Ok . MORE Arthur Russell (But This Is Great)

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.

!

I know, right?

He/she doesn't like it when you do that.

I have to say, I'm really excited to hear this "new" stuff.

movie is playing here october, followed by partially-me-curated after-show with our very own dominique leone!

Sounds like a night of fine music and sweet bromance

i was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of the new record. it's mainly fabulous. there's a few country songs, a few pop songs and a few songs that sound like the modern lovers.

What kind of "pop" are we talking about here?

arthur russell's take on "pop" i guess. they are hard to describe except that they are the most upbeat, commercial sounding songs i've heard him do. they do sound a bit like (and probably are) rough demos though.

there's a couple of these on myspace now. and the sleeve, to set the tone of arthur-goes-country.

ELI!

Other one is only okay though. That is the first time I would use this term to apply to russell

i love the other one ("close my eyes") lots and lots. there are a couple of tracks i don't love on it but it's pretty great overall and makes me excited about what else might be lurking in the archives.

I don't know, Eli isn't as astonishing as it is in the trailer either.

i didn't really like eli when i heard it, but love it now; there's kind of a weird connection to his stretchy cello-sync vocals on the rest of his solo stuff. and close my eyes is lovely. it reminds me of that old folk song the lakes of pontchartrain, that dylan used to do.

Deffo going to that ICA night, looks fun.

Elodie Lauten's The Death Of Don Juan, w/ Arthur Russell on cello and vocals, has just been reissued on CD. Here's what Alan Licht had to say abt it in the third of his Minimalism Top Tens:

“This is one of the great lost experimental records of the 80s. Lauten has been around since the 70s, going back and forth between Paris and New York. The Death Of Don Juan is an opera, in the avant garde sense, but I honestly prefer it to any of Robert Ashley’s operas or the Philip Glass ones (except Einstein). There’s a Fairlight on most of the record, but fear not, as you would never know that it dates from 80s. The first two tracks sound like Joe Jones meets Glass or Steve Reich, with harpsichords, trine (an electric lyre that Lauten invented) and Arthur Russell’s cello. “Death As A Shadow” recalls Meredith Monk’s “Turtle Dreams” but is even more haunting and doomy. Russell’s vocal on “Death As A Woman” even reminds me of Moondog 2 and sounds unlike any of his other work. Even the libretto is fab-A+”

woah that is exciting.

samples here: i think i will buy.

http://digital.othermusic.com/search/full.php?UID=284675

there, sorry.

nice article with Tom Lee
http://www.thefader.com/articles/2008/9/19/q-a-tom-lee-on-life-with-and-without-arthur-russell

there's a good article in the new out magazine about russell

Just a reminder for London ILXORs - film starts tonight at the ICA, with Optimo DJing AR & related stuff afterwards in the bar, which is free.

Short piece in the Guardian today:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/sep/26/popandrock

New track on the Audika myspace posted just today.

I think I heard that Chris Taylor from Grizzly Bear mixed this, but maybe he was lying.