from a papa m/pajo forum to which he posted the following:
hey yall
I couldn't help but sneak a peak at the current ATP thread, so I thought
I'd chime in. I try to keep myself out of everyone's hair so discussions
can roll freely on this forum, but I found this thread most interesting.
so here's what's been happening behind the curtain.
we've been holding regular meetings regarding ATP since the idea first came
up last summer. these meetings go on for 7 - 10 hours, for days at a time.
Slint is a very detail-oriented band and this event is no exception. we've
spent hundreds of hours reviewing music and discussing current bands. from
these discussions an approach was formed, which we are doing our best to
stay true to. we joked about making it a renaissance fair with jousting and
fair maidens (complete with yankees playing irish music!). we thought about
hooking up all our louisville musician friends that never get a chance to
expose their talents to anyone outside of louisville (sometimes not even in
louisville!). we thought about asking older, more established artists, like
the meters, the skatellites, willie nelson, suicide, rambling jack elliot,
sinead o connor, charlie feathers (uh, he's dead)... I thought to myself
about making it a straight-up metal festival, in an attempt to revive
interest in a genre that is quickly dismissed by most intelligent listeners.
I'm sure you're relieved to know that our current lineup did not adhere to
any of those thought-trains! Slint is not a unilateral band, so all our
ideas had to be fused. that's how the songs were written -- differing
viewpoints compromising to everyone's satisfaction. however, a true
compromise involves a degree of personal dissatisfaction. so maybe we all
agreed to be equally unsatisfied. I'm digressing...
we agreed on an approach and it was insidiously simple:
create an enjoyable, positive event.
simple to type, yeah. tedious to actually assemble.
there are many talented people we chose not to invite because of their
reputation for misanthropic or confrontational tendencies. they could
enhance the event or take away from it -- we didn't want to be dependant on
anyone's mood swings. it's supposed to be a good time, remember?
also, the three of us haven't kept up with new music too much, so we had to
crash course on a lot of stuff out there. hundreds of hours, cigarettes,
and cd's were burned; critical listening, assessing, and trying to imagine
how a band would fit into the box we made. we printed out the band lists
from all past atp's and discussed. we tried to see bands live, or talk to
people that had. we figured out which bands would be better to open single
shows and which bands would be better at atp.
we had to pick 29 bands.
the point I'm trying to make is -- as curators we probably worked harder on
this than any other band. every single aspect of the festival was
thoughtfully considered.
let's jump ahead.
so finally we came up with more than 29 bands. now what?
cancellations. bands declined. some bands were recording. some touring.
some bands wanted too much money. some were baffled by the event. some were
scared of flying overseas. some couldn't decide and had to be given
deadlines. we added more as quick as we could -- but remember, we're still
trying to dust off the cobwebs and get the music together. we didn't want
the music to suffer because we got too distracted by the festival itself.
at a certain point we had to wash our hands of it and get down to the nitty
gritty: Slint.
£120 is nothing to laugh at, and if anyone paid that much to see your high
school band again, fourteen years later, wouldn't you put aside your day
job and start practicing? this band is precious to all of us -- if anyone's
gonna disrespect it, it won't be us gol-dangit.
at any rate, we ended up with 24 bands and we had to come up with five
more. after further discussions and listening parties we finally realized
that we couldn't pad out the event with bands we ourselves wouldn't be
totally psyched to watch. I know all of us don't want to miss a single act.
it dawned on us that we made our choices a while ago, and anything else
would be a cop-out.
so we decided to keep the bands we had and stop looking. we have so much
work to do as it is -- we can't possibly keep working on atp and have it
continue to cut into our much needed rehearsal time. I'm not kidding when I
say we work on this Slint stuff from the moment we wake up until we fall
asleep. doing things diy on a large scale is much more time-intensive than
anything I've ever done before. besides, would you rather hear a new Slint
song or see a band you probably heard before? I didn't say that.
I hope that explains the band drought at atp. I also hope you'll understand
the difficult position we're in. this reunion business will never happen
again, we only have one crack at it. we want to do it right.
my biggest concern right now is the sequence of bands -- our band choices
are only effective if we pick the slots and times that they perform. we're
trying to make it flow with consideration towards the attention span,
stamina, and interest level of the average listener. we're working to get
our list confirmed and not leave it up to atp organizers, who have no idea
what the eff we're thinking, but I'm not sure if that crosses curator
boundaries. fingers crossed...
before feeling ripped off, why don't you attend the event and then see how
you feel? we really are working hard to make it worthwhile for you. and I'm
not trying to win your sympathy or favor -- it's the way it is.
man, I'm beat.
back to work...
hey yall
I couldn't help but sneak a peak at the current ATP thread, so I thought
I'd chime in. I try to keep myself out of everyone's hair so discussions
can roll freely on this forum, but I found this thread most interesting.
so here's what's been happening behind the curtain.
we've been holding regular meetings regarding ATP since the idea first came
up last summer. these meetings go on for 7 - 10 hours, for days at a time.
Slint is a very detail-oriented band and this event is no exception. we've
spent hundreds of hours reviewing music and discussing current bands. from
these discussions an approach was formed, which we are doing our best to
stay true to. we joked about making it a renaissance fair with jousting and
fair maidens (complete with yankees playing irish music!). we thought about
hooking up all our louisville musician friends that never get a chance to
expose their talents to anyone outside of louisville (sometimes not even in
louisville!). we thought about asking older, more established artists, like
the meters, the skatellites, willie nelson, suicide, rambling jack elliot,
sinead o connor, charlie feathers (uh, he's dead)... I thought to myself
about making it a straight-up metal festival, in an attempt to revive
interest in a genre that is quickly dismissed by most intelligent listeners.
I'm sure you're relieved to know that our current lineup did not adhere to
any of those thought-trains! Slint is not a unilateral band, so all our
ideas had to be fused. that's how the songs were written -- differing
viewpoints compromising to everyone's satisfaction. however, a true
compromise involves a degree of personal dissatisfaction. so maybe we all
agreed to be equally unsatisfied. I'm digressing...
we agreed on an approach and it was insidiously simple:
create an enjoyable, positive event.
simple to type, yeah. tedious to actually assemble.
there are many talented people we chose not to invite because of their
reputation for misanthropic or confrontational tendencies. they could
enhance the event or take away from it -- we didn't want to be dependant on
anyone's mood swings. it's supposed to be a good time, remember?
also, the three of us haven't kept up with new music too much, so we had to
crash course on a lot of stuff out there. hundreds of hours, cigarettes,
and cd's were burned; critical listening, assessing, and trying to imagine
how a band would fit into the box we made. we printed out the band lists
from all past atp's and discussed. we tried to see bands live, or talk to
people that had. we figured out which bands would be better to open single
shows and which bands would be better at atp.
we had to pick 29 bands.
the point I'm trying to make is -- as curators we probably worked harder on
this than any other band. every single aspect of the festival was
thoughtfully considered.
let's jump ahead.
so finally we came up with more than 29 bands. now what?
cancellations. bands declined. some bands were recording. some touring.
some bands wanted too much money. some were baffled by the event. some were
scared of flying overseas. some couldn't decide and had to be given
deadlines. we added more as quick as we could -- but remember, we're still
trying to dust off the cobwebs and get the music together. we didn't want
the music to suffer because we got too distracted by the festival itself.
at a certain point we had to wash our hands of it and get down to the nitty
gritty: Slint.
£120 is nothing to laugh at, and if anyone paid that much to see your high
school band again, fourteen years later, wouldn't you put aside your day
job and start practicing? this band is precious to all of us -- if anyone's
gonna disrespect it, it won't be us gol-dangit.
at any rate, we ended up with 24 bands and we had to come up with five
more. after further discussions and listening parties we finally realized
that we couldn't pad out the event with bands we ourselves wouldn't be
totally psyched to watch. I know all of us don't want to miss a single act.
it dawned on us that we made our choices a while ago, and anything else
would be a cop-out.
so we decided to keep the bands we had and stop looking. we have so much
work to do as it is -- we can't possibly keep working on atp and have it
continue to cut into our much needed rehearsal time. I'm not kidding when I
say we work on this Slint stuff from the moment we wake up until we fall
asleep. doing things diy on a large scale is much more time-intensive than
anything I've ever done before. besides, would you rather hear a new Slint
song or see a band you probably heard before? I didn't say that.
I hope that explains the band drought at atp. I also hope you'll understand
the difficult position we're in. this reunion business will never happen
again, we only have one crack at it. we want to do it right.
my biggest concern right now is the sequence of bands -- our band choices
are only effective if we pick the slots and times that they perform. we're
trying to make it flow with consideration towards the attention span,
stamina, and interest level of the average listener. we're working to get
our list confirmed and not leave it up to atp organizers, who have no idea
what the eff we're thinking, but I'm not sure if that crosses curator
boundaries. fingers crossed...
before feeling ripped off, why don't you attend the event and then see how
you feel? we really are working hard to make it worthwhile for you. and I'm
not trying to win your sympathy or favor -- it's the way it is.
man, I'm beat.
back to work...