Reason why Chapel Hill never became a "Seattle"
james howard
No majorly famous indie band has ever came from here.
Just a lot of semi-regionally famous ones, but never anything
on the fame level of a pearl jam, or a nirvana, or a STP, or
hell, anything.
We may think Dillon Fence and Superchunk and Dave Matthews are
famous, but they aren't.
Can someone tell me a single band from Chapel Hill that your
average radio listener say 2000 miles away from here would
recognize?
-James
J Keith Weston
--there's a dead skunk in the middle of the road, stinking to high
heaven...etc...
Loudon has about 22 albums, many of them quite good, some are real
stinkers, though. He has a very cynical sense of humor and a bleak
outlook. He was featured in a few M*A*S*H episodes and appears a few
times a year on NPR's Morning Editon to do political satire in song. His
most recent live album is worth checking out. There is a vicious
evalutation of Bob Dylan called "Talking New Bob Dylan" on his "History"
album...it's snide, learing and throws not a few jabs at Dylan, quiet
perceptive and uses the Guthrie/Dylan frame of "Talking Blues" to insert
the knife.
Pierce, on the other hand, played regularly in this area at bars and
coffee shopes and Pyewackett in the 80s before going national with a few
Windham Hill releases...
--
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% %
% "I have heard the mermaids singing each to each. I do not think they %
% will sing to me" --from "Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot %
J Keith Weston
1. James Taylor
2. Loudon Wainwright III (actually didn't live here long)
3. Pierce Pettis (fairly well known in the singer-songwriter community)
--those are about the only 3 performers I can think of that would be
"known" widely outside of the region by the average "joe" or "joesephine".
Keith Weston
Also, I might add: Elisabeth Cotten
james howard
J Keith Weston <jkwe...@email.unc.edu> wrote:
>Famours "bands"/"performers" from Chapel Hill:
>
>1. James Taylor
>2. Loudon Wainwright III (actually didn't live here long)
>3. Pierce Pettis (fairly well known in the singer-songwriter community)
First one is a pretty good one, I had almost forgotten him. But
he certainly doesn't fall inside the realm of indie rocker..
The second two, I've never heard of, and I live *in* Chapel Hill.
-James
Butman, Holly
>In article <3d73vm$21...@bigblue.oit.unc.edu>,
>J Keith Weston <jkwe...@email.unc.edu> wrote:
>>Famours "bands"/"performers" from Chapel Hill:
>>
>>1. James Taylor
>>2. Loudon Wainwright III (actually didn't live here long)
>>3. Pierce Pettis (fairly well known in the singer-songwriter community)
Hmmm...maybe we could add Yaggfu Front? I really don't know what kind of a
splash they've made in the nat'l hip hop community, though. And I guess
they aren't from Chapel Hill proper. From Durham, one could add Clyde
McPhatter, Rev. Gary Davis (for a little while), Blind Boy Fuller....the
latter 2 being questionable in terms of widespread recognition.
Holly
lisa linn
Robert W. Northcott
>
>1. James Taylor
>2. Loudon Wainwright III (actually didn't live here long)
>3. Pierce Pettis (fairly well known in the singer-songwriter community)
>
>--those are about the only 3 performers I can think of that would be
>"known" widely outside of the region by the average "joe" or "joesephine".
George Hamilton IV "The Ambassador of Country Music" and his son Hege V.
I bet just as many people around the country know Mike Cross as know Piere
Pettis. Cross has pockets of fans all over the US.
Livingston Taylor is as famous as Pettis too so you have to count him.
Dav Coleman
small town outside of charlotte. pretty much a morrisville to raleigh
type of thing i think.
Todd Morman
>Seattle is a huge metropolitan area - ala Detroit scene early 70s,LA
>powerpop and punk scenes etc. Chapel-hill-raleigh-durham is a smaller
>scale thing, reminding me more of Austin, Athens or Minneapolis
>type communities. Besides, you should 'wait until the movie's over before
>you leave the theater.'
Yeah. I mean, for a town with, what, half a million? a million? less
people than Seattle, Chapel Hill does just fine, thank you.
todd or is it two million morman
Nate Florin!
> Actually, now that I think about it, it's pretty obvious.
>
> No majorly famous indie band has ever came from here.
>
> Just a lot of semi-regionally famous ones, but never anything
> on the fame level of a pearl jam, or a nirvana, or a STP, or
> hell, anything.
>
> We may think Dillon Fence and Superchunk and Dave Matthews are
> famous, but they aren't.
If you want to talk "indie" bands. then Superchunk are probably the
biggest in the world, save maybe Fugazi. And Pavement, if you want to call
them an indie band. And maybe Sebadoh. But you get the idea.
Pearl Jam, Nirvana, STP, and friends simply are a different thing than
indie bands. If you ask an indie rocker anywhere in the world, he will
have heard of Superchunk. Anywhere. Option has derided "endless Superchunk
clones in America's heartland" in its reviews. They've been in or
mentioned in Sassy five times (that I've seen). A friend of an associate
of mine bought "No Pocky for Kitty" in Vienna, for goodness sakes.
2000 miles away is probably Denver. I assure you all, they are huge in
Denver. Gigantic. I have my finger on Denver's pulse.
But it is impossible, in our day of mass-marketing, to be an indie band
and be truly famous, like say Pearl Jam or Dee Dee Meyers, at the same
time. Can't happen. So Superchunk ain't famous in the world at large.
And also, "C. Von Speck" is Jeff Robins making fun of Messr Speck. Says so
in the header.
What I think is really weird is a band like Small, who are probably bigger
out of town than they are in it.
Chapel Hill has more indie famous bands per capita than any other city in
the nation. Easily. By a factor of ten.
Nate Florin nfl...@med.unc.edu
spo...@email.unc.edu
muci...@unity.ncsu.edu
indie rockers--who in the past made up a tiny, esoteric minority, but who
now make up a much larger minority--Superchunk, mac McCaughan, and Merge
records are amongst the top twenty or so most well-known entities.
For proof, one need look no further than a random sampling of national
music magazines over the past few months.
to wit:
Spin Magazine, Dec. 1994:
page 78: 20 best albums of '94: #11: Superchunk, "foolish", with nice
blurb by chuck aaron, the best writer spin as at moment
page 112: "Live!" review of solo Mac McCaughan show @ Maxwell's in Hoboken
p 109: review of new Lambchop LP, Merge records
p 78 (again): Magnetic Fields "charm of the highway strip" (merge) #18 of
the top 20. if you're counting, that makes 2 merge releases in top 20 of
94--a distinction shared by only major labels like DGC, Mercury, Warners,
and MCA.
Option Magazine, Nov/Dec 1994:
p 76: Mac McCaughan/Portastatic featured relatively prominently (two
pictures) in article on Low-fi, one of only a half-dozen so featured.
p 136: review of Polvo's "celebrate the new dark age" (damn option take
their time, eh) on Merge, of course
If I weren't sick with body cold, I'd dig thru some others.
Point is that you can't compare the current scene, Keith, Bob, with
anything you've seen before because the face of the whole thing has
changed--the lines of communication are wider, and while the vast
majority of Americans do *not* know who Superchunk are, a sizeable,
well-organized minority *do*.
did I mention that "superchunk" was runner-up name for a new element in
an NPR contest?
So I say that nate's estimation of Superchunk/Merge axis as one of the
most well-known aggressively indie bands/labels in country, second
perhaps only to Fugazi, is dead on, *among those who care about such things*.
I'm sure that Garth Brooks is pretty well known among those who care
about whatever he's into. compared to world population, the 4 million or
so people who buy Garth's records vs the 40,000 who buy Superchunk's are
not that far apart.
All depends on who you ask.
There will never *be* a next seattle. Indie rock *is* the "next seattle."
regionalism has been exhausted--Seattle was just an anomaly, a place with
a dozen sound-similar bands. big deal.
rock on, kids.
ross
Nate Florin!
> I agree with Keith. I have been here the same length of time, and this
> has all happened before, the bands come, the bands go, and not a lot
> changes. I guess the proliferation of bb's helps spread a more immediate
> word of mouth buzz but the bottom line is an Athens or Seattle is a
> combination of forces that only has the capability of exploding for a
> short time. Trying to make it happen will never work as I'm sure you all
> know.
I know Chapel Hill won't be the mythic Next Seattle and that's not what
I'm talking about. Among the indie rock world *RIGHT NOW* there is no town
of a similar size with so many bands that are "big" in the indie rock
world. Small, the Archers, Superchunk/Portastatic, and Polvo all
consistently chart well at bunches of college radio stations throughout
the country. No other town of 40,000 has that, and no other town of 40,000
has name recognition on the scale that we do here. Well, Olympia,
Washington for sure does. But most all of the other big indie centers
(Austin, New York, wherever... Halifax, NS for God's sake) are a lot
bigger than Chapel Hill. Austin is ten times larger, Halifax twelve. New
York a bazillion.
And Superchunk is the archetypal popular indie band. Right now.
But we'll never be the Next Seattle because I don't think the best local
music is geared to that musically or spiritually, and I also don't think
that the town is big enough. And nobody really wants it either--I'd hate
for "Chapel Hill" to be the punchline of a joke told in Box Elder,
Montana.
So to The World At Large Chapel Hell is well known because of Dean Smith,
James Taylor, and Dean Smith and Dean Smith. And Kay Kyser among the
oldster set.
But that's not what I'm talking about. Indie rockdom is a pretty limited
world, but The Village is a very big fish in a very small pond. 100,000
music directors can't be wrong. Indie rock is multipolar and this here is
a big ass pole.
Nate Florin nfl...@med.unc.edu
spo...@email.unc.edu
J Keith Weston
you are to the stove, the hotter it feels. Outside where there are real
lives Chapel Hill is virtually unknown outside of specialists, the hip,
the hungry, the bad, and the ugly. In the 14 years that I've been here,
there has always been a sense that "Chapel Hill was on the verge of being
a new music mecca" and year after year great bands play, struggle, do
great things and go almost unnoticed outside the fanzines, bulletin
boards, word of mouth and XYC and XDU (and, sometimes, KNC). There are
tons of other college towns, to, with the same phenom as here; we don't
hear about them and their bands for the same reason they seldom hear out
ours and ours.
Sorry to be a scrooge, but this view is fostered by too many years here
and seeing too many great to good bands falter and freeze after
super-hype at home and super-ambivalence at large.
Keith Weston
Robert W. Northcott
>you are to the stove, the hotter it feels. Outside where there are real
>lives Chapel Hill is virtually unknown outside of specialists, the hip,
>the hungry, the bad, and the ugly. In the 14 years that I've been here,
>there has always been a sense that "Chapel Hill was on the verge of being
>a new music mecca" and year after year great bands play, struggle, do
>great things and go almost unnoticed outside the fanzines, bulletin
>boards, word of mouth and XYC and XDU (and, sometimes, KNC). There are
>tons of other college towns, to, with the same phenom as here; we don't
>hear about them and their bands for the same reason they seldom hear out
>ours and ours.
>
>Sorry to be a scrooge, but this view is fostered by too many years here
>and seeing too many great to good bands falter and freeze after
>super-hype at home and super-ambivalence at large.
>
I agree with Keith. I have been here the same length of time, and this
has all happened before, the bands come, the bands go, and not a lot
changes. I guess the proliferation of bb's helps spread a more immediate
word of mouth buzz but the bottom line is an Athens or Seattle is a
combination of forces that only has the capability of exploding for a
short time. Trying to make it happen will never work as I'm sure you all
know.
What do you think Bill Burton you predate us both???
J Keith Weston
Sorry, Ross, I disagree. MTV came here circa 1985 and did a feature on
the area with Dexter and several others of the time; and Other Bright
Colors got some of the same kind of notices that Superchunk do now. The
difference is that Superchunck in now and OBC was then. I could, also,
dig up notices from Rolling Stone and the NY Times about this area which
read like the Spin articles you mention. It's the same, only different.
Thanks and I do appreciate your opinions, ross, I just feel in this case
you are wrong.
One slack motherfucker,
HarryC2022
There will never *be* a next seattle. Indie rock *is* the "next seattle."
regionalism has been exhausted--Seattle was just an anomaly, a place with
a dozen sound-similar bands. big deal.
I'll have to agree. It's amazing that the CH area has fostered the
indie success that it has considering that the South East is most friendly
to Jam oriented rock like the HORDE bands. Not to dis these guys at all,
but the South has not been fertile ground for indie rock. Sure their was
Athens, but that is over.
Regionalism is an important issue for indie bands because bands like
God and Texas have to keep day jobs to pay the bills. Sure they are
signed to Resless, but they can't go on a major tour in support of their
material and sustain momentum in the trenches of small clubs and audiences
in parts of the country far from their region. I was just thinking of
this because I was reading an article on them last night in Indie File.
Maybe I should qualify my initial agreement and say that regionalism
is still important for indie acts but is decreasing? What do you think?
Harry
Round up the usual suspects.
muci...@unity.ncsu.edu
>
> Sorry, Ross, I disagree. MTV came here circa 1985 and did a feature on
> the area with Dexter and several others of the time; and Other Bright
> Colors got some of the same kind of notices that Superchunk do now. The
> difference is that Superchunck in now and OBC was then.
No, the difference is twofold: first, *this* is now and that was then,
then being back before every major label had its own "college radio"
department, back before "alternative" was the new mainstream. Second,
despite yr memory, Other Bright colors never released *five* critically
acclaimed LPs, and/or received *consistent* coverage on their own merit,
as opposed to being part of a "scene" package.
I could, also,
> dig up notices from Rolling Stone and the NY Times about this area which
> read like the Spin articles you mention. It's the same, only different.
>
Like I just said. The articles I mentioned, unlike the old kind of
articles you refer to, weren't about the area: they were about
a single local band/label/guy. If I were to go thru my archives I could
find a nice little stack of articles about "chapel hill", sure, but more
importantly I could find your plain old basic attention being paid to
Superchunk and Polvo on a regular basis, the kind of attention (esp, as
Nate said, intertextual references to bands "heavily influenced by
Polvo/superchunk") that indicate that these bands are part of the upper
echelons of this phenom called indie rock.
that is, there is a *huge* fucking difference between the come-and-go
"next seattle" coverage, which we have had our fair share of, and the
kind of offhand reference to certain bands which indicates that the
writers/editors in question feel comfortable assuming that their readers
know who said bands are. sorry about that "fucking" up there. I'm not
steamed up or anything.
> Thanks and I do appreciate your opinions, ross, I just feel in this case
> you are wrong.
well, as a member of the 4th estate, as well as a relatively active
critic of the media itself, I've gotta say I'm correct in stating that
there is a substantial difference between the level *and type* (more
importantly) of coverage received by, say, Flat Duo Jets (I know, cuz
I've got clippings from when their first album came out, from Spin
itself, no less) and Superchunk now.
All Nate and I are arguing is that within an increasingly large,
increasingly well-defined submarket, this region's bands are as
influential as any in the country. The number of people who drove to
mergefest from the damn Northeast is indicative of something along those
lines.
we're not trying to argue that Superchunk are on their way to becoming
the next Pearl Jam. I'm trying to argue, in fact, that the kind of hype
surrounding Seattle etc. is pretty much obsolete, focusing itself instead
on genres (punk, for example) rather than regions now.
But the attention *within* the increasingly complex indie rock community
paid to Superchunk, Polvo, and occasionally the Archers, is long-haul,
important-founding-type-figures attention, not next-big-thing attention.
So while I respect your "I've seen this all before" thing, I respectfully
submit that, well, you haven't.
ross
Todd Morman
>I know Chapel Hill won't be the mythic Next Seattle and that's not what
>I'm talking about. Among the indie rock world *RIGHT NOW* there is no town
>of a similar size with so many bands that are "big" in the indie rock
>world.
Uh huh, yep.
>Small, the Archers, Superchunk/Portastatic, and Polvo all
>consistently chart well at bunches of college radio stations throughout
>the country. No other town of 40,000 has that, and no other town of 40,000
>has name recognition on the scale that we do here.
Yes, absolutely, relative size and all, nicely put.
>Well, Olympia, Washington for sure does.
Ah, yes, good point. I think of it as our sister city, even though the
communication between us seems negligible. When's Beat Happening gonna
play here? What say we convince Oly bands and CH bands to road trip
towards a central meeting point (Lawrence, KS?) and have a party?
>But most all of the other big indie centers
>(Austin, New York, wherever... Halifax, NS for God's sake) are a lot
>bigger than Chapel Hill. Austin is ten times larger, Halifax twelve. New
>York a bazillion.
Yep amazing how this info gets forgotten in discussions, ain't it?
>And Superchunk is the archetypal popular indie band. Right now.
Yeah, and they're growing with each LP and spinning off side projects
like water off a shaking dog. No offense meant, but what's interesting
about Dischord and Fugazi these days? No really, I'm curious, you might
know something I don't.
>. . . I'd hate for "Chapel Hill" to be the punchline of a joke told in
>Box Elder, Montana.
Hee hee god Nate's good isn't he?
>So to The World At Large Chapel Hell is well known because of Dean Smith,
>James Taylor, and Dean Smith and Dean Smith. And Kay Kyser among the
>oldster set.
Kay Kyser! That should be a trivia question in the FAQ, with a free
weekend at Ross' pad as the prize! Don't give it away now, anyone!
>But that's not what I'm talking about. Indie rockdom is a pretty limited
>world, but The Village is a very big fish in a very small pond. 100,000
>music directors can't be wrong.
It may be a "limited world", Nate, but it's big enough to support a couple
of generations, people from all over the globe, and talented artists in
the lifestyle to which they've become accustomed (Burrito Bunker rules).
>Indie rock is multipolar and this here is a big ass pole.
First line in the FAQ right here, anyone?
todd pass the ammunition morman
J Keith Weston
sound and fury signifing nothing" until someone scores a certified gold
record. They, I'll cave in.
Keith
(I may have to cave in sooner than I think; however, I'm not optimistic)
AltheMan
Massachusetts),
Actually Superchunk is quite well-known up here, since both Boston's WFNX
(think WHFS) and Providence's WBRU (which keeps on winning those
so-important Rolling Stone best radio station polls) played "The First
Part" quite a bit. Granted, yr average Boyz II Men fan probably is still
in the dark, but that borderline indie-Alice in Chains audience has at
least been exposed to them.
--alan
Todd Morman
>Sorry I forgot to put a smiley on my last post for you Todd. I guess my
>tongue-in-cheek did not come through. :)
Tongue-in-cheek? Ok, I guess. I still think you're a bit out of touch
with the indie music world Nate and Ross and I are describing, Keith,
based on your posts in this thread.
>Savvy or not, the fact
>remains, that the music is not winning wide acceptance, although it is
>meeting with great dissemination and outlets, which is a good thing.
You've got me confused here. My point was that what you're calling "wide
acceptance" doesn't mean shit to the folks who like listening to and
talking about indie music, including the indie music that comes out of
this town.
>But, like most college towns, this area sometimes has a tendency to toot
>its own horn too much.
I'm with you on this point, except I'd be more generous and call it
complacency, rather than hint that it's an ego thing. Please note that it
isn't Superchunk, the Archers, Small or Polvo talking up a storm on the
net.
>The gold records was a joke. Thanks for taking the bait.
Call me gullible; I did it with Ross on that FAQ thread too. But I still
think you're too hung up on outside definitions of what's happening
around here.
todd now don't take this the wrong way but I feel compelled to mention
that I haven't seen you at a local show in about two years morman
muci...@unity.ncsu.edu
since our young punk friends are gone, I have to remind everyone:
In On the Killtaker sold somewhere over 250,000 copies
Foolish sold mebbe 30,000
Both with virtually identical label structures. The kids dig Fugazi for
some reason, and the fact that none of us can figure out what's so
interesting about them means that in a certain sense Keith is right to
say we've got our heads shoved a little too far up certain asses.
our own, other peoples, whatever.
having said that, I have to say I don't know why Fugazi sell so many
rekkids other than marketing (via massive word of mouth) to
disenfranchised youth, a market that Superchunk are too subtle to hit
really well?
Oh yeah. I was sitting there grading papers and something Bill Burton
said a few days ago popped back into my head. He said something like: "if
you expect to be compensated for the work you do, you're a capitalist."
and it occurred to me that in real terms, the two or three activities I
pursue most avidly are contributing to this discussion group, preparing
for and doing my show, taking photos, putting out this R. Hell comp--none
of which I expect (though I'm sure I'd like) any compensation for.
so I guess the answer, Bill, is No, I'm not a capitalist, which is what I
said to begin with.
ross
Nate Florin!
On Wed, 21 Dec 1994, Todd Morman wrote:
> >Well, Olympia, Washington for sure does.
>
> Ah, yes, good point. I think of it as our sister city, even though the
> communication between us seems negligible. When's Beat Happening gonna
> play here?
Funny story time. A couple of years ago (1992?) a local scenester
associate of mine went to see Beat Happening in Washington, DC (or maybe
it was New York...) and asked Calvin this same question. He said, "We
would, but we just played there!" After a confused discussion it turned
out BH played somewhere in town in 1987 and thought it was "too early" to
come back, five years later.
Aren't they "on hiatus" now?
> What say we convince Oly bands and CH bands to road trip
> towards a central meeting point (Lawrence, KS?) and have a party?
Lawrence is a great town. A lot like Chapel Hill, except that I think they
have a Wal Mart. Even a Dean Smith disciple coaching the local basketball
team. They have a radioactive lake, though, which I believe is something
we are short of. They have our Merge pals, Butterglory, too.
> Yeah, and they're growing with each LP and spinning off side projects
> like water off a shaking dog. No offense meant, but what's interesting
> about Dischord and Fugazi these days? No really, I'm curious, you might
> know something I don't.
"Not much?" That's what I'd say. They have an ethic that everyone should
liberally steal, but so do Merge and K and...
nate praise the lord florin
FANDANGO
<ch-s...@gibbs.oit.unc.edu> wrote:
>Todd said: what's interesting about Dischord and Fugazi these days, and
>since our young punk friends are gone, I have to remind everyone:
>
>In On the Killtaker sold somewhere over 250,000 copies
>
>Foolish sold mebbe 30,000
>
>Both with virtually identical label structures. The kids dig Fugazi for
>some reason, and the fact that none of us can figure out what's so
Hmm. I thought it was because Fugazi rocks. At least, my ass is kicked
by them.
There definitely is a Movement associated iwth it, whcih (dyslexic,
much?) 'Chunque won't hit. One thing, In On The Killtaker came out a
year or more before Foolish. Wait, 8-9 months? The Spin blurb
(talkin' about Foolish, now; can make any less sense?) will add a buncha
those Xmas sales.
Fan until Mac is referred to in alt.indiepop.thoughtful-lyrics like Ian
is in alt.punk.straightedge, there just ain't no Movement dango
--
_______________________________________________________________________________
ctwe...@email.unc.edu welbon...@mhs.unc.edu
Mad and Butch
>Both with virtually identical label structures. The kids dig Fugazi for
>some reason, and the fact that none of us can figure out what's so
>say we've got our heads shoved a little too far up certain asses.
>
>our own, other peoples, whatever.
>
>having said that, I have to say I don't know why Fugazi sell so many
>rekkids other than marketing (via massive word of mouth) to
>disenfranchised youth, a market that Superchunk are too subtle to hit
>really well?
Having the "founding father" of American punk (DC subversion) in your band
certainly can't hurt. Plus, they kick ass! Their shows are revelations, in
my book. But the "founding father" thing is also important. Talking with
Jawbox, you'd think that they'd have been in a position to sell a lot of
records on Dischord, but it didn't really happen. A lot of it is Fugazi's
legendary status (a little is their notoriety for their anti-marketing) and
it's mostly because they shred.
Butch
"You gotta have a real love in your heart for people to do this to
them"-Susan Atkins
Ian Williams
Todd Morman <tmo...@email.unc.edu> wrote:
>>So to The World At Large Chapel Hell is well known because of Dean Smith,
>>James Taylor, and Dean Smith and Dean Smith. And Kay Kyser among the
>>oldster set.
>Kay Kyser! That should be a trivia question in the FAQ, with a free
>weekend at Ross' pad as the prize! Don't give it away now, anyone!
I lived next door to Kay Kyser's wife on Franklin Street a few years ago.
I went over there once to borrow a lobster pot, and she bolted the door, ran
upstairs, set the dogs on me and called the cops.
--
Ian Williams, from the farm on a cold November night, Chapel Hill, NC.
"If he could swap our places, I'd be running up that hill no problem."
-Kate Bush
Todd Morman
>Thanks, Ross. We'll both have to wait and see. I'll hold to my "this is
>sound and fury signifing nothing" until someone scores a certified gold
>record. They, I'll cave in.
"Certified gold record"? Keith, you're really missing the point, I think.
Ross and Nate are dead on in trying to get you to see that the larger
world of independent music and independent music "coverage" has changed
dramatically from the time when the dBs left NC for NYC.
"Signifying nothing"? To whom, Keith? You seem to be implying that all
this noise matters not a whit unless someone from outside takes notice.
Well, um, fuck that.
Fact is, there's now a fairly large world of supportive zines, fans,
labels, distributors and radio shows/stations, to whom the "sound and
fury" produced in our little corner signifies quite a bit, thank you.
That world has grown from the neat little world we knew as "alternative
music" back in, say, 1983 to a much larger, much more savvy, and much
more economically viable world.
You're still operating under the old rules, Keith, which require certified
gold records for some sort of cultural validation of a scene's viability
or value. I mean, do you really doubt for a second that Superchunk would
have had a certified gold record by now if they'd accepted any one of
those major label offers dangling in front of them? Hello? They *chose*
not to sign to a major. And continue to do so, for their own reasons,
which, by the way, allow them to hire their high school friends to work at
their growing little record label. Neat, huh? No amount of certified gold
records can buy the kind of respect the Merge folks have earned among a
certain (and larger than you think) group of people all over the world.
Go back and read Ross' and Nate's posts. They're both totally absolutely
completely right.
And you'll have your certified gold by the Superchunk full-length after
the next one.
todd it's a faith thing morman
J Keith Weston
meeting with great dissemination and outlets, which is a good thing.
the bait.
Keith