the many faces of james ferraro

[mudd]

I'm sorry to hear that James has ripped people off. I remember an incident on another message board where he got really upset and told everybody on there to go fuck themselves. I can't remember what happened but I think it was something that he perceived as racial (for those who don't know- he is black). Maybe he thinks that the pasty weird/noise heads deserve to be separated from their $$? I could also see it as being pure flakery & ineptitude on his part. In any case, it's really lame and not excusable.

i'd always taken it as pure flakery. and personally i find that pretty forgivable. i don't really see any reason to change my mind from this thread.

there have been a lot of similar situation in the past, and all i can say is... wait for the good shit to hit a distro you can trust. and then act _fast_.

also, welcome to the board.

m

[user_5396]

i'd always taken it as pure flakery. and personally i find that pretty forgivable. .

I take it you weren't one of the dudes who sent him a hundred bucks. If you were, however, I find your position admirable.

[mudd]

nah, he never cashed the check i sent, as far as i recall. i've sent money down a few other black holes, but never quite that much.

m

[user_5324]

i'd always taken it as pure flakery. and personally i find that pretty forgivable.

this is me as well. honestly it sucks if you lost significant amounts of money because of ferraro's flakery but i don't think it's so cool to just rag on the guy endlessly about that. whoever reads this thread or hears from anyone that lost some cash is probably going to make some pretty educated decisions about where they order skaters tapes from, of course.

[niwi]

honestly it sucks if you lost significant amounts of money because of ferraro's flakery but i don't think it's so cool to just rag on the guy endlessly about that.

i'm having a hard time understanding this opinion, or that of those who would willingly send this dude money after reading this thread.

[mudd]

i think what we're trying to say is, stop sending the dude money. let fusetron or eclipse or aquarius or volcanic tongues or whoever take care of that part. but that has nothing to do with the quality of his music. which may lack as well, i dunno.

m

[james]

but that has nothing to do with the quality of his music. which may lack as well, i dunno.

the majority of criticisms in the thread are being directed towards their recorded music. I can see that. If you're generally not into that type of sound, Skaters albums aren't going to get you into it (or get you back into it). It's a bit derivative, but for a lot of us, that's kind of missing the point. I personally don't need 500 LPs that sound like Skaters, Double Leopards or things like that, but I do enjoy coming across a particularly good example of that sound.

Regarding the live show, I saw these guys for the first time in the past week and I thought it was great. I see a good amount of music like this on a regular basis and in my opinion the set they played in DC was top notch. At the risk of sounding flaky, there were some pretty transcendent moments in there that gave me a heavy Goa/Indian and psych-Mayan vibe. There was a holiness, if you know what I mean.

Finally, I'll agree that the Vodka Soap stuff is the most interesting recorded stuff to come from that crowd (person?). Awesome desk job albums.

[user_5324]

the post above me is pretty much how i feel as well

[the_mission]

http://chondriticsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15559" onclick= "window.open(this.href);return false;

[user_156]

"It just occurred to me that at the show Spencer described his own sound as "coconut drone"
http://earconditionednightmare.blogspot ... -maui.html" onclick= "window.open(this.href);return false;

i see spencer's read my post.

[mudd]

this is hilarious:

Out now on LIFE IS ROUGH records,
Live bootleg of Skaters and Zac Davis from recent tour, direct from
soundboard transfer to lathe cut 33rpm onto old stock paper laquers,
huff spraypainted stoned backwards glue jobs and scribbled condor wing
inkwell to typewritten alien messages about the back to the future
part 3, train. Total mess, you cant get high enouhg.

Double 7" Lathe Cut
Limited edition of 5, $40

first 5 to
paypal to hello@heresee.com
get em .

info and etc here:
http://heresee.com/lifeisrough.htm" onclick= "window.open(this.href);return false;

m

[faster]

this is hilarious:

Out now on LIFE IS ROUGH records,
Live bootleg of Skaters and Zac Davis from recent tour, direct from
soundboard transfer to lathe cut 33rpm onto old stock paper laquers,
huff spraypainted stoned backwards glue jobs and scribbled condor wing
inkwell to typewritten alien messages about the back to the future
part 3, train. Total mess, you cant get high enouhg.

Double 7" Lathe Cut
Limited edition of 5, $40

first 5 to
paypal to hello@heresee.com
get em .

info and etc here:
http://heresee.com/lifeisrough.htm" onclick= "window.open(this.href);return false;

m

FYI pretty sure that's Twig Harper's doing...

[mudd]

well yeah, he runs heresee.

m

[michael]

life is rough indeed

[skrobek]

I'd like to hear more from those people, as well as Yellow Swans, Axolotl etc... but

1) it's a bit difficult to get access to it

and

2) I don't know where to start !

willing to help ?

[peteswans]

to check out skaters stuff... you should probably start here:

http://take-off-your-shoes.blogspot.com ... aters.html

there are a LOT of records on here, but.. worth digging.. and.. like I said before.. maybe start with Vodka Soap stuff..

and.. some of James' solo stuff.. L. Crystal/Edward Flex... are a bit more pop oriented than the other stuff... so.. depending on your assosciations with pop... that'll probably determine how you feel about these..


as for Axolotl.. I'd recommend picking up Telesma (which is his most "pop ambient" leaning record) and I think "memory theater" collects most of his more useful limited releases.. I'm sure some of his newer stuff is next level, but.. these two CDs are my favorites I've heard and I've got most of his stuff..


uh... Yellow Swans was my band... so.. if you decide you want to start.. I've got a lot of records for sale! ha.. er.. we had a lot of different types of releases.. so.. if you like.. more droney/collage stuff, I'd check Drift... if you want more melodic & gauzey, I'd check At All Ends, Drowner or Deterioration... if you like industrial, Psychic Secession.. more beat heavy/hardcore/aggro, Live During War Crimes vol 1... I recommend people stay away from anything pre 2004.. there are few needles in that haystack, but.. it's mostly... not too great to my ears... I think you can download all of this stuff from various spots on the internet for free so..... if you really want it, you can get it.

[mudd]

telesma is a great pick for axolotl, i'm also fond of 'archons? archons!' but i might be the only one. for more recent, 'trade ye not in mere moneyed art' is good, but i feel like i haven't heard enough of the most recent stuff to comment.

we have a yellow swans thread out there somewhere, obviously pete knows what he's talking about but they've released a ton of material and a lot of it's really good, so sample freely.

the skaters are more complicated. they've done a ton of stuff, and it's really hard to keep track of the details of individual releases. mostly because when they want to change styles, they change projects as well. every band name is another approach to the music, with the same free-flowing source but often fairly different sounds. i wouldn't even be able to pick favorites effectively, but vodka soap is a good one, and of the straight-up skaters material i would strongly suggest starting with 'dark rye bread', their first. or, y'know, pick randomly by title on that blog - so much of that stuff is micro-issued, you're not taking any money out of their pockets either way.

m

[peteswans]

I'll second dark rye bread as the top proper skaters release.. I also like Gambling in Opha's Shadow.. and the new LP on Eclipse is much better/more interesting than I expected it to be..

I am also a big fan of Archons, but.. well... I think the other two releases are more essential and much more readily available

[skrobek]

Hey, thank you guys ! Loads of stuff to explore here and thanx for the links !

cheers

[skrobek]

... for the moment I've been Dl-ing the stuff on the blog you indicated in the order of the page, I'm getting to the Lamborghini Crystal tapes and it's really interesting stuff...

I had no idea that stuff existed, only been listening to No Fun and Blossming Noise releases mainly...

a huge THANK YOU again !

I found a couple references for Yellow Swans on Mimaroglu, so I ordered these... for the moment...

cheers