Errors-To: ecto-owner@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 #686 ecto, Number 686 Thursday, 5 August 1993 Today's Topics: *-----------------* Les Champs Magnetiques? Re: as Klaus as Klaus can be Happy covers Shameless pun Re: Happy covers J is for Jules Re: JS Reviews Hit the Rhodes, Jack :-) and other stories That Darn Cover Thing! The faces of Happy Rhodes (cover art) Suspended In Gaffa Eponymous Australia connection Re: Rhodes Songs EQP+HR5 arrived at last! Calling all UK ectophiles.. this 'n that A Question... Re: Calling all UK ectophiles.. Covers Re: Happy covers ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 4 Aug 93 11:27:22 -0700 From: Michael G Peskura Subject: Les Champs Magnetiques? Is this a GROUP? I thought it was just a book by Andre Breton and Philippe Soupault ... Mp (confused as usual) :) ======================================================================== From: Perttu Yli-Krekola Subject: Re: as Klaus as Klaus can be Date: Wed, 4 Aug 93 22:00:11 EETDST Hi! I'm having problems with my mailer and the german keyboard (qwertz instead of qwerty type). Let's see if this works now. Uli wrote: > > > P.S.: Vickie: How much do you want to see those 10 or so ARTE minutes > > > about/with > > > Mari Boine Persen? > > Much! Many, many muches! Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis MUCH! > > How far away from Perttu are you?????? > > About 400 km. But maybe Perttu can be persuaded to visit Klaus (only about > 200 km, more or less exactly in the middle between us) when he gives his > Ectofete. Perttu? Saanko pyyt"a"a sinut kutsuille? (Sorry if that's too > wrong...) Kiitos! I have to visit D"usseldorf every now and then, so I can take the tape with me when I'll next time come here. Then we can make copies either in Klaus or your place. Of if you happen to visit Holland you can drop at my place in The Hague too. PS. I did't know you were fluent in Finnish too :) Perttu Yli-Krekola, Rederserf 250, 2586 KJ Den Haag, The Netherlands ylikreko@tre.tele.nokia.fi ======================================================================== Date: 04 Aug 1993 15:15:55 -0400 From: pas@math.ams.org (Paula Shanks) Subject: Happy covers It is too bad that Equipoise has been disappointing in sales (not sure how many of those 6000 have been sold in Ann Arbor--I'm hearing her on the radio every day!) but if she really wants to break out more, she's gotta ditch the monster covers. I buy a fair amount of stuff based, not on covers, of course, as much as reading about the artists, word of mouth, hearing them discussed in the context of similar artists. I went looking for Equipoise based on hearing the music itself. If I hadn't heard THREE songs before seeing that cover in the bin, I probably wouldn't have picked it up. It's not just that the cover style doesn't match the contents in terms of stylistics (the picture makes SENSE, of course, in the context of a number of the songs, but...), it's also that it matches the style of covers that appear on the most godawful screaming angry noisy speedmetal stuff. Not just that cover, but most of the others. I had to steel myself to buy Rhodes I. There I think the cover was completely inappropriate. I've picked up a lot of discs based solely on discussions in Ecto lately. But even though I'm very happy with Bjork, Ingrid K., Cranberries, Bel Canto, etc., I am not going to pick up Tribe without hearing a lot of it first, because it LOOKS like something I wouldn't care for. It's fine to say she shouldn't compromise on her art and all that, but I think AG ought to take a different tack on her cover art in the future, if she REALLY wants to sell more. It's hard enough to get ahead in the music business when your music is hard to categorize, but making the packaging repellent is adding a burden that doesn't need to be there. It doesn't have to be gorgeous. Interesting is good enough. Maybe it's a dumb thing to matter, but I think it does matter. --Pshanks, climbing down from her soapbox now... ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 4 Aug 93 12:42:26 PDT From: dixon@physics.berkeley.edu (David Dixon) Subject: Shameless pun Maybe if Happy worked with Eric Clapton on her next album, and she wasn't pleased with the outcome, she could call it "Cross Rhodes"? D^2 (ducking) ======================================================================== From: jk101920@ee.tut.fi (Kannisto Juha) Subject: Re: Happy covers Date: Wed, 4 Aug 93 22:59:55 EET DST > I buy a fair amount of stuff based, not on covers, of course, as much > as reading about the artists, word of mouth, hearing them discussed in > the context of similar artists. I went looking for Equipoise based on > hearing the music itself. If I hadn't heard THREE songs before seeing > that cover in the bin, I probably wouldn't have picked it up. It's > not just that the cover style doesn't match the contents in terms of > stylistics (the picture makes SENSE, of course, in the context of a > number of the songs, but...), it's also that it matches the style of > covers that appear on the most godawful screaming angry noisy > speedmetal stuff. Not just that cover, but most of the others. I had > to steel myself to buy Rhodes I. There I think the cover was > completely inappropriate. *stuff deleted* > It's fine to say she shouldn't compromise on her art and all that, but > I think AG ought to take a different tack on her cover art in the > future, if she REALLY wants to sell more. It's hard enough to get > ahead in the music business when your music is hard to categorize, but > making the packaging repellent is adding a burden that doesn't need to > be there. It doesn't have to be gorgeous. Interesting is good enough. > Maybe it's a dumb thing to matter, but I think it does matter. > > --Pshanks, climbing down from her soapbox now... > Yes I think you have a point. But lets consider this: Did Warpaint and Rearmament sell a lot better with their different covers? I think her art is an integral part of her and she probably thinks it is important too since she has used it in so many of the covers. Ok, so I used to be a fan of Napalm Death and the like and I'm supposedly used to these godawful speedmetal covers :) Nowadays I'm selling the godawful records to get money for this music. Napalm Death is still respectable in my book though. All in all, I think the people who don't buy the stuff because of the cover-art are wrong and should change, she should keep doing what she does. And I realize I'm an idealist. But I still hate this 'I want to sell more so I have to change this and that' -mentality. It has no end once you take that road. The next thing to change is the music. Maybe I'm not a realist, but I believe in these things :) I don't think the monsters are that appealing either but they would certainly not stop me from buying anything from her. Besides, they don't strike me as that bad really. I just like to see that there are some people in the world left who don't compromise no matter what. I think she's one of the best candidates for that :) Happy thoughts to all, Juha Ps: 'he will come' is really something I think! -- Juha Kannisto O jk101920@cc.tut.fi O I have a friend in Phobos O Savikukonkatu 21 O jk101920@ee.tut.fi O At times I think I'm almost there O 33530 Tampere O jk101920@cs.tut.fi O * Happy Rhodes * O Finland O +358-31-560941 O ~~~~~~~~~~~~ O ======================================================================== Date: 04 Aug 93 16:54:44 EDT From: Mike Mendelson Subject: J is for Jules All right, well, we all know that Aimee Mann wrote songs about him, but did Jules Shear ever write songs about her? I picked up (it is marked as PROMO) a copy of a CD by him called "Unplug This" which is a (you can guess, really) solo acoustic thing, in which he does some of his better known songs. I wonder, for example, who If She Knew What She Wants is about? It is far more poignant hearing him do it alone than hearing the Bangles do it. It's actually quite a good little promo thing, if you are into the unplugged thing... or moreover, if you are, like me, fascinated by the songwriting process. This type of recording really distills the precise elements of a song to their barest nakedness, and you see exactly what *you* have to do to write songs. It sure doesn't sound very complicated... there are no unusual chords or fancy guitarwork here... or even extraordinarily subtle or deep lyrics. But yet the songs succeed. Well, hey, it fascinates me. Maybe that's why I like HR5 so much, or the demos at the end of the Ryko Ziggy Stardust. It gives a glimpse into the creative process: the original form of the song. I will definitely have to find the album of his that Todd Rundgren produced (and maybe some others). I will admit it is also interesting to know that JS and AM knew each other, and influenced each other, in at least some intangible way, if not stylistically. Enough dogma for this post. -misformjm ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 4 Aug 93 17:21:05 EDT From: justin@campion.crim.ca (Justin Bur) Subject: Re: JS Reviews note that Summer in the Yukon was not released in North America (at least not while I was looking!) and so the only previous appearance of `Calling all angels' over here has been on the soundtrack for Until the End of the World. (Summer in the Yukon is a compilation album with a nice cover but I've seen it only once.) The new album is on Warner/Reprise in the USA and Canada. This is her third Reprise album in the USA, but the first in Canada (the four previous ones were on Duke Street Records, which no longer exists - so what label are they on now?). justin ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 04 Aug 93 16:21:20 CDT From: Rhodes Scholar Subject: Hit the Rhodes, Jack :-) and other stories Today I heard from Stuart Rosenberg at WBEZ, to whom I sent a Happy FAQ a month ago. He sounds interested in her music. We shall see what comes of this. WRT the alleged commercial flop of _Equipoise_: Yesterday at the public library, I ran across a lengthy article on Iris DeMent in the arts section of the July 11th _Chicago Tribune_. I recommend it to all of you who have access to libraries that carry said paper. It has a sidebar about the genre-bridging of numerous women in latter-day country music, which has a passage that I consider very relevant to the current crisis: >No one quite knows what to make of these women, least of all commercial radio. >But they're doing just fine without a market niche, thanks. [Nanci] Griffith, >[Mary-Chapin] Carpenter and DeMent, along with Lucinda Williams, Tish Hinojosa >, Rosanne Cash and Shawn Colvin have found a receptive audience in the margins >of the record industry. With their graceful melodies, resonant voices and >smart lyrics, these women are the new 'tweeners, falling in-between the cracks >of country, folk and pop. The moral, of course, is that the best stuff is often to be found in the interstices. The same goes for all genres. One can carry to extremes the idealization of the starving artist, of course; but after hearing much of the stuff that does have a market niche, I believe that much more strongly in the distinction between mass acts and class acts, and that Happy falls squarely into the latter camp. The ultimate objective, of course, is to win her the highest tribute a singer- songwriter can receive--to have her music played under the weather and sports crawls on _World News Now_ :-). Mitch ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1993 10:00:10 -0700 From: jmg@rocket.com (Jim Gurley) Subject: That Darn Cover Thing! >> released officially August 18. Anyone who wants to, can order it now, > >Great news! > I second that. I'd buy ANYTHING Happy puts out! -- >I wonder how much cover art has to do with this? I think it is a problem in >stores where 'curb appeal' may have a significant factor in a marginal sale >opportunity. Maybe she could put the paintings on the inside of the CD >intermingled with the lyrics? > I'm glad somebody else has broken the ice on this topic... Michael Peskura and I have been talking about this problem (the covers) and have come to the conclusion (well, at least I have) that the way Happy's been marketed...especially the covers...amounts to shooting herself in the foot...I like her artwork too (sort of)...but can you imagine yourself buying an album by an artist you've never heard of before with a cover like Rhodes I,II or Ecto????? You might assume, and not without any justification, that it's a heavy metal album...Perhaps one of the reasons WP sold so well is that it had a more accessable cover...I think it's her best cover...granted the music is fantastic...but people weren't initially made leary by the monster on the cover...also, the cover for HP5 was not that great either, regardless of what you think of the picture of Happy...the cover on HP5 wasn't really designed to appeal to anyone unfamiliar with her work...not that everything has to be snazzy and slick, only that Happy'd help herself tremendously if she had better album covers, ones that were more commercially viable... I'm not doing this to get flamed from here to eternity...I'm just putting my two cents worth in about the cover issue...I really love Happy's music...I just wish that the "art" design on her CD packages were more approachable to outsiders... I agree with the suggestion (like Spalding Gray) to keep the Monster in the Box... ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 4 Aug 93 20:52:17 PDT From: tjshadb@ecto.sandia.gov (Troy J. Shadbolt) Subject: The faces of Happy Rhodes (cover art) I have to admit, that if I had seen the covers on Happy's albums BEFORE ever hearing her music, I too probably wouldn't have bought them (I have this built in dislike for speed-metal and the like). That's why when I have Happy playing, and if asked which album should someone by for a first experience I usually select Warpaint because 1) the music 2) the cover won't scare them away. Then, I show them the covers AFTER hearing the album. Personally, Equipoise is a fave of mine along with ecto. [NOTE THE NAME OF MY POSTING COMPUTER!] Next Item: I am offering the services of this machine: ecto.ca.sandia.gov [146.246.250.134] to be an anonymous ftp address for Happy Stuff on the West Coast [I'm in California] So If there is anything people want here, drop me a line at: tjshadb@ecto.ca.sandia.gov [ignore what the posting says is the name-it's wrong]. later all! troy ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 5 Aug 93 0:48:28 EDT From: WretchAwry Subject: Suspended In Gaffa I should be cleaning the house so we can pretend to live like normal human beings (don't worry Juha, "pretend" is the keyword) but I'm having much more fun reading Ecto and watching the "Dinosaurs" series on PBS, which is great and has cool music (lots of digeriedoos & percussion) but it's all over now and I missed most of it anyway so in my never ending quest to avoid doing things I should be doing, I'll type in my playlists, considering that I stayed up until 4am recording 4 radio shows which nobody will listen to anyway, I may as well share them with all you wonderful people... This was last week's Chicago show: Kate Bush-Moments of Pleasure Happy Rhodes-Mother Sea Tori Amos-Mother Jane Siberry-Sail Across the Water Bjork-Come To Me Heidi Berry-The Moon and the Sun Mary Coughlin-My Land Is Too Green Babble-Beautiful St. Etienne-Hobart Paving Annie Lennox-Cold Toni Childs-The Dead Are Dancing And what I recorded last night. I recorded 4 shows, 2 Chicago and 2 Kansas City, so I wouldn't have to worry about recording shows while Christo and Adrian are here. I can't record shows when anyone is around and I'd have to kick them out of the house to go see a movie or something and that would be rude, so I recorded them ahead of time. Sometimes Chicago and KC shows are completely different, sometimes they share elements, and sometimes they're nearly identical. When I'm working on identical shows (KC on cassette and Chicago on reel-to-reel) I still have to do different intros and outros ("you're listening to KKFI 90.1fm in Kansas City, Missouri" "...WZRD in Chicago") and, well, everything's different except for the music. For the Kansas City show I have to do 2 PSA breaks and the show is only 50 minutes long (one side of a C100 audio tape) and in Chicago I only break once, at the 30 minute point. For the Kansas City show I have to mention that the show is part of "Parallel Ports" (Sue's show) and give an outro for Sue playing KKFI-produced PSAs ("and after the break I'll be playing...") and leave a few second of blank space for Sue to stop and re-start the cassette. In Chicago there are no PSAs or ads during my show. The other major thing is that WZRD doesn't allow the programmers to use their names. In Kansas City I say "my name is Vickie and this show is coming to you from Chicago" but in Chicago I can only use the name of the show, and I've gotten repremanded when I've forgotten and said "my name is Vickie" so I have to really be careful. My biggest fear is to say the wrong station for the wrong show. As far as I know it's never happened but I'm always afraid I'll do it and not realize it. Um, this isn't very interesting, I know. The point is that it takes a lot longer to record identical shows than you'd imagine. Luckily I don't have to record the songs twice, the system is set up so that the music is being recorded onto cassette and reel-to-reel at the same time. I'm just constantly having to stop and start one or the other to talk, or add or delete songs for time. (I have 10 extra minutes to fill for the Chicago show and sometimes I add extra songs within the show instead just tacking them on at the end) Aaaaanyway, here are the Kansas City and Chicago shows for the next 2 weeks: Calling All Angels-from When I Was A Boy Writers Are A Funny Breed-from Jane Siberry The Gospel According to Darkness-from Boy The Valley-from Bound By The Beauty Sail Across The Water-from Boy (Kansas City only) The White Tent The Raft-from The Walking (Chicago only) The Vigil-from Boy Vladimir Vladimir-from The Speckless Sky Temple-from Boy (Chicago only) -------------------------------------------------------------- Jane Siberry-An Angel Stepped Down Holly Cole Trio-Smile Heidi Berry-For The Rose Heidi Berry-Follow Heidi Berry-Ariel Heidi Berry-Dawn The Cranberries-I Will Always Lisa Germano-Around The World Susan Voelz-Red River Waltz Overture Susan Voelz-Wish To The West Kate Bush-Under Ice Happy Rhodes-Possessed Tori Amos-Humpty Dumpty Jane Siberry-All The Candles In The World (Chicago only) Bjork-Crying (Chicago only) --------------------------------------------------------------- I guess I'll go pretend to be normal now :-) Vickie ======================================================================== Subject: Eponymous Date: Wed, 4 Aug 93 2:40:43 CDT From: Joe Zitt Chris Sampson writes: > I believe that the word whoevere it was was searching for... > That is, the word whose definition is "to do what Peter Gabriel did with > his first 3 albums" is the adverb: > > Eponymously By the way, the band I used to be with, Bronx Irish Catholics, named their first album "Eponymous", just for the fun of it (did anyone hear the album)? Only quasirelatedly: To Whom Keeps a Record (as Ornette would say): I've moved to a new house (living, as it happens, with the core members of BIC). I'm now at 6714 Tulsa Cove, Austin, TX, 78723. ObHappy: It turns out that one of the people that helped me move was turned on to "Equipoise" by a friend of hers in Alaska who had sent her a tape of it but neglected to say who it was by. She flipped when I played it. I then played her Warpaint and HR5, followed by KaTe's "Candle in the Wind". She became a Happy camper. ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 5 Aug 93 1:21:57 EDT From: WretchAwry Subject: Australia connection I just added this to the FAQ: Readings Records (in Carlton) will import HR CDs. They reckoned about 2 weeks for delivery, and cost at about AUS$30 each. Readings Records, 366 Lygon St, Carlton, 3053 Ph: (03) 347 7473 Vickie (that's a suburb of Melbourne, btw) ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 5 Aug 93 2:10:06 EDT From: WretchAwry Subject: Re: Rhodes Songs Ken Hoyme writes (in the midst of a most wonderful post): > I like the sound of this compilation. Undoubtedly, any Happy > compliation would have a dark side to it, and if it didn't, it wouldn't > be Happy! (pun definitely intended :-) I think the depth in her music is > enhanced by the juxtaposition of the dark themes with complex rhythms > and (sometimes more upbeat) melodies. (Badly phrased, but hopefully > folks understand.) It doesn't hit you all at one level, but there are > layers of complexity. Oh yes, definitely. The voice and the music are great, and no one need ever pay attention to the lyrics to appreiciate Happy. But once someone does take the plunge into the lyrics, you go "woah, what's this?" and then it's a journey into the never-never land of the mind. > A few weeks back when I was starting my Rhodes I obsession, my wife > wondered if I was depressed. I wasn't at all, but she sensed the mood > in the music I had chosen and wondered if it reflected my mood. *Interesting* > Oh well. I was one of those that was interested in this. I had > 'infected' a co-worker with Happy's music and he just sent in an order > to AG for the entire catalouge! (The single life!) He chose that route > for the autograph possibility, but the solution you posed here is a nice > one. I have a couple more to get myself, and I will exercise that > option. Thanks!! Good for you for spreading the word! Good for him for directing his disposable income toward such a good cause! (You're welcome) > > Ok, enough of trying to act like an adult... > > *whew* ;-) :-) > > A couple of last things...I did ask Kevin how many Equipoises have sold > > and he said around 6000. They're disappointed that the album seems to > > How many has Warpaint sold? I've posted it before but I honestly can't remember what the number was. I think about 10,000, I'll have to double-check with Kevin. > I wonder how much cover art has to do with this? While I find her The discussion about the cover art is interesting. I understand both sides. Personally, I'm not too big on the monster covers, I've spent too much time trying to explain them and cringing when people go "ugh" without having heard the music yet. Still, I'm with Juha in that I really admire Happy for doing it her way, no matter what anyone thinks. Happy will continue to do whatever feels right for her, and I'll go along with whatever she decides. But yeah, it's easy to explain the monsters after people have heard the music, but it's tough when someone bases a negative judgement on an album they haven't heard simply because of the monsters. As a concept, I understand the cover of Equipoise and love it. As an album cover, I can't stand it. > > Bad news though: the tour thing is stalled for now. I have no more > > details but if it gets back on track you'll be the first to know. > > Arrghh!! Maybe we could get the Ecto-hostle up to speed and get > frequent-flier coupon donations to get the costs down? I would be happy > to volunteer! :-) Good idea! > Thanks for the update. One of the things I have been attracted to by > her music and this group is the feeling of connection to the artist. > She seems like an accessible person, and your posts after these > conversations go a long way to building that feeling. (Plus I finally > read the FAQ and interviews, etc. from the archives after a couple of > kind souls pointed me to them after my 'newbie' post a couple of weeks > back. I only thought ecto-digests were stored there, silly me!) Thank you! (yes, the archives yield quite a bit more than most people expect) > > This has actually not been such a good week for me. Chris is my anchor, > > and I miss him terribly when he's away. I really needed something to help > > me snap out of a pretty deep depression and I did it by spending money :-). > > I think this is a clinically proven anti-depressant. My CD collection > grew drastically during the 1.5 years I spent on a 10 day gone/11 day > home schedule with my job. After about 5 days away, I would hit a > *great* CD store (with cheap used CDs) and drown my depression with > music. (That is the time I 'discovered' Kate Bush.) (For those that > get to Phoenix, Arizona, check out Zia records -- four locations. Used > CDs at $6.99 and $7.99 -- occasionally more for recent hot releases.) Oh good, I'm glad I'm not the only one :-) > Hope you hold out!! Or Chris returns before the cash runs out... ;-) :-) :-) Vickie ======================================================================== Subject: EQP+HR5 arrived at last! Date: Thu, 05 Aug 93 09:13:14 +0100 From: Stephen Thomas Yes folks, my copy of Equipoise and HR5 dropped through the mail a couple of days ago. I think I'm one of the last to do it, but I'm posting my impressions of EQP. You'll forgive me if I ramble. I've been writing up PhD thesis over the past few months, and I'm sick and tired of coming up with studied, precise phrases... Anyway, some history. Warpaint is the first HR album I got, followed by what used to be called the 1st4. Now I've got EQP too. I've always thought Warpaint was in some way different to her previous albums. Maybe it's just that I heard it first. Maybe it just was more complex from a production point of view. Nevertheless, it seems to me that Warpaint is a more "accessible" album. I think there is a definite difference in style between Warpaint & the 1st4. The earlier albums seemed more esoteric, eclectic, exotic, etc. But they were no less good for this. Some of my favourite tracks are on the 1st4. "Going Back" (I think it's called - I meant to check before coming in to work today) is one very compelling track. Playing that track in the background seems to be aural equivalent of having an H.R.Giger art book sitting on the coffee table, open at the most subtly disturbing picture. When I listen to Ecto, that track always gets programmed in, along with "If Love is a Game, I Win". Now, with Equipoise, I find a curious effect. It seems to have the e-quality of the 1st4, with the production complexity of Warpaint. It is, obviously, an excellent album (in case you were wondering whether I liked it) with some truly compelling tracks. If I had my way, I'd release "Runners" b/w "Closer" as a single. "I Say" seems very similar to "Warpaint" (the track) in feel and tone, and the piano work of "Mother Sea" is almost classical in form. I'm going to play this album quite a lot, I think. Keep well, Stephen ======================================================================== From: Tim Cook Date: Thu, 5 Aug 93 10:42:15 BST Subject: Calling all UK ectophiles.. I sent a DAT of HR5 a couple of weeks ago to the Annie Nightingale show. A good sign is I haven't got it back yet. Either they've got a huge backload of stuff to look through or they just might be interested in playing it. Write in and request a song - I asked Annie to play "Ashes to Ashes". Who knows - she might play it. If non-UK ectophiles write as well it might carry some extra weight. Annie Nightingale Request Show Radio 1 Broadcasting House London WC1 tim ======================================================================== Subject: this 'n that Date: Thu, 05 Aug 93 07:04:35 -0400 From: jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu 1) Covers: I *love* the covers and would be upset if Happy changed them. It seems like a lot of people are forgetting the story of Extreme, a little funk/metal/rap/soul/folk band. Their second album was a huge hit due to the airplay of the song "More Than Words" and its follow-up, "Hole-Hearted." This success was despite the fact that the Extreme album was called _Extreme II Pornograffiti_ and featured a painting of a little boy smoking a cigarette in a sleazy part of town. The fact that such a crude cover/title seemed to have no effect on all the Adult Contemporary Radio Listeners who rushed out to buy the song they'd been hearing on the radio. I very rarely buy music that I haven't heard at least a teeny bit of, or at least that I've read very favorable reviews of from people I trust (read: Ecto). I don't know about the average record-buying public, but I would guess that not too many people walk into a record store and start buying just based on cover art. It *does* happen...as I recall, all of us happy Pamela Golden listeners have Vickie to thank for being intrigued by the cover, intrigued enough to take a second look and notice Jerry Marotta's name. But Vickie is notable for being an adventurous music shopper. The trick, then, seems to be getting Happy played on the radio *and* getting stores to carry all of her albums. 2) On a direct lead-in from that, I have *yet* to see any copies of _Equipoise_ in the local stores that carry Happy's music. I wanted to buy EQP for my sister for her birthday, but ended up buying her _Ecto_ instead (I was a bit late and didn't have time to order directly from Happy...and I do prefer to buy from stores when possible...all of my 1st4 are from stores...). I don't know if this is a problem with the distributor or with the stores themselves. But it would be nice if one could actually buy _Equipoise_ in the DC area. 3) there used to be a 3. I've forgotten what it was. ;-) 4) The DJ seemed not to have played any Happy on last Sunday's "Sunday Morning Acoustics" on WHFS. But I forgive him. He spent the last 1.5 hours of the show doing a Shawn Colvin tribute. I'm still kicking myself for not having access to a tapedeck (I was driving to Mike's and then helping him load the moving van). In 1.5 hours, the DJ played virtually nothing from either studio CD. It was all demos and live rarities including many great covers. This is stuff I'd *kill* to have on tape. As I'm sure would some of the other ectophiles. MJM, you would have _loved_ this show. There were some more Richard Thompson covers, a cover of Dire Strats' "Romeo & Juliet" (I was wondering if it was performed before or after Indigo Girls did their version) (Shawn switched genders...she sang, "Romeo, when we made love..."). There was a great cover called something like "Heart of Ice"...don't recall the original artist. All in all, a spectacular show. And I'm fairly certain I'll never get to hear any of these songs again. 5) Mike just developed a few pictures he took of the EctoForm. He said they came out real well and will scan them ASAP. The pictures aren't my favorites...they were taken in a parking lot. But I don't know when I'll get the other pictures developed (they're currently hiding in my step-mother's camera) so I'll take what I can get for now! And now, off to prepare for work! Jeff |Jeffrey C. Burka | "When I look in the mirror, I see a little clearer/ | |SAFH Lite [tm] | I am what I am and you are you too./ Do you like | |jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu | what you see? Do you like yourself?" --N. Cherry | ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 4 Aug 93 6:48 EDT From: robert@deepspace.nj00802.sai.com (Robert Lovejoy) Subject: A Question... Hello, WXPN recently played a relatively old tune by Natalie Archangel,"It Don't Come Clean". Is Natalie considered ectofood? Other than this one song I am unfamiliar with her (A typical WXPN situation!). Is her album as good as that song overall? Also curious about Kristy McColl... Bob the musically curious ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 5 Aug 93 14:49:38 BST From: Evan Welsh Subject: Re: Calling all UK ectophiles.. Tim Cook writes: > I sent a DAT of HR5 a couple of weeks ago to the Annie Nightingale show. > A good sign is I haven't got it back yet. Either they've got a huge > backload of stuff to look through or they just might be interested in > playing it. > Write in and request a song - I asked Annie to play "Ashes to Ashes". Who > knows - she might play it. If non-UK ectophiles write as well it might carry > some extra weight. Honourable sentiments, but I don't follow. Unless Annie's show gets carried overseas (does it?) then I think she's unlikely to pay any attention to overseas requests. -- _____________________________________________________________________ / Evan Welsh \ \ Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (+44 31 650 5960) / ======================================================================== From: brianb@lobby.ti.com (Brian Bloom) Subject: Covers Date: Thu, 5 Aug 93 9:42:32 CDT While we're on the subject of covers, I thought I'd chip in my 2 bytes worth: Equipoise - Really cool once you've seen it morph back and forth, but rather, i dunno, "superficial" looking when static. Warpaint - I *love* this cover... I have the gif as one of my Windows backdrops... Elegant and mysterious... The early works - I like the monsters, but don't think of them as good album covers... maybe on the flip side or something. HR5 - haven't yet seen it Has anyone been told what Rhodes Songs will look like? and *when* is Happy gonna do the 'Don't Give Up' solo duet? Can we start a petition or something? *sigh* br!an -- __ ____ __ ____ __ __ (__==__) /\ \ / \_\ / /\ / \ \ / |\ / /\ (oo) ( moo.) / \_\ / /\ |_| / / /| /\ \ \ / ||/ / / /-------\/ -' / /\ | |\ \/ /_/_ / / / \ \/ \ \ / |/ / / / | U.T.|| / \/ |_| \ __ \_\ /_/ / \ /\ \_\ / /| / / * ||----|| / /\ ./_/ \ \ \/_/_\_\/ \ \ \/_// / | / / ^^ ^^ \ \/ |_| \ \_\ /_/\ \ \_\ /_/ /|_/ / Br!an Bloom \__/_/ \/_/ \_\/ \/_/ \_\/ \_\/ brianb@lobby.ti.com .. but music hides me so well, ..and reveals me.. oh well - HR ======================================================================== From: ezust@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca (Alan Ezust) Date: Thu, 5 Aug 93 10:57:27 EDT Subject: Re: Happy covers [In message "Re: Happy covers" on Aug 4, Kannisto Juha writes:] | | > I buy a fair amount of stuff based, not on covers, of course, as much | > as reading about the artists, word of mouth, hearing them discussed in | > the context of similar artists. I went looking for Equipoise based on | > hearing the music itself. If I hadn't heard THREE songs before seeing | > that cover in the bin, I probably wouldn't have picked it up. It's | > not just that the cover style doesn't match the contents in terms of | > stylistics (the picture makes SENSE, of course, in the context of a | > number of the songs, but...), it's also that it matches the style of | > covers that appear on the most godawful screaming angry noisy | > speedmetal stuff. Not just that cover, but most of the others. I had | > to steel myself to buy Rhodes I. There I think the cover was | > completely inappropriate. On the flip side, I went through a stage in life where I was picking up a lot of CDs simply because I liked the covers. This is how I discovered Clan of Xymox, Dalis Car, Tear Garden, Dead Can Dance, David Sylvian (Voices of the Beehive), SPK, and a whole mess of other things. A 23-envelope style cover for a Happy Rhodes album would be very appropriate, and would definitely bring a lot of sales.. -- | Alan Ezust ezust@{binkley.}cs.mcgill.ca Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |------------- McGill University School of Computer Science ----------------| Non-determinism means never having to say you are wrong. ======================================================================== 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)