Butchersonic
Date: Sun 19 May 1996 - 03:29:00 PDT
His Holiness The Bishop wrote:
>The name Pat Fish will not even appear on the sleeve. The whole point of
>the new project is the liberation
>therefrom. You only have to look at... oooh... Frank Black, Mark Eitzel,
>Robert Forster,
>Grant McLennan, Paul Westerberg etc. etc. etc. to see that just "going
>solo" does not
>accomplish this. All you get is the die-hard core of fans from your band
>that was actually
>any good. The best recent example would have to be the switch from Camper
>Van Beethoven to Cracker. If
>David had just gone solo, do you really think he would be finally getting
>his dues now?
Are you SURE it's so hard for someone to "go solo" and expand his/her audience? Have you talked to former defectors like George Michael, Natalie Merchant, Bjork, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Todd Rundgren, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Sting, Lou Reed, Richard Thompson, Nick Cave, Steve Winwood, Robyn Hitchcock, Iggy Pop, Juliana Hatfield, Matthew Sweet, Frank Zappa, Eric Matthews...?
I'm sure I could also research and come up with a whole bunch of new groups growing from old groups (a la Cracker) who flopped, but I'm too lazy....
Also, I think Cracker's success is due to the fact that Cracker's music is far more accessible than Camper Van Beethoven's (not to mention timed to coincide with the new "alternative boom"), and not because it's "Cracker" and not "David Lowery." Oh well, good luck to Sumosonic anyway.
Best Fishes,
EB
Received on Sun May 19 12:28:32 1996