an entire website summarised by two weeks of random reader comments
I dunno. This stream of comments about Collapse Board, left via the fancy new Facebook comment tool across an array of subjects, really intrigues me. Aside from a couple of my more fanatical readers … naming no names … I probably know more about what’s going down here than anyone, and most of these have got me stumped. I sure hope I’m not giving away any weird personal details by reprinting this stuff verbatim. Oh … and for the record … that Pains Of Being Pure At Heart poster was NOT aimed at Slumberland Records in any shape or form.
We heart Slumberland Records here at Collapse Board.
And I really must get round to replying to those lovely Dandelions/Children Of Sunshine.
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Simon Morgan · Trainee Social Worker at Nuneaton CDTHey Wallace, whatever you do, don’t listen to Trembling Bells, you’ll have kittens! Meanwhile, back at the plot, don’t Fleets Foxes rip off well known solicitors, Crosby Stills Nash & Young to a far greater extent? Isn’t it more to do with the generational signifier that is: replicating yr parents record collections? I blame the parents, all this trying to be ‘mates’ with yr offspring, it’ll never catch on. That’s why I responded to the Sex Pistols, instead of the Frank Sinatra my old man dug, it was a rebellion kinda thing. To be fair, there’s a lot of really good folk inspired stuff out there right now… the aforementioned Trembling Bells do it big time for me, even if Lavinia is in awe of Sandy Denny (I am too)… The new Unthanks record is splendid, too… Alasdair Roberts is a genius… Black Flowers do the folk/psyche thing very well… and the recent Folk Against Fascism & Folk Police comps have both been excellent… plenty to ‘sing out’ about! Not keen on Fleet Foxes either, though, to be fair!
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Aimee Montague Taylor · Works at Shipwreck
oh how I love Charlie & Lola. Best modern children’s program.Moderate -
really thought provoking blog….
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you give me too much amo darling.Moderate
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Gordon Lamb · University of Georgia
This “reunion” has been going on for several years already. It sucks but it’s not exactly a new development. -
Nathaniel T. Mitchell · Works at Gizmonic Institute
Man I don’t know what’s more pathetic…a “reunited” Dead Kennedys playing without Jello Biafra and playing old material or Keith Morris fronting a Black Flag tribute with no one from Black Flag in it (ok, you have Steve McDonald from Red Cross in there, who played with Ginn pre-Flag, but still…) playing “new” songs that are just slightly altered carbon-copies of “Nervous Breakdown”.
I’m sick of these old punkers turning into the new Mike Loves with these shitty money-grabbing reunions. Fuck them all. If you’re going to reunite, keep it low-key & classy like these guys: http://youtu.be/ZdYR6WISGDc.
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David Whitelock · Works at Self Employed – Fwd Play
Here here! -
HAHA WHAT! THIS IS HILARIOUS. YOU CANT BE SERIOUS. “Abyss of bourgeois vanity at 130BPMs”? OMG LOL. Dude, crystal stilts cant even afford drinks. They are like the poorest band ever. And check your BPMs mate, they is hella fast, mostly like 160BMP, unless its a slow song which is like 100bpm. Basically, you seem to have little to no idea of what youre talking about but feel like you know everything, which is kind of like, the worst kind of stupid asshole.
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Thérèse Williams · Santa Fe, New Mexico
This is Therese (Tres) Williams, Dandelions recording artist ♥ What a treat to discover your review of our album from 40 years ago. Thank you ♥ Awesome review.
Forgive me, but I need to make a correction:
We never called ourselves ‘The Dandelions’, we called ourselves ‘The Children of Sunshine’ ♥ Dandelions was our title track and the name of the album. But then, back in 1970, we weren’t exactly sticklers for detail on the album jacket, in fact we never listed the tracks on the album artwork at all as you can see, only on the label. It has been a whirlwind of excitement to have this sudden renewed interest in this creative project from when we were both 10. We wrote the songs/music and recorded the album in the Spring of 1970 when we were both 10 years old. The album was not released, however, until the following school year when we were both 11 years old ♥ You have truly Blessed us ♥ Peace ♥. -
4:31 is my fave part.
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DEATH 2 THE PAINS! EVIL CORPORATE SLUMBERLAND DIE DIE DIE JUST WANT 2 LISTEN 2 REAL AUTHENTIC MP3s. IM BURNING MY OLD NAVY PULLOVER NOW, EVEN THOUGH IT IS GREAT FOR SKIING.
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Jonny Reynolds · UCL
I like the idea of calling it ‘Director’s Cut’. As if she was some tortured artist putting out vastly compromised work, bowdlerised and edited down by evil executives wanting to make her art more palatable for the hoi-polloi.
Not really. You were in charge the first time round. Not so much a director’s cut, as a way of continuing your control freakery, 20 years later. Let it go. You rerecorded the vocals to withering heights in the 80s. Yes they were better, but we’re still playing the original.
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Tricia Stansberry · Works at I need a job. For realz.
love it. -
BRILLIANT YES YES YES!
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Lynden Barber · University of Exeter
I was about to kick this article to death for its romanticised view of over-masculinized values (Minutemen, really?) but then I bothered to get to the end and saw you say that anyway. Phew! Nearly got sent to indie-rock jail for no reason there… -
Kathy Nemeth · High School for Health Professions
Well Everett I agree with you 150%……. I saw him in Melbourne, he is a real show man, and he knows how to do it, for sure, he captivates you, he is just unreal, and it goes on for 2 hours no break at all, he is really something……. he is a real DIAMOND….. -
Josh Lattanzi · Friends with Nic Dalton
The first time I heard the terms “indie rock” was for REM and Miracle Legion. You’re confusing post punk for indie rock. But who gives a shit about labeling music? What a waste of time. Inflammatory language is fun, but you are so off. -
Alvin Bahar · Mastermind and various instruments at Expert Toneless
HAHAHAHA -
Lucas Jensen · UGA
And as a former publicist at said Athens-based PR company, I find it downright confusing that you think there is more money being made in indie rock right now by anyone. There are half the companies there once were, on both the PR and label side, and PR firms are having to take on twice as many artists at half the cost to make ends meet. No one is getting rich out there, and the job (I started doing it back in 1998) was certainly more than a few phone calls and a fax machine. Back then, labels had in-house people AND hired outside firms, sometimes more than one at a time. There was way more money to be made in the 90s then now, even with the preponderance on indie jingles out there. This just seems like a complete fallacy. The truth is that bands like Of Montreal and Arcade Fire are a tiny subset of the indie populace and most bands struggle to even break even…same as it ever was.
And I never once forced anybody to stand in front of a Levi’s sign. That’s just silly.
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Scott Creney · Works at Jittery Joe’s Coffee
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Lucas Jensen · UGA
Scott, so you’re saying Pavement were better when they were sloppy and couldn’t finish songs in concert? No, thanks. I saw some of those early shows and they were tedious. And do you honestly think Arcade Fire wakes up and writes songs about target markets and stuff? I just really don’t think so. Sure, they’re safe, but I don’t think you should put the onus on the artist. Arguing artistic intent like that seems a fool errand. -
ugh…you lost me at the gender politics…otherwise I agree with a lot that you say especially about the sorry state of music criticism, and your comments about the rise of the “no fail” generation essentially removing the blood and guts, and dare I say it, the heart, from the Indie scene strike me as astute. My generation, born in the 50’s, and determined to impart a “positive” attitude toward our children probably bears the responsibility for the blandness of musicians who were raised not to acknowledge failure, and who think that their every doody is made of gold instead of shit.
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Don’t agree with this part: “Don’t ever try to describe the music… Unnecessary. Impossible, mostly.” (Facebook’s a funny bugger. Does the fact that I already made this comment against this article on my feed mean it’s going to pop up here twice? Also, please may I have my paragraphs back?)
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Jan Niklas Jansen · Friends with Guido Engler
Wait, wasn’t all that Sonic Youth’s fault?
But seriously, one other fact would be that if you were playing in a band like, say, The Butthole Surfers, you were most likely living in a van with a leaking exhaust pipe, no heating, working a not so pleasurable job in the days between touring – or touring so much (see Minutemen) that toda’s six month tours pale in comparison. So while I won’t argue that one’s better than the other, I’d say that writing and recording new material takes some effort either way.
Add to that a market that is most completely deteriorated – where sales of music a down so far, generally, that the success of bands like, say, Arcade Fire seems rather big but pales in comparison to what records of everyone from REM to (probably) Throwing Music sold. Which also means: If you want to make a record, and have time to write and rehearse and record music (and maybe want some time of to do that instead of preparing a “professional” stage show that you’ll have to lug around the world for the next seven months) – well, there yo…See more
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Scott Creney · Works at Jittery Joe’s Coffee
That’s an excellent point about how the early punk/alt/indie bands also had similar workloads. If I had to make a guess, I’d imagine that those bands low sales probably motivated them to write & record more, (what I call the Philip K. Dick theory, ‘If I’m only going to sell 5-10,000 copies of what I produce, then I’ll just have to produce three times as much.’
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Ouch…even I had to wince for you at Dolitsa’s response, LDOL!
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Dave Brooks · Long Beach, California
This is so spot on. Live music critics are even more worthless – why are you telling me about a concert that already happened? -
Darragh Murray · I review musics at Rave Magazine
APES
5 Responses to an entire website summarised by two weeks of random reader comments