From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V6 #125 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Friday, May 5 2000 Volume 06 : Number 125 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: ecto-digest V6 #124 ["Heidi Maier" ] Suzie Higgie [anna maria "stjärnell" ] Secrets of Naked Raven [Andrew Fries ] thoughts and questions ["JoAnn Whetsell" ] mp3's , cd-r & cd-rw ["Adam Kimmel" ] Aimee Mann touring again [jburka@min.net] Re: thoughts and questions [Songbird22@aol.com] RE: mp3's , cd-r & cd-rw ["Foghorn J Fornorn" ] RE: mp3's , cd-r & cd-rw ["Neil K. Guy" ] another mp3 question [Songbird22@aol.com] RE: mp3's , cd-r & cd-rw [Kim Justice ] Re: another mp3 question [Kim Justice ] Re: Australian Artists [Kim Justice ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 16:21:01 +1000 From: "Heidi Maier" Subject: Re: ecto-digest V6 #124 Neal wrote: > hmmm, it has been almost two years since I read The Bone People. Could be > time to read it again. Nice suggestion doug :) To which Neile responded: > And mine as well. I've probably read it five times already. And to which I shall now quite pointlessly and annoyingly add: "Me too!" -- it's an utterly fantastic piece of work. Heidi. - ------ "i want so much to write well, though i know i don't ... but during and at the end of my life, i will adore those who have." -- *dorothy parker* * heidi maier - maier@joynet.com.au * ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 01:49:06 -0700 (PDT) From: anna maria "stjärnell" Subject: Suzie Higgie Hi.. Suzie Higgie and Conway Savage's album has been released in the uk. Amazon.co.uk has it in stock for 9 punds. Amazon.com has it as an import for 19 dollars or thereabouts. Another new discovery is Esther Valentine..She has stuff at mp3..Sounds folklike but unique and will appeal to Natalie Merchant fans. A touch of Tori vocally. Will order minialbum. Oh a book club sounds nice..The bone People is a book I have to reread. Anna Maria np-Fiona Apple-When the Pawn nr-Mary Ann Mitchell-Quenched __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send instant messages & get email alerts with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 19:59:55 +1000 From: Andrew Fries Subject: Secrets of Naked Raven Executive summary: gorgeous acoustic music, quintessential Ecto material - - recommended without reservations. It's time to let you in on Australia's best kept secret: Naked Raven have been making excellent music for more than 6 years now! So how come I never mentioned them before? Well, they eluded me as well, and considering small size of our scene and my dedication to uncovering its secrets, that takes some doing :) Actually the whole story goes like this: About 4 years ago while in a secondhand shop I came across this rather unassuming looking CD, "Blame". The band was from Melbourne and their name, "Naked Raven" meant absolutely nothing to me, but on some divine hunch I bought it anyway. I loved it immediately, but by then it was already 2 years old, and since I never, ever heard a word about them I just assumed it must have been one of those short-lived, one-CD wonders... after all, if they were around I'd know about them, right? So there the matter rested, until a couple of weeks ago, clearly guided by the same divine force, I typed "naked raven" into a search engine, not really expecting to find anything. But I hit the jackpot! It turned out that: - - Naked Raven is alive and well. - - They released another CD since "Blame", and in fact were on the verge of releasing the third one. - - The reason I never heard anything about them was probably because rather than touring between Melbourne and Sydney they decided early on to concentrate on Europe instead - and as much as I don't like it I must admit it's probably a wise choice on their part. So much for history, now on to details: there are four members (the same four from "Blame" till now - clearly a close-knit group): Erica on vocals, violin and piano, Kate on cello, Russ on guitars, piano and occasional vocals, and James on percussion. What do they sound like? Well, perhaps the closest comparison would be My Friend The Chocolate Cake in their quieter moments, but with female vocals... or less poppy Peccadillo, without the harmonies. Or maybe a bit like Dana and Karen Kletter... I'm becoming increasingly fond of the sound of cello, and they have plenty of it. And Erica's voice, clear yet fragile, has this lovely, somewhat theatrical, somehow old-fashioned feel to it, at times reminding me of Merida Sussex from Paradise Motel. Voice of a minstrel. It was Peccadillo's Greta who called her music "chamber pop", and I've always loved that description. While I hesitate to call Naked Raven "pop", the "chamber" part seems appropriate. Their songs are quiet, sparse and understated, with every element in sharp focus. "Blame" in particular was almost entirely acoustic (and even if it wasn't, it certainly felt that way), the later albums introduce occasional electric guitar and drums but still, to my mind this is music for small, quiet rooms... modern chamber music. So there you are. For at least 6 years and 3 albums in the same lineup, Naked Raven continue to make their music, not affected by trends and fads, without the fuss but with determination because this is the music they want to make. Feel free to disagree, but for me that is the essence of what Ecto music is about. PS. Their website is at , their CDs can be ordered directly from the band if you don't mind emailing them your credit card details, or I can get them, if you email me with offers of trade! - ------------------------------------------------------ "If we took a random sampling of observers of the same sunset, chances are a few would think the sun got larger, a few would insist it stayed the same size, and an appallingly large number would have been looking in the wrong direction." -- Dr. Science - ------ http://www.zip.com.au/~afries/hall.html ------- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 May 2000 17:03:47 EDT From: "JoAnn Whetsell" Subject: thoughts and questions i saw lara fabian's cd in stores, and the name sounded familiar, like i'd heard about her on ecto, but i couldn't remember when or what or by whom. so if anyone has any thoughts, please share? also, does anyone know anything about a jenny labow? i saw her cd in a store, and i liked her name and the cd cover. as for thoughts, i listened to merrie amsterburg's world of our own making ep last night, which i had only listened to a couple of times and that was a while ago, but i liked it much, especially the 3rd song. also got singles: beth orton--she cries your name the 2 non-album tracks are really good, nothing, and something about it's not the traffic lights or streetlights or something and heather nova--heart and shoulder. not as good as the orton single, but still pretty good. needs more listening. sorry for the incoherency. i was up til 4 am JoAnn who has recently been playing a lot of emily bezar (4 walls bending), mary jane lamond (lan duil), tara maclean (passenger), sheila nicholls (brief strap), and various aimee mann and tori and who is currently trying to reread east of eden by john steinbeck (i'm much more successful at sleeping on the trains!) ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 21:41:56 +0100 From: "Adam Kimmel" Subject: mp3's , cd-r & cd-rw I'm a bit of a technodweeb, so a lot of the previous thread passed me by, but it did prompt me to ask this related question, and hope that it wasn't covered and I just missed it among all the technojargon: I was told by two very reliable sources that cd's burned by a cd-rw don't play on a conventional cd player -- only ones burned on a cd -r. The cd-rw discs, I was told, only play on a cd-rw player. Is this true? I was thinking of upgrading my old cd-rom, and the idea of looking into mp3's and burning some onto a disc appealed to me, especially since discovering this discussion group and all its great suggestions, but this has been something of a puzzle to me. Apologies if it's already been covered and, if anyone wants to answer, type really slowly so I'll understand. (PS - I hope all you Londoners went out to vote today!) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 17:24:26 -0400 (EDT) From: jburka@min.net Subject: Aimee Mann touring again Well, looks like Aimee and Michael are going to hit the east coast again. This time toward the end of June. Despite Aimee's new-found success, they're still going to be playing the Birchmere. This time it's for three nights, june 19-21. I'll be there on the 19th. jeff n.p. _Wish You Were Here_, Pink Floyd ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 19:11:23 EDT From: Songbird22@aol.com Subject: Re: thoughts and questions In a message dated 5/4/00 5:06:19 PM Eastern Daylight Time, s_nevada76@hotmail.com writes: > also, does anyone know anything about a jenny labow? i saw her cd in a > store, and i liked her name and the cd cover. Yes. She is from Oklahoma and has played Lilith. She's working on new material or may have already finished... it's beena while... I think her website is jennylabow.com but I'm not completely sure... Jessica np: Kyler England (if the world would just end)-soo good!! www.jessicaweiser.com | www.mp3.com/jessweiser ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 20:33:36 -0400 From: "Foghorn J Fornorn" Subject: RE: mp3's , cd-r & cd-rw Newer CD players can play CDRW media just fine. My old Sony CD player (ca 1991) would not play CDRW media. I replaced it with a Sony unit manufactured in mid 1998. Although it was not documented anywhere, it plays my CDRW media. That's been a big help in creating test mixes. More and more you will find that CD player manufacturers tout the "feature" that the machines will play CDR(W) media. MP3 files are an entirely different matter. No CD player that I know of will play MP3s natively, regardless of the type of media they are stored on. You still have to convert MP3s to WAV files, which can then be recorded onto audio CDR(W). Some software will do the conversion on the fly, but the end result is the CDR(W) contains uncompressed data. To play MP3s stored on a CDR(W) you need a computer to read them, and something like WinAmp to play them. I've heard rumors of a DiscMan type unit that can play MP3s natively, perhaps available in Japan. I'd like to know more about that if it actually exists. Although I think what I'd prefer is something more along the lines of a boom box that plays MP3s stored on CDs. This would be a great portable jukebox - a 650 MB CDR(W) will hold about a dozen music CDs worth of music - about 11 hours worth! I like to gather my newest 10-12 CDs, rip them to MP3s, burn to CDRW, then take that to work and play it on my workstation using WinAmp shuffle play. I use CDRW because after a couple of months I'll recycle them. The other nice thing about this, besides just having that much music on one media, is that the track information was loaded from CDDB and WinAmp displays the names of the songs. Great for getting to know all this new music I glean from ecto! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 17:51:03 -0700 From: "Neil K. Guy" Subject: RE: mp3's , cd-r & cd-rw At 8:33 PM -0400 5/4/2000, Foghorn J Fornorn wrote: >To play MP3s stored on a CDR(W) you need a computer to read them, and >something like WinAmp to play them. I've heard rumors of a DiscMan type unit >that can play MP3s natively, perhaps available in Japan. I'd like to know >more about that if it actually exists. [...] I've heard of this product, which is what you describe: http://www.mambox.com/ but that's all I know about it. Supposedly it can read CD-Rs formatted as ISO-9660, Mac HFS, etc., and play back MP3 files. Personally what I would like for travelling would be a tiny MP3 player with a PC card hard drive, so it can store dozens of CDs worth of music. The RAM-based ones are fine and offer the additional value of being shockproof, but flash RAM is really expensive, and PC-card hard drives are more compact. When I went to NZ I ended up burning a bunch of custom compilations of stuff I liked, but a tiny MP3 player would've been perfect. Even better - one of those MP3 players shaped like a cassette tape. The kind with a magnetic playback head so that you can stick into a regular cassette deck. Those have just come out too. It's funny. I remember 15 years ago daydreaming of a way of storing music in a computer-accessible format, with easily reordered draggable icons on a screen and solid-state storage. And here we are. I'm still waiting on personal jet hovercrafts, however. - Neil K. - -- t e l a computer consulting + design * Vancouver, BC, Canada web: http://www.tela.bc.ca/tela/ * email: tela@tela.bc.ca ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 21:13:34 EDT From: Songbird22@aol.com Subject: another mp3 question Some computers aren't able to turn audio files into mp3's right? I am trying to upload my new songs to my mp3.com site, but it isn't working... Not sure if it is my computer, the programs I'm using or what, though... I heard that some CDRom drives aren't able to do the mp3 thing.... any truth to this? And are there any good/free programs I can use to turn my songs into mp3's? Thanks... Jessica www.jessicaweiser.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 20:47:09 -0500 From: Kim Justice Subject: RE: mp3's , cd-r & cd-rw >[...] I've heard rumors of a DiscMan type unit >that can play MP3s natively, perhaps available in Japan. I'd like to know >more about that if it actually exists. [...] The Apex AD-600A DVD player can play MP3 files. It's a home unit, though, not a portable. I understand that it can play CD-RW discs but I have not tested this myself yet. Also, I saw a blurb on www.mp3.com earlier today that claimed Aiwa will soon release a car CD player with MP3 capability. kj - -- justicek@home.com (Kim Justice) Free kj music at http://www.mp3.com/kimjustice http://members.home.net/justicek "There can always be new beginnings, even for people like us." -- Susan Ivanova ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 20:58:53 -0500 From: Kim Justice Subject: Re: another mp3 question At 8:13 PM -0500 5/4/00, Songbird22@aol.com wrote: >Some computers aren't able to turn audio files into mp3's right? My understanding is that current MP3 encoding programs require either a Pentium (PC) or PowerPC (Mac) processor, but within that limitation just about any personal computer should be able to encode MP3s. >I am trying to upload my new songs to my mp3.com site, but it isn't >working... >Not sure if it is my computer, the programs I'm using or what, though... It's hard to say where the problem lies without more detail. At what point are you getting stuck? >I heard that some CDRom drives aren't able to do the mp3 thing.... any >truth to >this? And are there any good/free programs I can use to turn my songs into >mp3's? If a drive can read CDs, it shouldn't matter whether the data is a big old phone book for spammers or a bunch of MP3 files. I don't know of any currently available freeware or shareware programs that can create MP3 files; there is apparently some cost involved in licensing the MP3 algorithm. Fortunately, there are a lot of inexpensive encoders that work well. I've had good success with a Mac program called N2MP3, which sells for around $40, I think. You can check my MP3.com link below to judge for yourself if you think N2MP3's results are satisfactory! kj - -- justicek@home.com (Kim Justice) Free kj music at http://www.mp3.com/kimjustice "There can always be new beginnings, even for people like us." -- Susan Ivanova ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 21:00:27 -0500 From: Kim Justice Subject: Re: Australian Artists I haven't been following this thread closely, so forgive me if this is redundant -- but I really really really want to buy the next Single Gun Theory album whenever it comes out, consarnit. I like them a lot. kj - -- justicek@home.com (Kim Justice) Free kj music at http://www.mp3.com/kimjustice "There can always be new beginnings, even for people like us." -- Susan Ivanova ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V6 #125 **************************