Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 21:54:56 -0700 From: clark price Reply-To: drywall@primenet.com Organization: sr dis-information X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 (Macintosh; I; PPC) Subject: John Lurie's letter to NEW TIMES L.A. / knitting factory A musician we admire has written a letter to the editor at NEW TIMES L. A. this week. We thought others should know what he thinks about a certain club that is about to open in our fair city.We thought we'd spread the word.... >From NEW TIMES Los Angeles July 6 : A LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM Musician / Composer JOHN LURIE I hate the Knitting Factory! And screw Michael Dorf: Steven Mirkin's article says that I continue to play at the Knitting Factory but nothing could be further from the truth ("Smart Club?", Music, June 8-14). I've boycotted the place for years. I made the mistake of bringing my band, the Lounge Lizards, back last year for three shows, but I promise I won't make that mistake again. It actually says in the article that Michael Dorf is respected! I'm flabbergasted! Did Mirkin really find someone who said they respected Michael Dorf?! Please, I beg you, find any musician, or for that matter, anyone in the music business, who respects or trusts the little fart because they can't know him very well. Take the time and actually call John Zorn, Marc Ribot, James Blood Ulmer, Steven Bernstein, Arto Lindsay, Elliot Sharp, Ann Magnuson -- anybody who helped the little creep get his club off the ground and ask them. These people that I've listed are the ones who got top treatment from Dorf because he needed them. The way he treats lesser-known musicians is criminal. Not only will I not play at the Knitting Factory, I will no longer step foot in the filthy, uncomfortable excuse for a venue. And I'd like to know who thinks the Knitting Factory is "ultrahip." It's a hellhole that happens to be one of the few places to play in New York, so those musicians with nowhere else to play go there. If Jimi Hendrix were appearing at the Knitting Factory, Dorf would rent him an amp with a blown speaker. If Coltrane were there, Dorf would overcharge him for Elvin's bar tab and then short him on the money from the door to the point that Coltrane would end up owing money for the privilege of playing at the Knitting Factory. If Miles Davis were there, Dorf would secretly videotape his soundcheck and then sell it on the Internet. There's no controversy here: The guy stinks and he's gotten rich off the backs of a lot of musicians who, mostly, still can't afford to pay their phone bills. If a musician gets screwed in New York, it's commonly known as getting Dorfed. Dorf is Frod backwards. John Lurie New York sr dis-information http://www.primenet.com/~drywall/