... When does being in a band cross over the fine line of being something you do for fun, for the love of it and for the end results--the music--and crash into the realm of becoming just another job in an endless line of downward-spiralling routines? A while back, I was talking with Steve Von Till of Neurosis during a time when they were being approached by some major labels. (Again, as I've touched on in a previous discussion in CAMBODIA--just what they saw in Neurosis is a big question of mine. Not to say that I don't like the band--quite the contrary . . . I think they're incredible--I just don't see how a major could hope to do the big business that they expect with artists with a band as frightening as Neurosis.) Steve expressed concerns over how the band had reached a point where they could work and still do what they loved, which was being in the band and putting on a large-scale, multi-media presentation of their artistic vision. He was troubled over whether or not that vision would remain pure if they began to make music under the roof of a "boss" who was paying the salary and the health insurance of of the band--and who would expect a "product" that wouldn't alienate the majority of the record-buying public. I don't know where Neurosis stands at the moment due to the setbacks on the recent tour-scrapping and death of a band-member's family member. I don't know all the details either, so I won't speculate. Could Neurosis pull off a jump to a major and do any better than they had been doing on Alternative Tentacles? Would they be any better off for any more than one or two albums? Would anyone? Some bands would not have to ultimately compromise artistic vision, integrity and style as much as Neurosis would in order to become a much more successful band, some might say. Some music doesn't bear compromise well, I think. Neurosis could not compromise that deep, dark apocalyptic stance enough, in my opinion, to become, say, the Ministry for an even more "evil-wannabe" generation of aggro/dance/techno punk/TV idiots. Wouldn't work too well. Some bands could get around this, though. What about The Jesus Lizard? Well, if they continue to make good albums in the tradition of Liar and all previous, they'll be OK. Maybe they think that they're getting old and need some sort of steady employment. More mpower to them . . . if they don't fall to pieces. I always thought, though, that they'd break up in exhaustion before becoming members of the major leagues. What about Girls Against Boys? they wouldn't have to change much at all to be more successful. They were sort of poised for that all along. They're not harsh or hard to stomach for any reason. They're a great band, with a fairly unique sound (and much better than The Fall, who they're always compared to by people who need that crutch). Just hope they don't turn into Winger or, for that matter, Michael Jackson. Hey, stranger things have happened! Ah . . . fuck it. Fuck all the people. Make your own noise and do it passionately. That's what matters. In my opinion, the uglier the better, but do it with life and vigor no matter what. Worry about selling records later. Be good. Be loud. Be proud of what you do or fucking forget it. Maybe I've just wandered away from the point. At least I'm writing and speaking about something. That's more than I can say for most wingnuts reading this right now. Right, Rockie? (ME - YES) SINcerely, Jeff McLeod 219 So. Capitol Pkwy. Montgomery, AL 36107 75321.2755@compuserve.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Necessary Guide to Travel in Europe by H8UAL@aol.com Having recently returned from an overseas vacation I felt it was my duty to write a short travel piece in the hopes of helping others to make the most out of their vacation time and dollar...and be able to handle the French. An important, but often overlooked skill is being able to steal hotel towels while on vacation. You must be careful, Europeans are extremely protective of their hotel towels and will question you at customs about them if found (see: Frank Zappa's Concert in Helsinki). The way to go is to take them from the maids carts as they are in the room cleaning, therefore making it impossible to track down where it went. If asked at customs insist that you purchased them through the hotel along with any robes, clothes hangers, televisions whatever. If caught speak French. The French ar notoriously annoying (see: anyone that has been to France) and you will usually be sent on your way before you can say "Je suis un plus grand canard." Definitely learn a few phrases in French no matter where you go. It will save you the trouble of appearing like an ugly American when you must be rude, push, shove, fold or spindle. Don't try to speak French to the French though...try broken english with an arabic accent throne in for good measure. Ask how to get back to the University or something and then pretend not to understand them for about twenty minutes. When you are traveling abroad and get low on money the sure fire way to line your pockets quickly is to play "tour guide." This entails you standing outside of an ancient monument and asking the people that walk by if they would like a guided tour of the site. Faking an accent is optional on this and prices vary for each group depending on the amount of jewelry they are wearing. Again it is important to look for the French as prime targets. The French can be easily spotted in a crowd. They are the people on vacation who don't look like they are having fun. Stay away from exploiting hippies, though they are plentiful throughout Europe and extremely gullible, due to the fact that they have very little money and need what they have to get to Amsterdam(see: any hippy). Once you have your tour group lined up ready to be led back into the wonders of history DON'T LET THEM DOWN. Watch their faces twist in awe and wonder as you stand in the courtyard of a sultans palace while explaining to your mealtickets that the sultan once had fifty members of his harem slain because he suspected that they had mated with martians. See how far out you can get. If someone chimes in about how they had heard something about the site that contradicts something you made up laugh condescendingly and tell them true scholars stopped believing that theory years ago. Shopping can be extremely nerve-wracking in the many bazaars found throughout Europe. In these places you must bargain to buy things at a reasonable price, and you are a fool to pay more than half of the original price quoted to you by the seller. He names a price, you refuse, you look like a cheap American tourist (unless you learned French like I told you to) you name another price, He refuses and looks insulted. You begin to wonder if you are just a cheap asshole. You say never mind and walk away as he looks at you like you just slowly tortured his dog to death. A good way around this is to make up your own bogus language, the more way out the better. Or just a walkman and a blank straight-ahead stare can also help. Once you enter a shop exclaim loudly to the salesman "You got five minutes, show me what you got," This may sound insane, but it will cut down on the forty-five minute banter required to get a good price on something. Remember, these shop owners have sale-by-guilt down to a science, many Americans have had to seek therapy after their vacations because of this. Why do you think they sell worry beads in every store? Another travel issue that must be tackled when going overseas is Airlines. NEVER fly Air Italia. I walk onto the plane out of the 90+ degree heat into a flying meat locker. After shivering in my seat I ask the stewardess for a blanket, "We don't have blankets," she replies. Soon the movie kicked in. Rob Roy, an extremely abrasive movie that contains rape, shootings, stabbings and torture sprinkled in between dreary dialog, helped to complete the mood. I might be getting whiney at this point but the simple things Americans take for granted, like ice in your drinks or having your seat bolted down to the floor of the plane, would be considered a luxury for your average Air Italia commuter. I am told the Italians are lovely people, but their ambassadors in the skies act like they are doing you a favor by ordering you into your seat. 'Air Italia--there is a little bit of Mussolini in every flight.' After reading this peice you may think that I am merely using this to pick on the French...I am. But only because I don't have the intellectual depth and proper breeding to understand a people that will forgive Woody Allen---But not Prince Charles. ---H8UAL@aol.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- REVIEWS, ETC BERT - Quiet Positive Pump Rage, torture, teeth grinding - recorded in chicago, sounding fine as usual, excellent movements through emotion and creative initiative. Find it, buy it. music with a reason and purpose. See Jeff's address above. CROWBAR - Time Heals Nothing The heaviest band in existence (sonically and physically) return with a third full length that crushes any and all competition. Some of the material gets a little more speedier than previous material, but the riffs knock walls in. LA GRITONA - Talent This shit is total Rock - the good kind. Hard, gritty music that doesn't come pre-packaged. ask for it by name cause they didn't include an address for their label called Vaya Con Discos. PO Box 991035 Boston, Ma 02199 might get it to you, tho. ------------------------ LiveReviews, BinaryScale 1=good, 0=bad Luna 0 Catherine Wheel 0 The Verve 0 Prick 1 Flaming Lips 1 Everclear 0 Soul Coughing 1 Helmet 1 Mule 1 Cruel, cruel moon 0 primitive 1 duvalby bros 1 dimbulb 1 philo beddow 1 appalacian death ride 1 glazed baby 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CRAW / GLAZED BABY september/october tour some of the shows are through indie promoters where the venue isn't solid yet fri 15 ypsi green room 16 chicago fireside 17 champaign/milwaukee (?) 18 madison okayz corral 19 minneapolis 400 club 20 omaha 21 kansas city fri 22 st. louis otherworld(?) 23 nashville lucy's 24 memphis baristers 25 knoxville mercury 26 chapel hill local 506 27 richmond 28 norfolk kings head inn fri 29 Baltimore club midnight 30 DC 930 1 philly 2 asbury park 3 NYC 4 providence 5 danbury fri 6 boston mideast w/ la gritona 7 old town, ME w/ la gritona 8 portsmouth, NH elvis room 9 portland, maine w/ la gritona 10 north hampton w/ la gritona 11 burlington (?) 12 montreal fri 13 ottawa 5 arlington 14 toronto rivoli 15 london embassy 16 buffalo 17 pittsburgh lucianas 18 youngstown pyatt st. pub 19 morgantown nyabinghi fri 20 athens union 21 kent ozzies ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Booking info for craw mail me or call 2164813769. booking info for morsel and hairy patt band call 5139610357 ask for lucia. booking info on JAKS call 3132131457 or 3132131280 --- rockie@neurosis.wariat.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Back Issues at FTP 141.214.4.135 under the directory /docs/choke. WWW stuff located at "http://kzsu.stanford.edu/uwi.html" under Shopping Maul ... Thanks Jon. -- Renewal. Americans are crazy about renewal. - R. M. Nixon