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 #744 ecto, Number 744 Thursday, 9 September 1993 Today's Topics: *-----------------* ecto challenge problem re: regional samplers My Happy Review Shame! [Was: Cross - Over - Tones] Mailbombed again? Re: Bay Area sampler (?) Eat The Music: Preliminary Impressions Cocteau Twins release date changed Re: ecto #743 Re: Cocteau Twins release date changed ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 9 Sep 93 13:18:27 PDT From: Neal R. Copperman Subject: ecto challenge problem I was curious to see what the resourcefull minds of ecto (or is that a group mind?) might come up with for me. Here is the scenario: After only a moderate amount of persuasion, I managed to convince my roommate/ex-girlfriend Brienne to go to the WOMAD festival with me. Then, Vickie kindly introduced the Jane concert into the picture. Naturally, I want to go to both. Now it's about 4 hours round trip to see Jane on Friday night and probably about 3.5 to get to and from WOMAD (plus maybe more for traffic at the site). My obvious answer is to stay in LA somewhere (the two shows are about a half hour apart). The problem is that Brienne doesn't share my enthusiasm for music, and WOMAD itself may well be too much for her. While she likes Jane, my suggestions of seeing both shows was met with a "we'll already be seeing lots of music this weekend", as if the addition of Jane could possibly mean too much music (is there such a thing?). Anyone want to offer persuasive words that might win her around. Right now it's looking like an extra 4 hour solo drive or skipping it entirely, both answers worthy of :-('s. Neal ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 09 Sep 93 15:40:40 CST From: kiri Subject: re: regional samplers Well surprisingly enough a regional/state sampler exists for alternative artists from Mississippi. The disc is called Mississippi Dreaming and from what i've heard is very good. I believe there is even a song on the disc by a group whose 2nd guitar player is a graduate student in my dept. most of the featured bands are from Oxford. I just happened to see this album again while picking up used copies of Until the End of the World Sndtrck, The Mission U.K's Carved in Sand, and the Theodore Alternative Sampler with the kate song. kiri *preparing to 'woman' the phone for DCD tickets* and ya know Neneh Cherry is pretty cool oh BTW does anyone know anything about a group from CT called NBRQ?? One of my workmates saw them in Memphis and said they were really good, and would like more info about them. ======================================================================== From: Tree of Schnopia Subject: My Happy Review Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1993 18:07:27 -0400 (EDT) OK, here goes. 6. REARMAMENT. It's not that this is a bad album, by any means; it's just that I find it to be a little less consistent than the rest. I adore "Perfect Irony"*, "I Am A Legend"* (which mirrors my sentiments about myself exactly :)), and "Be Careful What You Say". "'Til The Dawn Breaks" has some evocative lyrics...in fact, the entire album is fascinating and worthwhile lyrically. It's just that the music seemed a little less memorable and spot-on this time around. I expect the album to grow on me as I listen to it more and more, and it will doubtlessly move up the list. 5. RHODES II. Like REARMAMENT, this album feels a little uneven so far. "Come Here"* is sweetly sinister; "Under and Over the Brink"* feels like a raft riding powerful, but not rough, currents--rolling and exhilarating; "Beat It Out" is languid and tense, like one of those nightmares where you seem to move in slow motion or not at all; "The Chase" is filled with the strange contentment the pursued may feel when s/he realizes that the pursuer's victory is inevitable. Heady stuff. Many of the other songs, however, struck no chords with me. I expect this one to climb the list, though, also. 4. EQUIPOISE. Actually, I like EQUIPOISE less each time I hear it. (Sorry, Happy! :( ) It's not that the material is bad. "Runners" is terrific, and the lyrics are in a Katelike spirit. "He Will Come" and "The Flight" are splendid vampire songs, and we all know how much Drew likes vampires! "Play The Game" is optimistic and beautiful, and "Mother Sea" is simply gorgeous. The problem, alas, is that things are uneven again. I don't like "Closer" much at all (the refrain and outro aren't bad, but I don't like the verse), and I find "Temporary and Eternal" a bit too enervated. "Cohabitants" is terrific but too subdued, and "I Say" is too uniform. "Out Like A Lamb" and "Save Our Souls" are good, but not enough to save the album for me. I hate to slag the latest release, but although I liked it at first, it just doesn't feel even and powerful enough to hold my interest. This one will be displaced by RHODES II and REARMAMENT eventually. 3. RHODES I. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. Where can I begin? "Possessed" is so energetic and bold. "Moonbeam Friends" is lilting and perfectly suited to its lyrics. "I'm Not Awake, I'm Not Asleep" has a great drive behind it. "The Wretches Gone Awry"* is lovely. And my favorite song on the album is probably "The Flaming Threshold"*, which is ecstasy beyond description, and is possibly my favorite Happy song, period. 2. ECTO. This is THE Happy album, of course. It's a cornucopia of musical excellence in every regard. There are some great atmospheric pieces, such as "I'm Going Back" and "To Be E. Mortal" (which is bloody fantastic). There are some...oh, forget it. I can't hope to categorize an album of individual shards of genius like this one. There isn't a single song on this album that's less than excellent. I'll just name some favorites: "Would That I Could"* (of course), "Look For The Child", "Don't Want To Hear It", and "If So"*. But who needs to pick favorites? Sigh. :) 1. WARPAINT. It was tough to pick out which of the top two belonged in this spot, and half of the decisive reasoning hinged on the fact that this was my first Happy album. The other factor involves the sheer cohesiveness and musicianship of the album: it's unified and polished without sounding slick. Each song seems an integral piece of the album, and the lyrics are thoughtful and wiser than ever. "Feed The Fire"* sounds SO good in the dark with only a candle for light. Ditto for the entire album, actually, especially "Phobos", simultaneously about my beloved astronomical objects and about fear (n'est-ce pas?). "Wrong Century"* is another of my favorites, which is splendid and powerful. "Lay Me Down" is brilliant and sparkling. "In Hiding"* is gorgeous and the sweetest outro. I could gush about every song, but why waste bandwidth when I could just say that I worship WARPAINT? (*=singing along with Happy on these tracks is pure ecstasy) I don't know how to write an afterword to this any more than I knew how to introduce it. I'll just thank Happy for nigh-peerless music, and, despite my rather downbeat evaluation of EQUIPOISE, ask her to keep it coming. Drewcifer PS Is that enough for you, or shall I gush some more? :) I can do it, ya know. ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 9 Sep 93 22:19:30 MET From: brage@sphere.home.id.dth.dk (Jens P. Brage) Subject: Shame! [Was: Cross - Over - Tones] Hi again! Yesterday I wrote about "Cross - Over - Tones": > The music was as varied; modern classical music, Irish and Swedish > traditionals, avantgarde jazz, industrial and medieval music... > > [...] > > Karsten Jensen played two movements of Olivier Messiaen's "La Nativite > du Seigneur" at the beginning and end of the concert. The first part > (2nd movement) was a bit odd, starting out as a slow minimalistic > piece and then developing into a sort of fantasia (unfortunately, this > part was a bit spoiled by the quality of the pibe organ, it sounded > pretty cheesy when played only in the mid and upper ranges). The end > piece (3rd movement) was more like a classical (e.g., Bach) organ > piece. I just spoke with my brother, and he told me that Messiaen is far from modern classical music; rather the greatest classical composer for the organ (and a from about Bach's time). Talk about putting both feet in the mouth... :-( My only (weak) defense is that Messiaen apparently was a major influence on modern 12-tone music, so my association of "La Nativite du Seigneur"'s 2nd movement to modern classical music wasn't completely unfounded. But that hardly defends not having heard of Messiaen in the first place... Because I learn, once is quite enough... Jens P. Brage | And I looked up and there they were: Millions brage@sphere.home.id.dth.dk | of tiny teardrops just sort of hanging there. /\ | And I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. \SphereSoft | And I said to myself: What next big sky? ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 09 Sep 93 16:19:22 CDT From: Surplus Public Intellectual Subject: Mailbombed again? Having been away from the net for only one day, I was amazed at the volume of ecto posts that greeted me when I logged on. I may have to reconsider the idea I was playing with, of staying home tomorrow to watch the semifinals of the U.S. Open. In the meantime, while I ruminate on such existential questions ... Meredith interjects in her saga of the long weekend (or was it the saga of something else?): > [...] Did anyone >hear the fake radio talk show collage they aired at the end of >[All Things Considered] yesterday evening? I was driving back from New Jersey >at the time, and came dangerously close to going off the road >more than once. At the time that that probably aired, I was in the Art Institute of Chicago FIlm Center watching _The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk_. This helped to ease the paresthesia of my batteries having run out on the way over there. Still, it's one more thing I missed on top of Martina's last match of the current Open, Al Gore smashing ashtrays on Letterman, Barry Mitchell doing "Only The Egg Foo Young" on _World News Now_, _ad infinitum_, _ad nauseam_. Further down, she relates: >wandering around, finding a place at which to sate Valerie's >monster craving for Chinese food, and hatching A Plot To Be Named In response to which I fling back in their joint and several faces the follow- ing from mjm's version of the same story: >Now (everybody join in for the chorus): YOU ALL HAVE TO VISIT CHICAGO! If only because Chinatown has its own elevated station, from which a panoply of Chinese restaurants are clearly visible. The Happy Rhodes Recording Front's communique threatens, _inter alia_: > [...] the destruction of many notable Manhattan landmarks, > starting with the Capitol Records building and moving uptown > from there. I had long suspected that some good had to come out of the dismal state of geographic education in America. On balance, I think the Capitol Records building is quite safe from these folks :-). They continue: >Our goal is, at the very least, to get the name of Happy Rhodes >on the tongues of everyone in America, in the hope that her music This reminds me of a story that ran in the campus paper when I was an undergrad on the history of student politics. Sometime in the 40s or 50s, one of the contenders in the Student Duma election was the Harry Dobbs Party, whose plat- form's premier plank (maybe the only one, 1970 was a long time ago) was to get the name of the apparently nonexistent Harry Dobbs on the tongues of every- one on campus. I don't remember what the story said as to their success or failure, but Harry was not well remembered by presstime, let alone 23 years later. I do remember, on the other hand, the end of the film _Patton_, which came out around then, in which George C. Scott walks off into the sunset to a V.O. monolog whose last line is, "All glory is fleeting." There's gotta be a connection in there somewhere :-). Brni the recoverer writes: >hopefully, i'll be subcribed to ecto very soon, and >won't have to watch re-runs of barnaby jones and baywatch >anymore. Had he only been able to rearrange his sleeping schedule, he'd have been able to watch reruns of _Urban Angel_, new episodes of _World News Now_, and poss- ibly other things that can make insomnia bearable. Ah well, can't have every- thing :-). Which episode of _Babewatch_ :-) was Ma"dchen Amick in? I have no memory thereof. Vickie asks WRT _The Miracle_: > [...] Does Mary play the strange woman? [...] No, Beverly D'Angelo (of all people) does. Vickie's discussion of Mary eventually comes around to: >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." [...] Maybe she could cover Tom Waits, who reportedly once said "I'd rather have a bottle in fromt of me than a frontal lobotomy." She continues: (green, probably) beer all day I have always wondered why on St. Patrick's day, both the Chicago river and the mass-marketed lager are dyed green, when the unexceptionably Irish brewski, Guinness Stout, does not do a bad job of matching the river's natural color :-) Moving right along... >Btw, her name is pronounced "Cogland." Reminds me of the episode of _Rumpole of the Bailey_ in which Rumpole checks into a hotel, is asked by the desk clerk looking up the reservation to spell his name, and replies, "R-U-M-P-O-L-E, pronounced Marjoribanks." :-) _If I Should Fall, etc._ was indeed a good album, the first Pogues record I ever got. I remember feeling some relative deprivation that Cait O'Riordan had left the band by the time it came out. I especially liked the track about the NYPD band. WRT _Boxing Helena_: One wonders if the reviews it's mostly been getting will impact the pending cause of action against Kim Basinger, under the precedent of Jack Albertson's walking out of his contract to _Dr. Simon Locke_, reputed to be the worst TV series ever made, after seeing the initial episodes. Albertson was quoted at the time to the effect that no jury in the world would convict him once they'd seen that show. WRT _BH_ take 2: one wonders if it will commonly be run in revival theaters on a double bill with that other saga of wrongful amputation, _King's Row_ starring Ronald Reagan. (He titled his autobiography _Where's The Rest of Me_, after his classic line in _KR_ when his character discovered his legs gone.) Liberal Democrats everywhere may have missed out on a memorable catch phrase when they failed to quip that the evil surgeon in _KR_ picked the wrong end to cut from :-). WRT the cover of Kate's new single: >there are exotic fruits that have already been opened up. The cover is very >very colorful (and messy), with the multitudes of pulpy, juicy fruits filling >all the space. [...] Maybe she could get Wrigley's Juicy Fruit as a tour sponsor :-). >A long time ago, waaaaay back when _The Sensual World_ was released, >Dirt Cheap Records in Kansas City was selling subway posters of Kate Subway posters in a city without subways. Way cool! >BTW, what are "mini-discs"? Are those the 3" CDs or are they not >even compatible with the normal CD format? The latter. It's Sony's new entry in the portable digital sound sweepstakes, and is nothing like the traditional CD. Joy to the World--home of the WNN mailing list. It's such fun responding to snippets from other people's posts--relieves me of the need to do original thinking before I write :-). Mitch ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 09 Sep 1993 19:03:39 -0400 (EDT) From: Suspended In Duct Tape Subject: Re: Bay Area sampler (?) Hi! I thoroughly second the notion that a Bay Area sampler be included in the bevy of regional tapes currently being prepared for addition to Doug's tape dubbing project. The Bay Area sampler that D^2 sent me is excellent. (No CD yet... when did they get sent out?) Meredith meth@delphi.com ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 09 Sep 1993 19:12:03 -0400 (EDT) From: Suspended In Duct Tape Subject: Eat The Music: Preliminary Impressions Hi! After checking in with Love-Hounds yesterday evening and discovering that "Eat The Music" had been made available, I rushed downtown before the stores closed and grabbed me the last (only?) copy in the local Sam Goody. What follows are my first impressions: - What the hell is this? - I'd hoped it would be better in hi-fi than it was over the phone. - Oh Kate, oh Kate, why hast thou forsaken us? Now for my current impressions, after five or six listens: -"Eat The Music" is marginally pissingly annoying. I can't STAND anything with a Latin beat or anything hinting at one (yes, I know that's my problem), so this one was treading on thin ice to begin with. It's also about two and a half minutes too long. But the lyrics are interesting and very Kate, and I like the drum loops in the percussion, even though at times it's hard to tell if it's really funky things going on with tape manipulation and not Del's engineering. I sincerely hope it's the former. -The extended mix is seven and a half minutes too long. -"Big Stripey Lie" is *way* cool. I've got it on endless repeat as I type this- the lyrics are rather cheezy, but I really really like what's going on in there musically. I do wish she weren't sounding quite so much like Cyndi Lauper, though. -"Candle In The Wind"- I've known since "Rocket Man" came out that this one blows chunks, and time has not bettered my opinion of it at all. It's made all the worse by the fact that it follows "Big Stripey Lie", which has an Ending, and should be followed by nothing. So there you have it. I'm still looking forward to the album (who wouldn't be?), but I am more convinced than ever that Kate's best work is behind her, and it's futile to expect anything to match the brilliance of _The Dreaming_, which I think I'll go listen to right now. (And listen, you silly people, all of the above is my OPINION. Gawd.) Meredith meth@delphi.com ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1993 20:02:31 -0400 (EDT) From: consid Subject: Cocteau Twins release date changed As if the news on gaffa that "The Red Shoes" has been pushed back 'til January wasn't enough to curdle your blood, now the Cocteau Twins' "Four Calendar Cafe" has had its release date changed as well, from Oct. 5 to Nov. 2. :-( -Sue Trowbridge P.S. HaPpYbIrThDaY to Holly! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * I wish I was like you/Easily amused -Nirvana * * * * * * * * * * consid@access.digex.net * * * * * * * * * * ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1993 17:31:34 -0700 (PDT) From: the butcher Subject: Re: ecto #743 As for haircuts, once again cute young straight boys are adopting what has been a queerboy trend for some time now, which is to cut one's hair *really* short or to shave it off. Very sexy, including my own do. Snip or fall behind! - Bo ======================================================================== From: Tree of Schnopia Subject: Eat The Music: Preliminary Impressions Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1993 22:28:03 -0400 (EDT) Forwarded message: > From METH@delphi.com Thu Sep 9 19:33:58 1993 > Date: Thu, 09 Sep 1993 19:12:03 -0400 (EDT) > From: Suspended In Duct Tape > Subject: Eat The Music: Preliminary Impressions > To: love-hounds@uunet.uu.net, ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu > Message-Id: <01H2R74GRIXC8ZDZNI@delphi.com> > X-Vms-To: IN%"love-hounds@uunet.uu.net,ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu" > Mime-Version: 1.0 > Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT > After checking in with Love-Hounds yesterday evening and discovering that > "Eat The Music" had been made available, I rushed downtown before the stores > closed and grabbed me the last (only?) copy in the local Sam Goody. > > What follows are my first impressions: > > - What the hell is this? > - I'd hoped it would be better in hi-fi than it was over the phone. > - Oh Kate, oh Kate, why hast thou forsaken us? Sounds familiar, 'cept for the middle one. > Now for my current impressions, after five or six listens: > > -"Eat The Music" is marginally pissingly annoying. I can't STAND > anything with a Latin beat or anything hinting at one (yes, I know that's > my problem), so this one was treading on thin ice to begin with. It's also > about two and a half minutes too long. But the lyrics are interesting and > very Kate, and I like the drum loops in the percussion, even though at times > it's hard to tell if it's really funky things going on with tape manipulation > and not Del's engineering. I sincerely hope it's the former. It's kind of growing on me. It's joyful enough to be appealing, and not bouncy enough to be annoying (I have no such hangups about Latin beats...mine all involve R&B beats). Coming from Kate, though, it's quite AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH-inspiring. > -The extended mix is seven and a half minutes too long. A song like this sounds like it's on repeat anyway, so it really doesn't register with me how long it is. > -"Big Stripey Lie" is *way* cool. I've got it on endless repeat as I > type this- the lyrics are rather cheezy, but I really really like what's > going on in there musically. I do wish she weren't sounding quite so much > like Cyndi Lauper, though. And this presents us with a dilemma: will the album be cool like BSL or fluffy like ETM? I think it's more likely to be cool, or BSL would be out of place. The reverse wouldn't make ETM too out of place. Actually, I think it'll be incredibly diverse...this sounds like an experimenting album to me, and they're inclined to be uneven. Let's not panic until we hear the rest. > -"Candle In The Wind"- I've known since "Rocket Man" came out that this > one blows chunks, and time has not bettered my opinion of it at all. It's > made all the worse by the fact that it follows "Big Stripey Lie", which has > an Ending, and should be followed by nothing. I was shocked, frankly. Could our Goddess have fucked up a cover so badly? Sung by Elton John, it was tolerable, but Kate could not have sounded more embarrassing had she been covering Bell Biv Devoe's "Do Me". > So there you have it. I'm still looking forward to the album (who wouldn't > be?), but I am more convinced than ever that Kate's best work is behind her, > and it's futile to expect anything to match the brilliance of _The Dreaming_, > which I think I'll go listen to right now. Or _Never_For_Ever_, for that matter, which is MY favorite of Kate's albums, although I adore TD as well. I never like to think of a possible creative slump as indicative of the downslope of a mountain, though; my optimistic side is always looking forward to the next album if this one isn't as good. For example, we're moving into a whole different echelon here, but Duran Duran just released their most worthwhile album in over a decade. So we can't think of every artist's career as having only one peak. Thank the Tree. > (And listen, you silly people, all of the above is my OPINION. Gawd.) Why, you vicious, Kate-hating BIT--oh. :) :) :) I'll second that disclaimer for my remarks. Drewcifer, who is light-years away from having given up hope! ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 09 Sep 1993 23:13:51 -0400 (EDT) From: HOLLY@umbc2.umbc.edu Subject: Re: Cocteau Twins release date changed > As if the news on gaffa that "The Red Shoes" has been pushed > back 'til January wasn't enough to curdle your blood, now the Cocteau > Twins' "Four Calendar Cafe" has had its release date changed > as well, from Oct. 5 to Nov. 2. :-( > > -Sue Trowbridge > > P.S. HaPpYbIrThDaY to Holly! Thank you! I'll have as happy a birthday as I can what with my blood being so curdled! :) Holly ======================================================================== 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)