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 #740 ecto, Number 740 Wednesday, 8 September 1993 Today's Topics: *-----------------* Ecto exclusive! :-) The Margot Smith album, reviewed... Re: Need an East Coast volunteer... Re: Dead Can Dance DCD Happy Rhodes in Amsterdam RhodeSongs yet? Returned Mail warning ... testing What The HapMistress Wrote... Re: who be madder rose Greetings! Meryn Cadell ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1993 17:34:00 +1000 (AEST) From: anthony@xymox.apana.org.au (Anthony Horan) Subject: Ecto exclusive! :-) The Margot Smith album, reviewed... Well, to my delight and surprise, EMI rang me yesterday offering me an interview with Margot Smith (next Thursday) and telling me to come pick up a preview copy of the album. So it's with great pleasure that I present the first review anywhere in the world of the new Margot Smith album, "Sleeping With The Lion", scheduled for Australian release on September 20th on EMi Records, catalogue number 8270062. The album is superbly packaged, with photography by Adrienne Overall and design by Libby Blainey, Australia's own answer to V23 :-) The lavish booklet features a different design for the lyrics to each song, and the cover... well, I'll leave that a surprise. Words cannot do justice. Production duties are shared between Steve Kilbey (4 songs), Eddie Raynor (7 songs) and Charles Fisher (1 song). Steve Kilbey also co-wrote a few of the tracks. 12 songs are included in all, making for a total 52 minute running time. Both singles are of course included, as is one song each from the singles' additional tracks. The album opens with the debut single, "Fall Down" - best described as an atmospheric pop song, it contains the harmonica seemingly obligatory on at least one track on every Australian album; this song soars, glides, and lands in your head in insidious fashion, throwing out conventional song structure and in the process of not repeating the chorus ad nauseum at the end, throwing out its chances of chart success. Track two, "How Do You Sleep", is the most atypical song on the album; very guitar-based, quite unlike anything else on the album, and obviously produced with an eye on commercial radio. That doesn't make the song any less of a song, of course; it just could have done with a little more subtelty in the production department. Mind you, this song will probably sound fresh to those who haven't heard Australian artists Wendy Matthews or Deborah Conway, as that is what it seems to be trying to sound like. Pleasant surprise time. Track 3 is "Just", included as a b-side on the "Fall Down" single but listed as not being on the album. Thankfully it is. This piano-and-keyboards lament is heartbreaking, intoxicating, and unforgettable. It is here that the tone for the album is truly set. What EMI have done is sequence the tracks on the album roughly in descending order of up-ness, to an extent. The commercial considerations here are obvious, but one thing I'll be asking Margot is if the songs are presented the way she wanted them to. At any rate, it's all heaven from here on. "Pool Of Blood" , backwards tape loops and all, contains some biting lyrics ("And yes you want to hold me / But you don't want to wear the smell of me / Even though you'd like to know me intimately..."), and the album's only Kate-like backing vocals. Then there's "Arms Of Earth". Wow. There's one track on every album that makes you go "wow". There's actually about 6 here that do that, and this is one of them. Choral tape loops, glistening ethereal guitar, shimmering chord changes, and a vocal to die for. The song leaps mid-way into anger, catharsis and a guitar solo battling Margot's voice. Wonderful. The above tracks having all been produced by Eddie Raynor, we then some to "Adored" the first Kilbey-produced track. This is also the new single, and it's sublime; it's an "up" song very much in the Church mould, and as I've already waxed lyrical about it in another post I won't bore you by repeating myself. This is followed by "Water" - this track, produced by Charles Fisher (one of EMI's in-house producers) was apparently recorded just after Margot signed her deal, and is a wonderful piece of music that only pales on the production side because the rest of the album sounds so startlingly good. Too many factory preset keyboard sounds here, alas. As if to make up for this, Steve Kilbey jumps back into the producer's chair for "The Torch Song", which is exactly that. This track would not be out of place on a This Mortal Coil album. And the following track, "Life Time", has all the glittering acoustic guitar and phased fretless bass sounds we know and love from our Lush albums, but hang on a second - Lush have never written anything as sublime as this, have never sung as enticingly as this.... "Bellyman" is truly amazing. Samples of all manner of things such as music boxes and street vendors come and go behind ominous low strings, while the rhythm of the song is metered out by the ticking of a clock that auto-pans from left to right relentlessly. The song is about the fear of darkness. The vocal and atmosphere is perfect. "Dream", the final Kilbey-produced track, is another in the TMC vein, but once again has more the tone of a wistful lament than the cold atmospherics that pervaded the last TMC album. The words of the songs on this album matter to the person who is singing them, that much is obvious. "Don't let them take you from your dreams..." Finally, "Child" (included on the "Adored" single as well) wraps proceedings with a handy thunderstorm (in Dolby Surround, no less!) and a slightly Tori-ish song it is - or would be if backed by piano. Instrument of choice here is acoustic guitar. In "Sleeping With The Lion" we have the birth of a major talent, and who would have guessed that it would come from here in Melbourne. Mainstream record labels here usually stay away from this kind of music like the plague, and EMI are to be commended for taking the plunge. Whether the have the savvy to get people to hear the record is another thing; all I know is, this is the finest album I've heard since "Little Earthquakes", and the first since then to move me, affect me, and intrigue me in quite the same way. It's an album full of songs that don't wear thin after repeated listens, but rather grow and reveal more of themselves to you over time. Here's a quick discography for the curious: MARGOT SMITH ~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Fall Down" - June 1993 - EMI Australia 8740212 - CD Single (Digipak) 1. Fall Down 2. Just 3. Cut Up 1 and 2 produced by Eddie Raynor. 3 produced by Steve Kilbey. "Adored" - September 1993 - EMI Australia 8740282 - CD Single 1. Adored 2. The Curse 3. Child 1 and 2 produced by Steve Kilbey. 3 produced by Eddie Raynor. "Sleeping With The Lion" - September 1993 - EMI Australia 8270062 - Album 1. Fall Down 2. How Do You Sleep 3. Just 4. Pool Of Blood 5. Arms Of Earth 6. Adored 7. Water 8. The Torch Song 9. Life Time 10. Bellyman 11. Dream 12. Child 1-5, 10, 12 produced by Eddie Raynor. 6, 8, 9, 11 produced by Steve Kilbey. 7 produced by Charles Fisher. 9 remixed by Eddie Raynor. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anthony Horan, Melbourne Australia - anthony@xymox.apana.org.au "I kind of feel like I'm Metallica..." - Tori Amos on the perils of long tours, November 1992 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1993 03:48:15 -0400 (EDT) From: WretchAwry Subject: Re: Need an East Coast volunteer... The Wizzord of Oz says: > Vickie filmicly asks; > > > to it that I didn't know until the interview. Mary Coughlin and Neil > > Jordan are very good friends and have been for years. Mary has been in > > 2 Jordan films. Besides "High Spirits" she was in one called "Miracles" > > which I have never seen or heard about. Mary even bought her house in > > That's "The Miracle" - a sweet and small film that Jordan shot in Irelend > just prior to "The Crying Game". It's about a teenage boy in a small town > who falls for a strange woman who arrives in town, who has more of a > connection to him than he realises. It's very much like a Bill Forsyth film. > FoxVideo just released it on tape here, but I don't think it was ever > released in the US. Yet. Thank you for the info. Does Mary play the strange woman? If so, can I get a dub of it? It sounds wonderful! Listening to the interview closer, I hear that she does say "The Miracle" instead of Miracles. The only film I knew called "Miracles" stars Tom Conti and Teri Garr (one of Conti's trilogy of "miracle" movies, which includes "Saving Grace" and "The Gospel According To Vic") and I knew that Neil Jordan didn't direct it. > > because Mary said that he would definitely be at the show, along with > > many of the cast and crew from Vampire. It would be a perfect chance to > > get Jordan a copy of Equipoise in an informal setting, free of red tape. > > And to kidnap Tom Cruise so they have to recast... :-) We were talking about that casting. Mary said that she had seen rushes of Daniel Day Lewis as the Vampire and that he was perfect, looked great, but she didn't know why he had dropped out. She did say that "Neil knows what he's doing" and that she had known him for years and knew him very well. We shall see. At least Tom Cruise knows a lot about bloodsucking! :-) (Scientology reference there) > Gary Oldman for Lestat! Two vampire pics in a year! He can do it!!!! :) *sigh* Too late :-( > > (An aside about "High Spirits" that she threw out was that it was > > massively, heart-breakingly re-edited by the studio before release. > > Mary's part was a *lot* bigger and most of it ended up snipped out. > > Most of the cast have said at various times that the film's producers > brutally altered the film, completely destroying Jordan's original > intentions. This made no sense to me, but Mary said that the film was originally to be about an affair between her and Peter O'Toole, but that the studio had just signed Daryl Hannah and made her the focus. > > She said that Neil owns the rights to the video release but that he > > just hasn't had time to mess around with it. I hope someday we'll > > see the director's cut of it.) > > The film didn't do all that well, so it's unlikely. But it would be nice. I'd > be curious to see if Jordan's version was actually funny, unlike what finally > came out... I bet it's wonderful! (Especially since it would have more Mary in it :-)) > > I had such a great time yesterday! It started out by meeting an English > > Ectophile and ended up with sitting in a bar having a drink and chatting > > with Mary Coughlin! Chip and I went out to O'Hare and met with Geoff "we > > Who is this Mary Coughlin person anyway? :-) She played the harp in "High Spirits." :-) More, you want more? She's an incredible singer with a to-die-for voice, smoky and bluesy with an Irish accect, she has a way of taking any song and making it a "Mary Coughlin" song, no matter what the genre. When she sings "Mother's Little Helper" (she has 4 children) you forget that it's a Rolling Stones song that you've heard on the radio a million times and you realize that it's about a housewife who's going crazy and who takes pills to help her cope. She has a wry, sardonic sense of style and humor and a "fuck it" attitude. (instead of "don't worry, be happy" with her it's "fuck it, why worry?") Charley and I were talking about the songs we'd like to see Mary cover and I mentioned a couple of Happy songs. Charley said no, Mary couldn't cover Happy because Happy is still in that tension-filled, angst-ridden state, wheras Mary is long past that to the point of "fuck it, have another drink." Good point! One of the songs he put on the sampler tape was "Bad Attitude" by Lisa Germano which is *perfect* for Mary. "You think that you're pretty but you're not, ha ha ha" :-) (Another thing about Mary is that she takes no guff from anybody. At the Irish Fest she had to put up with a lot of dorks who had been drinking (green, probably) beer all day and were shouting out things to her. At one point she introduced a song by saying "this is a song about smoochin'" and some jerk yelled out "I wanna smooch you baby" and she just looked at him and said "fuck off!" and started the song :-) Everybody applauded :-) Another time some dimplebrain kept yelling out this song he wanted her to sing, "Katy" (something like that) "KATY!" he kept yelling. She ignored him for a while, but finially looked right at him and asked him what? He said "SING KATY" and she said "Katy? Katy's a Mary Black song, I ain't Mary Black!" and started the next song. It was *so* funny! The guy shut his mouth after that, but stayed for the whole show) (Maybe these stories make her sound like a foul-mouthed shrew, but she's not. She's very intelligent and articulate, but she's also very down-to- earth and singing in Irish pubs-how she started out-taught her how to handle hecklers) She is a cover artist, but really, unlike anyone else I know. She covers everyone from Elvis Costello to Sting to Jacques Brel to Cole Porter and Leonard Cohen and she also has lots of songs written especially for her. A lot of the songs she sings have political lyrics, or they're about societal problems. Songs range from "Lady In Green" which is about a man finding a woman floating in the water, a suicide, and how her problems became his problems because he would never forget her. Her "solution" became his nightmares, and "My Land Is Too Green" which is a scathing look at Ireland's politics and apathy (one line, "we export our problems for foreign solutions" refers to the fact that women who want abortions have to go to another country to get one) and "Ice Cream Man" which, based on a true story, is about a heroin dealer who sold heroin via his Ice Cream van, and "Magdelin Laundry" which is about girls who get pregnant and are sent to these Catholic homes and work in the laundry washing nun's and priest's clothes, then when they have their babies the babies are taken away from them and adopted out to rich people, and the girls are "shamed" so they can't go home and end up working at the laundry for the rest of their lives, and "The Laziest Girl" which is about a prostitute...so many more....they're all so good... Btw, her name is pronounced "Cogland." She's really quite wonderful, as a singer, and as a person. Please, please, I do hope some East Coast Ectophiles can make it to one of the shows, even if you don't have an extra Equipoise to give her. The dates again: 8th-New York City-Tramps 9th-N. Hampton, MA-Iron Horse 11th-Philadelphia, PA-Commodore Barry Irish Center 12th-Buffalo, NY (but it wasn't confirmed) 16th-New Orleans, LA-Tipitinos 19th-Pawling, NY-Towne Crier (I have no idea where Pawling is) She might be on Mountain Stage the 19th too. That's unconfirmed. Vickie ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 3:58:53 EDT From: WretchAwry Subject: Re: Dead Can Dance > Okay, Vickie got me *really* interested now to check out Dead Can Dance. Ectophiles are so intelligent! :-) > I made a note a while back that there will be a new DCD album called > "Into the Labyrinth". Is it actually out already? If not, when will it be? No, it's not out yet. It's just that Anthony in Australia is a big time hoity-toity music reviewer and gets to hear all the good stuff before you or I or the rest of the unwashed masses. :-) :-) :-) > And thanks to all the people who mentioned Heidi Berry. I got her latest > album on Saturday and I think it's *great*!!! See? Smart! > byeeeeeeeeeee, hiiiiiiiiiiii! > Ilka Vickie ======================================================================== Date: 07 Sep 93 17:03:21 EDT From: Mike Mendelson Subject: DCD >Oct >20 Atlanta Roxy >22 Washington DC Lizner >24 Montreal Olympic >25 Ontario Muisc Hall >27,28 New York Town Hall >29 Boston TBA >30 Philadelphia TLC >Nov >2 Chicago Vic >4 Denver Ogden >7 San Fran Zellerbach >8 LA Royce hall >11 Seattle Moore >12 Vancour Vogue I would have to concur with Vickie (though perhaps more even-mindedly, not that this is a good or better thing at all) that going to see Dead Can Dance is a good thing to do. I went last time (at her behest) even though I was barely familiar with their music and it was very interesting, if nothing else. Now that I am rather familiar with their music (esp. Aion which is my favorite) I really look forward to seeing them again. Vickie, you left out the interesting part! (About you not liking them or not giving them the time of day for year(s?) and then really kicking yourself, or something like that, right?) BTW, I called the Vic, and they said the show in Chicago is as yet *unconfirmed* thus tix are not yet on sale here. The last time they played there it was a fullhouse, so I can't imagine the unconfirmedness has anything to do with the likelihood that the concert will or won't be well-attended. (how's that for a sentence?) -mjm ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 11:11:44 MET DST From: Albert Philipsen Subject: Happy Rhodes in Amsterdam Some time ago I asked in an Amsterdam record store for Happy, and now they have a copy of _Equipoise_! :-) I'm still waiting for _RhodesSongs_ to appear there... Albert ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 5:32 EDT From: robert@deepspace.nj00802.sai.com (Robert Lovejoy) Subject: RhodeSongs yet? Hi all, Has anyone seen a retail RhodeSongs yet? My info was that it would be in the stores this week. No sign of it in Philly, though WXPN played Summer last Saturday. Naturally, I wasn't listening at the time. Soon Come, mon! With all the talk going on I feel deeply underprivelidged never to have heard M7X. I do enjoy MST3K, though. Have a nice day, everybody! Fist ectophile to spot a retail RS wins! (Prize is satisfaction of a job well done and over an hour of great music!) Bob L. PS - And don't forget Mitch Elrod! Help make AG profitable; order yours today!!! ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 14:30:53 +0200 From: yngveh@stud.cs.uit.no (Yngve Hauge) Subject: Returned Mail warning ... testing Hmmm seems like my last mail bounced back - I'm just checking that everything is ok...... Yngve ======================================================================== From: Tree of Schnopia Subject: What The HapMistress Wrote... Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 08:33:41 -0400 (EDT) Forwarded message: > From vickie@pilot.njin.net Tue Sep 7 22:12:23 1993 > Date: Tue, 7 Sep 93 21:50:23 EDT > From: WretchAwry > To: ecto.;@pilot.njin.net > Loves: Kate Bush..Happy Rhodes..Jane Siberry..Peter Gabriel..Tori Amos.. > Subject: Hellos! > Message-Id: > > Drewcifer and I have already had an e-mail exchange (Andrew, you have to > post what Happy wrote on your CD!) but to make it public... Okay! Happy has autographed 4 of my 6 CDs, and they say: EQUIPOISE: "Andrew, Best Wishes, Happy Rhodes." But wait! It gets more interesting. ECTO: "Drewcifer--Thank you for your kind words. Happy Rhodes" You all know how I can gush. I had gushed like never before. RHODES I: "Drewcifer, you are a most colorful individual! Happy Rhodes" You all know how bizarre I can be. I had demonstrated that ability. And finally: RHODES II: "'All these moments will be lost in time...like tears in rain...time to die. Happy Rhodes" I had asked her to quote some of her favorite lyrics. She quoted _BLADE RUNNER_ instead. I was pleased. Sigh. :) > ************** WELCOME BACK ANDREW!! ************* > > It's good to see you back! And 'tis good, indeed, to be back. The review's coming, I promise. Drewcifer, who is slightly ill and couldn't sleep a wink--not one wink--last night. Sniff. Classes start today, too. ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 08 Sep 93 09:42:14 -0500 From: "Dennis G Parslow" Subject: Re: who be madder rose >DATE: Tue, 7 Sep 93 10:43:08 PDT >FROM: Neal R. Copperman > >Jeffy: I can relate, the Pogues used to be one of my favorite bands, but I >couldn't hold on as long as you did. The one song I heard on the radio for >Hell's Ditch and the almost worthless Peace & Love made me give up right then. >Isn't Turkish Song of the Damned on If I Should Fall From Grace With God (Which >sounds like a masterpiece compared to later work but was a disappointment >compared with Rum, Sodomy & the Lash and Red Roses For Me.) I just finally picked up these two. Worth the money (imports!) I did like Peace and Love, though. >Can someone give me some info on Madder Rose. They are playing an hour from >here with Juliana Hatfield 3. AAARRRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!! wherewherewhere....la? wah! >JH3 is also playing at a street fair I'm going >to this weekend, so I was wondering if I should make the trek for MR. (no doubt!) One of my favorite finds this year. Female lead vocals, electric guitars behind. On the somewhat tame, but powerful side. A very good match for JH#, I might add (by the way, I like the JH3 album, but not as much as her first (solo) effort). >This >weekends Street Scene is a mammoth street fair, featuring 75 bands, including >people like B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Thomas Mapfumo, X, Los Lobos, Belly and about >70 more. The only bad news is they are all on about 10 different stages, so >there are bound to be multiple great bands playing at once. The whole thing >adds up to 15 hours of music and food and crowds and whatnot over two days, so >maybe I should spend my week in a sensory deprivation tank rather than driving >up to see more bands. What an excellent time! (I would *love* to see Belly too). I saw Buddy Guy this year at SPAC's Newport Jazz Festival, and B.B. King at last year's. Those guys can play! >May be the last person on the list to see The Fugitive, but it was great. >I expected it to be fun, but I didn't expect it to be clever. What a >nice surprise. I finally saw it a week ago. There was *no* dead space in that movie! A real eye-riveter. I also finally saw Jurassic Park (not my style) and Much Ado About Nothing. That wa great! (and just the way I've been taught Shakespeare (or whoever) meant it.) Emma Thompson was wonderful. Dennis Parslow "I don't write songs about girls anymore Troy, NY 12180 I have to write songs about women p00421@psilink.com No more "Boy meets girl, boy loses girl", More like "Man tries to understand what the hell went wrong!" "I'm an Adult Now" The Pursuit of Happiness _Love Junk_ ======================================================================== Date: 08 Sep 1993 10:06:46 -0400 (EDT) From: I wanna be a Mongol Subject: Greetings! Hello all-- new subscriber to the list, but an Ectophile from way back, (indirectly due to Woj, who I'm sure has no idea who I am-- heh) extending greetings until I figure out enough about what goes on to write a more coherent message. :) Till later, Maura ======================================================================== From: Tim Breitkreutz Subject: Meryn Cadell Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 08:58:39 -0600 Hi all. Last night Meryn Cadell was the guest on Brave New Waves (the best radio show north of Chicago :), and there was a long interview plus a few songs from her new album, Bombazine. The single being released is called Window of Opportunity, and sounds pretty good. I'm not a huge fan, but it was an interesting interview. This album, on Sire, was co-written with Ben Mink, of kd lang co-writing fame! There is a bit of country influence on the songs. Tim ======================================================================== From: yngveh@stud.cs.uit.no (Nightbird) Subject: Re: Greetings! Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 17:49:59 METDST > > Hello all-- new subscriber to the list, but an Ectophile from way back, > (indirectly due to Woj, who I'm sure has no idea who I am-- heh) extending > greetings until I figure out enough about what goes on to write a more > coherent message. :) > W E L C O M E T O E C T O ! ! ! ! ! ! -- T ---- Only In Your Eyes Lies Your Soul.............. H | --- ----- ---- --- - -- - - - - - --- E |-- | | | | | | |__| | | |_ | | | | | |--- | | | | | --- --- - - ---- - - - -- - - - --- --- Yngve Hauge (yngveh@stud.cs.uit.no).....University of Tromsoe...Norway ======================================================================== 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)