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Formerly job hunting... Now I guess if you want to look at the tradelist or picture of my kid...


idreamofpunk
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real quick, please direct re: productivity.

would it be getting warmer if mayhaps the time were passed by sitting in one's parent's basement and crying, whilst strumming Blink 182 tabs in one's underwear?

also, good use of the Pauly D shoop de doop. 5 stars.

You know how to cut to the core of me, Kriss. You're like a miniature buddha. With green hair. Or something, whatever it is by now.

 

I don't know where you get the last half of that, though. 'cause... YEah, no. I'm actually looking for jobs, as the title of this thread indicates, and may have found one that, while it doesn't provide insurance, could very well be a good job to have while I'm looking for this fabled "better" job.

 

but i guess that won't be good enough for you, and I should give your locals only label everything I get from this thread when you flat out told me to wait until something went into the store that wasn't due until March anyway. Or did you conveniently forget that conversation when you were critiquing what I bought with my money?

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I think (punk or any other sort of) provincialism is a waste of time. Much like I detest the idea of genre, I think it just puts limits on the listener when you don't need to (in the case of genre, it keeps things labeled and makes people apprehensive of things that aren't as easily categorized or makes people fight over labels). I don't think keeping things cloistered and insular does anyone any favors. If it works for you, good on you, but I like to not put up boundaries. If I like something or someone and have the capital to do it, I'd put out a record from whoever the hell I want so long as they'll agree to it, location be damned.

 

I never understood the punk provincialism thing where everyone on the east coast things everything is good if it comes form the east coast and the west coast and Midwest do so for them, and everything else is crap. It limits your experiences and stunts creative growth. If you're able to get by with it, fine, but damn, I know I suggested bands that I knew would sell and who might've actually gone with it, and good on you for not caring if things would sell as quickly because you didn't like it personally (you have your guns you stick to, I'll give you that even though I think you're nuts for running a business with the locals only nonsense), but man why place limits on yourself? Why anyone would do that intentionally is beyond me.

 

but I guess so are a lot of things.

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And these are all valid points, too which I say - go and start your own label. I think a lot of this bitterness truly comes out of you wanting to have been a part and me not having any room for you. Again, I'm terribly sorry for that. Any discussion of that any further should be between us.

As for the main point of this, i.e. regional elitism; there truly is none. punk, as a word, is a nonissue, seeing as how we haven't released a thing in that genre's various confines. I'm not even from Chicago - I just love this city from having spent nearly a decade here. Much like Dischord in DC and Factory in Manchester, I'm interested in documenting this city on an exclusive level.

The bands you suggested - Red City Radio being a big one - simply aren't to my taste. even if they were exclusively Chicago, I'd still have no interest from a record standpoint. Would I have them on the N+B show? Sure. I like working with folks who live within neighborhoods of me because I'm able to have facetime with them and build relationships. they can come to my door and pick up their records and in many cases, we hang out and have dinner and drinks or go to shows together, all while discussing projects - much more personal than emailing a band somewhere in Nebraska.

I never once said that anything outside of Chicago is bad. To the contrary, I love a lot of what is going on out in California with Burger Records and a lot of the coldwave stuff going on in NYC. I simply have no interest in releasing things from 2,000 miles away when there's an embarrassment of musical riches literally an alley or two over.

As to limits, I've recorded over 100 episodes of Notes and Bolts as a podcast in less than a year and in that time, have featured over 150 individual voices on the show. At this moment, I make a point to have a dozen episodes scheduled for recording at any time and I never have a shortage. in terms of releases, we're looking at between four and six releases a month between tapes, lathes, flexis, and vinyl. With ALL of that right outside my door, why look further? I'm building something by documenting this city and N+B as a co-op are working together to put out great music that isn't confined to any single genre. You think that's nuts? Cool. My response, do me one better. Until then; shut up.

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Bitterness? Yes, I was irritated you were going to have me help out, but then quite abruptly put the brakes on that. But bitter? please. The only reason it still comes up is to explain my irritation at the time.

Any lingering irritation is only present when you bring it up because you truly don't know how excited I was to learn to use that lathe cutter you ended up not touching for months after you told me you didn't need me to do anything. The "too many cooks" analogy doesn't work when no one's at the stove, you dig?

 

I was merely using the punk scene as an example. I know you've not released anything remotely in the "punk" flavor of things. Document away, it's your thing. never said you couldn't, and it wouldn't have mattered anyway. I just recommended bands I felt a familiarity to because they were always happy to see us when we'd drive 2.5 hours to see them in addition to down the street. But really, I'm not trying ot change what you do. Lord knows I couldn't dream of doing it. As much as I want to strangle you these days, I still admire the fact that you're doing what you're doing, but still, even with the same resources at my disposal, I wouldn't be doing what you're doing. I would hate the podcasting, for one. I'm finally in a spot where people want to play music with me, and once we find a place to do it while I have income, we're golden. If I can make something half as good as that Death To Slater track someone posted on here, I'll be happy.

 

I hope to squirrel away some funds to buy my own lathe cutter and provide that service to bands that will record in the studio my friend is building and whoever else may want them. I've got goals, just need the funds to implement. 

 

I can find a lot of crap right outside the door, too. But perhaps it was just the fact that we just don't see eye to eye on music. That was kind of apparent from the start, though, wasn't it? I can like something enough to not detest it and say it's crap. But that doesn't mean I'll show up to every show and fall over myself about it. I too want to put out stuff I like, so I guess that's my main goal. Work with bands *I* want to, and do what I can to foster even a fraction of how great the Chicago punk scene is here in Dayton. With the dearth of disillusionment here, I know there are those out here that feel the same way I do.

 

So I guess the main thing is... We just don't meet at the same level with music. Maybe you think you're so much better than me with your collection that's three times the size of mine, or that I don't have enough youth crew hardcore or chillwave or deep house or whatever. Maybe I still think the fact that you organize by genre is insane. (I do, because I hate the very idea of genre, but that's more my own belief making me think your organization is insane than it being because of you.) 

 

Maybe you just view me as a little child who's throwing a fit, I don't give a fuck. I've got issues I need to deal with myself, and in time they'll be fine, and I'll be much happier, but until I'm able to get a handle on things, and my brain will hopefully be much less cloudy, and things will get down to business, I don't fucking know. All i have to look forward to is a future where I'm able to get my shit together, 'cause right now, I'm miserable 'cause I need a job so I can climb out before more dirt comes down this hole to crush me even more.

So call me out on it more. Go ahead. Call me flipper scum. I'm still getting rid of those records 'cause I don't want a reminder of this, and while I like them, someone else will enjoy them more. If you just knew I'd get rid of them anyway, you shouldn't have given them to me. Call me a traitor, call me scum. whatever. SOmeone else will get more enjoyment out of them, 'cause right now, knowing they came from you, I get none.

 

I'm going in circles, and normally I don't care, but i'm growing tired of this shit.

If anyone hasn't been chased away by the two people on this board, possibly three that have a problem with me, feel free to look at my list and throw out an offer on some of my shit.

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So I'm gonna go over the lathe thing ONE more time so that you fully understand the brevity of things here and so, hopefully, you can abandon this idea that I was personally trying to slight you. The lathe was expensive. Atop of that, lathe needles are expensive. Now for any who is reading this thread who isn't the two of us - I feel I should fill you in on this - needles for lathe cutters are upwards of $100 a piece (for the decent ones, atleast) and can break within minutes if not used properly. Seriously - $100 down the tubes in a minute and a half if the peaks in the grooves go too tightly or the sound burns through the stylus. Now for Andrew, here, at the time, he had NO money whatsoever to put into this project, yet wanted all of the access to it based off of a SINGLE conversation we'd had about wanting to get a lathe cutter. Because I was the one out of the two of us to go through with purchasing the thing, he felt that he had the right to it based off of that one conversation. And why? Not JUST for the love of record making, but because he needed another source of income to support his family.

 

In the time I've known you, Andrew, you've constantly tried to scheme ways of getting money and in some rare instances, I've given you jobs with catering and such to try to help relieve that. In this case, knowing the the investment was already fairly deep and could go deeper with each broken needle, I simply did not want just anyone messing around with it. You had nothing to lose since you invested nothing, while I did. I think anyone here reading this could attest that that's a fair point and that they'd probably operate along the same lines. When you have something expensive, you don't let just anyone play around with it, especially if it's fragile. Pretty general rule of thumb, right? Even when talking to other folks with lathe cutters about this ordeal - because, yes, I did want to seek other opinions, because I genuinely didn't want you feeling slighted - every single one of them said that you should get your own lathe to play around with because these things aren't toys - they're expensive and sensitive items that cost a shit ton of money. Kudos that you plan on getting one, now.

 

Finally, knowing how busy you were when you were living in Chicago - you were juggling a job, seeing folks for more personal matters, have a wife and a newborn child - I knew that I wouldn't have been able to count on you to do things with any sort of regularity. That's not a slight, that's just a truth. Family trumps records, every day of the week. But the thing with lathe cutting is, you can't master it by just tinkering with it one or two days a week for a couple of hours. If I'm gonna let someone use the thing, they're gonna be able to have a freer schedule to spend more time with it while also not having the constraints that come with having a child to look after.

 

And as to the last point of no one touching it for months - yeah, I'll give you that. Here's why - again, I want to find someone who actually knows how to use the thing to teach me and not just let every tom, dick, and jane on the block with a vinyl fetish have their way with it. On a logistical side in terms of pure time, I've been busy with literally a half a dozen other projects - so yeah, the metaphorical stove, by itself, may have been left unattended - but the rest of the kitchen was and is most certainly bustling and alive with activity.

 

So moving on - a lot of the things you've expressed in your above paragraphs seem to have far less to do with what I and my crew are doing with Notes and Bolts and more to do with you being bummed that you a.) don't have the resources to do those things, yourself and b.) wouldn't do them the same way in the event that you did. Am I getting that straight?

 

If you saw a band 2.5 hours drive away. Good for you. That's your personal experience and my hat's off to you. But what does that have to do with N+B? Again, feel free to start your own label. From my point of view, when we spoke, I didn't see a guy who was interested in helping his friend with a label, I saw a guy who saw someone else starting something and was trying to figure the angles on how to inject his own personal desires into it by proxy. When you were repeatedly rebuffed, you got progressively more negative.

 

As for disagreement on music - I've always stated that I've had no big issue with what you like. If anything, I've attempted to stay neutral despite not liking the majority of it. On the other hand, when we would hang out with you and your wife, we would hear things like "this guy sounds like he has down syndrome ("Screeching Weasel or Less Than Jake), "I fucking hate music with screaming. Total trash!" (Converge), "I couldn't listen to that! I have to listen to stuff with meaningful lyrics!" (Personal and The Pizzas), and so forth and so on. When we were hanging out, you would constantly foist music we didn't like onto us, and we would just nod and be amicable. When we tried to show ya'll things we liked, the ipods were quickly switched out in favor of your musics alongside sly remarks as to the inferiority of ours'.

 

My honest opinion - you've had people in your life in the past who have been harsh towards you about ephemeral things like divergent personal taste and - much like a lot of other topics that we've broached this past week - you've been projecting them onto me as if I was the source of many of those things. I'm not your older brother. I'm not your wife. I'm not the jerks on the Kiss message boards, and I'm not your enemy. So stop treating me like I am one. That most of your responses to me - as proved in even this thread - show, you have more self resentment, hatred, and anger going on than anything else, and you let that manifest in assuming that others feel those things towards you when they don't at all. Let it go. That you assume I find myself better because something as silly as a larger record collection and a different range of music is ludicrous. All in your head and again, projecting.

 

In all truth - the main bone you've picked with me over the time we've known each other is that you believe I snub my nose at the music you listen to. Meanwhile, you go deeper by snubbing the way I organize my record collection and run my label. You need to learn to differentiate between honest disagreement and total insult - if I don't like variants and flipping, that's my prerogative. I've said things to you along the lines of not understanding why you like those things, but I've never outright insulted them (well, not until you began really pushing me and then I just started taking cheap shots, but I'm more referring to when we hung out in person). Perhaps a difference of opinion, to you and yours', is equitable to total opposition. In that case, there's nothing I can do or say that you won't pick apart and be offended by. Whose truly policing who?

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Look, I would've just preferred to not be told about it at all. You made it seem that you were on the fence about it for time purposes when you were merely thinking about buying it. You tell me, I say I'll put in the time needed and the care needed so that you can make it a part of the label, you decide to go for it. You were stretched thin, I was offering my time as a friend because I had always wanted to do this, and then you shut me out citing the baby, which apparently everyone I knew up there did because ater she was born, despite people saying it was "so cool" we were having this kid, no one fucking hung out with us once she got here save for a few people (you two a few times included). The possibility of eventually bringing in money from it was truly a secondary thing, whether you want to believe that or not. That would've been some serious long-term planning if that were the only thing, and that would've been especially poor planning, 'cause I needed money right then and there if you'll recall. I know damn well they're not toys, and it kind of irks me that you think I thought I'd just be "playing around" on it. This tells me you don't think I'm able to maturely conduct myself when I need to, nor do you think I can take time to do things properly when I need to. Do you think I drag my wife and child to job interviews, too? Do I need help dressing myself to go out into the world? I treat other people's things much better than I treat my own, especially when they need the kind of care this does. However, you seem to think I could not and still don't grasp just how delicate this machine is, and how cost intensive it can be. Think what you want, but you're wrong.

 

The 2.5 hour drive was mentioned because we had fostered a relationship with a band and we actually had to work for it instead of have them come to us. They saw us enough and saw we gave a fuck. That's all. You miss the point of that. I was suggesting things that I thought would benefit you and the label in a positive way. any irritation from that amounts o the same level anyone would have when they try to help a friend and they are repeatedly shown that their opinion doesn't matter, be it for a lack of financial investment in the project or whatever. I was just trying to put forth suggestions, 'cause I know those PCS 7"s flew off the shelves hard.

 

Ben Weasel DOES sound like he has something wrong with him. I still think "My Own World" in particular is one of the best 2-ish minute spans of pop punk the world could ever hear, though. I have no idea why you'd cite LTJ, though, seeing as how Em and I think they're awesome, and have seen them multiple times over the course of our ten year relationship. I'm no longer covering up my disdain for Converge on here. I think they're garbage. Good on other people for being into 'em, but I think they're crap. J. Bannon is a wonderful artist, but I hate his band. Whatever. I'm sure he won't lose any sleep over my opinion. But also, I've said before I don't have a pinch colar on my wife. If she says something you don't like, go to her about it. Especially if you're still dwelling on something as trivial as what she said about Personal and the Pizzas.

 

You know damn well why I hate myself. I appreciate you not getting into specifics. I don't view you as an enemy per sé, but rather someone I find it difficult to have a conversation with because not only do I bristle at things you say, you seem to look into things much more than is needed or warranted such as our FB exchange earlier this week. I merely asked a question, had no issue with the answer, but you sure as hell didn't want to stop until you made sure I did have one to the point where i don't even want those damn releases anymore. I don't know where that comes from, and frankly i don't care. I just don't see the purpose in fostering this relationship anymore, amicable from your end or not, if that's what things have come down to.

 

Snubbing is not quite the word I'd use, but then again, who cares? Its a mere disagreement. Perhaps placed within this larger conflict you're making it seem like I find it to be a bigger deal than I actually think it is. Things have been heated, and thus blown way out of proportion, but this isn't the first time, and it certainly won't be the last, I'm sure so long as you and I both occupy this corner of the internet. Whatever. I'm done. I kindly request you arrive at that state, too.

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