Joanna Newsom --- "Ys"
- Thread starter Ivan Polygon
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Similar band? Not really. Of all the odd, twisted, experimental, and heavy music on Skin Graft in the early 90s, Mount Shasta were one of the least interesting to me. Gravelly vocals, more straigthforward than their labelmates (at least when I saw them), not much dissonance or percussive work of interest. Shasta's lead singer/guitarist was John Forbes, who played in Dirt in the early 90s. I saw Dirt open for Tar and Jesus Lizard in late 1991, and found them rather dull as well, crap anti-rock hoarse-throated vocals with terribly uninteresting accompanying music (Tar and JL on the other hand . . . !).
To be honest, I never quite understood why Forbes' projects repeatedly fell within the skin graft/touch & go orbit (not that I heard enough of it to know, mind), but perhaps his bands were like the redneck cousin that people still let come over for holiday dinner. Lots of interesting trivia surrounding Shasta though. Wacko performance art savant vocalist from US Maple, Al Johnson, played guitar with Shasta after his band Shorty folded and before US Maple were up and running. Jesus Lizard drummer extraordinaire Mac McNeilly actually played bass in one of Forbes' pre-Shasta bands, called Phantom 309 (or so I am told) (Forbes and McNeilly were both from Atlanta). Incidentally, Skin Graft have revisited the concept of combining two bands in the mode of the Space Streakings + Mount Shasta collab album, with a new album by a group comprising Aids Wolf + Athletic Automaton. Audio for some of this stuff here.
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bassnation
the abyss
why don't you "try before you buy" and then experience it first hand?
Not to begrudge other peoples' enjoyment of it, but having given it a listen, its not for me. Could go into long slagging off of it. But won't, asides to say it fails to emotionally involve me, its choked with gross, uninteresting orchestrations which are overly fiddly and fail to serve the songs, and she sings over every bit, the overriding effect resembling consuming a meal entirely consisting of bon bons whilst watching a country and western musical, when you are highly allergic to bon bons... or something.... At least I now know what all the horrible music I enjoy sounds like to people who really, really don't like it!
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That was a neat summation
I've certainly had to exercise what little restraint I have.
yeah exactly. beyond that I just don't find her delivery or songwritting compelling in the least.
josephine fosters retelling of that german folk tale is an example of a great, dramatic folk albums released this year too which doesn't have those problems. of course, to each their own
D
dubversion
Guest
sorry for reviving this thread but..
was in RPM Records in newcastle at the weekend and decided to buy Ys - it has kinda won me over. The guy in there informed me that Drag City fucked up royally - they ran out of copies in early December (or maybe even earlier) and probably won't have any more till the end of January or so. Apparently didn't expect it to do so well.
So while Newsom tops or appears in all the end of year charts, and tours the UK, you can't buy the bloody album.
dumb
was in RPM Records in newcastle at the weekend and decided to buy Ys - it has kinda won me over. The guy in there informed me that Drag City fucked up royally - they ran out of copies in early December (or maybe even earlier) and probably won't have any more till the end of January or so. Apparently didn't expect it to do so well.
So while Newsom tops or appears in all the end of year charts, and tours the UK, you can't buy the bloody album.
dumb
k-punk
Spectres of Mark
... in the voice of Lisa Simpson... Any lingering interest I had was terminated with extreme prejudice by the photographs accompanying the Wire feature (this happens a lot with The Wire, which seems to go out of its way to use delibidinizing face shots - Current 93 rendered completely unlistenable by the Wire pics a few months' back): smugness personified...
You lost interest in a record, in the actual music, because of a photo shoot that was organized, staged, shot, edited, laid out, formatted, and printed by people at a magazine?
UFO over easy
online mahjong
I said the same thing as k-punk on subvert central and you responded in the same way. Why does it surprise you that when people actively dislike a person and the way they present themselves, they find it difficult to appreciate the music they make? The excuse that it was all orchestrated by the wire doesn't make any sense - it's not like Ms. Newsom was forced to act against her will; this is how she presents herself, not how other people portray her. Although she didn't write the article or take the photos, they are still photos of her, and most of the text is her actual speech.
Yes, of course I remember. And why would I respond any differently?
Oh I have no difficulty understanding that there are people who "find it difficult to appreciate the music" made by someone whose presentation they don't care for, as the evidence for such objections is ample. But that will not prevent me from offering the opinion that I think such dismissals are uninteresting from the point of view of the music itself. As for the bit about "actively disliking a person," well, that's between you and the musicians you "actively dislike"!
I personally don't see anything objectionable about the four pictures of Joanna Newsome in the Wire. They are pictures, who cares? K-Punk mentioned "smugness," though it wasn't clear to me whether he meant JN, and Current 93, or the Wire itself, or what, so I didn't respond to that. Maybe the photos will look corny to readers -- okay, yes, I certainly understand why -- but as I've indicated, I really couldn't care less about the photos (the one on p.45 looks a bit goofy) and they certainly would not prevent me from listening to a record that has been lauded by Simon Silverdollar, Woebot, Simon R, Logos, and numerous others whose opinions I value (many others also dislike the record, of course, including Penman and Carlin, who have been very vocal as to why).
Incidentally, pointing out that the photos were organized by someone hoping to sell magazines was not an "excuse" on my part, as I saw no need to excuse her, it was a comment on what for me was a weird approach to commenting on music, i.e., reading off personality traits such as "smugness" from magazine pictures and then deciding that a record is not worth hearing. In your case, UFO, I know that you also objected to her for other reasons, both musical ones and because you found her to be "stupid" in the interview. Fair enough, to each his own.
noel emits
a wonderful wooden reason
I haven't heard the record yet but I don't find pictures of Ms Newsom particularly delibidinizing, quite the opposite in fact.
Wahay! Sorry
Wahay! Sorry
k-punk
Spectres of Mark
It's all about the punctuation - the remarks about the Wire in general* and about Current 93 were contained within parentheses, clearly indicating that 'smugness personified' referred to what Carl Impostume called the 'punchable' Newsom.
I don't see what the problem is in being put off by pictures. If magazine coverage promotes groups it would be surprising if it didn't also on occasion have the opposite effect.
My objections to the music were admirably summarised by Gek, hence my quoting of his observations.
* The wire's almost wilfully boring biographical and facializing approach is another interesting topic though. They tried to use face pictures of Kode9 in their Invisible Jukebox feature last year and only backed down when he protested very vigorously.
There's nearly always too much biographical chatter, too many dry run-throughs of a particular artist's back catalogue and interminable side-projects. The lack of analysis and evocative writing in the features (with a few exceptions- ie: Reynolds and Stelfox of late) is a crippling lack, for such an avowedly "cutting edge" magazine, indeed the paucity of ideas is stultifying. Though of course they would probably argue that there is more than enough of this kind of thing on the net, but there is no reason why it ought not also have a place in the magazine.
I haven't heard the record yet but I don't find pictures of Ms Newsom particularly delibidinizing, quite the opposite in fact.
Wahay! Sorry
I think Penman might have alluded to the "guilelessly fuckable" quality of Ms Newsom and the libidinizing effect it has undoubtedly had on male critics of a certain age...
N
nomadologist
Guest
hahahahah this is a good analogy. for me it's like listening to a fox in heat get beaten to death with a violin by someone wearing an Olde Thymey costume who looks like she has a slight case of Downs Syndrome and once looked up the word "hydrocephalus" just to abuse in her poetry.
but everyone else likes it and if you don't they put you in the "haters" camp and say "i know no one like you would like this." which they don't understand is the biggest compliment you've received all year.
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Leo
Well-known member
oooohh, c'mon, a bit overboard there! and i like how you are careful not to slag the couple of writers who might occasionally stop in here. ;-)
yeah, agreed that they aren't prefect, but there's still plenty of insightful commentary and critique in each issue, oftentimes on artists i know nothing about and subsequently explore.