So. I was forced to run out and get a 3 year old album, today, thanks to the radio. Now, I ask you lot: who knew how good Stadium Arcadium was, and why the fuck didn’t you tell me? Snow (Hey Oh) is simply the best song I’ve heard in well over a year.
I’m going to move this from MPSIMS to Cafe Society.
twicks, who’s still trying to figure out who’s responsible for failing to alert me to the wonderfulness that is Andrew Bird
I’m annoyed to no end 30 Rock was in the middle of its third goddam season before I saw an episode by chance.
What?! Nobody I have any contact with thought it would be nice to tell me it’s the funniest thing on TV since Seinfeld?
You assholes!!!
And Big Bang Theory! I saw an episode by chance this past spring, and am pissed that I never watched the first two full seasons.
I caught up a little with the summer reruns, but I want to see the first season.
Also, why did none of you ever tell me about Bill Bryson or Christopher Moore? Why did I not discover either of them until recently?
Might as well use this thread to remind folks who admire astonishing female vocals (coupled with interesting and excellent music, and interesting and thoughtful lyrics) that 11 albums of this woman’s music are out there, patiently waiting to be discovered.
Seriously, all 11 albums can be heard, for free.
Having finally gone through and rated the entire album in iTunes, I find that it’s actually a fairly weak RHCP album. However it does have a few kick ass songs especially the one you mentioned, and it was an awesome background soundtrack playing when I got my first tattoo, for which the good songs will always bring back good memories.
I’m guessing because you never read “whatcha reading” threads, or, more importantly, the regular “recommend a funny book” threads, in both of which they appear regularly. Bryson also got more than a few shout-outs in the recent “who’s your favorite nonfiction writer” thread.
stern look
Along the same lines, I have just discovered Dexter (thank you, Netflix), which is currently in its fourth season. Actually, I had read favorable reviews about it when it first came out, but was unmotivated to pay for cable. I am still in S1, but enjoying the living hell out of it now.
I also belatedly discovered Nitin Sawhney’s music while watching the very depressing movie, Pure, last week.
So what, Mad Men was some sort of cult? You had to be a 3rd degree Mason to be able to view it? Was it like Fight Club where nobody was allowed to talk about it? Why did I have to find out about it by accident when channel surfing halfway through the second season? BASTARDS!
:dubious: If she’s so brilliant, why hasn’t she moved to a city with a real music scene and actually played shows? Or is it easier to just stay on the upstate New York coffeehouse circuit for twenty years?
That 70’s Show.
Never, ever watched an episode while it was on the air.Bought the 1st season at a yard sale for $4 to resell it(for much more),got bored one night ,popped it in the DVR and instantly hooked!What a great show.Lucky for me one of my friends had all 8 seasons so I was able to watch them all in rapid succession.
For my all-time favorite Bryson quote, read this blog post. I read the original essay about five years ago, and just reading the first sentence of it now still leaves me literally in tears of laughter.
Oh, I read those threads. I found out about Christopher Moore here, a few years ago. I kept seeing his book *Lamb *mentioned, and finally bought it.
Bryson I found by accident about 5 or 6 years ago.
With both of them, there was this feeling of, “Why didn’t I know about this a long time ago?!?”
Oops – I thought you were talking about a recent discovery.
I apologize for impugning your level of Cafe Society participation. 
Veronica Mars. To be fair, one person told me, but I didn’t believe her. Sorry about that, Andrea.
I guess that means it’s my place to say I’m sorry. I actually was a tester for Big Bang Theory. I thought telling the people who gave it to me that it was freakin’ hilarious was enough. I actually figured that, since I liked it, it wasn’t going to go anywhere. But, in the future, I’ll try and publish my similar finds. And send you a PM, so there’s no way you can say you missed it. 
What surprised me the most was that they sent it to me on a video cassette. I had to go to my grandparents to watch it, as who still owns a working VCR? I’d question whether it was the real thing, until I realized you couldn’t rewind it. Only the copyright holder would be so anal to make sure I could only see their precious creation once.
Well, she did live in Woodstock, NY for several years, but she’s never been one to compromise her ideals or wants just to “make it.” What I mean is that she could have had a major label contract early on if she’d changed her name, which she never considered doing, and had gone more commercial (they wanted her to be more like Madonna at the time, mid-'80’s).
She could have had a major label contract later on if she’d given up rights to her music, standard issue for major labels, but she wasn’t going to do that either. She owns all her own music free and clear.
She could have done the standard and expected thing of touring like crazy year after year, it certainly is a great way to get known, but that’s not her nature, she’s a homebody and has always been that way. Andreas Vollenweider once flew her to Switzerland and tried to talk her into opening for him on an international tour, but she preferred to stay home and make another album. Eliza Gilkyson ended up touring with him, and we got the amazing album Equipoise, so while the decision didn’t do anything for her career, it helped Eliza and it gave us a gift. Plus, and this is my own theory, not based on anything she’s said, I’m sure she didn’t think she would be a good fit for Andreas. Her music is not in any way “New Age” and Andreas is generally put in that category (right or wrong). She did tour twice with Project Lo as guest vocalist/keyboardist/guitarist.
She has played solo shows, around 50ish since 1990 (more in the 80’s but they’re not well-documented so I don’t know how many). I’ve seen her perform 25 times myself. A quick search of YouTube reveals several dozen live clips, and there are several full-length concerts on MySpace. She’s played venues as diverse as the Mann Center, the Tin Angel and the Museum Auditorium in Philadelphia, the Troy Music Hall (which is regionally famous for its acoustics), the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, CA, and Martyrs in Chicago.
She doesn’t do the coffeehouse circuit, never has (though very early in her career she did play several times at Cafe Lena in Saratoga, which would only mean anything to those who know how legendary Cafe Lena is). Thing is, she’s the type of artist who has always preferred to just make music rather than deal on a regular and intense basis with the music business and Play the Game just to get known. It can be frustrating for fans, but she is who she is and does what she wants, and I for one respect her for decisions that have sometimes made me want to bang my head against the wall.
I don’t know how or why you equate ambition and “making it” with talent (“:dubious: If she’s so brilliant, why…”). It is possible to have one without the other. You hear one side of it (ambition without talent) on the radio every day, and you hear the other side of it (talent without ambition) in her and many other artists’ music.
So, it’s your fault then. I’ll remember that.
Next time, you can come here. I have a working VCR.
I have to agree with this. My husband is a small time musician and through him I’ve met some truly amazing artists who will never have a recording contract. (He is a very talented musician himself, but then I’m a bit biased.) There’s a lot more talented musicians out there than the recording companies even care to screen much less hand out contracts to. And there are a lot of them who just don’t care to be owned by a company.
And they do own you, and your music. Bands/artists can be so excited to be signed to a major label that they’ll sell their soul to the devil and sign away an insane amount of rights. HTR got signed in the late 90’s to a larger indie label, and she drove a hard hard bargain, working for months with the label (her then-boyfriend said she should have been a lawyer). They ended up dropping her after releasing one album (which was already recorded before she was approached) because they abruptly changed their focus to jazz and soundtracks, and didn’t know what to do with her brand of progressive music. She was able to walk away with all of her music rights intact, and has since self-released her music without the help of a label. She may not be known by the general public, but she does have a worldwide cult following.