tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post115236697446543195..comments2023-10-21T07:44:20.549-04:00Comments on The Existence Machine: We have the TechnologyRichardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08014014605639738887noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1154746948648760432006-08-04T23:02:00.000-04:002006-08-04T23:02:00.000-04:00Hi. Thanks for the compliment and the heads up on ...Hi. Thanks for the compliment and the heads up on the book. I'll look out for it.Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08014014605639738887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1154717823693000882006-08-04T14:57:00.000-04:002006-08-04T14:57:00.000-04:00First, thanks for the wonderful (and so not superf...First, thanks for the wonderful (and <I>so</I> not superficial) commentary. Just wanted to note that Greil Marcus' upcoming book, due next month, has a long, discursive, and occasionally enlightening essay on David Thomas that you might find of interest. I haven't been able to deal with most of the rest of the book, though, and I count myself a fan. It's called THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME: PROPHECY AND THE AMERICAN VOICE. Not too portentious, eh?Prof. Drew LeDrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15921503661672495124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1152471131507407922006-07-09T14:52:00.000-04:002006-07-09T14:52:00.000-04:00Hard to believe Decals still isn't available. It ...Hard to believe <I>Decals</I> still isn't available. It was a Restless/Retro reissue, and a lot of those seem to be in limbo, unfortunately.Scrapshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17482867072396893124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1152465698216649322006-07-09T13:21:00.000-04:002006-07-09T13:21:00.000-04:00The main reason I want to have a working turntable...The main reason I want to have a working turntable is because of the occasional thing not available at all on cd. <I>Lick My Decals Off, Baby</I> being one example. (I bought a copy o the LP just in time for my turntables to not work, so I STILL haven't heard that album...)<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the info on Slapp Happy. I'll search some of that stuff out. I have <I>Desperate Straights</I> and I like it a lot.<BR/><BR/>My Thirsty Ear cd of <I>Song of the Bailing Man</I> has "Use of a Dog" on it. I know some changes were made to <I>The Art of Walking</I>, but those are mostly additions....Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08014014605639738887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1152461761157435602006-07-09T12:16:00.000-04:002006-07-09T12:16:00.000-04:00Turntables.... I have just about given up having a...Turntables.... I have just about given up having a turntable in my life.<BR/><BR/>All the Slapp Happy stuff has been reissued. The one with Faust was reissued by Recommended. The original release (though recorded after the Faust one) was reissued by Virgin UK, coupled with one of the Slapp Happy/Henry Cow collaborations, <I>Desperate Straights</I>. (A great pairing.) The first album, <I>Sort Of</I>, was reissued by Blueprint.<BR/><BR/>Another oddity in the Pere Ubu discography, which I don't remember seeing noted anywhere, including the box set of the early albums: they dropped "Use of a Dog" from <I>Song of the Bailing Man</I> (which is my apparently somewhat eccentric choice for favorite Pere Ubu album).Scrapshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17482867072396893124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1152454619481233842006-07-09T10:16:00.000-04:002006-07-09T10:16:00.000-04:00Winter Comes Home, right. His full note on that i...<I>Winter Comes Home</I>, right. His full note on that is: "BTW WINTER COMES HOME does not exist. According to the Authorized View it never did exist and, so, it never will exist. Those who claim to own copies are troublemakers. Report them to the Grocery Police." <BR/><BR/>Since I didn't know what that was (I think I originally thought it was just a song, since I knew he'd consigned a couple of Ubu songs to oblivion), I didn't miss it. He's a strange dude.<BR/><BR/>I actually haven't heard a lot of Slapp Happy, but what I have heard, I like. Once I get one of my three non-functioning turntables to work, I should seek out some of this stuff. Are those albums on cd? Seems like stuff Recommended would have reissued...Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08014014605639738887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1152423763513222352006-07-09T01:42:00.000-04:002006-07-09T01:42:00.000-04:00The alterations were made to the cds in the origin...The alterations were made to the cds in the original box reissue. Don't know about the recent one.<BR/><BR/>Not <I>Meadville</I>. The record I'm thinking of is one Thomas specifically disavows (effectively). I am paraphrasing here, but in the notes for the box he says something like, "for those of you wondering about <I>Winter Comes Home</I>, it never existed."<BR/><BR/>I love Slapp Happy so much. The two wonderfully different recordings of the second album (<I>Casablanca Moon</I> or <I>Acnalbasac Noom</I> or <I>Slapp Happy</I>, depending upon which version and edition you have) are a great pop artifact. I can't choose a favorite between them; the one recorded with Faust has a more coherent sound as an album, the other distinguishes the songs more from one another, emphasizing their aspect as form exercises or pastiches. I love the differences in the lyrics and arrangements between the two recordings, and the ones I prefer are about evenly split between the two recordings. I still listen to each of them frequently.Scrapshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17482867072396893124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1152418622959123722006-07-09T00:17:00.000-04:002006-07-09T00:17:00.000-04:00I knew that Cooper and Cutler played with Thomas. ...I knew that Cooper and Cutler played with Thomas. I've been listening a fair amount to Henry Cow and Slapp Happy lately. And, actually, I just bought Cutler's book last week--looks really interesting.<BR/><BR/>I didn't know that Thomas' solo albums had been altered like that. I know that Thomas is adamant about it being the artist's prerogative to change stuff like that, and I agree on principal, but still tend to question the results. I guess, for me, ignorance was bliss. I have liked the cds.<BR/><BR/>The live album you're trying to think of, is that <I>Meadville</I>? The version I have of the <I>Monster</I> box includes it, but I do recall reading that with the reissue it would be dropped. Thomas' preemptive attitude about potential complaints being basically "tough shit". <I>Meadville</I> is great, especially the weird "Surfer Girl/Stand By Your Man" sort of rant. Funny, he played that when I saw him, right down to the little jokey asides, and I was briefly disappointed because I'd taken the recorded version as having been relatively spontaneous. I got over it.<BR/><BR/>I wonder, do you know if the alterations to the solo albums were for the original release of the <I>Monster</I> box, or for the recent reissue, which drops <I>Meadville</I>.Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08014014605639738887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1152410488675281572006-07-08T22:01:00.000-04:002006-07-08T22:01:00.000-04:00Variations on a Theme also (if I recall correctly)...<I>Variations on a Theme</I> also (if I recall correctly) features Henry Cow's woodwind player and drummer, Lindsay Cooper and Chris Cutler, each of whom is wonderful and utterly distinctive. Cutler, in particular, I wish did more rock music; he plays with a beautiful clattering style that, though he is an avant-gardist, works very well for rocknroll, as can be heard on a couple of Peter Blegvad's solo albums. (Cutler is also the force behind Recommended Records and the author of the book <I>File Under Popular</I>.) (Forgive me if I'm telling you stuff you already know.)<BR/><BR/><B>However.</B> The cd reissues of the Thomas solo albums, for reasons known only to David Thomas and Jehovah, are not just remixed but slathered with instrumentation that wasn't there on the original records. That's Thomas's prerogative, of course, but I can't listen to them in that form.<BR/><BR/>Also, he has deep-sixed the charming live recording he made that I am now (goddammit) forgetting the name of -- was it <I>Winter Comes Home</I>? -- a recording that showcased his wonderful loopy monologues besides having fine versions of a few of his songs; there is an offhand dismissal of it in the liner notes to the box set of his solo stuff.Scrapshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17482867072396893124noreply@blogger.com