From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V5 #284 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Monday, August 23 1999 Volume 05 : Number 284 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Record lengths [neal copperman ] Re: milla's latest acting gig [Joseph Zitt ] Tori in Saratoga - companion needed ["Foghorn J Fornorn" ] Re: Paul(a) Cole Critisim [Joseph Zitt ] Re: Jewel boxes wanted [phclark ] Re: STINA, FLOURINE, JILL SOBULE [Rubber DeNiro ] Re: Paul(a) Cole Critisim [Rubber DeNiro ] Re: Tori in Saratoga - companion needed [meredith ] Re: Paul(a) Cole Critisim [Joseph Zitt ] RE: Tori in Saratoga - companion needed ["Foghorn J Fornorn" ] Natalie MacMaster (was Re: CD lengths) [Michael Curry ] Re: Cataloguing CDs [Kay S Cleaves ] Re: Paul(a) Cole Critisim [Rubber DeNiro ] Re: Paul(a) Cole Critisim [Joseph Zitt ] Re: milla's latest acting gig [birdie ] Re: Tori in Saratoga - companion needed [JudoEWF@aol.com] Re: Free jewel boxes (costs postage, though) [meredith ] from a Tori person at the first couple shows [JudoEWF@aol.com] Re: from a Tori person at the first couple shows [meredith ] Re: Cataloguing CDs [neal copperman ] Many concerts (was Re: Natalie MacMaster (was Re: CD lengths)) [neal copp] Re: from a Tori person at the first couple shows [neal copperman Subject: Record lengths Poor Paul is really get slammed on this one. Sorry, but I'm not coming to your defense :) Though I will throw out the possibility that the new Paula Cole album could well be 75 minutes with less than 10 songs. That Amen thing, which purportedly blesses everyone under the sun, could easily be a half hour long. (That's actually the thing from the press release I found most alarming. I like musicians to experiment,and thought Paula's stuff could be quite exciting, but it's the vaguely new-agey spiritual vibe I was picking up that made me concerned.) I far prefer an album to be stupendous and short than be long and tiresome. (I realize those weren't the choices Paul was throwing out. I think he was wanting stupendous and long versus stupendous and short, but long often doesn't maintain the quality.) For me, something like Hugo Largo's Drum is a perfect album. It's so short that I'd love to have more. But it's so wonderful that I'd hate to see anything added that would drag it down. Years ago, I was thrilled to get the Cure's ...Happily Ever After, which combined 17 Seconds and Faith onto one disc. I like both albums, but I would never choose to listen to them back to back. As it stands now, I always lose interest by the time I'm a few songs into Faith. I suspect they would have both worked better on single discs. neal np: THis Is My Round - The Mollys ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 02:20:48 -0500 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: milla's latest acting gig On Fri, Aug 20, 1999 at 10:05:20PM +0100, birdie wrote: > The trailers will be out for The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc > very soon. I saw the trailer a couple of weeks ago (before the Blair Witch Project? On TV? I don't recall). Ooh, do I want to see this. - -- |> "The only thing that is not art is inattention" --- Marcel Duchamp <| | jzitt@metatronpress.com http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt | | Latest CD: Shekhinah: The Presence http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt | | Comma: Voices of New Music Silence: the John Cage Discussion List | ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 02:36:34 -0400 From: "Foghorn J Fornorn" Subject: Tori in Saratoga - companion needed I've got two tickets to see Tori Amos in Saratoga, NY on Sunday, August 29th. As far as I know this is the "5 1/2 weeks" tour with Alanis, although Saratoga Performing Arts has never come out and stated the name of the "co-headliner" of the original Tori announcement. As so often happens when I buy tickets to events, none of the people I ask locally can make it to the show that night, so I'm left with the prospect of going alone and eating ticket #2. Is there anyone reading this who would like to join me at this show? I'm travelling from western Connecticut to Saratoga, about 2.5 hours drive for me, I usually pass thru western Massachusetts and then to Albany then north to Saratoga. Can meet along the way or in Saratoga. Time of departure/meeting very negotiable. I plan to return that night (motels in Saratoga are way expensive in August). Show start time is listed as 7:30 pm. Email me directly if interested. Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 03:00:05 -0400 (EDT) From: Mike Matthews Subject: Today's your birthday, friends... i*i*i*i*i*i i*i*i*i*i*i *************** *****HAPPY********* **************BIRTHDAY********* *************************************************** *************************************************************************** ********************** Tori Amos (no Email address) *********************** ********************** Sam Warren (no Email address) ********************** *********** Henk Van Wulpen (Henk.VanWulpen@CS.kuleuven.ac.be) ************ ******************* Kerry White (kerrywhite@webtv.net) ******************** *************************************************************************** -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Tori Amos Thu August 22 1963 Leo Sam Warren Tue August 22 1961 Leo Henk Van Wulpen Sat August 22 1970 Leo Kerry White Wed August 22 1951 Exact Leo/Virgo Don Gibson Wed August 26 1959 Virgo Marcel Rijs Mon August 31 1970 A rose growing old Meredith Tarr Wed September 01 1971 Virgo Mary Lou Rowe Sat September 03 1960 Virgo Scott Zimmerman Mon September 04 1972 Virgo Mike Mendelson Fri September 04 1964 Virgo Richard Dean Wed September 06 1967 Virgo David Blank-Edelman Sat September 09 1967 Neon Holly Tominack Thu September 10 1970 Virgo Sharon Nichols - Terra Incognita Wed September 11 1963 Victim of Christianity Heather Russell September 11 Total Virgosity Karron Lynn Lane Tue September 14 1751 Ophelia Virgo Troy Wollenslegel Mon September 18 1972 Virgo Mark Frabotta Sun September 19 1965 Don't even THINK about parking here Joe Zitt Sat September 20 1958 Will Hack for CDs - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 03:31:36 -0500 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: Paul(a) Cole Critisim On Sat, Aug 21, 1999 at 09:37:19PM -0400, Jeffrey Burka wrote: > I'm not certain, but I have a feeling this might be the single most > ridiculous complaint about anything in the music industry ever voiced > on ecto. I have a feeling that there has to have been something farther off the wall, but am not masochistic enough to go wobbling through the archives to check :-) > Gee, the way I remember it, back in the old days an EP tended to be 3 > or 4 songs. I remember being incredibly confused when I bought Sarah > McLachlan's "limited" _Live_ "E.P." and wondering why the hell they > were calling it an EP when it was longer than numerous full > albums I have (_Live_, as I recall, is about 35 minutes over 7 > tracks; Suzanne Vega's eponymous debut is 35 minutes over 10 tracks). How about hour-long CD singles? The Orb's "Blue Room" and NIN's "Farther Down the Spiral" hit that. As I vaguely remember mentioning at the Aimee Mann concert, one day a looooong time ago I got both a double LP and and single, and found that both ran almost exactly the same length. Of course, PiL's "Second Edition", the double disc, was so bass-heavy that it needed the extra room. I believe the British "Metal Box" edition was *three* disks. > So what would you say to a moderate example like Genesis' 6 song > album _Trespass_ (45 minutes-ish) or Yes' _Tales of Topographic > Oceans_, which If I recall correctly had 4 tracks scattered across > two slabs of vinyl? It's over 80 minutes of music... Ooh, I haven't listened to either of those in too long... np. Zitt/Matis: Improvisations that I did this afternoon with a wonderful local guitarist, soon to be appearing on mp3.com (which is a cool way to distribute a demo...) nr. Samuel R Delany: Times Square Blue Times Square Red - -- |> "The only thing that is not art is inattention" --- Marcel Duchamp <| | jzitt@metatronpress.com http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt | | Latest CD: Shekhinah: The Presence http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt | | Comma: Voices of New Music Silence: the John Cage Discussion List | ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1999 12:49:39 -0700 From: phclark Subject: Re: Jewel boxes wanted Bill wrote: > > On Sat, 21 Aug 1999, phclark wrote: > > > I have a couple thousand. I hate the thought of just > > throwing them away. Takers? > > I wouldn't mind having a few *clean* jewel boxes; one thing that keeps me > from buying more used CDs (and saving some money) is how grungy and > generally uncared for used discs (both the media as well as the container) > are. > > If one of you people that have been offering jewel boxes has a few (say > ten or so) clean, unscratched, unshattered ones that you don't mind giving > away, I'll send you postage money (or do something in return such as > mixing you a tape). > > - Bill G. Happy to do it. A few more than ten to make it worthwhile? Peter Clark ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 10:09:04 -0700 (PDT) From: Rubber DeNiro Subject: Re: STINA, FLOURINE, JILL SOBULE - --- Irvin Lin wrote: > (hi CHARLEY!) hi. - --charley __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 10:16:08 -0700 (PDT) From: Rubber DeNiro Subject: Re: Paul(a) Cole Critisim - --- Joseph Zitt wrote: > > How about hour-long CD singles? The Orb's "Blue > Room" and NIN's > "Farther Down the Spiral" hit that. _FDtS_ is more like an alternate version of _The_Downward_Spiral_ than it is an extended single; pretty much every song on the album is reworked for _FDtS_ by a guest remixer. - --charley "Madder than a March Hare Splitter" Darbo n.p.: Lauryn Hill! Lauryn Hill! Lauryn Hill! Lauryn Hill! Lauryn Hill! Lauryn Hill! n.r.: _The_Sybil_ by Par Lagerkvist. Just finished _Mysteries_ and _Pan_ by Knut Hamsun. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1999 13:26:50 -0400 From: meredith Subject: Re: Tori in Saratoga - companion needed Hi! Fog noted: >I've got two tickets to see Tori Amos in Saratoga, NY on Sunday, August >29th. As far as I know this is the "5 1/2 weeks" tour with Alanis, although >Saratoga Performing Arts has never come out and stated the name of the >"co-headliner" of the original Tori announcement. It is indeed the 5 1/2 weeks tour. Contractual oddities arising out of the fact that Alanis just recently appeared at Woodstock '99, which took place close to Saratoga are preventing the Powers That Be from actually announcing in advance that she's going to be there. Of course, everybody knows that she's the "co-headliner", so it's all exceedingly silly. I've heard some *really* scary reports from the first few nights of the tour. Stupid, stupid stuff, like Tori fans standing with their backs to the stage while Alanis is performing, when they're not throwing things at her. Alanis fans going out of their way to make noise and be annoying while Tori is on stage. Let's see how immature today's high school students can be! Jeez. Apparently Tori's set list is more "greatest hits" than interesting, too, with only two songs from the forthcoming album. I was looking forward to the Jones Beach show (on my birthday, yay), but now I'm not so excited about it. Oh well. I'm going anyway. :) While I'm here, on a completely unrelated note: my review of Susan Werner's show at the Bull Run Tavern in Shirley, MA last weekend has just been published at Folk Tales. You can go to it directly at . (Capsule synopsis: it was the best Svetlana show ever. :) +==========================================================================+ | Meredith Tarr meth@smoe.org | | New Haven, CT USA http://www.smoe.org/~meth | +==========================================================================+ | ectofest '99: sat. sept. 4, 1999 kenosia park, danbury, ct | | http://www.ectofest.org | +==========================================================================+ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 14:06:00 -0500 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: Paul(a) Cole Critisim On Sun, Aug 22, 1999 at 10:16:08AM -0700, Rubber DeNiro wrote: > _FDtS_ is more like an alternate version of > _The_Downward_Spiral_ than it is an extended single; > pretty much every song on the album is reworked for > _FDtS_ by a guest remixer. Yup, but, at least when it first came out, it was marketed as a single, interms of price and placement in stores. The same was true of the massive "Closer to God" and "March of the Pigs" singles, as well as, IIRC, "Fixed" (the remix of "Broken"). - -- |> "The only thing that is not art is inattention" --- Marcel Duchamp <| | jzitt@metatronpress.com http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt | | Latest CD: Shekhinah: The Presence http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt | | Comma: Voices of New Music Silence: the John Cage Discussion List | ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 16:53:05 -0400 From: "Foghorn J Fornorn" Subject: RE: Tori in Saratoga - companion needed >>> I've heard some *really* scary reports from the first few nights of the tour. Stupid, stupid stuff... Well, that's pretty weak. Hopefully Saratoga will be above that, at least where I'll be, in the amphitheatre among the patron member seats, away from the riff raff on the lawn behind. SPAC's usually pretty good as audiences go. (Apologies to anyone who has a lawn ticket to this event. By riff raff, I mean everyone else *G*) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 14:37:35 -0700 From: Michael Pearce Subject: re: odds and ends At 5:15 PM -0400 8/20/99, "JoAnn Whetsell" wrote: > >I got blank cd's today for $10 each. 74 minutes. Is that pretty standard? This has probably been answered (I'm way behind on my digests), but you are being ripped off. If you have one of those audio CD burners, you are suffering from a tax scam the RIAA engineered a while back to have an extra $3 (at least) tacked onto the cost of blank CDs to pay for allegedly lost royalties. Needless to say, none of the money actually winds up in the hands of the artists, except for a few who sell millions of copies and don't need it. Plus the media is deliberately designed to wear out or rot after a few years or less. You are better off getting a CD-ROM burner and then buying computer CD blanks - no RIAA tax and the gold media by companies like Sony and Maxell are designed to last as long as factory-pressed CDs. Cost of blanks when you buy 10-50 or so at once: $1. Michael ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 19:00:05 -0400 From: Michael Curry Subject: Natalie MacMaster (was Re: CD lengths) At 12:24 AM 8/22/99 -0400, neal copperman wrote: >>np: Natalie MacMaster -- My Roots Are Showing [which I finally >> broke down and ordered from a Canadian source, since apparently >> those fools at Warner are never going to release it in the US... >> it is a great CD... very like her first two albums but with slightly >> better sound quality and Natalie playing even more skillfully!] > >I just rotated this out of my car player. Have had it since I saw >Natalie in Albuquerque earlier in the year. I'm sure you will enjoy this >Mike. It's a very fun disc. (Looking forward to seeing her again later >this year at the Birchmere.) You're right... I am enjoying it a lot. I still have yet to see Natalie live. The last time she came through the northeast I didn't find out 'til it was too late to get tickets. She is supposed to be around these parts again in early November, and while I was originally hoping to see her at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton I've since discovered that her show there is a benefit performance for a local radio station so most of the decent seats are ridiculously overpriced. Now I'm looking at seeing her at the Berklee Performance Center on Saturday, November 13th. I know it's a nice venue, I just need to figure out how I'm going to go about getting tickets and actually finding the place again. If only someone on ecto went to Berklee. ;) Mike np: Cherish The Ladies -- At Home nr: Otherland: River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1999 18:28:15 -0500 From: Kay S Cleaves Subject: Re: Cataloguing CDs Hi! I use a shareware program called Catraxx for my collection, it also has CDDB download (and upload) access for tracklistings, and is a real audiophile's database. You can store everything from little cover art gifs to the SPARS codes. The url for the program is http://www.fnprg.com/index.html It's pricy for the full version, I don't recall what's missing from the demo version, though. I found paying the full price to be worth it, though. - --Kay np: the sounds of hundreds of military jets overhead--it's the Air and Water Show. Joy. nr: Richard Adams, Tales from Watership Down ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 16:51:21 -0700 (PDT) From: Rubber DeNiro Subject: Re: Paul(a) Cole Critisim - --- Joseph Zitt wrote: > On Sun, Aug 22, 1999 at 10:16:08AM -0700, Rubber > DeNiro wrote: > > > _FDtS_ is more like an alternate version of > > _The_Downward_Spiral_ than it is an extended > single; > > pretty much every song on the album is reworked > for > > _FDtS_ by a guest remixer. > > Yup, but, at least when it first came out, it was > marketed as a single, > interms of price and placement in stores. The same > was true of the massive > "Closer to God" and "March of the Pigs" singles, as > well as, IIRC, "Fixed" > (the remix of "Broken"). All correct, except it's just "Closer," not "Closer to God." Makes one wonder if EP has any real meaning outside of record (evilwhore) companies' marketing offices. After all, it stands for "extended play," but actually means, in practice, "shorter than an album." - --Herr Schplitter __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 20:48:04 -0500 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: Paul(a) Cole Critisim On Sun, Aug 22, 1999 at 04:51:21PM -0700, Rubber DeNiro wrote: > All correct, except it's just "Closer," not "Closer to > God." Makes one wonder if EP has any real meaning > outside of record (evilwhore) companies' marketing > offices. After all, it stands for "extended play," but > actually means, in practice, "shorter than an album." > > --Herr Schplitter Nope: while the song was called "Closer", the single (Halo Nine) was indeed named "Closer to God." - -- Herr Doktor Ueberschplitter - -- |> "The only thing that is not art is inattention" --- Marcel Duchamp <| | jzitt@metatronpress.com http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt | | Latest CD: Shekhinah: The Presence http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt | | Comma: Voices of New Music Silence: the John Cage Discussion List | ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 18:39:33 +0100 From: birdie Subject: Re: milla's latest acting gig Joseph Zitt wrote: > On Fri, Aug 20, 1999 at 10:05:20PM +0100, birdie wrote: > > > The trailers will be out for The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc > > very soon. > > I saw the trailer a couple of weeks ago (before the Blair Witch > Project? On TV? I don't recall). Ooh, do I want to see this. What has been out has been Teasers - (trailers that reveal very little) Trailers will continue to evolve - show more - as will the website. Opens November 8th Birdie ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 21:42:30 EDT From: JudoEWF@aol.com Subject: Re: Tori in Saratoga - companion needed In a message dated 08/22/1999 4:56:19 PM Eastern Daylight Time, foghornj@earthlink.net writes: << >>> I've heard some *really* scary reports from the first few nights of the tour. Stupid, stupid stuff... Well, that's pretty weak. Hopefully Saratoga will be above that, at least where I'll be, in the amphitheatre among the patron member seats, away from the riff raff on the lawn behind. SPAC's usually pretty good as audiences go. >> Hey guys, I'm on a Tori list and a LOT of my friends are going to a LOT of the shows, leaving me stuck here in the north. I copied and pasted that little paragraph to it and requested that people that have been at the shows reply and say if there is any truth to these rumors or not. I trust them, they'll tell the truth. Even though I'm sometimes embarrassed to be a "Toriphile," I gotta protect our rep! ('Cuz like it or not, her autograph IS tattooed on my ankle forever......) I'll forward any replies verbatim to this list once I get some just to let you know what's going on. (Kinda scary the dedication, they go to all the shows and invest in laptops just so they can keep in contact with the "outside" world while doing it!) Stacy, T.J.B. np: "We Are Not Good Girls" --- Seattle Women (blues, baby! YEAH!) nr: "Love, Janis" -- Laura Joplin (biography of Janis written by her younger sister, inspired by Janis' letters home) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1999 21:53:29 -0400 From: meredith Subject: Re: Free jewel boxes (costs postage, though) Hi! Joe suggested re jewel boxes: >Maybe we should ship them all to a central location and build >a clubhouse :-) Hey, sounds like a side-stage event for ectofest! Everybody bring their unused jewel boxes and make a sculpture throughout the day. ;> (I'm kidding ... I think ...) +==========================================================================+ | Meredith Tarr meth@smoe.org | | New Haven, CT USA http://www.smoe.org/~meth | +==========================================================================+ | ectofest '99: sat. sept. 4, 1999 kenosia park, danbury, ct | | http://www.ectofest.org | +==========================================================================+ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 22:07:13 EDT From: JudoEWF@aol.com Subject: from a Tori person at the first couple shows Maybe those rumors aren't true, Ectos. Here's what my good friend Becky said: <> Thought I'd let you know. Stacy, tjb np: "What Have I Got To Lose" --- Melissa Ferrick ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1999 22:10:48 -0400 From: meredith Subject: Re: from a Tori person at the first couple shows Hi! Stacy reported: >Maybe those rumors aren't true, Ectos. Here's what my good friend Becky said: Well, that's good ... the info I had was from the online forum at the Dent, supposedly posted by people who were at the shows, but who knows? Thanks for the info, +==========================================================================+ | Meredith Tarr meth@smoe.org | | New Haven, CT USA http://www.smoe.org/~meth | +==========================================================================+ | ectofest '99: sat. sept. 4, 1999 kenosia park, danbury, ct | | http://www.ectofest.org | +==========================================================================+ ------------------------------ Date: 22 Aug 1999 16:15:13 -0700 From: Yahoo! Clubs Subject: You're invited! Hello! You have been invited by wutheringheights00 to join the Listed Yahoo! Club named "Wrong Century". To become a member of this club, just go to the Web address below: http://edit.clubs.yahoo.com/config/sjg?.k=6C037c0844elATgv You need to go to the address above to join the club, but you can take a look at the club by going to: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/wrongcentury You can learn more about wutheringheights00 by looking at the Yahoo! Public Profile: http://profiles.yahoo.com/wutheringheights00 Note: This invitation will expire after 7 days, or after being used. A Yahoo! Club is a great way to bring friends, family or anyone you know together using the latest in Web technologies. Club members are able to take advantage of a club's private chat room, message boards and other features. You can also create your own free club focused on any interest, such as hobbies, families and industry associations. Clubs are either listed or unlisted. Listed clubs are available to the public while unlisted clubs are available exclusively to those who receive invitations. If you have no interest in joining this club, there is no need for you to do anything. You will not be enrolled as a member. Thanks, The Yahoo! Clubs team http://clubs.yahoo.com/ P.S. If you need some help on getting started, go to: http://help.yahoo.com/help/clubs/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 22:16:12 -0400 From: neal copperman Subject: Re: Cataloguing CDs At 6:28 PM -0500 8/21/99, Kay S Cleaves wrote: >Hi! > >I use a shareware program called Catraxx for my collection, it also has >CDDB download (and upload) access for tracklistings, and is a real >audiophile's database. You can store everything from little cover art >gifs to the SPARS codes. So, anyone have anything they like using for the Mac. The above is only a Windows program. I've got my stuff in something called Audiofile from Spinfree Software (http://http.bsd.uchicago.edu/~d-lakier/spinfree) (I haven't checked the URL in years though.) I'm reasonably happy with it. Runs on top of Filemake Pro, though the newer versions come with a viewer so you don't have to buy Filemaker Pro itself, which costs far more than Audiofile. Downside is that the old version was customizable, so you could get rid of all the stuff you didn't want and add fields of your choice. By now, I've customized it so much that it'd probably be a major pain to get the info out and move it to another format. But I might be game if I had something dramatically better to move to. (Later versions of Audiofile won't cut it with the programmable options removed.) neal np: Jeff Lang at Iota Since I put Jeff on my "willing to drive a good distance to see" list after Folk Alliance, I felt obligated to follow my own advice and drive down to DC to see him. Part of a 4 night concert sweep that kept me out til ridiculous hours all week long. Anyway, it wasn't as much fun as seeing him in a hotel room, but he still really blew me away. He's got a modest but effective voice, but this is completely overshadowed by his amazing guitarwork. I don't know a thing about technique, so I can't give a good description of what he does, but his guitar playing was very emotional and imaginative. Plus, he did a Rickie Lee Jones cover. Sorry about this barely comprehensible review. Just give him a chance if he's in your neck of the woods. (Plus, he's Australian, which might be a selling point to someone somewhere) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 22:27:40 -0400 From: neal copperman Subject: Many concerts (was Re: Natalie MacMaster (was Re: CD lengths)) At 7:00 PM -0400 8/22/99, Michael Curry wrote: >np: Cherish The Ladies -- At Home Ok, so I just saw them too. At the Birchmere on Friday. I've never heard any of their stuff, but thought the show was quite nice. At times transcendant, most notably on the amazing dueling tin whistle work out, and other times a little off for me. I think my biggest problem was that I didn't really care for singer Eva Clancy that much. She didn't have that usual thin, lilting Irish voice that I like in traditional music, but also didn't move to a gutsier, richer sound either (my other favorite in the spectrum). Instead, she sang in a brashy style that was more reminiscent of Broadway show tunes than anything I think of as Irish. And that's not really in the spectrum of things I listen to much. (Exclusively on mix tapes from Jeff Hanson, in fact :) ) So I tended to like the instrumental numbers far more than any with vocals. Too bad Ectofest conflicts with the Irish festival in Gaithersburg, cause the line-up for that is pretty incredible. CTL, Solas, Mary Jane Lamond and more, all for $15 in advance. At least Mary Jane Lamond is playing at Iota on Sept 2, so I can see that before i go. (Notice to DC ectophiles... That's a show not to be missed!) The other shows I saw this week were Marti Jones & Don Dixon at the Birchmere and The Mollys at Paddy Mac's. MJ&DD are always a joy to see. I don't listen to them much, but whenever I see them, I find myself thinking they sing so many great songs and are always a lot of fun, so shouldn't I listen to them more? I can rectify that a bit now, since I added to Marti Jones discs to my collection (which previously included only the wonderful "Used Guitars"). The Mollys are always fun to see live too. They were a bit less animated than usual, since they left Tucson on Tuesday morning and played in DC on Thursday night! Yow! Plus, one of the singers was on crutches, and since she is using leaping wildly around the stage and egging everyone on, the show was necessarily more sedate. For those who don't know, The Mollys bill themselves as a Celtic/Chicana band. They can be punky like the Pogues, or vear off into something with a strong Hispanic blend. Lately they seem to be adding a lot of songs (from their forthcoming album) that sound like fairly traditional country, but in a good way. In a kd lang or Lucinda Williams kinda way. From here they are heading south and west, through places like Illinois and Tennessee. I'm sure I have the schedule around here somewhere, or you can find it on their web-page (www.mollys.com?) neal np: Jeff Lang at Iota still ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 22:41:26 -0400 From: neal copperman Subject: Re: from a Tori person at the first couple shows At 10:10 PM -0400 8/21/99, meredith wrote: >Hi! > >Stacy reported: > >>Maybe those rumors aren't true, Ectos. Here's what my good friend Becky said: > > > >Well, that's good ... the info I had was from the online forum at the Dent, >supposedly posted by people who were at the shows, but who knows? I'm surprised people don't stay for both sets. I guess if they are rabid fans of only one artist who are following the tour around, seeing the other artist several times might not be that much fun. I know Tori puts on a great live show, and I was under the impression that Alanis was good live too. I'm not all that interested in seeing Alanis myself, but figure that having her play with Tori might be the incentive I need to give her a chance, and maybe she'll win me over. I guess I'm just curious why the fans are so intolerant of the other artists? (even if they aren't vocally so) neal ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 00:26:59 EDT From: JudoEWF@aol.com Subject: Re: from a Tori person at the first couple shows In a message dated 08/23/1999 12:15:19 AM Eastern Daylight Time, meth@smoe.org writes: << Well, that's good ... the info I had was from the online forum at the Dent, supposedly posted by people who were at the shows, but who knows? >> A lot of my friends are people who post on the Dent, but a LOT of the people on the Dent's forum are assholes. I went to a handful or so shows on Tori's last tour and got to know who's who from the assholes, who's clueless, and who's cool. And ::ahem::: I'm not friends with assholes. My friends are cool. :) god, I'm tired. Stacy np: "Just Won't Burn" -- Susan Tedeschi (this woman KICKS ASS!) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1999 21:53:36 -0700 From: Irvin Lin Subject: FIONA APPLE and what's wrong with major labels...a rant. > What is Fiona doing lately anyway? I think on her website it said something > about her doing a song for some movie, but I don't rememeber what or when or > if that's someone else I'm thinking of. Goes along with the Joan Osborne > thread of people I'm missing new music from. according to SPIN (i think it was SPIN, it might have been RAYGUN or ALTERNATIVE PRESS or ROLLING STONE, i forget, they all sort of blur together for me as i read them all about the same time, at work), FIONA is back in the studio and is cutting songs for her new album. release date sometime late 99 early 00. keep in mind, TIDAL was released in 96 but it really didn't commercially break until 97. taking two years between albums isn't all that long. especially if you are commercially successful studio product like FIONA. notwithstanding artists like ANI DIFRANCO who releases her stuff independently outside of the system, or TORI who has a proven audience, and hence, can produce albums at a rate when she wants, most artists' labels only release albums every two or three years. the logic usually being, they don't want the audience to get too bored and overexposed. not to mention the fact that they often times put the artists on grueling tours to promote the CDs that can last up to a year and half to two years, all the while releasing singles after singles from the same CD, milking it for all it's worth. there is no time to write new music while on tour, and after that sort of living on the road, often times most artists want to take time off music for awhile anyway. think JEWEL. why do you think it took her nearly four to five years to release a new album, when every single JEWEL fan knew that she had a backlog of songs that could have filled a 5 disc box set? it wasn't because of her, it was because of her label. they wanted the perfect product as a follow up, and apparently they got. despite what seems to be universal complaints about SPIRIT from JEWEL fans, the album has gone how many times platininum, and with JEWEL to be in the new ANG LEE movie about the civil war, she's permanently set in the industry. a tested product, she can probably relax a little bit and release albums at a rate that she wants to now, instead of a rate that the label chooses. which means we'll probably be getting a new JEWEL album much more often now, if she chooses to go into the studio more. (aren't there rumors of a christmas release for JEWEL?). i personally don't care all that much about JEWEL or her music, so is a moot point for me, but i think this might be a good sign for those of you who do. as for what happened to JOAN OSBORNE, i think she is an example of being a bit of a one hit wonder. despite having strong writing skills, a talented voice and a core audience, her ONE OF US song was such a hit, and her subsquential released off of that album not nearly as commercially succesful, that i am sure her label is not really all that interested in her any more, nor is commercial radio. when a band has a hit, and then doesn't score again after that, most band don't get that "second" chance. perfect example being BELLY (FEED THE TREES was a HUGE hit, but releases after that didn't make a dent, and the second album was quite the BELLY flop (sorry about the pun), as well as TANYA's ignored solo stuff). another examples would be JULIANA HATFIELD (SPIN THE BOTTLE) and SOPHIE B. HAWKINS (DAMN, I WISH I WAS YOUR LOVER). these artists are talented singer songwriters with followings and a core audience, but since they couldn't come up with two consecutive hit songs, they became hasbeens in the industry eyes. sad but true. JULIANA probably will never get played again on commercial radio, despite her latest album being probably one of her strongest works to date, and TANYA's solo album was actually quite good (much to my surprise when i finally got around to listening to it) but no radio picked what would have been a great radio single PRETTY DEEP (catchy chorus, hooky chord progression, everything that had the makings for a hit), and we've already discussed on this list the problems that SOPHIE has been having. there actually is a really good article about this phenomenon in the JULY issue of PULSE magazine (TOWER RECORDS magazine) MISSY ELLIOT is on the cover. it more talks about artists like BETTIE SERVEERT that have a following and have had minor buzzes about them at one time or another (BETTIE SERVEERT having a college hit with TOM BOY off of their first album PALOMININE) but since they haven't been commercially successful and that buzz was in the past, they haven't a shot at being picked up on commercial radio. it pretty much talked about the death of ARTIST DEVELOPMENT by labels. in other words what happened with KATE BUSH would never ever happen in this day and age. too bad too. because what the music industry needs are more artists like KATE BUSH, and less flash in the pan studio produced artists like BRITNEY SPEARS. pretty much, if the band has a history and hasn't had a hit, or only one hit, they are never going to have a hit. obviously the industry is ignoring artists like REM, U2 and 10,000 MANIACS/NATALIE MERCHANT all of whom built up to their success, but the industry apparently is a totally different creature nowadays. sigh. anyway i am rambling. thanks METH for that KRISTIN HERSH article. she talks a little bit about that too. how she is now glad she never had a hit (especially after looking at her half sister TANYA's success and subsquential career situation).... ANYWAY. that is my two cents. again sorry to rant on. i go back to lurking. irvin ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V5 #284 **************************