Ask a music scene micro celebrity

[electrical]

[ QUOTE ]
As a Chicagoan and a gambler, please lay odds on the following happening:

-Chicago is named host of the 2016 Olympics
-Chicago gets a casino within the next 10 years
-The Cubs win the World Series within the next 10 years

[/ QUOTE ]
I am not a gambler, honestly. I play poker, and I will play games for stakes (I am a fish at Nine-ball, a shortstop in one-pocket, decent at three-cushion), but I don't like betting on things where my only edge comes from other people or objects performing as I hope they will.

That said, I used to offer Novotny a standing 5:1 on the Cubs making the post season and I made pretty good money over the years.

The rest, meh. I don't know.

[ QUOTE ]
Did you read Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life? If so, what did you think of it, and of the Big Black chapter in particular?

[/ QUOTE ]
Here's what I wrote about it in a thread on the Electrical Audio forums:

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There is a problem with any book like this. It is written by someone who wasn't there. He's trying to convey the importance of a culture that was really a series of individual events, each one of them unique and life-changing for anybody actually there at the time, but impossible to convey to someone who wasn't.

He's also telling the life story of a peer group that includes me, a bunch of my friends, and our counterparts around the world. It is impossible to write a book that includes an important part of my life that will not be read by me with some suspicion. I was there, he wasn't. Inevitably, he will look like an idiot some of the time.

That said, I liked the chapter on the Minutemen.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
(Side question: Were the Butthole Surfers hands-down the craziest band of that era, as the book seems to imply? If they weren't, who was?)

[/ QUOTE ]
If you weren't there to see it, you might not believe it, but there were a lot of really effed-up bands in the 1980s, and the Buttholes weren't even particularly weird in context. Mudhead, Pile of Cows, Sloppage, the Thrown-Ups and the whole Bay Area scenes surrounding SRL and the Idiot... Now that was some weird right there.

The Butthole Surfers were easily the most selfish, childish little pricks in that scene, but not the weirdest.

[ QUOTE ]
Which Chicago rock critic is a bigger douchebag; Bill Wyman, Jim DeRogatis, Greg Kot, or someone else?

[/ QUOTE ]
Well, Jim DeRogatis is clearly the biggest, and Wyman no longer even pretends to cover Chicago, so he's immaterial. Kot generally has his heart in the right place, though he does fall for sucker bait like the Polyphonic Spree and the like. The dumbest professional music writer in Chicago though is a retard named Jessica Hopper, whose writing is simultaneously sophomoric, vapid and excruciatingly self-satisfied. It is literally impossible to glean any actual content or criticism from her writing, which is an achievement of some sort, I suppose.

[ QUOTE ]
What do you think of Pitchfork Magazine?

[/ QUOTE ]
I virtually never think of Pitchfork Magazine.

[electrical]

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You seem to have a bit of disdain for improvised music. Have you ever recorded a Jazz album? If so what was your experience like?

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Oh no, not in the slightest, and I record free players as session guys pretty regularly. It almost never lives up to its promise, but I like the idea of improvised music a lot, and experience as improvisers makes musicians better able to handle extemporaneous stuff in other studio contexts. The players in that scene are uniformly excellent, and recording them is easy and it usually sounds good.

What I am suffering is more fatigue from an established improv scene in Chicago that has a fairly set demeanor. If you're a regular at these shows, you'll understand when I say that there aren't a lot of surprises, despite everything being supposedly "free."

[arbuthnot]

I'll start with just three. I may have more later depending on how these go. Thanks for doing this btw.

1. You mentioned that you play in a regular poker game. Who is the best player in that game?

2. On a scale of one-thousand to ten-thousand squirrels, how much to you like/love to play poker?

3. According to the documentary about you, posted earlier in the thread, some people have labeled you a misogynist. With that said, do you think women make good poker players and could a woman ever be a worthwhile president of the U.S.?

[electrical]

[ QUOTE ]
1. You mentioned that you play in a regular poker game. Who is the best player in that game?

[/ QUOTE ]
Limit HE: a guy named Russ. His only real competition is a guy named Devin who probably gets more value from bad players, but in a tough ring game, Russ probably wins more/loses less.

Mixed games, stud games and Swingo: me

NLHE: Devin by a country mile. He takes advantage of every weakness he sees, usually perfectly balancing his play against observant players.

Omaha: Don't be ridiculous, nobody is better than anybody else at this goofy game.

My personal nemesis: Sean. Has me clocked perfectly.

[ QUOTE ]
2. On a scale of one-thousand to ten-thousand squirrels, how much to you like/love to play poker?

[/ QUOTE ]
Easy 7kS. Easy. On a tear, I could go the whole 10kS.

[ QUOTE ]
3. According to the documentary about you, posted earlier in the thread, some people have labeled you a misogynist. With that said, do you think women make good poker players and could a woman ever be a worthwhile president of the U.S.?

[/ QUOTE ]
There are so few women in any "sporting" enterprise it may take a long time for them to get a fair accounting. It is unfortunate that the ones with big teats and yappers get all the attention, since they are clearly not the best. I would welcome many of the "female pros" I see play online or on television in our Tuesday game, though Jen Harman is clearly world class, and I have sweated some excellent online players who turned out to be female.

As for President, whatever. It'll be thirty years or more before we've undone the damage of the last eight, so who gets elected this time doesn't really matter in the medium term, as long as it isn't another Republican.

[Max Raker]

Was Phil Spector as innovative and important as Rolling Stone says he is?

I have already asked a few so feel free to ignore if you don't have the time or just don't feel like answering.

[MikeyPatriot]

I forgot the most important question...White Sox or Cubs?

Please don't let me down.

[electrical]

[ QUOTE ]
Was Phil Spector as innovative and important as Rolling Stone says he is?

[/ QUOTE ]
Oh hells yeah. Most record producers are parasites on the careers of bands and artists, but Phil Spector was actually the creator of everything on the records he produced, regardless of whose name was on the credits. He was also an extreme sex perv freak, gun nut and paranoid coke fiend. he was about as high-roller as dudes like that can be, and it all drove him nuts. Unique character.

[electrical]

[ QUOTE ]
I forgot the most important question...White Sox or Cubs?

[/ QUOTE ]
If you're a Cubs fan, I want you in the Tuesday game, and please bring your whole roll.

If you're a Sox fan, well, we're suffering some variance right now...

[/ QUOTE ]

[electrical]

Somebody ask me about Swingo.

[KJS]

I have a theory that there is a very short lifespan for excellent rock bands. I just think in rock and roll that being young and hungry gives you a huge edge when it comes to producing kick ass music. When people lose that youth and hunger, the music suffers.

Can you think of bands that have released excellent albums more that 10 years apart? 5 years apart? If we had to destroy all rock music produced more than 10 years after a bands initial effort, what great music would be lost?

KJS