MAUS, Option, etc.

[hsu%uicsrd.CSRD.UIUC.EDU@a.cs.uiuc.edu (William Tsun-Yuk Hsu)]

< Allyn mentions complaints of anti-semitic sentiments in Maus >
It's kinda weird to call Maus anti-semitic, since Spiegleman is Jewish
and Maus is about the Holocaust, but I guess you could dredge up some
reasons. Most people who hate Maus do so because of Spiegleman's nasty
portrayal of his father (see Harvey Pekar's articles in some Cleveland
paper, expanded in Comics Journal). 

New Option is out. This is much more interesting than the last two. My
usual complaints: the interviews are too short and have little 
substance (with the exception of Greg Taylor's Roger Miller interview,
which we already had a preview of), Option keeps giving records to
inappropriate reviewers etc. Two glaring examples of the last: the
totally inane review of Swans' Holy Money and the reviewer who thought
Afrika Bambataa's (sp?) claim to fame was his work with Johnny Lydon.

There are some truly stupid comments in the short SPK interview. It's
amazing how easy it is for intelligent, creative people to make themselves
look ignorant and stupid. Infamous statements from Graeme Revell:

1) There is no valid industrial music made anymore.
2) The most relevant industrial music made recently is Janet Jackson's "Nasty"
3) Guitars are primitive and out-of-date and you can't do anything
   interesting with them.
4) (In response to a question about the British experimental music scene
   of Nurse with Wound, Current 93, Hafler Trio, etc.) The US is not
   a good environment for experimental music because most of the 
   experimentation is literary and obsessed with Burroughsian cutups
   of popular culture. All US bands are hardcore/thrash.

I would expect these comments from Ameri-phobes like IED or people who
don't know anything about music like Mike Krantz, but not an SPK
band member. If I had done the interview I would not have let those
remarks limp past unchallenged. Kinda makes you want to puke, doesn't it?

Well, descriptions of their new projects sounded interesting... no
return to the bad disco shit on Machine Age Voodoo...

Bill