Sinister: A Sea of Dr. Pepper, Fraggles, and Stuart Murdoch demos

[Mick McMick * Sandcastle Records]

Hello there,
	I just had to bring Ailsa's wonderful metaphor to your attention one
more time (and put something about the demos in there too, since I talk
about them later on...). Let's all take just a minute to picture what a
sea of Dr. Pepper and Fraggles would be like. Gobo, Wimbley, Red, Mokey,
all of them soggy and plummy and sticky. There, wasn't that nice?
	Anyway, in response to Eliot New's question about Stuart Murdoch's
previous bands, since everyone else seems to enjoy being tight-lipped
about it, I'll say a thing or two. I'm not sure just exactly whether or
not he was in any bands per se, but he had recorded several demos all on
his lonesome. Legend and my friend Brendan have it that he toodled about
the US, and jammed with some of Brendan's Portland-based friends. The
truth of that matter has been lost in the mists of time and indie cred.
	Basically, unless someone is willing to burglarize Jeepster HQ and dig
through their tapes, all we know is that anyone who has or had the demos
must be sworn to secrecy, or really greedy. Probably the former. A few
tracks did poke their heads out of obscurity and find their way into the
hands of a number of fans. Rumor has it that Messr. Murdoch was not
pleased. Strange, though, they're great songs. I definately prefer them
to a select few B&S songs that don't hold my fancy.
	Oh wait! Just as I was about to hit 'send' here comes a discussion...

elle wrote (regarding B&S)
> We shouldn't dare to question the business decisions they make,
> how is that any of our business?  I am just wondering.

	Well, it's our business because we put down our hard or hardly-earned
cash to buy those recordings. I'm not saying I don't agree with most of
the the things B&S do, but Jeepster is another matter. If they started
charging 40 pounds (I can't make the little L thingee come up) for their
albums, don't you think we'd have a right to criticize? I mean, we have
a right to criticize *anything* don't we? Free speech and all that.
Sure, they don't have to listen, but we don't have to stifle ourselves
either. The same goes with, say, carrots. Maybe people find out that
insecticides sprayed on the orange tubers was ruining the local
environment. We have a right to publicly criticize that/those carrot
farmer(s), and we also have a right to boycott them because of that. 
	Now, I think that albums and carrots are as different as...well albums
and carrots. But in this society they are both commodities, and as
consumers we have a right to treat them as such. Or at least that's what
I think. As soon as they start making art free for everyone I'll stop
criticizing business practices (mainly because there won't be any).
	Also, I may be wrong but I don't think Tim Hopkins was insisting B&S
were in it for the money, but rather that the Flaming Lips were. I could
be wrong, there's a lot of quoting going on there.
 
 /"\_/"\_/"\  Brian Pennington, a.k.a. Mick McMick; Sandcastle Records
 \         /  bp224996 at ohiou.edu                           ICQ#5056758
  |       |   Sandcastle Recs Homepage:  http://www.frognet.net/~mick/
  |       |   "I am always wishing to make people   
  |       |       in the world happy with my smiles."  
  |       |           -Mr. Friendly
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