Date: Sun, 28 Jul 1996 20:45:07 -0500 From: o-o-o (gruisinger@CCTR.UMKC.EDU) Subject: Snippets circa 1985-1987 I was leafing through the old 4AD issue of _Emigre_ (#9), and figured some might like to (re)read some of the more timeless thoughts. All these quotes come from issue #9 of Emigre, which in turn culled many of them from various previous interviews. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Liz Frazer: "I just wish people would stop comparing the live shows to the records." Robin Guthrie: "They do that because it's not a wholly live thing - we use a tape. Nobody is ever sure how much is on tape. It could all be on tape as far as some are concerned. Actually, to tell the truth, we're playing a gig tonight. We just switched on the machine and didn't bother to show up. I wonder whether anyone would notice?" [originally from Melody Maker] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Ivo Watts-Russell: "The Cocteau Twins and Colourbox are licensed to Virgin Records in the rest of the world, excluding North America. It's a three-year arrangement. The rest of the groups are occasionally released abroad, but I tend to work with independent licensees, whereby I sell them finished records. I got fed up with having licensees all over the place who did very little for the groups and even fucked up the covers. I quite prefer working with smaller independents who at least distribute two or three thousand good-quality records in their own territories, with the packaging exactly as it should be." [originally from The Offense Newsletter] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Rudy VanderLans (with reference to This Mortal Coil): You have a distinct preference for a few artists when it comes to doing cover versions. There are three Tim Buckley songs you did. Ivo Watts-Russell: Tim Buckley, throughout his career, and I don't know how many records he made, eight or nine, went through so many different phases and forms of music and, to me personally, achieved so much. And his voice... well anybody would recognize that I enjoy the human voice, and I find Tim Buckley's quite exceptional. And "Song To The Siren," which I ended up doing on "It'll End In Tears," is probably the most beautiful song ever written by anybody. a great job singing it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Ivo Watts-Russell: "Tim Buckley's "Starsailor" is one of the most uncomfortable records I've ever heard. I still find it a difficult experience listening to it and, at the end of side one, there's this beautiful song, "Song To The Siren", and his voice is fucking stunning. It's probably the most important song ever to me, it's moved me more than anything." [originally from Melody Maker] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- to have a graphic designer [refering to Vaughan Oliver] on staff. How important is sleeve design for you? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Robin Guthrie: "The Sleeves are for putting records in. I wouldn't want people to buy our records because they saw a picture of us. I mean they wouldn't anyway." [originally from Q] Date: Thu, 17 Apr 1997 16:19:28 -0500 From: Jeremy L Orr Subject: Emigre! ---from Jon: > The defunkt (?) Emigre label had some pretty nice stuff > Basshead, Supercollider, Fact 22, Every Good Boy, all had > rather multi-textured artwork. Oh man! I can't believe I forgot to mention Emigre in my post last night! I do think Emigre has given up on it's ambitions to become a label, which is unfortunate, but they're still doing graphic design, and always great stuff at that. I always assumed there was a lot of mutual influencing (though perhaps indirect) going on between them and v23. A lot of the music they've put out is really remarkable. Supercollider's two albums are among my favorites, and I would even go so far as to call them one of the VERY few truly original groups this decade has offered up. I wish I could adequately describe their sound, but I have to leave for work in half an hour. Fact TwentyTwo, Basehead (since moved on to Imago), and Honey Barbara all deserve honorable mentions as well. So far, they've released three compilations, all of which are pretty nifty (the third one featured list favorites Cindytalk) and usually pretty cheap, as well. Speaking of cheap...if you've ever had an urge to check out Emigre's music, now would be a good time - the catalog I got a couple weeks ago says that now you can buy the 12 proper album-length CD's they released for only $59, AND get the set 10 ten promo posters for said albums absolutely free. Check out their web site at www.emigre.com (where else?) for more info... ---Jeremy "Friends are people who can tear one another apart."