everett true interviewed...

Jim, I'd always been really scared of him because of his whole writing personna, but in person, I always found him quite sweet, even shy and quiet, and not particularly embittered. (In fact, he has that politician's ability to reply to the most bitter ranting with "you're a really funny person" type compliments.) But your mileage may vary.

I don't know, maybe it's more the UK press syndrome of putting musicians on pedastals, only to knock them down, or maybe he invented/perpetuated that model.

Not a personal reflection on the guy, but still.

No, not for everyone, Doomie. I'm not sure if this says more about him or about you.

all i have to do is a quick search of ilx to find you talking about how often you've been disappointed or alienated by people. let's just be honest, here.

Um, no having high expectations is fine. It shouldn't mean you cut off from them if these things are not met. We're all fallible human beings here. I know that's not the entire story. It only makes a difference if they are famous, because these people have more people around them and more to be getting on with, than to suddenly think "hey, haven't seen 'phil' around recently..."

And I think one of the keys to a happy life and good friendships is *not* to have overly high expectations of people.

I'm not saying I don't suffer from it, I'm just saying that it's not productive, nor is it universal.

ET *isn't* bitter, tho he is pretty aware of how the industry works, and detests that. but if he was bitter, he wouldn't have started CTCL, or continued with Plan B after that experience.

"We viewed what we did as art... I really am NOT a fan of what some people call the ‘truth’ or objectivity, or history, or anything associated with journalism. I’m in the entertainment industry. The worst crime of all is to be boring."

And the great thing is, with Plan B I don't have to agree with him about music and can just appreciate the latter:

"The other reason I want it more democratic, editorially, is because I’m fully aware that there’s tons of great, exciting music out there that my own tastes don’t necessarily cover..."

yeah, that was then this is now, stevie. i have alot of time for everett. and i hope some of the people who come to poptones.co.uk gets into everett's groove. that was my aim for that interview. but first i had to point out the reasons for why everett is historically relevant. i mean, think about it. the first creation release was the legend, it moves on to him supporting and more than likely making the alternative scene in america known, nirvana and courtney love, following on to the lost years and then a resurgence of everett again with ctcl and plan b. i mean, respect...

the funniest thing is that everett doesn't even see thta because he is so close to it.

Something like "ha ha ha ha shouldn't laugh really ha ha ha" etc?

Context?

Wasn't slash, though, unfortunately. ;-)

I'll read the interview later on to-day.

Reading his mag.. hmmm, it's still a lot of the same old same old.

PASSSION!!!! HYPERBOLE!!!! MEANINGLESSNESS!!!

I appreciate the focus on the counter-culture, but it's like nothing has been learnt about how not to alienate the reader since Melody Maker. Writers practicing writing, unable to keep their fascinating selves out of their thoughts and feelings. Meh.

need edit feature...

i haven't actually had a chance to read ET's book yet, but if i kept saying i was there *first*, its because, as far as the UK is concerned, i *was*. and its something i've never tried to capitalise on, because luck was such a huge part of it (along with judgement), but at the time ET interviewed me, a number of people were claiming, erroneously, to have been the first, including someone high up on the chain of command at NME, who now tells people he was the first person to write about them.

why this even matters to me is, when i first heard Die Stihl, it was because a friend of mine who worked at a distribution company, with as much a passion for me for these weirdo bands who go nowhere and are ignored by the industry in favour of the mainstream product, knew i'd love it, and sent it to me with a sarcastic note attatched saying "this year 2 piece blues bands will be the new black" or something along those lines. i loved it to pieces, instantly - i mean, the album totally blew me away. i pitched to review it instantly, raving with enthusiasm about these new discoveries; the review got 'filed' next to a lot of other such discoveries, ie on the spike. the review didn't run. ah well, live and learn. i'm sure they know better. why, the white stripes couldn't possibly be as important as campag velocet. why would 'the kids' want to listen to the white stripes, when they could be grooving to starsailor? as ever, i knew nothing and wasn't to be trusted, so it was forgotten.

then, a couple of months later, i got to visit the SXSW festival in Texas, and cauught the white stripes playing there - i dragged my photographer steve gullick out of a tattoo parlour so he could catch this band i was crazy about. within seconds, he was onstage, taking photographs that NME still run from time to time. we got back from Texas, still raving about the show, and managed to convince the new live reviews editor to run live pix about this great new band we'd 'found' (again, how you can 'discover' a band who're on their second album is queer to me, but there you go).

a buzz started to gather about the band, after our pix and live review. they ran my album review, very belatedly. i was asked to write pieces about the Stripes' nascent back catalogue, and the Detroit scene, for the news section. when andy capper was too fucked up to review the 100 Club show, he asked me to write it instead. when the review was published, it got quoted in the broadsheets and read out verbatim on radio 4. this has certainly never happened to me since. a mouldering little cunt from the telegraph interviewed me and then maliciously misquoted me in light of the furore. the NME editorial staff member who would later claim credit for discovering the stripes even told me that he wished he could've written a review as good as that - which, considering he was in a position to comission me to write more and never did so, meant fuck all to me.

what means something to me, however, is that when the moment came i did the best i could, and good things came of it, for the band at least if not for me. this is not to say i have great taste or A&R vision at all - i just loved the band and wrote well about them. i've done the same for countless and perhaps more deserving bands, but no fucker's then got out and bought their records (cf the icarus line, who are the most exciting and impressive rock'n'roll band i've ever had the good luck to write about, and who struggle to sell anywhere the number of records they deserve to). most other chaps at NME were nestled next to the corporate trough, being told what to like by the record companies with the vested interests; the white stripes were nothing like that, just a band who i knew were great, and so therefore deserved my attention. it does my heart good to know that, 3 years on, the bands NME were fed - BRMC, the Vines, even the Strokes - have all stiffed, relatively, while the White Stripes, who i got while no one else was looking, are as strong as ever. i don't understand how that's not something to be proud of.

as i say, its immaterial. i never cashed in on the fact i was 'first' (though they had some press in the US, on the underground, looooong before i was on the scene, and John Peel and my friend Simon at Cargo, at the very least, were clued up in the UK way before me - which i've always gratefully acknowledged), and it certainly didn't help my career at NME any. like i said, one of my superiors now has it printed in other magazines that he contributes to that *he* discovered the white stripes, when in fact he was as much symptomatic of the ignorant and complacent attitude at NME, that would never have written about white stripes until they were wafted under their noses by a major label. but this was the one moment in my wasted and rotten career at NME where I was in the Right place at the Right time, and did not fail. i'm sorry if my pride in my work offends you.

i truly thought exactly zero people would love white stripes - led zep meets GBV seemed like a flavour only i would appreciate. but i was *convinced* Mike Ladd would become a superstar.

I kept hearing three acts mentioned a lot. Strokes. Moldy Peaches. White Stripes.

So I downloaded a track each and was blown away by all.

Then another by each, and continued until I either got a bad track (i.e. not a good one) or a dud (i.e. fake/spoiler).

Moldy peaches, total one track (I tried three times, all others were rub. The good one being Steak for Chicken)
Strokes, fine stuff
White Stripes, all great!

i have some affection for that first Moldy Peaches album. the 'smoking crack' 'downloading porn' stuff seemed really childish and transparent, when it was obvious, by danya's 'nothing came out', that they were, in fact, pretty impressive wannabe K Records-esque schmindie types with a deceptive NY-Cool by proxy. i rarely play that record now though...

mark, i guess i just didn't think my tastes were even remotely in synch with our readers', a feeling my editors certainly encouraged. when i got sent the strokes single early, before NME began covering them, i also thought it'd be a gulty pleasure for me - cool garage-y pop with a Lou Reed cool and a Richard Hell-esque sense of romance - that no one else in the world could love. i was in two minds about comissioning a feature on them at first (i was editing the music section of sleazenation at the time), but the writer who ended up doing the piece was so enthralled and thrilled by ver strokes that her enthusiasm swayed me.

I dug the Mouldy Peaches album out again recently, and it still held up. Childish and silly or not, it's still demented and great, like yeah, even though you know Pixie Sticks or Hot Rockz or whatever are bad for you and full of sugar and will make you hyper, and you can't eat too much of them or you'll get ill, but every now and then it's UTTERLY REFRESHING AND GRATE!!!

'handsprings' is the best white stripes song ever.

to get this thread back on an ET theme, he's the best editor i've worked with, ever, bar none. has a way of encouraging you, while getting to the core of what's wrong with a piece, that's masterful.

"Sleeping With Plan B" is going to be Plan B fan fiction... ;-)

((The bit about "not being allowed" to write, not the bit about writing the fan fiction. I am *so* working on Plan B fan fiction.))

Of course they can! (My personal favorite example, nothing against Mr. True, is M. Matos.)

(OK I ended up sleeping with a good percentage of the bands I reviewed for CTCL anyway, but still. This would be fictional. Of course.)

I AM STILL IN THE ROOM, RAGGETT!

PS: My favourite editor I ever worked with was Har Mar Superstar..although I guess this is only retrospectively as he wasn't actually Har Mar back then. And indeed never had any contact with me, nor me with him. So I guess that fails as an ex-editor shout out all round.

PPS: OK, then. Steve Sutherland at Melody Maker. The arguments we had - over pretty much fucking EVERYTHING - were perculiarly invigorating. Seriously.

PPPS: OK, then. Allan Jones at Melody Maker. I'd phone him up from the States and go, "Allan, I've missed my plane, sorry."
"That's fine, ET. You doing alright, apart from that? When's the next one then?"
"Er, not for another week..."
"OK then. See you in a week."
(This is a true conversation.)

Aw. I certainly don't complain on that front at all! :-) I AM glad you have a new albums person, though...and really all I just would ask is that somebody write me back from time to time! I didn't even get confirmation when I sent in some album reviews last time. :-( I will contact this new personage, though.

Man, that Everett True, just not as good as he used to be, is he? I'm so disappointed in my idols... sigh... mutter... mutter...

("I'M RIGHT HEEERRRRE!!!")

I LOVE EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this issue coming soon suffers only in that it is a Nedless Horse Of The Apocalypse.

Bless you all!

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;_;

RIP

Be grateful for small mercies (xp)

Was that *really* an xpost?

Somebody die?

aspie rubes strike again

*high-fives dom*

"They were - maybe because they were the first generation who were told in school and by their parents not to trust grownups (mainly to avoid sex crimes committed against them) - also one of the most ageist generations ever, and preferred to follow their own sports, have their own "slang" to a larger extent than anyone before them"

I hate the way half his reviews start with "I remember the first time I heard this band..."

I am *so* working on Plan B fan fiction

Shame he died before he got the chance to creep overhear the Pipettes.

i hear he met courtney love.

YSI?

http://gawker.com/5356730/twitter+crazed-courtney-love-wants-dave-grohl-ass+raped-by-everett-true

too funny

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/sep/10/courtney-love-guitar-hero

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gawker/2009/09/courntey.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3rx9LpEAD8

Thread category: "ILX was a very different place back then" thread 2