IDM Mailing Archive

"richard is dick extended" Shitcatapult Vulvaland Vulva - From the Cockpit Caustic Window's "Cunt" ... I don't know. Is it me? Is it because I'm a woman? Is it because I'm prudish (not) ??? or are all these just puerile? Yes "I am carnal" too - just like the rest of all human beings / biological creatures here on this planet, I have a full working set of genitals, but - {{shakes head}} I've just been away since the beginning of this week with the children on school holidays, lolling in hot springs, climbing up mountains, looking at rivers, not listening to music at all - and now coming back to download a few hundred list mails I'm confronted with a new label called "Shitcatapult" which has jarred with me, then the charming Richard Is Dick Extended Squarepusher/Richard Thomas collab rears its head (oh yes, it's VERY clever), then the other names pop to mind (lots more where those come from), and it all just strikes me as a bit smutty, y'know. Is there a point? Is there any correlation between the titles and the music? Yes, certainly so-called "cock rock" has always abounded with things like Wet Willy's "The Wetter The Better" and melifluous names like "Bless its Pointed Little Head" have left little doubt about which little head was being blessed. Most amusing list mail I've read in the current slew was the 10 points of what makes you a trainspotter - yes, I can relate :-) I *

quoted 4 lines ... I don't know. Is it me? Is it because I'm a woman? Is it

> > >... I don't know. Is it me? Is it because I'm a woman? Is it >because I'm prudish (not) ??? or are all these just puerile?

Not just a "girlie" complaint. The gratuitous vulgarity you reference is rather ... gratuitous? Just read an interview with a certain favorite and influential duo of noizemakers, with some interesting insights. Was about to forward said interview to several people, then decided against it for the liberal splattering of obscenities throughout. Surprises that individuals who are so meticulously precise in expressing themselves musically can be so unsubtle in verbal expression. Apparently it's considered unhip in certain circles to take offense at vulgarity. Is that progress? Time to rethink. Through being hip. The more one sensitizes to the beauty of sound, the more difficult to endure the constant assault of unconsidered sound - car alarms, sirens, motorpsychlists, raving street people threatening to kill, idiot beeps of reversing trucks, screeching sport (insert laugh track) utility (?) vehicles, nasal car horns, ugly unrequested music shared from generous windowsdown trunkopen speakersdistorting driversby. Similarly, the more one sensitizes to the (potential) beauty of language, the less endurable the reductionist vocabulary of vulgarity. Could any of our current crop of musical geniuses give a bit more thought before uttering such informative elucidations of the creative process: "Well, I take the sound and f**k with it. If that's still f**ked, I take it over here and f**k with it some more." Thank you and goodnight. Read some Rilke. Listen to something hi-fi once in a while, just for contrast. Perhaps one should simply respond: "Shaddup and play yer sampler!" (Expecting an obscene flaming mailbomb in response). Rudely and crudely, 3

On Fri, 1 Oct 1999, Irene McC wrote:

quoted 9 lines "richard is dick extended"

> "richard is dick extended" > Shitcatapult > Vulvaland > Vulva - From the Cockpit > Caustic Window's "Cunt" > > ... I don't know. Is it me? Is it because I'm a woman? Is it > because I'm prudish (not) ??? or are all these just puerile? >

No, puerile humor is par for the course. Like RDJ's milkman song, which is fertile ground for freudian analysis of infantile sexuality.

quoted 4 lines Could any of our current crop of musical geniuses give a

> Could any of our current crop of musical geniuses give a > bit more thought before uttering such informative elucidations of the > creative process: "Well, I take the sound and f**k with it. If that's > still f**ked, I take it over here and f**k with it some more."

obscenity aside, a comment like that is usually the best way for an artist to turn me off from their music. 'we just twiddled the knobs'. well then, i suppose it's sheer luck your music sounds good? should i even expect more than half of your songs to be listenable? as for the obscenity ~ i personally don't take offence. i take offense at volume, not content. swear all you want, but keep it quiet ~ or funny (it's usually easier to keep it quiet.) also, i think the example you're pointing out has more of a problem with how few words, rather than _which_ words, the guy uses. if you can replace every verb in your vocabulary with 'to fuck', then there's probably a problem, yes. but let's not shun four-letter words. they're people too. ~ david

although i usually avoid topics like this, i certainly have noticed the same obsession with these topics. i am guessing here, but from what i have seen in interviews discussing behavior, many idm artists are stuck in the junior high 'saying penis is funny' frame of mind. (other symptoms would be lack of friends, never going out, playing endlessly with toys, electronic or otherwise). being a former middle school teacher, i have had firsthand experience with this form of highbrow humor. in defense of idm music producers, i dont think they are any more prone to genital/sex humor than any other genre (korn, most rap, mambo #5, etc), but i am guessing that is what you are interested in, therefore you see it more than in other fields. not to mention idm types dont have to worry about radio play. so they can make songs like 'fuk' that dont need a radio edit. cl

quoted 34 lines "richard is dick extended"

> > "richard is dick extended" > Shitcatapult > Vulvaland > Vulva - From the Cockpit > Caustic Window's "Cunt" > > ... I don't know. Is it me? Is it because I'm a woman? Is it > because I'm prudish (not) ??? or are all these just puerile? > > Yes "I am carnal" too - just like the rest of all human beings / > biological creatures here on this planet, I have a full working set of > genitals, but - {{shakes head}} I've just been away since the > beginning of this week with the children on school holidays, lolling > in hot springs, climbing up mountains, looking at rivers, not > listening to music at all - and now coming back to download a few > hundred list mails I'm confronted with a new label called > "Shitcatapult" which has jarred with me, then the charming Richard > Is Dick Extended Squarepusher/Richard Thomas collab rears its > head (oh yes, it's VERY clever), then the other names pop to mind > (lots more where those come from), and it all just strikes me as a > bit smutty, y'know. > > Is there a point? Is there any correlation between the titles and the > music? Yes, certainly so-called "cock rock" has always abounded > with things like Wet Willy's "The Wetter The Better" and melifluous > names like "Bless its Pointed Little Head" have left little doubt > about which little head was being blessed. > > Most amusing list mail I've read in the current slew was the 10 > points of what makes you a trainspotter - yes, I can relate :-) > > I > *

quoted 2 lines ... I don't know. Is it me? Is it because I'm a woman? Is it

> ... I don't know. Is it me? Is it because I'm a woman? Is it > because I'm prudish (not) ??? or are all these just puerile?

I think a lot of them are just gratuitously offensive. The one that gets me is the "spoken word" part of Aphex Twin's "Come To Daddy" CDEP. I'd love to lend a bunch of people that disc, because I think I could introduce some people to this kind of music with it (it has a wide variety of styles), but with that part in there, well, it doesn't offend me, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if it offended someone else. At least "Milkman" is funny. It's a shame only because it's so unnecessary and detracts from the often fine music associated with it. Give me Autechre titles any day. But hey, who the hell am I, right? *shrug* ----- Adam J Weitzman --- NewsEdge Corporation ----- http://www.newsedge.com -- http://www.newspage.com "Humor is the best way of dealing with complete and utter nonsense." - John Lydon

Wow. Enough of this! No wonder you people are always ripping on Hk! so much. I've probably turned many a nose skyward with my record reviews, for that matter. Quite frankly I don't understand why adults, and arguably more-intelligent-than-average adults at that, should be having these complaints at all. I can understand how a parent might find Vulva's "From The Cockpit" with its oh-so-illustrative cover art less than acceptable for display in the family album collection, but for those of you who don't have such extenuating circumstances to excuse yourselves, this one's for you! It reminds me of the kids in fifth grade who went around accusing their fellow ten-year-olds of being "immature" and ordering us to "grow up." Fuck off, I'm ten. Eleven years later, you can still fuck off- I'm an adult just like the rest of you now and I can make my own decisions as to what I think is funny or meaningful. You would think that none of you had ever: 1. expelled gas involuntarily through a bodily orifice 2. voided digestive waste 3. had oral sex, or any sex for that matter I mean, universal human experience is universal human experience, right? Some of it is all puerile dick gags. But this has been going on for almost the entirety of twentieth century art, especially the visual arts. It's just now catching up to music- artists are breaking the "gallery" mold, pointedly so, and letting themselves achieve new levels of gratuitous obscenity. Art itself is gratuitous by nature anyway- nobody ever said it had to be pretty. On that note, anybody catch the "Sensation" show in NYC? Back to fucking with shit, fucking shit up, whatever. Fuck it. Tom P.S. How can you want to loan out "Come To Daddy" to folks yet feel that they might be offended by the "spoken word" portion? COME ON LITTLE FUNNY MAN! COME ON! EH! That CDEP rates tops for RDJ at his most demented and frightening. I will eat your soul. Aargh. Yeah, right, they'll be offended by the "spoken" words... P.P.S. What are "little boolies" (or whatever he says) anyway? Is this some strange Cornish euphemism for a person's unmentionables? ____________________________________________________________________ Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.amexmail.com/?A=1

Tom Millar wrote:

quoted 6 lines Quite frankly I don't understand why adults, and arguably

> >Quite frankly I don't understand why adults, and arguably >more-intelligent-than-average adults at that, should be having these >complaints at all. I can understand how a parent might...but for >those of you who don't have such extenuating circumstances to excuse >yourselves, this one's for you!

Odd distinction. Why are parents alone justified in having concerns over obscenity? I know quite a few non-parents who are object to vulgarity.

quoted 4 lines You would think that none of you had ever:

> > >You would think that none of you had ever: >I mean, universal human experience is universal human experience, right?

Universality of certain experiences does not imply appropriateness for discussion in all circles and circumstances. In some cases this is a matter of shame, in others a matter of discretion or modesty, in others a sense that something is rather too sacred to discuss so casually, or at all.

quoted 3 lines But this has been going on for almost the

>But this has been going on for almost the >entirety of twentieth century art, especially the visual arts. It's just now >catching up to music-

Historical precedent justifies nothing. Anyway, the traditional visual arts have not had a particularly brilliant track record of late, and the "puerile" works even less so. If the work's only intent is to annoy, shock, offend, then with all due respect, this is not art.

quoted 2 lines Art itself

>Art itself >is gratuitous by nature anyway-

Is it? Some art surely Other art may be very concerned to express certain views or ideas - social, political, spiritual, metaphysical. Other art may attempt to communicate some sort of transcending experience. And son.

quoted 1 line nobody ever said it had to be pretty.

>nobody ever said it had to be pretty.

"Not being pretty" does not imply "gratuitous". Anselm Kiefer's work is hardly pretty, but neither is it gratuitous.

quoted 2 lines Back to fucking with shit, fucking shit up, whatever. Fuck it.

> >Back to fucking with shit, fucking shit up, whatever. Fuck it.

Enjoy yourself, then. Best, 3

I think we'll have to harken back to Aristotle here, who was a firm advocate of balance. You don't want things being dirt for dirt's sake, but on the other hand you don't want things being too prudent. If one does not want to associate with the ideas Vulva or RDJ espouse, that is one's own choice, but that doesn't necessarily mean they don't exist or shouldn't. "16 Lovesongs for the Spice Girls" or "1-900-GET-KHAN" are much more clever. Quick aside though.... Shit Katapult is the WORST name for a label. Not on grounds of obscenity, or anything silly like that. It's just really, really lame. The music is fine, but the label name is just blech. B.

It could be argued that the only way some people can express themselves is through music. If you come from "the street", the Queen's English isn't always on hand to pick up. Thats just ma fuckin point of view. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com