I slept in Slymenstra Hymena’s bed, for the record! No, she wasn’t in it at the time, unfortunately (underneath the blood and costumes, she’s a hottie), but it was still neat.
I did an interview with them for Livewire magazine many moons ago from their factory HQ in Richmond.
Yes, you can officially be jealous of me…
Yer pal,
Satan
I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Three months, two weeks, five days, 20 hours, 47 minutes and 18 seconds.
4434 cigarettes not smoked, saving $554.33.
Life saved: 2 weeks, 1 day, 9 hours, 30 minutes.
[continuing hijack]
I used to work as security at the Warfield and Filmore in SF. GWAR played once, and I got to de security for them. Got to hang out at the after party. They asked me what I thought of the show, told them “Great show guys” loved it. They were impressed. Who else can claim to have gotten drunk with Odeious. I also saw them open for themselves, in the form of ex-cops. No one really knew it was them. That was a great show too. They had a guy run up on stage, and started kicking the shit out of him. His head flew back, and he started spurting blood into the audience. This was with no other costumes or special effects. The crowd was suitably horrified. Hah
In that case, they qualify. Lots of people like their music, unless you have to be over 18 to have an opinion.
And as far as that goes, I’m nearly 29, and I like their music (much to my SO’s disgust, and my kids delight). I enjoy pure pop drivel in its purest form, and this they do well.
They were handpicked, like many bands before them. They don’t write their own songs, like many bands before them. They dance, like many bands before them. The people who play intruments for them aren’t actually part of N*SYNC, but then again, the people who play for Madonna aren’t considered “Madonna” either (and let’s not get into opinions on her music either).
Bottom line? Most adults don’t like their music. As for the rest, they are as much of a band or musical group as many other respected, and otherwise, musical groups that came before them. They probably won’t wind up in a hall of fame, they probably won’t ever gain any respect due to their teeny-bopper status, but oh well. Right now they are making many teenage girls very happy people, and making money at the same time. And they are a vocal group.
Visiting the GWAR factory with them all and spending a night there with them is tough to beat, chuum.
And I saw Ex-Cops as well.
<sing-songy>
My day can beat up your dad!
My day can beat up your dad!
Neener, neener, neener!
</sing-songy>
Yer pal,
Satan
TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
Three months, two weeks, six days, 19 hours, 47 minutes and 4 seconds.
4472 cigarettes not smoked, saving $559.12.
Life saved: 2 weeks, 1 day, 12 hours, 40 minutes.
Well. I thinjk we’ll just have to come to a compromise. I’ll put forth, that we are both cooler than all the non-GWAR meeting people.
When I saw them on the most recent tour, they had a really cool stage bit with Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Monica Lewinsky was pregnant, and they sliced her open and held up the fetus. It started pissing and vomiting over everything. Then they chopped off Bills head. It was f’n great.
Have you guys seen Rawg?
I lived in Richmond for years. Slymenstra used to waitress at the Village, and we hung out with her and the guys a couple of times.
I got stood up for my senior prom, so I went to see Gwar that night instead.
I went to see them in RI after I moved up north. Odeious decided to strip down to his bikini briefs, all fine and dandy, but then they FELL OFF! He then decided to stage dive. Not a good idea, since not many guys are willing to catch a butt-nekkid man.
Nyah Nyah, I win!!! I’ve seen a genuine Gwar penis.
When Motown was the force in pop music, Barry Gordy knew the difference between calling his fantastic studio musician bands “bands”, and calling his singing groups “groups”. He never had the mistake made to call his singing groups “bands”.
pldennison and Peta Tzunami re: Michael Nesmith’s solo career.
Nez’s first three solo albums (Magnetic South, Loose Salute, and Nevada Fighter) were highly critically sucessful. They didn’t sell because in the early 1970’s there was no stigma worse than being an ex-Monkee. His latest album to date, Live at the Britt Festival is also a critics favorite. His output after **Nevada Fighter ** is somewhat hit and miss in my opinion, but there are a couple of good songs on each album.
Good question. Somehow I don’t think they were thought of as a band, precisely because they didn’t play instruments, but they were certainly a group or a singing group. N’Sync is a singing group but they couldn’t remotely hold a candle to the Temps, obviously. Now get out of here, “boys”, we’re sick of you.
We cultural highbrows like to say that if people knew how “manufactured” these bands are, they’d lose interest. But the truth is, people don’t care - viz. “Making the Band”. They show the whole depraved manufacturing process, and it doesn’t seem to bother their fan base.
If the five singing guys are a “band”, then who are the nameless guys in the background playing all of the “instruments”, while the five guys in the “band” “sing” and “dance” all over the place?
put me in the “Vocal Group” camp. And thats not a qualitative judgement. Theres nothing wrong with that, but if unless you’re an a capella vocal group, its sorta insulting (to the actual musicians who play the f%ckin’ music every night, and to my intelligence) to call youselves (as the “singers”)the band.
Friday, Friday, Friday I hate to say it but you seemed to have picked the losing side to this battle.
Elvis …
1-wrote songs, not the hits, but he wrote songs.
2-he played several musical instruments, however he was primarily a “lead singer”.
3-he most assuredly participated in the creative process, most notably around arranging and performances.
4-if you can’t see this then I’m not going to explain it to you.
5-ditto, he shook up the world, and it was so new, unique and different that the established musical world barely knew what to do with him.
6-swiveling hips only barely qualifies as dancing.
NSTYNC does not qualify under 1, 3 or 4 because what they do can be described neither as “songs”, “music” nor “creative”.
Ok, I was being facetious about Elvis, I know that he overqualifies for number 5. He was accused of using an echo chamber to enhance his music though. But this isn’t about him, so let’s move on.
Just to be clear, I am not an NSync fan. I have heard that they do not write their own songs, so I read the insert in my sons CD (no strings attached). JC Chasez is credited for writing some of the songs. He probably does play musical instruments, though not professionally. Moving on through that list, I don’t have a clue about 3 and 4, and they fail on 5 and 6.
Basically, what I’m trying to say here is that people automatically say that they don’t write their own songs. I checked up on it and found differently.
*The 23-year-old is passionate about songwriting and mixing things up in the studio, talents that were showcased on No Strings Attached. He shares songwriting and production credits on the album. He wrote the song “Space Cowboy” on an airplane. He branched out beyond *NSYNC, helping to write and produce an upcoming Wild Orchid CD. *
Of course, in a general sense, a band is a group of people. Any group of people. In that sense, a baseball team, a kindergarten class, and the three stooges are each a band. But the topic isn’t the general meaning of the word band, but the specific meaning of the word as it is used in reference to music.
According to the American Heritage Dictionary a band is:
To be a band, you must be playing instruments.
In a practical sense, when you call all musical performers who perform together a band, you lose a useful distinction. Is a ballet troup a band? Music, people performing as a group–therefore a band. Of course this is absurd, but it does make my point. Playing instruments, singing, and dancing are all ways of interpreting music, but that does not make any group that does any of these things a band. Go to any school (high school or college) music department. People who play instruments are in the band. Singers are in the choir. Get 30 or 40 violins, horns, woodwinds, etc. together, and you have an orchestra. A cello, violin, and piano is a piano trio.
But saying that N’SYNCH is not a band is not a judgement on the quality of their singing, it’s merely saying that the wrong word is being used to describe them. Many good vocal groups were not bands. The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Supremes, The Andrews Sisters–none of them were a band in the musical sense, but that doesn’t in any way detract from their considerable skill and vocalists.
