Fascinating top essay, David! I did not know this. I've never particularly considered The Ophelias to be "ahead of our time" though that gets said/written often, but you've given me pause. Gee, you and WB, maybe we'd have been given a shot.
To me, you guys getting signed to Rough Trade was INCREDIBLE....you are eternally tied...rightfully so...to a legacy of the greatest music. Meanwhile.....IT WILL BE GREAT TO HAVE YOU BACK IN SAN FRANCISCO TO SING NEXT WEEKEND!
I'll take a stand for Pell Mell. Geffen had sold millions of Kitaro and Pat Metheny records, so Ray Farrell's idea that there was a market for instrumental rock didn't seem crazy to me at the time. I know that Cop Shoot Cop, Babes in Toyland, Medicine, Mercury Rev, and Claw Hammer were all signed with the intention that they could be really big. Drive Like Jehu was part of a dual signing alongside Rocket From the Crypt, another band some of us thought could be huge. Cell were signed as part of Sonic Youth's label deal at Geffen (along with St. Johnny), and Roberta Petersen really loved the Sammy album.
I was debating whether to write about this myself, but you took care of it. Boredoms album is still an all-time favorite.
Fair. Totally fair. And this stuff can be debate until the sun rises on an evening drunk. Tim Carr thought Kat from Babes in Toyland was a superstar. That is the truth, he would sit in my office playing their records and explaining the plan towards world domination (I miss Tim). The beauty of A&R (and I know you know this) is that being safe means never signing a band. Being bold is signing one that does not fit into a current box.
The truly terrible signings from the alt-rock boom were the bands that came and went with no notice from the world at large but clogged up the system with music that had nothing to offer but sounded vaguely like the records that were already hits.
Those records had zero chance, bummed out the label staffs, and made it easy for everyone to lump the truly daring stuff into the same category.
Fascinating top essay, David! I did not know this. I've never particularly considered The Ophelias to be "ahead of our time" though that gets said/written often, but you've given me pause. Gee, you and WB, maybe we'd have been given a shot.
To me, you guys getting signed to Rough Trade was INCREDIBLE....you are eternally tied...rightfully so...to a legacy of the greatest music. Meanwhile.....IT WILL BE GREAT TO HAVE YOU BACK IN SAN FRANCISCO TO SING NEXT WEEKEND!
I'll take a stand for Pell Mell. Geffen had sold millions of Kitaro and Pat Metheny records, so Ray Farrell's idea that there was a market for instrumental rock didn't seem crazy to me at the time. I know that Cop Shoot Cop, Babes in Toyland, Medicine, Mercury Rev, and Claw Hammer were all signed with the intention that they could be really big. Drive Like Jehu was part of a dual signing alongside Rocket From the Crypt, another band some of us thought could be huge. Cell were signed as part of Sonic Youth's label deal at Geffen (along with St. Johnny), and Roberta Petersen really loved the Sammy album.
I was debating whether to write about this myself, but you took care of it. Boredoms album is still an all-time favorite.
Fair. Totally fair. And this stuff can be debate until the sun rises on an evening drunk. Tim Carr thought Kat from Babes in Toyland was a superstar. That is the truth, he would sit in my office playing their records and explaining the plan towards world domination (I miss Tim). The beauty of A&R (and I know you know this) is that being safe means never signing a band. Being bold is signing one that does not fit into a current box.
The truly terrible signings from the alt-rock boom were the bands that came and went with no notice from the world at large but clogged up the system with music that had nothing to offer but sounded vaguely like the records that were already hits.
Those records had zero chance, bummed out the label staffs, and made it easy for everyone to lump the truly daring stuff into the same category.