John Cobbett of Hammers of Misfortune answers 100 Questions for LotFP!

[Some Bastard]

Not sure what you're getting at here. Like I said before, Black Sabbath started by imitating Cream. And likewise Priest started by imitating Sabbath. Like it or not, the kind of music later to be called "Heavy Metal" was already there before it became a 'formula', a 'kind' of music restricted by so-called 'rules'.

Of course I could counterpoint your little Bill Ward-quote with quotes by Geezer and Ozzy where they distance themselves from the term 'Heavy Metal' but that would be too easy. After all, seeing that you are once again pretty selective in what you actually react to you have already decided to disagree with me, no matter what.

Why would anybody be so sloppy to call Black Sabbath Heavy Metal? That's hardly the point, is it? I'm interested in music, not semantics. You?

 

[Cheiron]

C) Cheiron - You're still a corporate rock tool. You will never not be.

Support that. I doubt you can. Easy to just spit shit out, without support. My responses and indicated opinions have nothing to do with 'corporate rock.'

If you really want to know what I stand for. I stand against music publishers making all the friggin moneys, while the artists are being shafted. The theory is that the publishers are taking risk by singing bands, and lose money on them, so deserve to make profits on successful ones. Hardly the fact. The fact is that they can (as those articles indicated) easily write-off losses, and still easily steal from bands that are making lots of money.

But that -can- be different than saying 'I enjoy Band X.' With Band X being signed by 'Popular, genre forming, Label Z.' Am I indirectly supporting Label Z? Surely. But should I feel slightly guilty if I blame and thus.. don't support Band X, because they were signed by Label Z? Yeah. I would feel a bit guilty.

I think BenMech, that if you knew the various metal that I listen to (and I listen to a lot of underground, obscure shit... since I'll listen to just about anything I can get my hands on), that you would find yourself with no support for your above statement.

 

[Some Bastard]

For some people here that seems to be the general mode of discussion; if someone disagrees with the views expressed here, just pin some label on him/her uke:

 

[Cheiron]

I was serious. what does it mean to sell out right now? how does selling out apply to anything in our little world? I don't get it. it seems like something you watched Def Leppard and Metallica do ages ago, but these days it just doesn't mean anything to me. who can sell out? to whom? how is it possible to sell out when there's no money and no buyers? again, maybe my ignorance is bliss and i'd rather not think about this.

Perhaps, if you change your music based on a labels desire to cash in (them forcing you to, or in order for you to get a label you have to sign those rights away), is selling out. Of course, as you state, what is the purpose of selling out? These bands aren't going to be making that much money. Problem is, they often don't know that. So their intent is to sellout.

But you made me think about something. Trying to name a band that came out in the last 5 years, that has somehow -made it big- and is now rich. Are there any? I can't think of anything other than Hip Hop (how are they doing it? are is it all false money right now), and Teen Pop stars.

My answer to this question was absolutely and unequivocably the 100% truth. "because they don't feel like it" is the perfect and only real answer to this question.

Yeah, but I think the question was trying to get 'Why don't they feel like it.' Which is probably a fairly simple answer. There is no cultural motive. Same reason not to many black people are putting out albums that sound like Dave Matthews Band, Fall out Boy, and Matchbox Romance. Also seems to be a decline of them putting out any form of rock, jazz, blues (even though they basically invented all of them).

The story took each premise of the question, cast the hypothetical musician in the question as a character, and addressed each suggested condition one by one. In each case, the character fails and has to resort to MAGIC in order to get to the next premise. I wrote a vivid account of what would most likely happen had someone attempted what was suggested in the question - step by step. This is how the ideas in the question work in reality. How could I have possibly better answered this?

If there was any moral to the story it's that the question being asked has very little to do with what actually happens on the ground when you try to do something like this.


the fact that some bands do things differently is just as likely due to the fact that they are (blissfully) unaware of the rules. breaking rules is easy when you don't know what they are.

thanks again for reading, cheers!

-John C.

Yeah it made sense to me. Had to reread it to see how you were answering the question. But I agree. This is why I hate using questionaires in my day job. Have to go through several sample tests first just to get feedback, to make sure the survey really asks what you want to know. Either way, your responses were enlightening.

Hopefully sometime I'll get to see Hammers of Misfortune in the states (hint. Atlanta. hint hint.)