http://www.spikemagazine.com/makeup/glen1.jpg
― girls are gay, Friday, 25 June 2004 10:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Friday, 25 June 2004 10:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mike Dixon (Mike Dixon), Friday, 25 June 2004 10:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― Kipple (Kipple), Friday, 25 June 2004 10:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― girls are gay, Friday, 25 June 2004 10:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― tinfoil, Friday, 25 June 2004 12:48 (nineteen years ago) link
and ohmygodmichellemae
― peter smith (plsmith), Friday, 25 June 2004 12:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 25 June 2004 12:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― tinfoil, Friday, 25 June 2004 12:57 (nineteen years ago) link
strongo OTM....
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 25 June 2004 13:04 (nineteen years ago) link
Ian Svenonius always seemed like a pretty intense dude. With bad teeth. But, yes, Strongo otm about those couple years.
― Aaron W (Aaron W), Friday, 25 June 2004 13:21 (nineteen years ago) link
Ian seems okay.
― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 25 June 2004 13:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― Silly, Friday, 25 June 2004 13:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 25 June 2004 13:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 25 June 2004 13:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― OCP (OCP), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― Huk-El (Horace Mann), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― Huk-El (Horace Mann), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― Huk-El (Horace Mann), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― msp, Friday, 25 June 2004 14:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― St. Nicholas (Nick A.), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― Sara Sherr, Friday, 25 June 2004 14:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― matthew james (matthew james), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:57 (nineteen years ago) link
NOU on the other hand... Plays Pretty For Baby is probably in my alltime top 20 albums, but they were a band I discovered 5 or 6 years after the event, so that "moment in time" feeling to them isn't really applicable. I have an issue of Ablaze! that features a very long interview w/ Ian, though, and that's pretty good reading
― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― Huk-El (Horace Mann), Friday, 25 June 2004 15:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― dlp9001, Friday, 25 June 2004 17:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― hexxyDancer, Friday, 25 June 2004 17:36 (nineteen years ago) link
the delta '72 guy was such a dick when i met him. it's clear that he acts like an asshole because no one recognizes that he's god's gift to "__________" (women, music, you name it). VH1 where is he now?
― sherm, Friday, 25 June 2004 18:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― Neb Reyob (Ben Boyer), Friday, 25 June 2004 18:05 (nineteen years ago) link
Gregg Foreman's Years of Living Dangerously.
JONATHAN VALANIA (jvalania@philadelphiaweekly.com)
The Players:
GREGG FOREMAN Leader, Delta 72; DJ, the Turnaround and Making Time
MARK BOYCE Keyboard player, Goats, Boss Hog, Marah, Delta 72
DAVE PIANKA Promoter, Making Time events
GREG PRECHT Co-owner, Silk City
BRUCE RECKAHN Bass player, the Goats, Delta 72
COREY RUSK Owner, Touch and Go
VAL SHIVELY Owner, Val Shively R&B Records in Upper Darby
SARAH STOLFA Keyboard player, Delta 72
MIKE Z. DJ, Making Time; lead singer, Heartache Disease
There's not much middle ground with Gregg Foreman. He's a love-him-or-hate-him kind of guy. To his detractors--and there are many--he's an object of ridicule and derision. To his friends and admirers--and there are just as many--he is cool incarnate.
But on this we can all agree: He was, for a time at least, the hippest guy in town. Preternaturally stylish and born of rock-star DNA--all high cheek bones and sideburns, licorice-legged and strutting as if to earn that rooster's crown hair style--Foreman lives, and more than once nearly died, by the get-down imperative: Have a good time all the time.
Just prior to his birth 28 years ago near King of Prussia, his mother interned at Motown Records. Foreman likes to tell people he got his love of soul music in utero.
He says seeing the Rolling Stones video for "Start Me Up" and Prince's "Purple Rain" sealed his fate, setting him on quest for the Holy Grail of cool: rock stardom. The journey was fraught with the usual dragons: fashion slavery, phoniness, jealousy, gossip and heroin. It was the last one--as so many of his heroes, from Keith Richards on down, learned firsthand--that proved unslayable.
When he showed up on the local radar six years ago, he was the leader of the Delta 72, a band that blended punk and Stax soul into one of the most stylish and exciting live acts in town. Critics' laurels, international tours and major label offers were laid at the band's feet, only to be canceled out by the oldest cliche in the Big Book of Rock Career Mistakes: heroin addiction.
Rewind a few years to the dawn of the '90s, when we find Foreman dropping in and out of various colleges and bands in the middle and western part of the state before drifting to the vibrant indie rock scene coalescing in the nation's capital.
Washington, D.C., was home of Dischord Records, recognized worldwide as the standard-bearer of punk cred, virtue and ethics--which Foreman would soon be able to recite chapter and verse, only to unlearn them one by one on his way down just a few short years later.
It is here where we pick up the story.
Gregg Foreman: "The Delta 72 name? I liked the stretch of river that came through where all the blues and soul music came from. '72 was the year our drummer was born. You always have to give the drummer some. One day I bought a Farfisa organ--it looked like a giant red coffin--and gave it to my roommate Sarah [Stolfa], and taped down the chords that she was allowed to play. We played this spotlight show for all the new D.C. bands. It was kinda nerve-racking. All the Dischord people were there, and afterward [Dischord head/Fugazi main man] Ian MacKaye comes running up onstage. I thought he was gonna punch me. He was like, 'That was great, like some fuckin' Led Zeppelin or something.' So we wound up doing our first 7-inch with Dischord, and it just blew up on the strength of word-of-mouth. At some point we played a show with Girls Against Boys in New York. They were on Touch and Go, which was one of the best indie labels, and they urged [label owner] Corey Rusk to stay and see our set. Next thing he wanted to put out our debut, The R&B of Membership."
Corey Rusk: "I thought they were a great live band with the potential to make great records. They had good chemistry and a real spark."
Gregg Foreman: "Our drummer wasn't working out, so we got Jason Kourkounis from Mule. Mule had moved to Philadelphia, and he was taking the bus down to D.C. We needed a new bass player, and he said he knew this guy in Philly. D.C. was becoming this kind of bad social club, and we thought, 'Why not move the band here?'"
Bruce Reckahn: "I met Gregg at a party, and we started talking about the Stax/Volt box, which was very seminal for me. And then I saw Delta 72 play at Silk City and loved the show. I was really impressed with Gregg. The energy was fantastic."
Gregg Foreman: "I was doing splits and jumping off speakers. We had an in-band joke: An okay show would be a two-split show, but a really good show would be a 10-split show. At this point it had once again become okay for punk to have an element of fashion to it."
Sarah Stolfa:"We would wear these matching suits. We were very into dressing up and putting on a show."
Joey Sweeney (PW contributing editor): "Gregg Foreman, by hook or by crook, did a great thing for the way bands perceive themselves in this city by doing not much more than striking a pose. What you have to understand about Philly rock bands--and really, indie rock bands at large, although we're particularly guilty of it--is that most of these shlubs out there actually think it's okay to take the stage wearing shorts and Tevas. But once Foreman took the scene--first as Ace Face for the Dotcom Age, then as Keef for the post-ironic generation--everyone at least had to consider whether or not his was a cue worth following. A lot of people had one of two knee-jerk reactions. Some said, 'Fuck that ponce, we're gonna keep dressing like Superchunk's roadies.' Others just semed to ape the poor guy wholesale."
Gregg Foreman: "Back then there were no DJ nights that played what I was into--soul music. My first night was at the 700 Club. It was called Delta 72's Maximum R&B, and it was all Love and the Seeds and Otis and Sly and raw funk, but also Can and Wire. I just noticed there was an absence of that kind of crossover of musical styles. I don't know if I had that big of an impact. All I know is that after I moved here, things started changing--a lot. I met some kids who worked at this store called Ideal on South Street. One of them turned out to be Mike Z."
Mike Z.: "I first met him when I was managing Ideal clothing on South Street. He came in with his mom. I was playing the Small Faces in there, and we started talking because he was a big fan. He was doing a party at the 700 Club. He was the first person in Philly to do something outside of the hip-hop/dance realm. We went up to New York to see this DJ night called Shout. It was filled with all these kids who were into '60s soul and rock music and style and dancing. We wanted to do something like that in Philly. And that's when we decided to do the whole Uptight DJs thing."
Gregg Foreman: "We called the night Uptight, named after the Stevie Wonder album and that Velvet Underground biography."
Mike Z.: "We held it at this place called Skyline in Chinatown--that place was pretty shady. It's a parking lot now. The first night we drew about 75 people, but it became a whole thing. We started doing a Brit-pop night--British pop music from the '60s and the '90s called Sorted. Then Gregg started [a '60s and '70s soul music dance party called] the Turnaround. He would have people dancing to these super-rare soul tracks--stuff that nobody had. Even in New York people talk about his soul record collection--a lot of which he got at Val Shively's place."
Val Shively: "He'd come in all the time. He's a trip. We called him 'the Funk Kid.' He's really out there."
Dave Pianka: "I moved into town around 1998. I would go to all these parties. Eventually I came up with the idea to combine them all together in one big place, and that became Making Time."
Gregg Foreman: "The knife incident? Me and Mike Z. went to the Pontiac to see the Rondelles. The drummer in that band is now the singer for the Witnesses--who are great--and I heard he was talking some trash about me. So I went there partially to check them out and partially to instill the fear of God in him. I used to carry a switchblade in my boot. So I walked up to him and pulled it out. It was comical, really. Now we're great friends. And then, like, it ends up in PW. I think Joey Sweeney has a thing for me. I think he's in love with me."
Joey Sweeney: "[The knife incident] was just the tragic misstep of a seriously deluded guy. But then again, who knows? Foreman bought into the Stagger Lee myth more than anybody since Greil Marcus or Tupac Shakur, and maybe all that faux-badass shit he pulled was just an extension of the pose, the clothes ... to say nothing of ... the blow."
Bruce Reckahn: "Most of [Delta 72's] press was overwhelmingly positive, but when it was negative, they would always call us Blues Explosion wannabes. I can't say we weren't paying some attention."
Gregg Foreman: "I had a fistfight with Jon Spencer in Chicago when we were out there recording [1997's] Soul of a New Machine. I was a huge fan, and I still am. I'm amazed that they're not huge and the Hives are. We were all sitting around Lounge Ax--sort of like the Khyber of Chicago--late one night, and I suggested that we do a revue-style tour together. I think he thought I was making fun of him. He just looked at me and slapped me in the face. So I just punched him in the eye and he was really drunk and just fell to the floor. He apologized later. He bought me a shot and got on his knees to give it to me--swear to God--and bowed and said goodnight. And then, a week later, we got a call asking us to go on tour with the Blues Explosion. I was like, 'Wow, I should punch out people more often.'"
Bruce Reckahn: "There was some tension with Sarah. When you're in the middle of it, little things get blown out of proportion. Some might have been personality, maybe being in a van too long with someone. We all could've been more tolerant with each other. Too much of it was directed at Sarah. She started to feel like an outsider, and we didn't do much to remedy that. There were some words between her and Gregg. She quit a few days before we were supposed to leave for a tour in England."
Sarah Stolfa: "The reason I quit was because I no longer wanted to be involved with Gregg Foreman. When I quit and I never even heard from anybody--to this day--I knew I was doing the right thing because they didn't even care that I was gone."
Mark Boyce: "They asked me to play with them right before going to Tokyo, and I jumped at the chance. The fans [in Japan] are over the top. It's the closest you can get to being a C-list rock star. We were put in a hotel and given the star treatment. It was a breath of fresh air after sleeping on floors and in vans. Soon after we came back, we started working on the last album, 000, here in Philly at Tongue and Groove."
Gregg Foreman: "There was a split developing within the band between the people who liked to play and get a good night's sleep and those of us who wanted the cliched life-after-the-show."
Mark Boyce: "At some point during the tour of 000 we started being courted by the major labels. I think we scared away a lot of these guys because we were on an indie label that was giving us 50 percent of everything we sold, and the only way a major could compare to that was to give us a lot of money up front. I don't think we were shy about what we wanted, and that scared off a lot of prospects and led to a lot of infighting. Some of us were pissed off at missed opportunities and starting to see chinks in the armor."
Gregg Foreman: "The summer of 2000 we toured Europe twice and went to Japan, played a couple festivals. We played this one festival in Portugal with Primal Scream, Einstürzende Neubauten, Death in Vegas--I think we got paid like $40,000 to play it. The promoter gave each band a pile of coke. I had never seen hard narcotics in my life before that. I loved it! I was like, 'Sign me up!' And I got kinda wrapped up in it, you know?"
Mark Boyce: "The promoters were over-the-top generous with us. If someone gives you a hunk of hash the size of soap bar, you go with it."
Bruce Reckahn: "It was a big festival, and the grounds were really beautiful. Nice cafes, cobblestone streets, nice hotels. They put a stage on what looked like an old jousting grounds bordered by cliffs. They spent a lot of money on the bands. Backstage accommodations were pretty swank. A lot of coke. It was a great time, but I think that's where some of the problems started and some things started to change."
Mark Boyce: "Being on tour is one thing, but when I get home I need some normalcy. I'm not sure the same was true for Gregg."
Gregg Foreman: "By winter 2001 I was doing my fair share of coke. I was hungry like the wolf. And I got introduced to heroin by accident, because it's a powder just like coke. When it's there on the mirror, you don't really know what you're doing. It just struck a chord in me. I didn't know it, but I had stumbled upon the greatest painkiller of all time. It's like instant Zen--except it's fake. You have to understand it was absolutely everywhere. All the coke people became heroin people, like, overnight. You couldn't get away from it without changing all your friends."
Greg Precht: "His friends were dropping like flies. All these stupid kids were dying. I thought to myself, 'Didn't these kids learn anything from the last 20 years?'"
Gregg Foreman: "It started as a way to come down when the coke ran out. You feel introspective and depressed and your brain is swelling up and you feel awful and a little touch will take away all the pain. Well, you do that three or four nights in a row and all of a sudden you are physically addicted. I didn't know that was possible. I felt like I had a really bad flu, and a friend said, 'It sounds like heroin withdrawal,' and I was like, 'But I don't do heroin.' I knew then that darker days were coming."
Dave Pianka: "It was really bad in terms of the scene. It was a mess. That first Spiritualized show [at the Troc] pulled a lot of people into [heroin]."
Mike Z.: "Lots of people had to move out of the city to clean up. I can't really enjoy Spiritualized the way I used to. Gregg was telling me that he can't listen to a lot of Rolling Stones songs because he associates it with heroin, which sucks because he loved that music."
Gregg Foreman: "A friend of ours, one of the Uptight DJs, died from a heroin overdose. He was the first person I saw who was a scary junkie, like nodding out, not in control. He was 25. We all went to the funeral. You think it would have woken people up, but instead it just drove people in further. It got pretty evil after that. I moved into a house where there were people I would call junkies. You don't have to shoot up to be a junkie. You just need to use every day. My close friend was shooting up 12 bags a day. It would give me constant bronchitis--really bad. I couldn't breathe at all. I wound up in the emergency room a lot, until the time I went in and they told me I only had 7 percent oxygen in my blood. They kept me in until New Year's Eve 2002, when I got out to DJ. A big party in a warehouse in North Philly. Cops broke it up, kid had a seizure, people screwing everywhere. I knew that if I kept doing drugs, I would die, and somehow that didn't seem like a big deal at the time. Eventually a friend and his girlfriend showed me how to shoot it up. I never wanted to be a junkie, and I went through detox a dozen times. But it's gonna be a revolving door until you realize enough is enough. A lot of my friends were afraid I was going to die or maybe the stereo was going to disappear. I went from the town hero to the town antihero. It's like that Stones song, 'Coming down again where are all my friends?'"
Mark Boyce: "Gregg was never really prompt about rehearsal times from the beginning, but it soon got to the point where he would show up an hour late. It gets old. I started noticing there was a problem when he would show up two hours late and really fucked up. The thing about Gregg is that he's a really kindhearted person who'd make up excuses, and you'd just have to buy it. It was kind of fucked up. Whether I was a part of it or not, I knew in the back of my mind that something was snowballing here. It's a cliche for Christ's sake. It's fucked up where you can pull your Keith Richards thing, and the next thing you know you've snowballed into a full-on drug habit."
Mike Z.: "The Delta 72 could have definitely been part of this whole Hives/White Stripes/ Strokes wave, because they were doing the same things years before. And that's sad to me."
Dave Pianka: "These were the kind of things we would say to Gregg in these interventions. You would say to him, 'Gregg, do you see what's going on in music right now? Do you see that you were doing this long before?' And this was back when there was still a possibility that it could happen."
Gregg Foreman: "The time we played with Need New Body at the Knitting Factory I was on heroin onstage--the only time I performed on it. It was awful. Mike Z. was there, and he was watching and thinking, 'Gregg, just open your eyes.' It went from a 10-split show to a no-split show."
Mark Boyce: "The Knitting Factory show was kind of the writing on the wall in a lot of ways."
Bruce Reckahn: "The show was really lackluster. It was really disappointing. You could see it on the face of everyone in the band. We all kind of went our separate ways after the show. We played one more show in Rittenhouse Square, and that was the end."
Gregg Foreman: "The first time I got in trouble with the cops I was walking down by 16th and South. I guess the cops thought I looked fucked up. I was fucked up. They searched me and found a switchblade, which was a novelty knife I got in Germany, and a Xanax, which I have a prescription for. And I missed my [DJ night at Silk City] sitting in the clink. They held me overnight and let me go the next day. You ever spend a night at the Roundhouse? It's evil."
Dave Pianka: "He used his one phone call to call his friend Dana to call me and find a replacement DJ."
Greg Precht: "Despite all his problems he still managed to draw a crowd. No promotion. No flyers. Shows up stoned out of his mind, nodding off behind the turntables, and the place is packed. It's the glamorizing that bothers me. He's old enough to make his own mistakes, but all these kids that look up to him ... they come up to me and say, 'Gregg's been doing drugs a long time, he knows how to handle it, but that girl over there, she tried it and couldn't handle it.' Well, no, he's not handling it. Nobody handles it."
Gregg Foreman: "Heroin always wins. Even when your name is Keith Richards."
Dave Pianka: "There would be times at the Turnaround when he was DJing and the record would just stop and there would be silence and everybody would look over, and you could see it in his face that it was because he was on drugs."
Gregg Foreman: "The next time I got in trouble it was a lot more serious. I was driving a car on the Atlantic City Expressway and didn't have a license. It was raining, and I wound up driving off the road a bit, and the car did a complete 360, and then it wouldn't start. My car broke down. The cops are always on the scene when you don't need them, man. Again, no license, Percocet and Vicodin in the car--none of which was helping my cause. So I missed another Turnaround because I was in jail."
Dave Pianka: "When he missed another Turnaround--that's when I decided I couldn't have him at Making Time any more."
Gregg Foreman: "By that point [Silk City owner] Greg had had it with me, even though my night was doing well. I said to myself, 'This is all you do now. You're a DJ, and you can't even do that. You are losing your soul and your identity.' And that was the end."
Dave Pianka: "He told me he had straightened his shit out. So I let him spin at the last Making Time. I didn't say anything at the time, but it was a test to see if he was going to show up, if he was going to be clean and do a good job. It was his last chance. And he was great. It was like the old Gregg Foreman was back."
Mike Z.: "Before he got into drugs he had to deal with people badmouthing him, and I definitely feel like that pushed him in that direction because he never felt like he got validated. For some reason he rubbed people the wrong way. People in this city get jealous. 'Why's everybody looking up to this kid? What's so great about him? Fuck Gregg Foreman.' That was the attitude of a lot of people in this town. And when he went down probably a lot of people enjoyed seeing that happen."
Dave Pianka: "It would be nice to see him come out of this and do something positive. As a friend, I would like to see that happen for him, but also it would be a middle finger to those people."
Gregg Foreman: "I don't go out anymore. I watch a lot of cable. [Keeping clean] really depends on where you hang out and who you hang out with--places and things, they say. A screwup is one night [back on heroin]. A relapse is a week or more. I've had a couple of screwups. After a while the highs burn out your endorphins, so you are always kinda flat emotionally--or worse."
Dave Pianka: "The songs he's written since the Delta 72 are much more personal. He's a great songwriter. He got up and played by himself last month at the Khyber. Just him and a guitar, and it was really touching."
Mike Z.: "Even better than he was doing before. The Delta 72 were great, but they were a party band. This is not the time for party bands. Things aren't that great--everywhere. It's time to be real."
Gregg Foreman: "I feel like I've lived a billion lives already. I'm not sure that's a good thing."
The Turnaround happens the second Friday of each month at Silk City, Fifth and Spring Garden sts. 215.592.8838
― ELIMINATE THE DRUG-USERS, HOMOSEXUALS AND THE POOR (hstencil), Friday, 25 June 2004 18:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― Neb Reyob (Ben Boyer), Friday, 25 June 2004 18:22 (nineteen years ago) link
well when a person puts themself up on a pedestal and acts condescendingly to others, it rubs people the wrong way and they in turn will refuse to 'validate' them. how something trivial like that would turn someone into a junkie is beyond me.
― sherm, Friday, 25 June 2004 18:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― ddb (ddb), Friday, 25 June 2004 18:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 25 June 2004 18:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― ddb (ddb), Friday, 25 June 2004 18:34 (nineteen years ago) link
hahahaha!
― sherm, Friday, 25 June 2004 18:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 25 June 2004 18:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― msp, Friday, 25 June 2004 18:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― peter smith (plsmith), Friday, 25 June 2004 18:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 25 June 2004 19:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 25 June 2004 19:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 25 June 2004 19:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Friday, 25 June 2004 19:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Friday, 25 June 2004 19:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 25 June 2004 19:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Friday, 25 June 2004 19:52 (nineteen years ago) link
only classic Make-Up song I can think of is "Here Comes The Judge" though I'm burning a bunch of songs from Destination Live and I Want Some for some reason before I sell them back
― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 25 June 2004 19:53 (nineteen years ago) link
Seriously, I live in Philadelphia, and when Gregg first got here and The Delta 72 were happening, it was initially a breath of fresh air (around 96 or 97) when things were a tad stale around these parts and indie rock in general was in a real state of transition. The early parties he threw were sort of novel because there were no rock DJ nights here at the time. (Now of course, there's a zillion). In an indirect way, his chutzpah inspired me to start my own nights, Sugar Town (girl bands/DJ's)
Don't know him that well (just as the writer-band relationship), but strip away the haircut and the drama and gossip and he's an okay guy who's super enthusiastic and knowledgeable about music. I think he just started to believe his own hype. And in a music scene as small as this one, that can happen easily. This of course, doesn't excuse him for (allegedly?) fucking people over, which I really know nothing about.
I take issue more with the shallow morons who followed him around, hung onto every word he said, and then couldn't wait to tear him down so they can build up someone else. It's easier to do that rather than think for yourself. Thinking for some of those folks can have tragic consequences.
The music scene here can be really catty, cliquey, and apathetic, and people love to tear down anyone or anyone with the slightest bit of ambition. As a person really heavily involved with writing and/or booking bands, sometimes all that negativity and apathy can really eat away at you. Which is not a justification to get hooked on junk, but we all self-medicate at times, I suppose.
If I sound like a GF apologist, it's because the dude and his hair have been discussed and analyzed, ad nauseum all over town.
With that said, that article didn't exactly do him any favors around here. The last I heard, he's in Miami and I keep getting visions of a mod Scarface.
― Sara Sherr, Friday, 25 June 2004 23:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― Sara Sherr, Friday, 25 June 2004 23:42 (nineteen years ago) link
sara, you were OTM. anytime ive dj'ed with him, he was nothing but complimentary because i wouldnt pander to obvious shit.
just like valania, you're overlooking his rather serious drug problems. about two summers ago [the summer of cherry coke, i think], there was lots of crazy shit going on. accounts about how he would break into people's homes and take their records; somehow managing to steal the turntables from silk city for drug money. even worse was that lots of his hangers-on turned to the drug as well.
― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Saturday, 26 June 2004 17:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Saturday, 26 June 2004 17:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Saturday, 26 June 2004 17:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― twelve, Saturday, 26 June 2004 19:52 (nineteen years ago) link
When it comes to drugs, I think what people put into their bodies is their business. His drug probs were addressed in the article, and I said that nothing really justifies being an addict. However, if he hurt other people because of it, then their anger with him is justified (like his former bandmates or his real friends or the people he stole records from). Greg's obviously no saint. Since I don't know many of these stories to be true (Maria does), I didn't want to talk out of school.
Like many rock scenes, the kind of drugs you do seem to define your social life, and once you get hooked, quitting means getting brand new friends, behaviors, etc. In a town as small as Philadelphia, this is not easy. Getting hooked on heroin is stupid for sure, but getting clean is probably ten times harder. (Not that I'd really know). Leaving town was probably the smartest thing he ever did.
What I was getting at was people who have had no dealings (good or bad) with Gregg just talking smack (no pun intended) about him because it's fun or it makes you feel superior (other than talking about the merits of Delta 72's music, which is what ILM should be about).
I just didn't want to add another knee-jerk Gregg Foreman knock-knock joke to the discussion.
With that said, I think Jon Spencer and Ian Svenious and Gregg Foreman were the right kind of frontmen for a particular place and time.
― Sara Sherr, Saturday, 26 June 2004 20:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― Sara Sherr, Saturday, 26 June 2004 20:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― Sara Sherr, Saturday, 26 June 2004 20:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― daria g (daria g), Sunday, 27 June 2004 09:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― daria g (daria g), Sunday, 27 June 2004 09:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Sunday, 27 June 2004 16:00 (nineteen years ago) link
totally OTM. hahahahaha.
i was a huge fan of the delta 72. they moved to philly shortly after i came here for college. they definately had an energy that was lacking in local bands at the time. sarah stolfa was inspiring to me, at a time when few girls took to the stage in philly. [well, that hasnt really changed all these years later]
i still think "rich girls like to steal" is a mighty song.
― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Sunday, 27 June 2004 16:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― eedd, Sunday, 27 June 2004 17:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Sunday, 27 June 2004 17:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― sherm, Sunday, 27 June 2004 19:24 (nineteen years ago) link
Even though I have a closet of vintage dresses and go-go boots and about a zillion records from that time period and its 11 revivals,I can totally relate to not feeling hip enough for the room. I always had a mixed relationship with the scenes that sprang out of The Delta 72 and Gregg's early party, "Uptight," which later expanded under the umbrella of the behemoth Making Time. I loved the music, I loved the fashion, and I loved the energy, but I hated the people and the overall vibe. I found those people really unapproachable, and I'm sorry, when you dress mod or '60s in general and get caught up in it all, a big part of it is having a sense of humor and fun. They also didn't support other similar parties going on by people way more knowledgeable, yet less fashionable or "cool." And you couldn't seriously talk about music with those people or damn near anything else. It's sad, how what started off as something very exciting sucked the life and the soul out of the scene, and now all people want to do is go to DJ nights and be hipster fashionistas.
― Sara Sherr, Sunday, 27 June 2004 23:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Monday, 28 June 2004 03:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― daria g (daria g), Monday, 28 June 2004 05:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― daria g (daria g), Monday, 28 June 2004 05:24 (nineteen years ago) link
back on topic: i think i got to see each of ian s.'s bands live up to and including the make-up wherein i lost interest. no idea what the bands he's in now (weird war and scene creamers) are like. i have no problem with people into fashion, except that they tend to not tolerate those that aren't in the know (like me). i mean, that quote above in the gregg f. piece about "shlubs think they can go onstage looking like superchunk roadies" is kinda funny, but ultimately telling about that kind of mindset that a lot those d.c. fashion club kids had/have (curmudgeon alert!).
as far as baltimore scenesters giving attitude (all too familiar with that too), well that's lame. just stomp on their toes or slap them out of their pouty reverie and remind them what city they're from. despite the efforts of certain d.c. wannabes (*cough* convocation of.. *cough*) baltimore is too working-class for any amount of posturing like that to be taken seriously locally.
― sherm, Monday, 28 June 2004 07:26 (nineteen years ago) link
Sounds like Philly has a similar relationship to New York as Baltimore does to DC.
― Sara Sherr, Monday, 28 June 2004 22:25 (nineteen years ago) link
just noticed that i still have my copy of the first n.o.u. 7", probably the best thing they did. i have to hand it to them for not sounding like every other d.c. band and doing something original. the metamatics are probably the only other one i can think of that did this.
― sherm, Tuesday, 29 June 2004 00:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― benito mussolinington (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 00:35 (nineteen years ago) link
(When you said Goodwill I hope that was code for 'a microwave oven.')
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 03:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 04:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― daria g (daria g), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 09:17 (nineteen years ago) link
m.
― msp, Tuesday, 29 June 2004 11:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― St. Nicholas (Nick A.), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 13:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― Al (sitcom), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― hexxy, Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:07 (nineteen years ago) link
Ian Svenonius POX:
"Last Train To Cool""Joy Of Sound" "Pow! To The People" "Born on the Floor""AK-47" "Baby It's The Best""Mockingbird Yeah" "Depression III""I Am Pentagon""Caught Up In The Rapture"
― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― andy, Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:37 (nineteen years ago) link
"They Live by Night""Today I Met the Girl I'm Going to Marry""Cool Senior High School""Evidence Is Everywhere""How Pretty Can U Get""Spectra Sonic Sound"
xpost - I know the Metamatics have a record, that's what I had heard originally but it wasn't mine and I don't have a turntable, had thought there might have been a reissue?
― daria g (daria g), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:42 (nineteen years ago) link
daria - the metamatics s/t is lp only, which is a shame. saw them at fort reno and they were really good, like the contortions but noisier. the singer was also in all scars and i think he does solo electronic stuff. only just learned of the et at it band which also has a girl who was in meltdown and i went to school with. i may have seen the early incarnation of meltdown, they went by the name pleiades, it was pretty cool to see those teens get up and play like that.
anyone remember the happy flowers?. they were kinda like the wolf eyes of the late 80s. they may be my favorite dc band, though i guess technically they were from virginia so they don't count.
― sherm, Tuesday, 29 June 2004 20:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― girls are gay, Tuesday, 29 June 2004 20:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― St. Nicholas (Nick A.), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 20:25 (nineteen years ago) link
not sure if ian and michelle were/are a couple but i always just assumed it.
also, apparently meltdown has a cd out on the archigramophone label.
― sherm, Tuesday, 29 June 2004 21:06 (nineteen years ago) link
Metamatics have a discography CD on Troubleman Unlimited that is amazing (and contains their songs from the split 7" they did with The Make Up, on Svenonius' Black Gemini label). Metamatics drummer Malcolm McDuffie was also in Crom Tech. The singer, Chuck Bettis, now does experimental electronic noise stuff as Trance & the Arcade.Gabe Andruzzi now plays in the Rapture. Anyways, yeah, Metamatics were awesome. I only got to see them once -- opening for Fugazi at Fort Reno (Summer '93 I think), but it was an amazing show.
As you can tell, I am super into all this DC stuff...
― Neb Reyob (Ben Boyer), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 22:01 (nineteen years ago) link
sherm, i think it shut down about 4 years ago for shows. i dont know if seth and the revolving cast of characters still live there anymore. one of the housemates didnt want live music and there was always the fear of being shut down by the cops due to zoning issues.
man, i really miss that place.
― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 01:12 (nineteen years ago) link
Never saw Happy Flowers, but a few years ago they played some reunion shows as an opener for Yo La Tengo. Apparently the one whose stage name is Mr. Anus has a doctorate in something and is doing professional stuff at a think tank. (Wonder what his resume looks like.)
― j.lu (j.lu), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 01:26 (nineteen years ago) link
mr. horribly-charred-infant runs the official happy flowers website. "Dr. Anus" hahaha
― sherm, Wednesday, 30 June 2004 03:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jez (Jez), Thursday, 1 July 2004 05:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― Neb Reyob (Ben Boyer), Thursday, 1 July 2004 15:50 (nineteen years ago) link
one of my roommates is an art transporter/installer and he says he sees the guy pretty frequently at openings and such. always flanked by two attractive girls and looking and smirking at him like "you know who i am, guy who's into punk rock. yeah, this is what i've got going on."
― circa1916, Sunday, 28 March 2010 12:16 (fourteen years ago) link
Not rushing to the defence of IS but I always feel like this kind of thing says less about the guy who can supposedly transmit convoluted sentences with his facial expressions and more about the guy who thinks he's interpreting them
― Not a musician, but I thought of Justin Fashanu for some reason (DJ Mencap), Sunday, 28 March 2010 12:22 (fourteen years ago) link
well, i know my roommate pretty well and he's a smart dude and i trust his takes on things and he and i both still dig Ian Svenonious and his bands. it's just an image to laugh about.
― circa1916, Sunday, 28 March 2010 12:28 (fourteen years ago) link
but yeah, the dude is known to go to openings with a girl on each arm. come on.
― circa1916, Sunday, 28 March 2010 12:29 (fourteen years ago) link
the svenonius book 'the psychic soviet' is totally hilarious.
― *makeitplop* (haitch), Sunday, 28 March 2010 12:44 (fourteen years ago) link
i really enjoy his interviews on the vice tv. he's a funny guy!
― circa1916, Sunday, 28 March 2010 12:47 (fourteen years ago) link
lol @ his new band's song "600,00 Bands": http://www.myspace.com/feltletters
"fifty thousand sound like Can/ fifty thousand sound like Manfred Mann"
― ruh roh I'm having a scooby snack (some dude), Sunday, 28 March 2010 13:48 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zz74pBb4ZA
― Tilda Swinton Wreck Up A Dread Dub (admrl), Wednesday, 8 December 2010 23:54 (thirteen years ago) link
I love all the songs on the Felt Letters MySpace page but I sort of doubt they'll ever put anything out besides that one 7" (which would be a real shame): http://www.myspace.com/feltletters
― She Got the Shakes, Thursday, 9 December 2010 00:00 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2011/02/25/ian-svenonius-on-the-bruise-cruise-maybe-this-is-the-first-step-of-indie-rock-going-vegas/
He's emceeing the Bruise Cruise--garage and indie bands on a Carnival cruise ship
The Black Lips, Surfer Blood, Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, The Strange Boys, Turbo Fruits—and Vivien Girls
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2011/02/25/im-on-a-boat/
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 26 February 2011 00:57 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/40532/bruise-cruise/
That crazy guy
― curmudgeon, Friday, 11 March 2011 14:24 (thirteen years ago) link
saw adds for this and was suspicious but lol Ian cracks me up:
"You think of disco and electro-funk and funk music as being obsessed with space travel. Garage rock—they talk, maybe, about cars, but never boats. In gospel music they talk about the train. Psychedelic bands talk about planes. I’d say garage rock is usually very land-based."
― You hurt me deeply. You hurt me deeply in my heart. (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 11 March 2011 17:14 (thirteen years ago) link
Chain and the Gang!!! this is great
― metally ill (Shakey Mo Collier), Saturday, 4 June 2011 03:18 (twelve years ago) link
I didn't like the record as much as Weird War, but C&tG were so great live. I wish I could remember this one bit he did about waste in the air. the birds are flying around up there in the sky and there's so much waste. think of all of that real estate up there, just being wasted. those birds aren't doing anything with it. haha, I don't know, anyway it cracked me up.
― unmetalled world (wk), Saturday, 4 June 2011 04:22 (twelve years ago) link
Kinda love Chain and the Gang TBH. I love everything Ian does and I don't care if you don't
― Grime Scene Investigation Unit (admrl), Monday, 16 April 2012 22:16 (twelve years ago) link
I dig this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZU1ppG2Hj4
― Grime Scene Investigation Unit (admrl), Monday, 16 April 2012 22:18 (twelve years ago) link
This is pretty much why I like him
― Grime Scene Investigation Unit (admrl), Monday, 16 April 2012 22:23 (twelve years ago) link
Chain and the Gang album is great, one of my favorite things from last year
― Jilly Boel and the Eltones (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 16 April 2012 22:24 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1qu0skW4F0
― Grime Scene Investigation Unit (admrl), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 06:17 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULx01IhtlsI&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLAA4DA8EE338ED155
― Grime Scene Investigation Unit (admrl), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 06:21 (twelve years ago) link
Chain and the Gang live are not so good nor is his other current band Felt Letters. I may be in the minority with such beliefs though. I find his stage presence these days annoying and his vocals less than impressive. Sacrilege I know.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 13:25 (twelve years ago) link
I see from pals on facebook that the Makeup just did a not-publicized reunion gig at tiny little Comet Ping Pong in DC tonight. Kid Congo(DC resident and former member of Gun Club, Bad Seeds, & Cramps) was doing garage oldies with Fugazi's Brendan Canty on drums. I was watching the Orioles beat the Nationals in baseball. Oh well.
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 20 May 2012 04:58 (eleven years ago) link
ha, i almost went up there just for kid congo! welp
― scream blahula scream (govern yourself accordingly), Monday, 21 May 2012 21:56 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2012/05/21/photos-the-make-up-and-kid-congo-powers-comet-ping-pong/
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 02:59 (eleven years ago) link
For some reason this dude "clicked" for me recently in a way that he never did previously. NOU and The Make Up were kind of in the ether when I was in college, and I liked a couple Make Up songs but was mostly never that into them.
― this guy's a gangsta? his real name's mittens. (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 03:01 (eleven years ago) link
Comet is really near where my folks live, wish I had been there. (Unless there's another Comet?)
― this guy's a gangsta? his real name's mittens. (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 03:02 (eleven years ago) link
Just the one Comet. He once kinda clicked for me but Chain & the Gang and Felt Letters, his current groups did not interest me at all when I saw them.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 04:33 (eleven years ago) link
i stand by my bitchy opening one-two up there
― jesus christ (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 04:51 (eleven years ago) link
his book last year -- 'supernatural strategies for making a rock 'n' roll group' -- is the best use of seance since 'the changing light at sandover'
― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 15 April 2013 13:22 (eleven years ago) link
ah thx fro reminding me been meaning to read that
― four Marxes plus four Obamas plus four Bin Ladens (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 15 April 2013 16:04 (eleven years ago) link
looks good, think I will order
― --808 542137 (Hurting 2), Monday, 15 April 2013 16:10 (eleven years ago) link
do yourself a favor
― reggie (qualmsley), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 18:24 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/43510/rock-n-roll-a-manifesto-in-his-new-book-ian/
excerpt, I think
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 18:32 (eleven years ago) link
dan osborn's cover design is perfect
― reggie (qualmsley), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 18:55 (eleven years ago) link
that excerpt is fantastic, and also a great explanation of one of the things that I think is so hard and so elusive and also just crazy about being a successful musician or artist -- you almost have to have this incredible discipline, really, about maintaining a persona/lifestyle apperance/attitude/style.
― --808 542137 (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 21:24 (eleven years ago) link
This is so awesome.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 21:32 (eleven years ago) link
the whole book is awesome. cannot recommend it highly enough
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 17 April 2013 02:29 (eleven years ago) link
well, I ordered it, even paid the extra $4 to get it straight from akashic (sort of demonstrates the market power of amazon that they can undercut even the publisher's direct sales).
― charlie 4chan, internet detective (Hurting 2), Thursday, 18 April 2013 18:22 (eleven years ago) link
finally getting around to this, it is quite awesome
― THIS IS NOT A BENGHAZI T-SHIRT (Hurting 2), Thursday, 30 May 2013 00:27 (ten years ago) link
the book I mean
"because music is not for everyone. most people, in fact, shouldn't listen to it"
― reggie (qualmsley), Thursday, 30 May 2013 17:05 (ten years ago) link
I love this:
To determine a group’s identity, one must first determine what the group is trying to achieve.
Is it the desire to be a) “famous,” or perhaps b) sexually popular? Is it c) to write some good songs in the style of another particular group? Or perhaps is it d) to advance a particular ideological system?
If the intention is a), then we urge you to find another avenue. Fame in a group is fleeting and even when it is attained—which is fairly uncommon—it is subject to the vagaries and whims of an ignoramus public. The group member or singing star is a clown, occasional comic relief for his or her listener, but more often entirely ignored or the subject of ridicule. The fame begotten is so momentary as to be almost like a hallucination, and there is typically little money associated with it. There are much more solid ways to find notoriety, the most reliable being a political career.
Politics don’t require talent, intelligence, or good looks. In the beginning, you won’t even need to own a suit. Just announce some “provocative” (creationist, bigoted, or otherwise reactionary) vitriol into a microphone, and you’ll attract financial backers who will arrange television appearances, fundraising events, and bespoke finery. Your notoriety will be more long-lasting and more pervasive than any fame you could achieve in music. Truly, someone like Donald Rumsfeld, a mediocre government functionary with no discernible talent, intelligence, or charm, is a greater international celebrity than rocker Mick Jagger, who has reached the apex of his craft. Rumsfeld, despite being a has-been, is known in every corner of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa for his insanity and arrogance, while Jagger is admired by a mere couple hundred million music enthusiasts, huddled mostly in the first world.
If b), to be an amorist, is your goal, give up the group as a means to carnal buccaneering. The best thing for you is to pursue a job in advertising, medicine, or the field of “law.” These professions are celebrated by televised propaganda (in programs such as Law & Order, Grey’s Anatomy, and Mad Men), and will provide you with the financial incentives—in the form of real estate, luxury cotton sheets, and perceived stability—required to seduce your prey in the capitalist society.
If your goal is c), to write songs in the manner of another group, this might not be necessary. The group that seems to beg homage or emulation may have disintegrated, but their legacy is probably with us, either on cassette or record—or in video form.
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Thursday, 30 May 2013 17:12 (ten years ago) link
He's got quite a collection of vinyl records. Heard him and Kid Congo alternating on the turntables awhile back playing soul and garage rock 45s
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 30 May 2013 17:24 (ten years ago) link
the whole tone of the book is pitch perfect
― reggie (qualmsley), Thursday, 30 May 2013 17:41 (ten years ago) link
Dude is underestimating the value of "provocative" vitriol in music, and overestimating talent & intelligence.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 30 May 2013 21:30 (ten years ago) link
i don't think you're reading that excerpt right
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Thursday, 30 May 2013 21:34 (ten years ago) link
and also if you read the rest of the book, he isn't
dude is dead-panning like a motherfucker
― reggie (qualmsley), Thursday, 30 May 2013 22:03 (ten years ago) link
Sometimes his deadpanning bugs me. It sometimes comes across as smug or something
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 30 May 2013 22:06 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAq0RcKL45Q
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Thursday, 30 May 2013 22:06 (ten years ago) link
it is undeniably smug
it is also pretty hilarious
― reggie (qualmsley), Thursday, 30 May 2013 22:13 (ten years ago) link
His "Soft Focus" interviews are great too. I think they get brought up upthread a bit.
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Thursday, 30 May 2013 22:20 (ten years ago) link
I love his writing. I can't read it without hearing the voice of David Candy which makes it even funnier.
― wk, Thursday, 30 May 2013 23:14 (ten years ago) link
The powerful associative effect of names is often misunderstood. While fondly thought of, mammalian names are a mistake--unless one chooses a mythical beast. A wild animal is a graceful creature that needs no clothes or grooming to look spectacular, and your onlookers--their expectations heightened--will inevitably be disappointed by the oafish onstage display of whatever crew of humanoids you've managed to muster. "Oh dear," they will say, "they are nothing like wolves/foxes/etc." If one hangs sucha name on one's group, one is raising the bar too high.
Male groups with "Girls" in their name have a similar problem. In literature and film, the "girl" represents the reader's/viewer's pure self-image. The audience is supposed to identify with the "girl," who is innocent, brave, artless, attractive, and clever (e.g., Chihiro of Spirited Away, Pippi Longstocking, and Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz). Film noir is predicated on the opposite idea--that audiences like to identify with cynical, morally bankrupt, been-there done-thats. These roles are typically played by middle-aged men with five o'clock shadows (Humphry Bogart, Glenn Ford, Robert Mitchum). Most groups now resemble the stars of the noir genre, physically if not sartorially. Bands with "Girl" in their name are almost invariably these kinds of hairy and less attractive men. As a rule, then, males should avoid group names with "Girl."
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 31 May 2013 20:28 (ten years ago) link
man I really have to get this
― Mr. Scarf Ace is Back (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 31 May 2013 20:54 (ten years ago) link
hah
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 31 May 2013 22:18 (ten years ago) link
book kind of trails off toward the end (the bits about "conversation" etc.), but he sustains the thing for an admirably long time
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 4 June 2013 18:18 (ten years ago) link
"The internet simultaneously made all music accessible while taking away the necessity of listening to any of it."
http://thequietus.com/articles/12648-ian-svenonius-interview
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 26 June 2013 19:36 (ten years ago) link
Supernatural Strategies book does not disappoint
― Ayn Rand Akbar (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 21 October 2013 16:08 (ten years ago) link
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/film/2013/12/12/ian-svenonius-is-a-movie-director-now/
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 12 December 2013 18:33 (ten years ago) link
apropos of nothing (well not really hah) but i love this pic
http://musformation.com/scenonious.jpg
can find nothing of its context
― napgenius (goole), Friday, 3 January 2014 17:13 (ten years ago) link
Loves Castro: http://www.avclub.com/article/indie-rock-statesman-ian-svenonius-why-he-loves-fi-203930Hates Tipping: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2013/09/against-tipping/
― brio, Thursday, 8 May 2014 21:33 (nine years ago) link
Well, I couldn’t leaveUnless the old man chased me out’Cause I’d already promisedThat I’d milk his cowsI had to say somethingTo strike him very weirdSo I yelled out“I like Fidel Castro and his beard”Rita looked offendedBut she got out of the wayAs he came charging down the stairsSayin’, “What’s that I heard you say?”
― Eyeball Kicks, Thursday, 8 May 2014 22:17 (nine years ago) link
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/46905/xyzs-xyz-reviewed/
XYZ’s spiffed-up, very Francophonic electro and cool temperature are a surprising backdrop for Svenonius’ deadpan-radical shtick. (Spiv supplies the vocals, Balducci the beats, guitars, and throbbing, unsettled electronics.)
says the reviewer. I haven't heard it yet.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 27 February 2015 16:30 (nine years ago) link
I saw Chain and the Gang recently at a DIY venue in Seattle. The audience was largely awful; lots of entitled squares getting dropped off in Ubers who loudly talked through all the bands sets and kept throwing food and trash at the stage; whole thing had a "rich kids trying to act punk but just coming off as assholes" vibe to it. Band was good though, and Svenonius spent most of it admonishing the audience. Looking foward to checking out the XYZ record.
Anyone read "The Psychic Soviet"?
― Tomás Piñon (Ryan), Friday, 27 February 2015 16:53 (nine years ago) link
Both of his books are funny and brilliant!
― JRN, Friday, 27 February 2015 17:20 (nine years ago) link
The Psychic Soviet was great! Wish I could find my copy to reread it!
― "The embodiment of a milkshake" (Whitey on the Moon), Friday, 27 February 2015 19:30 (nine years ago) link
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/going-out-guide/wp/2015/03/18/cocktails-disco-and-the-bill-of-rights-national-archives-to-hold-its-first-after-hours-party/?postshare=3661426685486570
$50 to hear Ian S. dj right near the constitution and such after hours, plus other stuff
the upcoming party for the National Archives' new "Spirited Republic" exhibit, to be held on Saturday, April 18, might just be the best yet. Imagine Ian Svenonious of the Make Up spinning raw soul and punk right in front of the Declaration of Independence, and Derek Brown of the Columbia Room leading TED-style talks about the history of booze in America. Picture a "National Treasure"-themed scavenger hunt through the galleries, while comedians host a screening of the film with live commentary. And in honor of "Spirited Republic," which traces the history of alcohol in America, bartenders from 2 Birds 1 Stone, PX, the Partisan and Bourbon Steak (among others) will whip-up original cocktails as part of the all-night open bar.
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 19 March 2015 17:36 (nine years ago) link
https://www.brooklynvegan.com/ian-svenonius-i-have-been-completely-inappropriate-to-women/
Ian S has now deleted referenced Instagram post he made re being “completely inappropriate to women”. On twitter some are critical of “apology “ for just being written in same over the top manner as his writing on capitalism and communism, and thus not being sincere or really taking responsibility.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 28 July 2020 14:59 (three years ago) link
Oh, the above is on the “ me too” thread as well
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 28 July 2020 15:03 (three years ago) link
ironic hipster in looking and acting like moron shocker― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Friday, June 25, 2004 3:31 AM (sixteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink
― Vapor waif (uptown churl), Tuesday, 28 July 2020 15:16 (three years ago) link
Supernatural Strategies is a fun read, Nation of Ulysses was a great band, and the Make Up was a pretty good band too. But this guy's schtick wears thin after a while and he seems way too old to be doing it now somehow.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, 28 July 2020 15:26 (three years ago) link
from the way he writes, i was half expecting his apology to end with the announcement of a new album
― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 28 July 2020 16:28 (three years ago) link
The Make Up are one of my favourite bands ever and I really do not have the energy to mentally deal with this right now.
― Anti-Cop Ponceortium (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 28 July 2020 16:34 (three years ago) link
This is off-topic, but a few years ago I looked up someone mentioned in this thread (not Svenonius, another musician he once played with) - I had come across some of this guy's old messages in a Royal Trux email group, and was curious what he was up to. As far as I could tell from his Twitter feed, he was living in (South) Korea, and relentlessly tweeting pro–North Korea (and anti–U.S./Western) rapid-response content/propaganda/whatever. Like, people joke about "tankies," but this guy was apparently so devoted to NK and its leadership that he had fervently dedicated himself to the cause. It was pretty bizarre and unsettling... especially because his old messages were so mild-mannered.
― Your dream has symbolic content (morrisp), Tuesday, 28 July 2020 17:35 (three years ago) link
Ned Raggett?
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 28 July 2020 17:41 (three years ago) link
heavens!
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 28 July 2020 17:42 (three years ago) link
;-)
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 28 July 2020 17:42 (three years ago) link
posting live from the Irvine/Costa Mesa DMZ
― Your dream has symbolic content (morrisp), Tuesday, 28 July 2020 17:45 (three years ago) link
I'm of two minds about the Svenonius post. On the one hand, it could be good a sign of sincerity that he admitted to being "completely inappropriate to women" without being specifically prompted by an accusation. But there's a more cynical interpretation, which is that this is just preemptive damage control, so that if someone does accuse him of something he can deny it while pointing to this statement as a mark of his credibility. I'm a fan of his, so I really hope it's the first one.
― JRN, Tuesday, 28 July 2020 17:46 (three years ago) link
xp not to get caught in a sidebar but weirdly, i used to be friends with a US musician, extremely mild mannered hippie folk guy, who also moved to South Korea and got super into posting & tweeting violent pro-North Korea stuff. no way its the same guy but... wtf
― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 28 July 2020 17:48 (three years ago) link
Is it possible their accounts are hacked?
― Boring, Maryland, Tuesday, 28 July 2020 17:53 (three years ago) link
In my case, I scrolled back and checked out replies, etc. (b/c I was so shook by the feed's content), and did find something fairly recent relating to indie music or a record store; so it seemed to check out. But of course I can't be totally positive it was the same guy.
― Your dream has symbolic content (morrisp), Tuesday, 28 July 2020 17:58 (three years ago) link
Followed him on IG but he was always posting photos of his Escape-ism collaborator (I think?) Alexandra Cabral that were off and creepy somehow.
― Donald Trump Also Sucks, Of Course (milo z), Tuesday, 28 July 2020 18:05 (three years ago) link
yeah i unfollowed him bc of that - definitely a gross weird vibe to a lot of that.
(xp my north korea guy def not hacked because i used to get into arguments with him on facebook until i blocked him. he would be talking about how the days of us decadent western dogs were numbered, and i'd call him out for his, shall we say, less-than-revolutionary lifestyle when i knew him stateside.)
― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 28 July 2020 18:13 (three years ago) link
Followed him on IG but he was always posting photos of his Escape-ism collaborator (I think?) Alexandra Cabral that were off and creepy somehow.― Donald Trump Also Sucks, Of Course (milo z), Tuesday, July 28, 2020 1:05 PM
― Donald Trump Also Sucks, Of Course (milo z), Tuesday, July 28, 2020 1:05 PM
That's his girlfriend. (Not sure whether that'll make it more or less creepy.)
― JRN, Tuesday, 28 July 2020 18:38 (three years ago) link
less, since she could presumably object to them if she had a problem with it
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, 28 July 2020 19:55 (three years ago) link