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 #918 ecto, Number 918 Friday, 17 December 1993 Today's Topics: *-----------------* Re: New Sarah and Peter A day late, probably also a dollar short Sylvian mailing list subscription info Re: New Sarah and Peter The Best Albums of 1993 Bristol Re: The Best Albums of 1993 Hey You! Unlurk! The joys of modems Re: A day late, probably also a dollar short Today's your birthday friends.... ======================================================================== Subject: Re: New Sarah and Peter Date: Thu, 16 Dec 93 16:22:03 -0500 From: jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu Ethan Straffin writes: >On to Sarah's new album, which is (no surprise here, considering how she >keeps evolving as an artist) wonderful. It falls off a bit in the middle, >but there's none of the filler that was so painfully evident on the second >half of _Solace_. ARGH! The second half of _Solace_ is SO much better than the first half! "Mercy," "Home," "Shelter," they *make* the album. I'm not totally crazy about the studio version of "Black" (though the live version was great). Lest I leave without saying anything *constructive*, I picked up a couple of albums yesterday: the new Melissa Etheridge and the new Pogues. The ME album is, well, what I expected, mostly. If anything, it's a throwback to the _Brave and Crazy_ style, which is just fine with me. I'm sure that as soon as I learn the lyrics and can belt along with Melissa, I'll adore the album. The new Pogues is more problematical. I wish they weren't letting Spider Stacey do (almost all of) the singing. He's thoroughly confused and can't decide whether he wants to sound like Shane MacGowan or Joe Strummer. He fails at either. The lyrics on the album just point out what a poet MacGowan really was, even if he was stoned/drunk off his ass most of the time. But the music is fun, and there are a couple of songs that really work well for me, including the last two whose names I can't recall. Definitely a mixed review, though. Hear it before you buy it... Jeff (who still hasn't heard FTE, but doesn't think he could ever trust the opinion of someone who would slag the second half of _Solace_) ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1993 16:27:18 CST From: Subject: A day late, probably also a dollar short Yesterday's repost of the "Is there a Santa" thing from _Spy_ reminded me that the current _Harper's_ has a piece by David Sidaris, who's also contributed to NPR, on his experiences as a department store elf. Yesterday's reprint of Holly's encomium to paper brought to my consciousness the fact that I value paper most for what's printed on it, whereas my cats value it most for what they can do to (not with) it. With Mrs. Lovejoy on the mend, Holly now becomes the logical choice for the redirection of all that psychic energy :-). This afternoon, NPR spoke of the growing rate of intra-office gun battles in the Postal Service. If it takes Priority Mail sent on Friday, and presumably targeted to arrive on Monday, until Wednesday to actually do so, then it could be pure serendipity that more customers don't join forces with the shootists :-). Hopefully Doug's haste won't make waste. But I think, judging from previous experience, that the final product will prove to be worth the aggravation we went through to cobble it together. Kim writes: >sorry if i got shirty about the plowing.. i was having a bad day. social ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >relations (i.e. Snogging) in my hall have just reached critical mass, and ^^^^^^^^ I'm not familiar with these particular Anglicisms. What do they mean? Off to ponder the ramifications of trying the hottest version of Bison Shrimp (like Buffalo wings, but with shrimp) for lunch. I'll let you know if I need your psychic energy after Holly's done with it :-). Mitch ======================================================================== From: "Greg O'Rear" Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1993 17:53:57 EST5EDT Subject: Sylvian mailing list subscription info If anyone would like to subscribe to the David Sylvian mailing list, send the following command to listserv@gu.uwa.edu.au: subscribe sylvian john doe where john doe is actually your real name (the listserver figures out your e- mail address). The above should be the one and only line in the body of your message to the listserver (I think signatures are ignored, but they are not helpful; don't include it if you can prevent it). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Greg O'Rear E-mail: orear@ise.ufl.edu Industrial and Systems Engineering Department Phone: (904) 392-3389 University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida FAX: (904) 392-3537 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1993 18:03:26 -0500 (EST) From: Michael Colford Subject: Re: New Sarah and Peter On Thu, 16 Dec 1993 jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu wrote: > Jeff > (who still hasn't heard FTE, but doesn't think he could ever trust the > opinion of someone who would slag the second half of _Solace_) Jeff, I would never slag any of _Solace_, and I highly reccommend FTE! Michael ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 16 Dec 93 15:44:11 PST From: "John Relph" Subject: The Best Albums of 1993 Not being a person to jump on just any old passing bandwagon, I thought I would send in my twenty best albums of the year. By the way, I don't think I really have tastes which jibe with most of the EctoWorld, but I suppose that doesn't really matter. And not all of these were released in 1993, but I first heard them during this year. These albums are ranked in order of the number of times I listened to them, which I take as an indication of preference. But tomorrow this list would be different. -- John Pooh Sticks, "Million Seller" Amazing. These folks make bubblegum rock sound respectable. They also pack their songs with references to other bands. This album is not quite as bad as some. But the music? Wonderful harmonies, happy songs, good guitar work. Pure pop. A combination of Neil Young, The Partridge Family, Boston, XTC, Donovan, you name it. The album rocks from the opening notes to the end of the final song. Yow. Frank and Walters, "Trains, Boats and Planes" The first full album from these boys from Ireland. Another pure pop band, this one a three-piece. But they write interesting lyrics, and they aren't afraid to sing nonsense when it makes sense to. Some very strong songs on this album. You may have heard their cover of The Monkees' "I'm a Believer" on the "Ruby Trax" compilation. Happy Rhodes, "Equipoise" I still think "Save Our Souls" must be listened to at earthshaking volume. Vanessa Paradis, "Vanessa Paradis" If you like Lenny Kravitz's pastiche of the sixties and seventies, you'll love this. Vanessa's voice is a bit high and breathy for some, but I love it. And since this isn't a Lenny Kravitz album, Mr Kravitz didn't have to take himself seriously, to his benefit. A cross between the Mamas & Papas, the Cowsills, Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66, and The Partridge Family (again). Great harmonies (thanks to Lenny). And then after you've listened to this, listen to the bonus track on the Lemonheads' "Come On Feel..." Jane Siberry, "When I Was a Boy" Utterly amazing. Great hip hop grooves, powerful lyrical imagery, nice cover art. An all around classic, but I find myself programming out most of the quieter songs, just going for the groove and the power. Deep Forest, "Deep Forest" Another grooving album. Crank the bass and dance to these pygmies. The frenchmen who put this one together did a pretty good job, although I think they didn't let the pygmies sing for themselves quite enough and spent too much time stringing samples together. A nice ambient dance album nonetheless. Peace Together, "Peace Together" When it's good, it's real good, but when it's bad. Highlights on this are Curve & Ian Dury, My Bloody Valentine, the Robin Guthrie remix of the title track. I also like the remake of "Games Without Frontiers" even though it is a little grating. A couple of bombs, notably U-2's lame-oid self-aggrandizing cover of the Lou Reed track. But program those two or three tracks out and it's a big win. Martin Newell, "The Greatest Living Englishman" English pop at its best. As someone else pointed out, the production values may leave a bit to be desired but the songs are good, the guy is a very tuneful gardener (yes, he is a gardener). Captain Sensible, "The Universe of Geoffrey Brown" Another great English pop album. A little patchier than some of his other works, and the "rock opera" format may leave some people cold, but it's a good message and when the songs are good they are really good. Especially "Getting to Me", a great Beatles-style pop song, and "Street of Shame", more of a rocker. Martin Newell wrote the 'tween- tracks dialogue. David Sylvian & Robert Fripp, "The First Day" Another album that has its great points and its not-so-great points. Some of the songs build up a great groove but go nowhere. But all in all a very nice listening experience. Fripp does a little Hendrix, Sylvian's lyrics as oblique as ever, if not more so. Their concert was intense, and unfortunately pointed out some shortcomings of the studio recording. Robert Fripp, "Kon-nan Power" A bootleg of one of the Robert Fripp String Quintet shows, this recording has amazing sound quality, and the songs are wonderful. >From heavy Frippertronics to contrapuntal baroque music to surf, this album covers it all. Except for one thing: no vocals. Dead Can Dance, "Into the Labyrinth" I can't listen to Dead Can Dance very often, but this album is very good. Frank Sinatra goes mediaeval. High points for me? "How Fortunate The Man With None", "Mr Lovegrove". But "Aion" is still a better album. Posies, "Frosting On The Beater" This one grows on me every time I play it. Good pop music, but on the heavy side. The noise quotient is up from their previous releases, and their songwriting ability is still there. Galactic Cowboys, "Space In Your Face" Metallica meets XTC meets Weird Al. A metal band with vocal harmonies and a sense of humor. Their first album is very good as well. Jellyfish, "Spilt Milk" Whilst this album is technically better than The Posies "Frosting", it sounds a little forced. And the guitars just don't make it. The lack of a full-time guitarist shows on this record. But there are some great pop songs. "Sabrina Paste and Plato" and "My Best Friend" might have well been Queen and 10CC and XTC and more rolled into one. Lemonheads, "Come On Feel The Lemonheads" This album isn't nearly as good as "It's a Shame About Ray", but Evan is still a good songwriter and has a nice voice. But don't watch the video, he acts like a total space cadet. I really like his country music excursion here, the anti-gay-bashing "Big Gay Heart". And the uncredited bonus track hits Lenny Kravitz hard. Ouch! Matthew Sweet, "Altered Beast" Another disappointment from his previous. This album is a little less coherent and a bit noisier than "Girlfriend". Still some winning songs, but overall not as good. Heavy wailing guitar pop with a cutting emotional edge. Camper Van Beethoven, "Camper Vantiquities" Being a compilation, this album is very uneven. But even so, there are some great songs, some instrumentals and some not. If you like the Campers at all, check this one out. Something for everyone. More great underground pop music, with a faux-eastern european folk twist. Matthew Sweet, "Goodfriend" The demo and live version of "Girlfriend" with a few bonus tracks, including the live cover of Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer" with the Indigo Girls helping him out. Some of the re-workings on this album work, some don't, but it is a revealing portrait of the various sides of Mr Sweet. Lenny Kravitz, "Are You Gonna Go My Way" Another uneven album, and Lenny takes himself much too seriously. He is a serious artist after all. But a few good tracks, and well worth a listen. Just don't expect anything new from his standard seventies pastiche. Other albums worth mention, in no particular order: Antenna, "Hideout" New Model Army, "The Love of Hopeless Causes" Adrian Belew, "The Acoustic Adrian Belew" Kate Bush, "The Red Shoes" Neneh Cherry, "Homebrew" Cracker, "Kerosene Hat" Curve, "Cuckoo" Brian Eno, "Neroli" Brian Eno, "Nerve Net" Peter Gabriel, "Us" Greaves, Cunningham, "Greaves, Cunningham" Robyn Hitchcock, "Respect" Idaho, "Year After Year" King Crimson, "The Great Deceiver -- Live 1973-1974" Led Zeppelin, "Box Set2" Happy Rhodes, "RhodeSongs" Joe Satriani, "Time Machine" Shonen Knife, "Shonen Knife" ======================================================================== From: Jeremy Corry Date: Thu, 16 Dec 93 19:36:55 -0500 Subject: Bristol Oh dear, I guess I've started one already, and I rarely even post! ME: >It's wonderful to have UK-ectophiles around to hear from. Sorry you have to >live in Bristol though (personal opinion only!). As I said, "personal opinion only!" STEVE FAGG: > Now that, sir, is fightin' talk. :-) You surely cannot expect to make off > the cuff remarks of this sort and not be challenged to back them up! :-) > Just maybe Mr. Plowright is happy being at Bristol Uni., and I can think of > several hundred places in the UK I would less like to be living in than > Bristol myself, so what gives???? What has Bristol ever done to > you????????? :-) :-) KIM PLOWRIGHT: > bristol isn't that bad! ok, so it rains. but its a positive thing! anyhow > ill be glad to get home to canterbury: much smaller and prettier... IAN YOUNG: > Hey Jeremy! Guess where I come from :) > > I. <-- I'm an I before E except after C So yes, there are many places in England worse than Bristol. And I'm sure that one can be completely happy with Bristol Uni. My impression of the city was that it was industrial, dirty, smelled bad because of being a port-city, and did not offer as much culturally as a city of its size should. Of course, I lived in picturesque Bourton-on-the-Water, in the Cotswolds (probably the most beautiful countryside in England). And when I wanted city life I went to either Oxford or London. So I was spoiled by the two, sue me! Remember Canterbury: much smaller and prettier...? Kim: any relation to Joan? Ian: I have no idea where you are from, but your address implies you live in Birmingham ('Birmingum' for non-UK pronouncers). -- Jeremy (loooooaaadza money!) I've seen the future/ I can't afford it. --ABC ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1993 19:38:23 -0500 (EST) From: Michael Colford Subject: Re: The Best Albums of 1993 On Thu, 16 Dec 1993, John Relph wrote: > Jane Siberry, "When I Was a Boy" > Utterly amazing. Great hip hop grooves, powerful lyrical imagery, > nice cover art. An all around classic, but I find myself programming > out most of the quieter songs, just going for the groove and the power. Ah, you miss out on the quiet power of _At the beginning of time_ and _The vigil (the sea)_ > Lenny Kravitz, "Are You Gonna Go My Way" > Another uneven album, and Lenny takes himself much too seriously. He > is a serious artist after all. But a few good tracks, and well worth > a listen. Just don't expect anything new from his standard seventies > pastiche. Not to criticize anyone's musical taste (because, believe me, I know he has many fans, including my roommate and my boyfriend) but I just can't understand the appeal of Lenny Kravitz. I don't think he has an original note in his reportoire (sp?), I don't think he can sing, and I think if he had never been married to Lisa Bonet, no one would have every heard of him. Oh well, we can't like everyone. > Neneh Cherry, "Homebrew" An excellent choice! _Trout_ is one of my all time favorite songs, and _Buddy X_ is soooo smooth > Curve, "Cuckoo" I'm looking forward to hearing it in its entirety. I haven't picked it up yet, but have heard 3 or 4 songs. Sounds promising. > Happy Rhodes, "RhodeSongs" Just found this one two days ago. My 2nd HR CD! Thanks for the lists everyone. I love reading them! Michael ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 16 Dec 93 16:54:14 PST From: "John Relph" Subject: Re: The Best Albums of 1993 Michael Colford, quoting me, replied: > >> Jane Siberry, "When I Was a Boy" >> Utterly amazing. Great hip hop grooves, powerful lyrical imagery, >> nice cover art. An all around classic, but I find myself programming >> out most of the quieter songs, just going for the groove and the power. > >Ah, you miss out on the quiet power of _At the beginning of time_ >and _The vigil (the sea)_ Ah, the key word here is "most". "The Vigil" is most excellent. > I just >can't understand the appeal of Lenny Kravitz. I don't think he has >an original note in his reportoire (sp?), I don't think he can sing, >and I think if he had never been married to Lisa Bonet, no one would >have every heard of him. He may not have an original note, but he puts together all those stolen notes in new and interesting ways. However, his first album _Let Love rule_ is still far and away the best, especially the songs "I Build This Garden For Us" (great video, by the way), and "Be". >> Neneh Cherry, "Homebrew" > >An excellent choice! _Trout_ is one of my all time favorite songs, >and _Buddy X_ is soooo smooth "Trout" is wonderful. But I guess it was thought too controversial to put on a single. (Or on MTV?) -- John ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 16 Dec 93 22:06:08 EST From: woj@remus.rutgers.edu (the dark saxophone) Subject: Re: New Sarah and Peter Ethan_Straffin@next.com (Ethan Straffin) sez: >On to Sarah's new album, which is (no surprise here, considering how she >keeps evolving as an artist) wonderful. It falls off a bit in the middle, just keep listening to it over and over and over again and you'll soon realize that there's no fall off at all...i've already developed a love- hate relationship with this album. i love it dearly, but it's so good, i hate to listen to it all the time (like i'm doing) in fear that i might wear it out (mentally, not physically). i also hate the fact that it ends. >"Plenty" -- this would be my pick for a first single. Nice backing vocals on >the chorus, and just a bit of guitar crunch that reminds me of Sarah's >Nettwerk colleagues Moev. (Whatever happened to Moev, anyway?) moev released a few brilliant albums (with madeline morris singing), one absolutely stunning album (_yeah, whatever_) and then quickly became ever more uninteresting. once upon a time, sarah was going to sing for moev (and, i believe, went as far as to record a few demos with them), but it never happened in the end. i wonder what would have happened if it did though. incidentially, anthony valcic is none to enmoured with sarah. she basically dumped all the work that he had done with _solace_ without a care. it's rumored that some copies of his recordings are floating about (supposedly circulated by none other than himself), but i've never heard them (not that that invalidates their existence ;) +woj ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1993 10:39:17 GMT From: imy@wcl-rs.bham.ac.uk (Ian Young) Subject: Hey You! Unlurk! Calling Oslo, can you hear me? :) :) I. ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 18 Dec 1993 00:58:51 +1200 From: sainty_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz Subject: The joys of modems I had to do this - just so I could say I've achieved *something* while using this thing... :) I have the possibly temporary use of a modem. However it is a rather old thing being about a foot square in size and having a grand total of two speeds (300/300 and 1200/75) Now I could stand the speed (especially if this account allowed me to use the 1200/75 speed so that I wasn't stuck with data coming in at a rather painful 300) if I actually got everything that was sent to me. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line something has decided that whenever lots of things are being sent, it'll just lose half of it or so... this makes it rather difficult to do things like read ecto as I get about every other line (if I'm lucky... now that I think about it it must be less than that even...) I suppose a buffer is overflowing somewhere or something, but I don't know where... perhaps this account doesn't actually support 300/300 after all and it's stuffing up there... ah well... Hopefully I'll have it all sorted out in a few days... Philip (a very confused kiwi'phile) ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1993 16:34:57 +0000 From: S.L.Fagg@bnr.co.uk (Steve Fagg's Mac) Subject: Re: A day late, probably also a dollar short At 4:27 pm 16/12/93 -0600, U15289 wrote: >Kim writes: >>sorry if i got shirty about the plowing.. i was having a bad day. social > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >>relations (i.e. Snogging) in my hall have just reached critical mass, and > ^^^^^^^^ > >I'm not familiar with these particular Anglicisms. What do they mean? "Shirty" means to get annoyed. "Snogging" is kissing and cuddling. -- Regards Steve Fagg ( S.L.Fagg@bnr.co.uk +44-279-402437 ) BNR Europe Ltd., London Road, Harlow, Essex, CM17 9NA, UK *** "Better drowned than duffers. If not duffers, won't drown". *** ======================================================================== From: klaus@inphobos.wupper.de Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1993 07:47:36 Subject: Today's your birthday friends.... i*i*i*i*i*i i*i*i*i*i*i *************** *************** ***HAPPY******* ***HAPPY******* ********BIRTHDAY*** ********BIRTHDAY*** ******************* ******************* *** Laura Clifford **** ***** Dirk Kastens **** *********************** *********************** -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Laura Clifford Tue December 17 1957 Sagittarius Dirk Kastens Tue December 17 1963 Sagittarius Uli Grepel Wed December 25 1968 Steinbock Karl Dotzek Sat December 30 1961 Capricorn Stuart Castergine Mon December 30 1963 You Are Here Marvin Camras Sat January 1 1916 Tapehead Jeanne Schreiter Tue January 3 1967 Capricorn John Sandoval Wed January 4 1967 Capricorn Paul Cohen Tue January 5 1954 Capricorn Tony Garrity Mon January 8 1962 Pool of Life Greg Bossert Tue January 9 1962 OfTheTimes Aaron Hawkins Mon January 12 1970 Capricorn Troy J. Shadbolt Thu January 14 1971 Capricorn Chris Sampson Wed January 15 1964 Void where prohibited Dennis G Parslow Fri January 17 1964 SDCN -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- _____ Klaus Kluge * klaus@inphobos.wupper.de * I'll be here, I'll be (in) Ecto! ======================================================================== 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)