murderedman wrote:

mr.arrison wrote:Geffen gave me Nirvana in frathouses and a shitstorm of anal-blast "indie rock" in the wake.

He also gave us Laura Nyro and Judee Sill.

YES! But Geffen reportedly held a longstanding grudge against Nyro for not signing to Asylum.

jayryan wrote:...a couple weeks later, i go into starbucks (which i regard as my one large name-brand corporate consumer weakness) and the woman behind the counter, i soon realize, is this marilyn, from the bike shop. she says, really loud and accusingly, "jay! you go to starbucks?!"

and i say, "you work at starbucks?"

To which she says, "I have to, because my save the world non-profit can't afford to give me any benefits, so I can work here only part time and get them. Plus they pay me on time."

Essentially her Sbux job allows her to work 20 hours a week doing something else that she actually likes, without being exposed like 48 million Americans are. Same thing if she were in a band. You'd have to work about 40 to get that anywhere else, which would leave less time for fixing bikes or rocking out.

BAD old Starbucks...

Ideal? Hardly, but my friends who wait tables don't get any of that stuff AND they work hard, late hours.

-A

alex maiolo wrote:

mr.arrison wrote:

steve wrote:Aligning oneself with douchebags is what people are objecting to.

Who is this douchebag everyone is talking about? Pardon me, but I'm giving more credit to MR. STARBUCKS founder than to DAVID FUCKING GEFFEN.

Geffen gave me Nirvana in frathouses and a shitstorm of anal-blast "indie rock" in the wake.

Starbucks gives me consistently OK coffee almost anywhere.

My point for 18 pages now.
Well said. Even with the dildo, fart and piss talk.
What am I saying, especially with the dildo, fart and piss talk.

-A

Maybe, but their corporate stinky shit hands in the cookie jar of music is fucking sleazy and dirty. To strike up a partnership with a major label works is a soulless, fucked up act. It is pretty much sidestepping a core audience (which Sonic Youth pre-Geffen built up quite large) in favor of mainstream success which requires a dull, idiotic, weak-minded mass to pick up your album along with a 24-pack of coke and a carton of smokes at the local Wal-Mart. It is in-fucking-sane to me that people think that operating within in a corporate framework is a logical step forward and an overall positive thing to do.

Let's not forget that Sonic Youth had a large and loyal fanbase and made enough money to live off their band after (and before) the release of Daydream Nation. They jumped ship to Geffen out of greed. This whole "SY did it so they could give a leg up to other bands" got a lot of groups up shit's creek without a fucking paddle.

I can easily ignore this. My opinion of Sonic Youth's music being great won't change because I already have accepted the fact they are all sell out shitheads. I can even go so far as to say that I don't look at them as bad people in person. I had the opportunity to meet Lee and Thurston years back when I saw them in Chapel Hill and they were very polite and intelligent. But business-wise they are still sell outs. They traded in complete artistic freedom and underground punk rock ethics for major label success and Letterman spots. So fuck them for that. Dirty had some good songs...under a slick layer of corporate bullshit. Same goes for every record after that. I can still easily ignore the Geffen label and now the Starbucks label on a Sonic Youth related CD...but I expect a lot out of artists that I love (call me crazy to do so, especially out of band who truly changed my approach to music in general like Sonic Youth) in all different aspects of their existence. My respect for people that operate within square of decency and integrity is limited to folks that don't sign deals with Geffen or Starbucks, or any other corporate cunt label. It is bad enough that even independent labels are signing subsidiary deals with majors to suck off some corporate cash for themselves while still retaining a shred of "credibility."

Fuck the lot of them. If only Sonic Youth made terrible music, it'd be incredibly easy for me to write them off entirely as another one of those "they suck now, but way back when..." bands.

j_harvey wrote:

jayryan wrote:tangent:

there is a non-profit, vaguely anarchist bicycle reclamation co-op in evanston, run by volunteer folks in their 20's. they collect bikes, fix and rebuild them, and ship them to guatemala, etc... nice place, nice folks, you can picture them exactly. i was there finding a part for my bike, and met this woman, named marilyn or something.

a couple weeks later, i go into starbucks (which i regard as my one large name-brand corporate consumer weakness) and the woman behind the counter, i soon realize, is this marilyn, from the bike shop. she says, really loud and accusingly, "jay! you go to starbucks?!"

and i say, "you work at starbucks?"

Somewhere over on the other side of the internet at guatemalabikehippies.com they are having a heated discussion about whether or not Jay Ryan is a sellout for going to Starbucks.

Oddly enough, it's right above the Crap/Not Crap about wearing Birkenstocks while riding your bike.

Christopher J. McGarvey wrote:Oddly enough, it's right above the Crap/Not Crap about wearing Birkenstocks while riding your bike.

This afternoon's 20 page thread about Widespread Panic releasing their new CD through Hot Doug's was a rager.

-A

the patchourizo sausage with LSDijon was not surprisingly awful.

kerble wrote:the patchourizo sausage with LSDijon was not surprisingly awful.

You should really try the giant SPAM dildo sausage marinated in dog food gravy, cat piss and fart fragrance.

This is kind of off-topic...But you know, Sonic Youth have been self-releasing records on the SYR label for a few years, and they definitely have a huge fan-base.
So could someone explain to me what stops them from just putting out their "mainstream" records out on their own or on a bigger indie (like merge, sub pop, whoever), where they'll get a much higher royalty rate and sell nearly as many copies of their record?

It seems asinine to re-sign with Geffen or do this deal with Starbucks unless they're still worried about exposure. It just seems like they'd make a hell of a lot more money doing it on their own or with an independent label.

Maybe I'm naive or ignorant to different areas of the record industry.

NerblyBear wrote: Like I said, though, I think that this is a hoax of Thurston's.

What is interesting and revealing to me is that there COULD be debate whether or not he is pulling a hoax.

That I can read that interview and think "well, SY on a fucking Starbucks mix? That makes sense," is pretty sad to me, and sad to the old cassette copy of "Bad Moon Rising" I have in the basement.

how is this whole thing any different to itunes or myspace having an exclusive tribute/celebrity playlist