From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V6 #214 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Monday, July 24 2000 Volume 06 : Number 214 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Amy Denio and others [Joseph Zitt ] Kendall Payne [RocketsTail@aol.com] Ecto independent cd store network [karen hester ] Eurovision (Was Re: Iceland) ["Marcel Rijs" ] Re: Natalie Merchant Tour [Sean Harding ] Re: Kendall Payne [Mark Miazga ] Re: Amy Denio and others [Neal Copperman ] Re: Amy Denio and others [Joseph Zitt ] More on Napster [burp@mindspring.com (Scott Burger)] Re: More on Napster [jburka@min.net] Re: More on Napster [Joseph Zitt ] The "laziness" of musicians (was Re: More on Napster) [Neile Graham ] Re: Ecto independent cd store network [dmw ] The laziness of the long distance drummer [phil@tiaranetworks.com] Icelandic music [breinheimer@webtv.net (diane)] Re: The laziness of the long distance drummer [Jeffrey Burka ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 01:21:41 -0400 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: Amy Denio and others On Sun, Jul 23, 2000 at 11:33:37PM -0600, neal copperman wrote: > She started by playing > accordian, and then began singing in ways that created really strange > harmonic affects. Almost immediately, my eardrums started to vibrate, and > eventually a lot of my skull did. The sound stopped coming from in front > of me, and instead sounded as if it was originating inside my head. I > spent some time trying to decide if the effect was painful, or just odd. I > figured since I was thinking about it, it must not actually be painful. Needless to say, I'm quite interested in this! > For Francisco, the chairs were formed into concentric circles facing > outwards, and we were provided with optional blindfolds to eliminate what > little we could see in the dark. His music built to very strong, almost > overwhelming waves of thrumming white noise that cut off suddenly as the > final act of the piece. Sounds rather like the performance I attended of his some years back. I can't say much of what it sounded like, though, since I was asleep for most of it. > Probably only Joe Zitt is still reading at this point :) *grin* > Amy & Francisco > are going to Boulder in a few days, which will be the first time they will > be doing a show together. They have a bunch of pre-recorded vocal tracks > that Francisco is going to be mixing live, and Amy is going to be > improvising more vocals on top of that. Should be interesting. I'd be eager to hear that, if I get a chance to catch them somewhere. You might enjoy this, re: Lopez's cockroach: Last Tuesday we were putting down tracks for a forthcoming Gray Code album. One piece started with me doing solo vocals, mostly falsetto. On one take, I started off kind of on the wrong foot, and hit some odd sounds, which I decided to run with, rather than the prettier tone that I had intended. However, about four minutes in, Tom's cat wandered in (we were recording at his house), walked determinedly across the room, and, stopping in front of the voice processor, carefully stepped on the power switch, stopping the piece cold. The animal kingdom having spoken, we're using a different take. npimh: The magnificent Yes concert at Nissan Pavillion from which I just returned. Five excellent musicians, obviously loving what they're doing, and grateful for the chance to play their Masterworks for an eager audience. (Curiously, while I didn't know one piece they did, "Gates of Delerium", I recognized the ending, aka "Soon", from having heard Happy sing it.) If the tour comes your way (though it's almost over), it's a must-see. - -- |> ~The only thing that is not art is inattention~ --- Marcel Duchamp <| | jzitt@metatronpress.com http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt | | Latest CD: Jerusaklyn http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt | | Comma: Voices of New Music Silence: the John Cage Discussion List | ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 03:06:22 EDT From: RocketsTail@aol.com Subject: Kendall Payne I am in LOVE with the album "Jordan's Sister" by Kendall Payne (18 years old)...I won't say that it's a flawless album or anything but it makes me anxious to hear a lot more from her! Almost every song on this album I can relate to in some way and her voice (kinda Sarah Mclachlan, Shawn Colvin, etc.) is amazing! Sorry I just got excited...and when I get excited I post here...lol. ~Eric np: Jordans Sister-Kendall Payne "Now its so hard to pick the receiver up and when I call, I never noticed you could be so small the answer was under your nose but the question never arose" ~Aimee Mann ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 19:14:17 +1200 From: karen hester Subject: Ecto independent cd store network Thank you to the people who've contributed to the Ecto Independent CD Store Network, (http://www.geocities.com/kscleaves/Music/Ectostores.html), particularly Neile and Neal who wrote the Seattle and Albuquerque entries. I was doing a hit-all-the-National-Parks whizz holiday and it was great to have a list of music store sites to see, much like the notes on impressive trees and petroglyphs that the Parks hand out. Second hand record stores have the added bonus of luring you into the "interesting" and somewhat seedy part of big cities, and much fun was to be had by admiring body decoration and in avoiding eye contact. I was impressed by the amount of vinyl still around. One question I have (other than 'why the hell do cds cost so much over there?'), is why are there so many promotional items in second hand record stores in Seattle? Is this the same across the States, or a remnant of record company excitement over 'grunge'? The chain Cellophane Square in particular had peculiar stock, almost all promos rather than 'real' second-hand items. Many years ago I remember one store had proud signs proclaiming it sold no promotional items due to its committment to artists, but it didn't have those signs this time. thanks again, and wish I could contribute the magical stores I discovered, but it's a blur,... karen. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 14:45:25 +0200 From: "Marcel Rijs" Subject: Eurovision (Was Re: Iceland) Hi all, Juha Sorva wrote: > On Fri, 21 Jul 2000, neal copperman wrote: > > http://www.eurovision.is/ (Selma - most of their sound links were broken. > > What I heard was fairly generic pop-rock that could have been from > > anywhere.) > > Heh... to a European, that Web address is enough to tell that 'generic > pop that could be from anywhere' is what you're going to find there. > Selma represented Iceland in this year's Eurovision Song Contest, which is > basically a competition, watched by hundreds of millions, to see who > can write/perform the most insignificant, sugary new pop tune that should > appeal to everyone. The struggle for this achievement is very intense > even though it involves smiling a lot. It's so horrible it approaches > camp. The Contest is also responsible for making CTline Dion famous when > she won it for Switzerland in the 80's. > > Selma's song is actually better than the average eurosong. Which is not > saying a lot. I think I should give a slightly different view on this contest from an opinion which is more positively biased. It is true that usually the most "insignificant" song wins the contest but this is only natural: the winner of a program which is broadcast all over the continent should appeal to everyone from Iceland to Cyprus and from Portugal to Estonia. It's - to use an understatement - inaccurate to say that therefore the Contest never showcases anything interesting. Over the past ten years, I have become acquainted with some Polish singers like Kasia Kowalska, Mietek Szczesniak (sp?) which I would never have heard otherwise. Actually, the addition of the Eastern European countries has proved to be a welcome one. The 'camp' element is certainly important for the contest, as well as the overly showy nature of the thing, but it's unfair to say that it has no merit at all. As for Celine Dion, I can only say that this is only one of many regrettable winners.... I agree, however, that Selma is interesting Europop and if you can you should check out her album. Same goes for Paul Oscar (or "Pall Oskar" as he is known in Iceland), although his repertoire is mainly musical-esque. His repertoire stretches from "Barbapapa", the theme song of a (European?) children's cartoon show, to Burt Bacharach songs and, of course, Europop. He did a wonderful cover of "Feel it" on one of his albums, which I consider to be one of the best Kate Bush covers of all time. Kind regards, Marcel Rijs afd. Communicatie marcel.rijs@kb.nl ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 08:41:19 -0700 From: Sean Harding Subject: Re: Natalie Merchant Tour On Mon Jul 24 at 01:19:32 AM, Knight of Wands wrote: > see what kind of surprises Miss Merchant has in store. If anyone catches any > shows sooner than 7/30, let us know!!!!!! I've been to several of the shows from this tour. She's been doing mostly folk songs for the first half of the show and her own stuff for the second half. I set up a web site for fan reviews that has some setlists and stuff: http://natalie-merchant.org/reviews/summer00/ sean - -- Sean Harding sharding@dogcow.org |"Youth is beauty, money is beauty http://www.dogcow.org/sean/ | hell, beauty is beauty sometimes" | --ani difranco ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 12:08:02 -0400 From: Mark Miazga Subject: Re: Kendall Payne I think Kendall Payne's album is pretty good as well, though I honestly was a little disappointed with it after seeing her live at Lilith Fair. I think the album is overproduced quite a bit - too many harsh guitars that drown out Kendall and don't play to her strengths. I didn't think the album captured her charming persona that her live show showcased. The songwriting is quite clever, although I didn't hear anything as wonderous as her cover of Elton John's "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" that she played live. All in all, she definitely has promise, and her lyrics are fun and often witty, and her vocals are powerful. She's certainly a couple hundred notches above Brittney and Christina and Mandy. I look forward to her next album capturing the real Kendall. Mark - -- Mark Miazga miazgama@msu.edu http://go.to/MarkMiazga W-2 Wilson Hall, MSU East Lansing, MI 48825 (517) 353-0651 http://www.msu.edu/~miazgama English & Secondary Education, Class of 2000 "We must elect Al Gore as president of the United States. ... The very future of the U.S. Supreme Court for the next generation hangs in the balance." - --Human Rights Campaign Executive Director Elizabeth Birch *It will be a great day when schools get all the money they need and the army has to hold a bake sale to buy another tank* ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 11:18:47 -0600 (MDT) From: Neal Copperman Subject: Re: Amy Denio and others On Mon, 24 Jul 2000, Joseph Zitt wrote: > Needless to say, I'm quite interested in this! You should just ask her about it. I bet she'd be interested in talking. She's pretty approachable. > > For Francisco, the chairs were formed into concentric circles facing > > outwards, and we were provided with optional blindfolds to eliminate what > > little we could see in the dark. His music built to very strong, almost > > overwhelming waves of thrumming white noise that cut off suddenly as the > > final act of the piece. > > Sounds rather like the performance I attended of his some years back. I > can't say much of what it sounded like, though, since I was asleep for > most of it. So Joe, what percentage of shows DO you fall asleep at? > > Amy & Francisco > > are going to Boulder in a few days, which will be the first time they will > > be doing a show together. They have a bunch of pre-recorded vocal tracks > > that Francisco is going to be mixing live, and Amy is going to be > > improvising more vocals on top of that. Should be interesting. > > I'd be eager to hear that, if I get a chance to catch them somewhere. I don't think they are really touring that configuration. Just playing that way in Boulder, and I think LA. Though if it goes well, maybe they will perform that way again. > You might enjoy this, re: Lopez's cockroach: Last Tuesday we were > putting down tracks for a forthcoming Gray Code album. One piece started > with me doing solo vocals, mostly falsetto. On one take, I started off > kind of on the wrong foot, and hit some odd sounds, which I decided to > run with, rather than the prettier tone that I had intended. However, > about four minutes in, Tom's cat wandered in (we were recording at his > house), walked determinedly across the room, and, stopping in front of > the voice processor, carefully stepped on the power switch, stopping the > piece cold. The animal kingdom having spoken, we're using a different > take. What a great story! neal np: Forever - Rainbirds ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 12:45:54 -0400 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: Amy Denio and others On Mon, Jul 24, 2000 at 11:18:47AM -0600, Neal Copperman wrote: > > Sounds rather like the performance I attended of his some years back. I > > can't say much of what it sounded like, though, since I was asleep for > > most of it. > > So Joe, what percentage of shows DO you fall asleep at? Actually, the percentage is pretty high. My mind tends to alternate between going full-throttle and switching off entirely, without much of a middle ground or transition, so if I'm at a performance, especially sitting comfortably in a dark room, odds are pretty good that if the show doesn't rivet my attention, I'll doze at some point. And at meetings, it's a near certainty. n.p.: David Bowie: 1. Outside (on my MP3 jukebox, with the monologues edited out) - -- |> ~The only thing that is not art is inattention~ --- Marcel Duchamp <| | jzitt@metatronpress.com http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt | | Latest CD: Jerusaklyn http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt | | Comma: Voices of New Music Silence: the John Cage Discussion List | ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 13:53:19 -0500 From: burp@mindspring.com (Scott Burger) Subject: More on Napster Thanks for the Chicago link. Also saw front page article on intellectual property rights on the cover of the Wall Street Journal. It read like many of the previous arguments on Ecto. Here is something else from the tech side: http://www.upside.com/texis/mvm/richard_brandt?id=3978854d0 It's about A&R guys demo'ing new artists using the web. For the record, no one on Ecto said anything about my 'primacy' theory, once again. Though, I was talking to one of my friends who said that musicians are fundamentally lazy and even if they could release their own mp3's under the 'primacy' theory, they would still rather someone else (like a record company) do it. Given recent headlines, I think she may be right. The web-music company Emusic has taken a lot of interest in indie artists (They Might Be Giants, Bim Skala Bim to name a few off the top of my head) Emusic releases mp3s in conjunction with the artists instead of major record companies but Emusic's stock price is just above a dollar. Scott P.O. Box 14738 Richmond, VA 23221 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 14:13:24 -0400 (EDT) From: jburka@min.net Subject: Re: More on Napster Scott Burger sez: > For the record, no one on Ecto said anything about my 'primacy' theory, > once again. Perhaps we're just tired of the whole thing and nobody saw any need to start arguing about it again? That would pretty much cover my reason for not bringing up Stephen King's little experiment with _The Plant_ ("pay me a buck every time you download it; after all, you wouldn't go into a bookstore and say 'I bought this book yesterday, can I have another copy?'"). Oops. I didn't mean to do that. But then I'm not expecting anyone to comment on this. In fact, please don't. Write about cool music or performances or books or movies. Much more interesting. Anyway, as for _The Plant_, mostly I'm just happy to finally have a chance to read (at least part of) the thing, which, as an avid King fan since '81, I've been hearing about for the better part of 20 years. jeff nr: _Bee Season_, Myla Goldberg ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 13:32:45 -0400 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: More on Napster On Mon, Jul 24, 2000 at 01:53:19PM -0500, Scott Burger wrote: > once again. Though, I was talking to one of my friends who said that > musicians are fundamentally lazy I think James Brown would like to have a word with her. He may be armed. - -- |> ~The only thing that is not art is inattention~ --- Marcel Duchamp <| | jzitt@metatronpress.com http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt | | Latest CD: Jerusaklyn http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt | | Comma: Voices of New Music Silence: the John Cage Discussion List | ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 12:50:41 -0700 From: Neile Graham Subject: The "laziness" of musicians (was Re: More on Napster) At 1:53 PM -0500 7/24/00, Scott Burger wrote: >For the record, no one on Ecto said anything about my 'primacy' theory, >once again. Actually, I thought I had, and that I'd said I thought it was too limiting. >Though, I was talking to one of my friends who said that >musicians are fundamentally lazy and even if they could release their own >mp3's under the 'primacy' theory, they would still rather someone else >(like a record company) do it. Given recent headlines, I think she may be >right. I think it's lazy of your friend to say that musician are fundamentally lazy. I'm surprised you have such a shortsighted and judgmental person as a friend. It's just the people who are obsessed by music and are skilled and talented at it aren't necessarily skilled and talented at being secretaries, production managers, marketers, and salespeople at the same time. Or they may hate that aspect of it. I know that as a writer I'd much rather sit down and write than be a secretary and package and send my work out and keep track of where it went, negotiate with printer and organize printing, go out and get my work into bookstores, and handsell my work. It doesn't have to do with laziness. It has to do with spending time doing what I'm good at and not spending time doing things that I'm not good at and that take time away from what I should be doing. - --Neile - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Neile Graham ...... http://www.sff.net/people/neile ....... neile@sff.net Les Semaines: A Weekly Journal . http://www.sff.net/people/neile/semaines The Ectophiles' Guide to Good Music ....... http://www.smoe.org/ectoguide ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 18:44:09 EDT From: ArtfulMdrr@aol.com Subject: The "laziness" of musicians (was Re: More on Napster) I'm surprised that someone who is as specifically interested in music as they must be to be on this list could toss up the evolution of the business side of music to the laziness of musicians. Sitting down and writing a chanson or even a folk tune takes a loooong time, and a lot of concentration, let alone writing a symphony. Musicians traditionally need to be more absorped in creating their product than marketing it. It's only because we live in a world that demands we survive by trading our work for basic necessities that Napster is even an issue, or for that matter the secretarial aspect of music, as well. I'm sure that classical musicians such as Mozart, who were treated like slaves under the patronage system, would love to be called lazy because he couldn't find the time in the day to both be a merchant and write his operas. Or maybe instead of writing masterworks, J.S. Bach should have gone for the subpar and become a lawyer. Is this the way it will always be? Our politicians are called heroes often when outrightly shunning whatever muse it is that governs the mind of the politician, but when our artists do nothing but follow their muse and sacrifice themselves unquestioningly for the sake of our culture, they're called lazy. What kind of sense does that make? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 16:49:43 -0600 (MDT) From: Neal Copperman Subject: Re: Ecto independent cd store network On Mon, 24 Jul 2000, karen hester wrote: > Thank you to the people who've contributed to the Ecto Independent CD Store > Network, (http://www.geocities.com/kscleaves/Music/Ectostores.html), > particularly Neile and Neal who wrote the Seattle and Albuquerque entries. > I was doing a hit-all-the-National-Parks whizz holiday and it was great to > have a list of music store sites to see, much like the notes on impressive > trees and petroglyphs that the Parks hand out. It's nice to know that information was helpful. I'm always kind of sad to see this sort of thing posted after the fact though. While there is probably nothing on-line specifically about ectohostels, and probably nothing official at all, it certainly used to be the case that there were many of us who were happy to put up other ectophiles and show them around. I know I have had a great time visiting ectofolk all over the country, and getting to meet the few from overseas that passed through DC. So this is my official invitation.... if anyone is coming to Albuquerque (barring whoever reads this through the gateway!), drop me a note and we can at least have dinner. > Second hand record stores have the added bonus of luring you into the > "interesting" and somewhat seedy part of big cities, and much fun was to be > had by admiring body decoration and in avoiding eye contact. a-hem.... I live within walking distance of almost all of those CD stores. (Course, I enjoy watching the people too. And I really love the giant anatomically correct pierced leather teddy bears at one of the tattoo/piercing places.) > I was impressed by the amount of vinyl still around. One question I have > (other than 'why the hell do cds cost so much over there?'), is why are > there so many promotional items in second hand record stores in Seattle? I thought CD's cost a lot in New Zealand. (Or is that what you were saying.) > Is this the same across the States, or a remnant of record company > excitement over 'grunge'? Promos are common in used stores across the country. Basically, it's a way for dj's to get extra money. They take the stuff sent to the radio station that they are never going to play and sell it. It's pretty common practice. > Many years ago I remember one store had proud signs proclaiming it sold no > promotional items due to its committment to artists, but it didn't have > those signs this time. What would the point of that be anyway? It's not like the artist benefits any more from an "official" used cd than a promo one. In both cases, the artist gets nothing. neal np: Maria - Jane Siberry ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 19:12:35 -0400 (EDT) From: dmw Subject: Re: Ecto independent cd store network On Mon, 24 Jul 2000, Neal Copperman wrote: > > Many years ago I remember one store had proud signs proclaiming it sold no > > promotional items due to its committment to artists, but it didn't have > > those signs this time. > > What would the point of that be anyway? It's not like the artist benefits > any more from an "official" used cd than a promo one. In both cases, the > artist gets nothing. not quite -- in the former case, royalties were theoretically paid to the artist from the original sale of the disc. promo cd's are exempted from any royalty consideration, so the artist really is worse off. on the other hand, i think it's better for them to be sold to someone who could enjoy them than for them to sit unplayed on a shelf (or worse, in a landfill). the first time i see a promo copy of one of my discs in a used bin, though, i'll still be kinda annoyed. scratch that; i think that's a good enough reason not to distinguish our promos from our 'real' discs. so we won't. not that seeing it in the used bin is gonna be a real ego booster, either. - -- d. np jennifer marks _pizza_ (cdbaby discovery of the week - review soon) - - oh no, you've just read mail from doug = dmw@radix.net - get yr pathos - - www.pathetic-caverns.com -- books, flicks, tunes, etc. = reviews - - www.fecklessbeast.com -- angst, guilt, fear, betrayal! = guitar pop ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 16:42:53 -0700 From: phil@tiaranetworks.com Subject: The laziness of the long distance drummer Niele and Artful brought up some very interesting points regarding Scott's friend's observations that musicians are lazy. Artful speaks about 'having to be a merchant and write operas' ie promoting one's own music for business' sake. I actually think both points of view have some validity; I have known some incredibly lazy musicians in my time, many of whom labelled themselves "musicians" not because of an obsessive desire to create, but simply to justify their chosen lifestyles ( read "party"), or to impress others to which they find themselves attracted. " Yeah, I'm a musician, what are you doing after the gig?" I have played with some who could barely generate sufficient personal energy to even show up on a regular basis, let alone do something demanding, like practice their instrument. I have also known incredibly artful and energetic individuals one of whom went out and got half a dozen credit cards and used them to pay for studio projects. ( then got a day job to pay the cards off!) And many others who run successful day jobs AND keep their bands and projects rolling along faster than some of us can even keep up with! That's the other side of the laziness coin. There are many other examples of creative artists successfully learning the business side of things and creating income from their art. Potters, graphic artists, jewelry; all these are creative crafts which need a high comittment to both the business and the Muse. Anyone going into business for her/his self is going to have to learn the rules of their particular game. Many musos just do not bother for a variety of reasons, many of which have to do with it being too hard, not too time-consuming. Which is kinda lazy, wouldn't you think? Yes I believe many musicians ( possibly the majority using the name) are lazy/unmotivated, and support the credo uttered by one of the Spinal Tap drummers; " Well if I could keep the sex and the drugs, I could do without the Rock and Roll" Arthur C Clarke, or was it Robert Heinlein? said something to the effect that " A human being should be able to deliver a baby, cook a cordon bleu meal, write a sonnet, fix a plumbing leak, etc etc; only insects can afford to specialize." If anyone has the exact quote, it would be nice to read it again. Musicians comprise an enormous motivational spectrum, from fierce and obsessive dedication, to " I just carry the guitar around to get girls" I do not for a minute think that all are 'fundamentally lazy", but there are a lot of people out there who find it easier to call themselves a musician/poet/writer, etc, than it is to get their stuff together and *do* something, or, heaven forbid, break down and get a real job for a while to fund their projects. And yes, I do think it's a bit of a cop-out to claim a monogamous relationship with one's muse at the expense of the necessities of life; rent, cat food, Wheaties, CDs etc. I've tried it; it's really tough on the cat. Best regards to all Phil Hudson - -----Original Message----- From: ArtfulMdrr@aol.com [mailto:ArtfulMdrr@aol.com] Sent: Monday, July 24, 2000 3:44 PM To: ecto@smoe.org Subject: The "laziness" of musicians (was Re: More on Napster) I'm surprised that someone who is as specifically interested in music as they must be to be on this list could toss up the evolution of the business side of music to the laziness of musicians. Sitting down and writing a chanson or even a folk tune takes a loooong time, and a lot of concentration, let alone writing a symphony. Musicians traditionally need to be more absorped in creating their product than marketing it. It's only because we live in a world that demands we survive by trading our work for basic necessities that Napster is even an issue, or for that matter the secretarial aspect of music, as well. I'm sure that classical musicians such as Mozart, who were treated like slaves under the patronage system, would love to be called lazy because he couldn't find the time in the day to both be a merchant and write his operas. Or maybe instead of writing masterworks, J.S. Bach should have gone for the subpar and become a lawyer. Is this the way it will always be? Our politicians are called heroes often when outrightly shunning whatever muse it is that governs the mind of the politician, but when our artists do nothing but follow their muse and sacrifice themselves unquestioningly for the sake of our culture, they're called lazy. What kind of sense does that make? ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2000 10:04:14 -0400 (EDT) From: breinheimer@webtv.net (diane) Subject: Icelandic music There are two compilations of icelandic music of which i'm aware. They are "Geyser" and "World domination or death volume 1". The latter is a Bad Taste release, I don't know if there were any subsequent volumes. It does feature two cuts by Reptile(Gun Fun and a symbol which looks like it could be Icelandic for "o"). Geyser is on the late, lamented Enigma label and so is obviosly oop. P.S. It's Bill not Diane np: "Julie Driscoll,Brian Auger and theTrinity" ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 20:28:18 -0400 From: Jeffrey Burka Subject: Re: The laziness of the long distance drummer phil sez: > Arthur C Clarke, or was it Robert Heinlein? said something to the effect > that " A human being should be able to deliver a baby, cook a cordon bleu > meal, write a sonnet, fix a plumbing leak, etc etc; only insects can afford > to specialize." > If anyone has the exact quote, it would be nice to read it again. "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." That's Heinlein, from _Time Enough For Love_ (the first intermission, excerpts from the diary of lazarus long) I don't know whether to be pleased or disturbed that I could get up, walk to the living room, pull down the book, and, well, okay, I actually started looking in the second intermission rather than the first, but still! Probably Heinlein's second best book, after _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_. No, I won't debate that. jeff ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 17:32:33 -0700 From: phil@tiaranetworks.com Subject: RE: The laziness of the long distance drummer Thanks for your response, Ian. I knew Robert had said it better than I did. >It was Heinlein, in "Time Enough for Love." >>The exact quote is: >."A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a >hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a >wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act >alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a >computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, and die gallantly. >Specialization is for insects." >>That being said, however, there's a difference between the ability to do >>all of those things and the desire. Yes, especially the bit about pitching manure. ph ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 17:40:21 -0700 (PDT) From: Steve VanDevender Subject: Re: The laziness of the long distance drummer Jeffrey Burka writes: > Probably Heinlein's second best book, after _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_. > > No, I won't debate that. You know how they say you shouldn't get into arguments about politics, sex, or religion. Arguing about Heinlein involves arguing about all three at once. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 23:36:05 -0400 From: meredith Subject: falcon ridge 2000 Hi! WARNING: VERY LONG AND FILLED WITH TALK OF ACOUSTIC INSTRUMENTS So woj and I survived another Falcon Ridge Folk Festival: two days and two nights of hot sun, freezing cold, stickiness, and tons and tons of musical goodness. It was utter overload and we were ready for some silence by the end of it ... yeah, another great festival. :) (Thanks again to Chris and Becky Montville and Siobhan for saving us the prime camping real estate and getting the sweet spots in front of the main stage!) We arrived just as it started to rain, and the rain ended just as we finished getting the tent set up. Fortunately that turned out to be the only rain of the weekend. The main attraction on Friday night was the "Summer's Eve Song Swap", featuring John Gorka, Patty Larkin, Nerissa and Katryna Nields, and Janis Ian. (!) As soon as that group hit the stage I remembered why I was there, weather be damned. Nerissa noted as it began, "I sort of feel like we've arrived", and I don't think there's much more validation than being invited to share a stage with those other people. She and Katryna were clearly making a fan out of Janis Ian, too -- she played along on a couple of their songs, and invited Nerissa to sing on a couple of hers. It was exceedingly cool to watch. John Gorka did his "I'm From New Jersey" song, to which Janis Ian added a hilarious verse at the end about "thank god I got out". ;) The event ended with the whole group jamming on "Will The Circle Be Unbroken", which was the perfect way to wrap up the evening. Saturday started off early, with a workshop called "The Power Of Two", featuring duos. Nerissa and Katryna were hauled out of bed early for it, and the other duos included Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer, a rootsy couple from Oregon I ended up being quite familiar with after living at the workshop stage for much of the festival; Texans Ruthie Foster and Cyd Cassone, a duo called Small Potatoes (I get the feeling we didn't really see what these two are made of, because one half of them had very badly broken her thumb the previous day) and the Storycrafters. I don't remember much of this workshop save that Nerissa and Katryna were predictably punchy. Later on in the afternoon Richard Shindell did his main stage set, accompanied by his new Billy Masters-less band. It was a great set featuring old classics and stuff from his most recent release, _Somewhere Near Paterson_. Lucy Kaplansky joined him on stage to sing backup on a couple songs. After Shindell came Eddie from Ohio, so we fled for a little while until it was Janis Ian's turn for her main stage set. Have I mentioned that Janis Ian is perhaps the biggest musical surprise I've encountered in a long time? Prior to this weekend I thought she was mighty cool, but I left the Festival an unabashed fan. If all you know of her are her adolescent hits ("Society's Child", "At Seventeen", "Jesse"), think again. She is now what would happen if Laurie Anderson played a black acoustic guitar. She's got a rack of pedals and her own personal sound minion, and she's not afraid to use either. At one point I thought I was going to get blown clear off the hill. And I wasn't alone -- for the rest of the night I was hearing people around me talking about how stunningly amazing she was. I signed up on her mailing list and picked up her newest CD, _God And The FBI_, which on one listen (on the way home yesterday evening) isn't the knockout her live performances are, but it's still pretty darned good. In the liner notes she lists a slew of creative influences, including Octavia Butler, John Barnes, and Orson Scott Card. I can forgive her that last for the other two. The woman's got taste. :) So anyway ... during the main stage dinner break there was a Woody Guthrie tribute workshop going on featuring Nerissa and Katryna (again - they told their manager to get them into as many things as she could for the weekend - - that'll teach 'em!), Dave Carter and Tracey Grammer, Cliff Eberhardt, Pamela Means, The Paperboys, Jimmy LaFave, and Moxy Fruvous. This one was a blast. From Pamela Means, who openly admitted she knew nothing about Woody Guthrie until she found out she was on this workshop (and had done her homework admirably, I'll note), to Moxy, who did what they figure Guthrie would have written if he had been able to attend Falcon Ridge, to the sisters Nields, who literally grew up singing that stuff, it was one heluva hour. The workshop ended with three straight jams culminating in "This Land Is Your Land" (which sounds incredibly hokey and cheezy, but believe me, it wasn't - my tolerance for cheeze is QUITE low) that epitomized why the workshop stage at Falcon Ridge is one of the best things in the realm of live music anywhere. Musicians who have never met one another before will find themselves jamming there on a song they've never played before, and the result will be pure heaven. By that time Mecca Bodega had begun their set over on the main stage. I still can't fathom what the hell they were doing there, but woj and I were glad they were! The crowd didn't quite know what to do with their percussive trance thang at first, but by the end of the set they had quite a few people dancing and the applause was pretty loud. Now the evening was off and running. Australia's Jeff Lang made a lot of new fans (though I must admit we missed most of his set because it was dinner time), then it was Patty Larkin's turn. I was expecting more new stuff from her, since her brand-new album, _Regrooving The Dream_ was on sale in the merch tent, but it was still a great Patty Larkin experience. She is simply an incredible guitar goddess. (The album, which we listened to on the way home is also pretty good - nothing really grabbed me like her last two have, but I think it's going to grow on me pretty quickly.) The Paperboys came up next, and treated everyone to some Canadian neo-Celtic jams. Since the night was getting pretty chilly by that point, it was good to have something like that to get the blood pumping. I have a feeling they'll be back next year - they got a really good ovation. Then Dar Williams showed up, with GAIL ANN DORSEY, of all people playing bass with her!!! *That* was a surprise. I forget the name of her guitar player, but he also wasn't Billy Masters, so that was automatically a good thing. I have to say I was looking forward to hearing her with some trepidation, since I've heard some things indicating that she views recordings like "Are You Out There" as sad mistakes, and is going back to the acoustic thing with her new album, _The Green World_. I was pleasantly surprised -- while not rocking, her performance still had some meat to it. And she still belongs in the breakfast cereal aisle. What a flake. At one point (during "Iowa", I believe) she asked everyone to hold up their lighters so her new bandmates could see what Falcon Ridge looks like at night. It was pretty cool, I must say, but ... well, it was Dar. 'Nuff said. :) Then , Moxy Fruvous stormed the stage. Their set was half an hour too long, but they were on last so nobody cared. I have to admit that when they turned around a heckler's slung "eat shit!" so that every single denizen of the big hill was screaming, "Eat shit!" on command throughout the night, it was pretty damned funny. They also made snide comments about Dan Bern, the American elections, and Camp Fruvous overrunning Camp Nields-Nook and completely obliterating them (an event which got blown a little bit out of proportion, but hey, I'm sure the Nookers will get their revenge next year, they're already planning it). I could never be a Fruhead -- Moxy toes the line of obnoxious a bit too close for my taste -- but they're tons of fun to see once or twice a year, particularly at a place like Falcon Ridge where they can really cut loose. By this time I was frozen solid, even through my thinsulate parka and a big cup of hot tea. Gotta love the Berkshires in July! Yesterday morning started off early once again. We parked ourselves at the workshop stage for the entire day. It got going with "Our Roots Are Showing", featuring The Paperboys, Cliff Eberhardt, Jeff Lang, Mary Gauthier, Dar Williams, Richard Shindell, and Lucy Kaplansky. As expected it turned into a Cry Cry Cry reunion (Dar: "I just this morning found out this is supposed to be a covers thing. Please save my ass!"), which was great, but hearing everyone else sing the songs of their influences was pretty cool too. Eberhardt had everyone jamming on Chuck Berry's "Nadine"; Lang did a really cool Tom Waits song, the name of which escapes me but it was more like Nick Cave than anything else; Gauthier did the most palatable version of "Amazing Grace" I've ever heard, with everyone else singing along; and the Paperboys, who had started the whole thing off with a great set of tunes and then sat idle for the entire rest of the workshop, brought it all home with a killer rendition of . Next was "The Songwriting Process", in which Richard Shindell, Mary Gauthier, and Dave Carter and Tracey Grammer talked about how certain songs came about, and sang them. Pretty mellow, but good. After that was the "Indiegrrl Showcase", featuring Holly Figueroa, Stephanie Fix, Chris & Meredith Thompson, Edie Carey, and Pamela Means. It was a nice preview to the living room concert we're having here next month. :) No real revelations, though it's always great to see Pamela Means play, and I never realized just how pretty Edie Carey's voice is until hearing it outside like that. "Stories, Poems and Tall Tales" came next, with Moxy Fruvous, The Nields (all of them), Mary Gauthier, and The Storycrafters. Gauthier has a song called "Drag Queens And Limousines" which is basically her life story, and it was pretty stunning - she stole the family car and ran away from her Louisiana home at 15, and hasn't looked back. Like Stacey Earle, her songs come from her rough-hewn experiences. I liked her a lot, though more for her between-song banter than the songs themselves. She came across as a very funny, smart, likable person. It occurred to me that she should tour with Oh Susanna - musically they are very much aiming for the same place. After that was "Counter Point Harmony", hosted by Hugh Blumenfeld (the Official Troubadour of the State of Connecticut! :), and featuring Dave Carter and Tracey Grammer, Nerissa and Katryna Nields, and Lucy Kaplansky. This one was cool because Blumenfeld ran it like a real workshop, explaining the fundamentals of harmony and how it works, and having Carter and Grammer break down a particularly intricate part of one of their songs so we could hear how it all works. But it got *really* cool when Lucy Kaplansky sang with the Nields. They started off doing a Roches song (conspicuously lacking in itinerant feline overtones like the original), then Lucy wanted to sing "I Know What Kind Of Love This Is" with the person who wrote it (Nerissa). That one gave me chills through the melting heat of the day. Katryna then invited Erin McKeown, who had participated in Friday afternoon's New Artist Showcase up on stage to do one song. Her harmony was instrumental: she had Dave Chalfant, who produced her spanking-new album _Distillation_ playing slide guitar next to her guitar. She noted that according to music theory "this song is wrong. But it's all about parallel sixths, so that makes it all right." It was very, very cool. The whole thing ended with a very harmonious Leonard Cohen song. By that time it had been a good seven hours at that one stage, and it was time to move over to the main stage for Pamela Means' first show at that venue. She had a drummer with her, Jason Graham, and she had her electric guitar and she ROCKED. The comparisons to Ani DiFranco have always been inevitable, particularly when she's got a drummer who not only had a kit like Andy Stochansky's, but plays "asymmetrically", as woj calls it, like Stochansky does. But I don't recall Ani ever breaking five strings in one 40-minute set. :) If Pamela didn't have a legion of screaming fans before she played yesterday, she had one when she was done. People around me were going, "wow". (She also had Edie Carey and Sam Shaber singing lovely backup for her on one song. Yummy.) Then it was time for the festival's closer: The Nields, who had the main stage to end the festival for the first time and were ecstatic to be there. By that time I was so overloaded I could barely see straight, and I had totally lost track of all the magical moments I had witnessed on that day alone, never mind the weekend ... but when the band got on stage I was awake and present once again. They did a pretty standard set, except they pulled out "Black Boys On Mopeds", which was heaven. To end it they invited everyone who was hanging out in the artist's area behind the stage to join them for "Keys To The Kingdom", and I bet there were 50 people on stage by the time Moxy, the Indiegrrls, Lucy Kaplansky, John Gorka, Erin McKeown, and all the other people I couldn't recognize squeezed on there. Somehow, McKeown had room for a banjo solo in there too. The entire hill was on their feet, and it was just the sort of magical thing you'd expect from a festival of 10,000-plus shiny happy people who have been baking in the sun for two solid days. :) Of course they had to come back for an encore after that, and they did "Living It Up In The Garden", which got us headed off into the sunset just fine, thank you. Thus endeth the story of Falcon Ridge 2000. Crawling off to bed, +==========================================================================+ | 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 *** | +==========================================================================+ ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V6 #214 **************************