From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V3 #81 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Sunday, November 23 1997 Volume 03 : Number 081 Today's Subjects: ----------------- tolerance for project lo and the nields [meredith ] Project Lo in DC [Valerie Nozick ] Re: Lo Rhodes- later [Joseph Zitt ] PBS Sessions reminder [kerry white ] tolerance for The Kaopectates... [Paul Blair ] Re: tolerance for The Kaopectates... [Joseph Zitt Subject: tolerance for project lo and the nields Hi! (The subject line is taken from what The Bottom Line introduced the band as. What is UP with some people?!? :P) So woj, Tamar, and myself ventured into The City to see Project Lo on Thursday night. Met up with Paul Blair, too. It's a good thing we ectophiles were in attendance, otherwise I seriously think *no* tickets would have been sold that night; there were a total of about 35 people in the audience for the early show, and I think everyone but us was on someone's guest list. Pretty sad. (I think fewer than 10 people showed up for the late show. Even sadder.) The opening band was The Kropotkins. They were one of the most wonderfully bizarre groups I've ever seen. woj described their music as "psychomericana", and that pretty much sums it up (though Paul's suggestion that they were "the cognitive dissonance marching band" was pretty apt, too :). They consisted of a fiddler (who also played the wooden flute), banjo player (who also fiddled), singer (who also played electric guitar, acoustic bass and wooden flute), guitarist (who also played acoustic bass), dude with a snare drum slung over his neck, and Mo Tucker banging on a bass drum in the back. The rhythm section gave each song a decidedly tribal beat, even as bluesy/bluegrass-ish/southwestern rock stuff was going on on top of it. The singer looked just like Kelly from 90210 -- it was rather disarming. Mo Tucker sang a couple songs too. (There's somebody I thought I'd *never* be in the same room with! She was really cool.) They played for about 45 minutes, and if I weren't so excited to see Happy I would've been disappointed that they didn't play longer. Then Project Lo took the stage, and played some really nice tunes. Caryn Lin did a solo tune of hers called "The Little King", which she'd written for her nephew; it was a gorgeous multi-layered composition in which she built up several layers of music and then knocked them down, then built up some more layers and knocked them down, etc. Beautiful stuff. When the band came back Bon Lozaga asked "are there any Happy Rhodes fans here?", and of course we all made a big noise. :) I was gratified to note that we weren't the only people cheering, either. :) She sang "Perfection" and "Mercy Street", and provided backing vocals on "D.I.E." It was wonderful. For the encore she also joined them on "Station to Station" (which ROCKED), but then that was it!!! No "Warpaint"!!! We were *so* bummed. We berated her for that afterwards (even Kevin said "Yeah, that's what I came to see!" ;), but it wasn't her decision, so hey. Oh well. It was a good show anyway, and great to see and be goofy with Happy and Kevin again. Last night woj, myself, Mike Curry and JeffW met up in Noho to see The Nields at their hometown gig, the Iron Horse. As usual, they ruled. They've recently learned 10 new songs, 5 of which they played at each show (we just went to the late one), and each one of the 5 I heard was better than the last. My favorite was a tune called "Georgia O", sort of Nerissa's "Feed The Fire" (though a *lot* more toe-tapping :), featuring the lines ani difranco on the tape player i'm thinking of what i'd say to her but instead i just hum along They had cleared the tables out of the floor area in front of the stage for dancing, which was weird considering the venue, but it made sense for them. Of course I was up there dancing like a fool the whole time. :) It was great. Bands just shouldn't be allowed to be that much fun. One band that just shouldn't be allowed, period, was Jump Little Children, who opened. I was gravely disappointed, since The Nields have been raving about them in terms previously reserved for the likes of Moxy Fruvous and I'd heard nothing but good things about them from several other people, but man, did they ever suck. If I want to hear The Housemartins or The Judybats I'll listen to The Housemartins or The Judybats -- at least that way I'll hear it done right and with a spark of originality. JLC were just *so* full of themselves, too, which didn't help either. They're opening for The Nields for a little while longer, so if anyone out there is planning to go to one of these shows, be sure to get there late. (They're at the Somerville Theater tonight, with June Rich going on first -- I'd recommend going to that one early to see June Rich, then going out for coffee for a while, then coming back for TN. Trust me on this.) Tonight is Susan James at Arlene Grocery, then Susan McKeown and the Chanting House at Fez. Yay!!! My two favorite bands on consecutive nights. Life is good. :) +==========================================================================+ | 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: trajectory-request@smoe.org***| +==========================================================================+ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 12:56:11 -0500 From: Valerie Nozick Subject: Project Lo in DC Last night I met up with Chris Conlon and Amy DeFalco to trek out to Wheaton for the Project Lo/Happy concert. Wow. Happy's voice melts my insides. The rest of the show was pretty good, but music without lyrics inevitably puts me to sleep, even if it's as well played as Project Lo. It sounds like the set list was the same as most of the other PL shows, with Happy performing Warpaint. The low-light of the show, however, was the sound system. Phantasmagoria is located near the broadcasting tower for WTOP, a local news radio station. So the radio station was bleeding into the mixing board, and Project Lo and Caryn Lin spent many frustrating moments trying to get rid of the constant reports about the Iowa septuplets and Saddam Hussein. Actually, I thought it had a nice effect -- just as Project Lo would end a song, you'd hear the radio announcer with a random tidbit. The crowd was really small -- at one point I counted 37 people, at least one-third of which were ectophiles. I can't recall everyone, but included were Jeff Burka, Neal Copperman, Kiri and John, me, Amy, Chris. It was old home week for ectophiles! Speaking of which, sometime soon I've promised to invite ectophiles to my new pad in Rosslyn to meet Tim Cook, who moved here a few months ago from England. Watch for details in January. ==> Valerie ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 13:01:40 -0600 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: Lo Rhodes- later Heidi Heller wrote: > >OTOH It's now raining like hell so I may chicken out on driving there... > > Did you chicken out? Rain rain go away! I looked for someone in a blk > coat and red button down- no luck.. I looked for someone with long brown > hair- too many.. I suppose many of you were there, but I wasn't sure how to > go about announcing my presence.. ah well.. Yeah *sigh* I hate driving to new places. Especially at night. Especially in the rain. Especially Friday evenings. *bleah* Guess I've have to see her when she tours the new album !-) - -- - ---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------- |||/ Joseph Zitt ===== jzitt@humansystems.com ===== Human Systems \||| ||/ Maryland? = <*> SILENCE: The John Cage Mailing List <*> = ecto \|| |/ http://www.realtime.net/~jzitt ====== Comma: Voices of New Music \| ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 16:37:23 -0600 (CST) From: kerry white Subject: PBS Sessions reminder Hi, Tonight: Fiona Apple and Lucious Jackson. CYYL KrW I'm Peter Pan, I'm perpetually young! Ow!! What's wrong with my back?! ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 18:10:55 -0500 From: Paul Blair Subject: tolerance for The Kaopectates... (The subject line is taken from what stuck in woj's memory in place of "The Kropotkins.") Someday when Samson Records has released Happy's third runaway-selling album and we can no longer see her perform in any venue less crowded than Madison Square Garden, I'll be turning my friends green with envy when I tell them about last Thursday night. When meth and woj and Tamar and I were leaving the first Project Lo show at the Bottom Line, the house staffer at the door said something like "We're so sorry you have to leave"--they apparently hadn't sold many tickets for the second show. The Connecticut contingent had a long drive home, so they couldn't stay--but I live in midtown. So after I had seen them off I decided to go back in and see if the staffer had really meant that it would be ok just to stay through the second show. And it was. This of course meant sitting throughthe Kropotkins' second set--but this time I knew what to expect, fortunately. I sometimes think the Bottom Line hears the name "Happy Rhodes" and, in a panic that they won't have a full house, casts about for the most wildly incompatible opening act they can find, just to draw more people. Part of the fun of a live show is seeing what a band looks like, and to me the Kropotkins were a collection that would have required Victor Hugo to imagine. On the far left stood a young frat-boy type in jeans and a jacket, with a snare drum around his waist and his legs planted wide apart. He flailed away mightily, with the swagger and slightly blurry look of someone two drinks short of his limit. Next to him was a tiny woman in her sixties with straight brown hair and the stern look of a fussy librarian, dwarfed behind a big bass drum which she attacked vigorously but competently. (This was Mo Tucker, who I'm told is a Name.) Next to her was someone who looked like a generic band guitar player--tall, fortyish, balding guy dressed in black. I couldn't figure out how he fit into the overall weirdness of the group until later, when he was introduced as "Dog." Next to Dog was the lead singer; I think her name was Lynette Velvet. She looked like a housewifey version of Jean Seberg, and was wearing a dress of some light gauzy material shaped a little like a 1920's flapper dress, and hiking boots. When she picked up her guitar something in her face changed--perhaps because her head was tilted more downwards--and took on an expression that, so help me, reminded me of Droopy Dawg. Next to her was David Soldier, banjo player and second-string fiddle, wearing a black commandante's cap and a leather jacket. When he spoke he seemed a very nice guy; but looks-wise he reminded me of an Israelified, thinner version of Andrew Dice Clay. Then on the far right was Charlie Burnham, the fiddle player, a slightly hunched black man with a pointy black beard and blue-violet (plastic?) pants. (A pretty good fiddle player, too.) At the opening of the first set, I had the sensation of sitting way too close to the stage--as if the music was all passing over my head and mixing together somewhere in the back of the room. The drums were miked up so high that the band had to work extra hard to be heard over them, and the odds were even on who was going to win. That plus the overall visual effect made them, in my mind, the "Cognitive Dissonance Marching Band." By later in the first set the sound was mixing better, and into the second set I had a better idea of what to expect, so I could sit back and enjoy it. Still, while the music was ok for what it was (bluesy, bluegrassy southern something-or-other), there was no getting around the lyrics: "All you need in New York/is forty-five dollars and a Valentine's Special..." "Ol' black Mattie got no/change of clothes//Girl got drunk an' left her/clothes outdoors..." "Crazy Hannah ridin' the train/laughin' and drinkin' and actin' insane..." "If yew could only... check into a sorry-ass motel" (from "Forever Motel," sung by Mo Tucker and written by her brother Jim) and, from a song called "Truck Stop Girls": "I roll a big... stone... on... yo' grave..." Whew! By the time Project Lo came out for their second set, there were fifteen people left in the room, plus a table full of waitstaff, the bartender, two sound engineers, and the two ticket takers at the door. By mid-show it was down to ten people and five or six staff. On the one hand, it was like having a command performance--but still overall it made me quite sad to see such great music being overlooked. Kevin Bartlett joined me for the second Project Lo set, and I learned first-hand that he is a Really Nice Guy. If I'd only known the next day was his birthday! Visually, Project Lo was everything the Kropotkins weren't. The three guitar players all looked sooo laid back--Bon Lozaga and Tim Fogarty (I think that was his name) unconsciously and naturally; Bon Lozaga looked more relaxed than anyone I've ever seen on stage. On the other hand, Bob Welch, the bass player, seemed to exude "laid back" as his mission in life. He looked very dapper in his leather jacket, beret and moustache. The drummer also looked neatly groomed and competent. Caryn Lin was very striking looking: she has waist-length thick brown hair and an intelligent face. She had on a white lace dress and a heavy green jerkin-like garment over that, black tights and short black boots. On the hand holding the bow she wore one of those bracelet-like things that goes not only around the wrist but over the hand and through the fingers. It was covered with rhinestones, so that when she moved the bow her hand would flash sparkles. She also smiled at people while she was playing--at the other band members, at me, at Tamar, at other people in the audience--for no apparent reason, but it was charming just the same. Caryn's on-stage humor is a little spacey: "Thank you... ... Each and every one... ... Of you." This contrasted with Happy's more direct approach: "I'm the band's weenie." Happy came out wearing a long brown sleeveless dress of some heavy material and short boots. She looked radiant. She did seem as if she would have felt more at home up there if she'd had an instrument, but her singing was awesome as ever. meth already mentioned how we didn't get to hear "Warpaint"--but for the second set there weren't enough people to pull the band back for even the first encore. Still, it was a terrific show. Cheers to all, Paul ***************************************************************************** "Let her out? But she's a killer!" "No she's not. And give her your coat." SINED "Why me?" "Because you're perfect." Paul Blair "You have a point there..." psfblair@ix.netcom.com ***************************************************************************** ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 01:31:34 -0600 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: tolerance for The Kaopectates... Yow! Sounds like I should check out the Kropotkins: Paul Blair wrote: > Next to him was a tiny woman in her sixties with straight brown hair and > the stern look of a fussy librarian, dwarfed behind a big bass drum which > she attacked vigorously but competently. (This was Mo Tucker, who I'm told > is a Name.) Yeah, she played in an obscure NYC band awhile back, the Velvet Underground. > Next to her was David Soldier, banjo player and second-string fiddle, > wearing a black commandante's cap and a leather jacket. When he spoke he > seemed a very nice guy; but looks-wise he reminded me of an Israelified, > thinner version of Andrew Dice Clay. Also the leader of the Soldier String Quartet, an avant-garde ensemble that makes Kronos sound like conservative amateurs. > Then on the far right was Charlie Burnham, the fiddle player, a slightly > hunched black man with a pointy black beard and blue-violet (plastic?) > pants. (A pretty good fiddle player, too.) And the lead player on James Blood Ulmer's "Odyssey", one of the greatest harmolodic blowouts ever. What the three of those might do together boggles the mind -- and that's not even considering what might be happening on bass, guitar, vocals, and the rest of the drums. - -- - ---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------- |||/ Joseph Zitt ===== jzitt@humansystems.com ===== Human Systems \||| ||/ Maryland? = <*> SILENCE: The John Cage Mailing List <*> = ecto \|| |/ http://www.realtime.net/~jzitt ====== Comma: Voices of New Music \| ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V3 #81 *************************