From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V4 #285 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Wednesday, August 19 1998 Volume 04 : Number 285 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: The Banderas (Re: womyn's music) [Birdie ] Re: Gay/Straight Artists/Audiences [charley darbo ] womyn's music, protest songs [queen of carrot flowers ] Re: womyn's music, protest songs ["J." Wermont ] Many Worlds Are Heard Tonight [Steve VanDevender ] Re: Baez and Ochs ["Joseph S. Zitt" ] Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts [Spbarker@aol.com] cheesy synth [Jet Girl ] MWBT [Melissa Barberer ] Re: womyn's music, protest songs [charley darbo ] oy, to be e.mortal [meredith ] Re: oy, to be e.mortal [Stuart Myerburg ] Re: oy, to be e.mortal [les jumeaux ] Cry Cry Cry; Haris Alexiou, Susan Court ["Jeffrey Hanson" Subject: Re: The Banderas (Re: womyn's music) Tim Cook wrote: > I've got "Ripe" as well so I think we're all talking about the same group. > I remember seeing them at a "Love Rights" concert > in 1989 in Manchester. There were a whole bunch of groups/singers at the > concert. The only ones I can remember for definite were the Banderas and > Helen Terry, who used to do backing vocals for Culture Club and was utterly > fantastic (and unfortunately decided to go into childrens telly instead of > recording a second album :-(). I wonder if Helen Terry got together for the Culture Club reunion. What a voice! Most notable on "Church of the Poison Mind". Antonio Banderas comes up by the pages and pages if you search under The Banderas - yahoo et al. Birdie ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 11:37:11 -0700 (PDT) From: charley darbo Subject: Re: Gay/Straight Artists/Audiences - ---Ted & Debbie wrote: > > I was just wondering if any straight artists ever had an apparently > straight audience come out as gay early in the show, like right after the > opening act. . . > > No I wasn't really wondering that. > > As a high school boy, I had a Meg Christian LP, probably a few others I > didn't know were gay too. I had a friend who got a really caustic look > from his grandmother for absentmindedly singing Tom Robinson's "Glad to be > Gay" while washing dishes. And I liked the Indigo Girls the first time I > heard 'em, when they played for a group of Camelot Managers at breakfast at > one of our conventions. Rather neato. > > I never peak in the bedrooms of musicians before buying their discs. Good > music is good music. No one here would disagree with you; there was no judgment made as to the quality of the music, nor was the artist's orientation in any way related to his or her music in any of the posts that I read (or wrote). You seem to be suggesting that a judgment is implied by merely discussing the issue. The issue is, for me, Which artists have been brave enough to open themselves up to the inevitable small-minded backlash in order to maintain the integrity of their public and private personae? Which artists have been brave enough to be themselves despite the darkness of the age we're still living in? > Gay folks don't bother me a bit, nor get any special > treatment. You should be careful how you use the phrase "special treatment" in this context. It's way loaded; the right wing has long used it in their campaign to prevent gay people from receiving equal treatment as human beings. Other than that, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and write off to my own misunderstanding the fact that I read your above paragraph as extremely patronizing and offensive. - --charley n.p. _I_Wanna_Be_Kate_ !!YAY!! n.r._Crime_and_Punishment_ finally getting around to it. _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 15:11:13 -0400 (EDT) From: queen of carrot flowers Subject: womyn's music, protest songs In response to Joyce's intelligent and well-thought-out post, I figured I'd say a bit more about American folk music and why I find it boring. The thing is, from where I stand (as someone who came of age thrity years after the Vietnam war and Woodstock), I really don't see most of the folk music coming out of America as being relevant for anything other than historical value. The music of Joan Baez and Phil Ochs was mostly used as a form for people to rally the troops and protest against the war. Unike their British contemporaries in Fairport Convention and The Incredible String Band, most folkies Stateside had to write songs that served as a vehicle to their rallying cries, and the music ende up suffering. I'm not trying to fault this, I'm just trying to state what I think and feel -- and that might be wrong for many of you on the list, whom I sense are much older than I am. However, from that perspective, I'm going to go out on a very rickety limb here and say that the only American folkies whose music sounds as fresh and innovative now as it must have on the day it was released are Bob Dylan (needs no introduction), Joni Mitchell, and Tom Rapp. Dylan's lyrics were poetry, and he was obviously writing about more than just protest songs, but even those are still beautiful and musing thirty years after the fact. Mitchell and Rapp were more musically adventurous than their contemporaries -- she was obviously as interested in jazz textures and time signatures as she was with the confessional folk of the day, and he was bringing some of the psychedelic ideas from our friends in Old Blighty into his strange, beautiful tales, making him a sort of American answer to Nick Drake. As for womyn's music, I don't think I would take so much umbrage against it except that it doesn't really tell many stories apart from being a lesbian. I have yet to hear a song by Cris Williamson about body image, or a verse in a Holly Near tune addressing unwanted pregnancy. Perhaps getting up in front of a crowd and saying "Hi, I'm gay" was revolutionary enough at that point, but if you're going to call your genre "WOMEN's music", you should try and write about themes that are relevant to all women, as opposed to one part of the population (albeit one that needs a voice). I guess I'm more interested in general with artists who are trying to honestly get through the day and might be coming from an "oppressed" perspective (like being a woman or being gay), but are taking that into the rest of the picture and not just saying, "oh, that's ALL I am." I have yet to find a woman who's working a similar emotional terrain to, say, Bob Mould, who is gay, but doesn't JUST want to be seen as "the gay singer/songwriter". Then again, this is the first time in a while that women have been taken seriously on such a wide level, so the girls in the spotlight probably want to make a big deal about being female to make it a non-issue. Wow, that was one long rambling that barely made any sense! Hope someone was able to get something from it. Also bear in mind that this is JUST MY OPINION. I don't want the responsibility of speaking for the entire list, but I do want to start dialouge and get people's grey matter a-movin'. - --C. - ---- Chelsea, the mod pixie home: away: tugboat@channel1.com odyshape@hotmail.com "I started out as a missionary, but I couldn't find a religion which didn't promise things to some people at the exclsion of others. The personal voyage into that kind of light shouldn't be denied to anybody." -- Patti Smith ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 14:39:08 -0500 (CDT) From: "Joseph S. Zitt" Subject: Re: womyn's music, protest songs On Wed, 19 Aug 1998, queen of carrot flowers wrote: > value. The music of Joan Baez and Phil Ochs was mostly used as a form for > people to rally the troops and protest against the war. Unike their > British contemporaries in Fairport Convention and The Incredible String > Band, most folkies Stateside had to write songs that served as a vehicle to > their rallying cries, and the music ende up suffering. Er, perhaps some further research is needed. Only a tiny amount of either's output had anything whatsoever to do with the war. For one thing, the several albums that Baez recorded before the war began have unsurprisingly little to do with it, and the majority of her output has always been about a wide variety of topics. Phil Ochs also sang about much more than the war. Try, for starters, The Bells, Bullets of Mexico, Changes, Cross My Heart, Flower Lady, Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends, I've Had Her, Miranda, The Party, Pleasures of the Harbor, Crucifixion, Joe Hill, William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park and Escapes Unscathed, Doesn't Lenny Live Here Anymore, and Chords Of Fame. - - ---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------- |||/ Joseph Zitt ===== jzitt@humansystems.com ===== Human Systems \||| ||/ Maryland? = <*> SILENCE: The John Cage Mailing List <*> = ecto \|| |/ http://www.realtime.net/~jzitt ====== Comma: Voices of New Music \| ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 12:46:01 -0700 From: Birdie Subject: Pheobe Snow - Kitchenaid commerical? Was that Pheobe Snow I just heard singing the praises of Kitchenaid in a US TV commerical? I caught the one with the ceiling fan, but this is a new one and hard to tell if it is her or someone sounding like her. If the latter, they'll probably get sued and then we'll find out for sure. So, it probably is her. Birdie ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 12:50:43 -0700 (PDT) From: "J." Wermont Subject: Re: womyn's music, protest songs Chelsea wrote: > As for womyn's music, I don't think I would take so much umbrage against it > except that it doesn't really tell many stories apart from being a lesbian. > I have yet to hear a song by Cris Williamson about body image, or a verse > in a Holly Near tune addressing unwanted pregnancy. Perhaps getting up in > front of a crowd and saying "Hi, I'm gay" was revolutionary enough at that > point, but if you're going to call your genre "WOMEN's music", you should > try and write about themes that are relevant to all women, as opposed to > one part of the population (albeit one that needs a voice). I said this earlier - you may have missed it - but I think that the specific genre called "Women's Music," which was really lesbian music as you observe, was given this label because the buying public simply wasn't ready for a genre called "lesbian music." In other words, it's a euphemism. I'm not even sure if the women involved in this music were the ones to give it that name (Birdie, do you know?). It might have been coined by some distributor type who was trying to figure out how to file it in record stores. In most mainstream stores you could see a small bin entitled "Women's Music," which made the records easy to find (good for discovering new artists in the genre), while not being *so* out that the record stores would be too scared to display it at all. Also, when festival producers scouted out places to have them (they weren't/aren't always in the same place every year), they simply had to be discreet about the purpose of the festival since they were often negotiating with organizations like the Boy Scouts (known for their pro-gay stance - NOT) to rent the summer camp for a week. It's unfortunate, because that label does give the misleading idea that the music addresses concerns for all women, and it doesn't. It's also ironic that a musical movement that was so much about coming out and saying publicly and militantly who you were went for such a coy label for their genre, but I think it was a matter of survival. As for singing about body image, I'm not so sure *anyone* was doing that back then. There wasn't much awareness about that issue in the 1970's, although I think Meg Christian's "Ode to a Gym Teacher" addresses it to some extent, with lines like "She was a big, tough woman/ the first to come along/ who showed me being female/ meant you still could be strong." OK, it's not about eating disorders or diet obsession, but it was about challenging notions of women's strength and that's certainly a body image issue. They also sang about other issues of concern to women such as friendship, the environment, racism, rape, domestic violence, addiction, poverty, work, community. It wasn't all "Hi mom, I'm gay." :) Joyce ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 12:56:38 -0700 (PDT) From: Steve VanDevender Subject: Many Worlds Are Heard Tonight Tim writes: > If Wishes Were Horses, How Beggars Will Ride - Could come off Rhodes I if > Rhodes I had such brilliant production. Sort of like a cross between He's > Alive and Summer IMHO. So heartbreakingly sad. Two fantastic things: the > weird sounds, the vocals This is easily my favorite song on the album at this point, although it took a few listens before it worked its way up to that point. What I vaguely remember from months ago is that although I initially didn't pay much attention to the song, bits of it kept drifting into my consciousness when I _wasn't_ listening to it. Then I listened to it with attention and WOW. "I wish I could promise I'd be there when you dream I wish that when you spoke to me I'd know what you mean" The wonderful layered vocals that go with the second line where what kept coming back to me. One of the things that strikes me about MWABT is that it has seems to have such a deeper, richer sound than Happy's previous albums, which is not to say that her other albums are sonically flat as much as that it seems MWABT has more variety and sophistication in its synth sounds and production. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 16:03:30 -0400 (EDT) From: queen of carrot flowers Subject: Re: womyn's music, protest songs >Er, perhaps some further research is needed. Only a tiny amount of >either's output had anything whatsoever to do with the war. Hey Joe (and everyone else). Thanks for calling my attention to both Baez's and Ochs's (how would you pronounce those, enyhoo?) non-Vietnam War-related creative output. The point I was trying to get across was that those artists were writing protest songs that dealt with the issues of the day in less musically interesting ways than others working within the same musical framework. Sorry about my misinformation, most of the music I know by those artists is about the war. I will try to be more informed before I go out on a limb and post here next time. Oops -- Chelsea - ---- Chelsea, the mod pixie home: away: tugboat@channel1.com odyshape@hotmail.com "I started out as a missionary, but I couldn't find a religion which didn't promise things to some people at the exclsion of others. The personal voyage into that kind of light shouldn't be denied to anybody." -- Patti Smith ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 15:10:11 -0500 (CDT) From: "Joseph S. Zitt" Subject: Re: womyn's music, protest songs On Wed, 19 Aug 1998, queen of carrot flowers wrote: > Hey Joe (and everyone else). Thanks for calling my attention to both > Baez's and Ochs's (how would you pronounce those, enyhoo?) non-Vietnam > War-related creative output. They rhyme with Fry-eggs and Tokes. > The point I was trying to get across was that > those artists were writing protest songs that dealt with the issues of the > day in less musically interesting ways than others working within the same > musical framework. I strongly recommend Ochs's album "Pleasures of the Harbor". The arrangements on it (some, if memory serves, by Lincoln Mayorga) are quite stunning. - - ---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------- |||/ Joseph Zitt ===== jzitt@humansystems.com ===== Human Systems \||| ||/ Maryland? = <*> SILENCE: The John Cage Mailing List <*> = ecto \|| |/ http://www.realtime.net/~jzitt ====== Comma: Voices of New Music \| ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 13:22:13 -0700 (PDT) From: "J." Wermont Subject: Baez and Ochs Joseph Zitt wrote: > They rhyme with Fry-eggs and Tokes. I think Baez sounds most like the word "bias" (accent on the first syllable, and don't voice the 's' sound) but "fry-eggs" is certainly more amusing. :) > I strongly recommend Ochs's album "Pleasures of the Harbor". The > arrangements on it (some, if memory serves, by Lincoln Mayorga) are quite > stunning. Is "Small Circle of Friends" on that? I've always thought that song was musically inventive and interesting, and way beyond the 4-chord strum. Joyce ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 15:35:24 -0500 (CDT) From: "Joseph S. Zitt" Subject: Re: Baez and Ochs On Wed, 19 Aug 1998, J. Wermont wrote: > > I strongly recommend Ochs's album "Pleasures of the Harbor". The > > arrangements on it (some, if memory serves, by Lincoln Mayorga) are quite > > stunning. > > Is "Small Circle of Friends" on that? I've always thought that song > was musically inventive and interesting, and way beyond the 4-chord > strum. Yup, as well as "The Party", "Crucifixion", and the title track. - - ---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------- |||/ Joseph Zitt ===== jzitt@humansystems.com ===== Human Systems \||| ||/ Maryland? = <*> SILENCE: The John Cage Mailing List <*> = ecto \|| |/ http://www.realtime.net/~jzitt ====== Comma: Voices of New Music \| ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 17:12:15 EDT From: Spbarker@aol.com Subject: Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts Neile Graham wrote: >>- KATE RUSBY - Hourglass (traditional English folk) (Compass) > >I have a copy of this and it's quite nice. Rusby has a rich & sweet voice >and the traditional songs are simply, acoustically done but sound >contemporary (because of the style of her guitar playing?). I like them >because they're not New Age-y or bland or prettified, which are my major >complaints with most contemporary recordings of traditional songs. > >I have other things i should do reviews of that have caught my ear more, >but this is a nice one. While I quite like Hourglass (it has been on sale in the UK since 1997), I think her earlier collaboration with Kathryn Roberts was simply brilliant. The album is simply entitled "Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts". Most of the songs are arrangements of traditional folk songs, but a rendition of Suzanne Vega's "The Queen And The Soldier" fits in well with the others. On a scale of 1 to 5, I'd give it 5. Simon np. Enya - Far and Away (CD single) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 13:53:47 -0400 (EDT) From: Jet Girl Subject: cheesy synth wow another post...waxing nostalgic yeah okay oh the drears and other early happy songs have lots of what now seems like really unpolished cheesy synth. but then whadaya expect on a shoestring budget and the early-mid 80's? :) however, i can clearly remember the moment i opened the package with the first four tapes, popped rhodes i in the walkman and put on the headphones, sat down to dinner in Graham hall with my odious boyfriend, hearing Oh the Drears and having an epiphany over my milk glass and belgian waffle. a defining moment, and the synths hardly seemed cheesy at the time. but i definitely agree with Jeff, along with hearing Perfect Irony (??) done reggae style again, I would love for Happy to redo Oh The Drears live! kIrI jetgrrl@magenta.com Teacher: Let's all work together to make Daria's dream a reality. Daria: You mean the one where people walking down the street burst into flames? -la la la la la ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 18:47:49 From: Melissa Barberer Subject: MWBT I finally bought it yesterday. I was waiting to get the gift certificate promised to me for my birthday from Tower. But I lost patience. I was in the Village and looked in Tower. It was $16.99 and I said forget it I'll look in Borders in Westbury. I went to Borders later and they had a few copies and it was $15.99 plus I got a 15% discount because I am a WFUV member. :) That $50 pays off :)! Whoever said such nice things about Borders I can agree. I love how it's set up. Something is so much nicer about it then Tower Records or Barnes and Nobles...Any way I have not listened to the album alot so far but I do like it alot. Something about it reminds me of Ani's latest album. They both put me in some sort of trance. I disagree with the people who said that 'Roy' shouldn't be a single. I think it's poppy enough to be a single. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 19:27:31 -0700 (PDT) From: charley darbo Subject: Re: womyn's music, protest songs - ---"J. Wermont" wrote: > > > As for singing about body image . . . k.d. lang: Big Boned Gal! Great, great song. In the first place. In the second place, one of the most haunting songs I've ever heard was a Holly Near song about the women "disappeared" by the Nicaraguan government. I speak no Spanish so this attempt at the song's title is largely phonetic: "Ayuna Mujer Desaparacida." Translates, if I remember, as "A Mother is Disappeared." Not that I'm a Holly Near fan; *C*A*U*T*I*O*N*::: opinion to follow ::: I come down firmly on the side of those who haven't much use for American "folk" music--I may elaborate later--I just wanted to offer an exception to what I see as the general rule. The prime example of what I don't like about American folk music is the horrible, astonishingly emotionally bankrupt treatment Judy Collins gave to "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime." If I'd been a third-world dictator, she'd have been disappeared before she'd reached the second verse. - --charley n.p. DJKrush: _Holonic_ n.r. instructions on the top of an open-proof aspirin bottle. you _know_ they make the process as painful as possible because it's good for business. _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 22:38:21 -0400 From: meredith Subject: oy, to be e.mortal Hi! Okay, so after being up until 1 am last night catching up on ecto, I feel qualified to respond to a few of the things that have been flying around here of late. (See, I went out of town again ... I've got to stop doing that! :) Sorry for the length. First, I saw a bit of misinformation floating about in some of the missives here that I'd like to set straight once and for all: Veda Hille is *not* participating in this year's Lilith Fair. She was invited, but declined. They offered her a spot on the Village Stage in her hometown, were she routinely sells out progressively larger venues, and she said thanks, but no thanks. So she's reviving the Scrappy Bitch Tour with Kinnie Starr and Oh Susanna for a West Coast run instead. (I'll post details on that here as soon as I get them myself.) I think there's really not much to add to the whole Lilith thing. I'm pretty ambivalent about it, personally. I feel sorry for Sarah and all the backlash she's had to endure this year. I wasn't motivated in the least to attend, though ... I came to the conclusion that in general, I'm more interested in supporting musicians who need my support and with whom I can interact on more than an audience/performer level. If I don't go see Sarah or Paula at this point, that's not going to mean a thing for them -- there will be someone else more than willing to take my place. But if I take the time to go see Veda Hille or Mila Drumke or Susan McKeown or Susan Werner or Joy Askew or The Nields it *will* make a difference, and I know for sure that my efforts to be there are appreciated. (And the music is a hell of a lot more interesting, too.) That extra connection adds so much to the experience for me that I really miss it when I'm in a huge venue surrounded by 8554 adolescent girls shrieking "I LOVE YOU TORI!!!!". I've found the whole discussion about "womyn's music" to be fascinating. My personal problem with the genre is simply that I find the music to be crashingly boring. I can certainly appreciate where the music was coming from and what the artists who made it were up against, but it would speak to me a lot more if it were accompanied by more original instrumentation. One of the most excruciating musical experiences of my life was attending a Margie Adam concert my senior year in college (I can hear Valerie Nozick's sympathetic wail from here ;). It was just so damned DULL, not to mention really self-righteous. And every other member of the audience was inexplicably having a musical epiphany throughout the entire thing. It was like attending a revival meeting at a church of which I wasn't a member. But it was free, so Val and I stuck it out until the bitter end. (College students will do the damndest things so long as the're free!) I got those free tickets because I was the programmer of what had been a staple of our college radio station's Sunday morning lineup for years, the Amelia Earhart show. It had always been strictly a "womyn's music" show until I took it over, and in the course of the year I was at the helm I turned it into a "women's music" show. There was a rotation of several women who did the show each once every 6 weeks or so, and I made sure everyone concentrated on a specific type of music and showcased the accomplishments of female musicians within that genre. We still did have someone who did the "womyn's music" thing, which was fine, but we also had gospel, world music, R&B, folk, and pop on the rotation. Interestingly enough, I never heard one complaint about the change, and I got a lot of feedback about the show. I think the listeners appreciated the fact that we'd introduced a little artistic diversity into the mix. Now to a few specific replies: A while ago, Fog fonted: >A week ago, with much trepidation (as fellow lurkers should certainly >understand), I posted a little blurb about a local CT band called >Sweeter Than Wine whose new CD I find very enjoyable, and being a fan of >HR and this forum, I wrote up a little ecto post about them and shipped >it off. I really thought readers of this forum might enjoy them too. I hope that by now all of the responses you received on the subject have convinced you that posting that was definitely a cool thing! I didn't respond because of hardware failure and business travel. But now I'm back and have a new computer, and so now I can say that I've heard of Sweeter Than Wine but haven't actually heard them, and the next time I see that they're playing in the area I will definitely check them out. Do you know if they've got any gigs coming up? For that matter, are there any other bands/artists local to CT that are worth checking out from an ectophilic point of view? A few years ago I was singing the praises of Field of Vision far and wide (remember them?), but then of course they had to go and break up on me. :P Go Van Gogh were great too, but I don't know whatever happened to them, and I've forgotten what name they changed to. I saw Shelly Valuskas open for Merrie Amsterburg a few months ago, but she was pretty unimpressive. Chris Montville resurfaced: >I went up to Falcon Ridge with my SO and my sister... we had never been >before, and we weren't prepared for a) The cold and b) The amazing >non-stop array of wonderful music. Wow! I'm definitely going back next >year, but this time I'm bringing PANTS. How does it get that cold in >July? I could go into the physics of radiational cooling, but I think I'll just refer you to The Weather Channel. ;) Having grown up in a place where you never leave the house without a jacket if you plan on getting home after dark even in the dog days of August, I guess I never thought twice about packing warm clothing for the nighttime. I'm sure Mike Curry can empathize with you after his first experience at Falcon Ridge -- I'm sure he'd advise you not only to bring pants, but a warm sweatshirt as well. :) >I saw them at Appel Farm last year and was less impressed this year. When >their last album came out, some critic referred to them as "A >female-fronted Hootie and the Blowfish" and I haven't really been able to >get the comparison out of my mind. Oh, great. Now I've got that in my mind, too! :P I still love June Rich, though. :) >I have to defend Greg. I had never heard him before and I was really >blown away by his performance on Saturday. In fact, I went out and bought >one of his albums. I know everyone will yell "Blasphemy" at this but he >kind of seems like folk's answer to Tom Waits, and how can that be such a >Bad Thing? Ummm.... well, I guess I have a similar opinion of Tom Waits. Great songwriter, should be banned from being anywhere within 50 meters of a microphone. (I'm fully aware this is just me.) >I think you said it pretty well. They are AMAZING. I still can't >understand why they get SO LITTLE RESPECT from the mainstream media. How >can these guys need to sell personal possesions to buy a new van? Last >month they played a free show at my so's alma matter (well, high school >alma matter) to a crowd of about 50. Why does that happen? Um, because they got dumped by their record label? :P I'm getting good vibes from this Zoe thing, though. They've already got Nieldsy stuff up on the web site <(http://www.rounder.com/rounder/artists/nields_the>, with a really really cool bio and press release and stuff. Hopefully the people at Zoe believe in the band enough to actually put their money where their mouth is and support them. _Play_ is going to be a kickass record, too, so I have high hopes for the future of my favorite band. >I couldn't even think about going to this show. Watch Veda Hille open for >him? Seeing him open for someone ELSE was disgusting enough... We suffer for our goddesses. It's an integral part of the religion. :) Juha reviewed Garmarna: >If the songs on their albums sound like menacing, mythological beasts >prowling the shadows just beyond your field of vision, the live versions >have got the critters seriously pissed. And they make a lot of noise when >they roar. I just have to say that's one of the most wonderful descriptions of anything I've ever read. :) I just keep reading those two sentences over and over in silent appreciation of how great they are. :) Ellen noted: >More mentions of Kitty Brazelton!! I missed her performance in >Hildegurls when I was in New York last month, but I still have my >original Musica Orbis album! ("O, I want to go where the red winds >blow... miles away..." :) That's where I'd heard that name before! I'm kicking myself more and more with each passing day for having missed the Hildegurls show. :P But I hear tell that there's going to be a recording and a few more performances - -- Hillary, please keep us all posted on that! >Btw, the latest Curve has a much better take on the Lilith vs. Michigan >argument. >Catie Curtis and Veda Hille are two of >the new(er) musicians profiled, btw. Argh, I forgot to go to the bookstore and pick this up yet AGAIN. :P (In case anyone else is interested in the same bizarre non-musical things I am, there's another reason to get this issue of CURVE: there is also an interview with Renee O'Connor, the actress who plays Xena's sidekick Gabrielle. "Renee O'Connor is not a lesbian, but she plays one on TV." ) jessica wondered: >Has anyone else heard the Live from mountain stage featuring Dar, >Joan Baez, Laura Love, Sinead, etc? It's a really good one, imho, >and they all do "The Boxer" at the end and it rocks. I think it >will be on repeat soon, btw, if it hasn't already happened. I have this on tape from the initial broadcast somewhere. I have to say that of the artists accompanying Joan Baez on that show, Sinead Lohan impressed me the least by a long shot. I know I haven't given her much of a chance at all, though. If I find a cheap copy of the album I'll pick it up eventually. Dr. Tom recounted: >As a result of all that we missed Melanie, Donovan and some of Ritchie >Havens. He was trying to do a solo vocal cover for Pink Floyd's "The >Turning Away" when we came in. I guess he couldn't find a guitarist worthy >of the part, but the song cries for Gilmore. Wow -- you must've come through the gates at the exact same time as my boss, because this is pretty much word for word how he described getting in there, and I think he got in on the same Ritchie Havens song! I had to laugh ... I was roused out of bed on Saturday morning by an emergency at work, and when he responded to my page he was calling on his cell phone from his BMW on the way to Woodstock. The irony was not lost on him one iota. I've got a cool boss. :) It sounds like it was a great show. I wish I'd gotten a chance to see Joni, but some things just aren't meant to be. Mark Lowry introed: >I do hope she comes to this area on her upcoming tour. Does anyone know >if she has ever played Dallas/Fort Worth before? Not yet. Hopefully that's all about to change ... Welcome to ecto, btw! >In the >press material for the album, Happy explains every track. Curiously, she >also explains the songs "Cohabitants", "Feed the Fire", "In Hiding" and >"Down, Down." Anyone know why? Is there another version of MWABT that >includes these songs? I saw the press kit recently, and I was wondering about that too. I thought the full kit might have come with a sampler containing those songs, but I guess not. (Hmmm. This just occurred to me: maybe those are the 4 songs not from the new album that are planned for the set list of the live shows???) >Also, I'll be in NYC >Labor Day weekend ... anyone know of worthwhile Ectophilia concerts >happening then? As John pointed out, The Nields will be doing a free show down at South St. Seaport at 6 pm on the 6th. The Roy Harper thing woj mentioned probably starts after that, so I'm planning to try to catch both. If I hear of anything else going on I'll definitely post it here. >Got a promo copy of "I Wanna Be Kate" today. It's a must-have for Kate >fans. I'll try not to spoil it since it's not officially released yet. It's not??? >BUT, I do applaud cover versions in which the artist gives a rendition >that's completely different from the original, so long as the >interpretation is still on target. Therefore my favorite track is the J. >Davis Trio doing "There Goes a Tenner." I agree with you 100%. That one track alone saves the album for me. I'm sorry to say that I haven't found too much to impress me on this one. I'm not a big fan of tribute albums in general, and the fact that Mila Drumke isn't on this one just gets me from the beginning. I guess I could stick her "Under The Ivy" on the end of the tape or something. :) Marion wondered: >- Somebody wanted to know if Susan McKeown is related to Erin >McKeown. Now that name looks familiar, but I don't remember how or >where anymore. Susan introduced Erin to us as her cousin, but it was with a wink and I honestly don't know if she was serious or not. I think she might have been, but it's one of those things I feel silly about asking. If I do find out for sure I'll let you know. :) Jeffy reminisced: >Probably the biggest and best known flamewar on ecto was on this >very subject, and dealt quite specifically with IG. I really had >some angry arguments, both publicly and privately, with a certain >ectophile who will remain nameless unless she doesn't want to. ;-) You know, I seem to have repressed some memories from the summer of '92 ... I really have no idea what you're talking about at all. ;> Birdie inquired: >I wonder if Helen Terry got together for the Culture Club reunion. >What a voice! Most notable on "Church of the Poison Mind". Alas she didn't, but I'm happy to say that her replacement is every bit as wonderful as she was in the role. I have a mental block on the new singer's name, but she was great. That's quite enough for now ... :) +==========================================================================+ | Meredith Tarr meth@smoe.org | | New Haven, CT USA http://www.smoe.org/~meth | +==========================================================================+ | "things are more beautiful when they're obscure" -- veda hille | | *** TRAJECTORY, the Veda Hille mailing list: *** | | *** http://www.smoe.org/meth/trajectory.html *** | +==========================================================================+ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 22:57:47 -0400 (EDT) From: Stuart Myerburg Subject: Re: oy, to be e.mortal On Wed, 19 Aug 1998, meredith wrote: > >I wonder if Helen Terry got together for the Culture Club reunion. > >What a voice! Most notable on "Church of the Poison Mind". > > Alas she didn't, but I'm happy to say that her replacement is every bit > as wonderful as she was in the role. I have a mental block on the new > singer's name, but she was great. It's Zee, if I remember correctly. And, she *was* great. She sounded almost exactly like Helen on "That's the Way" and "Black Money." Stuart _________________________________________________________ Stuart Myerburg Information Services, Rollins School of Public Health http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~stuart _________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 23:13:38 -0400 From: les jumeaux Subject: Re: oy, to be e.mortal meth informed re veda: >no thanks. So she's reviving the Scrappy Bitch Tour with Kinnie Starr and >Oh Susanna for a West Coast run instead. (I'll post details on that here >as soon as I get them myself.) woohoo! just in time for my return to vancouver! :) i can't believe how silly laur and i are - veda was in kingston while we were living there and we *didn't go*, half from forgetfulness and half because we were just intensely lazy that day. argh. at least i'd already seen her at the railway club back home with neile and ariane, but laur hadn't... thankfully now she likely will! apparently dar williams will be at the east van cultural centre (yet again) in early september as well, so we're hoping to make that too. i've already seen her there twice. :) - -damon, happy to say he's listening to music more again and slowly rebuilding a list of "desired cds" :) * * * * * * * * * * les jums: jumeaux@pobox.com http://pobox.com/~jumeaux/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Aug 98 20:24:27 PDT From: "Jeffrey Hanson" Subject: Cry Cry Cry; Haris Alexiou, Susan Court Yesterday I was able to get 2nd row tickets for the opening night of the Cry Cry Cry tour in Tucson. I'm psyched! Too bad I have to wait until Dec. 1! Anyone heard the new Haris Alexiou album yet? I hvaen't had a chance to get to the stores since it was supposedly released. Looking forward to it though. I picked up Di Efchon after she was raved about here and definitely love it. Despite her singing in Greek, it's so passionate and good that you hardly notice. I find myself listening to it quite a bit--unlike most "foreign" singers. I also ordered Susan Court's album, and although I like it, I haven't fallen in love with it like most people here. I find the album pretty varied. On some songs she sounds like one of the girls from Rasputina without the dissonance. Others sound very 80's for some reason. Must be the drum tracks. I was also sort of surprised to find out how non-melodic the songs were--she seems to rely heavily on complex rhythms instead, and seems to use the natural rhythms of spoken English to form the songs. However, I do find the album quite interesting and definitely ambitious. The artwork is really lovely. Will have to give it a few more listens before I make any definite decisions on it. It seems like there was more to say, but can't think of what it was. I've been so exhausted after reading the high volume of ecto that by the time I'm done reading I have no motivation to write. But it's all been interesting. Jeff Hanson n.r. Jonathon Lethem - Girl in Landscape n.p. nothing ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V4 #285 **************************