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Come along for the ride and watch a fledgling Chapel Hill band turn into three year experiment. This is real. brilliant is a real band, consisting, by coincidence, of brothers Mike, Joe, and Pete Procopio.
What to make of a best-of package? For some it's a self-aggrandizing nostalgia trip, for others it's a conceptual redux of a career, but for most it's a weasley way out of a contractual obligation.
U2 did a clever thing when they released that best of 1980-1990 record. Of course, it bit them on the ass when they realized that was their best stuff, period. The B-side thing was nice, but also blew away most of what they released from 1990 on.
There's that "Best of Sting and the Police" deal. That's gotta hurt if you're Andy Summers or Stewart Copeland. IMHO, the worst of the Police (see: Behind my Camel or Tea in the Sahara) stands up to the best of Sting.
The Fixx (and I know I'm getting very '80s here) actually have 3 or 4 greatest hits records to complement their one hit.
Rush, God love 'em, put out a greatest hits album every four records, like clockwork. And they get snapped up as soon as they come out.
Blur just released a hits deal, and "Song 2" is song 2, which makes it nearly the same record as Blur.
And of course, there's the Beatles' One which completely, nearly track for track, rips off The Beatles' 20 Greatest, which I already had.
The stigma surrounding the greatest hits package evaporates if you're an indie. Like us. In which case your greatest hits record is usually what's left over when you burn out. Like us.
Not that it's over, but it's over, you know?
We recently let slip our greatest hits package, quietly and privately. We spent zero on it, unless you want to count the blank CD media. No new cover, no new liner notes, very little in terms of additional mastering. The record, cleverly titled Anything & Everything after one of the songs that didn't make Last of the Great Contenders, is just that. It's nearly everything we've done in brilliant's 1.5-4 year lifespan (dependent on the lineup).
It's got all of 1998's psyched! with Jeff Walker and Andrew Wright. This is what got us going, it's a miracle of a record, sounding great without trying to. Following that is the aborted Contenders sessions, then the Christmas stuff that made up Happy Friggin' Holidays, and finally the entire last show, bootlegged in all its drunken, low-fi glory.
So what to make of these "greatest"-hits?
As I mentioned, and despite all my best efforts to the contrary, brilliant, as a concept and a vibe is done. Good, I was just getting sick of the name anyway (although, anyone who's ever been in a band with me will tell you that our names usually stayed fresh 4 to 6 weeks). Mike and Pete and I aren't done playing together, but Pete is off the drums and all the good drummers either died or went back to the land from whence they came.
Extinguished. And underlined by the fact that I haven't picked up a guitar in two months. Why beat a dead horse? Sure, there's the three year experiment, but what comes out doesn't necessarily have to look like what went in.
So we regroup, and in that time, I re-record. There's a lot left that never went to tape, and I plan on putting it down myself... if I get the time and the inclination.
I leave with a question to the musicians within our little community. What makes you get up and record new material, if not for the showcase of that material that is inherent with a working live band?
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ABOUT - BRILLIANT | |
In three years, brilliant will be the biggest band in the world. Until then, they're ours, giving weekly Friday night shows in the palatial Intrepid Media rec room.
more about - brilliant
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POSTS | |
jeffrey walker
1.17.01 @ 6:36p
When can I buy the record. Having left shorty after "psyched," I haven't been fully exposed to the latter efforts, except for the "one night only" when I played the drums in your garage.
Damn that was a fun evening.
adam kraemer
1.23.01 @ 5:52a
Sorry, mate. The Fixx had two hits.
adam kraemer
1.23.01 @ 6:01a
Oh, and perhaps the trick is to name your band something that doesn't bring to mind images of stars, etc. burning out. No one ever describes a fire as "prosaic."
adam kraemer
1.23.01 @ 6:05a
Whoops. Three hits.
joe procopio
1.23.01 @ 7:14a
1) What the hell are you doing up so early?
2) Sure, you've got your marginal stuff, your "Red Skies" and your "Stand or Fall," your "Saved By Zero" and your "Are We Ourselves?" But that was back when we bought the whole album. Besides, 5 hits makes my joke less funny.
jael mchenry
1.23.01 @ 9:03a
Hey. Hey. Hey. Watch what you say about "Saved By Zero."
joe procopio
1.23.01 @ 10:01a
I love "Saved By Zero!" I'm not picking on the Fixx. Well, at least not Phantoms and back. Q: Is the Fixx a nerd band? And if so like Radiohead nerd or Devo nerd?
jeffrey walker
1.23.01 @ 11:37a
I think the funniest item here is that the Fixx hasn't been discussed this much in over ten years. Someone should alert them. Perhaps they'll attempt a comeback...
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