[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: To all, from Linford
Dear listies,
There is nothing like a reading a letter from a letter from Linford. If it
wasn't for his seductive rhetoric (I am not plato, so this is a
compliment!), which for years has been finding its way to my (real)
mailbox since I signed their mailing list after the C-Stone show in
'92, I may have never starting buying his "vegetables," which I must
say are, indeed, fresh and tasty.
Anyways, I think all of us can sympathize with his dilemma. There
is absolutely no doubt that the record-biz has virtually ruined the
musical mainstream of the late '90s, and turned most modern radio
rock into a waste of electricity. Does Over the Rhine really want to
have to compete with all that junk? Do they want to help usher in a
new era of great music?
Also, Linford's apt metaphor for what he offers us (vegetables)
demonstrates that believes that the greatness of Over the Rhine is
a delicate one. Can the vegetables stay clean of, or at least
endure, the hydro-ponics, irradiation, vacuum packaging,
pesticides, nitrates, and (oh my!) canning that a record company
will want to do to them before it tries to shark them through every
lame radio, God forsaken phone-on-hold, Tower Records
superstore, and frat-boy party on the planet? Well, er, uh, uh, well?
Gee. I asked this question so loadedly, maybe I better back off a
bit. Let me ask it again, and proactively: How can Over the Rhine
become big-time (which is their meal-ticket) without selling out and
losing their uncanny magic, which they so generously share with
an excellent community of fans right now?
I think they should just be absolutely hard-ass about one thing:
They need to have complete, and I mean complete, control over the
content of their record, if it is to be on a major label. They should
pick everything: the studio, the track selections, the musicians, the
instruments, and the producer. (Of course I suspect they already
wouldn't let it be any other way and don't need to be told that.)
They already do fantastic sounding recording in basements and
barns, so they don't need any studio babysitters, and they should
refuse them relentlessly. In addition, they already know how to put
together great album art, so they don't need some madison avenue
corporate ad-agency snothead to make one for them using clipart
on a Macintosh.
Maybe, for a little inspiration, they should watch U2's videotape
documenting their recording of the Unforgettable Fire...an
underrated album that they really took the bull-by-the-horns in
making. This is one example of a great band who made it big on
their own terms.
Can it be done again? I dunno.
> Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment
> you know, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We
> guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.
> Agnes De Mille
This is a great quote.
Mike McVey
Chicago
Follow-Ups: