Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/04/the-breeders-are-back-with-a-n.html
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That video looks fantastic. I looked up who directed it and found it was Richard Ayoade. Yeah - that guy. Maurice from IT Crowd.
Great song, great video. Really nice work.
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I thought the video looked like it was made by some really enterprising high school students, but then I figured that was the point.
Good stuff but I feel like they’ll be chasing the success of Cannonball for a long time.
It’s “Driving on 9” for me.
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Not to say Cannonball is their best work or anything. Just that it was a commercial juggernaut.
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I’m not sure that they are trying to make another like it.
Am I naive in thinking that there may be motivations in music besides commercial success?
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Of course there are. You can find artists and workers in any field who work for the joy of it. However, when we are talking about professional artists who have decided to make a living creating art, pay is very important. Creating a song that people love is something many musicians strive for. The ones who sell albums are also interested in selling albums.
I had a spacewoman roommate once.
And this is good music.
Um, yeah… your point?
Only that seeking commercial success is fine and professional artists aren’t volunteers.
Alright… I’m good with that.
Oh. but wait.
Making art is a voluntary act always with a chance that there wont be a paycheck.
Is this comment from 1995?
Kim Deal has done a lot of things, but I don’t think she’s ever tried to chase the pop commercial success of Cannonball. Her follow-up was that drug-soaked Amps record, for crying out loud.
She also left a pile of money on the table when she stopped touring with the Pixies.
That’s usually been the case. I assume that’s also why so many artists do it as a hobby and not a way to make a living.
I get it. You are a fan and read what I wrote as some sort of criticism. That’s fine. Without twenty-seven 8 x 10 colored glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explainin’ what each one was it’s impossible to discern the intent of the written word without context clues and what I wrote has no context clues.
Cannonball was their most notable success. it is the song that brought them national attention and made The Breeders a band name people recognized - and yes I know many knew of them before Cannonball but that’s not the point. Their national and indeed global recognition came from that song. Like it or not, that’s the yardstick the people and the industry will measure them by. As such, without a pop hit like Cannonball, anything they do will be considered by society at large as being less than. Chart toppers can spell death to musicians. No matter how good their work is after the chart topper, if it doesn’t have enough mass appeal to hit the charts, people will compare it to their prior success and judge it lacking. This isn’t a commentary on the quality or ability of the band but rather upon what happens to a band when it has a chart topper early followed by a few lack luster sales results from follow up albums. They are usually judged more harshly than if they had never seen commercial success and that’s what I mean by “chasing the success”
Hm… there, I see what you did.
No, I mean, fine, whateves.
I am left with one question…
…bean count much?
I have to have something with which I can compare the number of nits picked.
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Very well then fellow Humaline.
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you could be the shadow.
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