FULIGIN@UMass.BITNET (Peter E. Lee) (10/18/86)
>From: ebm@ingres.berkeley.edu (Grady Toss) >> 2) I taped our station copy of the Severed Heads' "Come Visit The Big Bigot" >> about a week after we got it (quite a while ago now) and I find it creeping >> into my walkman with frightening regularity. I am not familiar with any of >> the band's previous material however. Any recommendations from the SH fans >> out there as to what else I should hunt down by the band? > >My first recommendation is that you hunt down a copy of "Come Visit the Big >Bigot" and BUY IT. Or maybe just send a dollar or two to the Severed Heads >directly. I probably will buy it eventually, BUT... 1) I am a DJ. Simply playing the band's music on my show brings it to an audience that has been reasonably estimated to be several thousand people, many of whom might not otherwise have heard it at all, and some of whom will probably be intrigued enough to buy it. (In fact, I have gotten calls specifically about the Severed Heads by people asking about where to find the LP, because they had heard several cuts from it on my show over the course of several weeks). The record was sent to our station in hopes that the program director would listen to it, like it, and program it so people would hear it, appreciate it, and buy it. Since I program my own show, I consider myself it's program director. In taping the LP, I give myself a chance to become better acquainted with the music and to see where it will fit in. Playing the record, I think, provides a much greater service to the band than simply buying it. 2) I don't have an infinite amount of money to spend on records (if only I did...) As is, I spend an average of $20 per week on records that I can't find at the station or that I really want, or that look like they might be good. To find more good, new music I also periodically sign out our production studios and tape interesting looking/sounding new releases. This lets me hear music I might not otherwise have found (the Severed Heads, fr'instance), and having a tape to play on my walkman (I'm thinking of having it surgically implanted, but I'd have to spend my record money on it, so it's not too likely) lets me get acquainted with stuff I might have dismissed on the first listening. In summary, the records were sent to the station for the DJ's to get acquainted with. By playing a record on my show, I am doing far more for the band than simply sending them the 5 or 10 cents in royalties that they probably recieve for each copy sold. And finally, I always end up buying my own copy of the records that I REALLY like, and at the moment I'm likely to spend a good deal of money on the other pieces of the SH catalog that people have so kindly recommended... To Sue - I already have my tickets for the Woodentops' Boston show - I got them as soon as I found out about the gig. It's at the Paradise on October 29th (a Wednesday) for those Boston area Love Hounds who didn't already know. Tickets, as I recall, are $7.50 and it promises to be a great show, so be there! Also, buy tickets now for Shriekback w/ Love and Rockets at the Metro November 6th. (Under-age Shriekback fans can see them the next night at the UMass Amherst Blue Wall, but I don't know about L&R). Oh yeah, The Lucy Show will be playing next door at Spit on the 6th as well... Funk pop a roll consumes my soul, -Peter Fuligin%UMass.bitnet@WISCVM.WISC.EDU ----- "Life is a minestrone, served up with parmesan cheese. Death is a cold lasagna, suspended in deep freeze." -10cc