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Re: (TV) Baloon / "Black Postcards" Revisited / Steve Albini



from what I hear the paperback is slightly different from the hard-cover.  
The Barry the tour manager story is one that I know is missing
 
cod 
 
 
In a message dated 7/28/2009 9:32:09 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
gurquhart@madasafish.com writes:

Leo  Casey wrote:

Pure speculation: But maybe Wareham was actually being  nice by *not* 
mentioning Tom.  
Maybe T.V.'s behavior was bizarre,  or/and Wareham was disapponted when 
T.V. failed to live up
to his  unrealistic guitar-hero image he had of him?  

Thanks for the  notes Leo. I'm waiting for the paperback to arrive. I am 
also surprised  that there is no mention of Verlaine and wonder whether 
your hunch about  not mentioning Tom may be correct.

I've been trawling some old Galaxie  and Luna interviews on the excellent  
site:
http://www.fullofwishes.co.uk/

Its beyond all doubt that  Television were a major influence on Wareham - 
for example from an early  Galaxie interview:

/....Deans list of favorites includes Sterling  Mornson, Tom Verlaine 
and Richard Lloyd, Robert Quine, and the Feelies  Glenn Mercer on 
guitar, and vocalists Ian Curtis, Jonathan Richman and Lou  Reed. "They 
have such technically pure voices, but I start to cough when I  try to 
sing like Ian Curtis."

/I'm probably reading too much into  the following or it could be subject 
to journalistic editing whatever but  note how the comment about Tom is 
pretty matter of fact whilst Sterling  was: 'fun to be around...'/

/*I/n Luna you've utilised some of the  great guitarist of all time - Tom 
Verlaine of Television and Sterling  Morrison of the Velvet Underground. 
Two distinct characters?/*  /
*Dean*: They are both such great "stylists", that is, they don't sound  
like anyone else, which you realize when you are sitting in the control  
room and they start playing. Tom Verlaine played two memorable guitar  
solos on our //Penthouse album. Sterling played a long guitar solo on  
'Friendly Advice' on our //Bewitched album, and I think that was his  
last studio recording, he was diagnosed with cancer soon after. He was a  
lot of fun to be around, had lots of stories to  tell./



Graham



Leo Casey wrote:
> Obviously  my joke about Television's cd-release party went over like a 
> lead  baloon...pretty lame. (smile).  [Hey, isn't 'Baloon' a Television 
song?]  
> So, for penance I'm typing up some quotes from Dean Wareham's (of  Luna) 
new memoir.
>
>  Russ wrote:
>    
>> No mention of Verlaine seems like a big oversight, am I  right?
>>     
>
> Yeah given that T.V.  played on more than 1 track and contributed the 
monster solo on "23
>  Minutes In Brussels", I was a little taken aback.  
> Moreover, he  does mention VU's Sterling Morrisson's guitar solo on 
another Luna  album.
>
> Pure speculation: But maybe Wareham was actually being  nice by *not* 
mentioning Tom.  
> Maybe T.V.'s behavior was  bizarre, or/and Wareham was disapponted when 
T.V. failed to live up
> to  his unrealistic guitar-hero image he had of him?   
>
>   
>> I had heard , maybe it was a review,  that this book was 
>> Wareham obviously score settling. Did you get  that feeling? 
>>     
>
>  Definitely.  The very first paragraph of the book is a scathing putdown  
of Wareham that a
> couple of the members of Galaxie 500 (Damon  Krukowski.and Naomi Yang) 
had given in a 1997
> magazine  interview.
>
> But Wareham doesn't defend himself immediately;  instead he begins with 
his boyhood in
> Australia.  By the time I  got to the end of the book he had discussed 
all of the 'charges'
>  against him.  He's paints a honest and not always pretty portrait of  
himself (... 'brutally'
> honest and blunt are probably better  descriptors).  
>
> Along the way are accounts of:  his  favorite bands (and fave-hates) 
while in college [pretty
> stellar taste  IMHO]; drugs; the grind and temptations of touring; losing 
at love; drugs;  the
> sleaziness/business-side of the indie-music landscape; drugs; and  
self-inflicted wounds
> ...including the dissolution of his  marriage.   
> He didn't name it "*Black* Postcards" for  nothin'.
>
> One of the parts I found most interesting was  Wareham's critique of 
producer Steve Albini's
> infamous article, "The  Problem With Music" in which Albini showed with 
dollar and cents
>  examples how bands who sign with major labels are totally fucked from 
the  get-go.  
>
> Wareham generally agrees with Albini's  indictment but accuses him of 
"...using some bloated
> figures..." and  that the Albini model hadn't worked that way in Luna.    
>
> Just part of Wareham's critique [quoted without  permission]:  Starts 
with a praise of Albini's
> producer skills,  then .....
>
> "It is certainly true that a major label deal can  bite you.  All the 
money that gets spent on
> making or promoting  your record means that sometimes you are only 
digging yourself a hole,  a
> deep bit of record company debt.  You may get a 14 percent  royalty rate, 
but with all those
> expenses being charged to your  account you are never going to see those 
royalties anyway.
>
>  "But at least the major labels send out detailed accounting statements,  
itemizing exactly how
> you are being overchsarged and underpaid.   They have a system in place.
>
> "Are you safer doing a handshake  deal with an upstanding indie guy who 
doesn't want to bother
> with the  formality of signing a contract?  A guy who offers you a 50/50 
profit  sharing deal
> (after expenses), which sounds much better than a 14  percent royalty 
rate?  Of course, he can't
> give you the $250,000  advance---maybe he can give you $5,000 or $20,000. 
 But you'll keep  your
> costs down and start to see royalties much  quicker.
>
> "Unless the indie label files for bankruptcy and  retains ownership of 
your record.  Or the
> label takes your  mechanical royalties and buys a new BMW, while your 
repeated requests for  an
> accounting statement are ignored.
>
> "You pick your  poison in the music business.  There is a difference 
between being  promised a
> great royalty and actually receiving it.  My own  feeling is that you 
take the money when it is
> offered---and up front  is a good place to start." 
>
> Our own MM Mailing List several  years ago had a long thread on Albini's 
article:  it starts
> here:  http://tv.obbard.com/tvlist-archive/0204/msg00305.html  
>
>  Leo
>
>   
>> -----Original  Message-----
>> From: tv-owner@obbard.com  [mailto:tv-owner@obbard.com] On 
>> Behalf Of Russ
>> Sent:  Tuesday, July 21, 2009 9:42 PM
>> To: tv@obbard.com
>>  Subject: Re: (TV) Wareham & Britta/ "Black Postcards"  Lowdown
>>
>> I had heard , maybe it was a review, that this  book was 
>> Wareham obviously
>> score settling. Did you  get that feeling? No mention of 
>> Verlaine seems like
>> a  big oversight, am I right? Hell, in the recent Sonic Youth 
>> bio (  Goodbye
>> 20th Century) it is revealed that Verlaine spent the night  of 
>> Sept 11, 2001
>> up with the band at the Moore/Gordon  household in 
>> Massachusetts. Those are
>> the kind of  tidbits that distinguish a great read from a 
>> merely  adequate
>> one.
>>
>>
>>
>> On  Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 6:18 PM, Leo Casey 
>>  <LeoCasey@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>      
>>> I finished Dean Wareham's memoir, "Black  Postcards".
>>>
>>> It's extemely well written and  quite candid (albeit it runs 
>>>        
>> out of steam
>>     
>>>  close to the end).
>>>
>>> I'd recommend it if you can  get it from your library (or 
>>>        
>> via inter-library
>>     
>>>  loan).
>>>
>>> There is absolutely no mention of Tom  Verlaine or his 
>>>       
>>  contributions to
>>     
>>> Luna's  album,
>>> "Penthouse".
>>>
>>>  Leo
>>>       
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