Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 23:20:11 -0400 From: "cholera" <rockie@neurosis.wariat.org> CAMBODIA : A ZINE FOR PEOPLE WHO FIND MUSIC TOO SLOW VOL 1 #8 Welcome to Cambodia. CONTENTS Art is not a Game Reviews, etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- My little project Cleveland Independent Hardware Systems is finally up in its infancy, (i.e. still has some errors) expect more in the near future - ---> HTTP://WWW.APK.NET/CIHS/ - enjoy. -choke, inc., our label for 2 1/2 years folded a few weeks back due to personal differences between to two owners. They have parted ways and one will be continuing a distribution company. however this does mean that we are looking for a little financial support. Interested parties/labels can contact me here. -craw pulled off a pretty damn good first show with the new drummer after only 8 rehearsals with him. can't wait to hear the results after the upcoming 5 week tour. -would like to thank those who have taken the time to send me opinions of what i got going here, both positive and negative. full-on support and constructive criticism keeps me interested also. -I will be on the road til oct 21 so I won't be able to return mail til then. If you want to call me for booking go ahead cause my roommate will forward messages to me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ART IS NOT A GAME This month is rant free from my end since quite a few people have taken up the ball and contributed. here's a few - ----------------- Last month I went for a hail mary and fumbled at the goal line. Special thanks to John Loder at Southern Studios for correcting me ... here it is - Hello Thanks for sending this latest issue. I'm a great believer in people speaking their mind and I do agree with a lot of the sentiments expressed in your article... but southern isnt related/owned or otherwise connected to Sony I'm not going to explain the relationship between southern and dischord except to say that it has been a good relationship for years and will continue to be so. But I'd like to say that the 'Sony' thing arose from the fact that one of the distributors that sold Dischord Records in the US got bought by Sony and for one reason or another are no longer selling Dischord Records I think the 'line the separates' is best found by knowing whats going on in the heads of the people involved - which is a tough thing to find out however well you research for your writing. I have no problem with Record Stores *or* distributors. They exist because there are people who *do* want to browse around and find stuff. As long as there is an alternative like Dischords mail order then people have a choice. And then the record prices stay reasonable. John at Southern -------------------- Also special thanks this month rose from the poster children who has contributed the very excellent following - Dear Rockie and Cambodia Readers, I have been loathe to do this, because I know that just merely "stating my case" about how our band functions on a major label will only leave me open to a bunch of people writing to me things I already know, like "a person shouldn't be paid to make art" and "It is incorrect to make money doing something you love" and "anyone on a major label is a sellout." And worst of all, "NO one on a major label is worth listening to, anyway." I know all the stupid arguments because I lived them for many years. (I still sort of believe that last argument, unfortunately.) And now I'm on a major label and have had quite a different experience on it than I thought I'd have. I also run an indie label (12Inch Records- yes, we put out the first 2 HUM records, and yes, we asked for NO $$ when they signed to RCA.) and I see that side of it, too. I really don't want to defend major labels, or indie labels. Both exist to sell records. Some put more emphasis on the selling, others on the signing, and both types belong to both categories. (Believe it or not, just as there is a hierarchy of respect among inmates in a jail, so is there among the Major labels.) I'm going to try to state exactly what we've done in the past 8 years, and just let people read it. I certainly don't feel a need to defend my band. If people have any questions, they can email me, come see us play, or best, read our web page, which we constantly update as we tour. Many people seem to enjoy our tour reports, too, and maybe they lend some insight into how it is to tour - yes, we still tour in a van, no roadies, no tour support, no tour manager, we still sleep on floors a lot (except for the other night when we couldn't find a place, we slept in our van at a rest area). _TWIN/TONE_ Before we ever considered signing to a major label, we were on Twin/Tone, an "indie" from Minneapolis, which was distributed by the famous "Rough Trade," at the time. Our second record, "Daisy Chain Reaction" came out on Twin/Tone. (The first was on "Limited Potential" in Chicago.) We recorded "Daisy Chain Reaction" with Steve Albini, and he spent many hours lecturing to us about major labels and how they can screw you over. This is brilliant advice that we still live by, to this day. When we brought our artwork to Twin/Tone, they told us we couldn't use it. They hired an artist to "help" us with (read: "DO") our artwork. They also "helped" us rearrange the song order. We were not allowed to do these things ourselves. This is the famous, "Indie" Twin/Tone. Just so you know. A year after DCR came out, we realized that we were going to have to leave Twin/Tone. Their distributor, "Rough Trade," had just collapsed, and NOBODY could find our records anywhere; New York, LA, anywhere. We were on tour. It is really terrible to be on tour and have people coming up to you everywhere, telling you they can't get your records anywhere. When we confronted Twin/Tone with this problem, they informed us: 'We figure we will sell a total of 10,000 of your record. We don't care if we sell them this year, or over the next 10 years. We are a catalog label.' _WHY DID WE SIGN TO A MAJOR?_ We didn't want to be a catalog band. We wanted people to be able to find our records if they wanted them. Unfortunately, due to a contract, we owed T/T 2 more records, and they wanted $60,000 for us to get out of their contract. That pretty much meant we had to sign to a major. This is how some indies make money: they sign bands, piss them off, and then sell them, if they don't drive the band to break up. We weren't going to break up; we love making music too much. So after talking to about 14 different labels, major and indie, we decided upon signing with Sire/Reprise/Warner Brothers, because we figured a label that had My Bloody Valentine, the Talking Heads, and Dinosaur Jr. would allow us to make our own music, and stay out of our way. This is what they have done. No one has ever said so much as ONE WORD to us, to shape our music, our touring, our artwork. It is crazy. During our making of "Tool Of The Man," we recorded with who we wanted to record with, our A&R guy came by once, for about a half a day, just to hear what we'd done. The only advice we got during the making of the 2nd record, "Junior Citizen" was this: I wasn't sure if I could do the artwork so we asked the label if we should hire someone - their advice was this: "You guys should do your OWN artwork. You will do it better than anyone else, and you'll like it more." (And we got paid to do it, too; money that is allotted for cover art, and is non-recoupable. We spent it on software to help us create more artwork.) We have complete control over every aspect of our band on Reprise. It is possibly because we've already put out records, so they knew what they were getting, or maybe it's because we don't take tour support. Or they are just a good label; an artist-oriented label. We are certainly a lot happier on Reprise than we were on Twin/Tone. Steve Albini warns of all sorts of dangers of record labels, and we heed his warnings. We do NOT take any tour-support. We still have the same booking agent as we did when we first started. The label never forces us to do anything; sometimes they'll ask us if we want to do certain things, but we usually refuse, and they always understand. There is never any pressure to do ANYTHING. This is OUR experience on THIS label. We are free to do whatever we want, and they're still giving us money to make records. I know this record label exists to put out records, and I know they are proud of certain bands they have. I know the new president of Reprise (Howie Klein) and all I can say is that he is a very, very special man. There are only a couple of people that I really respect in relation to the music industry. Ian Mackaye is one, and Howie Klein is another. _NOW THAT WE'RE "RICH"_ As far as our money is concerned, I made exactly 3 times as much as a computer programmer, before I quit to tour full-time (WAY before we ever dreamt of signing to a major). Since I live in Champaign IL, pay $200/month rent, I can live off of the money we make from our touring. We've been touring for almost 6 years, so we make enough to survive, and touring as we do, without support or roadies or lots of motel rooms makes it very easy to come back with money. We never live outside our means. If and when the label drops us, our lives won't change. There is so much more I can say and if people have any questions, they should feel free to email me, or read some of our tour reports, or come see us play live, and talk to us. We'll be the ones selling our t-shirts and CDs. =rose (posterkids@prairienet.org) http://www.prairienet.org/posterkids/ -------------------- And our friend ethan from rochester does indeed have rebutal from last months issue - it goes like this: how many kids who sport ratm gear know who che actually is? i recently attended the "warped" tour featuring L7, quicksand, and the like (don't ask me why). after i watched sick of it all destroy the song "betray" by minor threat (and, by the way, i really really hate soia for doing things like spending a third of a 45 minute set preaching unity and respect in the scene when, in their last video, they identify each "sub society" in the scene and go out of their way to make fun of emo-boys. hypocrisy everywhere i tell you) they began to play the ratm album. everyone chimed in. do you know what i saw? a thousand kids all chanting "fuck you i won't do what you tell me" a thousand kids, middle finger in the air, all saying, "i don't care what you say, i'm taking the car tonight mom." i don't know. maybe ratm did try to educate kids, maybe they do deserve a little credit. but goddamn, how can they make t shirts that say "we have determined your whole system sucks" when most of the profit from their million or so cds sold went to said system. maybe it's not worth trying to educate the average kid. maybe my four years in high school taught me that only one thing can motivate the average kid... short term pleasure. whether it's in the sense of a high, looking cool, or an orgasm, few kids could look past their desires. and every kid i knew in high school who did have an interest in doing anything towards a common good has ended up spending more time crying or yelling then organizing because the average kid doesn't want to get organized. it's like the huge earth day celebration/ farce about six years ago... the optimistic core who still have hopes of saving life seemed to weep with joy at how many people showed up to the events, at how many people watched the television specials. but the next day, how many people threw away their newspaper? how many drove when they could've walked? how many forgot about the pledges, petitions they signed? a vast majority is interested only in the short term. so, right, my grand conclusion is mostly that musically, a quality that i look for is one of dissatisfaction with the way things are, and i have very little respect for any major label band that acts dissatisfied while they support the forces that nurture injustice. oh, and i mostly have little faith in people. on the other hand, i find myself continually impressed at the dedication of independence, and the individuals involved. anyone who's ever seen a show at the euclid tavern knows that derek hess could never be thanked enough for the work he's done for the place. i mean, what could be more inspiring then seeing derek on his tiptoes, both arms stretched above his head just so that david yow could go wherever he wanted without worrying about the mic getting unplugged. we all know that fugazi has never played a paying show in d.c., that they only play benefits there, but last march, when a demonstration by antioch students in colombus resulted in tear gas and arrests, five small, struggling, midwest bands were able to play that week in a benefit for the students' bail fund. i figure whatever happens i will always be continually amazed at the ardor of people within punk rock. -- so right, i guess i fell off topic but it's all within the scope of the discussion, or at least i think so. do with it what you will. talk to you soon. ethan ---------------------- My friend jill heath from toronto has the following counterpoints to the welfare/comfort/money arguement I presented in issue 7. > 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. JILL-- Welfare does not breed laziness. There will always be those who will do as little work as possible and just get by, squeak by, whatever. This exists in the workplace, ESPECIALLY in the workplace, and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with how much one is earning. > There is no initiative to go and find a job and whatnot. JILL--Initiative exists or not, as the case may be. Isn't necessarily bound to being on welfare or not. One does need some kind of breathing space to effectively job hunt, much of the time. i.e. Can't be at work earning money while out having a round of job interviews on a given afternoon. See what I mean? > This then is base for much of the crime in lower class areas around > the country. JILL--Rubbish. There are plenty of poor people who do not steal, whether they are on welfare or not. Base for crime in lower class areas? It's easier to get away with there, I think, a reflection of a number of things. Can get a lot more at one fell swoop (gotta love those expensive stereos and tvs and computers) but access is more restricted. i.e. Visibility in a rich neighbourhood--you don't look the part, neither does your getaway vehicle, especially if it's your feet; more frequent patrols by cops as this is likely not a neighbourhood which is not a 'no-go' zone, a combat strip by night. > The pseudo comfort which the welfare program offers in > turn takes away from the drive to produce anything of value. Rubbish. Read A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf [sp?] or Writing A Woman's Life by Carolyn G. Heilbrun. Read a biography of Colette. Ditto for Flannery O'Connors [sp?]--Wiseblood, A Good Man Is Hard To Find, Everything That Rises Must Converge, etc. Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish. A life lived mentally and physically exhausted is what grinds some down and extinguishes the drive to produce, to create. And check out exactly where that 'pseudo comfort' is relative to the poverty line. They are not strangers, they are quite often neighbours which change places. > 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. JILL--(whoops, forgot to do that last time). Never mind a dead husband. Try deadbeat. Any idea how many single moms there are on this continent? Count how many of your friends were raised in a 'nuclear' family (oh, sorry, a 'normal' family). Run out of the fingers on one hand yet? > Similarly there are parallels showing up when disecting the > indie to major moves happening today. ... long rant on how lack of money and fighting the power fuels creativity ... JILL--I spot a certin dichotomy here. Does this inhibit your growth or fuel your creative drive? If it does one, and then the other, where's the balance point? At what point does all this wonderful adversary just grind you down? Yeah, yeah, I know, enough with the heroic quotes already. "That which does not kill me makes me stronger"--Nietzche. [sp?] Yawn. There's an undeniable amount of lagtime whilst you are figuring whether it's going to kill you or not. You don't get much work of the creative variety done while undergoing that kind of stress, possibly. > Take away that life and introduce the artist into a comfortable > atmosphere wheresomeone 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., JILL--How about just LESSENING of, rather than outright removal? Throw a kid into this equation, too, and that changes everything as well. Someone taking care of your basic living expenses frees you up to do a lot of things. > dry up most once-indie bands with few > exceptions - JILL--Not everyone gets signed for a grotesque amount of money and not everyone signs deals that have them at a complete disadvantage. Husker Du could have been signed a few albums earlier, if they'd wanted to jump at the first offer that was dangled. Or even the first few offers. And where does a label like Ryko Disc fit into this equation? > As far as I can tell it is ridiculous being completely indie > and still believing that you are not supporting the industry. JILL--Of course if one were really and truly punk, one would not even want to sell one's records, but rather give them away. Or get out of music entirely, of the ilk that causes one to swim in the cesspool. Some people just like playing music and do it as a hobby, not as the entirety of their existence. Where do these folks fit in? > 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. JILL--Hear, hear. Using bad for good? > RATM is a rare example of a band whom I feel are truly using the majors > with good intentions. JILL--that being said... discuss the validity of playing at a schmoozefest set up by and for your lovely label and then being all 'punk' and flipping that audience off (literally). Yes, that happened at a Sony conference while RATM were playing. Explain that phenomena. Ohm never mind, I can field that one--nobody's perfect, your next point. ******** Brief Rebuttal I still hold onto the welfare laziness theory - understanding, however that this is really only talking about a certain percentage of welfare recipients - given the fact that you are basically given free money, for some where is the incentive to go out and get a real job? And therefore in parallel, although money given to you by a large label frees you up to do things like create more music (akin to allowing a large number of people who REALLY need welfare to take care of their children, etc.) it also takes away from harder living scenarios which may directly affect the quality of work produced by such artists who have proven beforehand that they are capable of excellent art. - Rockie ********* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- REVIEWS, ETC KING CRIMSON -THRAK: If King Crimson's VROOOM ep was only a "calling card" (as Robert Fripp defined it in the liner notes) for what the double trio incarnation of this band was capable of, then THRAK is that card's beast of business come a' calling. THRAK has that fine balance between delicacy and bombast--that King Crimson has always been so adept at-- taken to new and soncically challenging heights. Everything that was rhythmic and intricate about the final King Crimson lineup from the DISCIPLINE, BEAT and THREE OF A PERFECT PAIR era is here in magnified and refined detail . . . along with the dark, antagonisitic heaviness found on the earlier RED recording. Between two guitarists, two stick/bass players and two drummers--al at the sharpest point on the cutting edge of the musical blade--THRAK is ripe with ideas and lush, complex musical interplay . King Crimson remains, as they have consisitently through their long and amazing history, far ahead of any contemporaries (most of whom have let themselves become comfortable with a sickly dinosaur status). Fripp has never been content without constant change and redefinition of what King Crimson is all about. Thank your gods for that. (Discipline Global Mobile/Virgin Records) Jeff McLeod, THE SUBVERSIVE WORKSHOP NEWSLETTER, 219 So. Capitol Pkwy., Montgomery, AL 36107 e-mail: 75321.2755@compuserve.com ENGINE KID - ANGEL WINGS: This recording is even more accomplished than 1993's BEAR CATCHING FISH--a massive flexing of feedback-ridden musical muscles. ANGEL WINGS' advantage over that release lies in its use of extreme dynamics. Sure, Steve Albini captured that in excess on the earlier full-length, but ANGLE WINGS truly spans the spectrum of what a band can do with total control over somber, quiet moments and sheer soul-crushing riots of chaos and nearly outrageous force. Monstrous guitar riffs and assaults of mile-high distortion are ultimately what it's all about. Engine Kid's music is raw, yet refined. Polished, yet brutal. Fresh, yet still threatening. Strong, strong stuff. (Revelation Records, P.O. Box 5232, Huntington Beach, CA 92615-5232) Jeff McLeod, THE SUBVERSIVE WORKSHOP NEWSLETTER, 219 So. Capitol Pkwy., Montgomery, AL 36107 e-mail: 75321.2755@compuserve.com -------------------- LiveReviews, BinaryScale 1=good, 0=bad The Jesus Lizard 1 Season to Risk 1 Dimbulb 1 Cathouse 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- craw/glazed baby tour sept fri 15 ypsi green room 16 chicago fireside 17 18 madison okayz corral 19 minneapolis 400 club 20 omaha cog factory 21 kansas city graffiti cafe fri 22 columbia radio station 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 long island (?) oct 1 philly attic 2 asbury park the saint 3 NYC coney island high 4 providence met cafe 5 fri 6 boston mideast 7 old town, ME heavies 8 wooster espresso bar 9 portland, maine zoots 10 11 montreal 12 montreal fri 13 ottawa 5 arlington 14 toronto rivoli 15 london embassy 16 buffalo asbury alley 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. --- rockie@neurosis.wariat.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Back Issues "http://www.apk.net/cihs/verbal/camb/cambodia.html" and "http://kzsu.stanford.edu/uwi.html" under Shopping Maul ... Thanks Jon. -- Renewal. Americans are crazy about renewal. - R. M. Nixon