From: owner-ecto-digest To: ecto-digest@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: ecto-digest V2 #341 Reply-To: ecto@nsmx.rutgers.edu Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Wednesday, 10 January 1996 Volume 02 : Number 341 The Ecto digest is now being generated automatically. Please send problems and questions to: ecto-owner@nsmx.rutgers.edu. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: John Lorei Date: Mon, 08 Jan 96 21:51:05 -0800 Subject: A Guide to Majordomo for the Ecto mailing lists subscribe ecto-digest-request@nsmx.rutgers.edu ------------------------------ From: Felix Strates Date: Tue, 9 Jan 1996 21:56:43 -0600 (CST) Subject: Re: What ever happened to On Tue, 9 Jan 1996, 32 flavors and then some wrote: > the first young blood compilation was pushed heavily onto american > college radio stations by whichever record label distributed rooart in > the states (polygram?) in whatever year it was released (1989? 1990?). > fortunately, it did not need to be pushed much at all as it was one of > the best compilations of that year. as a result of its success, > polygram decided to carry and support the rooart label which resulted > in the stateside release of the martha's vinyard album, as well as > records by tall tales and true, the trilobites, the hummingbirds and > 1313 mockingbird lane. I got that compilation and the album from Tall Tales and True soon after, in 1990, IIRC. But now I'm wondering if something was released stateside from Crash Politics. - - - - - - - - - - Felix Strates 'Tis true, there's magic in the web... flx@creighton.edu http://bluejay.creighton.edu/~flx/ --Shakespeare Othello - - - - - - - - - - ------------------------------ From: pink Date: Tue, 9 Jan 1996 22:45:28 -0600 (CST) Subject: liz tori brenda males aimee and martha vineyard you mean other people know of martha's vineyard? i keep on finding that album in the used bargain bins and i have to say the album is worth buying for the last song "time will fly" i would be interested in hearing peggy's solo album. she has a voice not unlike chrissie hynde's. "time will fly" has made it onto a number of mix tapes for my friends. still waiting for I WITH STUPID to come out. i think it is on reprise here in the US. in the meantime i bought EVERYTHINGS DIFFERENT HERE to hold me through to the end of the month. nice, but too perky. i love til tuesday (well i did back in my 80's heyday) and this album is nice, but i have to listen to it more. for those who can't wait for more aimee check out her acoustic version of "I've had it" on the RARE ON AIR vol2 disc. a compilation from performances done on the radio station KCRW "morning becomes eclectic" show this rendition is fantastic. i could shell out money for this one song (i heard it at borders) but still i thought is was amazing. plus it helps that that is one of my favorite songs by her. the RARE ON AIR series is on 2 volumes long, but hopefully they will release more....the first volume had natalie merchant, juliana hatfield (with evan dando) and an amazing absolutely the best i have ever heard version of TORI doing SILENT ALL THESE YEARS. i have never ever heard a better version recorded. unfortunately i had a dub, and halfway through the song it got erased. :( that version....*sigh* (as kate says) WOW. another male artist thread...happy day. i love female/ecto artists but sometimes you just gotta break out.... anyway other than some of the great male artist, like peter gabriel, brian eno, david bryne, i have to say that there are some great lesser known male fronted bands like THE BEAUTIFUL SOUTH (don't get me started on that, unless you ask of course :) ), KITCHEN'S OF DISTINCTION (they would appeal to those fans of say, LUSH or MY BLOODY VALENTINE) and let see, magnetic fields/the 6ths (indie pop happy fun). gosh who else out there do i like. does anyone know what happened to an artist named E ? he put out a fantastic debut album (a man called E) but i was very dissapointed with his follow up (broken toy shop). he toured with tori on her first tour (little earthquakes one) though he didn't play at the show i saw her at, much to my chagrin. i think his first album was great, and was very similar in themes and music to tori's LE which would have made it a great show, seeing them both back to back. but..... anyway i was wondering if there was anyone else who has heard of him.... and does anyone have info on brenda kahn wassup with her? did she ever work out her record contract problems with sony? i want DESTINATION ANYWHERE!!!! i have her promo CD KING OF CAIRO...and want more more more. i know she is working on a new album right now, but i was wondering if there is any way (short of bust into sony's stock room) to acquire it.... got tori's singles. silly songs are kinda bland. sound like leftover studio outtakes. and not even that great of ones (i have LE demos and outtakes and they are better than these i think). but then i never liked her bside HUMPTY DUMPTY and these seem worse. the other single with HEY JUPITER is really nice. they sound like bsides, but you know with tori that isn't an insult. one has a harpsichord on it and i can see it fitting in well with the CD, but standing alone it doesn't uquite fit in. ah well. you can tell caught a lite sneeze is a single though. has that perky "GOD/CfG/CRUCIFY" feel to it. still nice nice song. love the line "caught a lite sneeze, dream a little dream, made my own pretty hate machine" looking forward to the new album. and finally liz phair rocks. there is much debate over on alt.music.alternative.female about liz vs alanis. what a stupid thread. can't we just take them for who they are? not that i could contribute, as i have only heard the singles for alanis, and i own nearly everything by liz (anyone wanna trade boots?). liz is amazing. her voice is only adequate, but she writes songs that make SO MUCH SENSE. she doesn't doll up her music, and i have to say that some of her best stuff isn't on any of her albums, but on her demos (the girlysound demos) which i keep on meaning to submit to the ecto tape dubbing project but i am unsure as to whether liz is ecto material. liz is probably one of the most honest songwriters that i have heard....maybe it has to do with the fact that the songs were written without the idea of an audience, but just for herself and it when her friend told her to make him a tape of her stuff, she didn't have any concept of it going any further than that. it was a fluke that she got her record contract and a fluke she hit it big. i am looking forward to her new album, should be good. some of the new songs she performed were excellent. better than the stuff on whip-smart for those who were dissapointed with that album and enough rambling. just slap me i shut up eventually. irvin ps. just be lucky i didn't list my top 10 albums of 95. we would have been here for awhile ------------------------------ From: jeffy@wam.umd.edu Date: Tue, 09 Jan 96 23:56:17 EST Subject: Caroline Lavelle A friend just gave me Caroline Lavelle's _Spirit_ as a late Hanukah present, and I've had *plenty* of time to get acquainted with it, what with being trapped in my folks' house with it for the last 4 days. In fact, one of the reasons I've heard so much of it is because *they* keep playing it. I'm sure this album's been mentioned here before, but can't recall anything that might have been said. So, like, what's the scoop on her? I know she's played cello for Peter Gabriel (she's all over _Us_), Heidi Berry, and Loreena McKennitt. Any others I should know about? (It's odd to me to get an album by an artist new to me, only to find out I already own several CDs on which they perform) The album has a guest appearance by Nigel Kennedy. Is there some connection between the two? Is it my imagination, or is "Morlough Shore" actually the melody line to "The Foggy Dew" but with new lyrics? It's listed as traditional... Doesn't Rob Dickens work for Atlantic? How did he happen to be executive producer of this album (Rob Dickens was exec producer for Enya's last bunch of albums, and is even metioned in "Oronoco Flow" ("We can sail, we can sail, with Rob Dickens at the wheel", or something like that)). - ----- For those wondering what I'm talking about, Caroline Lavelle is a cellist who put out an album with William Orbit (why should I know that name, other than for his having programmed synths for a track on _Us_?) called _Spirit_. It's a rather trancey album with lots of strings, over-reverbed vocals, and mellow, but semi-intense sounds. Definitely pleasant. Jeff |Jeffrey C. Burka | "When I look in the mirror, I see a little clearer/ | | | I am what I am and you are you too./ Do you like | |jeffy@wam.umd.edu | what you see? Do you like yourself?" --N. Cherry | ------------------------------ From: "Robert I. Stewart" Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 08:02:12 +0200 (GMT+0200) Subject: Johnny Clegg Ariane asked: > Johnny Clegg and Savuka !!! (Felis Strates mentioned 'Asimbonanga' -what a > *great* song!!!) Does anyone know what happened to these guys!??? (How about > you lurking South Africans!? ;)) Johnny Clegg is still around making music - he performed at a new year's eve concert a week or so ago. I don't think he was with Savuka, it was some other band (but I'm not 100% sure). However, I think he does still perform with Savuka. Again, I'm not too certain. Like most good SA artists, they are not really appreciated properly in their own country, so we don't hear much news about them. It's quite sad. If anyone is really interested though, I will be happy to make a few enquiries and find out about JC and Savuka. On a different note, does anybody know whether Tori's "Boys for Pele" will be released anywhere other than UK and USA, and if so, when? Both LE and UtP were released here in SA, so I was hoping... I asked the guy at a local record store, but he didn't seem to know what I was on about. Robert (a recently-delurked S'african :) Robert Stewart (email: csaris@upe.ac.za) Department of Computer Science, University of Port Elizabeth PO Box 1600, Port Elizabeth, 6000, South Africa Tel: +27 41 5042712 Fax: +27 41 5042323 URL: http://www.cs.upe.ac.za/staff/csaris ------------------------------ From: Steve VanDevender Date: Tue, 9 Jan 1996 22:06:35 -0800 Subject: tori news source et al. THE OLIVE-LOAF VIGILANTE writes: > Amy exhorted: > > >Oh yeah...... 12 MONKEYS!!!! ... if you like Terry Gilliam's films... you > >MUST SEE THIS ONE!!! > > Cool! I *love* Terry Gilliam's films (_Brazil_ still stands in my book as > the best film ever made), and I can't wait to see this one. > > Neil added: > > > Plus additional bonus points for classiness for having Astor Piazzola do > >the title track. Wasn't a bad film. Totally Terry Gilliam - with all the > >pros and cons that entails... > > There are cons to Terry Gilliam films? ;> I just saw _12 Monkeys_ this last weekend. It absolutely ruined my mood on Saturday evening. I loved it. It's dark, depressing, and ultimately uncompromising, and the best time-travel story I've ever seen in a movie, possibly one of the better ones in science fiction. Bruce Willis even did a good job as the main character, and Brad Pitt convinced me he really can act. It's full of Gilliam's darkly humorous imagery and a Dickian sense of (un)reality. It's not the same kind of manic roller-coaster ride that _Brazil_ was; it's more grounded in the world we know and more gradual in its approach. It'll probably get ignored because it's not the feel-good action hit of the year, but if you actually like to think during a movie it's great. ------------------------------ From: Kerry White Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 00:17:35 -0600 (CST) Subject: Re: liz tori brenda males aimee and martha vineyard Hello, Pink said[]: > single with HEY JUPITER is really nice. they sound like bsides, but you > know with tori that isn't an insult. one has a harpsichord on it and i I happen to like a lot of Tori's b-c-d-side songs *better* than many of the album songs. KrW It was the least I could do! And never let it be said that I didn't do the least I could do. ------------------------------ From: ariel_b@pipeline.com (Ariel Brennan) Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 02:28:44 -0500 Subject: Re: vernon vs. amos On Jan 08, 1996 18:51:04, '"Gregory N Bossert" ' wrote: >i still think she (Nan) sounds like KaTe, and thus like Tori when Tori >is trying to sound like Kate... ;) Not getting into the evil Kate/Tori comparison! I don't think Nan sounds much like Kate though, although I don't listen to Manta Ray much at all, so I'm not the best judge. Even so, after hearing the Kate comparisons where Nan was concerned, I was pretty baffled, listening to MR for the first time. IMO, there's no vocal similarity at all. She does rather sing like Tori on that one song... >...and a >faked british accent (well, not faked in Kate's case, but in Tori's >and Nan's...) Um. Am I the only one who doesn't hear ANY english accent, faked or otherwise in Tori's voice, or Nan's? Just wondering. Tori appears to have some kind of accent or unique pronunciation thing going on when she's singing, but it doesn't sound english, IMO. >BTW, every time Nan sings "if i were a fisherman's friend", i think of >the cough drops... ;) Cough drops?! :) A - -- "Caught a lite sneeze, dreamed a little dream... made my own pretty hate machine." - Tori Amos ------------------------------ From: jwaite@popmail.ucsd.edu (Jerene Waite) Date: Tue, 9 Jan 1996 23:52:14 -0800 Subject: yet more Diamanda From "Joseph Zitt" : >My fave theory of art (only somewhat tongue-in-cheek): "You can get >away with anything as long as you make it seem intentional." I think >I've been in performance for too long, and been burned by performers >too many times, to look for truth much: the most effective performers >are, in a sense, the most accomplished liars. Nobody cares how a >singer is really feeling as long as he can put that cry in his voice >when singing the blues. > >Does Diamanda really feel the anger when she performs "Plague Mass" >for the 1000th time? Perhaps, perhaps not -- what matters is that she >has learned how to portray anger in a way that communicates it to the >audience. Well . . . yes and no. Performance in front of an audience is supposed to be a portrayal. We don't really want to hear a blues singer crying and falling apart onstage; we want to hear him/her singing. Definitely there must be discipline to performance. But that doesn't rule out re-feeling the emotions over and over and over, if necessary. Because, if the audience is new, if the theatre is new, if the performers themselves are in new emotional places, if the adrenaline of performance is primed, the feelings produced performing the same old stuff can come out different and thus new. That's the goal of good actors; it's not always achieved. My experience performing in front of an audience is *extremely* limited. But, as audience, I can tell whenever actors are burned out and merely going through the motions. Only Diamanda can answer your question about her feelings. However, the closer one comes to having a direct line to the unconscious, the easier it is for emotions to surface and the more facile one can be at reproducing a semblance of those emotions. A sensitive performer resonates with the audience. If she succeeds in communicating, it will be communicated back to her. Footnote: Is Diamanda only about anger? I detect equal parts anguish. >I have found that I often perform poorly when I too effectively evoke >in myself the emotions that led to the creation of a piece -- what is >necessary is almost a form of dissociation, in which I can observe >the emotion in action and replicate it. Yes! That is the art-ifice, the discipline to know how to communicate to an audience in an exalted way. You can be both the observed and the observer. This kind of dissociation from one's feeling self can be useful in reality as well. Sometimes I find it helpful to dissociate from a negative mood and tell myself that the reason I am feeling this way is hormones or whatever! >This also is something I try >very hard *not* to do when not on stage, since, while I'm quite >interested in artifice in performance, I'm compulsive about truth in >real-life communications. Just because art is not reality, does that mean it is not truth? - --Jerene ------------------------------ From: Steve Ito Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 04:51:53 -0500 Subject: male harmony/Mike Lindley It's been a while since I last posted, so greetings, ecto-folk! Sage spoke: >It's also extremely rare for me to hear men singing in harmony in a >rock or folk song and feel the same kind of shiver up my back that I feel >when I'm listening to women sing in harmony. I know it's perfectly >possible for men to accomplish whatever it is that women do, because >I hear it all the time in choral music. When I think of male voices that sound great in harmony, a couple of groups come to mind... Moxy Fruvous, a Canadian group that has been mentioned here in the past as a group which is really fun to see live. Unfortunately it is no longer cool to like Moxy Fruvous here in Canada... it was only cool when the only thing they had out was an independently-produced cassette and they were only playing college campuses and so on. But *I* still like them. The other group is one that I just recently discovered, when they opened for Heather Nova here in Toronto, back in October or November... Ben Folds Five. A tremendous band, one of my favourite discoveries of '95, aside from Jewel. If you like pretty harmonies, these are a couple of male groups that produce them as well as any female voices I've heard. Oh, and I can't forget Simon and Garfunkel. Haven't listened to them much in the last couple of years, but they harmonized quite well. While I'm posting on this thread, might as well list my favourite male bands/artists... Husker Du/Bob Mould/Sugar blow my mind!, Ben Folds Five, Queen, Al Stewart, The Police, Matthew Sweet, The Odds, REM, The Watchmen, The Levellers, TMBG, Spirit of the West, Arrogant Worms, Pink Floyd/Roger Waters, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Goo Goo Dolls, Midnight Oil, OMD, Erasure (yes, I admit it), Tom Petty, Leonard Cohen, the Charlatans, and Buffalo Tom. Before I sign off, Urs, I'm very sorry for your loss. I think we've all experienced a similar loss which makes absolutely no sense. As I type, I'm lighting a candle for the ones who should still be with us today, and in particular Mike Lindley. I hope that Mike and the rest all found a better place. Steve - ----------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Ito, | "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who Psychology Dept. | says differently is selling something." University of Toronto | -- The Dread Pirate Roberts Toronto, ON, Can. | ------------------------------ From: Charley.Darbo@harpercollins.com (Charley Darbo) Date: Tue, 9 Jan 1996 20:19:29 -0500 Subject: replies to my musings Jessica writes: - -". . . you wrote that there is no truth for you in stephen king's - -novels. . . .I find even in his completely unreal horror books or in - -his fantasy-ish ones, quite a lot that is true for me - not the stories - -and what happens to people, but the people themselves, their past - -experiences and thus thier motivations, how they interact with other - -people, etc.. - - - -"But I think of all his books Gerald's Game stands out in my mind the - -most. So anyway i'm just curious as to if you've read that one and what - -you thought of it particularly." There are two ways I could answer this: 1) Yes, I've read it. (blah, blah, blah) And 2) That's not the point. I think I'll tackle the second. My point is maybe this (I'm still kind of fashioning it): Each of us has his or her own truth. No, that's not it; I think I believe there is an absolute truth. But I also believe that it is ultimately unknowable. Here's what I mean: Every moment of every day we are making decisions. That is the nature of existence, as far as I can tell. We choose one path over another a million times a day, and thus we each forge the pattern of our individual life. I believe that for each of those decisions there is one choice that is better than the rest. Here's where it gets sticky -- we could bog down forever defining "better": Better to whom? And to what end? And in whose favor? This is one of the unknowables. We make the decision we can. We heft our baggage, we adjust our filters, we assume what we assume and believe what we believe, and we choose a path, the next step along which leads us to another decision. _Ad infinitum._ To the extent that we remain conscious of each decision, and to the extent that we are honest with ourselves as we weigh the consequences of each choice, and to the extent to which we avoid using untruths to justify expedient decisions, we forge our clearest path. Nobody makes the best choice at every point: The number of variations along our path's networks of choices must be beyond human comprehension. But we all know someone who forges a clearer path through life than we. Christians have called them saints. Buddhists have called them boddhisatvas [sp?]. The few that I've met have impressed me with their serenity, a trait rare in humans. I realize that this sounds like I'm describing an alien race, or a religious mystic. I'm not. Imagine a spectrum of clarity, of serenity, from the darkest, most lost, most desperate and hateful mind, on the one hand, to the unachievable perfection of a life lived with no false steps. The whole of the human race must make something of a bell curve when measured against this spectrum: One would hope that true, unalloyed evil is as rare as one must admit that true, flawless goodness is. Now to my use of Stephen King as an example. I believe that he, along with many of us -- usually I count myself among this number -- has forged a path (I wish I could invent a metaphor with less-religious overtones.) which must place him on, shall we say, the _darker_ side of the bell curve. I believe that he (again: like many of us) has too- infrequently made the best decisions. (I want this to sound less self- righteous, less judgmental. I'm trying to speak in the abstract about the [french horns here] _human condition,_ and to that end I'm using SK as an example. This is not a tract on One Man's Evil Ways.) His "truth," therefore, is laden with the residue of the bargains he's made with himself; of the lies he's told himself; hung with the normal, day- to-day accumulation of emotional baggage that most of us pick up like whales do barnacles. Now, he's human. I'm not suggesting the man's pure evil on a stick. There's bound to be some real human truth, somewhere, in the things he has to say. But I'm put in mind of a family friend who swallowed a gold tooth and was _days_ in, well, sifting for it. And no artist has access to pure, unfettered, glistening TRUTH, but I tend to look to those I feel have a lower ratio of packaging to product. --charleydarbo ------------------------------ From: Charley.Darbo@harpercollins.com (Charley Darbo) Date: Tue, 9 Jan 1996 20:38:43 -0500 Subject: Astor P. Neil K. writes, re _12 Monkkeys_: - -Plus additional bonus points for classiness for having Astor Piazzola - -do the title track. Hate to be the one, etc., but no one had Piazzola _do_ anything. Astor's dead, Zed. He'll always be a light in my firmament (I was lucky enough to see him at the Park West on his final tour) but any royalty checks for present and future soundtrack tracks will be made payable to The Estate Of. Speaking of soundtracks: Who can help me identify the music used so beautifully in _Badlands,_ reused in the _Badlands_ ripoff (Sorry; homage) _True Romance,_ and now heard in the previews for the new Sandra Bullock/Pale-Appalachian-looking-pointy-nosed-scruffy-beard- chainsmoking-Comic-whose-name-escapes-me movie (whose title somehow escapes me too)? I want to say Karl Orff (though it's not _Carmina Burana_), but I'm not sure. I'd love to find a recording of it. --charleydarbo ------------------------------ From: ! Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 07:54:13 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: 12 Monkeys On Tue, 9 Jan 1996, Steve VanDevender wrote: > THE OLIVE-LOAF VIGILANTE writes: > > Amy exhorted: > > > > >Oh yeah...... 12 MONKEYS!!!! ... if you like Terry Gilliam's films... you > > >MUST SEE THIS ONE!!! > > > > Cool! I *love* Terry Gilliam's films (_Brazil_ still stands in my book as > > the best film ever made), and I can't wait to see this one. > > > I just saw _12 Monkeys_ this last weekend. It absolutely ruined > my mood on Saturday evening. I loved it. etc... Hi folks, All of this _12 Monkeys_ talk made me think of plugging my crummy web-page, the Pathetic Caverns, which among other things, features a review of said flick. (Go up the hill until you see a video cassette and click on it to get to the movie reviews) Mosaic/Netscape/AOL browser friendly...hasn't been tested wtih Lynx but ought to work pretty much okay... URL below __/-\__/-\__/-\__/-\__/-\__/-\__/-\__/-\__/-\__/-\__/-\__/-\__/-\__/-\ = ...nous devons cultiver notre jardin... = = INET:dmayowel@access.digex.net AOL:DougMhyphW Compu$erve:102432,355 = = visit the pathetic caverns! http://www.access.digex.net/~dmayowel = ------------------------------ From: cardmaster@big-sleep.media.mit.edu Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 08:26:26 -0500 Subject: it's not a tea party but.... There is a postcard waiting for you in the Post(card) Office. You may claim it at the Pickup Window, which is located at http://postcards.www.media.mit.edu/Postcards/ Your claim number is: ecto.797424 Please have this number available when you claim your postcard. Thank you, The Postmaster Messages left unclaimed after 2 weeks may be discarded. ------------------------------ From: cardmaster@big-sleep.media.mit.edu Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 08:27:42 -0500 Subject: it's not a tea party but.... There is a postcard waiting for you in the Post(card) Office. You may claim it at the Pickup Window, which is located at http://postcards.www.media.mit.edu/Postcards/ Your claim number is: ecto.5168761 Please have this number available when you claim your postcard. Thank you, The Postmaster Messages left unclaimed after 2 weeks may be discarded. ------------------------------ From: "S. Lunsford & T. O'Reilly" Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 11:32:08 +0000 Subject: tori and pronunciation Hi everyone, > Um. Am I the only one who doesn't hear ANY english accent, faked or > otherwise in Tori's voice, or Nan's? Just wondering. Tori appears to have > some kind of accent or unique pronunciation thing going on when she's > singing, but it doesn't sound english, IMO. Well, it doesn't sound English to me, but I have to say that although I enjoy her music, whatever that accent thing that she does is it definitely gets on my nerves. I mean, I *love* the song Baker, Baker but it's inevitably like nails on a blackboard when she sings, "Baker, baker, baking a ceeeeeeeeeek" Just me, the one who pronounces the word like this: "cake" :^) - -Sage ____________________________________________________________________ Sage, Todd and the eight feline cohorts: sagetodd@postoffice.ptd.net Not to mention: http://www.dfw.net/~soulmate/ where you can fall in and spend hours. Literally. ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V2 #341 ************************** ======================================================================== Please send any questions or comments about the list to ecto-owner@nsmx.rutgers.edu