thanks for the heads up guys, mine was unclaimed too. not a problem, will re-order now. I just picked up a Curtis Mayfield album, have the new final album on the way as well, so I’m quite patient since I have stuff to hold me over 
Until shipping issues dissolve… perhaps this will keep you from seizing.
http://www.myspace.com/floweringblight
I plan on writing a full track by track review of this album.
This album is excellent. I haven’t heard an album that actually has a POINT or a MESSAGE or anything HONEST in a long fucking time.
Flowering Blight,
Oh so that’s where ministry went…
edit
I got this wild idea.
I don’t know how many of you are on Myspace, but how strange would it be if Paul actually got some fucking due recognition? I’ll be forwarding everyone i know online to the myspace page & the website.
Maybe we should step outside of Prongs for a minute and spread this one… for Paul. Don’t you think so? I do.
There was a little snippet posted here for ages, ya lazy git.
It’s Paul Barker music…is that not explanatory enough?
Edit: Not trying to be a jerk, but no - it’s not really gonna fit into any pre-concieved “category.” Awesome that you bought it blind, seriously.
buying shit blind is always fun…im still blind on what itll sound like…
I don’t know how many of you are on Myspace, but how strange would it be if Paul actually got some fucking due recognition? I’ll be forwarding everyone i know online to the myspace page & the website.
Maybe we should step outside of Prongs for a minute and spread this one… for Paul. Don’t you think so? I do.
Well the reason people like Paul Barker and other ex-members of Ministry fail to get their due recognition is that they have no concept of self-promotion.
I mean this is a classic example. The album gets released and is only promoted to a handful of die-hard fans on message boards by people who care enough to help Paul out.
The album was never uploaded to iTunes etc. and is not available to download legally anywhere. And to compound this, the website/paypal that is selling the album is clearly fucking up on people’s orders (mine included) so that even those who wanted to purchase the album legally are having trouble doing so.
As much as we all dislike Al Jourgensen, people like him are necessary to break bands in the first place with their constant hyping and ability to market themselves and their music. He was the one responsible for getting the Ministry name out there. The downside was that he took credit for much of the music when we all know just how much he sucks now without his talented “cronies” working for him.
A guy like Paul is immensely talented, but will often be overlooked because he doesn’t whore himself like that.
well im only going to say this once, but…
when you’ve had your ass fucked so violently by the two failed abortions who run the ministry camp since Paul left. It’s pretty fucking hard to AFFORD the kind of promotion those two fuckwads consistently rape the public with.
So don’t fuckin flat out blame the artist for being a fucking artist.
If the artist had the fuckin cash to pay for the PR that people like Trent & whofuckin ever, they would do it. Because their music is usually intelligent.
It’s all fucking money. Some people just like to have the actual product be
something worth a fucking bag of dog shit before they blow the giant whore cock of the marketting gods. On the other hand. SOME. Enjoy blowing the giant whorecock so much that they dont give a good fucking god damn rat’s ass what the product is.
SO im SURE you knew that.
That’s where it comes down to the fucking FANS. I’m a fan. Of what WAS ministry and what this album stands for. It’s art. It’s the first piece of art ive HEARD in a LONG fucking time and i’m not just giving it praise because of that.
I’m giving it praise because if i had heard this in 1999, i’d have still had my shit
handed to me on a platter with a sign that said… eat it… because this album is
too smart for you to understand after the first listen.
So i’d sit there and quietly eat my own shit until i finally figured out what the fuck was going on.
Finally after the 25th-30th spin of the record in its entirety or whatever, you get the fuckin idea. THEN i realize. Holy fuck me. this album. is GOOD.
It’s not just cool. Or rad to listen to. It’s fucking GOOD. Like a painting.
Is GOOD. because its ART. You can stare at it and go
“okay what the fuck.”
this album you can close your eyes and without realizing it go
“okay what the shit”
SO now that i’ve explored a little of the music industry along with capital A-Fuck and many other delightful little stories… I’m going to go back and listen to this album, AGAIN. Just to get used to the bizarre ass chord progressions that made my brain want to have an aneurysm because its been so TAINTED/TRAINED to listen to bullshit basic major two fucking bar Nirvana Riffs over and over for the last fucking 8 god damn mother fuckin years.
Thanks. Go promote the album. Stop being lazy fucks.
It’s healthy for people to hear something smart. Seriously.
You all know this. I dont need to say it. Just do it. It’s how it is.
I’ve done it for Connelly when he releases something real and
i’ve done it for many others when they release something good.
It’s just what we do. When it’s in our capacity to do it.
Alright enough of that.
“Good music promotes itself”
and that basically fuckin is what my fucking essay was trying to say.
As for the rest, it’s my pure fucking irritation with the music industry right now.
Im sure some promo shit for FB will be happening soon.
As far as i know, we @ prongs… as in you guys and I… have just been
given the first dibs on this record. And yeah that fucking online purchasing machine thing whatever errors, will probably get taken care of.
Its just obnoxious, to me, that people are now, apparently, so against going to a fuckin friend and to say,
“Check this out. It’s good.”
Word of mouth will only get you so far, even in these dizzying days of myspace playlists and podcasts and whatnot.
I do think Paul could have handled the promotion of this album better. How about a press release? Why wasn’t it on itunes? If my buddies in unsigned local bands can get their stuff on itunes, Paul “Ministry/Revolting Cocks/Lard/etc.” Barker should be able to pull it off.
Hell, if he really wanted people to check this stuff out I’m sure Metropolis or Alfa-Matrix or some other little industrial label would’ve put this record out in a hot second and put ads in Gothic Beauty and Orkus and had cds in Hot Topic and put A Perfect Pair pt. 2 on their annual compilations.
But whatever. It’s a good record.
got it today. going to give it a spin after work.
same, mine arrived just a today. I’ll give it a go later.
BTW, I just updated Paul Barker’s wikipedia page to say that the Flowering Blight album is out, and I corrected the url for the Flowering Blight webpage.
Somebody who’s better at this sort of stuff than I am might want to actually create wiki pages for Flowering Blight and A Perfect Pair though…
Other than the cover art (the back cover is more interesting even!) I can’t find anything I don’t like about this.
This is sure to get a lot of plays by me for a while.
Word of mouth will only get you so far, even in these dizzying days of myspace playlists and podcasts and whatnot.
Yeah, that’s exactly right.
Mainly the only reason why i brought it up.
TO YOUZE Guys, is because you’re/we’re all pretty much… yea die hard fuckin fans. I’ve already gotten a half a dozen friends to check it out and they’re ordering it as i…type.
As for the label stuff, like Metropolis n’such.
We’ll see what happens. I’m pretty sure something will.
BTW, I just updated Paul Barker’s wikipedia page to say that the Flowering Blight album is out, and I corrected the url for the Flowering Blight webpage.
Somebody who’s better at this sort of stuff than I am might want to actually create wiki pages for Flowering Blight and A Perfect Pair though…
Started a wikipedia article for Flowering Blight. Im sure there’s a lot more that can be added but at least people can do so now without having to create the article too. Haven’t made a ‘The Perfect Pair’ article but might get around to it at some stage.
The article’s listed with a lowercase “b,” so it doesn’t link right to the Paul Barker page.
I created the LastFM page when the sample came out… It’s still accurate AFAIK.
The article’s listed with a lowercase “b,” so it doesn’t link right to the Paul Barker page.
My bad on the lower ‘b’, can’t seem to edit the title so I put it on a redirect for the time being so the link from Paul’s page works now.
any international types who know about how long it took to turn up?
As much as many would like to state how word of mouth can only go so far, well…what is the option? The music industry is blowing these days…gosh, if only I had a way to SANDBLAST advertising for what I found cool onto sides of walls…but alas…
I received the disc yesterday, and I love it. The title track, plus the two U.S.S.A. tracks with Paul on vocals are really awesome. The rest is great, some bumps here and there, but it’s some of the better stuff I’ve heard this year. It made me wish that Paul did material like this, or collaborated more with others, outside of Ministry all these years.
If you want comparisons (and who cares, there’s a Flowering Blight MySpace out there if you really wanna hear it), I’d say it’s closer to Lead Into Gold’s experimentation and delivery with U.S.S.A.'s brooding energy. Wow that was a shitty comparison…I’m going to bed. Goodnight guys.
we’re all making an assumption though, that this was meant to be a big release with high hopes and dreams and wishes for large budget tours and money/success/hookers/blow/ the whole 9…
people can now just casually release something they’ve put their hearts into and just toss it in the www and see if it floats… I think if this had that marketing campaign of like, a late 90’s n’sync release it’d just be pissing money down the crapper… know your limits/audience and get your product out to them.
people on boards like this discussing the release are the promotion and a big ad at the end of rolling stone would get maybe 10 people in to check it out… even if he humped the “previously of the once glorioius industrial band ministry, slaving away and writing songs for bald headed al while taking next to no credit and more abuse then necessary” notion
we’re all making an assumption though, that this was meant to be a big release with high hopes and dreams and wishes for large budget tours and money/success/hookers/blow/ the whole 9…
people can now just casually release something they’ve put their hearts into and just toss it in the www and see if it floats… I think if this had that marketing campaign of like, a late 90’s n’sync release it’d just be pissing money down the crapper… know your limits/audience and get your product out to them.
people on boards like this discussing the release are the promotion and a big ad at the end of rolling stone would get maybe 10 people in to check it out… even if he humped the “previously of the once glorioius industrial band ministry, slaving away and writing songs for bald headed al while taking next to no credit and more abuse then necessary” notion
I agree. From the way this was released and its little to no promotion other than word of mouth, it seems that Paul has wanted it to go down like this. It doesn’t seem in any way that he is banking on this release and is desparate for people to snap it up. He’s been in the business for over 20 years, he knows what to do.
I kind of like having a release like this; affordable, almost like a little reward. The only bad part is that some guys here had their orders fucked around and thats not on.
There’s also the argument that good music should reach the largest audience available so that people can revel in its goodness but you have to respect the artist who provides the goodness and that if he/she wants it to be a small release then so be it, if you’re a fan you’ll be accomodated (even if it is later rather than sooner)