He dropped in on us Aussies a few months ago. Not only did I miss the show because of how badly it was promoted, becoming aware of it long after the fact, but I was told it was woefully attended.
I watched the videos of his school. While the set up’s pretty good, there’s something that reeks of ‘dodgy’ throughout every minute of footage. And a lot of those ‘students’ seem completely hapless and naive to the true machinations of the industry.
Those SAE schools, anything that teaches music industry related tripe, recording, etc, are a crock of shit. The only way to make it is to get involved, fuck up, learn the hard way, and get a thick skin in the process. Most of these kids go, get a certificate that isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on, and still have no idea about anything.
Who is Paul Natkin and how many used Pigface and Lab Report cd’s did Atkins have to give him to use that quote?
Given the orthographic similarity of “Natkin” to “Atkins,” maybe it’s just an alias.
This bit of thread necromancy forced out some bitter laughs here, particularly reading about the people paying to be interns.
I did the same kind of drudge work when I was living down the street from Invisible HQ, but at that time Martin was marginally more generous. There were some spare rooms at the Invisible compound where you could crash for the night, and it wasn’t unusual for Martin to get some Connie’s pizza for the office crew or take everyone out for lunch in Chinatown nearby. There was also none of this patronizing “now if you’re REALLY good, you might get to see Ogre!” kind of nonsense being waved in front of you.
I’d guess that when he began siring his brood of children in the latter half of the 90s, he started realizing how expensive kids are to care for properly, and that’s when the schemes from “Ministry fence” to “pay me to work for me” really started to gain traction.
Haha! I love Martin Atkins. His finest moment was when he established a “school” to teach kids about the music industry . . . He charged them $3K-$5K in tuition fees and then made them work for him packaging orders and cleaning his office. Brilliant.
A real class act, hey!?
I will say his percussion greatness was sorely missed on that stage on NYE…Aaron was fine but it felt kinda empty without Rieflin & Atkins bouncing off each other, ya know [:|]
Who is Paul Natkin and how many used Pigface and Lab Report cd’s did Atkins have to give him to use that quote?
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I guess I wasn’t the only one to notice that.
I thought maybe it was a fictitious person too. I searched him out, though, and it’s some photographer in Chicago, so I’m guessing he was desperate to get his start or exposure and Martin probably said “Hey, I’ll tell you what! You go ahead and do the photography for my book tour and we’ll give you credit for it and you can put that on your resume and tell everyone you are a bonafide rock photographer dude. Heck, I’m not even gonna charge you for it. Be sure to give my book and lectures a good review, though.”
[reply]Who is Paul Natkin and how many used Pigface and Lab Report cd’s did Atkins have to give him to use that quote?
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I guess I wasn’t the only one to notice that.
I thought maybe it was a fictitious person too. I searched him out, though, and it’s some photographer in Chicago, so I’m guessing he was desperate to get his start or exposure and Martin probably said “Hey, I’ll tell you what! You go ahead and do the photography for my book tour and we’ll give you credit for it and you can put that on your resume and tell everyone you are a bonafide rock photographer dude. Heck, I’m not even gonna charge you for it. Be sure to give my book and lectures a good review, though.”[/reply]
Invisible used to work with some pretty cool photographers, actually. My friend Steve Goedde, most well-known for some ‘fetish girl’ types of coffee table books, did some quality band shots for them back in this mythical era when Martin wasn’t in full-blown huckster mode.
But, like pretty much every one else who worked with Martin and had some self-preservation skill, he’s presumably moved on to other things and wouldn’t condescend to having a “Martin is awesum OMG” quote coaxed out of him.
I will say his percussion greatness was sorely missed on that stage on NYE…Aaron was fine but it felt kinda empty without Rieflin & Atkins bouncing off each other, ya know [:|]
[reply]I will say his percussion greatness was sorely missed on that stage on NYE…Aaron was fine but it felt kinda empty without Rieflin & Atkins bouncing off each other, ya know [:|]
Percussion greatness? Gimme a break, dude.[/reply]
Like I touched on in another of the Martin-bashing threads, one of his greatest assets is / was a bag of smoke-and-mirrors tricks that made it seem like whatever he was playing was way more distinctive and complex than it really was. The water splashing off the drum heads, the manic gum chewing and electrified shocks of bleached hair etc…
On one of the later Pigface tours, they advertised that the band would feature a “wall of drums” (i.e. 3+ drum kits) at each show. Mick Harris was on the tour as Scorn, and I was so hoping that he would be one of the guest Pigface drummers, and would absolutely run rings around Martin stylistically. Sadly it wasn’t to be.
That, my friends, is the entire summary of his “percussion greatness”. And he’s only responsible for 1/2 of it.
Yes, the intro to “Breathe” on ICYDFLSU was incredibly monumental. But that was one performance.
It happened over 25 years ago. It’s over.
Let’s try and get on with our lives.
Rieflin joined R.E.M., for crying out loud.
That should make him dead to us.
Must say with absolute pride that my three favorite drummers of all time are in no particular order:
Bill Rieflin
Stephen Morris
Martin Atkins
special shout out to Dave Grohl!
Neil Peart is the greatest drummer of all time so mentioning him is the same as declaring The Beatles or Elvis is the best which obviously goes without saying.
That, my friends, is the entire summary of his “percussion greatness”. And he’s only responsible for 1/2 of it.
Yes, the intro to “Breathe” on ICYDFLSU was incredibly monumental. But that was one performance.
It happened over 25 years ago. It’s over.
Let’s try and get on with our lives.
Rieflin joined R.E.M., for crying out loud.
That should make him dead to us.
i was very happy for Bill Rieflin when he joined REM, it was like kismet: 2 great forces merging together fulfilling an existential prophecy
Even with all the Atkins bashing(well-deserved)there was a time when Pigface shows were just a blast of fun…I had some really great times seeing some of those shows…
For what it’s worth… when i saw puppy on the shapes for arms in atlanta, I chatted with Ken HIWATT Marshall briefly. His name came up and Ken seemed to like him.
That, my friends, is the entire summary of his “percussion greatness”. And he’s only responsible for 1/2 of it.
Yes, the intro to “Breathe” on ICYDFLSU was incredibly monumental. But that was one performance.
It happened over 25 years ago. It’s over.
Let’s try and get on with our lives.
Rieflin joined R.E.M., for crying out loud.
That should make him dead to us.
i was very happy for Bill Rieflin when he joined REM, it was like kismet: 2 great forces merging together fulfilling an existential prophecy[/reply]
Even with all the Atkins bashing(well-deserved)there was a time when Pigface shows were just a blast of fun…I had some really great times seeing some of those shows…
I agree. No point in backpedaling and making excuses for my involvement with them, it was fun being in the thick of all that chaos. And I did learn a lot about the music business, ironically, at a time when Martin didn’t claim to be a “music industry expert”.
Senor Dildo made a comment above about how bad Martin actually is about promotion despite claiming this expertise. Again I agree. There was a point where it looked like Invisible was really going to break out of the “industrial” niche, and start marketing itself towards more of an omnivorous music audience.
But even as they were doing cool things like licensing other record labels like Possible and Alleysweeper, and making connections to bands like Scorn and Neurosis who have more diversified fan bases, they kept over-promoting to all the “industrial” specialty outlets. At the time they were doing that, it seemed like most of those people just wanted to hear streamlined EBM like Haujobb or something.
Lastly I wonder if such instantly buried Invisible signings like Transmisia, Sugarsmack, Gawk and Horsey gained “$100K more a year” through their involvement with Martin.
i was very happy for Bill Rieflin when he joined REM, it was like kismet: 2 great forces merging together fulfilling an existential prophecy
For me it was an abomination…[/reply]
When I was a kid I’d pick up music magazines and see that REM was always positioned at the top of something called the “college music” charts.
For the longest time, that made me dread and fear having to go to college when I got older. I was scared that everyone around me would be listening to REM constantly.
