Michelle Shocked: Search & Destroy.

Would be interested in hearing the new one 'tho.

Started getting into Texas Campfire Tapes. Anymore of her stuff worth searching?

i need to dig in

Search Short Sharp Shocked, a very pretty, contemplative album as well as, well, beautiful at times.

Also, a very American record. Despite that, I'd still recommend it (so, Search, obv). ;)

(Surmounter, dig in for sure.)

"Anchorage" is a great song. And very easy to play on the guitar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hffcyJ1GAg

All great:

Short Sharp Shocked - She and producer Pete Anderson did an excellent job fleshing out a studio sound to fit her songs & style.
Captain Swing - Unexpected left turn into uptempo, brassy, swinging blues. Don't look here if you prefer the ballads.
Arkansas Traveler - Very diverse, with different backup bands and guests on every song. The last 4 or 5 songs aren't nearly as good as what comes before, but the rest is choice.

I wouldn't really recommend any of the later albums to the casual fan, but search out the song "Stillborn" from Kind-Hearted Woman, one of the most heart-wrenching performances ever.

And Got No Strings, an album of Disney songs in stripped-down western swing style(!), is utterly charming.

Ditto on Anchorage, great tune.

File under 'did NOT expect this'

https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=michelle+shocked&src=typd

Long story short -- apparently deciding to go on a rampage against gay marriage -- to a San Francisco crowd -- is not a good idea.

I drive by the Plaza where the gay boys pose
Stand in their windows wearing no clothes

Friend on FB indicated she's apparently become born again. Great.

i saw her a few years ago in a local la dive (not by design because i never was a fan)
idk she always seemed a bit crazy not totally shocked at this right turn

Saw her by accident in 1990 at UCLA en route to the radio station. Good enough performance, I guess.

Yeah, was about to say what buzza said--would give mental instability some of the blame.

Loved The Texas Campfire Tapes back in the day. There's one moment when a car or truck whooshes by, lots of crickets otherwise. Surprised more people don't release records like this.

Short Sharp Shocked has dated production but great songs as well.

Maybe not unrelated, looks like she was playing Short Sharp Shocked in its entirety for the first time in decades. Might send the head in a bad direction.

Michelle Shocked ‏@MShocked
First "Black Widow" in 20+ years. #shortsharpshocked

Hmm, from a 2011 Christian folk festival:

Folk singer Michelle Shocked, who has in recent years publicly rejected her lesbian fan base, became incensed when asked about her “position on homosexuality” by an audience member. “Who drafted me as a gay icon? You are looking at the world’s greatest homophobe. Ask God what He thinks,” she said, before shutting off her microphone to complain, “There is always someone who wants to catch me.” Shocked was not challenged by organizers or staff

yikes, this is disappointing to hear. my dad had her albums back in the day and i enjoyed them, although i've been leery of her politics ever since i read about her wanting to wear blackface on the cover of "arkansas traveler."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJq11taAJgY

RT @anile02
@Murray_Burns @colecoonce @MShocked she said gay marriage would cause the end of the world. She stood on stage and shouted "god hates fags"

he doesn't have to root one

fuck this woman

Michelle Shocked: Destroy & Destroy

To make matters worse, at the last minute Shocked attempted to kick Two Nice Girls off a benefit concert scheduled during the conference--something to do with her being "uncomfortable," said Shocked's then-manager at the time. The Queer Nation took this as a slap to Two Nice Girls' overtly lesbian stance and promptly posted fliers all over Sixth Street reading, "Michelle We're Shocked."

http://www.dallasobserver.com/1996-04-25/music/the-education-of-michelle-shocked/2/

that was in 1992.

Ugh, this is so disappointing. 'Short Sharp Shocked' is one of my favourite albums; wide eyed, funny and open hearted but with enough vinegar that you don't forget her activist past. Nothing like her recent persona. Will have to compartmentalise that MS from the current incarnation.

That Twitter search leads to some annoyingly non-specific stuff. Any direct quotes anywhere?

lol

idk she always seemed a bit crazy not totally shocked at this right turn

― everything you like is white (buzza), Monday, March 18, 2013 12:19 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this this this

I read several people saying she was onstage shouting "God Hates Fags" and one or two others saying she ironically said "of course, several of you might go on Twitter saying I said "God Hates Fags"".

At the very least, confusion runs rampant:

http://www.queerty.com/alt-folk-singer-michelle-shocked-goes-on-homophobic-rant-tells-audience-god-hates-fags-20130318/

Confusion is sex(ual politics).

There are several other pseudonews articles like that on the web, none with better than 3rd-hand quotation. A full audience of UNREACHABLE GHOSTS, apparently.

I remember when Short Sharp Shocked was getting so much critical praise; I eagerly checked the LP out from the library and prepared myself for some life-changing music but what I got was some boring shit I didn't connect to or identify with at all.

xpost -- the Twitter posts from last night were all clear enough, and included a slew from the guy who was apparently formally tweeting for her from the stage. He posted from his own account about how everything turned into a mess, saying it wasn't ironic and so forth. Given that and other posts I tend to think it was as described.

Long background article on her salvation so-to-speak: http://www.leeaaron.com/john/michelle-shocked-went-for-the-singing-and-stayed-for-the-song/

I genuinely cannot tell from last night's tweets if she hollered "GOD HATES FAGS" or if she said something awkward and creepy and followed it up with "Now you'll go on Twitter and say I said..." -- and I think it makes a non-insignificant difference. I am used to Michelle Shocked being awkward and creepy (first time I heard her was in '88 in a van full of folkie punks, and "When I Grow Up" got shut off the stereo right quick by a guy who is now a professional ex-punk folkie), but subte distinctions matter.

Understanding all that, but the combination of posts, these linked articles and the extreme silence from her herself since it happened -- no posts on her site, FB or Twitter -- making me less inclined to assume it was 'just' awkwardness.

awkwardness at shows usually doesn't result in mass venue-clearing.

see, Michael Richards could have repaired his entire reputation if after his outburst if he'd looked around the venue and done a sing-songy "...awk-WAAAAAARD!"

i am shocked

I am short

http://www.headofrothchild.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/sharpie30001mrkr.jpg

woah. i wondered why the hell the michelle shocked thread was bumped.

she's doing Dylan's christian period wrong

On top of everything else!

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/michelle_shocked_makes_shocking_statement_god_hates_fags

I tried calling Shocked’s representative, Cary Baker, but got his voice mail. If you’d like to let him and Shocked know what you think, give him a call. His number is on Shocked’s website.

Update: Cary Baker has addressed the issue: “I have not worked with Michelle Shocked in four years,” he said via email. Told that he’s still listed on her website, Baker said “I am aware of that and I have asked her to change it immediately. A horrible comment and the last thing I need after a sleepless week at SXSW.”

That links to here:

http://www.mediaite.com/online/folk-singer-michelle-shocked-tells-crowd-michelle-shocked-says-god-hates-fags/

With more tweets and info and etc.

In the Michael Crichton sci-fi version of this story, Tracy Chapman will do the sane thing at a concert tonight.

same thing, followed by Edie Brickell tomorrow night, Natalie Merchant on Wednesday...

PHOBIA

on shelves Oct 2013

Tracy, Edie and Natalie were all A-listers compared to Michelle Shocked's residency on the D-list, even during her buzz years of 87-88. She may as well have been an open mic'er going off on a tangent last night.

mccabe's website shows that she's still appearing there and her 8pm set is sold out.

I only know of her because of Chaos UK

Evanston show cancelled by venue:
http://my.chicagotribune.com/#story/chi-michelle-shocked-evanston-20130318/

i guess venues have the right to cancel these shows anyway (and maybe they are because of low sales) but they should just let them happen, with her playing to her empty rooms, and that would kill off her career for good.

PHOBIA

on shelves Oct 2013

you know she actually had an album called DON'T ASK DON'T TELL

Tweet from sideman:

@MrBungo: @fiddlecub Shocked show was odd and grim. Can't begin to explain it in a tweet, but there was no "rant." I blame the audience more than her.

if this is all indeed a misunderstanding (however unlikely) she needs to respond quicksticks

I blame the audience more than her

Well duh, she's your ride home.

Hahah.

Meantime, interesting little flashback here

http://www.dallasvoice.com/michelle-shocked-said-what-1990-outlines-interview-surfaces-10434.html

it's kinda weird that in an era when even the tiniest show where something weird happens gets recorded by people with cellphones, no video of this seems to be cropping up.

that said, iirc she wanted to appear on the cover of Arkansas Traveler in blackface so what the fuck ever about Michelle Shocked

it's kinda weird that in an era when even the tiniest show where something weird happens gets recorded by people with cellphones, no video of this seems to be cropping up.

Yeah, this I keep wondering about more and more.

iirc she wanted to appear on the cover of Arkansas Traveler in blackface so what the fuck ever about Michelle Shocked

sure she isn't Michelle Shock Value?

http://i49.tinypic.com/23m0sv4.png

seattle and portland dates cancelled by the venues

yikes, this is disappointing to hear. my dad had her albums back in the day and i enjoyed them, although i've been leery of her politics ever since i read about her wanting to wear blackface on the cover of "arkansas traveler."

― a sentimental knife (reddening), Monday, March 18, 2013 1:56 AM (19 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Didn't she say some fucked-up and borderline-racist shit about hip-hop around that time? I've never found any direct quotes, just saw it referenced in a few places.

http://i49.tinypic.com/23m0sv4.png

Yes Thom Yorke is Real?

Well the new duet with KD Lang is nice anyway

Hmm

Now @MShocked is RTing angry messages she's received, as though that justifies the ignorant shit she said about gays.

As from the woman herself:

God loves everybody so much that He sacrificed His son and didn't try to triangulate the dialogue

In response to someone else, about her divorce? (I think?)

Some more concrete things

http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/stop-the-presses/folk-legend-incites-mass-walkout-anti-gay-speech-195312874.html

From all accounts, the first set had gone great, but when Shocked returned for the second set, she began talking about the evils that will result if California's Proposition 8 is overturned by the courts, to allow gay marriage in the state. Shocked cited verses from the Old Testament condemning homosexuality, first in English and then, puzzlingly, in Spanish. She even told the crowd that they "could go on Twitter and say 'Michelle Shocked says God hates f--s'," although that particular line was interpreted differently by some on hand, as either ironic or completely sincere.
The tweets that came from her account during the Yoshi's show were actually made by a patron named Matt Penfield, who'd been invited up during the uneventful first set to act as Shocked's Twitter intermediary. When things started to go very badly in the second set, Penfield not only left the stage but exited the auditorium to mill in the lobby with other confused and outraged fans who were trying to make sense of what had just happened.
"It was a very painful experience to go through," Penfield told Yahoo! Music. He not only sat on stage with Shocked for most of the show but visited with her backstage during the break. "To be that close to someone who is clearly having a breakdown of some sort is not an emotionally comfortable place to be. I'm still a little bit shaken up. And I don't like to see people vilified"—as he's well aware Shocked is being today. "I still love her music and I'm not going to delete her from my playlist or go smash CDs. But if she has made a conscious decision that she is going to use the stage to espouse beliefs that are hateful and damage groups of people, she probably should not be charging money for a concert. If she wants to sit on a panel at a conference or go to a religious festival, I think in that context she should say whatever she wants. But I do think that doing it as a bait-and-switch at a concert performance is really unfair and not showing respect to people."

And a lot more here:

At the beginning of the show, "Michelle came on stage and seemed visibly anxious and nervous, and took the mike and said that she was really scared and afraid, and that she didn’t really know how the show was going to go— which seemed a little unusual," recalled Penfield. "At one point in the first set she even said, 'You all seem very nice, but I’ve been in rooms of nice people before and sometimes they turn on you.' That was a throwaway line, but one that seemed siginifcant later. After the first set I went backstage with her to the green room and she said that she had been terrified coming up from L.A. because it was going to be a big deal for her to play this show. You can deconstruct from what happened later what she was referring to. In retrospect, it seems clear that this whole thing was premeditated—if not the exact language she used, then that this was where the show was eventually going to go."
The first set went great, from all accounts, even though Penfield thought it was odd when, at the start of the show, Shocked said she needed an on-stage tweeting volunteer and added, "Does anybody feel the invisible person in the room?" Said Penfield, "My family is fron the South and all Baptists, so for me, that’s kind of the code that people use when they’re talking about Jesus or God. I didn't know what her faith-based situation is, but clearly she was looking for someone to identify" as a fellow believer. Despite some raised hands, no one was willing to go on stage, so Pinfield finally volunteered, because after "5-10 minutes" of this, he was afraid the show wouldn't go on otherwise.
At first audience members were confused when she explained that she wanted them to vote on the order of the sets that had been posted outside the door—one labeled "truth" and one "reality." Eventually it came to a Twitter vote and the audience voted for "truth" first, which involved playing her classic Short Sharp Shocked album in its entirety. But after an intermission, Shocked hadn't even gotten to any music when she started talking first about the importance of social media to carry on a dialogue with her fans off-stage, and then about Proposition 8.
"She started reading some tweets from the stream and having a dialogue about people's impressions, talking about how she was feeling brave at this point and that she was doing the right thing. Then the tone of the conversation became extremely religious and she began talking about the two things most important to her being Jesus Christ and freedom. Then she talked about how she had just come from a prayer meeting the night before, and the people in her prayer meeting were really worried because these are the end times, and they’re the end times because Prop. 8 is going to lead to ministers marrying gay people with a rifle to the head. At which people got a little riled up; then there started to be some call and response from the crowd about what she meant. She started exhorting the crowd very specifically to go ahead and tweet or write and say that Michelle Shocked says God hates f--s, and some other references to the Bible denouncing homosexuality as sinful and abhorrent.
"At that point a lot of people started getting up and walking out. We didn’t understand if this was for the sake of art or an actual rant. Then she delivered the same Bible verses in Spanish. At that point personally I felt like I was an emotional hostage, and the night of entertainment had become a night for her to deliver this intense personal polemic that, in hindsight, it felt like she had been carrying around since she got on stage, while we were strapped in waiting for her to deliver it."
At least one fan on Twitter believed that the "God hates f--s" line was spoken ironically, as if she were predicting that that's what her message would be reduced to. But Michelle Penfield, the on-stage tweeter's wife, is one of those saying there was only one way to take what she was saying. "She said 'Please tweet that Michelle Shocked said on stage that God hates faggots.' There was no irony," says Michelle, who used the hashtag "#takingmyhusbandback" as the show fell apart. "I don't really know what's going on with Michelle Shocked, but I really hope it's a mental breakdown of sorts."
Adds her husband, Matt, "I will say from a personal perspective that I’ve been around musicians my whole life and done a lot of tour work for people, and also been around people who have pretty serious emotional problems. When people ask if she seemed high or drunk, she didn’t. She seemed like someone who had actually gone off medication—anxious and rocking back and forth and a lot of activity and about to explode with emotional anxiety. I have a lot of compassion for her, because she’s clearly processing some heavy emotional s---, but she shouldn't be doing it in front of a room full of strangers."

damn

awkwaaaard

i read all his quotes with matt pinfield's voice regardless. you know you did it too.

once a dumbass......

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/michelle-shocked/Content?oid=880716

If only she'd done it during the spoken bridge of "Graffiti Limbo" it might've worked.

yeah, in the same vein as buzza's link:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-05-28/features/9202170604_1_blackface-bart-bull-minstrelsy

choice quotes:

At the recent South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas, for example, she gave a rambling keynote address in which she compared the black funk-rock group Fishbone to the blackface minstrels of 100 years ago. Shocked now concedes, "My performance could be called into question."

...

"I felt that this image (a blackface cover) was so powerful, so potent, that the controversy would swallow up the music. I would have been just like a tar baby - controversy would just stick to me."

aaaand the mccabe's show is cancelled.

wtf

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/3/19/1363691341607/Michelle-Shocked-in-2005-010.jpg

http://blog.chron.com/askacat/files/legacy/hatcat.JPG

Maybe it's actually Howard Devoto.

i read all his quotes with matt pinfield's voice regardless. you know you did it too.

*nods shamefully*

The pure products of America
go crazy

sounds like pretty much the entire tour has been called off:

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/garchik/article/Shocked-shows-canceled-in-wake-of-anti-gay-tirade-4367370.php

also note: "Cheryl Renee, who was said to have been Shocked's PR person, responded to an e-mail from The Chronicle saying that as of Feb. 25, "I am no longer working with Michelle Shocked. I cannot comment on her behalf and was not present at Yoshi's. ... I personally do not support the sentiment of what Michelle is being accused of saying."

what's it like to work for someone like this who starts to go off the rails?

she's claiming on twitter that she isn't against gay marriage or abortion as well. I think she's having a mental breakdown.

Yes.

Holy mackerel. This all comes as quite a shock.

seen shared:

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/32624_10200305192405425_1720273674_n.jpg

my take: she's mentally ill AND a bigot, and the bigotry is no doubt fueled by the illness, although it must be said that not all mentally ill people are bigots, and mental illness does not excuse bigotry or assholish behavior. also: yes, she's a closeted queer (at least bisexual), and it seems like the is-she-or-isn't-she thing has always been a thorn in her side, based on interviews going way back, and judging from her problems with act up as "outers." to me, her ambiguity is more than bowie-ish mystique-building, it veers close to "don't ask don't tell" territory.

http://www.cosmik.com/aa-septemberoctober05/reviews/pics/review_michelle_shocked.jpg

yup, i posted that upthread.

The cover for 'On The Greener Side' used to freak me out when I was about 8
http://ring.cdandlp.com/disclo/photo_grande/114094436.jpg
Actually got a bit of a fright seeing so many of it in Google images

Well...

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2013/03/michelle_shocke_1.html

The audio of the set, tweeted by Erin McEwan. "Michelle Shocked 2nd Yoshi's Set" will be a noise album title at some point soon I predict

https://soundcloud.com/therealtofuandwhiskey/michelle-shocked-2nd-yoshis

dibs

McKeown I should say.

"Folks wonder about my sexuality, but denying being gay is like saying I never beat my husband."

I honestly believe that people with so poor a grasp of rhetoric that they can't mention the "when did you stop beating your spouse" rhetorical gambit without making people wonder if they actually beat their spouse are better off not writing lyrics

When did you stop beating your lyricist?

as discussed earlier here's what she put in the liner notes of Arkansas Traveler:

My early intention was to present this record with a cover
photo of myself wearing blackface. Aside from providing
controversy for hatemongers or offending the delicate sensibilities
of the politically correct, my sincere intention was that it would
provide a genuine focus on the real 'roots' of many of the tunes
included; blackface minstrelsy. It's my contention that a blackface
tradition is alive and well hidden behind a modern mask. I believe that
'blacking up' should be done correctly; as an exploration for the source
of that hollow ring we mistakenly believe was immaculately conceived in
Las Vegas, and in a context of true respect for the cultures we ape.

iirc the label had to tell her "we're not putting out a record with a white woman in blackface on the cover, Michelle"

I believe that 'blacking up' should be done correctly; as an exploration for the source of that hollow ring we mistakenly believe was immaculately conceived in Las Vegas

I think this is where the weed kicked in?

the soundcloud makes pretty clear that she's saying what _she_ thinks. "from their vantage point. well i shouldn't say their because i also mean mine. from our vantage point." etc. the "god hates" thing was said ironically/jokingly though.

my parents listened to a fair bit of michelle shocked in the early 90s, i wonder if they've heard about this.

also never knew any of that stuff abt arkansas traveler, a record i had more than a passing familiarity with when i was 9.

wow. at 7:30 in or so, things turn ugly.

has anyone suggested that she was doing a significant amount of drugs before the show?

at 17:00 or so they shut down the show and take her mic while people heckle, and she keeps trying to sing and play guitar even as everyone leaves.

"i just want y'all to know that i did not ask for a deposit for this performance. and i'm pretty sure i'm going to be told, when i leave here tonight, that i did not give anyone their money's worth. and so now i would like to pass the hat, and ask if you wouldn't mind putting a dollar in."

this is amazing.

And my statement equating repeal of Prop 8 with the coming of the End Times was neither literal nor ironic: it was a description of how some folks - not me - feel about gay marriage.

this is pretty lol because she literally says the opposite of this from stage.

I think this is where the weed kicked in?

if I end up spending the whole time thinking about American race relations next time I blaze up I'm going to be really mad you afterwards

"...and in a context of true respect for the cultures we ape."

Hmmm . . .

Michelle Shocked should start a Kickstarter campaign. For ... something.

if I end up spending the whole time thinking about American race relations next time I blaze up I'm going to be really mad you afterwards

if this happens ask for a rebate from yr dealer imho

this whole thing makes me sad
i first saw michelle in abt '89 or so opening up for billy bragg, the campfire tapes had given buzz but short, sharp, shocked had not hit yet. all of us were there to see billy but this solo acoustic performer made him work to get the audience back and i became a fan through following albums, live shows
(the arkansas tapes blackface idea was ...... umm. complicated, it was a whole idea of how to address blackface and minstrelsy in american music and was a half-baked idea but not racist) (now seems more compliacated)
andit is heartbreaking to hear her lose her shit this way and is def fucking with a lot of the audience that supported her over the years

"when did you stop flogging that dead horse?"

"when it was sold to Tesco"

ask for a rebate from yr dealer

lol I'll let you know how this shakes out but I am not hopeful

This is the first time I've thought about Michelle Shocked in like twenty years so clearly she's doing SOMETHING right

the written explanation is just...it's so full of handwaving it's almost unreadable.

oy:

http://www.xojane.com/issues/on-my-confrontation-with-homophobe-michelle-shocked

“Hey, can you hold on a second? I need to talk to the sound guys.”

bring your ball of yarn
http://www.xojane.com/files/800px-Wild-Goose-Festival.JPG

wow @ that article, great stuff glad the writer found the notes

Leroy says shut the fuck up, girl.

puppet show
michelle shocked

She's due on Nicole Sandler (never heard of her)'s talkshow which has just started
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/radio-or-not?utm_campaign=t.co&utm_source=667764&utm_medium=social

I am kinda gobsmacked that people find a charitable reading of what happened here -- in which she is just kinda fucked up about religion and homosexuality and tried to talk about it and fucked up shit came out -- is so difficult for some folks to believe. There's kind of a "gotcha" thing going on that I find a little ugly -- notoriously overwrought and weird singer with a history of saying dumb shit spontaneously is having her ill-thought-out words analyzed at a great level of grammatical precision to prove her homophobia. Who the fuck wants to win that game and why?

this is so weird, she said she would speak on the phone to the talk show host but is not picking up the phone.

Oof

http://www.spin.com/articles/michelle-shocked-gay-rant-apology-interview

Is anybody listening to this radio interview? weirdness

listening. she came on briefly and didn't sound at all well tbh. the host is being unnecessarily aggressive in my view

From that Spin piece:

Then, about 45 minutes into the interview, Shocked asked me to write down "verbatim" what she'd said the previous night at Yoshi's. I said that I didn't need to write it down, that I was taping with a digital recorder. Again, because I had specifically mentioned "interview" in my two messages earlier in the day, messages that she had responded to, I assumed that we were already in the middle of an interview. Shocked disagreed and accused me of recording her without consent, and insisted that I hold up my recorder to the camera while I deleted the audio file. I did so. Then, since she couldn't tell that the file I had just deleted was the audio file of our conversation, she dictated into her own recorder the date and time that I had recorded her, and asked that I verbally confirm that I had deleted the file in question. I did so. Shocked then asked me to restart my recorder and ask for her permission to record our conversation. I did.

XP - Yea the host is kinda flapping and becoming more shrill as she goes on.

host likes saying hashtag

kinda assuming she's on a "no such thing as bad press" high here... I mean, I haven't thought about Michelle Shocked in 20 years, so she's done something right.

her Twitter this morning is ugh. I mean...I'm not a doctor obv but what she sounds like is a person in a manic state headed for a giant crash.

^^^ this. Feel like in between God Hates Fags, Occupy Wall Street and matdors this exchange is telling:

I mean, this is a meaningful thing to me, and I hear you listening very carefully.

I'm trying. I really am.

But I don't…If it's inexplicable…

The whole interview seems to tie together.

I don't know if that exchenge is 'telling', it's a stumble over the start of a sentence..

The whole recording thing is a more insane version of what Jello Biafra does during phone interviews, or at least did with mine. He asks me if I am recording and when I affirm he asks me to stop, rewind and play a little back to him so he can confirm it is being recorded. Once I did that the interview continued.

/tangent

i can't believe i just listened to that whole audio. yikes.

The whole recording thing is a more insane version of what Jello Biafra does Charlie Sheen in his state did during phone interviews

Not to excuse, but worth noting she said way back that she took the name Shocked after running away from home as a teen, then being caught and brought back to Texas for electroshock, at the behest of her Christian mother. The version of Christianity I've heard her portray/represent ect. on some live tapes seems comfortably fervent and liberal enough, in terms of early Bobby D./Arlo-type passing zingers and some passionate peacenik gospelizing. But the long and winding paper trail 'o' quotes does indeed indicate gayness as xp "a thorn in her side"; Christianity too, in terms of Old Testament fine print vs. the kind of community spirit she used to bring on stage. She follows this whole disaster (none of which *sounds* ironic; mostly amounts to "bite me", when they don't appreciate the spirit of LOVE in which her words are supposedly offered) with a aong about "trying to live without a past", and meeting a guy who's real bad at keeping it all hid, as she unnecessarily explains.

this happened

intense!

"bands Beaver Fever and Frootie Flavors"

You're no Yoko and writing on your suit is no "cut piece," lady.

word

The tape across her mouth said "Silenced By Fear."

So silenced that she's in the fucking newspaper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA3JUpQzOekShare

Supposedly she's on Piers Morgan Live, on CNN in a bit.

"We will not be bashing Michelle Shocked," he said. "Rather, we will celebrate music, diversity and send some healing Santa Cruz energy her way."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/michelle-shocked-a-meltdown-jesus-432050?page=show

anybody got a bootleg of this jam from the Hollywood Reporter piece? sounds heavy.

"On stage, she was wearing a full face mask and sunglasses, and she sang this really disjointed, syncopated, non-rhyming, not-very-melodic song [about Occupy] that nobody could really follow -- and she asked everybody to sing along. She alternated between being encouraging to the crowd and telling them they were doing a horrible job. She started glaring at me as if was supposed to help them in the sing-along, and I tried to, then she leaned over and told me to ‘Shut up.’ Which I did. I handed the sound guy my microphone and watched from the crowd. There had been probably 300, 400 people at the beginning of her set, but as she started to yell at everybody, it got down to about 20. She went from manic to depressive really quickly."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27_OAk2AWMg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBxRKn666rs

I should read more local (= Santa Cruz) news! Just catching up on the whole "MS shows up to her cancelled Moes Alley gig" story. Hmm.

anybody got a bootleg of this jam from the Hollywood Reporter piece? sounds heavy.

"On stage, she was wearing a full face mask and sunglasses, and she sang this really disjointed, syncopated, non-rhyming, not-very-melodic song [about Occupy] that nobody could really follow -- and she asked everybody to sing along. She alternated between being encouraging to the crowd and telling them they were doing a horrible job. She started glaring at me as if was supposed to help them in the sing-along, and I tried to, then she leaned over and told me to ‘Shut up.’ Which I did. I handed the sound guy my microphone and watched from the crowd. There had been probably 300, 400 people at the beginning of her set, but as she started to yell at everybody, it got down to about 20. She went from manic to depressive really quickly."
--brio

Michelle doesn't condone the sharing of her shows as bootlegs

can we just change the title of the threat to Michelle Shocked: Destroy

so depressing

thread

lol silent album

http://blog.sfgate.com/dailydish/2014/07/29/michelle-shocked-releases-silent-album/

http://www.onthemedia.org/story/tldr-20-silence/

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/michelleshocked1

i'm annoyed at how short the run-times are, like give me a good 3-and-a-half-minute silent song so i can feel like i got my money's worth.

bummed track 6 isn't "Chris Harrison (The Bachelor)"

i'm annoyed at how short the run-times are

Not as annoyed as Amanda Palmer must be for not thinking of this first. Of course, she would have had to contend with the "silence" aspect first.

not doing this as a kickstarter and having people pay a few thousand bucks each to have silent songs named after them seems like a missed opportunity.

Sinead's passing gets me thinking about Michelle Shocked. I'm guessing Short Sharp Shocked and Texas Campfire Tapes will endure, even as they're barely available online. Her cancellation came from what seemed to be a manic episode, but even before then she'd called her greatest hits Mercury Poise, as in mercury poisoning, as in getting to the end of her contract with Mercury Records.

But what an amazing bunch of songs on those two albums.

"Captain Swing" and especially "Arkansas Traveller" are nearly as good.

And if you want your heart broken, find the song "Stillborn" from the album Kind-Hearted Woman (couldn't find it on YouTube)