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 #942 ecto, Number 942 Tuesday, 4 January 1994 Today's Topics: *-----------------* i'm on my way.. Re: irc, or for that matter,telnet The "Lonesome Pine" specials on PBS Sarah's Hooks sarah/fumbling towards ecstacy Doom Blasted Awake Re: Scotland & Doom Re: Today's your Geburtstag friend.... Oops! Margot's label? glenn's Year-End Best-Music Lists (long) Sue! Pablos! There's been a change in plans! ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 27 Dec 93 00:03:37 EST From: jessica@maurolycus.rutgers.edu (jessica) Subject: i'm on my way.. after several strange unexpected mostly not-great (though one is good) changes to our plans.... we are finally (10 of us) leaving for vacation tomorrow morning. thank god!!! Have good new year everyone. I hope all stays well with the list while i'm away. there will be practically noone left at rutgers this week, so if anything goes wrong it'll probably stay wrong 'til I get back. :) see you in a week, jessica ======================================================================== Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1993 21:02:25 -0800 (PST) From: Emily Breed Subject: Re: irc, or for that matter,telnet On Sun, 26 Dec 1993 r.lovejoy1@genie.geis.com wrote: > Any of you folks out there in the television lent have an idea how > someone in this situation may be able to find a way to IRC without resorting > to a "premium" service? Any local ectophiles with university connections > know a way for civilians to log in? Well, I don't know if it really counts as non-premium, but I'm quite happy with my netcom account. It's ~$19 if they bill you, or ~$17 if you have it charged to a Visa or Mastercard. Full Internet access & all the bells & whistles. Plus they've got local access numbers all over the country. If anyone's interested in finding a local number to look around on (login GUEST with password GUEST), send me a note & I'll send you back all the access numbers. Until later, Emily (remind me to tell you about how I may have acquired a new cat) Breed ======================================================================== Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1993 21:10:02 -0800 (PST) From: Emily Breed Subject: The "Lonesome Pine" specials on PBS There is a *CRAZY* percussionist/tap dancer on "Lonesome Pine" tonight, a guy named Keith Perry. He's doing a version of "Proud Mary" wsith accompaniment from four of those can-things that sound like cows when you turn them over... If you get a chance, watch this! It is *too* FUNNY. -- Emily ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1993 00:41:26 -0400 (EDT) From: Suspended In Duct Tape Subject: Sarah's Hooks Hi! Both Vickie and Uli have expressed bewilderment at Sarah McLachlan's new album, and neither have been able to get into it yet. My first reaction to this is, "But HOW can you miss it?" But then I remember that all people are different, and noboy's perfect. ;) There are hooks all over the place, starting in "Possession" and moving through the entire album. By this I mean lyrical hooks, since the lyrics and the way she sings them are about 75% of the reason why this album is complete goddess- hood in my mind. Let's start with "Possession": And I would be the one to hold you down kiss you so hard I'd take your breath away And after I'd wipe away your tears just close your eyes dear This went through my head for a solid week. Then we move to "Wait", which was pretty much unremarkable until the line "there is a love that's inherently given" popped out and yelled HELLO. Who the hell uses a word like "inherently" anywhere, never mind a song? "Mary"- just read the liner notes for this one, I'm too lazy to type the whole thing in. This song is just mmm-mmm good lyrically. "Good Enough" jumped to the fore when it became apparent that she (or her character in the song) is singing to another woman, and then you delve deeper and see the woman she's singing to is in the midst of an abusive relationship that the narrator wants to help her get out of. Heavy stuff that sticks to your brain after it's done. "Plenty" actually has a musical hook, the guitar doodad that appears at the beginning and pops up now and again as an extra bit of rhythm throughout. "Elsewhere" has another verse that goes through my head over and over and over: (I'm going by memory here, I may screw this first bit up) ... oh how the child yearns to break free the mold that clings like desperation Mother, can't you see I've got to live my life the way I feel is right for me? Might not be right for you, but it's right for me I believe this is heaven to no one else but me... "Hold On" contains the most powerful moment on the record, both lyrically and in the intensity with which she sings the lines: "Oh God, if you're out there won't you hear me I know we've never talked before Oh God, the man I love is leaving Won't you take him when he comes to your door?" When she sings that third line it's positively heart-wrenching. Gads. "Ice" is another one to which I refer you to the liner notes, since the entire thing is genius. I will, however, point you to the line that stands out the most in my mind: "I don't like your tragic sighs as if your god has passed you by well hey, fool, that's your deception" "Ice Cream" is just Fun. "Your love is better than ice cream, better than anything else that I've tried"- how can you not pay attention to that? :) And "Fear" is a transcendant work of utter genius that will never fail to bring me to new psychic heights. This song contains a Religious Experience, such as can only be found in two other places: Kate's "Night of the Swallow" and Tori's "Precious Things". The best part about the song "Fumbling Towards Ecstacy" is the first line, coming as it does right after "Fear": "All the fear has left me now I'm not frightened any more..." I realize now I should have put massive spoiler warnings in front of this, but I wanted to point some things out that I feel are important to the full enjoy- ment of the album- Vickie and Uli, I just know you're going to catch on one of these days, but I thought I'd help move you through the darkness a bit faster. :) Meredith meth@delphi.com ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 27 Dec 93 00:59:55 EST From: jessica@maurolycus.rutgers.edu (jessica) Subject: sarah/fumbling towards ecstacy okok, i'm really going, really. but first: i must say i agree with meredith 100000000% (if that were possible i would) abotu everything she says about the new sarah album. i hve *not* stopped playing it in my car. greg is strting to get a little bit tired of it, but i have not even BEGUN to get tired. if anything i adore this album more and more as i become more and more familiar with it. almost right away, it was as though the album were an old friend. it took a couple of listens, but then *poof*, the whole thing felt *perfect* and comfortable. i can sing the entire thing, and *enjoy* singing the entire thing, which is a big thing for me, of course. i love "good enough" being to a woman - dave poitned out ot me that it could be written from a man's point of view or could just have nthing to do with sexuality at all, but for me, having only recenlty come to terms with my own bisexuality, the song reminds me a lot of sophie b. hawkins' song (i forget what it's called right now), and I liek to tihnk of it as a love song to a woman from a woman. I sing it that way anyway. oh well, i must go and not write more, but I absolutely completely agree with meth about every single thing she said. if she and I and greg and woj *anre't* all the same person, then it's still pretty neat. (ok, i guess we sometimes differ slightly somehow ;) jessica ======================================================================== From: p.cohen@genie.geis.com Date: Mon, 27 Dec 93 06:01:00 BST Subject: Doom To Klaus: Yeah, Doom's excessively violent, no question about it. But it is also cutting edge graphics and the three-dimensionality is unlike no other game at the present. There isn't excessively _gory_ graphics, ala Mortal Combat. Just LOTS of shooting at things. It's not the kind of game I'd want young kids to play. Let me make that very clear. But the thing is about as close to virtual reality as you can get without elaborate equipment. +########################################################################+ +###+ Paul Cohen, Philadelphia, PA +###+ +########################################################################+ +###+ P.COHEN@genie.geis.com +###+ PMCOHEN@aol.com +###+ +###+ 70703.3126@compuserve.com +###+ PMCOHEN@delphi.com +###+ +########################################################################+ ======================================================================== From: Joe Zitt Subject: Blasted Awake Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1993 00:57:30 -0600 (CST) Apropos of very little: I just put together a cassette of stuff I like that's designed to keep me awake while doing exhilarating things like checking hypertext links (*yawn* *thud*). I called it "Blasted Awake" and put on it: En Vogue: Free Your Mind Aerosmith: Sweet Emotion Brian Eno: Ali Click (Grid Master Edit) Madonna: Justify My Love Tori Amos: Crucify Hammer: Do Not Pass Me By Talking Heads: I Zimbra Yes: Lift Me Up Prince: Thunder Public Enemy: Bring the Noise Nine Inch Nails:Wish (Thirtwell remix) Body Count: Body Count Miles Davis: Rated X 13 great tastes that taste great together! ======================================================================== From: mbravo@tctube.spb.su (Michael E. Bravo) Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1993 23:24:04 +0300 (MSD) Hi! Vickie described her attepmt at MUDs, and I felt I need to comment on that. As in anything net-social, the core of the thing, that which creates the first lasting impression, depends not on technical capabilities and achievements, and not even on creativity of maintainers, but on the 'feel' they managed to create. It is all really very vague, but there could be two MUDs running the same software, with lots of wonderful creative people om both of them, but one would be cold and another will be warm. Don't ask me what the difference is, it just is, and somehow I think that a MUD inhabited and maintained by Ectophiles will be at least... well, blue and fuzzy :) What for the complex command system, it is really up to wizards of teh MUD - there could be small introductory welcoming signs all over, or even some characters which would approach you as you log in and tell you some basic things in an informal way, not requiring you to browse through ton of help screens to get to know how to look on things or pick something up or to 'page' someone. What for actual implementation - if we won't be able to find a machine to run the whole MUD on, I think I know a place where we can 'rent' a whole piece of MUD space and run it entirely by our own rules. It's a MUD on yay.mdc.com (grrr, I forgot the port number, 5446 or 4455 or 4556 ? dunno, got out of my head). They have a whole set of various 'worlds' run by people who invented them. -- Michael E. Bravo AKA /\/\ike 7 812 231 3951 (home) The Communication Tube and Tusovka, Inc. mbravo@tctube.spb.su ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1993 01:05:00 +0100 From: uli@zoodle.robin.de (Ulrich Grepel) Subject: Re: Scotland & Doom > Some people here mentioned Doom, so I thought to give it a try > although, from what I've heard about it, I was quite sure that > I wouldn't like it. Not a minute into demo mode I interrupted it > and deleted it from my hard disc. Excuse my harsh words, but this > is a disgusting piece of software. :( I understand this, though there is a way with dealing with that: let someone else play one level up to the point where all enemies are killed and then enjoy the graphics... Bye, Uli -- Das ist wie mit der Gleichung von Fermat - ein Raetsel, das wir wohl nie loesen werden - Captain Picard, StarTrek TNG, Folge 'Hotel Royal' ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1993 01:20:00 +0100 From: uli@zoodle.robin.de (Ulrich Grepel) Subject: Re: Today's your Geburtstag friend.... > Merry Uli-tide wishes!!! > > Philip (I'm sorry! I'm sorry! ;) Hi Philip, thanks to you and all the other folk out there for all those nice birthday greetings! My name, contrary to the opinion of most English speaking people, isn't pronounced as you-lee or you-lie. It's more a oo-lee, but with a short 'oo'. So there just ain't no Uli-tide ;-) Bye, Uli -- Das ist wie mit der Gleichung von Fermat - ein Raetsel, das wir wohl nie loesen werden - Captain Picard, StarTrek TNG, Folge 'Hotel Royal' ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1993 09:08:38 -0500 (EST) From: Sam Warren Subject: Oops! Hope everyone's holiday-of-choice was merry and bright. For those of you keeping score at home, I feel a great injustice has been served. I surrendered my Top 10 list for the year just passed (almost), but then made a brilliant disc-overy. Talk about premature capitulation! Tear up that list - don't sign that contract! My boss gave me $50 (and a card, something about how much my help is appreciated, blah, blah, blah) with which I knew my course. Bjork was a persistent presence on Love-Hounds (that fire-breeding, draggin' its heels in the mire list), and I felt I should join in the fray. I bought it at Disc-o-rama for $10 and rushed home to indulge. Well, from the first song ("Human Behavior" for those who don't care, don't dare, or don't yet know it's there), I was in love. Other favorites (as in "record right away for your walkman") include: "Crying," "Venus As A Boy," Big Time Sensuality," "One Day" and "Come To Me." I was thrilled to the bone. But when I heard "Violently Happy," I thought I was stoned. Better even than Erasure's "Turns The Love To Anger" at building and sustaining excitement, I danced until I dropped! Lines like "I'm driving my car too fast with ecstatic music on" and "I'm telling people to jump off roofs with me" catapulted the album to #2 on my list! Maybe I don't have to say (but I'm a master of overstatement) - I love this album! So much so that I ran out two days later to get more. I got the 6 song EP for "Venus As A Boy" (with the 12:00 Underworld Remix of "Human Behavior") and 7 mixes of "Big Time Sensuality." Do I recommend it to everyone on this list? Well... She's very vocally expressive, her lyrics are emotionally descriptive (and imaginatively so), and the music is trance-inducing. I hear traces of Laurie Anderson, Peter Gabriel, Trent Reznor and Enigma. Now if you think a stew like that is easily boiled, you're not in the music biz. Be warned, though, that about half of the tracks are "club" songs. So if tribal beats turn your feet to lead, maybe you'll be disappointed. But she also tackles Jazz, Pop and Cabaret (if "Like Someone In Love" isn't the most perverse Torch song I ever heard, I'll be a monkee's uncle). Don't think for one moment that any of this is done traditionally. Bjork seems to take hold of a style and break its neck so it bends to her will. It's unlikely you'd be unshaken by this little earthquake of a singer. So delete Prince, push everyone from Cyndi Lauper on down one, and slip this one right behind The Red Shoes. Signed, A new Bjork fan (or Sam, if unmasked) ======================================================================== From: dcwalter@tomservo (Christian Walters) Subject: Margot's label? Date: Mon, 27 Dec 93 9:30:56 CST Hello! Can someone tell me the label and maybe the number and all that other stuff for Margot Smith's album? I found an aussie who I suckered into looking around for me :) Thanks! -- Christian Walters * "Scientists have made progress in cracking the Tech Writer * genetic roots of some truly nasty diseases, but Intergraph Corporation * they can't cure them yet. It's like finding the Huntsville, AL * TV tower responsible for broadcasting "Full House" dcwalter@ingr.com * but being unable to tear it down." - James Lileks ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1993 11:02:36 -0500 From: gmcdonald@zdi.ziff.com (glenn mcdonald) Subject: glenn's Year-End Best-Music Lists (long) Lots of this is demonstrably non-Ecto stuff, but Happy's in there, and Kate, Jane, Sarah... glenn 10 Best Albums of 1993 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Cyndi Lauper -- Hat Full of Stars The year's most impressive surprise, and a clear choice for first place in my mind, Cyndi Lauper's first new album in four years takes her from being a charming pop singer with a great voice and good taste in songs to being on par with such human angels as Kate, Tori, Jane, Sarah and Happy. "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" is a distant, almost irrelevant, memory. 2. Big Country -- The Buffalo Skinners Big Country is my favorite band; this is their sixth album. After years of self-produced b-sides proving that the band could make music without any outside assistance, this album finally finds them with the courage to produce a whole album themselves. Listening to The Buffalo Skinners, I can easily imagine that this is what the other five records were supposed to sound like. 3. Kate Bush -- The Red Shoes Three of my four favorite artists had new albums this year, and here's the second. Breaking another of this list's long silences, Kate's new album is probably her most accessible, most varied and most commercial, but it is also irrepressibly, unmistakably, brilliantly Kate. 4. The Loud Family -- Plants & Birds & Rocks & Things Don't let the name fool you, the Loud Family is Game Theory, and Game Theory is the third of my four favorite artists to be heard from in 1993. Scott Miller switches band-names and recruits yet another new lineup, and then proceeds to make the followup to Game Theory's classic Lolita Nation as if nothing has changed. 5. Jane Siberry -- When I Was a Boy Jane Siberry needed an acoustic album and a four-year hiatus to clear her mind, but she finally figures out how to follow The Speckless Sky and The Walking. Quiet, sublime. 6. Manic Street Preachers -- Gold Against the Soul Punk is alive, well, spitting and in tune. If the Sex Pistols had known how to play and sing, they still probably wouldn't have sounded this good. Every time I look at last year's top-ten list, I can't believe I didn't put their first album higher than tenth. A year from now I'll probably wonder why this one only got sixth. 7. Living Colour -- Stain After a second album that seemed to me to go in far too many directions at once, Living Colour recaptures their original drive and makes my favorite metal album since the Sisters of Mercy's Vision Thing. 8. Aimee Mann -- Whatever Following yet another long silence, hers not self-imposed, former 'til tuesday lead singer Aimee Mann produces a confident, mature solo debut that sounds as if she'd been making an album a year ever since Everything's Different Now, each one better than the last. 9. The Bobs -- Shut Up and Sing The Bobs first four albums established them firmly as the world's greatest a capella rock band, but are largely interchangable. Shut Up and Sing finds them showing their first signs of post-formation musical development, as well as at least five of their best songs yet. Drums and no covers, no less. 10. (tie) Fugazi -- In on the Kill Taker 10. (tie) IQ -- Ever I didn't want to have any ties this year, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to pair the last true defenders of straight-edge hardcore with my second favorite progressive-rock band. Heedless of grunge, techno, and everything else, Fugazi continue to make austere, furiously-uncompromising, angular music. IQ re-enlists original vocalist Peter Nichols, and makes an album somewhere in between The Wake and Are You Sitting Comfortably?, which is as brilliantly conceived and executed as it is poorly distributed. Maybe Dischord and Giant Electric Pea could work out a deal. 10 Best Songs of 1993 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Manic Street Preachers -- "La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)" This year's nominee for Infinite Repeat. 2. American Music Club -- "Johnny Mathis' Feet" The year's best name-drop. 3. Kate Bush -- "Moments of Pleasure" The simplest, quietest song on The Red Shoes, and for me the most affecting. 4. Melissa Ferrick -- "Honest Eyes" If you are making a debut album and want to catch people's attention very quickly, start it like this. 5. Tribe -- "Supercollider" I'm a sucker for Big Science, and it's about time somebody other than Rush wrote a song about it. 6. Big Country -- "Never Take Your Place" To complement an album that captures the intensity of b-sides, what better than another b-side, this one from the second disc of the "Alone" CD-single set? 7. Happy Rhodes -- "Mother Sea" This was the year that I discovered Happy Rhodes. The fact that she put out a new album during it, and that it contains this exquisitely beautiful song--those are largely side issues. 8. Ian McNabb -- "Great Dreams of Heaven" Ex-Icicle Works leader Ian McNabb's debut solo album is a much mellower, more-controlled record than his old band's last few, but his songwriting talent has suffered no damage in the transition. 9. Sarah McLachlan -- "Hold On" The stand-out track from Sarah's third album (which will be a 1994 release everywhere but Canada). It appeared in the US this year in advance of the album on the No Alternatives compilation. 10. Vai -- "Down Deep Into the Pain" The only thing MTV sold me this year. The video for this song left me speechless and wishing that record stores around here didn't close at midnight. Best New Artists of 1993 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Melissa Ferrick Musical rhebus: Melissa Etheridge minus Bonnie Raitt plus early Sinead O'Connor, with traces of Tracy Chapman and Lone Justice. Are you sure this isn't a fifth album? Liz Phair Imagine Slayer as an intelligent young woman with a fascination for gender issues, a pile of well-worn Let's Active records and absolutely no concern for what anybody's parents will think, especially her own. Best Compilations/Reissues of 1993 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Game Theory -- Distortion of Glory Just reissuing Game Theory's recent back catalog on CD made Alias about the coolest label around. Combining the early EPs Pointed Accounts of People You Know and Distortion on a single CD with their heretofore impossible-to-find debut Blaze of Glory makes Alias personal heroes of mine. Richard Thompson -- Watching the Dark A breathtaking career-overview of a breaktaking career. Best Remix of 1993 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Big Country -- "We're Not in Kansas" My favorite song from 1991's No Place Like Home gets redone with a vengeance on The Buffalo Skinners. Best Live Albums of 1993 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Jam -- Live Jam Every time I listen to this, Paul Weller's dissolution of the Jam comes to seem more and more like rock music's most terrible betrayal. Thin White Rope -- The One That Got Away What else can you say about a band who includes a thank you to everybody who ever said their music sounded like goats? Listening to this album, it seems a wonder to me that anybody got away. Best Cover Songs of 1993 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Big Country -- "(Don't Fear) the Reaper" (Blue Oyster Cult) Covering this and Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", among other things, on the CD-singles for "Ships", Big Country evidentally will stop at nothing to please me. I fully expect to find them covering "More than a Feeling" and "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" on their next single. Soul Asylum -- "Sexual Healing" (Marvin Gaye) How to turn an insipid soul hit into a haunting AIDS-awareness anthem in less than five minutes. The clearest explication since Cyndi Lauper's version of "What's Going On". Best Various-Artist Compilations of 1993 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Big Times in a Small Town In which we find out that Christine Lavin has a lot of cool friends. The World is a Wonderful Place To go along with Watching the Dark, a spellbinding album of other people doing Richard Thompson songs. Belated Mention Awards --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sloan -- Smeared (1992) A band that sounds like every other group in existence, but for only about ten seconds each. EMF -- Schubert Dip (1991) When "Unbelievable" came out, I thought it was the most annoying song ever recorded. A couple years later I'm chagrinned to admit that the album is among the most energetic I've ever heard, and I'm even warming to the song. The Knack -- Serious Fun (1991) Back in 1979, the Knack were the definitive witty skinny-tie power-pop Beatles-ripoff band. For this unanticipated comeback record they traded every bit of lyrical facility for better music, and came up with the greatest album of cliche-ridden American driving music since Boston. Shoes -- Stolen Wishes (1989) Imagine if Devo were sincere, and kind of lonely. Jon Astley -- The Compleat Angler (1988) A vitriolic, self-deprecating critical rebuttal to what, I guess, must have been bad reviews of his great first album. Postscript --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1993 was, easily, the best year for me for new music since I've been conscious enough to have a considered opinion. There were over thirty new albums by artists who appeared on my prior year-end lists, just for a start, and enough new discoveries to make it a great year even without incumbents. If every artist cited in these lists were to suddenly cease to exist, I could make new lists from this year's remainders without a moment's hesitation, and though my album and song lists this year have the least number of overlapping artists since I began doing this, I still have a tall stack of albums that I can't believe I'm not mentioning. I'm tempted to mention them here, but that would be cheating. ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1993 10:00:03 -0500 (EST) From: HOLLY@umbc2.umbc.edu Subject: Sue! Pablos! There's been a change in plans! I'm sorry to be so late announcing this, but slugs don't move very quickly in cold weather. The gathering of the Baltimore/Washington Ectophiles will be held on Tuesday, 28 December, and *not* on Wednesday, 29 December. However, if you wish to come on the 29th, there's still going to be a party going on, but it won't be all that Ectophilic. You see, when my twin sister found out that I was hosting a party on the 29th, she said, "Great! I'll invite the rugby teams! How many kegs should I get?" So, if you'd like to hang out with Ivy's rugby team, Ivy's boyfriend's rugby team, a keg of beer, and various and sundry other folk, by all means, come on over! S and P: Please let me know via email or telephone whether or not you can make it on Tuesday, and whether or not you need directions to my house. I'm looking forward to seeing y'all! Holly holly@umbc2.umbc.edu (410) 536-4572 ======================================================================== 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)