In 1988, I formed a DBA (Doing Business As) Publishing Company, Not Nice Music. In 2008, I suspended business under the DBA, but chose to still maintain this website.
I took the name from a line in Brecht and Weill's Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera):
"Das ist doch nicht nett, du idiot! Das ist doch Kunst, und nicht nett!"
("That is NOT nice, you idiot! That is ART, and not nice!")
Since I have a strong Jewish list, the name is also a play on the phrase, "Nice Jewish Boy."
In 1995, I ran across a particularly apt quote in The New York Times from Beverly Sills:
"The last word you want to hear after screaming your lungs out for three hours was that it was 'nice.'"
I've got some more recent quotes:
"You can get so much more done with a kind word and a gun than just a kind word." - Al Capone
"Honey catches more flies than vinegar. Who wants to catch flies?" - source unknown
My work has been described as "dramatic" (The New York Times), "intriguing" (The Village Voice), "wonderful to listen to" (WBAI-FM), "terrific" (Stephen Sondheim), and "a lot of fun" (The Villager).
But don't ever say it's nice.
This page © 1999-2008 rights@notnicemusic.com