Been thinking today about the passing of Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God / Transparency / Iridescence Records‘ Michael Sheppard and how his fantastic musical taste would’ve been thoroughly out of step with any incarnation of SXSW (and his somewhat loose grasp of commercial realties a incredible low-tech precursor to the contemporary scam action being unveiled all over Austin at this very moment). Many who did business with Michael were mega-exasperated more than once, but credit where du(d)e : he was running into credit rating hell slapping out records by Half Japanese, Sonic Youth, Christmas, Savage Republic, Keith Levene and Phil Milstein back when today’s reigning A&R bozos were trying to pass off shit like Broken Homes as “alternative” music.
I don’t know if it’s true that he really tried to bootleg the Kathy McGinty CD, but that only adds to the legend. I don’t believe in an afterlife but if I did, I’d reckon there’d be a place somewhere where other residents of the-great-beyond were getting their ears talked off about some of history’s greatest recorded arts.