Sinister: Blind love and devotion

[Tag]

On Mon, 5 Jan 1998 11:16:34 -0000, Tim wrote:

>	Mark wrote:
>
>	>Maybe you'd be happy if they recorded the next LP by placing a
>walkman in
>	>the corner of a big room instead of spending a few days in a
>'professional'
>	>(oh my god!..) studio and using 'professional (here we go again...)
>	>equipment with a 'professional' engineer. 
>
>	For my part, I'd be happy if it sounded good:-). Some of my very
>fave records ever are recorded on what you, no doubt, would consider
>dreadful equipment. So who cares?

Tim's right - it doesn't fucking matter.  I would rather have a rough
diamond than a slickly polished turd any day of the week, just as I'd
rather listen to a band who can play three chords with passion and
beauty than a bloated fretwanking muso with a wallet for a heart.

>	>And then they could release it on
>	>cassette only without bothering to master it because they've got
>lives to
>	>lead and they just do things for themselves

What on earth are you talking about?  This sort of reactionary
argument really pisses me off.  No-one wants them to sound shit, I
just think you can sound great without being slick.

>- fuck the people who
>funded it
>	>by buying the last record.

>	Now I'm starting to get worried...Belle and Sebastian should do
>exactly what they feel like doing. If a tape only release is what they
>wanted, for whatever reason, then they should get right on with it. Although
>Belle and Sebastian obviously operate within a commercial medium, it's
>important to remember that this is art...they must do it for themselves! If
>not, who are they doing it for? For some nameless public who 'deserve' a
>'service'? 
>
>	As for 'fuck the people who funded it by buying the last record',
>those people bought the last record because they wanted a copy of the last
>record. We were not making a long-term investment in the career of a band.
>If we don't like the next record, we don't buy the next record. Where's the
>problem? Why is that 'fucking' those who bought the last one?

This attitude of 'deserving a service' is absurd...if you didn't like
the gigs fair enough, you've a right to that, write to them and tell
them, write to your fucking MP if it makes you happy, and then get
over it.  I certainly hope you'll have the courage of your convictions
and not go next time, if you feel you were conned.  For my part, I
enjoyed the gigs, and will go and see them again.  It is not, as I
said 'blind love', they excite me, they move me and I like that, it's
pretty fucking simple.  I left behind sycophophantically hanging on a
band's every word a long time ago - I certainly won't put up with any
old crap just cos it's 'them'.  If they make a shit record, I won't
buy it, if they play a bad gig, I'll at least think twice about seeing
them again.  They haven't disappointed me yet, and long may that
continue.  You try and please fans before being true to yourselves and
nine times out of ten you please no-one.

>	I hate it when folk in the music industry apply some kind of moral
>pressure for a band to be 'good', which inevitably equates with
>'professional'. And the same people seem to get cross when a band does
>something which seems to sit unhappily with a standard music industry career
>path.
>	The whole point with taking chances and doing things differently is
>that the results are going to be a little variable. Doing the unexpected
>inevitably means that someone won't like the result. 

Exactly.

>	>Duke, I think you'll find yourself in a minority here. Sorry mate

Apparently not.

Love Tag
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