Postby mr_j » Sat Apr 15, 2006 2:25 am
well, i think a lot of the animosity now is that tim, as a person, has changed. yes, what you say is true, katie--an artist has to think about money and finanical issues, and it's not wrong for them to do so. i recently had a personal revelation, and this was that the issues of right and wrong is often not found within a specific situation, but in the way you react to the situation. worrying about money and wanting to make money is not bad, but when you do it at the expense of good will of those who gave you their money, then what you're doing is not good.
*what follows is opinion based upon other people's dealings and my own experiences*
tim...was a complete prick in the TD days. from what i understand, he was totally, utterly impossible to be around. i mean, there was a reason he had a large fratboy following--that's where his loyalties were. yeah, he acted like a weirdo, but he had more in common with the Pikes than he did the punks. (this one sorority bar, just a block from where i lived, it almost never failed that once a week you'd hear a drunken 2-AM singalong to 'i got a girl' or 'my umbrella.') then, he decided he was an artist--and he did then what is being done now--he forgot about his fans, he cashed in the good will of the fratboys, and TD, ultimately, lost it all. not that following one's artistic muse is wrong, but Atom Bomb was a bomb when it came out, and a lot of people hated it. the appreciation for it didn't really come until after Wes's death.
but back to tim...when he started the spree, he was...humble. not difficult. not impossible to be around. grateful to have an opportunity to make music. a changed man. that's certainly the impression i had of him the times i talked with him in 2001. but, alas, things changed when the money started to come right in. it's hard not to let appearing on an internationally broadcasted commercial go to your head. and slowly, his rock-star personality started to come back again. so, when he starts to talk about the "Tripping Daisy" starting to slip back in, it's hard not to cringe, because that person was an utter ASS.
if you think the fans of the spree are devoted...they are nothing compared to what Tripping Daisy's. you think tuz is intense? he's a fuckin' lightweight compared to some of the hardcore. we're talking about people calling the rumor line every day, just to see if there's a new message, and, if there was one, they'd tape it.
it's kind of sad, really. how a man can let his head get so high up his ass in thought when there's really not much there to get his head high up about is beyond me. i just hope he realizes that the bed he is making now is one he will have to sleep in.
and what's even more frustrating is all it would take is a little bit of communication on their part. getting rid of the forum? tell the fans about it. they might be upset. getting rid of a section of the band because the sound is changing? that's fine; it sucks for those friends of ours in the band, but if we heard about it FIRST, instead of being completely out of the dark, it might not have been so bad. dropped from Hollywood? see, these things aren't things that would make fans abandon a band--but the way they've gone about it is just wrong, wrong, wrong. and that they're doing it under a pretense of being a 'band' is even more frustrating.
At War With The Mystics is a great record. Ships is a great record. You in Reverse is a great record. I doubt The Fraggle Army will be. Why? Because those are real bands. Yeah, their leaders may be weirdos and artistic visionaries, but all of those band leaders aren't trying to be something they're not.
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