From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V4 #226 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Monday, July 13 1998 Volume 04 : Number 226 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Susan McKeown ["Robert Lovejoy" ] Re: one more time: falcon ridge? [Bob Brown ] Re: Susan McKeown [Neal Copperman ] squished under a train [Andrew Fries ] Sam Phillips / Emm Gryner, Steve Poltz, Victoria Williams [Steve I ] Re: The music [Jill] bought at the beach [Sherlyn Koo ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 22:17:27 -0400 From: "Robert Lovejoy" Subject: Re: Susan McKeown - -----Original Message----- From: Bob Brown >On Sat, 11 Jul 1998, Neal Copperman wrote: > >> >>> I had expected that Jeff, Ofer and visiting ectophile Neal would all be >>> there, but I had not expected well-known ectophile Bob Brown to be in >>> attendance as well. >> >>Um, wasn't that Bob Lovejoy? >> >>The show was indeed a blast, particularly the neverending humor. Johnny >>Cunningham is hilarious! >> > >Nope.... not Lovejoy, but indeed it was I, Bob Brown. Good to see you guys >there! Well, I wish I had been able to get there all the same!!! The Other Bob ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 22:22:51 -0400 From: Bob Brown Subject: Re: one more time: falcon ridge? At 10:04 PM 7/12/98 -0400, Meridith wrote: >Hi! > >Bob Brown (woj and I already slapped Neal and Jeff for leading Mike astray >on who you really are, btw ;) posted: > :) - Thanks.... but when you spend most of your time in lurk mode like I do it's easy for folks to get confused. Shouldn't be that difficult tho..... Lovejoy is a lot greyer than I am >We would have been there, but instead we were in New York City at the >Church of St. Paul The Apostle seeing Sequentia's performance of Hildegard >von Bingen's _Ordo Virtutum_, as part of this year's Lincoln Center >Festival. Sounds interesting. I'm not familiar with that but it sounds like a once in a lifetime performance whereas Susan, and Johnny, will be around. I hope you guys consider camping with us. Hi to woj! take care - Bob ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 22:27:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Neal Copperman Subject: Re: Susan McKeown On Sun, 12 Jul 1998, Bob Brown wrote: > On Sat, 11 Jul 1998, Neal Copperman wrote: > > > > >> I had expected that Jeff, Ofer and visiting ectophile Neal would all be > >> there, but I had not expected well-known ectophile Bob Brown to be in > >> attendance as well. > > > >Um, wasn't that Bob Lovejoy? > > > >The show was indeed a blast, particularly the neverending humor. Johnny > >Cunningham is hilarious! > > > > Nope.... not Lovejoy, but indeed it was I, Bob Brown. Good to see you guys > there! We discussed this over dinner and yet another Susan McKeown show today, and came to the correct conclusion that I had no idea what I was talking about. The only good to come out of the public gaffe was that I got Mike Curry to apologise for being right. Well, so much for my credibility. And don't worry, I got the woj's patented open palmed smack to the forehead. (and gee, Susan McKeown sounds ok in a house too.) Neal ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 12:49:51 +1000 From: Andrew Fries Subject: squished under a train You might recall a few months ago I was asking for Ecto opinions about someone called Ratsy... and now, thanks to Neal I'm a proud owner of her CD "Squished under a train", so I'm going to offer an opinion of my own. Ratsy calls herself a folk singer. I prefer to include her in a genre of my own invention, which I chose to name "A-Girl-With-A-Guitar" (AGWAG). The name seems particularly descriptive in this case, as the music consists almost exclusively of these two elements: her voice and her guitar, apart from one intrusion of harmonica and a couple of percussive instruments such as a cardboard box and beer cans. As you might imagine there is a certain, uh... consistency ... about the sound of this album, but that's fine with me. I like her voice and the way she plays and I'm perfectly happy to listen to it for 45 minutes or so... [if I may digress slightly: as a rule, I'm not too keen on records that attempt to cover all possible moods and music styles. They just confuse and annoy me. I think that's because I usually play something that relates to how I feel and while my moods do change, they don't really swing from one extreme to another every 5 minutes...] Back to Ratsy : Her lyrics are simple and understated but gently ironic, and the whole CD has a very appealing immediacy and homemade feeling about it. This is not meant to suggest any lack of quality, just something I noticed and honestly found quite endearing. She occasionally mentions her desire to be famous, but I don't think she's entirely serious. The last song, "love me!!!" ends with what at first appears to be canned crowd applause but on the closer investigation might actually be a kitchen blender (I think) ... which, if true, seems like a really appropriate ending. To my mind this would just about sum this record up perfectly! As far as I can tell she's a completely independent artist and that always counts for something in my books... so in conclusion, I give it wholehearted thumbs-up and if your tastes lie on the quieter, simpler side of Ecto range (or even if you just stray there occasionally) I'd urge you to at least give this record a spin if you have a chance. PS. If you'd like to find out more, she has a website on http://www.ratsy.com __________________________________________________ Some people, you just wanna headbutt them in the hope of direct data download.... (from alt.gothic) http://www.zip.com.au/~afries/hall.html __________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 23:05:04 -0400 From: Steve I Subject: Sam Phillips / Emm Gryner, Steve Poltz, Victoria Williams Neal wondered: >np: Sam Phillips - Omnipop (what movie did she have a bit part in? I was >trying to remember the other day.) 'twas one of the Die Hards. I think it was the third one "With A Vengeance" or something like that. - ------------ Last week I posted that Emm Gryner, Steve Poltz, and Victoria Williams would all be playing the same bill at Intelfest in New York and that I wasn't sure if you could get tix just for this venue or not. It turns out that unlike most of the other shows at Intelfest, you CAN'T. If you want to go, you'll have to pay for a full festival pass ($40). Emm/Steve/Victoria's show is unfortunately a special event that only festival pass-holders can attend. Steve ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 23:12:24 -0400 From: "Robert Lovejoy" Subject: Re: one more time: falcon ridge? Bob Brown writes: >Lovejoy is a lot greyer than I am Fatter too. D'oh! Bob L. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 20:20:39 -0700 (PDT) From: charley darbo Subject: Re: Sam Phillips / Emm Gryner, Steve Poltz, Victoria Williams - ---Steve I wrote: > > Neal wondered: > >np: Sam Phillips - Omnipop (what movie did she have a bit part in? I was > >trying to remember the other day.) > > 'twas one of the Die Hards. I think it was the third one "With A > Vengeance" or something like that. Yeah, #3, but hers was more than a bit part. She was a psychotic knife killer and the bad guy's icy lover. She dies a spectacularly gruesome death. - --Ch _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 13:23:45 +1000 From: Andrew Fries Subject: Re: The music [Jill] bought at the beach Carolyn Andre writes about Tiddas: >I was quite taken with their music back in '95 or '96 when I saw them open >for Billy Bragg and then had a second chance to catch them at an 'instore' >in Borders the next day. Yes, their voices do blend together well - and >those native percussion claves & such add a nice touch. Do any of our >members from Oz have more info on what they're doing lately?? Tiddas released another, self-titled record after "Sing about life"- in 96, according to the sleeve... has it really been that long? Personally I liked it even better than their first. Now that I think about it, I don't recall seeing their name mentioned much lately. On the other hand I never heard about them breaking up either, so I assume they are still around. I hope so - -their political statements can get a bit heavy-handed for me, but I do enjoy their voices and their energy on stage. __________________________________________________ Some people, you just wanna headbutt them in the hope of direct data download.... (from alt.gothic) http://www.zip.com.au/~afries/hall.html __________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 22:37:29 -0500 (CDT) From: Michael Curry Subject: Re: House Concert: Rose Polenzani and Susan McKeown On Sun, 12 Jul 1998, meredith wrote: > I've heard quite a bit about Rose Polenzani in the past couple months, > both here and on the Nields list, but I'd never heard a note of her > music before today. I liked her set quite a bit, and I'll pick up her > CD if I run across it once it comes out next week. Her voice reminded > me of Edie Brickell, though her music was pretty straight-ahead > intelligent acoustic folk. It was the first time hearing Rose for me as well, and I also liked her set quite a bit. I don't know if I was impressed enough to seek out her CD, but if the opportunity arises to see her perform again I'll be there (and maybe after two shows I will end up buying the CD). > After a short break Susan began her set. She was accompanied by compatriot > Amon O'Leary, who played bouzouki and guitar. They started off with a It's Eamon actually (though the only reason I know that is because Susan mentioned his name in an email not too long ago). Susan's set was really wonderful, and it was nice to hear a couple of songs I'd never had the chance to hear before. Hopefully there will be someone else performing at Tom's in the not too distant future that I want to go see, because he and his wife were the perfect hosts and a great venue makes any concert experience more enjoyable. Mike np: Conal O/ Grada -- The Top of Coom (a truly brilliant Irish flute player and a must have CD for fans of Irish trad) nr: Lord of the Isles by David Drake | Michael Curry / mcurry@io.com / mcurry@smoe.org | | http://www.io.com/~mcurry | | Am I bitter? Do I sound bitter? -- Veda Hille | ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 22:43:08 -0500 (CDT) From: Michael Curry Subject: Susan James news, tour dates and an article (long) All sorts of neat stuff... - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 19:59:05 -0400 From: susan james To: susanj@pacificnet.net Subject: Susan James July Newsletter h Hello one and all! Happy July - hope each and everyone of you is having a wonderful summer. Here's the brand new news on the brand new CD's, and the CD release parties, and Shows: "Fantastic Voyage: A Double Album" the new two CD set is NOW AVAILABLE!! Yay!!!!!!!! The response to the CD set has been so incredibly wonderful so far, I'm really thrilled. I can't wait for you all to hear it and I hope y'all enjoy it as much as everyone who's heard it so far. It will be availabe at all record stores over the U. S. in the next several weeks including Tower and Wherehouse- if your favorite record store doesn't have it in stock, ask them to order it for you through N.A.I.L. Distribution, Dutch East Indie Distribution, or Bayside Distribution. "Fantastic Voyage: A Double Album" is also available through mail order: send $18 plus $2 (shipping and handling) == $20 dollars total - check or money order made out to: "Susan James" and mail to: Susan James c/o Red Letter Records 2029 Verdugo Blvd., #224 Montrose, CA 91020 It will also be available (in a week or so) ONLINE: go to towerrecords.com Here's a list of upcoming shows. NOTE, that at the Los Angeles and San Francisco CD release parties - your cover charge that you pay ($5) will allow you to buy the double CD set for only $13 on those nights! (The CD set will be selling in stores at approx. $18.99) So here's the dates - there are more being added in the southwest and I'll forward those along to you: UPCOMING PERFORMANCES MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR THIS ONE IT'S THE CD RELEASE PARTY FOR FANTASTIC VOYAGE FRIDAY, JULY 17th MOGUL'S 1650 N. Schrader Blvd. Hollywood, CA doors at 7 p.m. show starts promptly at 8 p.m. with Very Special Guests:Tommy Stinson, Gary Eaton, Moris Tepper and Michael Tempo, Baby Lemonade, Solid Eye, Yortoise, Abby Travis, Morley Bartnoff, Jean Caffiene and others.. me too! - -------- MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR THIS ONE TOO -IT'S THE CD RELEASE PARTY FOR FANTASTIC VOYAGE IN SAN FRANCISCO THURSDAY, JULY 23rd BOTTOM OF THE HILL 1233 17th St. San Francisco, CA 8 P.M. with Very Special Guests: Chris Von Sneidern, Jean Caffiene, Mushroom, Evergreen Dazed, Yortoise, Tommy Stinson, and me too!! - --------- SATURDAY, JULY 25th THE 319 CLUB 319 Main, Chico, CA 9 P.M - ---------- TUESDAY, JULY 28th THE CROCODILE CAFE 2200 2nd Ave., Seattle, WA 9 P.M. - --------- WEDNESDAY, JULY 29th BERBATI'S PAN 231 SW Ankeny, Portland, OR 9 P.M. - ----------- FRIDAY, JULY 31st BIGWOOD BREAD COMPANY 270 Northwood Way, Ketchum, ID 8:30P.M. - ---------- SATURDAY, AUGUST 1st SPANKY'S 45 W. Broadway, Salt Lake City, UT 9 P.M. - --------- SUNDAY, AUGUST 2nd THE BUG PERFORMANCE AND MEDIA ART CENTER 3654 Navajo St(37th and Navajo) Denver, CO 8:30 P.M. - ----------- FRIDAY, AUGUST 7th WILDHARE'S 4015 N. Mesa St. El Paso, TX 9 P.M. - ------------ MONDAY, AUGUST 10th THE OPIUM DEN Los Angeles, CA KROQ night- Zeke's Backyard, 9 P.M. There will be a few more southwest dates on this little jaunt. Also, In the beginning of September, there are tentative plans for another swing through the western states that will include all of Texas. That tour is being planned w/songwriter Jack Logan. and then I'm heading across the states and doing a slew of dates along the east coast, etc. Hope to see you all at the shows, please tell your friends and make sure and get "Fantastic Voyage" - I promise you'll enjoy it!! Love, love ,LOVE, Susan James p.s. the following is an article that's in the Los Angeles Weekly out right now (July 10 -16 issue): [LA Weekly!] [Image] Free Bird Susan James plays (and sings and records and mixes and releases) it her way By JohnPayne [Image] Sitting around House of Pies talking the big issues with Susan James, scorching guitarist, transcendent vocal stylist and ace musical thinker. Loaded with talent, she is, and a hard-charger, too: This week she's releasing a new CD, Fantastic Voyage, on her own Red Letter label, and it's a double album (one disc with lyrics, one all-instrumental). Since she's about to break through, the time seems right for just such brass. Last year the charismatic James released her debut, Shocking Pink Banana Seat, a boffo set of pop tunes graced with pungent words, imposing chops, and some of the most head-curving arrangements ever heard from a "singer-songwriter." We use the term advisedly with James, who's got a righteous zeal to smash the wall between songwriters and "serious" musicians. "I never thought of myself as a 'singer- songwriter' till I started playing in L.A. and people would try to categorize me," she says. "A lot of that stuff is so bland, and the words are stupid. You know, that kind of really bad strumming and Hallmark-greeting-card type of lyrics. It's 'Blowing in the Wind' - sorry, Bob." Growing up (in S.F. and L.A.), James found her thrill in anything from John Cage to Led Zep, and "Joni Mitchell was the most 'singer-songwriter' I got. She experimented with jazz, and she was an interesting guitar player, she used alternate tunings." Joni's an obvious initial reference on the vocal half of Fantastic Voyage; the opener, "Manna," introduces James' yodel-like acrobatic skills. On "The Blood of Experience," she coos like a new Chrissie Hynde. Armed with a UCLA degree in ethnomusicology and a beef with the status quo, James hits fresh and hard with a skewed pop ideal. She needed like-minded people to bring her musical dreams to life, and for her new album gathered a seemingly disparate crew including ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson, drummers Rusty Squeezebox of Baby Lemonade, Amy Wood of the Grownups and Mike Tempo of Double Naught Spy Car, and Joseph Hammer, the tape-loop top dog of Solid Eye. For the instrumental disc, the studio itself became part of the ensemble. "Some of the guitar pieces I'd already written," James says, "but the pieces with Hammer and Tempo we improvised for 20 minutes at a time, and Joseph would be doing live loops, I'd be playing guitar, and Tempo would have piles of percussion, like a toy shop. We'd just start playing and whatever happened, happened. "Where the writing came into play, like in 'Magic Hour' and 'Stranger Bedfellows,' was in the mixing. Some of it was an absolute mess - you'd have tons of loops, guitars and basses going at the same time. I had to orchestrate, bring this in here, pull this out, etc., and carve out a piece that still sounded somewhat random but had an arc to it." Almost despite its novel sculpting, Fantastic Voyage is a vividly melodic trip loaded with aural marvels. "Dark Mississippi" has a John Fahey-like country-blues peculiarity, distant tape effects seeping in over cricket-ish rhythms; the sepulchral voices of "Drone" superimpose like a Tibetan/Gregorian cabal. "Falling Waltz" is straight-up lonesome-country garnished with a luxurious lap steel courtesy of co-producer John Wood, a weeping six-string by James, and a chorus of dissonant vocal clusters that floats into the clouds. Susan James is strong and stubborn, and self-managed - she has a partner who helps run her record company - and she's not desperate for major-label attention. "I want to have my own label and build it to where I could develop and sign other musicians," she says. "But as far as signing as an artist, I'm doing more than a lot of major labels have done for their new acts, so I don't really see how they could help me right now." A big label almost certainly wouldn't have allowed her to do a double album. "If I didn't have a hit single right off the bat, they would have thrown me aside. But I'm writing music." Susan James is free, and she's her own damn A&R director. "I can drop me from my label if I have to. I can delay the release of my album." She laughs. "But I happen to really like me as an artist, so I don't think I have to do that." Susan James appears at Moguls on Friday, July 17. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 22:33:21 -0400 From: Paul Cohen Subject: Re: Garbage in, Garbage out >Meanwhile I love the second album, because of all the things which make it >so obviously different from everything else. Shirley (or whoever actually >writes the lyrics) has obviously found her form, and while many of the >debut's songs were based around rock cliches (Only Happy When It Rains/Dog >New Tricks), I find the new album's lyrics refreshingly frank (prime >examples Temptation Waits, Hammering In My Head, The Trick..., Sleep >Together and You Looks So Fine), to the point where you can easily forgive >Special's tribute to Chrissie Hynde, and Push It's to Brian Wilson. And >while the dumb rock songs of the first album made me press the skip button, >I Think I'm Paranoid, When I Grow Up and Dumb all make me want to throw >myself around my room. Shirley wrote all the lyrics to the new album. The lyrics for the first album were already written by the time she joined the band. The lyrics on the new album definitely reflect Shirley's rather interesting view of the world. _______ _ _ _______ _____ __ __ ______ ____ ___ | _ \ / \ / \ | ____|/ _ \| |_| | _____| \ | | | |_) |/ \/ \| |____| (_) | _ | ____|| |\ | | ___//___/\/\___\_______|\_______/|__| |__|______|___| \____| |___| Paul Cohen pmcohen@voicenet.com http://aoma.com/pmc/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 15:00:02 +1000 (EST) From: Sherlyn Koo Subject: Re: The music [Jill] bought at the beach Hi all, > Tiddas released another, self-titled record after "Sing about life"- in 96, > according to the sleeve... has it really been that long? Personally I liked > it even better than their first. Now that I think about it, I don't recall > seeing their name mentioned much lately. On the other hand I never heard > about them breaking up either, so I assume they are still around. I hope so Well, I don't know all that much about Tiddas but I do know that they haven't broken up because I saw them at Port Fairy earlier this year, and a friend of mine mentioned seeing them just a couple of weeks ago... :) sherlyn =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= a+e=ig Sherlyn Koo - sherlyn@fl.net.au [Sydney, Australia] "This is the song that we are always just this side of singing..." - Peter Mulvey ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V4 #226 **************************