Lanois book "Soul Mining" - anyone else reading it

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fossiltooth
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Post by fossiltooth » Sat May 07, 2011 2:03 pm

A.David.MacKinnon wrote:
fossiltooth wrote:
Cheesy visual effects or no, that is a powerful, important statement coming out of Eno. Those could be life-changing-ly true stuff to anyone who takes a few minutes to digest it.

Frankly, I don't hear Eno's statements as being at at odds with Lanois' attitude at all. Anyone who aspires to be more creative than they are now could benefit from watching that clip. Good stuff.
I don't think the statement is out of line with Lanois attitude either but for me the film doesn't address what Eno's talking about. It's too busy with bad filtering effects and pseudo-spiritual mumbo-jumbo.

As much the film made me crazy I did really enjoy the Eno/Lanois segments. Eno is so clinical and Lanois is so touchy-feely it's amazing they can even understand each other. From the outside it looks like something that should never work but clearly they have a very powerful partnership.

Anyway, I shouldn't be so hard on Lanois. I love his work. His persona just rubs me the wrong way. I'm sure I'd feel the same way about tons of people who's work I admire.
Haha. I hear ya. I haven't seen the film yet, or heard any in-person interviews with Lanois so I'll have to reserve judgement.

In addition to some of his sounds, I have to say that one of the things I admire about Lanois is how well he did professionally with a relatively late start: He didn't really work on any records worth noting until he was well over 30, and didn't start putting out solo albums anyone would think to listen to until he was nearly 40. The way I hear it, Eno's remarks kinda speak to that too..
Last edited by fossiltooth on Sat May 07, 2011 9:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by percussion boy » Sat May 07, 2011 4:41 pm

A.David.MacKinnon wrote:I have a bit of home town pride in seeing another Canadian doing so well but the whole hippie, soul man shit wears thin pretty quick.
Maybe the fact that he's Canadian makes the pretentiousnesss feel worse. (?)

Part of what I always dug about the whole Canadian vibe is the understatement of it. If a Canadian guy in the neighborhood cured cancer, he'd mention it in passing, but only after 15 minutes of listening to you talk about baseball and the kids.
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Post by cgarges » Mon May 09, 2011 9:42 pm

leigh wrote:As for that Wrecking Ball documentary, my understanding is it was never released. However, I did find this segment from it, which apparently aired on VH-1 at some point. Here's clips of Emmylou Harris and Neil Young singing the track, and shots of a bunch of other folks, cut over the album version of "Sweet Old World":

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2i30u ... weet_music
Thanks for that. I was always suprised there was no film of Wrecking Ball since [i[]Teatro[/i] was done around the same time and the film of that is stellar. (I'm SO waiting for the DVD release of that one.)
fossiltooth wrote:He didn't really work on any records worth noting until he was well over 30, and didn't start putting out solo albums anyone would think to listen to until he was nearly 40.
Really? I thought he was younger than that when he did those early U2 records. That would make him like 60 now. Is that right?

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Post by fossiltooth » Tue May 10, 2011 6:20 am

cgarges wrote:
leigh wrote:As for that Wrecking Ball documentary, my understanding is it was never released. However, I did find this segment from it, which apparently aired on VH-1 at some point. Here's clips of Emmylou Harris and Neil Young singing the track, and shots of a bunch of other folks, cut over the album version of "Sweet Old World":

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2i30u ... weet_music
Thanks for that. I was always suprised there was no film of Wrecking Ball since [i[]Teatro[/i] was done around the same time and the film of that is stellar. (I'm SO waiting for the DVD release of that one.)
fossiltooth wrote:He didn't really work on any records worth noting until he was well over 30, and didn't start putting out solo albums anyone would think to listen to until he was nearly 40.
Really? I thought he was younger than that when he did those early U2 records. That would make him like 60 now. Is that right?

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC
Yep. Born in '51. I just picked up the book from the library yesterday. Only about 50 pages in as of last night, but it's a decent read so far.

I may have misrepresented his early recording activity just a little bit- He was doing sessions in his mom's basement for $10/hr through his early and mid-twenties. They were mostly demos sessions, but some of his simple recordings with a folk-singer-turned-children's-artist, Raffi did do quite well in the late 70s.

He worked on some of Eno's ambient stuff in '82, and things really picked up when Eno brought him along to work with U2 in '84. Even then, he waited until '89 to put out his first solo album, Acadie. I don't know of many other artists in the popular realm who put out their first albums at ages 38 and 42 ('93 For the Beauty of Wynonna- which is even more of a 'solo album' in the traditional sense). That's kinda cool.

Anyway, the book isn't so much a "Tips n' Tricks" volume like Stravou's "Mixing With Your Mind" or any of the Mix Pro Audio Handbooks. It's a fairly charming, autobiographical account that gives an overview of one life in music. Worth a read if you're interested in the guy's history, and not especially desperate for yet another manual on where-to-point-the-microphone. It does have some self-congragulatory moments, but it's rare to find an autobio that doesn't.
Last edited by fossiltooth on Tue May 17, 2011 10:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Tue May 10, 2011 3:50 pm

He also had a hand in a million and a half early eighties Canadian new wave and pop hits. He skipped over that in the book but I wouldn't blame him. It was some really bad shit.

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Post by knobtwirler » Wed May 11, 2011 8:07 am

I don't like badmouthing anybody, especially someone supposedly so accomplished as this Lanois dude. But, I'm over it by about ten years. He does good work, at least the good that you hear about, but people tend to ride his dick a bit too much, especially if they only know of him, not know him personally.

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Post by Mudcloth » Wed May 11, 2011 9:20 am

I love a lot of Lanois' work. I happen to like room sounds and the capturing of great performances. I am, however, usually turned off by any kind of schtick. I'm a little suspect of the soul guru eccentric thing. It implies a certain lack of realness and honesty.
Now, someone like Lanois probably lives in a bit of a bubble. Maybe he's convinced himself it's all actually real. I don't know and I guess it doesn't matter.

Also, I'm surprised there's so little of the same thing being said about Jack White around these parts. Again, the eccentric schtick takes away from the honesty. It could be some sort of defense mechanism. Or, maybe these guys and Phil Spector really are off kilter in some way. Again, I guess it doesn't matter. Especially if the final product moves you.

Then there's Bob Moog. I saw the documentary about him and he's totally down to earth. Sweetest guy.
The best quote out of that movie was something to this effect:
"I'd be an egotist if I said it came from me. It's somewhere between discovery and witnessing."
I think that he nails the creative process right there. It's not even creating. It just is.
No smoke and mirrors. No taking credit for something that works it's way through you. No schtick.
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Post by jrdamien » Tue May 17, 2011 7:24 pm

Mudcloth wrote: Also, I'm surprised there's so little of the same thing being said about Jack White around these parts. Again, the eccentric schtick takes away from the honesty. It could be some sort of defense mechanism.
Thank you! This has long been my gripe and I am constantly shouted down whenever I make the argument. I like him well enough, and the music. I'd be lying if I said I didn't. But the schtick absolutely strips away the honesty. He admits he did it for the sake of getting away with a white boy playing the blues. Every interview is a repetition of the same mythology. Some people think that's fantastic. I always hated it and still do.

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