{"id":5681,"date":"2014-09-11T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2014-09-11T12:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eoisabi.org\/?p=5681"},"modified":"2022-12-03T23:17:17","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T23:17:17","slug":"the-red-krayola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/?p=5681","title":{"rendered":"Amanda Palmer + Mayo Thompson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>\u00a4\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amandapalmer.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Amanda Palmer &amp; The Grand Theft Orchestra<\/a>\u00a0\u21d0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u2666 \u00a0&#8216;Want It Back&#8217; \u2193<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gNOmfT8UI28\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<address>Hearts on a string<br \/>Like an older fashioned phone can<br \/>Bang,\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">ringy-ring<\/span>\u00a0and you think you&#8217;re gonna get some<br \/>Thing you can bring to a party at your wake not<br \/>Thinking of the thing that you pay back when you take it<br \/>Take it, like rats in a cage<br \/>Pushed the button got the shock trick<br \/>Stickers in your bag<br \/>Had your number but I lost it<br \/>Bets are all off,\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">you&#8217;re a lily-livered giver<\/span><br \/>Indie in the hidden cost, you&#8217;re a sucker and you win it\u00a0<\/address><address>Doesn&#8217;t matter if you want it back,<br \/>You&#8217;ve given it away, you&#8217;ve given it away<br \/>It doesn&#8217;t matter if you want it back,<br \/>You&#8217;ve given it away away away away away away<\/address><address>He&#8217;s already on the outskirts<br \/>I&#8217;m still pulling at his sweatshirt<br \/>He says \u00abFate is not a factor\u00bb<br \/>I&#8217;m in love with every actor.\u00a0<\/address><address>So, once when you&#8217;re gone and I wanna do it backwards<br \/>Just like the song, we&#8217;re addicted to the L word<br \/>Up past your head, down your back, around your ankles<br \/>Ready for attack, you&#8217;re <span style=\"color: #000000;\">upstaged<\/span>\u00a0and then strangled<br \/>Cringe like you&#8217;re cursed<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/blog\/amandas-million\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-9942\" title=\"Amanda-palmer\" src=\"http:\/\/www.eoisabi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Amanda-palmer.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"270\" height=\"403\" srcset=\"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Amanda-palmer.jpg 300w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Amanda-palmer-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Amanda-palmer-100x150.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px\" \/><\/a><br \/>With your wrecking bally necklace<br \/>I saw it first and I crushed it with my ham fist<br \/>High for the contest, who&#8217;s the better<\/address>\n<div><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Not see<\/span><br \/><\/em>Eye to eye to eye, now I&#8217;m blind and you can catch me<br \/>Catch me if you can, if you can, if you can, if you can.<\/div>\n<address>It doesn&#8217;t matter if you want it back\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/blog\/amandas-million\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><br \/><\/a><br \/>You&#8217;ve given it away, you&#8217;ve given it away<br \/>It doesn&#8217;t matter if you want it back<br \/>You&#8217;ve given it away, you&#8217;ve given it away<br \/>It doesn&#8217;t matter if you want it back<br \/>You&#8217;ve given it away, you&#8217;ve given it away<br \/>It doesn&#8217;t matter if you want it back<br \/>You&#8217;ve given it away, away, away, away, away\u00a0<\/address><address>He&#8217;s already on the outskirts,<br \/>I&#8217;m still pulling at his sweatshirt<br \/>He says \u00abFate is not a factor\u00bb<br \/>I&#8217;m in love with every actor.\u00a0He&#8217;s already on the outskirts,<br \/>I&#8217;m still pulling at his sweatshirt<br \/>He says \u00abFate is not a factor\u00bb<br \/>I will let you go if you would let some<br \/>I will let you go if you would let somebody<br \/>I will let you go if you would let somebody love you<br \/>I will let you go if you would let somebody love you like<br \/>I will let you go if you would let somebody love you like I do.<br \/>Like I do, like I do<strong>.<\/strong><\/address>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=j4gPZPKJc0s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-46887\" src=\"http:\/\/www.eoisabi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/coinoperatedboy.jpg\" alt=\"coinoperatedboy\" width=\"412\" height=\"309\" srcset=\"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/coinoperatedboy.jpg 480w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/coinoperatedboy-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/coinoperatedboy-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/coinoperatedboy-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 412px) 100vw, 412px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>\u25ca\u00a0 \u00a0&#8216;Missed Me&#8217;<\/strong>\u00a0 \u21d3\u00a0 [The Dresden Dolls]<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BpeWHPtviFQ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" align=\"center\"><strong>missed me missed me now you&#8217;ve got to kiss me<\/strong><br \/><strong> if you kiss me mister i might tell my sister<\/strong><br \/><strong> if i tell her mister she might tell my mother and my<\/strong><br \/><strong> mother, mister, just might tell my father and my father<\/strong><br \/><strong> mister he won&#8217;t be too happy and he&#8217;ll have his lawyer<\/strong><br \/><strong> come up from the city and arrest you mister<\/strong><br \/><strong> so i wouldnt miss me if you get me, mister, see?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>missed me missed me now you&#8217;ve got to kiss me<\/strong><br \/><strong> if you kiss me mister you must think im pretty<\/strong><br \/><strong> if you think so mister you must want to fuck me<\/strong><br \/><strong> if you fuck me mister it must mean you love me<\/strong><br \/><strong> if you love me mister you would never leave me<\/strong><br \/><strong> it&#8217;s as simple as can be!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>missed me missed me now you&#8217;ve got to kiss me<\/strong><br \/><strong> if you miss me mister why do you keep leaving<\/strong><br \/><strong> if you trick me mister i will make you suffer<\/strong><br \/><strong> and they&#8217;ll get you mister put you in the slammer and forget<\/strong><br \/><strong> you mister then i think you&#8217;ll miss me won&#8217;t you miss me<\/strong><br \/><strong> won&#8217;t you miss me<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>missed me missed me now you&#8217;ve got to kiss me<\/strong><br \/><strong> if you kiss me mister take responsibility<\/strong><br \/><strong> i&#8217;m fragile mister just like any girl would be<\/strong><br \/><strong> and so misunderstood (so treat me delicately!)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>missed me missed me now you&#8217;ve gone and done it<\/strong><br \/><strong> hope you&#8217;re happy in the county penitentiary<\/strong><br \/><strong> it serves you right for kissing little girls but i will visit if you miss me<\/strong><br \/><strong> do you miss me? MISS ME??<\/strong><br \/><strong> how&#8217;s the food they feed you??<\/strong><br \/><strong> do you miss me<\/strong><br \/><strong> will you kiss me through the window?<\/strong><br \/><strong> do you MISS ME? MISS ME??!!<\/strong><br \/><strong> will they ever let you go???<\/strong><br \/><strong> i miss my mister so!!!!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking\/transcript\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10023\" title=\"A+Palmer\" src=\"http:\/\/www.eoisabi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/A+Palmer.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/A+Palmer.jpg 400w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/A+Palmer-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/A+Palmer-150x99.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>\u2207\u00a0 \u00a0 &#8216;No Surprises&#8217;\u00a0\u00a0 \u21d3<br \/><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uAk93YZgTts\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/strong><\/p>\n<address style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>A heart that&#8217;s full up like a landfill<\/strong><br \/><strong>A job that slowly kills you<\/strong><br \/><strong>Bruises that won&#8217;t heal<\/strong><br \/><strong>You look so tired and unhappy<\/strong><br \/><strong>Bring down the government<\/strong><br \/><strong>They don&#8217;t, they don&#8217;t speak for us<\/strong><br \/><strong>I&#8217;ll take a quiet life<\/strong><br \/><strong>A handshake of carbon monoxide<\/strong><br \/><strong>No alarms and no surprises &#8211;\u00a0<strong>No alarms and no surprises\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/address><address style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><strong><strong>No alarms and no surprises<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/address><address style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<\/address><address style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Silent silence &#8211;\u00a0<\/strong><strong>This is my final fit, my final bellyache with<\/strong><\/address><address style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>No alarms and no surprises &#8211;\u00a0<strong>No alarms and no surprises<\/strong><\/strong><br \/><strong>No alarms and no surprises please<\/strong><\/address><address style=\"text-align: center;\"><em id=\"__mceDel\"><br \/><strong>Such a pretty house and such a pretty garden<\/strong><br \/><strong>No alarms and no surprises (let me out of here)<\/strong><br \/><strong>No alarms and no surprises (let me out of here)<\/strong><br \/><strong>No alarms and no surprises please (let me out of here)<\/strong><\/em><\/address><address>\u00a0<\/address>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: center;\">\u221e\u00a0 Amanda Palmer &amp; The Young Punx \u00a0&#8211; \u2193\u00a0\u00abMap of Tasmania\u00bb<\/h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rcoreV10hI8\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>they don&#8217;t play the song on the radio<\/strong><br \/><strong>they don&#8217;t show the tits in the video<\/strong><br \/><strong>they don&#8217;t know that we are the media<\/strong><br \/><strong>they don&#8217;t know that we start the mania<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>i don&#8217;t want to see but i&#8217;m making you<\/strong><br \/><strong>ass is off it&#8217;s seat and i&#8217;m shaking you<\/strong><br \/><strong>walking down the street i&#8217;m the lady &#8211; ja<\/strong><br \/><strong>showing off my map of tasmania<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>soft and sweet and shape like a triangle!<\/strong><br \/><strong>some girls want no shape and they shave it all<\/strong><br \/><strong>i think sad it hurts with the stubble<\/strong><br \/><strong>walk in named look like an eight year old!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>i say grow that shit like a jungle<\/strong><br \/><strong>give &#8216;em something strong to hold onto<\/strong><br \/><strong>let it fly in the open wind<\/strong><br \/><strong>if it get too bushy you can trim<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>they don&#8217;t play the song on the radio<\/strong><br \/><strong>they don&#8217;t show the tits in the video<\/strong><br \/><strong>they don&#8217;t know that we are the media<\/strong><br \/><strong>they don&#8217;t know that we start the mania<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>i don&#8217;t want to see but i&#8217;m making you<\/strong><br \/><strong>ass is off it&#8217;s seat and i&#8217;m shaking you<\/strong><br \/><strong>walking down the street i&#8217;m the lady &#8211; ja<\/strong><br \/><strong>showing off my map of tasmania!!!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2207\u00a0 \u00a0 &#8216;Drowning in the Sound&#8217;\u00a0\u00a0 \u21d3\u00a0 [2019]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/70ApTTyKpdg\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>\u2022\u2192<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ix9rAIZU_uE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a0&#8216;Do It With A Rockstar&#8217;\u21d0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>\u2022\u2192<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9dxDREaCyjE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8216;Gaga Palmer Madonna&#8217;<\/a>\u21d0<\/strong>[<em id=\"__mceDel\" style=\"text-align: right;\">a song written only 25&#8242; minutes before the recording for YouTube<\/em>]\u21d2<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.azlyrics.com\/lyrics\/amandapalmer\/gagapalmermadonna.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lyrics<\/a><\/strong>\u21d0<\/p>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00f7\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00f7\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00f7\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00f7\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00f7\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00f7<\/h6>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">\u00a4 \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.allmusic.com\/artist\/the-red-krayola-mn0000417607\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">The Red Krayola<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n<h5>\u25ca\u2192 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qmfJHeAnm4w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8216;An Harangue&#8217;\u00a0<\/a> \u21d0\u00a0[w\/ <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Art_%26_Language\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Art &amp; Language<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/thatsnotit.wordpress.com\/library\/art-language-lyrics-to-corrected-slogans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Corrected Slogans<\/a>, 1975]<\/h5>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pGSbveVz3eY\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The insecurity of crystalline political super-structures as a consequence of economic crisis\u00a0and\u00a0social conflict, is not in itself a new form of social\u00a0organisation\u00a0\u2014 making deep changes in the social\u00a0project.\u00a0Unless a conscious socialist transformatory\u00a0alternative develops,\u00a0the result of crisis must be the\u00a0further entrenchment of reaction and\u00a0the growth of\u00a0mass repression in lieu of solutions to societies\u2019\u00a0problems.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The ruling classes are universally appraised\u00a0of such prospects:\u00a0in the non-industrial countries the only growth industry is military\u00a0and in the\u00a0industrial (\u2018advanced\u2019) countries, there is a vogue\u00a0for discovering\u00a0and eliminating \u2018dangers within\u2019\u00a0and an increase in hysterical, repressive legislation.\u00a0The ideal is now the \u2018strong\u2019 and opaque state where\u00a0repression keeps workers in line\u00a0and activists\u00a0harassed .. entangled in a charade \u2026 tolerated\u00a0up-to-a-point.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The point is that at which the\u00a0activists start being themselves, cease to resemble traditional reformist\u00a0organisations.\u00a0The latter are, in any case, afforded\u00a0space in which to operate \u2014 mystify.\u00a0For the ruling classes to want such regimes is one\u00a0thing \u00a0\u2014 to achieve them is quite another: \u00a0the\u00a0workers can move to the centre of political events\u00a0rapidly and\u00a0surprise the ruling classes with their\u00a0economic power.\u00a0This \u2014 even when the working\u00a0class, as, such, is a minority.\u00a0But the prospect remains bright for the authoritarian right: \u00a0for this,\u00a0both the reformist parties and\u00a0peasant-fixated 1960\u2032s revolutionaries are to blame.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">What is needed is an integration of the ideology of\u00a0socialism \u2026 socialist \u2026 transformatory sections \u2026 with\u00a0the industrial working class.\u00a0Socialist-working class solidarity is historical\u00a0leadership identity.<\/p>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: left;\">\u25ca\u2192 \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OfoqNLPvtbE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Don&#8217;t Talk to Sociologists<\/a> \u21d0 [with Art &amp; Language]<\/h5>\n<address><strong>Don\u2019t listen to sociologist; don\u2019t talk to \u2028sociologists and don\u2019t quote sociologists<\/strong><\/address><address><strong>Social practice has no sociological \u2028content.<\/strong><\/address><address><strong>Consider its history; because of its \u2028historical role within bourgeois ideology <\/strong><\/address><address><strong>\u2014 the \u2028ideology of the ruling class, <\/strong><\/address><address><strong>it can\u2019t provide anyone\u2028 with an analysis of our conditions\u2028 of exploitation.<\/strong><\/address><address>\u00a0<\/address><address><strong>This is not a piece of weird and obvious logic,\u00a0<\/strong><strong>bar-room logic,<\/strong><\/address><address><strong>\u00a0not an oafish opinion based on the\u2028\u00a0 view that you\u2019re either inside or outside<\/strong><\/address><address><strong>But you are<\/strong><\/address><address>\u00a0<\/address><address><strong>Don\u2019t unite artists and don\u2019t talk to them. <\/strong><\/address><address><strong>If you or\u2028 they are made to think that there\u2019s a \u2018rational core\u2019 \u2028in that talk or unity <\/strong><\/address><address><strong>in support of the view that \u2028\u2018society\u2019 is maintained harmoniously <\/strong><\/address><address><strong>\u2014 rather than\u2028 by exploitation and force: \u00a0<\/strong><\/address><address><strong>violence.<\/strong><\/address><address>\u00a0<\/address><address><strong>Don\u2019t listen to anthropolists \u2013 don\u2019t talk to anthropologists \u2013 and don\u2019t quote anthropologists<\/strong><\/address><address><strong>Social practice has no anthropological \u2028content.<\/strong><\/address><address><strong>They just make you think that there\u2019s this rational core which suggests <\/strong><\/address><address><strong>that society is maintained harmoniously rather than by exploitation or force: <\/strong><\/address><address><strong>vilolence<\/strong><\/address><address style=\"text-align: right;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XK8jFTdh8zg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-53063 alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Im-so-blase.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"271\" height=\"136\" srcset=\"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Im-so-blase.png 317w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Im-so-blase-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Im-so-blase-150x75.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 271px) 100vw, 271px\" \/><\/a>\u21d0<strong>I&#8217;m so blas\u00e9 \u00a0\u2191<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes I&#8217;m blas\u00e9<\/address><address style=\"text-align: right;\">Nothing really touches me<\/address><address style=\"text-align: right;\">I&#8217;m so blas\u00e9 \u00a0&#8211; \u00a0Yes I&#8217;m blas\u00e9<br \/>Everything passes over me<\/address><address style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>Go ahead on and cry baby \u00a0<\/strong><\/address><address style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>Cry baby, cry &#8230; cry\u00a0<\/strong><\/address>\n<p><strong>\u2207\u00a0 Mayo Thompson &amp; The Corky&#8217;s Debt Band\u00a0 \u21d3\u00a0 &#8216;Around The Home&#8217;<\/strong> [2013]<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/W1zNYOKifLM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I like to watch TV when all the cowboys sing<br \/>And play guitars down on the range to the elegant, pretty legs<br \/>And when the sofa flattened and the fire burnt up my coat<br \/>On the garage wall where my coat was hanging up<br \/>She snapped on the light to see what was in the room<br \/>It was then she saw the maid dancing with the broom<br \/>On the wall there are shots of her getting her all her knowledge<br \/>She was pretty cute you know, when she was in college<\/p>\n<p>Your red nails against your skin and you against the wall<br \/>Sometimes I like to think of you lying in the hall<br \/>When the ocean hits the rocks and sprays us both with foam<br \/>And when I smell your new perfume I start running for our home<\/p>\n<p>The fire burned you, it burns me too and blazes<br \/>When I smell your new perfume in your secret places<br \/>Around the home I keep it clean, clean at any cost<br \/>It&#8217;s because I don&#8217;t want to see this place getting lost<\/p>\n<p>Do do do do&#8230;<\/p>\n<h6 id=\"watch-headline-title\" style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2663 \u00a0Moebius + Conny Plank + Mayo Thompson:\u00a0 \u21d2\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XVFtiSlfi7o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0&#8211; The Truth?<\/a><\/h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Dieter\u00a0Moebius<\/strong> has been delivering an album a year to <em>Sky<\/em>, often producing them with <strong>Conny Plank<\/strong>. The two Germans constructed <em>Ludwig&#8217;s Law&#8217;<\/em>s backing tracks using the emulator, an early sampler that enabled them to duplicate the other instruments without having to deal with the musicians who played them.\u00a0They invited <strong>Mayo Thompson<\/strong> to write lyrics and sing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mayo Thompson had just discovered the work of <strong>Werner B\u00fcttner<\/strong> and <strong>Albert Oehlen<\/strong> &#8212; artists whose language played on pretense and the potential for misrepresentation, among other things. Mayo senses a place to start in their book\u00a0<i>Angst vor Nice<\/i>. For lyrics, a selection was &#8216;sampled.&#8217; <em>Sky<\/em> rejected the master,\u00a0<em>\u21d2<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KFt0oSeOraQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>\u00abLudwig&#8217;s Law\u00bb<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u21d0<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0was regulated to the vault.\u00bb<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a4\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/users.rcn.com\/obo\/ubu\/ubu_garage.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PERE UBU<\/a><\/h3>\n<h6>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u2207\u00a0 \u00a0 &#8216;Breath&#8217;\u00a0 \u00a0 \u21d3<\/h6>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1hYqvtHzr48\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>Dog day afternoon hiding by the sea<br \/>I&#8217;m thinking about you &#8211; I wonder what to do<br \/>Sorrow&#8217;s hangin&#8217; over me.<\/p>\n<p>Let me walk with you cuz it&#8217;s breaking my heart.<br \/>The things that we had,\u00a0the good and the bad &#8211; now it&#8217;s parking lots.<br \/>Don&#8217;t let&#8217;s talk about tomorrow &#8211;\u00a0Baby, standing at the edge of sorrow.<br \/>Let&#8217;s watch the whole world going slow &#8211;\u00a0Let&#8217;s watch the whole world going.<\/p>\n<p>I know my way round town.\u00a0I used to live around here.<br \/>I know the sites to see,\u00a0the things they mean to me,\u00a0and how we tore it down.<\/p>\n<p>Let me walk with you cuz it&#8217;s breaking my heart.<br \/>The things that we had,\u00a0the good and the bad &#8211; now it&#8217;s parking lots.<br \/>Don&#8217;t let&#8217;s talk about tomorrow &#8211;\u00a0Baby, standin at the edge of sorrow.<br \/>Let&#8217;s watch the whole world just goin&#8217; slow &#8211;\u00a0Let&#8217;s watch the whole world goin&#8217; slow.<\/p>\n<p>Unh-hunh.<br \/>It was a dream.<br \/>Nah, but it was a tin can.<br \/>Not a dream &#8211; man, it was a tin can.<br \/>Ha!<br \/>Had I not kicked that&#8230; \u00a0 \u00a0Had I not kicked that&#8230;<br \/>Had it clattered in the gutter when it bounced down the sidewalk&#8230;<br \/>Had I not&#8230;<br \/>Keep that.<br \/>Don&#8217;t let&#8217;s talk about tomorrow &#8211;<br \/>Baby, standin&#8217; at the edge of sorrow.<br \/>Let&#8217;s watch the whole world goin&#8217; slow.<br \/>Let&#8217;s watch the whole world goin&#8217; so.<br \/>Let&#8217;s watch the whole world goin&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/greatsong.net\/PAROLES-PERE-UBU,HUMOR-ME,103320835.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-50671\" src=\"http:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/HumorMe.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"487\" height=\"137\" srcset=\"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/HumorMe.png 1364w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/HumorMe-300x84.png 300w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/HumorMe-1024x288.png 1024w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/HumorMe-768x216.png 768w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/HumorMe-150x42.png 150w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/HumorMe-400x113.png 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 487px) 100vw, 487px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Oh\u00a0It was the first thing that I saw<br \/>You never see that kind of Classical Girl<br \/>I understand\u00a0it was the first thing that I saw<br \/>That was fate<br \/>It was the ballistics!<br \/>No,\u00a0That was fate<\/p>\n<p>It was a world \u00a0&#8211; \u00a0What a world!<br \/>What a world? \u00a0\u00a0What a big world<br \/>But a world to be drowned in<br \/><strong>It&#8217;s just a joke man!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Another day?<br \/>Well,\u00a0Suffer<br \/>For that&#8217;s the way of the west<br \/>Suffer<br \/>Oh \u00a0&#8211; \u00a0Oh it&#8217;s a joke!<br \/>It&#8217;s a joke<br \/>Oh \u00a0&#8211; \u00a0It&#8217;s a joke<br \/>That&#8217;s a joke?<br \/>Hunh-unh<br \/><strong>Well,\u00a0Humor me &#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=o9SD416mXx4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-50673\" src=\"http:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Life-stinks.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"284\" height=\"284\" srcset=\"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Life-stinks.jpg 500w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Life-stinks-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Life-stinks-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Life-stinks-400x400.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 284px) 100vw, 284px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>\u00a0Life stinks<\/strong><br \/><strong>I&#8217;m seeing pink<\/strong><br \/><strong>I can&#8217;t wink<\/strong><br \/><strong>I can&#8217;t blink<\/strong><br \/><strong>I like the Kinks<\/strong><br \/><strong>I need a drink<\/strong><br \/><strong>I can&#8217;t think<\/strong><br \/><strong>I like the Kinks<\/strong><br \/><strong>Life stinks<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2022\u2192 <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/mayothompson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/mayothompson<\/strong><\/a> \u21d0<\/p>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u00a4\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xmknAXqdNHE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mayo Thompson interviewed <\/a>\u00a0by Oliver Hall \u00a0\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0 February 1, 2010.<\/span><\/h6>\n<address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/white-rose.net\/redcrayola\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-13934\" title=\"mayot\" src=\"http:\/\/www.eoisabi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/mayot.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"248\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/mayot.gif 248w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/mayot-206x300.gif 206w, https:\/\/englishroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/mayot-103x150.gif 103w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 248px) 100vw, 248px\" \/><\/a>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I just wanted to sit out here \u2018cause there\u2019s like music going on in there. I don\u2019t like to<br \/>hear music.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>You don\u2019t like to hear music?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Not in public. I think it should be banned everywhere in public.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/larecord.com\/interviews\/2010\/01\/29\/the-residents-interview-controlled-misinformation\/\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">The last interview I did was with Hardy Fox, who represents the Residents<\/span><\/a>, and we were talking about how when they started out, the music that you would hear in public places would be 101 Strings and stuff like that. But now every time you go to a shopping mall there\u2019s rock music blaring.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Yeah, I preferred Muzak, if I had to hear something in public, \u2018cause you got to hear funny arrangements and stuff. But I just don\u2019t like to hear music in public in general, I think we\u2019re saturated with it. It\u2019s not a cause with me, but I don\u2019t care for it. How are the Residents doing?<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>I just saw them a few days ago, and there were only three of them. I thought they were great. They did a lot of sampling; they opened the show with a sample of the \u2018I\u2019d like to buy the world a Coke\u2019 jingle, and there were a lot of other commercial samples. . .<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Where are they based?<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>They\u2019re based out of Northern California still, I believe.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Interesting band.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Could you tell me about the choice of subjects for <em>Five American Portraits<\/em>?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Those are all people chosen by Art &amp; Language, and they generated those texts for paintings that they were making, for works that they were making. And we\u2019ve done so many things over the years together they thought perhaps I might like to try to put it to music. They sent it to me and I did want to do it. And so that\u2019s the way it happened. But they made the selections.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Has the nature of that collaboration always been that they do the writing and you provide the music?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>So far. They\u2019ve done some singing, they appear on <em>Corrected Slogans<\/em>, for example, but I haven\u2019t been able to compel them to perform for quite a while.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Is that the only record that they\u2014<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>That\u2019s the only one they appear on so far, yeah. That doesn\u2019t mean that they won\u2019t eventually succumb, again. Their better judgement tells them not to do it, though, for some reason.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Was <em>Kangaroo<\/em>? a development of that [record]?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em><em>Kangaroo?<\/em>, we took some of the material that was on <em>Corrected Slogans<\/em> and covered it with the lineup that I was working with then: Gina Birch [<a href=\"http:\/\/larecord.com\/interviews\/2009\/10\/11\/the-raincoats-ana-da-silva-interview-you-need-to-have-a-bit-of-cheek\/\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">of the Raincoats<\/span><\/a>], Epic Soundtracks [of Swell Maps], Lora Logic [of Essential Logic], and [Allen] Ravenstine [of Pere Ubu]. That was perhaps the idea of trying to take those songs and do slightly more finished versions of \u2018em with people who play music for a living? And also there was an idea\u2014punk had died, and things seemed to be open again to the very idea of pop in general, and those were pop mixes, pop approaches. When I say \u2018pop\u2019 I just mean that they traded in guitar, bass, and drums, the usual [form] which one associates with the idea of popular music. But I think of all music as popular music, really. I mean, anything that\u2019s played in public is popular music. Folk music is a little exceptional, sometimes. Depends on the neighborhood.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>One of the more recent interviews that I read with you was from the period when you were teaching at Art Center\u2014<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I taught there off and on for 12 years. When is the interview from?<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>I can\u2019t remember exactly when it was because I\u2019ve read so many of them.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Well, sorry for you.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>No, they were all really interesting.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Thank you.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>At that point you were doing a class on musical genres.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Oh yeah, that was the last years that I was there doing a class. The last class that I taught there was on all the types of music, all the classifications, the active categories, like rock, emo, techno, blues, jazz, all that stuff, yeah. The subtitle of that class was \u2018Good, Better, Best.\u2019 You think something\u2019s good? I wanna hear why. You think it\u2019s better than something else? I\u2019m very interested, and if you think it\u2019s the best, this I have got to hear\u2014I wanna hear the argument why something could be the best of anything. So it was kind of an open class. I did not lecture on the history of blues or jazz\u2014I mean, I gave a little bit of some accounts of it, I think to the disappointment of some of the students who expected to hear a Ken Burns-style explanation of the universe, which I deplore. It was an open kind of thing, you could bring something to class and play it. Hip-hop, whatever. I played a lot of hip-hop in those days, and then we\u2019d talk about it, talk about the social environment in which music is played, and how it\u2019s listened to, and the physical effects of it, and the psychology of the game, and representation and all that stuff. Just, you know, a general discussion thing. And it was an open kind of class, because it was an art school. Art students have passions about the things that they are doing, and music is something that\u2019s perhaps associated with that, or an extension of those values. But it was a way of discussing those things that was a little bit more relaxed. You could argue for things that you liked and believed in without having to die for it. Whereas most artists die for the things they do.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>How do you relate to genres?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>There are some, and they have been at different times more and less historically robust, and more and less of a constraint. Me, I\u2019m an abstractionist. I\u2019m interested in forms, but I\u2019m not really a formalist of any particular genre, to me it\u2019s all wide open. People talk to me about \u2018Oh, you make alternative music,\u2019 and I say, \u2018Well, if there is the very idea of music, then all music is alternative.\u2019 You know, all kinds are alternative to each other. So I don\u2019t hold with the categories, although I respect them, to some extent, and they can be made more and less forceful in a conversation\u2014somebody can insist on rock and roll, let\u2019s say, and some idiomatic relation to the language that would be characteristic of rock and roll, or something like that, according to historical precedent. You could argue the toss. But I\u2019m not really\u2014I mean, I understand that there are genres, but to me they\u2019re just ways of handling things as people have handled things. It all comes down to the sound of the stuff, to the physical aspect of it. I don\u2019t know that there is anything other than the physical; the mental is physical, in some strong sense. Music is mediated that way, for sure. You test it out on yourself\u2014we are the guinea pigs of our experience, and we try it out on ourselves, and if it works on us, we try it on other people. That\u2019s the way Drag City works. They listen to a record, and if they like it\u2014whatever \u2018like\u2019 means, it makes some kind of sense to them\u2014then we go with it. Which is a slightly different premise from the way music sometimes\u2014I mean, record companies traditionally make records they can sell. Drag City, I don\u2019t they make records because they think they will sell. I think they make \u2018em out of some other commitment, because they actually do like the things that they do. Music they wanna hear, maybe, would be the criteria for them. In that respect they\u2019re rather different and rather interesting, \u2018cause they get offered a lot of stuff that would have a marketability, and they don\u2019t trade in it, which is interesting. And yet they have a very successful record company. So, one is left with the unavoidable understanding that music is tied up somehow intimately with how people feel about the world. I read an interesting comment about our records which said that they were not \u2018practical,\u2019 which I really liked, the idea that they are impractical. That it\u2019s not something that you would necessarily choose because you were gonna have a barbecue or a dance or something like that.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>It\u2019s not instrumental.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>It\u2019s instrumental to me, it\u2019s instrumental to my interests and concerns, but it is not designed for the instrumental use of anybody else in particular. Yeah, that\u2019s a good term.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>That\u2019s kind of the opposite of what Bruce Springsteen said\u2014that his music was there for people to listen to while they wash their cars.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>He trades in a different kind of experience than I do. He\u2019s a populist; he puts his finger on the pulse of the people, and feels it, and makes something to that beat. I don\u2019t.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>So your role is more of a critical role in some way?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I don\u2019t see I have any role at all. I seem to be hopelessly sidelined and nothing to do with anything that most people are thinking about. I don\u2019t think I have a role at all. I think critically about what I do because I have to put my name on it. And self-respect\u2014without making a fetish out of self-respect, I think it plays a role. I don\u2019t know what the function of the stuff is. I always used to ask the question in class, \u2018Do you have to like everything that you listen to?\u2019 And I don\u2019t think you have to, necessarily. There might be the possibility of an unpleasant experience, which would be also interesting, or something that would be slightly difficult or less than a hundred percent satisfying\u2014you know, it\u2019s not a surefire experience, you can\u2019t say for sure what it\u2019s gonna produce. And then you operate with a caveat, you say: \u2018Well, something you like today, you won\u2019t like it tomorrow.\u2019 And vice versa. And then, if you identify strongly with somebody, you have to face up to the fact that the thing that means most to you, that\u2019s nearest and dearest to your heart\u2014your worst enemy also has that near and dear to his heart or her heart. So music is poor stuff with which to identify.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>So when you go in to make a record or mix a record, you don\u2019t have an ideal sound.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>No. Music tells you what it can do, you know what I mean, a sound will tell you if it\u2019s right or wrong, you can hear it. The thing is to keep an open mind about it, because something that sounds funny to you, eventually you may think, \u2018Ah, I should have done that, I should have followed that impulse, I should have let that happen,\u2019 or whatever. I mean, I hear music in my head like everybody does, but I can\u2019t realize it in any kind of idealized sense. But I\u2019ve worked with musicians who do have ideals, and who do think Oh, no, that won\u2019t do, it\u2019s gotta be this way and that way and so on and so on. I make those kind of decisions\u2014it\u2019s an aesthetic practice, you know, you decide for this instead of that. Sometimes I may have a bee in my bonnet or a burr under my saddle about something that\u2019s going on in the world, like some social phenomenon that I wish to address or to make some kind of funny remark about or something like that, but it\u2019s not generally driven by that kind of thing. Although lately I\u2019ve been wanting to make something aggressive.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Do you think that\u2019ll be the next project maybe?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I can\u2019t say what\u2019s next. I\u2019m always working on two or three things. I have this opera with Art &amp; Language that I\u2019ve been working on for 25-odd years, <em>Victorine<\/em>. It\u2019s named after Victorine Meurent who was the model for some of Courbet\u2019s paintings. You know Manet\u2019s painting <em>Olympia<\/em>?<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>No.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>She is Olympia.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Okay, I\u2019ll look it up.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Check it out. You\u2019ll recognize the painting instantly; if you ever look at painting at all, you\u2019ll recognize her immediately. She was a very interesting dame. She posed for a lot of people, she played the guitar, she came to America, and so it turns on her, and modeling, and the politics of image. Like Marianne, the French dame that comes out of this Delacroix painting, Liberty leading the people, that\u2019s Marianne, the figure of French womanhood. And it was modelled on somebody; Brigitte Bardot, at one time, was the model for Marianne, I don\u2019t know who it is now. But it\u2019s about the political image, the politics of imagery, let\u2019s say, the politics of motif. And that I\u2019m continuing to work on. The top line is written and I\u2019m gonna start recording, I hope, this year. The idea is to make a vernacular version of it, which would be us and a lot of the people that we know, some people in the art world, and then also to make what I would call the academic version of it, which would be opera singers, and then we\u2019d try to put that into opera houses. Try to see if we can lock more into the classical world, see what they say. That\u2019ll be fun. Then I have other projects. I dream sometimes of music, and there have been occasions in my life where I would dream of something and then I\u2019d make a song out of it. These days, when I dream, past year or so, I wake up and if I remember it I write down what I heard in my dream, what I dreamed of. I intend to make some of those recordings and see what they come to. And this aggressive record is more\u2014I don\u2019t know what it is. I\u2019ve been back in America now, constantly, for a year, I was traveling around a lot before that. And the politics\u2014you watch TV, and you watch politics, it\u2019s enough to make your blood boil the way they talk about things around here. So my blood\u2019s kinda boiling. I might do something about that. I don\u2019t know.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>So who\u2019s in the band now?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>There are no fixed members\u2014it\u2019s not a membership organization, really, no. There have been a lot of people through. The most recent record, you saw the people who are on it, but it\u2019s always open. There are a couple of people I met in Europe that I wanted to do some recording with.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Q?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Q is a Frenchman I\u2019ve been working with. But then I met these guys in Austria that I wanted to do some work with, a guy named Philipp Quehenberger and a guy named Didi Kern. Philipp is a [historian] of techno, and Didi is a drummer out of a band called Fuckhead, which is a hardcore band from Vienna. They\u2019ve been around for about 25 years or so, and they come out of the tradition of Wiener Aktionismus, which is aggressive performance theater, and they\u2019re aggressive. But the guy can play anything on drums, and I\u2019ve done some work with them, we\u2019re talking about doing some more sometime. And it\u2019s open, it really is open. I\u2019m not doing anything here, though. I sit at home a lot. Play golf.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>You don\u2019t play with anybody in L.A.?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>No.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>All your people are more in Chicago?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>No, the Chicago connection has waned. McEntire is busy with Tortoise and all that stuff. Lately the drummer I\u2019ve been working with is Alex Dower from the heavy metal band Victim, and Didi Kern, those are the two drummers I\u2019ve been working with lately. George Hurley [ex-<a href=\"http:\/\/larecord.com\/interviews\/2009\/08\/03\/the-minutemen-mike-watt-interview-double-nickels-on-the-dime-the-glory-hole-of-man\/\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">Minutemen<\/span><\/a>] and I haven\u2019t played together in a while, and Tom Watson [ex-Slovenly] appears on this most recent record, but there are no plans to do anything, and he\u2019s busy with his own stuff. I don\u2019t have a band together, there\u2019s not people I sit around and jam with. Y\u2019know, it\u2019s gotten that bad that I put on my guitar when I smell money. Otherwise, I don\u2019t do anything. I don\u2019t practice. Some guitar players, they have their guitars with them all the time, they think out loud; I don\u2019t do that. I did that when I was younger, I played every day, but not anymore. Not anymore.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>How did you reconnect with Gina Birch?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I was in Britain, and Joanna Newsom called us up and wanted to know if we wanted to open for her in London, and I thought Hell, yes! And I didn\u2019t know who to open up with, because I didn\u2019t know anybody there, I wasn\u2019t working with anybody there\u2014I had done some work with an accordion player from Scotland who\u2019s on Introduction, Charlie Abel, and I wanted to do something slightly different. So that\u2019s where I started working with Alex Dower, the drummer from Victim, and Q\u2019s always game. I can call Q and he\u2019ll come. And I thought that would be funny, so I got Q and Alex, and I thought of Gina, because Gina\u2019s somebody I know who will, without rehearsal, if I call her up and say, \u2018Okay, I got a gig in an hour, you wanna play?\u2019 she\u2019ll go \u2018Yeah, okay, let\u2019s go,\u2019 and that\u2019s the way I did it.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Did you ever think doing about a duo performance again? In the 70s it seemed like you and Jesse Chamberlain, that was the unit of the Red Krayola.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Yeah, Jesse\u2014I\u2019m not sure there ever will be another drummer like Jesse, just like there will never be another Keith Moon. Jesse\u2019s missed.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Oh, I\u2019m sorry, has he\u2014<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>He\u2019s dead. Yeah, he\u2019s dead. I\u2019d love\u2014because he\u2019s another one I could call up and say \u2018Let\u2019s go,\u2019 and he would go. . . Yeah. But a lot of people I know, though, will go, there are a lot of willing souls out there, people who are ready to stand up and put it on the line. We improvise, that\u2019s part of it, we keep that open relation to material. There is not something that is the arrangement which everybody must learn; there are the changes. You know, I could make a very funny record of all of the versions of \u2018Hurricane Fighter Plane\u2019 that there are, played by various lineups. There have been some hilarious occasions. One evening, Lora Logic and Gina and I and maybe Epic, I can\u2019t remember, we got called and invited to do a show, and we played \u2018Hurricane\u2019 and everybody knows the [sings bass part] \u2018da-da-da, da-da-da,\u2019 but when it goes into the breakout\u2014it went off in some direction, it\u2019s hilarious! It goes crazy. Genuine psychedelic music.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>So you have recordings of all that stuff?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I have a ton of cassettes. After we started playing out here, I got a lot of video material of the various bands playing live. When I first moved here, I made the mistake of playing into town, and played some shows at Spaceland, for example, there are a lot of tapes from there. But I don\u2019t wanna play in L.A. anymore, I live here, I want to be able to walk down the street and not get. . .<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Bothered<\/strong>?<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Not that you wanna not get bothered, it\u2019s just I don\u2019t wanna play in my own backyard.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Those John Fahey \/ Red Crayola studio sessions from 1967\u2014are they just lost forever?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I hope not, I hope not. I don\u2019t know where they are. I\u2019m always looking for them. Lately I\u2019ve had some contact with Charly Records, who have gotten possession of all that IA [International Artists] material. So I\u2019m looking for that stuff.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>So the deal was you handed over the tapes and\u2014<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I had to. One was very na\u00efve when we started, I wanted to record and I didn\u2019t study the contract closely enough and got into certain business troubles. Because in those days I distinguished between business and music, and they\u2019re really not that way. They\u2019re of a piece. Production and distribution, intimately tied to one another. And I didn\u2019t know that, and got myself into some legal trouble over those kinds of things. And it was a position where I had to surrender the tapes, and unfortunately it was before anyone was able to make duplicates of them. John didn\u2019t think of it, we didn\u2019t think of it, and now John\u2019s gone. It\u2019s a shame, because there was crazy stuff on there, as I recall.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>I always wondered about those first two International Artists albums [<em>The Parable of Arable Land <\/em>and <em>God Bless The Red Krayola and all who sail with it<\/em>], if you just got screwed. Are there any authorized versions of that stuff out?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>There are none that I have authorized, nor that Frederick Barthelme or Steve Cunningham [have authorized]. We have not authorized that stuff, and we\u2019re in dispute with Charly over them. We\u2019re negotiating with them, in fact, to bring our relationship \u2018under manners,\u2019 as they say in Jamaica. We\u2019ll see what happens. \u2018Cause they made a box set of the Elevators\u2019 material, you might have noticed that that came out. Well, I think they\u2019d like to make peace with us. I hope that they want to because it would be to all of our advantages, because the versions that are out now, I don\u2019t hold that those are the real deal at all. They\u2019re just like a generation off of a generation off of a generation off of a generation. It\u2019s been licensed a number of times and there has never been a proper master of the record released. . . it\u2019s a mess, it\u2019s a mess. Charly Records have got a checkered reputation in the business. I give it to them that they keep the stuff in circulation, but they\u2019re not what I would call authorized, no. And they don\u2019t sound right to me.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>You would mix and master them differently?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Oh, I would remaster them according to the way that they were mastered in the first instance. I had some contact with Walt Andrus, who just recently died, unfortunately. Walter had the studio in Houston where we recorded <em>The Parable<\/em>, and he built the studio where we recorded God Bless. He\u2019s the man I did my solo record [<em>Corky\u2019s Debt to His Father<\/em>] with back in the 60s. He had been contacted by Charly and had done the remastering of the Elevators\u2019 material, and there was talk of our getting together and remastering that material, but he\u2019s passed away since these negotiations have opened. . . I\u2019d like to see it happen, but I don\u2019t know what\u2019s gonna happen. But through a man named Paul Drummond, who\u2019s an Englishman\u2014<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>He wrote that book on the Elevators [<em>Eye Mind<\/em>].<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>He did. And he\u2019s been instrumental in putting together this contact, and he was involved in that Elevators material, and he would like to be involved in rationalizing the situation between us and Charly, and I hope he\u2019s able to do it. I wish him good luck. He\u2019s a fine fellow, nice fellow.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Probably a good person to have on your side.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>You know, he\u2019s a music lover. He loves that music, bless his heart.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>You\u2019ve been around and involved in the most interesting stuff in music, as far as I\u2019m concerned, for some time\u2014<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>That\u2019s very kind of you. I\u2019ve been lucky. I\u2019ve been very lucky, I\u2019ve landed on my feet in a lot of interesting situations that turned out to be historic in some sense or other.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>And you\u2019ve been on all sides of it, you\u2019ve been a performer, and you worked for Rough Trade\u2014<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I\u2019ve done everything. I\u2019ve sleeved records, and I\u2019ve marketed records, and I\u2019ve made records, and I\u2019ve written\u2014I\u2019ve done everything.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>So where do you see the music business now? How do you relate to this new mode of production\u2014digital downloads?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I\u2019m all for people having access. I believe that music is in an asymmetrical privileged relation in favor of the listener, that at the same time, at the moment we have laws\u2014music technically is not free. People treat it as if it were free now. And the music industry has always been a bit. . . loosely organized by necessity, and that which didn\u2019t need doing didn\u2019t get done, and that which made money was always the most protected part of it. And it turns out that the protections that were written in there are not worth the paper they\u2019re written on, effectively. The industry as a whole is made up of a bunch of individual producers, and everybody\u2019s scrambling to try to figure out how to work in relation to the facts of the matter, the fact that music is available and anything is out. The notion of one kind of carrier which is mediated by one group of people is over. There are so many different kinds of carriers, and it\u2019s just so open that you can\u2019t regulate it. I don\u2019t see how it can be regulated. So I think some serious rethinking\u2019s gonna have to go into it. But there are people who actually like objects. You know, like [points to my CD copy of <em>Soldier-Talk<\/em>] you\u2019ve got one there in your hand, you know what I mean, I get records myself from time to time, because I like to have a discretionary copy of it, and I don\u2019t like to have it mediated by the computer. And I also don\u2019t like what compression does to music, when it comes off the computer and off the web and stuff like that\u2014I like to hear it with fidelity, high, low, or no, I wanna hear what the fidelity is. The ideal would be for it to continue to be available on a desire basis, on an ad hoc basis, but for there to be a living in it in some kinda way. I see that vinyl\u2019s making a comeback. I watch this show Wall Street Review every evening to see what\u2019s going on in business, and on the last show on Friday they had a piece on vinyl, and vinyl shops, and how there\u2019s a resurgence of interest in vinyl. And it seems like there will always be some vinyl out there. It was good; that\u2019s fine with me. And the pittance that one makes from the sales from computer downloads and stuff like that, the thing that I find interesting about it is that you get an idea of who\u2019s interested, and what territories people are listening to music in and so on. If you had some market analysis, you might be able to construct a demographic, do some marketing. Although I\u2019m not very keen on targeting audiences; I don\u2019t know how. But I\u2019m delighted that people are interested in music at all, frankly. That\u2019s good. The rest of it is a crapshoot, it seems like, to me. Drag City do it as well as they possibly can. CD sales are down, way down\u2014the CD is a carrier whose days are numbered, I would have thought. You\u2019d be better off these days having a vinyl presser than a CD maker, if you were gonna be manufacturing. We\u2019ve reversed our situation. We used to make some vinyl and all CDs. Now we make vinyl and some CDs. And the only reason we make some CDs is because it\u2019s convenient, it\u2019s the only way to service some corners of the market, so necessity dictates. Otherwise, I don\u2019t think we\u2019d be making \u2018em. My commitments to the carrier are\u2014I don\u2019t have any. Somebody asked me one time, \u2018What\u2019s your favorite guitar?\u2019 And I said, \u2018They don\u2019t make it yet. It would be a telepathic instrument.\u2019 I don\u2019t wanna [mimes playing]. I\u2019d much rather beam.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Yeah, well it could happen, you know. I think they just came out with some sort of wheelchair for quadraplegics, paraplegics\u2014<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Yeah, mind-controlled! I look forward to the day. Although, I have some very nice guitars, relics of the years.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>I guess the dream would be that you wouldn\u2019t even have to show up at the gig, right?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Telephone it in. Although I confess that I still have some perverse relationship to standing in front of people with a guitar hanging around my neck, yowling down a microphone, and I don\u2019t know why. It\u2019s a formal relation, you know, we get to sit here and talk because I got a record out, and there\u2019s business interest in it\u2014and when I say business I don\u2019t mean just monetary exchange, there\u2019s some exchange of ideas involved. And those kinds of formal occasions where there is an exchange, I still like those things. The formality of a gig allows me to be in front of people, and involved with people on some kind of basis that I can stand it. I go to shops, but I don\u2019t go to bars, and I don\u2019t socialize; I have some friends, I see them, but other than that, I\u2019m not out there. I like to test that stuff out, and there\u2019s nothing like standing in a room full of people, and the experience that you have when you\u2019re with people is unique. There\u2019s a kind of an energy when you share music that\u2019s just not there otherwise, and that\u2019s part of it, for me. That empirical test.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>That\u2019s one thing I like about playing music as opposed to writing. I write for some disreputable publications, and they go out in the world and you don\u2019t know what happens to it.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>No.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>But with live music, you have an instant\u2014<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Definitely. You play, obviously?<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>I play guitar and very bad mandolin.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>You\u2019re a guitar player, you have a band?<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Yeah.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>What\u2019s your band called?<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>We\u2019re having a hard time with the name [likely Green Eyes]. That\u2019s one of the things about the internet now, if you come up with a band name, you instantly find out if someone else somewhere in the world already has that band name.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>When we signed with International Artists, we scared them to death, \u2018cause we said \u2018We want to change our name on every record!\u2019 And they were like, \u2018Oh, no.\u2019 But then, I think that they realized from that how na\u00efve we were, because it\u2019s a game of branding. We didn\u2019t know anything about that stuff. But, change the name of the band every record. What the hell? Which is actually quite a straightforward way to make it depending on the quality of the record. You know, Paul McCartney gets to look in because of his name. Everyone wants to say, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s Paul McCartney, I\u2019ve heard other stuff he did, so I\u2019ll check that out.\u2019 Same thing happens to me, on a much smaller scale. I think the test would be, like, some great writer writes under a pen name, just to find out what happens. You know, are they buying this because it\u2019s my name, or does the writing stand on its own\u2014that\u2019s an interesting problem. Or not problem, question maybe. What\u2019s this stuff really worth? No idea. You put it out there and you find out. Then you find out also\u2014there was a time when I thought you could get all the information straight. That\u2019s nonsense. Disinformation is the information, and the Wikipedia entry for the Red Krayola, it\u2019s, like, you\u2019re joking.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Is there any truth in it?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>There are some shreds of reference to some things that are facts, but facts are constructs, and an artifact of the computation that made it, and there are some facts along those lines. But there is no definitive history. There are things that I would like people to take into account, let\u2019s say, when considering material, if they were interested in the background to it, there would be some detail that I would think would be relevant to people that maybe wanna know. But there\u2019s nothing I insist on anymore. I\u2019m not worried about it. It really does take care of itself. But things are open. The difficulty would be if somebody had some preconceptions based on some information that they had, and then went to the material and found that it was not what they thought, and that they would be disappointed and so on. You\u2019ve read reviews of ours, we get chastised sometimes. Our audience chastises us for being difficult, or being boring, or not as interesting as they\u2019d like for us to be, and stuff like that\u2014that\u2019s all good. It\u2019s all part of life\u2019s rich pattern.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>I don\u2019t know, \u2018boring?\u2019 That one\u2019s hard to take.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Lately I\u2019ve read that we bore with our intellectual crap, and that the lyrics of this new record are boring, but that once you get past them into the \u2018mantra-like\u2019 aspect. . . And I think \u2018Mantra? Hmm.\u2019 You learn something every day.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>That\u2019s kind of the opposite of\u2014I never thought of the Red Krayola as in any way spiritualist.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Oh, we\u2019ve got spirit, we just don\u2019t divide it up. With us, it comes of a piece. You get some good and some bad and some ugly.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Do you know if the<em> Gorki &amp; Co.<\/em> book is ever going to be republished?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I don\u2019t know. I have the idea of publishing some writing, but I don\u2019t know. Right now I\u2019ve been writing some stuff about a catalog by a friend of mine, an artist named Michael Krebber, a German fella I know. We\u2019ve gotten to be friendly over the years, and I\u2019ve followed his work, and I find it very interesting to talk about the way he does things. Art for me is out of my domain; I have some associations, productive history, along those lines, but I am not myself a visual artist. I studied art history in school, so I have some interest in it, and so I talk to get to think out loud about things like that, by looking at those things. I\u2019ve written some fiction in my day. I\u2019ve written one or two comments that have gone into the front of art catalogs, I don\u2019t do that anymore, but I\u2019ve done a few of those things. I wrote that one book that was a crazy, messed-up book, it\u2019s not your usual presentation of history, and a little bit mad, with the funny lyrics and so on, but that was for some funny German guys I know who had a publishing company. That was a while ago.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Then you got to photograph Rachel Williams holding the book.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Rachel Williams, yeah. She very kindly did that shoot for us. An interesting dame.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Was she a fan of the band?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>No. She\u2019d never heard of us before, obviously. She\u2019s a model, and an art historian of a kind. Formidable woman. Very powerful presence, and I was starting to say supermodel, but that\u2019s a category. She\u2019s very super, when I say \u2018super,\u2019 I mean that she really knows her business. Does all those poses that you see on there. You turn the camera on and she goes. Which is the opposite of me, you know, you get poses of me like that [covers his face]. I throw my hands in front of my face, I don\u2019t wanna break anybody\u2019s camera.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Who are the writers you read these days?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I read mostly philosophy. I don\u2019t read much fiction at all; I gave up on fiction a while ago, like movies. I don\u2019t know. When I say I gave up on it, I don\u2019t mean there\u2019s anything bad about it, it just doesn\u2019t interest me anymore and it doesn\u2019t move me. Although occasionally I come across a piece of fiction\u2014I read <em>The Man without Qualities<\/em>, Robert Musil, I read that lately. I\u2019m reading another piece of fiction which was given to me by an English friend of mine by a writer named Luther Blissett, called <em>Q<\/em>.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Sure, now the Wu Ming collective.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>That\u2019s an interesting book because of the history of the Reformation which is in there, and also it\u2019s like a primer on politics, and the politics of association is also involved, all issues which are near and dear to my heart. I read some political philosophy from time to time, I read a little bit of history from time to time, but mostly philosophy. Cognitive philosophy. My favorite is Jerry Fodor, but there are a lot of them that I also read. And I don\u2019t read only people that I agree with. You want to know what people are thinking, I want to know what the arguments are, so I read a range of different things. But Fodor is for me the most profoundly critical of all the voices, and he trades in mental representation, which I find a really fascinating problem. \u2018Cause it\u2019s even hard to talk about it, and how the relations work out, and his arguments I find always compelling. Who else. . . I read some of the classics. I like Hume, still, the great empiricist. When we were in Scotland, that was funny to be in Edinburgh, in Hume\u2019s hometown, walking around. That was strange. The reason we were there, my wife\u2019s a molecular biologist, and she had her laboratory there, so I went. And I went back and forth, \u2018cause I was working at Art Center, and we had our place here in L.A. and we got to spent time in Edinburgh. I like the Scots. I have some Scottish forbears, and I like the Scots in general, they\u2019re a funny people. The British are interesting people, the whole set of \u2018em. The English being the most difficult. They\u2019re the masters of psychological warfare, and I find them very interesting. I lived among them for ten years. They were very tolerant, mostly patient. But then that\u2019s a form of self-inflicted penance on their part. They fancy themselves as able to put up with anything, even Mayo.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>What about Germans?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I lived among the Germans and I don\u2019t know, I must have been out of my mind. I have some dear friends who happen to be German, and I have some respect for some of their things, but there\u2019s something about the German mentality which is\u2026 I don\u2019t know. Interesting place. It\u2019s a great language, terrific language. But my wife is Austrian, and I prefer that school of Germanic thought.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Were you there in \u201989 when the Wall came down?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I was. Watched it on television. It was a very funny day, very funny day. It was interesting, \u2018cause I never foresaw the collapse of institutionalized socialism, those nation-states that were built around that idea, allegedly, state-monopoly capitalism. Watching that fall apart was interesting. And Germany is an interesting place, it\u2019s got a really different kind of society or social form than we do. I had never been in anywhere where people wait for the traffic light before crossing the street. I come from a place where, you know, God gave a goose intelligence, and me, and I know when to cross the road and when not to. I might get hit, I might be unlucky. I hope you\u2019ll forgive me for keeping my [sun]glasses on, it\u2019s just bright out here. You know, I have to be careful\u2014you always get hollers, \u2018Oh, Blues Brothers!\u2019 But no matter how careful one is, it\u2019s impossible to avoid insult. As long as they don\u2019t add injury to it, I\u2019m all right.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>What about Texas, do you ever go back there?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>No. I like Texas very much, and I like my hometown, Houston, I have some good feelings for it. It\u2019s not unlike L.A. It\u2019s got a certain anomie which informs it, there\u2019s a kind of alienation, you could be as alone as you wanna be there. But both of my parents are now deceased, so my reasons for going back there have gotten fewer. I haven\u2019t been back since 2007 when my father passed away.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Are you still in touch with Frederick Barthelme?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Yeah! He\u2019s teaching at the University of Southern Mississippi, he runs the Creative Writing department there. And I\u2019ve kept up with Cunningham, as well, who\u2019s living in Wisconsin. He\u2019s a technical writer. He was doing some work for Exxon-Mobil last time; I don\u2019t know what exactly he\u2019s up to right now, but that\u2019s what he does, and we continue to communicate.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>How did they participate in the <em>Fingerpainting<\/em> album?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em><em>Fingerpainting<\/em> and <em>Fingerpointing<\/em> are based on <em>The Parable of Arable Land<\/em>, they\u2019re structured in exactly the same way. Freak-out, song, freak-out, song, like that. The material that\u2019s on <em>Fingerpainting<\/em> is material that we didn\u2019t record for <em>Parable of Arable Land<\/em>, it\u2019s material that dates from those days. Like \u2018There There, Betty Betty,\u2019 that\u2019s a song from that time, and \u2018Shadwell\u2019 is something that we recorded together as well. That was when we had stopped playing songs altogether. That\u2019s like the time of <em>Coconut Hotel<\/em> and the time in Berkeley, when we were playing at the Berkeley Folk Festival, we did that stuff with Fahey. We were playing what we called feedback music, and they were involved in that.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>So are you saying that they were on the tapes that you used?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>On \u2018Shadwell,\u2019 they appear.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>In 1967?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Yeah, that\u2019s 1967, that\u2019s the period piece. And there\u2019s also, that piano player that you hear in the background of \u2018Shadwell,\u2019 the last thing that you hear on <em>Fingerpainting<\/em>\u2014it\u2019s not on <em>Fingerpointing<\/em>\u2014that\u2019s Bobby Henschen, the piano player I worked with in \u201971. Rick [Barthelme] and I worked with him in Houston together. That\u2019s an album that\u2019s made out of material that comes from 40 years ago. It wasn\u2019t 40 at the time, it was made in 1999. And <em>Fingerpointing<\/em> was O\u2019Rourke\u2019s mix of the same material, which when I first heard it I thought, \u2018No, this is not what I had in mind.\u2019 I wanted something that was more actually one-to-one with the first record.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>I haven\u2019t heard <em>Fingerpointing<\/em> yet\u2014could you talk about the difference?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>They\u2019re O\u2019Rourke\u2019s mixes of that material, it\u2019s O\u2019Rourke listening to the material and finding another set of possibilities using the same raw material, if you like. Whereas <em>Fingerpainting<\/em> is all of the material that was recorded for these ideas. And the mixes are made by Albert Oehlen, for example. It was his concept to remake the first album. I had thought of it a number of times\u2014maybe we\u2019d just re-record the first album, because we didn\u2019t have possession of it. But we never could get it together to do it, and never really did take it seriously, and then Albert had a concept of how to do it, so one did it that way. And it worked out; that\u2019s what you hear. And also, it turned out to be a happy mish-mosh of the state of the art at the time. It reflects computer possibilities and sampling and all kinds of things that are going on in there, and yet it genuinely incorporates freak-outs, where there is no script, apart from\u2014\u2019The microphone is on. You\u2019re on!\u2019 And you hear Stephen Prina\u2019s idea of a freak-out: [sings gentle melody]. He\u2019s just whimsical-thinking at some sort of level, if anything from Stephen Prina can be characterized as whimsy; I\u2019m not sure that it can. He\u2019s a very thoughtful producer.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>His contributions\u2014for a long period, it seemed like people were not credited with. . . <\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I gave up on crediting what people do, until Introduction, I started doing it again. But before that I didn\u2019t do it because, like, I\u2019ve read remarks on this new record, people talk about O\u2019Rourke. Well, O\u2019Rourke\u2019s a name that people know. O\u2019Rourke played the bass part on one verse of \u2018John Wayne.\u2019 I gave him the record to mix and he couldn\u2019t mix it. He had other things he was doing, other things he wanted to do; he had a different idea of how to put it together than I had in mind, and the things that he did were all, again, like <em>Fingerpainting<\/em> and <em>Fingerpointing<\/em>. His ear works a certain way. When he puts together the music, in his mixes I hear his commitments to drone, for example. And Watson has also got a commitment to drone, and so here are these two drone elements. Me, I don\u2019t like drone. It\u2019s not like I dislike it; it\u2019s not part of my repertoire of sounds. I mean, it\u2019d be something I might deploy, but it wouldn\u2019t be a medium in terms of the way I would mix all of the sounds. I like separation of things, I like abstraction, not synthesis. I mean, I don\u2019t mind synthesis as a summation of things, a way of describing that is a synthesis of that material, but it does not set out to be a synthesis\u2014it\u2019s made out to be a reconciliation, if you like, on my point of view. The way that they should be working in congress, they should reconcile things, conflicts of opinion, the war of ideas. Let\u2019s have the war of ideas, but let\u2019s have some reconciliation, let\u2019s do something, that kind of thing. So people make contributions, and they trust me to respect their contributions, and I do as much as possible. I trample on some closely-held beliefs, perhaps, in the process, but I don\u2019t think anybody\u2019s been offended. There\u2019s very, very few people who have ever been fired from the band.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>It\u2019s hard to get fired?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Almost impossible.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>It sounds like there\u2019s an element of struggle.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Struggle is the human condition. The law of the jungle. Conflict of ideas, best idea wins. I mean, I\u2019m an old man now, people defer to me, and some people don\u2019t even want to argue, they just are happy to be doing it or whatever. But I take it as it comes, you know, I don\u2019t expect people to think as I think, nor to like what I think, or to do what I do, or think like I do. Like J.P. Morgan said when he went to Wall Street, \u2018I don\u2019t come up here to make friends, I come up here to make money.\u2019<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>So do you direct musicians?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I will occasionally say \u2018Please don\u2019t do that.\u2019 But that\u2019s the most I will ever say. And sometimes I\u2019ll say \u2018Yeah, more of that.\u2019 But I don\u2019t direct traffic. The reason I don\u2019t make solo music, or I don\u2019t make a record all by myself is, I know what I sound like, and I know what I do by myself, I live with myself all the time. You cannot escape. What I\u2019m interested in is what other people think of these ideas. It\u2019s a test, it\u2019s like testing it out. You know, I play this, what do you do? Some people go [silence], some people play along, some people run off.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Did you have an argument with Art &amp; Language at some point?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Yeah, we had an argument, but that was an infrastructural argument, it wasn\u2019t an ideological argument. It was an argument about money. Because in the 70s, when I moved to Britain, there was a recession on and things were tight. And somehow the sociality of the group was tight, and there was not a fit, and it was never an ideological struggle between us. Let\u2019s put it this way, not all of them, but there might have been differences of opinion about the logic of an argument, or something like that, or the methodological approach to this, that and the other thing. But mostly it was about material circumstances, material conditions of existence.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Which was also the subject of that material.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Absolutely, and that\u2019s intimately involved, and it\u2019s reflected in the production. That\u2019s how I understood it. So, there\u2019s an argument, so one walks away. So I walked off. Then I found myself, \u2018Well, I\u2019m living in England, I\u2019m going to have to make a living. What am I gonna do? Oh, I know, I\u2019ll get back in the music business.\u2019 So I got back in the music business, and that\u2019s when I started working with Rough Trade and made that record with Radar.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> [. . . After a brief discussion of the academic job market:]<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Business is business. It\u2019s like the Mafia, you know? \u00a0[laughter]<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Well, that\u2019s L.A. for sure.<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>That\u2019s life. I like this town. America\u2019s an interesting country, and it took me a long time to reconcile myself to it. I was a very sensitive person before, but I\u2019ve gotten thicker-skinned, and I\u2019ve learned a little bit more about how things are, and give and take, and so my idealism has been tempered by reality, to the extent that I can live here now.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>When you left [the U.S.], what were your motives?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Escape! Burn bridges, leave town.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>I\u2019m trying to remember the chronology. You went from Texas to New York, into the art world?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>You know, [in the art world] they\u2019ll let you play a little bit but they never really quite let you in. It\u2019s like moving into a country town, you know what I mean? Where everybody knows everybody and they\u2019ve known each other forever? They\u2019ll let you sit there, and they\u2019ll let you live there, but you\u2019re never really quite one of them. And it was that way with me and New York and the art world, and it still is with me and the art world. I\u2019ve been around it, I\u2019ve been on the edges of it, I\u2019ve been in the middle of it, but I\u2019m not really one of them somehow. It was that way in New York. I never really fit in anywhere, particularly, there\u2019s never been a community. . . it\u2019s like Groucho Marx and clubs, you know? I can\u2019t think of a community that I would volunteer, like, \u2018May I be a member?\u2019<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>Yeah, but don\u2019t you think that your work has embodied some kind of loose voluntary association or something like that?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Loose voluntary association I\u2019ll give you, but I wouldn\u2019t call that a community. That\u2019s driven by all kinds of things. When I started working at Rough Trade\u2014I come from a slightly different history, I\u2019m a little older than those people, like ten years older than those guys, a slightly different generation. And you look to your left and there\u2019s somebody with a funny haircut and a swastika on their forehead and fishnet stockings, and you think, \u2018Hm. I\u2019m not so sure about this.\u2019 To your right there might be somebody in a business suit, and you think, \u2018Hm. That I understand.\u2019 But the conditions of solidarity are conducted on a volunteer basis. There are compulsory relations that one enters into, but community is not one of them.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> [. . . The conversation turns to the collaboration with Art &amp; Language.]<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>There have been times when I was much more intimately involved with Art &amp; Language as an organization, when I was in New York and when I moved to Britain. And then subsequent to that, it has been that I\u2019ve been the music guy and they\u2019re the art people, and these kind of things come together in connections. Although I would call them friends. The art world, it\u2019s a funny world, people always say, \u2018My friend (comma)\u2019 so and so. And a lot of times that\u2019s a business association, somebody you know through production relations, like\u2014Tom Watson. And if I characterize my association with Tom Watson in the first instance as \u2018My friend, Tom Watson,\u2019 that\u2019s different. We started working together and we got to be friends over years, we are friendly, we are friends in that sense. I have friendly and cordial relations with people I do business with. I have, also, combative relations with some people I do business with, conflict with some people I do business with. But Art &amp; Language are people that I have known now since \u201973, I\u2019ve known some of \u2018em longer than that. I\u2019ve known Mel Ramsden since 1971, \u201972. So these are some of my oldest colleagues, and we go way back. And they talk rougher than anybody I know, and tougher. They\u2019re tough, smart people. And the way that they talk, and the way that they think, and the way that they produce, are awfully close to the way I think, and the way I feel, about how these things can be done. And it\u2019s the only way I can do it. I can work for a lot of people, put aside my personal convictions and do a job, no problem. And the trouble at Rough Trade, for example, was this community idea, because of punk and new wave. The sociality that is determined by the point of production, where you share point of production struggles with somebody, where you suddenly find yourself colleagues with reggae players, for example. I found that interesting, the politics of production. I felt they had a political relation, rather than a social relation\u2014I mean, social and politics, kinda splittin\u2019 hairs there a little bit, but you know what I mean? It\u2019s a productive relation, and it\u2019s mediated in terms of business and convergence of interest and those kinds of things. A notion of community that emerges from that, I don\u2019t know how you would describe that. That would be friendship for me. When the band started in Texas, in the 60s, in Houston, you know, there was the \u2018community of freaks.\u2019 But a lot of those freaks\u2014they don\u2019t like me. They didn\u2019t like what we did. We didn\u2019t fit in. And I don\u2019t say they don\u2019t like me personally; they don\u2019t know me. I think that we just vibe wrong with one another, although we\u2019re supposed to be part of the same \u2018community\u2019\u2014there\u2019s no such thing! It\u2019s like youth, generation. Chronologically, we\u2019re all young, but we don\u2019t all think alike, or whatever. So who I would own up to having communal relations with, i.e. the people I\u2019d be willing to live with, that\u2019s different. I\u2019m loth to pitch things on that, because that to me constitutes a kind of idealism. It might be a transcendental idealism that you would endorse with a utopian pen, \u2018Yes, I believe in a perfect society, it would be a good idea,\u2019 but you\u2019d have to argue over the details. Who\u2019s gonna wash the dishes, who\u2019s gonna\u2014you know the difference between the distribution of function and the distribution of labor? Distribution of labor has to do with some organized relationship to each other; a distribution of function is where people do what they can. That\u2019s the bone that has never been cleaned. It\u2019s been picked up a number of times, but it\u2019s impossible to clean it, in my view. Impossible to sort it out on an absolutely principled basis. You can have principles of party organization, and everybody can endorse \u2018em, but there are gonna be exceptions, always, and contradictions. You can\u2019t, like, volunteer to get rid of contradictions. All the action is in contradictions; it\u2019s not in harmony. I mean, I understand this drive for harmony, and homespun American philosophy is built around the idea of harmony. But at the same time it\u2019s built on categorical differences. Our fundamentalist friends have got a lot in common with our fundamentalist enemies. I\u2019m for the fundamentals, but I wanna argue about \u2018em, and I wanna be free to argue about \u2018em, on a day by day basis, project by project, minute to minute. Without giving offense, if possible. Live and let live. Although there are some people that you would definitely say, \u2018Uh-uh.\u2019<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>There aren\u2019t some people you\u2019d wish to offend?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Wish to offend. . . Let\u2019s put it this way, there are some people who, say, if they were offended, I wouldn\u2019t be sorry. But I do not seek to offend anyone.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>That\u2019s an old avant-garde strategy I\u2019ve always had problems with, that you can shock people out of their. . . <\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Yeah, you know, who are you shocking? There was a time when I uncritically embraced the term avant-garde, and I\u2019ve grown more critical of the very idea in time. I don\u2019t like the idea of that which distinguishes itself at the expense of someone else, necessarily. Making a fool out of somebody\u2014\u2019Ha ha, you\u2019re a fool\u2019\u2014that\u2019ll bite you on the ass, in the long run. Well, I don\u2019t wanna play that game; I\u2019ve been bitten on the ass by a lot of my stupid ideas, and I don\u2019t volunteer for that anymore, I try not to. At the same time, I understand that people do wanna distinguish themselves in some way from other people, and Vive la diff\u00e9rence, know what I mean? I\u2019m for that, I\u2019m for variety, heterogeneity. Some people talk about heteronomous relations. In the art world they talk about it, particularly. But, there\u2019s a concept \u2018art,\u2019 but I do not think of what I make as necessarily art. It\u2019s potential to such a relation, it can be described under that rubric, but it is not necessarily any of that stuff. It\u2019s just a collection of sounds operating at certain frequencies, delivered in a carrier of a certain type, and what people make of it. . . Somebody from Mars is gonna go, \u2018Huh? Wonder what that is?\u2019 And that\u2019s where I start. My music is for the man from Mars. That\u2019s my premise. That\u2019s my attitude to the object. There are no category relations that I would absolutely insist on. There\u2019d be some, even I wouldn\u2019t be able to deny them, but the rest of \u2018em\u2014I\u2019m in denial about most of \u2018em. I avoid them. I\u2019m happy to say that there are no records that I have made that I repudiate. There are some that I wish that I hadn\u2019t been on. One? Two? But I don\u2019t deny any of them.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> [\u2026]<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I, one time, interviewed Buddy Rich.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>No kidding!<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>Yeah, I worked for a radio station in Houston and I interviewed Buddy Rich one night.<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u203e<\/span><\/address><address style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><strong>You have a tape of it?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #003300;\"> <em>Mayo Thompson: <\/em>I wish I did, I don\u2019t. It stayed at the radio station. And he was talking about contemporary jazz. At that time, free jazz was just beginning, and he was completely disdainful of the approach and their line of thinking. He preferred arrangement, and he came out of a different tradition, and he came out of that tradition where he had a great arranger in the band, and so on. It was put together like an army. And so, he said, \u2018Yeah,\u2019 you know, \u2018there\u2019s the drummer, and the piano player hates the saxophone player,\u2019 and so on like that. And I thought to myself, \u2018I wonder if everybody in your band likes each other\u2019\u2014I didn\u2019t ask him. But I think what he was getting at was that the sociality that informed the music was a sociality of conflict, that he was used to people harmonizing in relationship to a great idea. Right? Rather than, part of what\u2019s at stake is the collision of values in respect of the very idea of a great idea. But for him karate was karate, and music was something else.<\/span><\/address>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u00a4 Amanda Palmer &amp; The Grand Theft Orchestra \u21d0<\/p>\n<p> \u2666 &#8216;Want It Back&#8217; \u2193<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p> Hearts on a stringLike an older fashioned phone canBang, ringy-ring and you think you&#8217;re gonna get someThing you can bring to a party at your wake notThinking of the thing that you pay back when [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":9941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[178,168],"tags":[102,313],"class_list":["post-5681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-lyrics2","tag-lyrics","tag-america","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5681"}],"version-history":[{"count":95,"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55703,"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5681\/revisions\/55703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}