Errors-To: ecto-owner@ns1.rutgers.edu Reply-To: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu Sender: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu From: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu To: ecto-request@ns1.rutgers.edu Bcc: ecto-digest-outbound@ns1.rutgers.edu Subject: ecto #1015 ecto, Number 1015 Thursday, 17 February 1994 Today's Topics: *-----------------* Throwing Richard Thompson Just a happy note... Re: Happy's new release on digipak? Just Checking In Ani DiFranco, anyone? Boston revisited Jane Siberry and ctoria Williams I am, as they say, outta here grammatical klausing jane Melissa Ferrick concert Fishy Business Brit awards Fish: Songs From the Mirror track listing Cowboy Junkies Ani DiFranco last night in Rochester ======================================================================== From: Ethan_Straffin@next.com (Ethan Straffin) Date: Wed, 16 Feb 94 08:46:00 -0800 Subject: Throwing Richard Thompson Anyone know if Richard Thompson was on Letterman Monday night? I was kicking myself for forgetting about it, but I just saw on the radio-concerts list that he's now supposedly on tonight (Wednesday) instead. Incidentally, I just picked up the 3-CD Thompson retrospective _Watching the Dark_ and have been grooving to it in a happy clamlike manner. Great stuff! BradH writes: > A friend of mine sent this to me today and I thought it > was Ectoable. Any comments for him? > According to john: (disappointed by Kristen Hersh blah blah blah...I can sympathize) >> The album by Belly is much better. I really like it quite a >> lot. Its hard to believe they were both in the same band because the >> sound is so different. It makes me wonder what Throwing Muses sounded >> like. Whether they sounded like an Americanized Pseudo-Enya like K. >> Hirsh or more popish like Belly. Tell him to check them out! He should probably start with _The Real Ramona_ or _Hunkpapa_ if he likes Belly. Particularly on those two albums, the chemistry between Tonya Donnelly's pop melodicism and Kristen Hersh's quirkiness worked perfectly. I love _Hunkpapa_ better than any of Donnelly's or Hersh's later work...it's just one weird, catchy, funny-as-hell album. Ethan ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 16 Feb 1994 13:03:44 -0400 (EDT) From: DAVE Subject: Just a happy note... I'm stuck at home following an emergency discectomy. Due to some scoliosis- related complications, I've been told that I probably won't return to work until April. Just wanted to let you folks know that Ecto is something I really look forward to reading each day, and I hope to hear the music of Ms. Roades in the not too distant future. She's sort of hard to track down in East Tenn. Thanks! dave ======================================================================== Subject: Re: Happy's new release on digipak? Date: Wed, 16 Feb 94 19:35:58 MET From: Alvin Brattli klaus@inphobos.wupper.de writes: >OK, they don't protect the artwork as well, This is exactly the reason i prefer jewel cases, and not digipaks. So far, I have (fortunately) only 2 digipaks. One of these is an album I play a lot (Kari Bremnes: _Losrivelse_), and I transport it back and forth between home and the university. The problem with digipaks should now be obvius: they experience far more wear and tear than the plastic cases. In fact, I have now bought an empty plastic case to put my Kari Bremnes CD in, so I can continue bringing it back and forth, without worrying that the artwork on the digipak will be destroyed (and it would be very sad if it happened to that particular album). And when/if the case breaks or get worn out, I buy a new one. It's as simple as that. And I still have the original artwork on the digipak. > but if I care for the >artwork of a certain CD I will handle it with care. If I don't care >about it, it doesn't matter that much. I handle all my CD's (and CD cases) with care, but still - the digipaks leave a lot to be desired concerning pure quality and resistance against wear and tear. Ooops - must be careful not to repeat myself :) > Jewel cases showcase our fast >food society. Like I've read on these pages: if it breaks I can get >a new one for a buck or less. Just great! :( How much garbage do >you want to create with your "if-it-breaks-I-simply-get-a-new-one" >attitude instead of taking care? Remember - accidents DO happen. >If jewel cases wouldn't break that easily, I would be quite happy >with them. But the way they are I consider them much more wasteful. I consider it much more wasteful to buy a new CD when the artwork on a digipak is worn out than to buy a new plastic case. Now, I would hate to see this evolve into a flame war, but I just had to let out some steam. Just my NOK 0.50. alvin -- | | GOD MY HEAD HURTS | | Alvin Brattli | Too much thinking and | | alvin@phys.uit.no | not enough brain cells | | | -- Clint Ruin | ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 16 Feb 1994 10:16:07 -0500 (EST) From: susskind@bsbbs.columbus.oh.us (Mark Susskind) Subject: Just Checking In Summary: thoughts of an ecto reader without much to write Oh, it's been a while since I contributed anything to ecto. What can I say? Most of the things you toss around here are beyond my experience. I do have to thank you though for your discussions of Happy Rhodes and other performers I might like. A couple of your leads I do like. When _Whatever_ by Aimee Mann came out, you kind folk convinced me that I should try it out. A few months ago, a strong recommendation for Sheila Chandra prompted me to purchase _Weaving Our Ancestors' Voices_. One of your leads I am iffy about. I am still trying to get used to _Debut_ by Bjork. And one of your leads, unfortunately, is revulsive to me. Is there anybody here who wants to buy _Tongues and Tails_ by Sophie B. Hawkins from me (only used once)? I look forward to future successful leads. But if others turn sour, I'll look to you first to relieve my burden. :) Happy Hugs! Mark Susskind ---- Mark Susskind susskind@bsbbs.columbus.oh.us The Big Sky BBS (+1 614 864 1198) ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 16 Feb 94 16:44:12 -0500 From: martha@amber.ssd.csd.harris.com (Martha Brown) Subject: Ani DiFranco, anyone? For anyone who is interested, here are the rest of Ani DiFranco's current tour dates. She's an amazing woman with a guitar - don't let the label of folk singer discourage you! :-) DATE CITY VENUE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wed 2/16 Rochester, NY Strong Auditorium, Univ. of Rochester Fri 2/18 Westboro, MA Old Vienna Sat 2/19 Boston, MA Folk Alliance Conference Tue 2/22 New York City, NY Lone Star Roadhouse Fri 2/25 Tampa, FL Friday Morning Musicale Sat 2/26 Decatur, GA Eddie's Attic Sun 2/27 Asheville, NC Be Here Now Tue 3/1 Durham, NC Duke Univ. Coffeehouse Wed 3/2 Blacksburg, VA VA Polytechnic Institute (tentative) Thur 3/3 Charlottesville, VA The Prism Coffeehouse ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 16 Feb 94 14:30:49 PST From: kyrlidis@templeton.cchem.berkeley.edu (Angelos Kyrlidis) Subject: Boston revisited Hi ecto! Well. I am back in sunny Berkeley after a brief Boston trip, which was too brief for me to do everything I wanted, but long enough for me to buy more CDs than I should have... :) Tower in Cambridge had this awesome discount sale of import CDs for $8.99, which I couldn't resist and I got the import 'Murmur' from REM, and a Wolfgang Press CD. They had some stuff of ecto interest, like the first Heidi Berry, and all of SPK's albums at the same LOW price. Then I went to Newbury in search of the new Sarah, and ended up with that, the new James (gotta love 'Laid' :)), a Hendrix compilation (inspired by the track in ITNOTF), and an Ellen James Society CD which I bought mainly because The world according to Garp is one of my favourite books. BUT, I also noticed that Ingrid Karklins will be making some in store somewhere, and I promise to post the details if anyone is interested. In other news, I love technology! I got the Tori Leno performance on tape and watched it this morning. 'God' definitely rocked. It's such an amazing track. Hmm, can't think of anything remotely interesting to say, and I still haven't read the 4 latest digests, so I think I will go now. Angelos PS. Did I mention there was snow there? :-) ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 16 Feb 94 18:35:01 GMT From: johnh@astro.as.utexas.edu (John Higdon) Subject: Jane Siberry and ctoria Williams Monday, Ient out to one of the local music stores, in my continuing hope of finding Cornflake #2. No luck there, so I perused some of the other artist sections of interest. I came across...The Walking!In my time on Gaffa and the lists, it has been constant that the favorite JanSiberry album is this album. , at an import price of $17-$18 (actuay, not bad compared to some imports)and probably with a very low appearance rate in Austin, The Walking came into my possession. I love it already! Some more than others, of course, but overall it is a winner. The only songs I cannot really get into are Lena Is a White Table and Ingrid and the Footman. ll the rest, outstanding. I especially love thMaid's part on Bird in the Gravel. Ianyone has information on interpretation of some of thessongs, or indeed, can point me in the direction of a heretofore unknown FTP site with maybe a FAQ, I would be most appreciative. And today, I happened into Tower. It seems that thrumours of a reissue of Victoria Williams' Swing the Statue have proven true. I saw several of these, where previously there were none. The copyright date on mine is . John H (Itchin' to accumulate mass quantities of music. What's next?!) ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 17 Feb 94 11:29:01 +1100 From: anthony@xymox.apana.org.au (Anthony Horan) Subject: I am, as they say, outta here Hiya Ectopersons! I'm off on holiday for a week, so if you're waiting for this particular slug to reply to the mail you sent, you'll be waiting another week... :-) I'm looking forward to battling a chunky mailbox and 3 million EctoMessages when I return, look at my computer, and go "egad!" Alas, I don't have the time before I do the airport thang to report on Jane Siberry's show here last night; suffice to say that it was wonderful, that the new video for "Temple" is wonderful, that Jane did the incredible by selling out in Melbourne and almost getting to do another show, and that I managed to summon the courage to go and say hello to her afterwards, proving that even hardened journalists get shy and nervous :) Have fun everyone, take care, and I'll see you in the Klaus Of Doom when I return! - Anthony -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anthony Horan, Melbourne Australia - anthony@xymox.apana.org.au "All told, Under The Pink is small but likeably formed; ideal for those herbal-tea moments." - Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian reviewing the new "Victoria Amos" album. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 17 Feb 1994 00:26:33 -0500 (EST) From: Suspended In Duct Tape Subject: grammatical klausing Hi! Well, after a snowy weekend that saw my car stolen by the City of New Haven for the sake of civic revenue (which caused me to miss my radio show :P) and way too little sleep, I'm finally able to catch up on the e-mail a bit. The American release of _Fumbling Towards Ecstasy_ is on the CD player, I'm sitting next to the large pile of periodicals I have purchased in the past two days which contain articles about Her Toriness and/or Her Kateness, and I'm about to do a Klaus. Life really couldn't get more out of the mainstream.:) (How does one conjugate "to Klaus"? Let me try: verb: klausen ich klause du klaeust sie/er/es klaeust wir klausen ihr klaust sie klausen Ist das richtig? ;>) Paul answered my question: >Mr. Blobby is to England as Barney is to America. Gack. Englophiles, I'm so sorry! Alex mentioned all the cool videos I missed by going to bed at 8 and not programming the VCR to tape 120 Minutes last night: >Unfortunately I didn't see every one of the 120 minutes so there were >probably more, especially in the last 30 minutes, which is when most >of the Kristin Hersh stuff was. :( Wow. That has to be a record. They'll probably not show another woman for the rest of the week, judging by their past record. :/ All this talk of Concrete Blonde concerts has me wanting to see them again, but it looks like I missed my chance. I saw the first show of the current tour at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ on Halloween night, and it was great. The audience was a different matter, but the band was good! Johnette really has a commanding presence, and she seems like someone I could have an amusing conversation with. I had no idea they're breaking up after this- I'm interested to see what sort of stuff Johnette will do on her own. I really should pick up _Mexican Moon_ one of these days... John Sandoval put forth: >One thing that I need to know though, is how many people are interested >in having some of these cards. At this point, I don't know how much they >will be, but it'd be nice to have an estimate of how many need to be printed. >I would imagine that the larger then number printed, the cheaper each >card is. So, if you want a lot of them, or if everyone wants several, it'll >make it cheaper for all of us. :) Me want! Me want! I can include them in the tapes people sometimes ask me to make of my show, and do all sorts of fun things with them. What do they look like? I'll have to take a look- we got a bunch of business cards printed up at work not too long ago, and I seem to remember there was a good price to be had for a batch of 500. There's an initial make-up charge, but you only have to pay that the first time, so long as you stick with the same printer for subsequent batches. Anthony Horan countered: >I disagree there - I think musically it all fits together like a beautiful >symphony. I don't know... Tori seems to be trying to cram too much into what she has. There isn't really one musical theme running through the piece. The mixture of solo piano and full-blown strings is imo too extreme- one minute you've got this nice little bit and then WHAM, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, except that in this case the movements sound a bit too cut-and-paste for me. It sounds almost like Tori had four completely different musical ideas for the piece, but couldn't decide which one to use, so she just glommed them all together underneath the lyrics. The full-blown string sections wouldn't bother me so much if they were mixed better. They sound really muddy and sticky, and Tori's vocals are almost buried completely beneath them in spots. People have been comparing "Yes, Anastasia" to "Flying Dutchman", which I don't think is justified- while lyrically "Yes, Anastasia" blows "Flying Dutchman" out of the water, musically the later totally crushes the former. "FD" has a set musical theme and three distinct movements, all of which make sense in musical context. "FD" is indeed a mini-symphony, whereas "YA" is, to me, a work in progress. Tori could take the ideas contained in the music and do something stunning if she had half an hour or so to work with, methinks... 9:33 isn't quite enough. >It doesn't seem overproduced to me either - the production on this album is >actually streets ahead of that on LE - compare "Yes Anastasia" to "China" and >tell me which one's overproduced! :) They're both overproduced, "Yes, Anastasia" more so than "China". Even after all this, though, remember that I still think "YA" is brilliant. It has its problems, sure, but in the end they just don't matter. Sigh. >Paragraph Of The Week Award goes to Meredith Tarr, for packing humour, >succinct cleverness, apologetic congratulations, sarcasm and warmth into a >mere three lines of text! :-) Why, thank you. Where to I pick up my prize money? ;> Saw Ingrid Karklins at The Buttonwood Tree last night. This was the third time I'd seen her, and it was by far the best performance. The percussionist she has now is *incredible*. I mean, he puts Thor (the original drummer for Backbone, who is on _A Darker Passion_) to shame, and that's saying something. Her current bassist is also a guitarist who loves the e-bow, so her music had that "something" - fullness, I guess - that has been lacking in past live performances. She did a lot of new material, and I can tell you, her new album is going to be amazing! It's called _Anima Mundi_, and is to be released on April 8 by Green Linnet. You will all buy it, and you will be glad you did. :) (Chris and Cliff (Cliff Furnald, are you still reading ecto?), it was great to see you again!!!) As I'm sure everyone who cares already knows, tickets for Tori's show at Symphony Space in NYC did *not* go on sale yesterday. They said to try again next Tuesday- the ad might be in the Village Voice next issue. Sigh. Well, since this is already long enough, I shall take my leave for now. +==========================================================================+ |Meredith Tarr meth@delphi.com| +==========================================================================+ |"When I was young, my grandmother would write me letters about this little| |girl named Annie, and what Annie would do to be a very good girl. Well you| |know, I just wanted to fucking grenade Annie." - Tori Amos | +==========================================================================+ ======================================================================== From: anthony baxter Subject: jane Date: Thu, 17 Feb 1994 18:48:54 +1100 Hello my little pumpkinheads :-) Well, Anthony (me), Anthony (Horan), and Tony (AH's housemate, as seen on #ecto as zebedee) went off to see Jane last night at the Malthouse. The Malthouse is a complex of several small theatres - Jane had sold out the Merlyn theatre, which holds a couple of hundred people. There was no reserved seating, which meant you got whatever you grabbed. We made sure we stood near the door in the foyer, so we could get inside quick and grab good seats. With some oh-so-subtle-sidling, we managed to get almost the best seats, third row, almost in the middle (the first two rows were lower than the stage, with the feedback speakers in the way). The support act was, according to the program, 'Andrew Richardson', this turned out to be a trio, one harp, one guitar, and one guy who blew into flutes and other bits of wood. They were ok, but the flute is an instrument I have always found to be too screechy. The played for about 1/2 an hour, and then it was time for Jane. She came out and first read us a little story. During the evening, she played us a collection of videos - The Bird In the Gravel the 'Jilted' WIWAB trailer (with a bad pun, a very, very bad pun) Temple (which was finished only the week before, and featured a mix of the album and the dance versions of the song. The video was, to put it simply, brilliant. I hope it gets shown here, I'd love to get it on tape. This was, we were told, shot in Canada's only castle) An Angel Stepped Down (another good video, although I preferred Temple) the longer WIWAB trailer. She played some songs, some off WIWAB, some earlier ones, accompanying herself on both guitar and piano (not at the same time, to save someone asking the obvious question :-), hmm, I cant remember all that she played, but she played Sail Across The Water, and At The Beginning Of Time. There were other songs, but they are the two that stuck in my mind. She finished, as seems to be standard for her, with a question and answer session - My favourite answer she gave was to the question "which poetry do you like?" "well, I never really got into poetry until recently, it seemed to be a bit of an academic wank. I mean, do you want me to understand it or dont you?" It was a wonderful evening, I highly recommend that you see this show if it comes your way. The showing of videos lets her play the band-type pieces, and she could play the quieter ones by herself. Look, Anthony, not one occurance of 'sublime' anywhere. :-) Anthony. "do you trust me?" ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 16 Feb 1994 23:53:12 -0800 (PST) From: David Dixon Subject: Melissa Ferrick concert Hi all, Just got back from the FREE Melissa Ferrick concert at UC-Berkeley's pub. I hadn't heard her material before, and was quite impressed. She really stuffs a lot of emotion into her singing, complete with Sinead-like octave leaps. After the concert I went up and mentioned that people have been talking about her on the net. "The what?" "The Internet, you know, the big computer network." "Oh yeah.. the record company (Atlantic) has been saying that for some reason people on that really like 'For Once In My Life'.." etc. Anyway, I told her about ecto; she hadn't heard of Happy Rhodes, so I described her as "sort of a cross between Kate Bush and Annie Lennox".. someone nearby overheard and said, "That's an interesting combination." :) I asked her for a copy of her tour dates so I could post them; she only had the one copy in her tour book, so she scrounged up a piece of paper and a marker so I could make a copy: 2/17 San Francisco Brainwash Cafe 2/18 Palo Alto Stanford University Coffeehouse 2/20 San Francisco Paradise Lounge 2/22 Eugene, OR U. of Oregon Student Union (noon) John Henry's 2/23 Portland, OR La Luna 2/24 Seattle, WA Cafe Paradiso 2/25 Seattle Backstage 2/26 Spokane, WA Espresso Delicioso 2/28 Reno, NV Cantina Los Tres Hombres 3/2 San Luis Obispo West End B&G (those are the only dates she has lined up now) After I transcribed the above, I gave her my address & email address, and she said she'd probably write me to find out more about how to get on the net (!). Naturally, I'll direct her this way. Then I went down to Rasputin's and picked up _Massive Blur_. It'll have to wait a bit, though, because I also got three Dead Can Dance CD's (I've been waiting for them to come out domestically), _FTE_, and _Yonnondio_ by Peter Buffett. D^2 ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 17 Feb 94 10:24:49 GMT From: GTP10@phx.cam.ac.uk Subject: Fishy Business alexaliceorwhatever makes the mistake of mentioning progressive rock on Ecto: > Yesterday I came across _Songs From the Mirror_ or, _rorriM > eht morF sgnoS_ depending on how you look at it. An album of > coversongs by Fish (with an F not a PH thankyouverymuch!) and I > recognise all the tunes excepting one. Boston Tea Party written by A. > Harvey, H. Mckenna, A. Cleminson. My question is quite simple....who > are these guys? They're members of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, who were a moderately successful Scottish outfit in the '70s. Fish opened the set on his Vigil tour with a cover of another SAHB song "Faith Healer". A live recording of this appears on the CD-single for "Big Wedge". > Although Fish is not the usual ectofare, I highly > reccommend his tuneage for anyone who has a penchant for prog-rock. Hmmm, I'm a big fan of prog rock and I'd have to say that there are plenty of bands producing better stuff out there (if you are prepared to track them down) than Fish is now. Even his lyrics seem to have lost their edge (although they're still way better than most), and musically he's floundering. "Shadowplay" was the only track on the "Internal Exile" album which I thought was as strong as stuff he'd done with Marillion. Incidentally, for all those (like me) who thought Marillion had lost their way, I'd recommend checking out their new release "Brave" - a 70+ minute concept album. Lyrically it doesn't begin to compare with the Fish-era stuff, but musically it is an amazing return to their former glories. Geoff Parks ======================================================================== From: Tim Cook Date: Thu, 17 Feb 94 13:14:39 GMT Subject: Brit awards Watched the Brit awards last night. Hosted by Elton John and RuPaul (who did about 50 dress changes!). Tori Amos read out one category, Bjork won two categories (both the international awards I think) and Elton John was the only one to pronounce her name properly! Oh, and Bjork and Polly Harvey did a duo - a *very* interesting cover of "Satisfaction". tim ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 17 Feb 1994 08:30:57 -0600 (UTC -06:00) From: "I THINK THEREFORE I AM...CONFUSED" Subject: Fish: Songs From the Mirror track listing Just to clutter EVERYBODIES mailbox with this :-) Here is the requested track listing for Fishs' Songs From the Mirror, Polydor 517 499-2: Question; The Moody Blues Boston Tea Party; <--WHO DID THIS ORIGINALLY?? Fearless; Pink Floyd Apeman; Kinks Hold Your Head Up; Argent Solo; Sandy Denny or Fairport Convention, I dunno which. I know What I Like; Genesis Jeepster; T-Rex Five Years; David Bowie The cover art is NOT by Wilkerson. It looks like an ink illustration by one Keith McIntyre. Entitled The Gudaler it's a picture of a person tickleing the belly of a fish. Presumably in preparation of extracting said fish from its' watery enviorns. I've heard of people "fishing" this way, but I can't really envision it myself. Any fish ticklers in ecto? Alexoraliceorwhathaveyou -- "I got something out of nothing that just wasn't there..." ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 17 Feb 94 00:30:25 -0500 From: "Dennis G Parslow" Subject: Cowboy Junkies The Norwegian Cruise Line has been using "Blue Moon Revisited" as background for their current round of commercials...I would be hooked if I had enough money and vacation at the same time...fortunately, not a problem yet ;-) Dennis Parslow Today I am a small blue thing. Troy, NY 12180 Suzanne Vega p00421@psilink.com ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 17 Feb 94 09:32:24 EST From: ajs@fermat.cci.com (Al Sodoma) Subject: Ani DiFranco last night in Rochester Hi All! It's Al again. Two posts in 1 week! Went and saw Ani Difranco again last night. She put on another fine gig. I recommend seeing her. Her style is a bit different, but refreshing. Here are a couple quotes from the paper about her: Singer-songwrite Ani DiFranco's bold guitar and lyrics that deal with sexual politics and social conventions have won her a growing fan club. (About 1000 at the gig last night!) Critics have praised DiFranco for her 'clipped, edgy guitar style, forceful melodies, to-the-bone lyrics' and 'an amazingly flexible voice.' I guess you'd call her music 'feminist' if you wanted to label it. Her crowds are around 90 percent women. Half of the show was just her and acoustic guitar and the other half was with a drummer. Here are her upcoming dates!: 2/18 Old Vienna - Westboro, MA 2/19 Folk Alliance Conference - Boston, MA 2/23 Wetlands - NYC, NY 2/25 Friday Morning Musicale - Tampa, FL 2/26 Eddie's Attic - Decatur, GA 2/27 Be Here Now - Asheville, NC 3/1 Duke Univ. Coffeehouse - Durham, NC 3/2 VA. Polytechnic Inst. - Blacksburg, VA (tentative) 3/3 The Prism Coffeehouse - Charlottesville, VA 3/4 Black Cat - Wash., DC Al Sodoma ======================================================================== The ecto archives are on hardees.rutgers.edu in ~ftp/pub/hr. There is an INDEX file explaining what is where. Feel free to send me things you'd like to have added. -- jessica (jessica@ns1.rutgers.edu)