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 #545 ecto, Number 545 Tuesday, 27 April 1993 Today's Topics: *-----------------* The InterNet and other stories Re: Penelope Houston... List of recommended artists/groups *ponder* Penelope Houston Re: its been a long time... Address... Michigan Transport Query! ======================================================================== Subject: The InterNet and other stories Date: Tue, 27 Apr 93 18:47:52 EDT From: Angelos Kyrlidis Hi, Been quite busy lately (yes, I am writing... FINALLY) and so I have left some threads go by uncommented... :-( So, let me just throw a couple of things to you ranging from info to requests. a) There is a series of 4 posts on an 'Internet' story published recently on ne.general, for those of you who have access to that newsgroup, that originally appeared in 'Middlesex News'. It would have been a good place to add a Happy Rhodes/Ecto reference, but unfortunately the newspaper was not among those that I (or other MA ectophiles) suggested for the mass mailing. Hopefully it will trigger interest in other Boston area papers to which the mailing was directed! :-) b) After a lag in Happy sales, the Cambridge Tower has sold an Equipoise, and an Ecto, as I was delighted to findout last week. Newbury comics still has the lonely Equipoise sitting in the R bin :-( [For those of you keeping track] c) Meredith, where is your interview transcription? :-) d) After the Einstuerzende Neubauten concert, I can't think of music in the same way... Am I hopelessly, forever addicted to noise? Will I be looking for harmonies at building demolitions, and factories? Only time will tell... e) Check out the George Michael/Queen EP 'Five Live'. It's amazing, and it benefits a good cause. Bring back WHAM! [Shouldn't I be reliving my adolescence at a later stage in my life? :-) ] Angelos ( a chem e who'd rather be a physicist ) 'i steppie in between the molecules to get a better look at you' [parting the electron clouds, and avoiding collisions with the nuclei] ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1993 16:29:37 -0700 From: szimmerm@euclid.math.usfca.edu (Scott Zimmerman) Subject: Re: Penelope Houston... Penelope Houston! Hurrah! I picked up "The Whole World" a couple of weeks ago. It's my favorite album of late. I can't wait to see her perform live. Since I live in the Bay Area, there are no lack of Penelope Houston shows near me. The problem is I'm still underage! I'll probably be picking up "Birdboys" in a couple of days. I saw the LP yesterday at, of all places, Tower Records... That's strange because Tower carries sooo little vinyl these days. Thanks a lot, Vickie, for that ID records information. I was going to write them really soon... For you trivia buffs, Penelope's former band, The Avengers, opened up at the Sex Pistols final show... off to class! ...... Scott ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 28 Apr 93 02:01:03 +0200 From: yngveh@stud.cs.uit.no (Yngve Hauge) Subject: List of recommended artists/groups There are much info about Happy Rhodes in her FAQ so I include it as the info about her....... HAPPY RHODES/ECTO FAQ =========================================================================== Her full name is Happy Tyler Rhodes. She was born Kimberly Tyler Rhodes but has always been called Happy by family and friends. When she was 16 she had her name legally changed to Happy. She's 27 years old, born August 9, 1965 in Poughkeepsie, NY. The discography: 1) Rhodes Vol. I (1986) 2) Rhodes Vol. II (1986) 3) Rearmament (1986) 4) Ecto (1987) 5) Warpaint (1991) 6) Equipoise (1993) All 6 are available on CD and cassette The address to order Happy's music or write to her is: Happy Rhodes c/o Aural Gratification P.O. Box 380 Bearsville, NY 12409-0380 All 6 are available on CD and cassette CDs are $13.99 each Postage for one CD is $2.00 Cassettes are $9.99 each Postage for one tape is $1.50 Each additional tape or CD is $ .50 apiece Price in English pounds is: 11 pounds per CD (postage included) 8 pounds per cassette (postage included) The *postage* price to Australia: Each CD approx US$4.50 Happy is getting limited distribution around the United States. Her albums can usually be found in Tower Records, and some Sam Goodys and Musiclands carry her also. Frequently Happy has been found in small mom'n'pop stores too and specialty stores such as woman's bookstores with independent music sections. Check the stores in your area (if you can buy the music in a store it will save you postage and it will also encourage the store to order more), but mail is always an option if you can't find it locally. Ladyslipper catalog has added a few Happy albums. From the Ladyslipper catalog about the album _Ecto_: "Happy has a voice which will be (exhaustively) compared to Kate Bush and Annie Lennox's; there's just no way to avoid the comparisons, but her visions are a bit darker, say in the gothic-apocalyptic vein - or, rather, lots of blood red roses and peeling wallpaper kind-of-moods... Anyway, it's just the greatest voice, and when she self-harmonizes, the result is just heavenly! The instrumentation is highly melodic and sometimes heavy synth, with sprightly counterpoints - 'complex and labyrinthine but at the same time totally natural.' This 1987 release is her 4th; highly recommended!" The cost is $15.98 plus shipping and handling when ordering _Ecto_ through Ladyslipper. They also have _Warpaint_ available for $15.98 for CD and $9.98 for cassette. <<<<<<<<<<<<< LADYSLIPPER ADDRESS >>>>>>>>>>>>> As to which album(s) to get? That's tough to say, because they're all excellent (IMHO). There's a huge difference between 1 and 6, and the progression is evident in the middle four. If you asked the people in the mailing list, you'd get lots of different answers. Of course, it's just about impossible to know what different people will like. My stock answer is "get them all!" because I think they're all worth getting. Equipoise is her latest one so that might be the one to start with. If you already have Equipoise, you might either want to go backwards and go for Warpaint next, or you might want to start at the beginning with Rhodes I, to see where she started. If you like Rhodes I and Equipoise, it's almost certain you will want to get the rest. When Happy herself was asked to pick out one of the early albums to send to an Ectophile, she chose the album Ecto. FYI, if you ask Happy to autograph the CD(s) and/or tape(s), she will! Happy has never had a major-label recording contract. All her music has been released so far on Aural Gratification, a private label started and owned by Kevin Bartlett. Kevin started the label to release his own music (he's quite well-known as a musician in the Albany area), then added Happy after they met. The first 4 albums were recorded by Happy, all alone in the studio. She played acoustic guitar and keyboards and used lots of overdubs. She produced them all herself and even engineered quite a few of the songs. Happy started out working as an apprentice engineer at Cathedral Sound Studios in Rensselaer, New York, and learned the equipment by recording her own songs. Pat Tessitore, Cathedral's owner, was impressed by Happy's talent and encouraged her, even giving her free studio time to play around with the equipment and record her songs. When Happy met Kevin in 1986 and he encouraged her to let him release her music on AG, she had amassed enough songs for 2 albums. They gathered together all the tapes of the various songs and VI and VII were born. Later that year, Happy released Rearmament and Ecto came in 1987. Between Ecto and Warpaint, Happy and Kevin joined forces professionally as Bartlett\Rhodes. They never released any music but did play live in the Albany area often. In mid-1989 they decided to continue as they had started, as separate artists. Happy then began work on Warpaint in 1990. Warpaint and Equipoise were more professionally recorded (she and Kevin took out bank loans to make sure they were as high-quality they could possibly make them) and uses more musicians, though it's mainly just her and Kevin. They also co-produced the two albums. H&K are still personal partners. Kevin is also working very hard on the promotional side of Happy's career while keeping a full schedule with his own career as a musician (he's released well over a dozen albums, available only on cassette at this time), producer (Happy, Mitch Elrod), and free-lance work on commercials, MTV and Sesame Street. {Live} Happy has played live in and around the Albany, NY area for many years. On March 18, 1992 Happy played live for the first time in years and it was the first time with a full backup band. >From the pages of Ecto: "Happy has surrounded herself with a group of very talented musicians, all of whom have a deep respect for her talent. Kevin Bartlett turned out to be very dynamic on stage, playing a variety of instruments (keyboards, steinberger electric guitar, 12 string electric guitar, and 12 string acoustic, and electronic drum pads). Mark Foster played acoustic and electronic drums, and was quite impressive. It was nice to see that the electronc drums were manually triggered instead of sequenced. In fact, I don't know if anything was sequenced in the entire show; if there was any, it was minimal. Fretted and fretless bass was played by Ray Jung ("We love you, Ray!"), who has had experience with a wider range of musicians, having played with people such as Bill Bruford (of Yes and King Crimson). The second set of keyboards, as well as BVs, were handled by Martha Waterman. You may recognize her name--she played piano on the studio version of "In Hiding." And finally, main BVs were handled quite admirably by Kelly Bird. She was able to blend beautifully with Happy's voice so that at times it actually sounded like Happy was multitracked." Jeff Burka A few days later, on March 21, 1992, Happy sold out the 800-seat University Museum Auditorium at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. >From the pages of Ecto: "Incredible." "Mindblowing." "Astounding." "Spellbinding." "Magical." These concerts provided the very first opportunity for a "Happy Gathering of Ectophiles." Many Ectophiles from the Northwest, and a few from other parts of the United States (Illinois, Colorado and even Alaska) converged on Albany and Philadelphia for these concerts. May there be many, many more! Full details of these concerts via Ectophile impressions can be found in the Ecto archives beginning with Digest 187. Happy is hoping to tour in support of Equipoise, but the details aren't worked out yet. Any appearances she makes will be posted in rec.music.gaffa, rec.music.misc, rec.music.cd, alt.music.alternative and rec.music.info, as well as (of course) Ecto. {Background} She was a very lonely child and has always been a loner. She suffered from depression as an adolescent and teenager and sought solace and help in the music she listened to (Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Bach) and in writing songs herself. She "wrote out" the demons in her mind, never guessing that the songs would someday end up on albums that would be cherished by other people. Happy is an interesting, intelligent, singer/songwriter/musician who cares deeply about her music and makes music to last, music that matters. Happy's lyrics can sear your heart and soul in its intensity and introspectiveness. Her lyrics are very often dark and are nearly all autobiographical, but they are almost all about emotions. Human emotions are universal, so many of her songs touch nerves in other people too. Many of her songs are about depression, some are about suicidal feelings and some are cynical, but there are also songs about hope and light, with a "you must love yourself before anyone else can love you" point of view. She does have a sense of humor, and it comes out in a few songs, but most of her songs are very serious. Not that they are all slow, dirge-like ballads. Many songs are fast-paced and very melodic. You could enjoy the music and Happy's voice(s) without ever paying attention to the lyrics. The lyrics add another layer to be fascinated by if you choose to delve further, though. {Fans} Happy's fan base is small but growing and we here in Ecto think it's exciting to see how she's progressing and to "be with her" at each step of her career from now on. Happy Rhodes fans are very passionate about promoting her music. Record companies have ignored her (and, so far, continue to) I think because they don't really know what to do with her. She can't be easily put into a box and labled. We all think that it's extremely unfair and wrong that she's unknown and obscure. We want to change that. It's only at a small grass-roots level at the moment, but will grow as more people become aware of Happy, fall in love with her music, and care enough to spread the word about her. H&K are *very* aware of Ecto and are kept informed of it's topics of conversation. They are deeply appreciative of everyone's interest and have great affection for Ecto. This affection manifested itself after the Philadelphia concert when Happy and Kevin made it a point to invite Ectophiles to a post-concert "Schmooze-With-Philly-Bigwigs" party at the Penn Towers Hotel. They didn't have to invite us, they wanted to. {History of Ecto} Semi-regular postings about Happy Rhodes have appeared in rec.music.gaffa (Love-Hounds) since January 1989 via Vickie Mapes, who "found" Happy in 1988 and played her regularly on her radio show called Suspended In Gaffa. The release of Warpaint in April 1991 prompted many gaffa readers to try her music for the first time. Many of those people liked what they heard and went on to complete their collection with the early tapes. As discussion grew to deafening levels, it was pointed out to the Happy Rhodes fans that, no, not *every* Kate Bush fan will like Happy's music, and could we please start talking about Kate again? As many gaffians wanted to continue to talk about Happy, but wanted to respect the wishes of those who had no interest, on June 13, 1991 Jessica Dembski created the mailing list Ecto. The list has been *very* active, with over 130 members, and topics on any subject of interest to Ectophiles are welcome to be discussed. We talk about other artists besides Happy (female artists mainly, but recommend- ations of male artists are fine). Non-music topics seen in Ecto range from movies to politics and just about everything in between. To join Ecto-the mailing list, write to Jessica at: ecto-request@ns1.rutgers.edu To contribute: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu Tell Jessica which you would rather have, Ecto as loose mail, or as a Digest. GIFs, lyrics to all the albums, articles, interviews, reviews, other tidbits and Ecto Archives are available from: hardees.rutgers.edu by anonymous ftp, in pub/hr (Internet address is: 128.6.18.2.) For those without FTP capability, Doug Burks has offered to send anything in the archives to you via e-mail. Write him at: dbx@olympic.atmos.colostate.edu If you happen to see Happy mentioned anywhere, please pass it along to Ecto, or an Ectophile who can send it on. Happy is just beginning to be "discovered" and it's interesting to know what other people think, to hear reviews (good or bad) and to keep track of where she's mentioned and in what context. No mention is too small. Thank you in advance. ============================================================== Please write with any comments or suggestions about this FAQ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Vickie "Fight for the right "My ears are lucky to hear vickie@pilot.njin.net to have monsters" TA these glorious songs" HR _________ "Imagination sets in, then |_ _ | _ The Happy Rhodes mailing list all the voices begin" KB |__|_ ||_| ecto-request@ns1.rutgers.edu -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Searching for Happy Rhodes reviews, articles, interviews, mentions -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- So to Kate Bush - She got 6 albums out - The Kick Inside Lionheart Never Forever The Dreaming Hounds Of Love The Sensual World And the compilation of her 'best' songs are on an album released in 1986 called - The Whole Story There are a lot of talk about her among others on the newsgroup rec.music.gaffa Tori Amos She has only one album out yet called _Little Earthquake_ but is currently in studio so we expect a new release in not to long time. She got a mailinglist called - Really Deep Thoughts .....more info if you ask...... Sarah McLachlan She got two albums out - Touch Solace And one live-album is official released called _Live_ That should be enogh for now Take care, -- T ---- Only In Your Eyes Lies Your Soul.............. H | --- ----- ---- --- - -- - - - - - --- E |-- | | | | | | |__| | | |_ | | | | | |--- | | | | | --- --- - - ---- - - - -- - - - --- --- Yngve Hauge (yngveh@stud.cs.uit.no).....University of Tromsoe...Norway ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 28 Apr 93 02:41:07 +0200 From: yngveh@stud.cs.uit.no (Yngve Hauge) Subject: *ponder* Sorry about my last post...should have ended somewhere else :( *blush* Yngve ======================================================================== From: jlueck@merle.acns.nwu.edu Subject: Penelope Houston Date: Tue, 27 Apr 93 19:51:18 CDT Vickie writes: > >...is heading east, she's *well worth seeing*! Trust me. > >*TRUST ME* > Yes! Trust her! And if you don't trust her (even though you should) *TRUST ME*!!!!! She's great! (Sorry Vickie if you got this twice -- I accidentally replied to your message and forgot to change the header to ecto....) -- Chip Lueck (Jeff) work: jlueck@nuacvm.acns.nwu.edu play: chip-l@nwu.edu "I want to be a lawyer, I want to be a scholar. But I really can't be bothered, ooh just Gimme it quick, gimme it, gimme gimme, gimme, gimme" -Kate Bush ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 27 Apr 93 20:38:08 -0500 From: "Dennis G Parslow" Subject: Re: its been a long time... Oh yeah, and Tanya Donnelly was (is?) also in the Breeders. Dennis Parslow I saw you from the cathedral Troy, NY 12180 Well, I'm an ancient heart p00421@psilink.com Tanita Tikaram ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1993 23:01:19 +1000 From: GRAHAM.G.R.DOMBKINS@bhpmelmsm.bhp.bhpmel04.telememo.au Subject: Address... Hi all Just a quick question. Where is Aural Gratification's address now that Happy has moved? ======================================================================== Graham Dombkins GRAHAM.G.R.DOMBKINS@BHPMELMSM.BHP.bhpmel04.telememo.au ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Hello Earth!! hello Earth..." - KT "I'm out chasing nuns in the yard..." - TA "Reach into your chest. Pull your feelings out" - HR ======================================================================== ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 27 Apr 93 20:36 EDT From: robert@deepspace.nj00802.sai.com (Robert Lovejoy) Subject: Michigan Transport Query! Hi There Ecto! I got a phone call from Susanne White today, with a rather unusual request. If anybody on this list would mind giving a ride to Happy, Kevin, and Susanne White this friday from Detroit to Ann Arbor, MI, they would be much obliged! Yes, you read it right. Susanne is asking if there are any fans in the Michigan area who might be willing to transport them from the Detroit area to Ann Arbor on Saturday afternoon. This saturday. They just arranged an interview on WAMX. A ride would save them a few hunderd dollars in transportation costs. If I lived in Michigan, this note wouldn't even make it to post! Any of you in the general vicinity who'd like to spend an afternoon with Happy and Kevin, please E-mail me privately and I will send you Susanne White's phone number. Time is short, as they are leaving Thursday morning. Hope someone out there can help! For convieneince, here are my E-mail addresses: INTERNET: robert@deepspace.NJ00802.sai.com GENIE: R.Lovejoy1 PRODIGY: KDVN07A Thanks for your time! Bob Lovejoy ======================================================================== 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)