Errors-To: owner-ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu Reply-To: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu Sender: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu From: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu To: ecto-request@ns1.rutgers.edu Bcc: ecto-digest-outbound@ns1.rutgers.edu Subject: ecto #539 ecto, Number 539 Saturday, 24 April 1993 Today's Topics: *-----------------* just a query Hmmmm, just a reminder Re: clarifying the story Re: grrr! Clannad and Kathy ??? A big thank you quickie comments Happy article (really) playing catch up I still remember... "I still remember that dream there..." I haven't decided yet! :-) Another hello there! ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 22 Apr 93 21:22:28 CST From: kiri Subject: just a query Does Tribe have any other albums besides _abort_? If so, are they good? thanks kiri ======================================================================== Date: 23 Apr 93 12:32:04 EDT From: Mike Mendelson Subject: Hmmmm, just a reminder Ahhhh, well, I just received the Philly tape from Colorado, and --- um --- well I just wanted to remind everyone that she's FUCKING AMAZING. Kahuummmph. Just needed to get that off my chest. -mjmwhodesperatelyneedstoseehappylivebeforehedies ======================================================================== From: depeche@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca (S. A. Ezust) Date: Fri, 23 Apr 93 12:40:33 EDT Subject: Re: clarifying the story [In message "clarifying the story" on Apr 23, Mike Mendelson writes:] | | I wrote: | >"______ ______ My Face Brief As Photos" (I forget the 1st two words in | >the title)... What a brilliant song! And the a cappella number they do | >is also brilliant. Really the whole album is a *superb* debut and | >I hear new things with every listen. Reminds me a bit of Kate Bush in | >the way it took a while to grow on me, but now that it's there, it | >is a part of me. Also, the harmonies are dischordant, yet they make | >sense (Kate is great at that too). | | The song is "Our Faces, My Heart, Brief As Photos" and I reiterate | that it is amazingly brilliant. The a cappella song I referred is | "Over Oceans" (with the "say that you love me..." refrain). | Has anyone besides Alan, myself, and Angie heard this CD? | Gush, gush, gush. And Our Faces, My Heart, etc etc is one of my fave tracks on the CD as well. I wish it was one of the songs they did live too... The dischordant harmonies are the first thing about them that struck me when I saw them at the Boston First Night festival - these women are genuine serious musicians, with vast technical knowledge of music - the sorts of things you'd learn in a graduate program in Musicology are just "thrown in" to the music with wonderful flair. According to the tour dates list which I picked up at the Homegrown, the The Story's second album, "The Angel" should be out now. Has anyone seen it? There are some songs which they did live which were incredible - "So Much", and "Falling Away", the first and last songs in their set, absolutely MUST be on that album, in which case, I gotta have it!!! I get flashbacks from the concert when they played those tracks, and that gives me shivers!! Other songs which they played live which are not on their "Grace in Gravity" record are: Satin on an island, Little Mermaid (?), Guilded Cage, Fatso, Amelia, and Barefoot Ballroom. Anyway, for all you Go Van Gogh fans out there, here's an article which appeared in the Montreal Hour newspaper. Reprinted without permission, but since it was written by a good friend of mine, I'll ask him for permission next time I see him... :-) --------------------------------Cut Here-------------------------------- All typos below are property of Alan Ezust, and may not be distributed without permission. Any resemblance to other typos, living or dead, is merely coincidental. Ready To Roar, by Mo Elnuaimy It's 3 months since guitarist dan tierney and singer sandra luciantonio released their new band's brilliantly produced self-titled debut. Their catchy first single, "bed where we hide", is getting more radio airplay, and the james disalvio-directed video keeps popping up on MusiquePlus. All of this and, officially, they haven't even performed their first concert. This is despite the fact that they were playing parts of quebec and ontario with The Pursuit of Happiness a few weeks ago "they wanted us to come with them for the eastern part of their tour" says tierney, "but they only wanted to pay us $50 a night." gogh van go begged off to do the Dini Petty show instead. "They let us play live, which was really surprising," when you consider that most talk-show guest bands usually lip-synch. They were also in toronto for Juno week, playing the Queen Street strip and taking part in a Montreal showcase. So why is april 28 at cafe campus being billed as their first offical concert? Tierney and luciantonio have been out of circulation ever since they dissolved the hodads a couple of years ago, so they are still a little uncomfortable with performing live. They have also set themselves some high goals: trying to compensate for producer pierre marchand's absence. "This isn't a live record," says Tierney. "ours is a studio album, so the transformation to the stage is a little more rigorous. The band requires clarity and instrumentation. It's not a wall-of-guitars sound; it's more concert and less bar-oriented." To that ehd they are trying out a variety of sound technicians to help them re-create it, hopefully avoiding the poor quality that spoiled their recent Spectrum date with TPOH. They have assembled a band from "some interesting cats who called us up through the grapevine." Drummer John mccolgan, who played on the record, has also worked with Pagliaro and the stephen barry blues band. Bassist and ex-hodad John souranis also did some work on the album. "He's my creative partner, so to speak." Jean massicotte, who used to tour with Les Miserables, plays keyboards and is also a sound technician. "He's trying to get some of the sounds we had in the studio." The group is rounded out by guitarist Yves Des Rosiers, who has spent the last two years playing with Jean Leloup." "[Des Rosiers] live style gives us an edge to what we do," tierney says. Tierney hopes that this pool of talent will bring the album alive on stage. "The arrangements are really good, so we're not going to throw them away. We'll try to stay faithful to them, but with an added edge." NOTE: Cafe Campus is where Tori played last october... -- | Alan Ezust depeche@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |------------- McGill University School of Computer Science ----------------| ======================================================================== Subject: Re: grrr! Date: Fri, 23 Apr 93 12:58:56 EDT From: Angelos Kyrlidis Jeff writes: >Finally, last night at a club I heard, believe it or not, a dance mix of >Peter Gabriel's "Mercy Street." The only thing that I can think of that's >even remotely similar are DNA's versions of "Tom's Diner" and "Rusted Pipe." >Believe it or not, the mix worked surprisingly well, and I'm now dying to >find a copy of it. Anybody have the slightest idea what this thing is or where >I might find it? (I'd rather not resort to asking Drukman...;-) Try the UK CD5 of 'Blood of Eden' which has an 8 minute remix. There are two versions of it floating around, one which has the UTEOTW version of the song, and one which has Sledgehammer (a remix? I don't know). Or wait to see if there will be a US release with all of the above. Then kIrI writes: >Does Tribe have any other albums besides _abort_? >If so, are they good? Yes, 'Here at the home' a now discontinued release of songs that appear in polished ways on _abort_. Their new album is coming out May 11th, I forget the title now, but if the show I saw last fall is an indication it's going to be a good one. They are playing MIT tonight opening for They might be giants, but since I cannot stand them, I decided to pass. Angelos ======================================================================== Date: 23 Apr 1993 13:19:51 -0500 (EST) From: SANDOVAL@stsci.edu Subject: Clannad and Kathy ??? Hi everyone, First off, let me say that I bought Clannad's "Anam" last night. Impulse buying at it's finest! :) The real reason I bought it was because of the many comments I saw here on Ecto. I gave a quick listen last night and I love it! My question is, what next?? :) How many albums do they have?? Also, while I was on my way to work this morning, I heard a song on the radio that really intrigued me. Unfortunately, I didn't catch the title or the singers last name. If I had to guess, I'd say the song was called "Come as You Are", and the woman's first name was Kathy. Anybody know who this is? The song was just her and an acoustic guitar, and her voice had a definite "Kate-esque" quality to it. Any hints would be appreciated... John ------------------------------------------------------------- | "And when I walked down the street people would've looked | | and they would've said 'There goes Roy Hobbs, the best | | there ever was in this game'" - The Natural | ------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Apr 93 11:43:47 -0700 From: Michael G Peskura Subject: A big thank you Thanx to Bob and Doug for making the WYSP and WMMR interviews available to the rest of us! I was so tranfixed by the sound of Happy singing "Ashes to Ashes" that i didn't even notice being stuck in traffic this morning. (My only quibble is that Sciaci does not know how to conduct an interview. I kept wanting to tell him to shut up & let her speak. :) Cheers, Mp ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Apr 93 15:07:05 EDT From: mr rock n roll Subject: quickie comments just got whapped by three large digests. ouch! i've heard disappear fear (played it once on meredith's radio show even), but don't recall thinking anything more than, "gee, the indigo girls meet jangly guitars," or something to that effect. not particuarly striking. kjetil, hedningarna is actually some swedes and some finns. i don't know the balance though. pretty damn fine album though. whee! see y'all in washington tomorrow. assuming that meth and i wake up early enough to make there by noon that is. +woj ======================================================================== From: alan moorse Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1993 16:17:43 -0400 Subject: Happy article (really) I just tried to send this message, and got cut off, I think because my nitwit fingers hit the wrong key combination when I tried to backspace and edit myself. So I will begin again as though none of you has seen the message I just started and lost. I picked up Metroland magazine yesterday, and who should be on the cover, loo(to me) slightly unlike herself, but Happy, herself. So I grabbed two more copies, which I stripped down to their Happy-ness and mailed to Vickie. I scanned in the text (don't know how to do pictures yet) and in a moment will attach it to this message. The photos were black-&-whites by Martin Benjamin, and not his best work, but they put Happy's face on the cover where it belonged. Oh, and I don't know how many of you read METRO(b)LAND's review of Equipoise, but the wine & cheese quip is a reference to it. Here 'tis. ======================================================================== (Page Header) -- ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT (Feature header) -- Open Mike The Art of Poise Eschewing the star-making machinery, Happy Rhodes takes success at her own pace. By Mike Goudreau Pat Tessitore had heard the line many times before. So he didn't think all that much of it when a painfully shy 18-year-old named Happy Rhodes first walked into Cathedral Sound Studios in Rensselaer about 10 years ago and told him she wanted to be a singing star. Tessitore played along, offering to record her, more to simply demonstrate the recording process than anything else. He remembers that she brought in an acoustic guitar and asked to sit behind a door -- away from the control room window so Tessitore couldn't watch her sing. "She played," he says, "and it absolutely blew me away. And I had heard a lot of voices in my day. She brought tears to my eyes." Since then, Rhodes has recorded six albums at Cathedral. Her music has been embraced by fans in major markets all around the United States, as well as in other parts of the world. At 27, she may very well become, in some sense, the star she dreamed of as an 18- year-old. But, on the other hand, some things never change, Tessitore says. Even after all those years of working with her old friend and engineer, when she's singing in the studio, Rhodes still prefers to remain out of sight. Here's the thing," says Happy Rhodes. "The reason I do what I do, the reason I do music, is because it's really easy for me to say all of this stuff this way. Beyond that, people want to talk to me personally. They want to know how I feel about things personally. And I'm very opinionated. I have no problem telling people what I think. But it's just easier for me to be closer to people through music than it is face-to-face. I don't know why that is. I'm just *shy*." Rhodes is sitting in the Albany apartment she shares with Kevin Bartlett who helps to produce her albums in addition to running the small independent label, Aural Gratification, they're released on. In a few weeks, they'll be moving to Woodstock, a critical step in Rhodes' career. Her music is more and more in demand, and the two decided it was time to move closer to New York, and to a place that is pretty well connected to the industry. She's talking about the things that go along with increased popularity but against her nature, like in-store record signings and radio interviews. "It's jsut hard for me," Rhodes says. "But it's getting easier. The first major in-store appearance I did, where I had to sit there and sign autographs for two hours -- afterward my *skin* hurt, it was so stressful. I had to take my skin off." Rhodes' success is one of the better-kept secrets in the Capital Region music scene. But listeners in major markets like Philadelphia and Detroit know her stunning, gumnastic voice -- she is inevitably compared to Kate Bush -- very well. In 1991, a single, "Feed the Fire," from the album Warpaint, was the most requested song of the year on WXPN, an alternative station in Philly. And the good news keeps rolling in. The Hard Report, a Billboard-like trade magazine, had her recently released album, EquiPoise, at No. 49 on its triple A (adult alternative airplay) chart last week. Aural Gratification is poised to add Italy to the list of foreign countriesQincluding Spain, South Africa and CanadaQwhere stores carry her albums. Mail-order has gained her fans from England to Switzerland to Australia. Slowly, she's getting used to the promotional duties that go along with all this. During our interview, she's engaging and funny, and nothing that the term "reclusive" -- a word often used to describe her -- connotes. But she explains that it takes a lot of energy for her to do something like this. "I spent most of my life being rejected by society," she shrugs. "I'm not really used to being embraced." On "Play the Game," a cut from Equi Poise, Rhodes sings: "If I have to be pretty to be liked/Then I think I'm dead in the water." She's been wrestling with this idea, in one way or another, since childhood. When Kimberly Tyler Rhodes was born, her young brother couldn't say her given name, but she smiled so much that the name Happy stuck readily. As she grew up in Schenectady, though, her first name generally didn't describe her very well. In high school, she was either "too ugly, too tomboyish, too weird -- and probably all of the above -- to be accepted." And after 10 years of recording, Rhodes still doesn't feel accepted in some ways, especially in her hometown. For all her success in other markets around the country, you're not likely to hear Rhodes on local radio stations. Her music doesn't readily fit into many of their formats. WHRL has given her significant airplay in the past because her music, heavily electronic, sometimes has a new-age feel to it, but she and Bartlett weren't exactly thrilled about falling under that category. They're looking for alternative airplay, but they claim that WEQX, the only local commercial station in that vein, sloughs them off because Aural Gratification is an independent label. Rhodes knows the response most people would give to her complaints: "Well, you don't play out." It's true -- she has only appeared live a handful of times in the area, but she says that's not the point. "I think it's bullshit," she insists. "Because I've recorded six albums and they're getting played in major markets all over the country as well as Europe. I resent the fact that my recording career is paid less attention to and is sort of discounted purely based on the fact that I'm not at Bogie's every Thursday night. "I don't mean to knock people who do that," she continues. "It's just that playing out live is not something I needed to do to facilitate a recording career." More than a reference to high school, the words from "Play the Game" speak directly to the music biz, specifically how the industry objectifies female artists. That's another thing she feels she is struggling against. "If you look really good," she says, "then you'll go places, whether you have talent or not. And what's amazing is that women who have talent -- women who are immensely talented -- *still* feel the need to show their breasts." While Rhodes is still very much searching for acceptance through music, she's determined to do it her way. That means not playing out very often, not selling out to a major label without Aural Gratification maintaining its autonomy (Bartlett says some heavy hitters have shown interest), and certainly not buying into the objectification of women. It's been a slow process, but she's willing to wait. "My career is perfect for me," she sayd. "It's going exactly the way I want it to go. Because I'm obtaining respect first. And you don't do that by taking your clothes off and saying, 'This is where my worth lies, in my body.' You do that by showing the world what you have musically -- and offering only that much." I don't see it, but my manual says it's there. alanm ======================================================================== Date: 23 Apr 93 16:06:59 EDT From: Mike Mendelson Subject: playing catch up Looking thru old unread digests: > they'll repeat it soon enough, I'm sure. Has he announced his > tour dates yet? I trust those of us who hear will post the info > immediately, yes? (And that goes for 10,000 Maniacs' summer tour > as well, you hear?) Well, Meredith, all I've heard is that PG will tour. As for 10KM, I heard they are touring with World Party. I'll have to catch this one as I am on a World Party kick. Don't know about dates yet, though. Alan Moorse writes: > I did some research and found that there are similar discussions > of work by such popular artists as Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, and > Frank Zappa, as well as discussions of musical genres such as > rock, heavy metal, folk, and jazz, in the network service called > Usenet. There are also computer mailing lists for the band Phish > and the a-cappella quartet The BOBS. Wow, I was not aware of this. Would anyone happen to know the address for the BOBS mailing list? I would love to join that one. Actually, I have also heard there is a more general a cappella group on the net. Anyone have the address or know any info about this? RLJ: > Happy's acoustic "Feed The Fire" is so stunning; she drops bits of > Yes, Kate, and Bowie into the song (I think that's Bowie...). Just > stunning. > All the performances are so assured on that MMR tape. On WYSP, she may > have been a little nervous (it was live on the air)... I second the "stunning," having just received the tape. Yes, Bowie is definitely in there, as is Kate... and yes, the acoustic versions of everything on WYSP are brilliant, even better than MMR imho. Is that her playing the guitar on WYSP? Does Kevin play anything there? (On MMR he does bass while she does guitar, I assume.) Happy's intense range is *so* apparent on SOS! Man, I never thought that much of that song, but hearing her do it live --- it's to-die-for! Get this tape from Doug before its inner brilliance demagnifies it from the inside out. -thelastlineofthispostdedicatedtojornmayhechannelwelltonight ======================================================================== Subject: I still remember... Date: Fri, 23 Apr 93 14:26:46 PDT From: "Gary Nichols" >kosky@saul.cis.upenn.edu (Anthony Kosky) wonders: > >I have a question which I'm sure I should know the answer to, and will >feel pretty stupid when someone tells me. In fact I'm pretty sure it's >in my record collection somewhere, but my mind is blank at the moment. >So, where does the lyric "I still remember the dream there" come from? Could this be from YES?? I believe the song might be called _Long Distance Runaround_ .... gary gary@hprgn.rose.hp.com ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Apr 93 17:35:19 EDT From: kosky@saul.cis.upenn.edu (Anthony Kosky) Subject: "I still remember that dream there..." Thanks to those who replied. I was right in that 1) it's something I own, 2) it's something I know well, 3) I feel very stupid now that I realize what it was. It was, of course, Yes from Long Distance Runaround. Still it's probably better to feel stupid than to be driven to a nervous breakdown trying to remember where it was from. I guess hearing Happy sing it instead of Jon Anderson I just didn't make the connection. Thanks all, -Anthony ======================================================================== From: "Michael Blackmore" Date: 23 Apr 93 17:50:26 EST Subject: I haven't decided yet! :-) HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGELOS! HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGELOS! HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGELOS! Yeah, I know I'm late! :-( But I've been busy and I'm only now getting caught up on ecto! - Michael B. P.S. It was really nice meeting you the other day! :-) ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Apr 93 20:39 EDT From: robert@deepspace.nj00802.sai.com (Robert Lovejoy) Subject: Another hello there! Hello Ecto my old friend: Angelos: "I still remember the dream there..." = fragment of Yes lyric, circa "Close to the Edge". Yes was one of the Hap-o-rama's major influences. She also includes a snippit of KaTe and (I think) Bowie in her acoustic "Feed the Fire". I think I posted a note about this a few weeks ago. Hope all is well; Vickie, your posts have taken on a surrealistic tone since you began broadcasting from Chinet. (Isn't that a brand of disposable plates???) Hang in there! ***HUG*** Telnet will return... Darnitall, I sure like music, and there's so much of it out there to discover and enjoy... I wish more radio stations were open minded. EuroEctos, is radio progressive on the continent? Do they push you, or do they fall into America's bottom-line mentality and play calculated pablum most of the time? If wishes were horses, Happy Rhodes would be a major international star. Talent would matter more than marketing. And nobody would use guns. Peace, brothers and sisters. May the weekend be calm, especially in Washingtoon. May openmindedness flourish on the face of the planet; may we all recognize ourselves in each other; may a smile light up our lives! Bobbo the L. PS personal to Chris Boek: I've managed to copy the tape, and it will be in the mail to you by Tuesday. Sorry for the delay, but work has been busy lately. Talk to you soon! ======================================================================== The ecto archives are on hardees.rutgers.edu in ~ftp/pub/hr. There is an INDEX file explaining what is where. Feel free to send me things you'd like to have added. -- jessica (jessica@ns1.rutgers.edu)