Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
That part of town is the model for the "Berlin system," though,
whereby squatted houses are legal if the landlord doesn't do anything
to bring them up to code and the squatters, with subsidy from the city,
do. Lotta places right around there got done over that way. And
several other cities have adopted that model here in Europe. It's
proven to really improve certain urban neighborhoods.
  

    
hey gans - coffee grinder. nice. my fave hidden track is on this
record by a band called The Shambles. Its starts off as a live song of
theirs but then suddenly you hear footsteps and the music gets more and
more faint til you realize that its a person walking out of their show
and getting on a scooter (they are a mod band) and driving away.
  

    
i was in berlin from 84 to 86 and then from 89 to 91.
  

    

> hey gans - coffee grinder. nice.

The piece is a colelction of sounds recorded in a rented house over a weekend
-- down the kitchen drain and up into a hot tub, etc.

> Its starts off as a live song of theirs but then suddenly you hear
> footsteps and the music gets more and more faint til you realize that its a
> person walking out of their show and getting on a scooter (they are a mod
> band) and driving away.

Oh, that sounds like fun.
  

    
So you were here for the party!

Actually, another reason your German friends were possibly more ready
to actualize these sorts of plans is that subsidy for the arts isn't
just a pipe-dream here (or, well, wasn't until recently, anyway). The
idea that your wacky project could get some serious dough behind it
with no strings attached is a European reality in a lot of places. 
  

    
plugz,

TNP is at Spaceland in Silverlake CA on nov. 9th.

also, TNP is opening for Blondie on sat nov. 16 at the Warfield in SF
and on monday nov. 18th at the Wiltern in LA.

I also found out that the Stew thing at the Lincoln Center penthouse 
is definitely on. Tickets are already on sale. The gig is April 3rd.
  

    

And Stew is playing the Knitting Factory here in New York on Nov. 20.
  

    

Excellent!
  

    
>Actually, another reason your German friends were possibly more ready
>to actualize these sorts of plans is that subsidy for the arts isn't
>just a pipe-dream here (or, well, wasn't until recently, anyway). The
>idea that your wacky project could get some serious dough behind it
>with no strings attached is a European reality in a lot of places. 

uh, actually in our case you couldnt be more wrong. The folks i was
dealing with back in 84 would have spat at the idea of government
"anything". Places were still being raided back then. Not all the
squats were legal at that time. The guys who built our little house
were hard left diy guys who were extremely mistrustful of big
institutions.

That said, i would have jumped at the chance of a grant or something
but we were too busy having fun to get it together.  
  

    
and Maxwells in New Jersey on the 21st.
  

    
>on our records our vocals tend to be louder

Generally, I agree (at least on WB).  But sometimes the enunciation is
still indistinct.  In BLT, the character imagines a condo with a
[....} married to a trailer park Belmondo, etc.  Couldn't make out that
little phrase, which, presumably indicated a female character.

So I plugged the phrase "trailer park Belmondo" into Google and it let
me understand you're talking about a "low-rent Jeanne Moreau".
<http://www.artlung.com/smorgasborg/BermudaLoveTriangle.shtml>

To a certain extent, this indistinction is sort of cool, letting the
audient "fill in the blank".  It's stimulating to the imagination.  The
"want to put you in a pop coma" (is it "coma" by the way?) line is
preceded by a vocalization that could be "they'll" or could be "don't".
 Interesting either way, but one (or perhaps a third one I haven't
thought of) is the intended meaning.  No google entry for "want to put
you in a pop coma", alas.

I'm ambivalent about lyric sheets.  If the artists don't want to
furnish them, that's their prerogative.  But I must admit that being
able to get pretty much any lyric ever written off the net when I need
it for a project is convenient.
  

    
Ummm, Lincoln Center Penthouse..? What *is* that gig, anyway? (I may
even be in the neighborhood). 
  

    
>So you were here for the party!

yeah, but the party got ugly kinda fast.
  

    
the lincoln center gig is sponsored by this group called - i think -
the american songwriters institute. i've been too busy to totally
research it but i think the blurb they sent us said something about
them having honored everyone from the guy in magnetic fields all the
way back to tin pan alley folks. i really know little more about them.
  

    

Stew, my fiance and I have music playing nearly constantly in our 
apartment.  Your music was one of the first we bonded over together, and 
it remains possibly our favorite for singing together while doing things 
around the house.  "The Great Leap Forward" is a particular favorite; when 
you were here in New York doing a TNP show a few years ago, I requested it 
and you were kind enough to play it solo before playing the encore you had 
planned, which was a thrill.

So, belated thanks for that, and may I ask what the song is about; what 
inspired it?
  

    
Nope, couldn't find anything under American Songwriters Institute. 
  

    

Also, my fiance, a stone-cold Fifth Dimension fanatic, wonders whether 
Bones Howe and that whole late-sixties style of vocal arrangements is 
something you like, or any influence on what you do?
  

    
"The Great Leap Forward"...that's from Stew Sings For Swinging Lovers,
right? 

And Stew, what's with the Air Jamaica Blues and Jazz Fest? You goin'
yard? 
  

    
i think its "dont wanna" regarding the pop coma thing.

this lyric sheet/enunciation thread is funny to me this morning cuz
last night one of our fine local radio stations was playing a
devastating OG blues set (Patton, Son House, etc) and when i'm
listening to that stuff (poorly recorded + HEAVY black southern drawl)
i actually brace myself - i get into this completely focused state -
adopting an almost catlike intensity - so i can catch every word
they're saying. I'm a pain to be around cuz nobody can talk when i'm
listening to that stuff. But the cool part is when i do catch a
complete verse its this MAJOR payoff. It feels so good. The lines are
generally so funny and clever i feel like it was well worth the work.
  

    

Go to http://www.lincolncenter.org/ and search for Stew.  Two shows on
April 3, 8:00 and 10:00.  
  

    
hey scraps thats very cool. who woulda thunk that our music would work
for lovers? 

great leap forward is a deeply pessimistic song that points to both
disgruntled postal workers and naacp spokespeople as being delusional
people who havent made the "leap" towards realizing that they are
basically powerless and just going thru empty motions. it was probably
inspired by one of those postal worker shootings. (and for those of you
who dont know the song, my postal worker does not kill anyone - lest
you think i was describing a mass killing as an "empty motion"). 

lyrically it is nothing close to what i would hold up as an example of
my best work. that said, its one of the most popular songs we've ever
done. its my hope that the music itself (vocals and all) transcends the
lyric's limitations

Also, i'm a sucker for all those BIG socialist catch phrases. so i
probably just wrote it as an excuse to sing the title. 

back when the song was a live set staple lotsa folks took the line
"you cant fight city hall except with a bomb" as me being pro
terrorism. wrong.
  

    

Well, I wonder what they made of "except with yer momma," then.

We love the vocal leaps on "=you= can't fight" at the end of the song, 
even though we can't quite handle them.
  

    
>Also, my fiance, a stone-cold Fifth Dimension fanatic, wonders
whether 
>Bones Howe and that whole late-sixties style of vocal arrangements is

>something you like, or any influence on what you do?

oh dear, the 5th D + Webb are gods & godesses. thankfully we didnt
start out TRYING to be like them. but that element has always been
there. folks started pointing it out as far back as 96. 
i hadnt heard the 5th since back in the day and i owned none of their
records -- and still dont. but without question they are the only group
that TNP will bow to. 

During the period where we were concentrating on my solo work, I kept
thinking that the next TNP record should have a real "vocal group"
sound. I even wanted to bring in a guy with a low voice to offset me
and rodewald and perhaps add another female voice. But that never
happened cuz we really cant make records that are already figured out
before we go in the studio. 
One day we'll make that record. but probably not.

now is as good a time as any to talk briefly about the way - the
misunderstood way - that influences work and dont work. the 5th
dimension is a great place to start. i never ever listened to a 5th D
cut and said "lets do that." However, if you put girls and boys
together who like to sing trade off vocals parts and such and if the
songwriter has a reasonable grasp of melody, it may end up sounding
like 5th D whether the group intended to or not. I think thats also
what happened. If anything, i might be more influenced by the "idea" of
the late 60's vocal group sound - rather than being directly
influenced by one specific group or another. thats the end of my deep
exploration into the nature of influences. cliff notes available on
request.
  

    
By "late '60s vocal group sound," you mean more 5th Dimension/Mamas &
Papas than, say, Tempts or Miracles or Manhattans? 
  

    
throw this in the "Nothing Ever Works Out As Planned" file:
"Great Leap" was originally a demo made during the recording of PMS
for fun. it was recorded on top of a loop of our drummer Charles. We
were sposed to later on record it with the full live band. But Producer
Andrew Williams was smart enough to say "this should go on the
record." i was against it originally. mostly cuz my wurlitzer playing
is atrocious on it - thinking as i did at the time "this'll never see
the light of day."