Ok . MORE Arthur Russell (But This Is Great)

Yeah I listened to this today at work and it doesn't sound that great. I have a pretty basic setup for ripping my vinyl. I also didn't do any amplification or anything cause I didn't want to distort any of the sound, so that may be why it's kinda hard to hear. I thought it sounded pretty okay if I really turned the volume up, but that's annoying. Sorry it didn't turn out better. Try these rips at 320, they may be better:

http://www.greenpeaness.org/2008/03/justice-vampire-weekend-leona-lewis-lil.html

that's me! and yes, they came out a billion times better when I re-ripped them for that post; the b-side in particular benefits outrageously. you can hear studio patter and traces of other takes and everything!

Yeah, may cheapo turntable run through some Radio Shack cables and recorded using Audacity's "Records What U Hear" feature = not so great results. Maybe I need to fidget with the turntable pre-amp/computer amplification stuff. One day.

good call on the Zombies unreleased album, thats some of the best stuff ever.

that whole record's a stunner back to front, but since I was only awakened to it a few weeks or so ago I'm still kinda stuck on I'll Call You Mine (a fine place to be stuck).

http://acuterecords.com/042508.jpg

did anyone get to the instrumentals recitals after the ny film screenings? i'd like to see them performed as much as anything.

I missed this playing in Portland and it makes me so mad. I would totally have driven down there and everything. Grrr.

I've even managed to turn my new 24 year old music-loving friend on to him, too.

so is this available in any capacity anywhere? or am i going to have to wait for a while for it to go on netflix or whatever.

The film was wonderfully well done. Visually striking, enough of the "story" told to make it interesting to the uninitiated, and featuring a great deal of the only voice Arthur can contribute at this point--his music. For me, it mainly served the purpose of making me very anxious for the release of the "country" or "folk" recordings Audika has up next (September?). Even when accompanied solely by an acoustic guitar, rather than the more comparably expressive cello or kinetic disco setting, his unique voice (literal and figurative) comes through crystal clear. The couple of featured tunes were pure, beautiful Russell--I just wish I had somehow mentally recorded them, so I could hear them now. Steve Knutson--you've still got the best job in the world. And Dan--I bet you've been able to hear a lot of this stuff, what with your special DJing role (congrats on that). I saw it in Portland, and just missed being in town for the NYC screenings by a day.

saw Matt Wolf on the subway. think he said Plexifilm is releasing the DVD in November.

Steve Knutson's job is running Rough Trade in the US.

He's no longer managing Audika/Arthur Russell's archives?

I think that's more a labor of love.

The keyboard line in Springfield makes me ache

There's a DFA records mix available for fee download from Fact Magazine

http://www.factmagazine.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=641&Itemid=28

Which as far as I can tell has a peeviously unavailable loose joints dub. Doesn't sound like a re-edit.

1. Ghost Note 'Holy Jungle'
2. Fred Cherry 'Busride To The Zoo'
3. B.E. 'Party'
4. Wuthering Heights 'Shake It Baby Love' (40 Thieves edit)
5. DJ Cole Medina 'Buffalo Bill' (Cole's O.G. mix)
6. Fern Kinney 'Groove Me' (Cosmo Vitelli edit)
7. Chicken Lips 'White Dwarf' (Freakslastdaysofdiscoredo)
8. Babytalk 'Chance' (Hercules & Love Affair remix)
9. Time Machine (Jacques Renault Edit)
10. Repopulous 'My Piano'
11. Smith N Hack 'To Our Disco Friends' (Tribute)
12. Motor City Drum Ensemble 'Raw Cuts 1'
13. Black Meteoric Star ­ 'World Eater'
14. Plastique De Rêve 'Lost in the City'
15. Extended Family 'Ulysses' (Harvey's Crowd Control Mix)
16. Loose Joints 'Tell You In Dub'

Anyone (Stirmonster?) know anything about this track?

peeviously = previously, obv

i'm guessing that it's just the instrumental of "tell you (today)". will try to give it a listen and see.

wow the movie was really great. just saw it. simple, direct, very moving.

i just heard a really different mix of "is it all over my face" on an archival wfmu broadcast; much fuller, totally different instrumentation (guitar!) and (i think) vocals than on the larry levan mix. building blocks of genius.

can't stop listening to 'Wax The Van' these days - shame it's so short. he's all new to me.

"Tell You In Dub" is from this 12"... apparently it's a Joey Negro edit:

http://www.discogs.com/release/491909

i did love the Arthur Rusell movie, but i thought it was a bit strange that disco was only mentioned briefly for maybe 30 seconds

matt wolf was present at the screening i saw and said that the disco side of things was glossed over as there wasn't much footage available and he didn't want to resort to using cliched studio 54 type footage.

so, i could understood his reasons for glossing over the disco era but i also felt that was a bit of a cop out and that matt wolf personally perhaps didn't have so much love for that aspect of arthur's music so didn't dwell too much on it. i think the result of that is that anyone being introduced to arthur from seeing the film would be under the impression that he happened to make a couple of disco records on the side and it wasn't a very big deal.

he also said he didn't want to have endless talking heads in the film which again i can appreciate but to feature jens lekman over nicky siano...!!!!!!

anyway, that aside, i loved every minute of it.

yeah, that's the main drawback to the film. as friends and i have continued to discuss it (esp. after the screenings/ concerts at the kitchen) the disco omission is GLARING. it's ludicrous to think that in a few years, that stuff may be overshadowed by the pop, country-folk, art-song, and orchestral sides of the man (none of which, while astounding, ultimately compare imho).
but it doesn't help that there's not a handy catch-all for those singles either. as Soul Jazz's comp didn't license "Tell You Today" "Kiss Me Again" and "Treehouse/Schoolbell" from Disco Not Disco 1 or that version of "Is It All Over My Face" (presuming m coleman means the version on that David Mancuso comp), it doesn't count.

true dat about the disco.

re: full length "male" version of Is It All Over My Face:
google blog search "david mancusco presents loft" and you should find it.

...and you should find it!

a chorus of banjees grunting it makes more sense than the other version.

t's ludicrous to think that in a few years, that stuff may be overshadowed by the pop, country-folk, art-song, and orchestral sides of the man (none of which, while astounding, ultimately compare imho).

actually, i think they do compare and that's what makes arthur such an astonishing genius.

i just heard a really different mix of "is it all over my face" on an archival wfmu broadcast; much fuller, totally different instrumentation (guitar!) and (i think) vocals than on the larry levan mix. building blocks of genius.

-- m coleman, Monday, July 7, 2008 8:05 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Link

re: full length "male" version of Is It All Over My Face:
google blog search "david mancusco presents loft" and you should find it.

-- sexyDancer, Monday, July 7, 2008 3:33 PM (44 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

are u responding to coleman or someone else??? coleman's version sounds like it came from the MAW remixes, doesnt sound like the male vox version to me. also the mancuso presents loft records are unbearably rare, you can get a reissue of the 12" w/ the male vocals for like 6 bucks

oh i see u just meant googling it, nev mind

google blog search is my download method, yeah
"mancuso" vers is more guitar-heavy than the levan vers imho

u might be right! check the maw remix version too though

this might be the wrong place for this but:

5. DJ Cole Medina 'Buffalo Bill' (Cole's O.G. mix)

is so dope

mancuso presents loft records are unbearably rare, you can get a reissue of the 12" w/ the male vocals for like 6 bucks

I know this keeps coming up, but the version on the Loft box set is not the version on the West End 12" reissue.

ooooh tell me more

you know i'm not that mad at this movie for the way it's structured. it's pretty short and i think it gives equal time to a lot of different aspects / periods in AR's life. while i would have liked to see more disco too cuz that's more where my interest is, and i'm sure the rest of ILX too, i think it's pretty fair representation regardless.

i loved the film. i didn't really think disco was underrepresented, although maybe like the perfect study sample, i come from hearing the instrumentals stuff before the disco, even though it was strange not hearing kiss me again, etc. i liked how compartmentalised the film was; they captured the mood of each section beautiful, and the disco bit in particular was really ecstatic and loud. the whole film reminded me of how good music sounds in the cinema. i loved the discoloured vhs transfer treatment vibe too.

I wondered if they couldn't license Is It All Over My Face from West End or something, because even when they were talking disco, the focus was Go Bang and Bob Blank etc without even mentioning what is probably his biggest hit (though I suppose Go Bang may be more recognizable in certain dance circles, thanks to Todd Terry)

mancuso presents loft records are unbearably rare, you can get a reissue of the 12" w/ the male vocals for like 6 bucks

I know this keeps coming up, but the version on the Loft box set is not the version on the West End 12" reissue.

-- dan selzer, Tuesday, July 8, 2008 4:22 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Link

ooooh tell me more

-- deej, Tuesday, July 8, 2008 4:25 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Yeah deej, you really should check out the male version on the Loft comp. It is most definitely different from the West End reissue and is most definitely my favorite version.

Caught the sole Australian screening with erstwhile ilx0r gaz/mullygrubber a few weeks back. It's really great at what it is, but one really hopes there can be a more detailed cut on DVD - I could take another half an hour of his parents talking, for example. Jens Lekman as a sudden talking head at the end was completely WTF! what sort of huge audience is going to come see the film for five seconds of him?

There was a great WHOOSH of excitement in the theatre when Lola started ramping up the Bangoes in her talking head bit. When we left, gaz opined that the world really needs a two-hour doco just about disco using source footage like those amazing fragments of Loft film, which was indisputably OTM.

(Drinking beforehand he had also lamented that no-one ever replied to this thread.)

The shortchanging of disco in the film was a big shame, but guy did such a great job of contextualising and illustrating all the phases of Arthur's life and art that he did cover. 8mm shots of teen Arthur in San Francisco!

Auckland screening on Thursday. Excited! Though a bit worried about the apparent backgrounding of disco.
Arranged a little afterparty thing; hadn't realised what a knockoff of Dan's poster it was, ha.
http://i38.tinypic.com/2a608jt.jpg

nice flyer...we got the font from Matt to make it extra "official" looking.

i'm going to the screening @ outfest in l.a. tomorrow night. can't wait!!!

Oooooh it covers Instrumentals etc type stuff? Fuckin A! Seeing it in 3 days

Vvv great. So pretty! His various musics seemed nicely portioned. "You're a good sport" "Are you sure?" made me cry a little.

woo! c/o audika myspace:

Arthur Russell ’Love Is Overtaking Me’ release date

The new compilation of Arthur's folk, pop, and country tunes will be released by Audika on October 28 2008. Track list and streaming audio via this page late August.

cd/lp, apparently.

Yay! So wanted this after the snippets over the cornbelt shots in the movie

So the film is on at the ICA in London from the 26th Sept.
www.ica.org.uk/Wild20Combination3A20A20Portrait20of20Arthur20Russell+17635.twl

AND Twitch/Stirmonster is DJing in the bar afterwards on the 26th, which is free.