FW: HELLO STEVE!...

[Stephen Lindas]

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Finity [mailto:jmfinity at ameritech.net]
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 12:16 AM
To: Stephen Lindas
Subject: HELLO STEVE!...


Hello Steve!
Just letting you know that I am back from England. I had a good time and
it was quite fruitful.
I saw the postings on BOC-L and I would like you to post the following
letter from me on the BOC-L to clear up some of this misunderstanding.
Thanks.
Jim

**********

Hello Folks!

I have asked Stephen Lindas to post this on the BOC-L to try to clear up
some misunderstanding that seems to be going on about some CD's that I
made from tapes of the live shows that Strange Trips has done with
various bands. Steve Hayes inadvertently set this off with some comments
he made concerning the quality of the CD's and by saying they were
"bootlegs".

Let me start by saying that Steve Hays, Eli Friedman, Stephen Lindas and
Keith Henderson are all my friends and have been great supporters of
Strange Trips and the Strange Daze Festivals and shows along with many
others. I couldn't have done any of them without their help AND the
support of the SpaceRock fans who have faithfully attended these events.
I thank them all!

I believe that everyone is entitled to their opinion on these CD's (or
any issue for that matter) and that's all right with me. I make no claim
that these are the greatest CD's ever made. They are just what they
are...a documentation of some of the live shows that Strange Trips has
done over the last 5 years. No more, no less! Andy G apparently likes
them and that says somehting good. He is up on things and I have always
felt that he gives his honest opinion whenever he has said anything
about a release. I guess that only the person listening can really make
the decision on whether they like them or not.

As to the legitimacy of the CD's - I (and the artist/bands involved)
claim ownership of them with the recording credit belonging to the
people who did the job. I don't know who else they would belong to! I
call these "accidental recordings" (with the exception of the Far Flung
which Steve Hays mutli-tracked and mixed) because I didn't set out to
make a CD. These were given to me by the folks who recorded them and I
thought that they sounded like decent, honest recordings. What you hear
is what they did! All I did was "master" them with a Sound Forge program
by doing a bit of editing, cleaning them up, pumping the volume up or
down as needed, flowing the songs together and finishing up with a
couple of filters to remove hiss and rumble. I put together some
beautiful artwork that I came across and did the layout. That's
all...but to me they FEEL good!

And to be fair to Steve the copies that he recieved of the CD's weren't
the final ones that went out to Andy G at CD services. The Far Flung
that Steve received had some distortion in the low end. This obviously
didn't sit well with him as he recorded that particular one. When he
alerted me to this, I listened again and he was right! There was a low
end rumble causing distortion. This was because I had forgotten to run a
low filter on it to remove this unwanted noise from the CD. I corrected
this and it was much better. Just a simple oversight on my part before
the final ones were produced.

The CD's came together when I told Andy G that I was fooling around with
them and was working on putting some together for release on what I
would call the Strange Recordings label. He said that he believed there
would be an interest in them and graciously offered to place an order
for some. Encouraged by that response I hustled to get some together.
Hawkwind was touring England soon and with Andy buying these CD's from
me I would be able to catch a low cost flight and go over to England to
see them and talk to Harvey Bainbridge, Alan Davey's Bedouin, and Mr.
Quimby's Beard about doing something in America.

The actual number of CD's produced was 110 of the Harvey Bainbridge
(with 30 of them going to Harvey) 40 of the Far Flung and 40 of the
Anubian Lights. Tommy Grenas has told me in the past that I am welcome
to make something out of the recordings I have and I will be sending
Tommy his 25% of the produced CD's soon. I think giving the artist 25%
of the finished CD's for them to sell is a good deal and if anyone ever
should actually express interest in "putting them out" then of course
the artist/recorder should get his fair share.

These aren't really limited editions, but rather all that were made at
the moment. They cost me about $3.50 to make along with many hours of
copying, cutting and folding the front insert and tray cards. Did you
ever try to make 180 CD's at home? It's quite tedious and I did them all
by myself. Kind of like a Kathy Lee Gifford operation! Not exactly a big
money making business, but it helps get the music out to the people and
it also keeps the wheels moving.  I'm afraid that's all we can hope for
at the moment. If Steve thinks it is fairer to just trade them, then he
is welcome to do so. I don't do this for the money, so it doesn't really
matter to me. Buying them from us just helps support the overall cause.
I will also be getting them out to radio stations, web radio,
newsletters, etc. very soon.

I have lost money again last year. I still owe the t-shirt man about
$800 and I also owe both of the sound companies money. I am in the
process of re-arranging my finances and selling property to pay off
these debts. But I believe that when I'm finished doing these things we
will be stronger than ever and we have some great things coming up.

I am starting to arrange a fall tour (probably October) featuring Harvey
Bainbridge (with an all new show) and Mr. Quimby's Beard. I saw them
live and THEY ARE KILLER!!! A phenomenal show. This IS the band we have
been waiting for! We will probably be booking shows in different cities
with Nucleon, Quarkspace, Skye Klad and any others who are interested.
Stange Trips will also be doing a large indoor show in Cleveland with
these bands at that time in place of the Strange Daze Festival. We have
heard from a lot of people who have wanted us to do an indoor show for
quite a while because they weren't really campers. With the cost of the
campground eating up a large chunk of our money it only makes sense to
try it out.

I also have plans to get some Opti-Kinetic projectors and other items to
pump up The Solar Fire Lightshow to take it to another level. If you saw
the Ozric Tentacles show in Cleveland when they were here in October
then you would have caught a glimpse of what The Solar Fire Lightshow
looked like combined with the Opti's. It looked great and that's our
future!

Hawkwind just finished a great little tour of England and the shows I
saw were very strong. One of the tightest line-ups that I have seen
since they blew through the US in '89. Very powerful, they were in fine
form even bringing out oldies like Hurry On Sundown and doing them up
right. People loved it! Others on the BOC-L have reviews of the shows so
I won't bother to say more other than there's a resurgence going on and
a lot of very good things are developing.

Bedouin has plans to tour Germany and are working on a new release.
They're knocking them dead over in Merry Olde England as they support
Hawkwind (along with Mr. Dibbs' Spacehead) and do their own shows. A
very tight outfit! Simon House has been working with them and
occasionally Harvey Bainbridge will join them for a show. Great line up.
Alan hopes to get Bedouin over here next year so keep your fingers
crossed!

I hope that clears things up a bit about what is going on. We'll be
re-vamping the Strange Trips website soon and will be posting these
things there shortly. But remember....you heard it first on BOC-L.

The most important thing is to keep up the Spirit! Everything else is
just bullshit.

Love to All Those Who Follow the Light!

Stay tuned.

Jim Lascko