2006年NPR美国国家公共电台九月-Looking to Cash In on a Punk Rock Youth
时间：2019-01-08 作者：英语课 分类：2006年NPR美国国家公共电台
英语课
That's Sexy Back, a song from this week's top-selling album in America, Justin Timberlake's Future Sex/ Love Sounds. But our contributor Jennifer Sharpe says there is new interest and a new market for music that’s all but forgotten. Here is Jennifer.
Back in 1980,when 16-year-old Spike 1 Priggen played guitar for the band TV Neats, he sent out copies of his demo tape, hoping to get signed. Little did he know he would be 42 years old by the time their album would finally get released.
25 years after the band's breakup, they've come out on a Japanese label that sells their album for 2300 yen 2. When Priggen explained that there is actually a hot little market for old demo tapes like his, I suddenly felt a twinge of jealousy 3, what about my old band's demo tape?
In 1983, when I was a freshman 4 at Berkeley High, I replaced the bass 5 player of a fiercely vegetarian 6 peace punk band called Atrocity 7.Opening for the Dead Kennedys, Atrocity's two singers 15-year-old Katherine Harris and 13-year-old Sarah Borruso must have looked freakishly precocious 8 singing songs like "I Pronounce You Dead", an anarchist 9 commentary on the institution of marriage.
Looking for evidence of the so-called hot market Priggen had mentioned, I started emailing with small reissue labels, secretly hoping to set the stage for an Atrocity pitch. I learned that in fact there are a number of old cassette demos making it into circulation and while some bands have barely sold 500 copies, others are enjoying a posthumous 10 renaissance 11。
Like The Speedies whose unreleased material just got put up on iTunes and whose nearly forgotten single "Let Me Take your Photo" recently showed up(out) in a Hewlett-Packard commercial.
Excited by the possibilities, I put up a MySpace page for Atrocity and began pushing it on the labels I've been talking to. I sent them copies of our demo and as I waited for their responses, an unexpected flood of emails came pouring in from old Atrocity fans. One recounted listening to our tape at the reptile 12 store she'd worked at where she played our song Animal Fate for the mice before feeding them to the snakes.
My poverty is my own, this is my flesh and bone, you're killing 13....
Within a week, all but one of my former band mates had appeared on Atrocity's list of MySpace friends. In some ways, they seem strangely the same, and in other ways, they'd totally changed. Our anti-corporate guitar player Paul Moraga now works at IBM, and our pale red-haired drummer has changed his name from Greg Penn to Aleph Kali, on his profile, he ethnically 14 identifies as East Indian.
When I asked our singer Sara if she's still a vegetarian, she told me she occasionally eats meat now, but only because her doctors keep telling her to eat steaks for her anemia 15. What about you? She asked. I had to tell her that just a year after the band broke up,I went to a McDonald's drive-through, and wolfed down a box of Chicken McNuggets.
The only possible vegetarian left is Katherine, our other singer. But no one has heard from her in years, so Katherine if you're out there listening, get yourself onto MySpace I've got a contract for you to sign, when the labels got back to me, all of them were interested in our demo even the ones I'd hoped would reject it, for the sake of the story.
When I checked back in with Spike Priggen to see how the TV Neats album was doing, he told me he had already sold one copy. I'm hoping Atrocity will do a little better than that. But I don't think we'll be getting any calls from Hewlett-Packard. For NPR News, I'm Jennifer Sharpe.
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twinge
1
a sudden feeling of slight pain
I felt a twinge of pain in my back.
2
a twinge of guilt 16/envy/sadness/jealousy etc
a sudden slight feeling of guilt etc
He felt a sharp twinge of guilt for not taking the trouble to visit her.
punk
1
[uncountable] also punk rock
a type of loud music popular in the late 1970s and 1980s
2
[countable] also punk rocker
someone who likes punk music and wears things that are typical of it, such as torn clothes, metal chains, and coloured hair
punk hairstyles
precocious
a precocious child shows intelligence or skill at a very young age, or behaves in an adult way - sometimes used to show disapproval in British English
a precocious child who walked and talked early
anarchist
someone who believes that governments, laws etc are not necessary
wolf
also wolf down [transitive]
informal to eat something very quickly, swallowing it in big pieces
synonym gobble
nugget
a small, round piece of food
chicken nuggets
Back in 1980,when 16-year-old Spike 1 Priggen played guitar for the band TV Neats, he sent out copies of his demo tape, hoping to get signed. Little did he know he would be 42 years old by the time their album would finally get released.
25 years after the band's breakup, they've come out on a Japanese label that sells their album for 2300 yen 2. When Priggen explained that there is actually a hot little market for old demo tapes like his, I suddenly felt a twinge of jealousy 3, what about my old band's demo tape?
In 1983, when I was a freshman 4 at Berkeley High, I replaced the bass 5 player of a fiercely vegetarian 6 peace punk band called Atrocity 7.Opening for the Dead Kennedys, Atrocity's two singers 15-year-old Katherine Harris and 13-year-old Sarah Borruso must have looked freakishly precocious 8 singing songs like "I Pronounce You Dead", an anarchist 9 commentary on the institution of marriage.
Looking for evidence of the so-called hot market Priggen had mentioned, I started emailing with small reissue labels, secretly hoping to set the stage for an Atrocity pitch. I learned that in fact there are a number of old cassette demos making it into circulation and while some bands have barely sold 500 copies, others are enjoying a posthumous 10 renaissance 11。
Like The Speedies whose unreleased material just got put up on iTunes and whose nearly forgotten single "Let Me Take your Photo" recently showed up(out) in a Hewlett-Packard commercial.
Excited by the possibilities, I put up a MySpace page for Atrocity and began pushing it on the labels I've been talking to. I sent them copies of our demo and as I waited for their responses, an unexpected flood of emails came pouring in from old Atrocity fans. One recounted listening to our tape at the reptile 12 store she'd worked at where she played our song Animal Fate for the mice before feeding them to the snakes.
My poverty is my own, this is my flesh and bone, you're killing 13....
Within a week, all but one of my former band mates had appeared on Atrocity's list of MySpace friends. In some ways, they seem strangely the same, and in other ways, they'd totally changed. Our anti-corporate guitar player Paul Moraga now works at IBM, and our pale red-haired drummer has changed his name from Greg Penn to Aleph Kali, on his profile, he ethnically 14 identifies as East Indian.
When I asked our singer Sara if she's still a vegetarian, she told me she occasionally eats meat now, but only because her doctors keep telling her to eat steaks for her anemia 15. What about you? She asked. I had to tell her that just a year after the band broke up,I went to a McDonald's drive-through, and wolfed down a box of Chicken McNuggets.
The only possible vegetarian left is Katherine, our other singer. But no one has heard from her in years, so Katherine if you're out there listening, get yourself onto MySpace I've got a contract for you to sign, when the labels got back to me, all of them were interested in our demo even the ones I'd hoped would reject it, for the sake of the story.
When I checked back in with Spike Priggen to see how the TV Neats album was doing, he told me he had already sold one copy. I'm hoping Atrocity will do a little better than that. But I don't think we'll be getting any calls from Hewlett-Packard. For NPR News, I'm Jennifer Sharpe.
----------------------------
twinge
1
a sudden feeling of slight pain
I felt a twinge of pain in my back.
2
a twinge of guilt 16/envy/sadness/jealousy etc
a sudden slight feeling of guilt etc
He felt a sharp twinge of guilt for not taking the trouble to visit her.
punk
1
[uncountable] also punk rock
a type of loud music popular in the late 1970s and 1980s
2
[countable] also punk rocker
someone who likes punk music and wears things that are typical of it, such as torn clothes, metal chains, and coloured hair
punk hairstyles
precocious
a precocious child shows intelligence or skill at a very young age, or behaves in an adult way - sometimes used to show disapproval in British English
a precocious child who walked and talked early
anarchist
someone who believes that governments, laws etc are not necessary
wolf
also wolf down [transitive]
informal to eat something very quickly, swallowing it in big pieces
synonym gobble
nugget
a small, round piece of food
chicken nuggets
n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效
- The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
- They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。
n. 日元；热望
- He wanted to convert his dollars into Japanese yen.他想将美元换成日币。
- He has a yen to be alone in a boat.他渴望独自呆在一条船上。
n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌
- Some women have a disposition to jealousy.有些女人生性爱妒忌。
- I can't support your jealousy any longer.我再也无法忍受你的嫉妒了。
n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)
- Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
- He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。
n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴
- He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
- The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。
n.素食者；adj.素食的
- She got used gradually to the vegetarian diet.她逐渐习惯吃素食。
- I didn't realize you were a vegetarian.我不知道你是个素食者。
n.残暴，暴行
- These people are guilty of acts of great atrocity.这些人犯有令人发指的暴行。
- I am shocked by the atrocity of this man's crimes.这个人行凶手段残忍狠毒使我震惊。
adj.早熟的；较早显出的
- They become precocious experts in tragedy.他们成了一批思想早熟、善写悲剧的能手。
- Margaret was always a precocious child.玛格丽特一直是个早熟的孩子。
n.无政府主义者
- You must be an anarchist at heart.你在心底肯定是个无政府主义者。
- I did my best to comfort them and assure them I was not an anarchist.我尽量安抚他们并让它们明白我并不是一个无政府主义者。
adj.遗腹的；父亡后出生的；死后的，身后的
- He received a posthumous award for bravery.他表现勇敢，死后受到了嘉奖。
- The legendary actor received a posthumous achievement award.这位传奇男星在过世后获得终身成就奖的肯定。
n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴
- The Renaissance was an epoch of unparalleled cultural achievement.文艺复兴是一个文化上取得空前成就的时代。
- The theme of the conference is renaissance Europe.大会的主题是文艺复兴时期的欧洲。
n.爬行动物；两栖动物
- The frog is not a true reptile.青蛙并非真正的爬行动物。
- So you should not be surprised to see someone keep a reptile as a pet.所以，你不必惊奇有人养了一只爬行动物作为宠物。
n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财
- Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
- Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。
adv.人种上，民族上
- Ethnically, the Yuan Empire comprised most of modern China's ethnic groups. 元朝的民族成分包括现今中国绝大多数民族。 来自汉英非文学 - 白皮书
- Russia is ethnically relatively homogeneous. 俄罗斯是个民族成分相对单一的国家。 来自辞典例句
n.贫血，贫血症
- The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。
- I was put on iron tablets for my anemia.我曾因贫血吃补铁药片。