Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
it occurs to me we haven't spent enough time on Ms. Rodewald.  I've been
thinking that her background vocals on the Dutch Painter CD contribute a
real nice extra dimension. nice to see her in a higher profile role in
WB. And upon reflection, it occurs to me that male/female combination vocals
have always been a rarity in the rock/pop landscape, notwithstanding
exceptions (Mamas and Papas, Jefferson Airplane, Fleetwood Yak)
  

    

X is another exception
  

    
I just ran across a TNP review that mentions Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson 
by comparison - of course! I also liked this one:

"Brian Wilson meets Gilbert & Sullivan to score lyrics by e.e. cummings on 
acid. Lennon & McCartney meet Cole Porter in Jimmy Webb's basement. Barry 
White on helium sings Frank Zappa outtakes."
http://www.cosmik.com/aa-october00/reviews/review_stew.html

I did a search on Heidi's name and found some interesting stuff, including...

http://mrhollywood.freewebspace.com/cgelton.html
http://www.theventures.com/tracks/w2000tl.htm
http://www.wednesdayweek.com/meet/heidi.htm

I like this one best:
http://www.wednesdayweek.com/gallery/rhino02/heidistew.htm
  

    
>Another thing I noticed recently; the opening horn obligato is very
>similar to the horn solo preceding the bridge to BLT.  Sweet! 

While for the most part close analysis of plain old pop music is often
a dubious (doobie, us?) venture - I have to come clean and say we
throw little things like that in on all of our records just for folks
who might catch it by accident... or from listening real hard. Glad you
caught it.
  

    
>lyrics by e.e. cummings on acid.

wow! (i think).
  

    

>Glad you caught it.

Glad you pitched it.  

>doobie, us?

Oh, yeah.

I'm a fan.  Open house at the studio today; I played WB for anyone who
would listen.
  

    

Alan, you have to get the other records!!
  

    

That's the plan.
  

    
So Stew, given the crowd you run with and so on, what's your feeling
about record companies? I know nothing of this Smile label your stuff
is now on, but I gather it's just some kind of small indie. Have you
ever wanted to be on a major label? Do you currently wish you were on
one? Or do you think this smaller-scale approach makes it easier for
you to reach the folks you're trying to reach? 
  

    
I would follow that question up with the observation that neither the 
small local chain (suburbs) nor the hip local indy shop (downtown, close 
to the college) carry Stew or TNP records, that I have been able to find. 
However, I found _the Naked Dutch Painter_ at Best Buy.
  

    
>Have you ever wanted to be on a major label? 

no. my band grew up in an era in which there was a great deal of
healthy scepticism surrounding the subject of major labels. we watched
various friends get signed to majors back in 95/96 when we just started
out and by 97/98 when we started going strong on our own little label
they were telling us "We wish we had done it your way." I used to hear
this enough times to know that being on a major could only be bad for
us. We have friends on majors who had their records shelved and then
they wouldnt even be able to afford to buy them back from the label.
that would have made me crazy. 

>Or do you think this smaller-scale approach makes it easier for
>you to reach the folks you're trying to reach? 

Our current label has great distribution but is not as in touch with
the mom and pop stores as we'd like them to be. So while its nice to be
able to tell people they can find the record "anywhere" the problem is
"anywhere" usually ends up being some giant chain that lotsa people
who know about us would never even shop in. So there are ups and downs.
We are still trying to get our label to understand the mom and pop
side of things...while i'm sure there are small bands like us wishing
they were in Best Buy. 

This side of the bizz is quite annoying to me. Record companies amaze
me -- for the most part i hear the same thing from all artists -- "My
record company doesnt understand me." And while i used to think they
were all being whiners i'm starting to see their points. It is not in a
big money making machine's nature to understand something small and
interesting. The music bizz visionaries have left the building, it
would seem. What we are left with are hustlers and peddlers who might
just as well be selling donuts or luggage. 

at the end of the day i still think playing all over the place is more
important than having a record company. if tomorrow i was told i was
no longer connected to my label, i'd be perfectly happy burning my own
cds and selling them at shows and via our site. Having a label
ultimately is only good if they really understand you and they are
willing to make a business commitment which is equal to the artistic
commitment you as the artist are willing to make. 
  

    
>Or do you think this smaller-scale approach makes it easier for
>you to reach the folks you're trying to reach? 


every time i find myself playing for a young crowd i always tell them
"Its your parents we want." but their parents dont go to hip indie
stores. i hear from my record buying friends that late 30's early 40ish
folks dont like going into hip indie stores all that much because it
gets harder and harder to fight the urge to slap some pimply face punk
in the face with a Pedro the Lion t-shirt who sneers at your Stones
purchases.   
  

    
Oh, gosh. Bands of roving musicians telling kids "I have come for your
parents." I'm not sure what to think about that.
  

    

Hence "High Fidelity"
  

    

> The music bizz visionaries have left the building, it would seem.

Sure seems like it.

The November VANITY FAIR -- their Music Issue -- has some wonderful stuff,
including a richly nasty history of Warner Bros. Records.  Though it feels
like it was edited with a Cuisinart and could have been (and maybe will be) a
book, there's plenty of information in there.  I grew up in the Mo Ostin era,
buying those "loss leader" albums for a buck and getting turned on to much
great music; by the time Lenny W. left the building, there were nothin' but
suits callin' the tune, and WB has nothing for me any more.

(P.S.  The other great thing in the November VF is an oral history of the
British Invasion that is a must-read and also ought to be expanded into a
book.)
  

    

> at the end of the day i still think playing all over the place is more im-
> portant than having a record company.

These days, the best way to sell records is to get out there and play gigs.
  

    
And you're damned lucky if the kind of music you play allows that,
instead of being heavily dependent on studio trickery. Well, maybe not:
it's probably a lot less taxing just to mime to tapes. 

Stew, at one point you said something about having Negro Problems
scattered across the country, so that you could just travel with Heidi
and maybe one or two other people and pick up the additional musicians
you needed here and there. Is this Modular Problem concept still in
existence? 
  

    
>Oh, gosh. Bands of roving musicians telling kids "I have come for
your
>parents." I'm not sure what to think about that.


sorry i wasnt more clear...thats one of the "jokes" in my act. always
gets a good laugh. i didnt mean we say stuff like that in a serious
way. its just one of those jokes that also happen to contain a funny
truth, a truth thats central to what we're about. that said, we do seem
to have an unusually large amount of youngsters who say they've turned
their parents on to us and vice versa. 
  

    
>by the time Lenny W. left the building, there were nothin' but
>suits callin' the tune,

i had the privelege some years ago to meet privately with Lenny W.
over at Dreamworks and he was the most charming man in the world. I
fully expected him to be this cigar chomping heavy and he turned out to
be a real nice & insightful guy. He is the last one out there. 
  

    
>These days, the best way to sell records is to get out there and play
>gigs.

i think that goes for bygone days as well as today. nothing advertises
better than two things: a great live act or your friend telling you
you missed a great live act. in the case of the latter, theres nothing
you can do to fill that gap 'cept run out and buy the record.
  

    
Which your friend then comes back and says "Hey, they're *much* better
live" so now you *gotta* go see them when they come back. 
  

    
===Stew, at one point you said something about having Negro Problems
scattered across the country, so that you could just travel with Heidi
and maybe one or two other people and pick up the additional musicians
you needed here and there. Is this Modular Problem concept still in
existence?====

Yes, the concept is still in existence but its really not a Negro
Problem thing at all. Its for the Stew stuff. The Negro Problem is not
really a touring entity any more. 

At present we have a drummer located in NYC who is our east coast man.
His name is Marty Beller and he played on Guest Host and has toured
with us extensively in the Stew thing. On the west coast we have
several drummers, Josh Baldwin who does alot of TNP stuff and Nelson
Bragg who does alot of Stew stuff. Our keyboard pool is massive and
mostly consists of great singer/songwriters who are terribly busy with
their own careers: Adam Marsland from Cockeyed Ghost, Carolyn Edwards,
Morley Bartnoff from Cosmo Topper, Danny McGough whose played with Tom
Waits & Shivaree. Also, Rob Tucker from Foam Rubber Sole. We've also
been playing and touring for awhile now with the great Lisa Jenio,
leader/lead singer/songwriter of Candypants, who sings backups and
plays flute for us. Look for Candypants' record on the Sympathy label.
Its great. Our current 7 piece line-up also includes Susan West of
Sparklejets on b-vocs. And of course Probyn Gregory of Brian Wilson,
Wondermints & Eels fame on trumpet, guitar and dashiki.
  

    
>Which your friend then comes back and says "Hey, they're *much*
better
>live" so now you *gotta* go see them when they come back. 

thats the drill. 
back to bitching about record companies for a sec - 
a friend said recently over dinner that record companies should be
banks for bands. now i know as a corporate motto that statement might
cause  scores of CFOs to start ordering cyanide lattes at starbucks BUT
his point was keeping a band out on the road is really the only way to
put them in a postion to sell records. This goes back to my statement
about live shows being the best advertisement for a record.
  

    
Yeah, but keeping a band out on the road shouldn't be the record
company's business: it should be the band's management's business. The
business of the record company is to sell records, for which, in a
perfect world, they make money and the artist makes money. It's
management's business to see that the deal with the record company is a
good one while making sure the act plays ever more lucrative gigs. 

Sorry, I musta drunk some Polyanna juice this morning. 

Incidentally, Stew, who is your manager? 
  

    

Record companies used to invest in tour support, because they knew that
getting a band out on the road was the best way to sell records.