Grifters: C er D?

Since I have all the Grifters albums (huge fan), I'm trying to get The Blood Thirsty Lovers - self titled and Hot Monkey - Lazy (something or nother). Amazon.com has good used prices

Don't forget Grifters singles...lotta good stuff that's not on album out there!

check Shangri-la for Blood Thirsty etc and Hot Monkey, Champ!, and other Griftage. Call the store (901) 274-1916

excellent

now we're 2 for 4, when will Dave or Stan post

superb!!

hey scott it's mcgonigal. how you doing? grifters still rule my world.

when stan introduced me to his wife as "the fifth grifter" -- why i have no idea i'm so musically inept and etc. -- it was seriously a total highlight of my life. hah.

So I've seen 2 different interviews now with Bruce Pavvit and Jonathon Poneman where they describe the grifters as being at the center of 'the dark years' at Subpop. That they signed us for too much money (even giving out numbers.. which I thought was an industry no-no) and that we were pretty good but not deserving of that kind of money..

well, first off, Bruce was barely even involved with the label the whole time we were there. All the employees at Subpop described Bruce as being this crazy guy who lives out in the mountains and every now and then he would send them some band and say 'sign these guys, they're great' (anyone remember Chixdiggit?) and then everyone at the label had to do so, apparently begrudgingly. They essentially described it as being saddled with him. 'but he's the co-founder of the label so what're you gonna do?'.

secondly, maybe Subpop could have made a return on their investment in us if they, oh I dunno, TRIED! They barely did any advertising. I told them they should take out an ad for us in some Fantagraphics comics (which they used to do all the time) but they didn't. I think they maybe bought some tiny ad space in an issue of Magnet.
They chose Last Man Alive as the 'single' from the record. And we had a big fight with them about it. Well, I had a big fight. Dave seemed pretty pleased with the decision. They tried to placate me by saying that it didn't really matter because nothing we chose would ever really get any airplay. If thats the case why NOT pick a song that is maybe at least SOMEWHAT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE BAND'S SOUND! And why then spend $50,000 on a video that will ALSO NEVER BE SEEN OR HEARD.?

Maybe it was because they were such amazingly inept business people? OR maybe they wanted us to tank. Why did they make SO MANY wrong decisions regarding Aint My Lookout? Why did they let Those Bastard Souls do a major tour with Sebadoh exactly when we should've been out touring supporting the record? Me and Scott and Stan were told that Sebadoh didn't want to get blown off the stage by us every night... I have to kinda think that blowing Sebadoh off the stage every night MIGHT'VE BEEN A GREAT WAY TO SUPPORT THE NEW RECORD!
But that was Dave dicking us over more than Subpop, they just let it happen.

And what happened right before Full Blown Possession came out? Almost the entire staff left Subpop and a lot of them ended up at Matador. There was a so-called mutiny supposedly spear-headed by Poneman. it seemed to us that they were trying to get out of their deal with Warners by losing a lot of money.

Like I said, maybe they could've made a return on their investment if they'd been better business people. Maybe they didn't want to make a return. From what I saw when we were with them they never worked anything. They had a hit with Sunny Day Real Estate but that was because SDRE did it themselves. They built their own fan-base and did all the hard work (as did we) and then all Subpop had to do was squirt out some records for them and they sold themselves. But we never saw them get off their asses and work anything. What I saw was the staff of Subpop flying all over the country and the world and staying at THEE most posh hotels in whatever city they were in. They friggin LOVED playing Record Company when it meant traveling with the gold card.

So lay off the effing Grifters Pavvitt. Not that you were there but we threw you a friggin touchdown pass with Ain't My Lookout and you fucking fumbled it ON PURPOSE.

And at the same time we had to contend with Dave's not so secretly-scheming to advance TBS. I've read articles where people are saying we'd run our course and that Ain't My Lookout was a bomb. Well let me tell ya it was really hard trying to eek out a little success when your label is sitting on their fat asses doing nothing and at the same time one of the band-members is plotting their exit and stealing tours from you.

And now years later we have to endure this bullshit rewriting of our own friggin history..?! IF YOU DIDN'T THINK WE WERE WORTH THE MONEY YOU SIGNED US FOR THEN WHY DID YOU DO IT? WHY'D YOU STEP INTO A BIDDING WAR IF YOU DIDN'T PLAN ON FOLLOWING THROUGH? DID YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO?

I will say that Joyce Linehan was a great friend to us and I feel truly believed in us and fought for us.

daaammn!

hey Will, whassup mang?

what kills me about those interviews is Bruce is doing all the talking (about us) and Poneman is just sitting there. Why don't you let the guy who was actually there talk about it some.?

not much.. settling into new job. any ideas for entertainment tonight? ...cause i ran across VHS copies of Beaches and the Sabrina remake. j/k dude j/k

Tripp

Glad I never made it in a band!

I still love the Grifters!

You got to play the Hull aDELPHI TOO?

Jeebus - looks like I've got my tongue stuck up your hole.sorry

ain't my lookout is awesome.

Will, come on over tonight if you want. Sheri's making some kind of dip.

I read something else recently where some dude said that Ain't My Lookout was over-cooked and Full Blown Possession was a return to basics..!?!?

I'd say FBP was over-cooked and absolutely was not a return to basics. For one thing, Subpop made us hire a mixer so it was our first time doing automated mixing (in a House of Blues studio no less). It wasn't a return to anything.

Aint My Lookout was our favorite because we were firing on all cylinders
(and we mixed it at Easley's like we always had). We know the fans all like Crappin' You Negative the best. We really liked that one too but by the time it had come out about half the songs had already appeared somewhere else. There had been singles versions of Holmes, Junkie Blood, Bronze Cast, Spaceship. And Black Fuel had already been on a compilation as well as the first BUD tape.

So AML, to us, was the ultimate realization of what we could do. Maybe it was 'over-cooked' compared to some of our other output but to us we'd finally hit a stride.

And FBP couldn't be a return to basics because we never worked quite that way before. We weren't collaborating very well, we had to split the recording between two studios, and we didn't get to mix it. We helped with the mixing but the automation certainly took some of the weirdness out of it.

You know, if it weren't for Sub Pop, I wouldn't have gotten to hang out with the Grifters on a "junket" which led to two things - my discovery of Paines' BBQ and a week-long hangover. So, well, there's that.

Tripp- can I come over? I will wear tight Calvins for old time's sake ;-)

just don't pee on anybody.

Jacko asks if scat is acceptable.
Does Mempho have canals?
Our longboat is a bit special

Just been out into the cold ,grey, rainy gloom and it's dicking fucked flooded!
Advice to get Tennessee please?

oh shit - i've done a wrong un again with my THUMBNAIL SKETCH

FREEKOZOID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TWAT
sorry , night night

wot a fuckin freak
care in the community haa failed again

i just got full blown posesssion yesterday

my first grifters record

i love it

scuzz blues are my favorite blues

My fav band ever - get One Sock Missing, Ain't My Lookout and the first 2 EPs (The Doink Years). Those are my favorites.

that is about their least scuzzy record big HOOS, you've got some primo scuzz-blues discovery in store if you get some of the other ones

crappin you negative

Crappin You Negative is A++ scuzz, sounds like a rock band should.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtTCPiw-If0

Yeah but the end of "The Sweetest Thing" may be their most gorgeous moment.

i am

the mambo king

Wrapped tight in my tarantula skin

their most gorgeous moment = gotta be something off the Eureka EP. maybe Founder's Day Parade.

Dragoon (Tripp and Stan from the Grifters + Bobby from Trusty) has something out now:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003FF8860/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_mp3a

Dragoon is still slugging through.

myspace.com/dragoonmemphis

trying to get the first record done. Everything's recorded just need to mix a few things. And get it mastered. And do all the art.. it'll never get done..

― griftertripp, Wednesday, May 7, 2008 10:41 AM

their most gorgeous moment = gotta be something off the Eureka EP. maybe Founder's Day Parade.[

Founder's Day Parade is indeed a gorgeous tune.

The Grifters are still one of my favourite bands ever along with Ramones, Buzzcocks,Du, Mats et al - 'famous' bands if y'like

i think "wonder" is a pretty song

friend of mine just ripped a Grifters live show from cassette

http://soundcloud.com/dan-lehr/the-grifters-cha1994

live in Chattanooga, November 4th, 1994, at the Barking Legs Theater

Snake Oil
Bronze Cast
Wonder
Maps of the Sun
Holmes
Sain
Dead Already (incomplete)
Side
Steam
the Casual Years
Tat
Skin Man Palace
Corolla Hoist
Ground
Return to Cinder
10,000
Encrusted
Felt Tipped Over
Shark (incomplete)
You Don't Miss Your Water
Love X (incomplete)

I <3 this thread

Reformed?
Reunion shows for you lucky Memphibians

dammmmmn

!

Already happened. Video at http://www.rocketscienceaudio.com/ (you have to register)

Yeah but... I want to see them on the east coast :(

Wandering Boy Poet - thanks so much for the almighty link.

Given that they won't be visiting Ol' blighty again, any clues as to how to save this vid in case it walks?

It's some annoying new format. I've grabbed the (literally) 1000 or so fragments, but the methods for joining them don't seem to work for me (& I haven't got anything that'll play the fragments). Need to get back onto researching it.

Cheers WBT. please keep me updated. Not been lazy there, I'm just not tech and too fucking burnt out to learn

I haven't tried it, but the Firefox "Download Helper" add-on might work. It doesn't catch on to every web player but you can get lucky.

Evan. Thanks. Hopefully you have e mail?

i just dug out the eureka ep for the first time in…a decade?

some observations just because i wonder what this sounds like to other people almost 20 years on

eureka iv -- i still like this song, although what was up with gold boys and ray guns in the 90s? it sounds weird now.
his jesus song -- awesome, still love this and i would not mind being in this band
x-ray hip -- what the fucking fuck is going on with the singing/lyrics in this song. awful. otherwise it's fine but not memorable
there's also a song that sounds like an alex chilton impersonator

i guess part of it held up ok. that's not bad! the only song i could really get into was his jesus song. this video is pretty awesome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=995hAm-wcys