LJ Idol Week #2 - Topic: Follow Me

[prog_schlock]

This is my entry for Week #2 of therealljidol.

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National Obscurity

But what I need is not cut cost
What I need is a life where I've won
All the times that I've lost
What I need is not ways to go on
What I need is to slit my wrists and be gone
- Scott Miller, "Slit My Wrists"

In his liner notes1 for Game Theory's greatest hits album Tinkers to Evers to

Comments

[watching_ships]

I really liked the song! I'm going to check out the rest in your other post.

One of my favorite books is Minotaur by Benjamin Tammuz. I've never met another human being who has read it, though I've convinced a few of my friends. It's stunning.

[prog_schlock]

Thank you for the book recommendation. That is something I can maybe look into for my plane flight this weekend!

[karmasoup]

This one didn't hit me in quite as compelling a manner as the Klaus Nomi piece... I've been haunted by The Cold Song all week. But I still always tune in for something new. Can relate to your thoughts on preforming for hundreds. In the days when I was a rockstar wannabe, I always imagined I'd be happier as a one-hit wonder. Just big enough to be able to say you're actually a musician for a living, and not have everyone raise their eyebrows and say "who?", but not so big that you couldn't get on with your life. Too bad these guys never really got their shot. And too bad so much of what is forced down everyone's throats is cookie cutter thoughtless factory grindage there's already way too much of. I often wonder what kind of a music scene we might actually have if quality won out over marketing

[prog_schlock]

Unspammed. How maddening that this went to spam! I had to turn this account into a paid account just to leave comments - and I had no desire to have two paid accounts! Oi!

Yeah, Nomi is in a whole different sphere of music than Miller. Nomi didn't write original work, but he was a master at selecting pieces and arranging them to maximum effect. Miller was more of an intellectual songwriter - something most power pop songwriters seem to have in common. While he was also a master at arranging his own music, he doesn't have the vocal power (and emotional delivery) of Nomi. Miller tends to have a hard, sarcastic/angry edge to most of his songs and only allows other emotions to come through sometimes - very typical of 80's/90's alternative California music (I always think of it as "lead singer cool").

Even when he does sing in a way that evokes emotion, it can be a quiet affair, like the pain is buried really deep:

I didn't write about this in the entry because I thought it would be distracting, but Miller committed suicide

[karmasoup]

Well. My comment is considered spam, apparently, because it included a link and an embedded video. If you know how to get to it, feel free to check it out.

[eternal_ot]

I enjoyed listening to 24...:) will go through the list you have complied sometime soon...A informative read! Thank you..:)

[prog_schlock]

Thank you for coming by and listening and reading. "24" isn't necessarily my favorite song by the band (I probably wouldn't have included it on the appendix) but its the first I heard and, thus, the best jumping off point for this entry. I spend too much time thinking of these things. :D

[whipchick]

So cool to find out about music that's new to me!

I'll throw Martyn Joseph into the mix - he had one top ten hit in the UK in the late 80s but resisted the pretty-boy branding. Now he's a pretty awesome folk-rocker. I've seen him play theatres of 600-700, bars of 100, and once a bookstore on the night of the presidential debates (not any of the recent ones) to four people. Crazy.

How Did We End Up Here

[prog_schlock]

Isn't it fascinating the paths that some artists lives take? I know she's a bit of a bigger star, but Fiona Apple comes to mind - huge first album and then has spent the rest of her career trying to just make meaningful music to an increasingly small, increasingly loyal audience.

How Did We End Up Here is a pretty powerful song. You don't hear many singers making such clear statements about the political and social challenges in the world. American musicians tend to be more oblique in their political statements. This is more in the Woody Gutherie/Joan Baez/Billy Bragg school of social commentary. I like it a lot.