aloha folks, and welcome to the 'official' site for the first (?) alt.music.sonic-youth tribute album. here you'll find all you need to know about the format, bands, release info, and how to make a submission.
last updated: 9/17/99
this will be a cassette-only release.. read below for more info. it's being organized and released by me, chris lawrence, on my label "file under audio", which deals mainly in experimental music. it will be a 90-minute release, available thru me for roughly $5 (possibly less, depending on the amount of interest). in early August i posted a message to alt.music.sonic-youth asking if anyone would be interested in participating in a tribute, and received nearly 20 messages within 24 hours (which was unexpected). most people got the song of their choice, and after about 30 requests i realized I probably had enough submissions to fill a tape. so now i must merely sit back and watch the tunes roll in... hopefully. you see, as is the case with all tributes, people will always sign up initially, then put off recording everything, til it becomes apparent that they'll never accomplish anything (believe me, i've done it myself a few times). so for this reason, don't worry if you didn't e-mail me right away, because i want to do my best to accomodate everyone who e-mailed me, and will hopefully be able to do so, even if i have to expand it to a double-cassette release. it will hopefully be released by late november, but that all depends on how quickly folks send their stuff in.
after careful pondering (no, really), i've decided to make this a single cassette release. several people in the newsgroup seemed to show desire to release CDs or even vinyl, but that simply isn't in my budget, especially since the contributing bands aren't required to send money. plus, aside from the oh-so-important "convenience" factor of CDs, there would be no sound difference. in fact, transferring what will likely be many analog (cassette) recordings to a CD would probably end up sounding worse than mere hi-fi analog-to-analog dubbing. plus, CDs only offer 74 minutes, as opposed to the 90 glorious minutes offered by our good, inexpensive friend, the cassette. as for vinyl, i'd love to, but it would almost definitely have to be a double-vinyl release, and shipping overseas would be ridiculously expensive, not to mention the obvious sound quality decay. so, for these reasons, it'll be cassette only, folks.
here's a list of the current performer/song line-up. this IS subject to change if a band decides to back out for whatever reason or wishes to cover a different song that hasn't already been claimed. like i said earlier, folks will always back out, so what you see now may not be what you'll necessarily get.
bands, if you can provide links to any type of website, please, let me know and i'll post them.
let me just say that i was very surprised by the material chosen. not too much early stuff, not too much current stuff... more like daydream thru washing machine. which is fine, if not a little unexpected.
though some folks have 2 songs chosen, it doesn't necessarily mean both songs will appear on the tape, especially if time restraints get in the way. likely i'll pick the best of the 2, or if they're short, include them both.
i've only posted the contributor's name... if you'd like me to post your e-mail address or a link as well, just let me know. if i don't have a name, just your e-mail address will be used.
this is all so far away, so i'm not too concerned. it will come with a booklet with whatever info each band wishes to include. title-wise, my friend bjorn and I did some brainstorming, and could come up with nothing better than "Made in AMSY", "Noisy Touch" (a clever anagram), or "Kover Yr Idols". if you can do better, please let me know!
as you can see, i already have enough to fill a tape, but like i said, folks always back out. if i absolutely must, i will release a second tape, so if you do have your heart set on appearing on the tribute, drop me a line and let me know what you'd like to play!
one other thing I neglected to mention earlier: if contributors want a copy of the finished product (free), they'll have to mail me a blank tape with their submission (or afterwards, no big deal). that way, i don't go broke, as i don't intend to charge the bands anything for the tribute. however, any spare change you can toss my way for postage, duplication, etc etc would be MUCH appreciated.
i will be posting soundclips in .WAV format (sorry, stone-age computer) of any bands that want me to. or, if you want to host your own soundclips, that's cool too. just let me know.
9/17/99 - added some band links.
this page was created on 9/16/99. as of now, i only have one submission, simon's excellent, creepy "halloween". i've also nearly finished my 12-string acoustic solo version of "theresa's sound-world" (described as "beautiful" by one listener, so i must be doing something right...), and am expecting "stalker" and "tokyo eye" soon.
thanks for reading, hope you're looking forward to the finished product. if you have any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me and let me know.
goodnight..... CL.