W.A.S.T.E. 12
attenzione! w.a.s.t.e.
thank you to all the people who willed us on at T
in the park & galway as well as the very few festivals we
did in belgium and holland. it was a breakthrough for us.
thank you very much for the magnetic words for my
fridge so i can write the lyrics for the next album.
thank you for Michael Stipe and Patti Smith for sending
me a postcard of a cat with a bad haircut to wish us luck with
the new album and just say hello, it made my year.
thank you for my pink bunny.
i hope that you like the w.a.s.t.e. products t shirts,
we are very proud of them and have immense fun designing them
with our artists in residence stanley donwood and the elusive
white chocolate farm. our studio doesn't have a toilet so we've
decided to hire a place that does, twenty of them actually. a
very large house which is extremely haunted and owned by a famous
celebrity. it is often used in hello magazine for people who like
to pretend they're posh, we are thinking of doing a photo shoot
to pay for it. also id like to proudly confirm that we turned
down headlining reading and phoenix, just out the way the limpets
of the press. actually i wandered round with a silly hat on sunday
at t in the park and didn't get hassled, and it was alright except
i missed earthling coz they went off early.
for those of you who still believe in the internet
we are gonna get our site together soon, honest, but its not gonna
have much info, coz there seems to be plenty of unofficial sights
who seem to know better whats going on than we do, they certainly
seem to be writing my lyrics for me, if im ever stuck for an idea
i go and read them.
these are the records im listening to at the moment
if you're interested!..
Faust-"the faust tapes" ...Cibo Matto-
"viva! LA woman".... The Fall- "the light user
syndrome" The Congos-"hear of the congos" ....
Patti Smith- "gone again"
p.s. check out The Black Dog remix of Talk Show Host(a
b side) when he releases it, its messed up man.
i hope you are well and are remembering to leave
the rubbish out on wednesdays for the dustmen, because otherwise
it just piles up and starts to smell and then animals like cats
and hedgehogs start chewing their way throw the bags.....
love thom.xxxxxxxxxx
Dear Friends,
Well, my contribution comes from Pennsylvania, where we have been
playing with Alanis....but all this I'm sure you know. My letter
has been a little tardy, because my computer decided to make a
break for freedom in a hotel lobby in Harrisburg, and ended up
crashing onto the marble floor. This has severely curtailed my
surfing, just as I'd descovered the joys of newsgroups and other
techno trivia.
Thanks to these dates with Alanis, we now have a brace of well
played new songs to take into the studio next month. My only preoccupation
on this tour has been keeping Alanis' drummer, Taylor, away from
my brother. Taylor has an over-developed penchant for "progressive
rock", and Jonny really doesn't need any encouragement in
that department, he's already got more keyboards on stage than
you could shake a shitty stick at.
Highlights this tour have been seeing the Throwing Muses in a
club in Boston, watching one of Thom's favourite films, "My
Cousin Vinny", and finishing the book "Snow Falling
on Cedars". The new songs by Deus, on Island, are fantastic,
epic and twisted, and some of the best new stuff I've heard since
Sparklehorse last year.
Thank you to all those who entered the competition to name our
studio. After some unseemly shouting and fisticuffs, we've decided
upon a winner, still, it was easier than decideing what songs
to put on the set-list every night...maybe we should have a competition
for that... Laura Winwood from Wiltshire wins a bag of stuff for
'Canned Applause'. A further prize goes to Maria Kevin of Finland
for sheer volume of mail.
love colinxxx
....Four more shows to do supporting Alanis Morissette. We're
playing in venues called 'Sheds" - half covered/half seated
amphitheatres with high sloping grass banks behind the seats.
Most have corporate boxes owned by Dominoes/MacDonald's/Nabisco;
even the venues' names are now being sold off: the famous Meadowlands
Arena is now the 'Continental Airlines Arena'. Last night we
played the 'Nissan Pavillion'. Next comes band sponsorship I suppose
- 'Pepsi's Radiohead'. Most of me wishes we'd done our own (tiny)
shows, but at least the audience, awash with popcorn and families,
had no expectations - and we've felt freer to write and rehearse
songs in front of them (and to leave out older songs). New set
highlights: 'Paranoid Android', and 'Climbing Up The Walls'.
Finally, essential tour listening: 'The Abbey Grange' with Clive
Merrison and Michael Williams as Watson. And Soft Machine: the
scary second album.
love Jonny xxx
Dear W.A.S.T.E.R,
We've played a number of festivals this summer, of which T in
The Park and Galway have been obvious highlights, so thank you
to those who came along and cheered us in our hour of need. At
these festivals I've seen and grooved to Massive Attack, got the
fear watching The Prodigy, hung out with the Afghan Whigs, laughed
along with Pulp, and played air guitar along with Neil Young and
Crazy Horse; but after each of these festivals I have been left
with the same outstanding feeling - "ROCK 'N ROLL REQUIRES
A ROOF". Now maybe I sound like a party-pooper and have
got it totally wrong, but I don't think that you see the best
of any band at these shows. That may well be the point, that
the bands performing are simply a sideshow to the whole festival
experience and I guess that's why Glastonbury is such a great
festival, because bands are only a small part of what goes down.
However, it cannot be denied that there have been way too many
festivals in the UK this summer. Anyhow, can we cut a deal?
If you stay away and don't pay for tickets, we won't play....
No? Alright then, see you in a field near you next year. It's
time to go and record a new album now....
Listening to ... 'Odelay' by Beck; 'What's in the Box' by the
Boo Radleys; 'New Adventures in Hi Fi' by REM.
Just read... "A prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving
TOOTRG: David Beckham for that goal
Ed xx
American chocolate tastes like the aftermath of a serious illness.
I only mention this because, as I write, we're in Hershey, the
chocolate capital of the USA.
We're approaching the end of our brief and far from strenuous
tour with Alanis Morissette. These will probably be our last
dates before we release the next album and they bring to a close
a summer of fine moments. Headlining at "T in the Park"
proved to be a real landmark; also, playing and being at The
Galway Arts Festival reaffirmed for me all the reasons why I joined
a band in the first place. Thankyou to everyone who came to see
us.
As you read this, we will probably be holed up in an unhealthy
atmosphere somewhere, committing heinous crimes to the recording
process. This year has been a rather protacted period of preparation
for the new record, but I think it's been worth it. The more
we play the new material, the more I love it. Now all we have
to do is dupe it onto tape. We can do it - we're professionals,
don't you know.
Love Philip xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx