[kj] sorta-ot: Killing Joke book idea?

[Alexander Smith]

"keep me posted how it goes..."



Well, let's not all get our hopes up too soon. I have a few friends who've
been trying to brow-beat me into doing a book for some time (not necessaril=
y
about Killing Joke, though that always seems like the first idea), but my
problem is not really understanding how to go about it. My friend Sean is
writing a memoir about his life in and out of reform schools (a troubled
youth, our Sean was) and has a publishing deal and an agent and all that,
and he is most insistant at my undertaking a simillar project. He and I wer=
e
kicking ideas around, and I blithely mentioned that no one -- to my then
knowledge -- had ever written an authoritative book about Jonathan Richman
and the Modern Lovers (a band as seminal to the constructs of proto-Punk
Rock as the Stooges and the Velvet Underground, yet much less heralded). I'=
d
postulated that since Richman himself is such an eccentric, quasi-reclusive
character, a book on him could be interesting to even the passive layperson=
.
Sean jumped out of his chair with excitement and said he'd talk to his agen=
t
about it. A day later, he called me back saying his agent loved the idea an=
d
would love to get together and discuss the options. Great....wheels set in
motion.

Over the next couple of days, before meeting with this guy, I did a little
sniffing around. Turns out, as fate would have it, someone *HAS* written a
thorough book on Richman,....and it came out as recently as 2000 (on a tiny
British publishing house called Peter Owen Press, but not so tiny that I
couldn't find the book on the shelves of my local bookstore). The lynchpin,
however, is that the writer (a British dude named Tim Mitchell) didn't get
any cooperation from Jonathan Richman. Jonathan wished him well, but refuse=
d
to be interviewed (apparently, Richman isn't in the business to be lionized
in this manner). Regardless, the book is admirably pretty exhaustive
otherwise,....rendering the concept of *ANOTHER* book on the man rather moo=
t
(even if we managed to somehow convince Richman to cooperate). So, flush
that idea.

To be honest, I was quite relieved. While I think that the first Modern
Lovers record (with Jerry Harrison and David Robinson, later of the Talking
Heads and Cars, respectively) which features such classics as "Roadrunner,"
"She Cracked" and "I'm Straight" is a fuckin' storming, wall-flattening
record that sounds as vital today as when it was recorded (a jaw-dropping
1973), I have precious little time for his later work, which can range from
cutesy precious through insufferably twee. I can't imagine devoting the nex=
t
couple of years of my freetime devoted to his music. I'd have to open a vei=
n
at some point and end it all.

So, I talked with the agent before meeting him and told him the news. He wa=
s
bummed, but still encouraging -- saying that where there's one good idea,
there are bound to be more. He still wanted to meet up. So, this past
Wednesday, I went to an "idea breakfast" with the guy. He turned out to be =
a
little more of a slickster than I was hoping/expecting, and prone to
dropping lots of names from the literary congniscentti that I'm only
passively aware of (and if I wasn't married to a very literate woman who
works in publshing, I dare say I would've been completely in the dark.) I
ran a couple of more ideas by him, all of them music-related.
Dissapointinly, this guy wasn't as versed in music as I'd have liked, and
wasn't entirely familiar with some of the concepts I was suggesting. I did
suggest a book exclusively about New York City bands from the early 80s
through today (something between "Please Kill Me" and "Our Band Could Be
your Life," concentrating on bands from the Swans and Pussy Galore through
the new shit like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, to bring it up to date). He sniffed
that he wasn't impressed by Azzerad's book (which I loved) and that he
thought: "maybe 5,000 people would want to buy that book!" That sounded
promising to me, but not to him (too small....this guy wrangled the deal fo=
r
the recent Neil Young biography, which just came out in paperback). He then
suggested -- rather incongruously -- that I write a book about REM's MURMER
album and how significant it was, seemingly obvlivious to the fact that
there are already waaaaaayyyy too many books about REM out at the moment
(and I neglected to mention that I didn't share his enthusiasm for the albu=
m
in question).

To counter that, I suggested an authoritative, detail-exhaustive book about
Killing Joke. While he recognized their name, I think he was only familiar
with maybe the "Love Like Blood" single. I went in for the kill,
highlighting Jaz's storied career as a musician coupled with his notoriousl=
y
colorful antics as a man driven by all stripes of strikingly diverse
philosophies. Call me biased, but I think a book on Jaz Coleman's life alon=
e
would make for interesting reading. I mean, he's the perfect amalgam of
brilliance, madness, will and vision. He belongs right up there with Klaus
Kinski, Werner Herzog, Jackson Pollack, etc. etc. etc. I then layed my case
for the broad-sweeping but as-yet under-recognized influence of Killing
Joke's music on genres ranging from Punk to Metal to Dub to Industrial to
Pop to Goth to Trance and beyond. Top that off with anecdotes about manic,
sudden flights to Iceland, cows hearts on journalists desks, death threats,
the occult, recording sessions in the great pyramids and more intra-band
plot-line dramas that any soap opera would kill for and
*****BANG******....you got yourself a page-turner! Julian Cope be damned,
this would be the real deal!

The agent wasn't that enthused, citing the "select audience" angle. He's go=
t
a point, but I'm thinking it isnt' my idea that's wrong, but rather my
choice of representation. I should start smaller (this guy was looking for
the next Jonathan Franzen....which he ain't going to find in me). At the
very least, he was very accomodating and offered to act as a sounding board
for future concepts. So, we'll see.

Am I wrong in thinking there is someone else on the list who has been
kicking a book idea around as well? Please speak up if so.

Alex in NYC





----------
>From: "Jester" <webmaster@killing-joke.com>
>To: <gathering@misera.net>
>Subject: RE: [kj] THEYR featuring Jaz Coleman
>Date: Sat, May 24, 2003, 4:20 PM
>

>finally....
>
>keep me posted how it goes...I will post things on the site if you get a
>deal, and you know this maaaaan!
>
>
>Cheers
>Joe
>
>Ne Plus Ultra,
>Occisio Locatio
>
>The Web Master,
>Jester
>www.killing-joke.com
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: gathering-admin@misera.net [mailto:gathering-admin@misera.net]On
>Behalf Of Alexander Smith
>Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2003 3:01 PM
>To: gathering@misera.net; gathering@misera.net
>Subject: Re: [kj] THEYR featuring Jaz Coleman
>
>
>
>"some day, some one needs to sit down and make a book out of allthis. What=
 a
>band, what a history. It's bloody criminal that nobody has undertaken such=
 a
>project but then again, I'm probably as guilty as anyone in that respect !=
"
>
>
>I pitched an idea about the Joke to a literary agent this very week,
>actually.
>
>
>Alex in NYC
>
>
>
>----------
>>From: "Antoni Adamiak" <antoni@clara.net>
>>To: <gathering@misera.net>
>>Subject: Re: [kj] THEYR featuring Jaz Coleman
>>Date: Sat, May 24, 2003, 10:42 AM
>>
>
>>As from the NME reports, cuttings of which I *lent* to Paul R & were up o=
n
>>The Last Laugh website, after Jaz fled to Iceland, only Geordie followed
>>whilst Big Paul & Youth then formed Brilliant who brought out the ironic =
7"
>>single "What Good Friends Are For" - from a further NME press cutting (li=
nk
>>below), it appears that Jaz fell out with various people (In a Bjork
>>interview, she was in KUKL and said that many people got very upset) and
>yes
>>probably this guy was briefly in Killing Joke, but at some stage BP
>rejoined
>>the fold & that's when long time KJ fanatic Paul Raven joined on bass -
>>hopefully one day the Black Bird can elaborate further on the circumstanc=
es
>>of his recruitment but that's about as much as I know.
>>
>>http://home.clara.net/antoni/icekj.jpg
>>
>>Maaaaan, some day, some one needs to sit down and make a book out of all
>>this. What a band, what a history. It's bloody criminal that nobody has
>>undertaken such a project but then again, I'm probably as guilty as anyon=
e
>>in that respect !
>>
>>Regards,
>>
>>Antoni
>>
>>* http://home.clara.net/antoni/ *
>>
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "JOKERS PUB CAFE" <circusbar@uol.com.br>
>>To: <gathering@misera.net>
>>Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2003 4:24 PM
>>Subject: Re: [kj] THEYR featuring Jaz Coleman
>>
>>
>>Hi all, while I was looking trough the links Antoni sent, I find somethin=
g
>>interesting::
>>
>>does this guy "Birger Mogensen" ever played with the joke???
>>
>>
>>KUKL. Icelandic group created in Reykjavik in August '83 with Einar =D6rn
>>Benediktsson (vo, tp) (earlier in Purrkurr Pillnikk); Bj=F6rk Gu=F0mundsdotti=
r
>>(vo) (earlier in Tappi Tikarrass); Gu=F0laugur Kristinn Ottarsson (el-g)
>>(earlier in =FEeyr); Birger Mogensen (el-b) (earlier in Killing Joke) ; Ein=
ar
>>Melax (keyb) (earlier in Van Houtens Koko) and Sigtryggur Baldursson (dm)
>>(earlier in =FEeyr).
>>
>>diaz
>>
>>
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: Antoni Adamiak <antoni@clara.net>
>>To: <gathering@misera.net>
>>Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2003 11:52 AM
>>Subject: Re: [kj] THEYR featuring Jaz Coleman
>>
>>
>>> The name is THEYR but it's a funny "P" (which in Icelandic is "th") so
>>they
>>> get referred as Peyr.
>>>
>>> The 3 tracks with Jaz, from an audio tape shipped out of the recording
>>> studio, ended up in John Peel's postbox so he promptly played them each
>at
>>> least a couple of times. Good quality MP3 versions are up on Madani's
>>> website.
>>>
>>> The "As Above" LP does not feature Jaz Coleman. The vinyl is pretty rar=
e
>>but
>>> you can get a recently compiled & released CD, with most of the tracks
>off
>>> "As Above" from the Bad Taste website, They plan to release a couple mo=
re
>>in
>>> due course.
>>>
>>> A few links for your perusal :
>>>
>>> http://larbib.larvik.folkebibl.no/~vidar/musikk/#iceland
>>>
>>> http://larbib.larvik.folkebibl.no/~vidar/musikk/theyr.html
>>>
>>> http://home1.swipnet.se/~w-10797/kukl/theyr.htm
>>>
>>> https://www.smekkleysa.net/ (you can buy the CD here)
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Antoni
>>>
>>> * http://home.clara.net/antoni/ *
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "wardance" <wardance@wardance.net>
>>> To: <gathering@misera.net>
>>> Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2003 3:18 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [kj] THEYR featuring Jaz Coleman
>>>
>>>
>>> Indeed yes, as far as I know,  THEYR and PEYR are just one and same
>>> icelandic project (It just seems like there were two different ways to
>>write
>>> the band's name... Quite weird, isn't it ? ;-).
>>>
>>> <I've also only heard 3 songs, the ones that's on the Joker_place site,
>>> Guess again, The <Catalyst and Take what's Mine, that's the ones you're
>>> talking about???
>>>
>>> Those are the same tracks as the ones I've already got.
>>> They were recorded in Iceland in  1982, and the singer was Jaz,  that's
>>all
>>> I know so far...
>>>
>>> Hans Wehrwolf
>>>
>>>   ----- Original Message -----
>>>   From: JOKERS PUB CAFE
>>>   To: gathering@misera.net
>>>   Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2003 4:12 PM
>>>   Subject: Re: [kj] THEYR featuring Jaz Coleman
>>>
>>>
>>>   Is Theyr the same as Peyr, from the iceland Episode.???
>>>
>>>   I've also only heard 3 songs, the ones that's on the Joker_place site=
,
>>> Guess again, The Catalyst and Take what's Mine, that's the ones you're
>>> talking about???
>>>
>>>   does anybody knows more info about these songs, whose playing what,
>>date,
>>> etc???????????
>>>
>>>   diaz
>>>
>>>
>>>     ----- Original Message -----
>>>     From: wardance
>>>     To: The Gathering
>>>     Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2003 10:51 AM
>>>     Subject: [kj] THEYR featuring Jaz Coleman
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>     Does anyone know if THEYR "As above" LP (recorded with Jaz on vocal=
s)
>>> has ever been re-released on CD ??...
>>>
>>>     If not, does anyone have it in a good sound quality on CD-R ??...
>>>     I only managed to check 3 tracks from THEYR so far, but unfortunate=
ly
>>> with an awfuly poor sound quality (maybe demos or rehearsal recordings
>>> ?...).
>>>     That's quite frustrating, 'cos I'm VERY interested in this rare
>>> curiosity !!... ;-)
>>>
>>>     Hans Wehrwolf
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Gathering mailing list
>>> Gathering@misera.net
>>> http://four.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/gathering
>>
>>
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