| THE FUTURE IS WORSE THAN THE PAST
R. Stevie Moore
Here's pretty much the same liner notes we provided for another R. Stevie Moore album, HUNDREDS OF HIDING PLACES (seek it!). Same story, moore great music. If you're a fan of RSM, check out rsteviemoore.com. But there are many RSM albums available for digital download, and they're all chock full of RSM's skewed pop musical vision that has made him the King of DIY since the mid-1970s.
So, to reiterate:
R. STEVIE MOORE has been an eccentric, reclusive home recording artist for over 30 years. He doesn't get out much. No car, few social skills. Preoccupied with gear at home. Steve has produced over 250 original cassettes and 14 albums (on ten labels in four countries), and has a catalog of over 1000 songs. We don't expect you to believe they’re all worth hearing (though they are), and besides -- who's got time?
You've been spared the trouble, as a new CD culls some of the best of R. Stevie's home recordings.
THE FUTURE IS WORSE THAN THE PAST was produced by IRWIN CHUSID (of WFMU, Raymond Scott, and Esquivel notoriety) for Germany's Pink Lemon label. The album is a virtuoso showcase for Moore's popcentric vision and skill at screwing around with tape decks that don't always function properly.
Lotsa guitar weirdness, quirky lyrics, songs and instrumentals. Material recorded between 1975 and 2000, but tracks are not identified by year. Stevie plays most everything, and engineered it all.
For moore news, check the website: http://rsteviemoore.com
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R. Stevie Moore press niblets:
Rolling Stone's Alt-Rock-A-Rama dubs Phonography one of "The Fifty Most Significant Indie Records" (March 1996):
"...[Stevie is] the man who can safely be credited with bringing home recording to the forefront."
David Fricke on R. Stevie in The New Rolling Stone Record Guide (1983):
"He... works in a peculiar corner of pop music space where the alien progressive rock strains of Eno and Fripp, the prankish gags of the Residents, and wholesome American sixties rock & roll intersect. What's even more peculiar is that for the most part it works."
Kurt Loder in Trouser Press on Delicate Tension LP (August 1979):
"...a broadly eclectic album unified by a seductive pop-rock logic..."
Tower Pulse on Everything... LP (March 1985):
"...an offbeat delight and true sleeper from a founding member and crusader of the growing independent cassette underground."
Milk's Jeffrey Norman reviews the Phonography CD (1999):
"...hooks galore and lyrics ranging from witty to surreal to simple and heartfelt..."
Underground reviews Teenage Spectacular LP (1987):
"R. Stevie should be sponsored by the American people as one of the few realistic pieces of rock 'n' roll history they have left."
The same issue of Underground features a Yukio Yung-penned "Beginner's Guide To R. Stevie Moore" (1987):
"So, Mr. Moore, are you a rampant exhibitionist, or what?!"
The Archive of Contemporary Music reviews Teenage Spectacular LP (1987):
"...the crispness of the production only highlights those characteristics which endear him to his listeners: his cantankerous wit, his love of radio montage, and the incredible scope of his musical vocabulary."
The New York Times on a 1986 "Sings at Speakeasy" show:
"Some of his selections... were only shards, a few lines long; others had recurring verses and choruses that expanded or shifted in asymmetrical designs."
Sounds (UK) on Verve LP (August 1985):
"I believe this man is almost off his trolley, and if he didn't have a creative outlet for his fears Stevie would need an iced bath and a cattle prod in the genitals."
Ira Robbins reviews Everything... LP in The Rolling Stone Review: The Year in Rock (1985):
"...using countless instruments and consummate home recording skills to work wildly divergent genres with equal facility, Moore is something of a junior Todd Rundgren, without the occasional self-importance."
OP on What's the Point?!! LP (1984):
"He does things within the standard forms that alter and slightly mutate them into something truly interesting."
Sounds (UK) reviews What's the Point?!! LP (August 1984):
"What's the Point?!! is a wry and cutting document of a man with problems who hasn't lost his sense of humour." Five stars out of five!
Melody Maker reviews What's the Point?!! LP (August 1984):
"...if only Stevie didn't feel it necessary to skirt half a dozen styles along with the same number of time changes in the space of a single song."
The Boston Phoenix reviews Everything... and What's the Point?!! LPs (May 1984):
"...if it tries to cast Moore as a whimsical hermit, a coy Zappa clone, it also demonstrates the breadth of sources he commands..."
Profile in Goldmine (February 1984):
"...his tapes... are stunning, atmospheric collages intricately woven with pieces of... styles, influences, gimmicks, passing fancies and trends juxtaposed (or simply hodgepodged) by the stamp that is undeniably Moore's."
Musician gets inside Stevie's gearbox (June 1983):
"He gets by just dandy in one cramped corner of a room, nestled into a rat's nest of old boxes and electrical wiring that resembles nothing so much as the DANGER, DON'T DO THIS TO AN OUTLET drawings they used to show us in fire prevention classes." |
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