From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V4 #40 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Saturday, February 7 1998 Volume 04 : Number 040 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Janis Ian [Silme@ix.netcom.com] Interesting PJ Harvey Item [David Dixon ] lisa loeb/sarah [Rachel ] Eddi Reader Album news update [Jeff Wasilko ] rkb200Entertainment Weekly! [Rachel ] kristin hersh [Andybye@aol.com] Wall 'o Sound: Skunk Anansie? ["Ron Starr" ] Re: Wall 'o Sound: Skunk Anansie? [Magenta <4dm@qlink.queensu.ca>] Upcoming single from Tanita Tikaram [Riphug@aol.com] Re: Wall 'o Sound: Skunk Anansie? [Riphug@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 06 Feb 1998 07:58:02 +0000 From: Silme@ix.netcom.com Subject: Re: Janis Ian Cheri Villines wrote: > > I am pretty sure I have seen the name Janis Ian here before, but I can't > remember what was said about her music. I have a chance to see her locally > in March and was wondering if it will be worth it. Any opinions? :) > > Cheri I would say yes, but I'm biased. I've been a fan for a long time and first saw her in concert in the 70's. I have plans to see her perform at the Feb. 22nd Etown taping in Boulder (Loudon Wainwright is also on that bill). Ellen ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 06 Feb 1998 15:33:07 +0100 From: David Dixon Subject: Interesting PJ Harvey Item From the dishy "CyberSleaze" column on the Web: http://metaverse.com/vibe/sleaze/ British rocker PJ HARVEY is set to play MARY MAGDALENE in a controversial new film about the return of JESUS CHRIST. The SHEELA-NA-GIG singer will join actor MARTIN DONOVAN as Jesus in American director HAL HARTLEY's THE BOOK OF LIFE. In the film, Jesus arrives in New York on the last day of the millennium to renegotiate the Apocalypse, as Satan trawls the bars looking for souls. Now *that* will be something to see. ====================================================================== David Dixon (D^2) dixon@qt.tn.tudelft.nl Department of Applied Physics, Delft University of Technology "Beware of people with too many Y's in their first name." ====================================================================== ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 11:54:32 -0500 (EST) From: Rachel Subject: lisa loeb/sarah Rocktropolis allstar daily music news February 5, 1998 http://www.allstarmag.com ________________________________________________ DWEEZIL ZAPPA TO PLAY GUITAR WITH LISA LOEB The wacky son of the late Frank Zappa, Dweezil Zappa, will be backing up singer/ songwriter Lisa Loeb on guitar on a handful of upcoming dates. Zappa, known more for guitar acrobatics rather than the more mellow material Loeb plays, will be performing with Loeb on four radio station- sponsored shows this month: Feb. 16, Cleveland (WQAL); Feb. 17, Houston (KHMX); Feb. 18, Boulder, Colorado (KBCO); and Feb. 20, Seattle (KBKS). The two met when Zappa and his younger brother Ahmet were guest- hosting MTV Live in December. After these dates, Loeb is set to perform at Tramps in New York on Feb. 27 and will open for Sarah McLachlan from March 5 through April 17. ________________________________________________ If you ever want to remove yourself from this mailing list (and we hope you don't), you can send mail to "majordomo@n2k.com" with the following command in the body of your email message: unsubscribe allstarmag [your email address] In order to subscribe to allstar, simply send email to "majordomo@n2k.com" with following command in the body of your message: subscribe allstarmag [your email address] ___________________________________________________ all contents are the copyright ) 1996, 1997,1998 of N2K Inc. any derivative works of this content must hyperlink to and credit: "Rocktropolis allstar News at http://allstarmag.com"> Send comments, inquiries, hot scoops and slow wet kisses to contact@allstarmag.com. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 13:28:18 -0500 From: Jeff Wasilko Subject: Eddi Reader Album news update - -----Forwarded message from Adrian ----- The new album, working title now "Hummingbird", has reached the artwork stage. Blanco y Negro are being pressed (pun not intended) for a release date of 13 April (that's Easter Monday, chicks), but we'll just have to wait and see. Is there any hope that date will include the US? -- probably not! The track listing should be: (mostly Eddi and/or Boo Hewerdine and/or Calum MacColl compositions) (known live outings in []'s if you want to check the archive at http://web.bham.ac.uk/doveral/honey/archive/HAindex.htm for reviews/comments) 1 On a whim ...the Ron Sexsmith song written specially for Eddi 2 Kiteflyers hill ...Mark Nevin wrote this (some time ago i think -- a Honeychild remembers Eddi doing it live on KCRW radio a few years back) 3 Hummingbird [December] 4 Barcelona window 5 Wings on my heels [August] 6 Prayer wheel [December] 7 Postcard 8 Homesick son [August] 9 Psychic reader ...apparently about trailing round fortune- telling shops in L.A. looking for the answers [may or may not be the new song referring to "California" in the December gig?] 10 Follow my tears [December] 11 New pretender [December] 12 Please don't ask me to dance [August and December] 13 Clear - -=-=-=- That's the news for now, Adrian - -------------------------------------------------------------- from the list administrator --- Adrian Dover email : honeychildren-owner@bham.ac.uk Honeychildren web-site : http://web.bham.ac.uk/doveral/honey/ - -----End of forwarded message----- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 13:50:13 -0500 (EST) From: Rachel Subject: rkb200Entertainment Weekly! Hi all...Mary Lou and Ani, along with Cheri Knight, are featured in the new Entertainment Weekly (Matt Damon and Ben Affleck on cover) with an article entitled "Our Fair Ladies" (page 68-69. Turn the page for an article called "A-'Hunting He Will Go" - about the awesome Elliott Smith. Is that Mary Lou's dog Mona in the photo? :) Mary Lou is holding her guitar and sitting in a chair looking at the dog; Ani has wild orange long braids and is sitting in some weird way that I probably would get stuck in if I tried, she is sitting in the street. Also, I'll have this up at my website (http://pages.nyu.edu/~rkb200) w/o the photos sometime this weekend. OUR FAIR LADIES Forget touchy-feely Lilith. Behold the grrrl power of edgy folkies Ani DiFranco, Mary Lou Lord, and Cheri Knight. by David Browne Last summer's Lilith Fair tour made rock fans, the press, and concert promoters alike rediscover the merits of a woman, an acoustic guitar, and her feelings. It also unintentionally promoted the notion that a woman with a guitar and her feelings made for a touchy-feely experience. How can Sarah McLachlan insert a little grit into this summer's second Lilith? For starters, she can recruit one of a slew of underground folkies who've been carrying on an alternative Lilith Fair all decade, on small labels and on tinier stages than those that hosted McLachlan's sister-songwriter road show. Ani DiFranco is the godmother of this scene, and with good reason: Her do-it-yourself aesthetic, punky hairdos, and caffeinated stage presence have been nothing short of uncompromising, even if her sensitive-folkie broadsides have been pretty conventional. Dilate (1996), her last studio album, used harder guitars, hip-hop shout-outs, and distortion effects to accent the anger, hurt, and self-loathing that raced through its songs. Little Plastic Castle (out Feb. 17) is comparatively calmer but takes several more musical steps ahead. Her brisk, full-bodied guitar chords and pugnacious voice remain front and center, but she ventures into folk noir ("Deep Dish") and incorporates ska-laced horns. She's even learning to relax without lapsing into cutesiness. The hymn "Pulse" unfolds dreamily, hypnotically, over 14 minutes--it's the alt-folk "Like a Hurricane." However, the flaws that have made DiFranco's albums such arduous listens still linger. As with many singer-songwriters before her, she lets her lyrics steer her melodies, not the other way around, resulting in songs that feel like nervous twitches. Her willingness to deflate her own pretensions is commendable ("I could join forces with an army of ornery hipsters/But then I guess I'd be out of a job," she admits in "Pixie"). But the disc also overflows with self-righteousness (jabs at the media and pop culture) and repeated, clunky swipes at loser boyfriends. If one isn't a "stupid circus clown," another is a "giant insect"; "Just give up/And admit you're an a--hole," she hectors a third. When she badgers a sulky store clerk to "suck up and be nice," you're tempted to throw her out of the establishment yourself. Shucking music-biz convention, DiFranco continues to record on her own label, Righteous Babe. Mary Lou Lord likewise started on an indie--the punk-inclined Kill Rock Stars--but judging by Got No Shadow, her major-label debut, Lord should have sold out years ago. Her sweet hush of a voice and winsomely strummed campfire-folk melodies weren't, and still aren't very punk; if anything, Lord is a wide-eyed balladeer, Janis Ian in army boots. Her collaborators on Got No Shadow (especially guitarist-songwriter Nick Saloman) know this and their tight, tidy folk-rock grooves lend a chimey buoyancy to songs like "His Lamest Flame" and Freedy Johnston's "The Lucky One." Lord's sound has been shaped as well; compare the urgent remake of "Some Jingle Jangle Morning" with the rawer but less focused 45 she made in 1993. Beyond her indie-rock resume, what distinguishes Lord from the Lilith posse is her journalistic composure. Whether lamenting road loneliness in "Western Union Desperate" or comparing a relationship to drifting vessels in the heart-tugging "Two Boats," she spells out her scenarios simply and directly. This dispassion can be frustrating--rarely has a song about jealous anger been as placidly delivered as "She Had You." Got No Shadow is also occasionally overbaked, but mostly it successfully whisks this former subway busker into the pop daylight. "Dead Man's Curve," the standout track on Cheri Knight's second album, The Northeast Kingdom, was written and sung by a woman, but it would probably give the Lilith crew the willies. Knight sings in the character of a woman killed in a car wreck, her spirit looking down upon the scene ("Cars with headlights on in a line/And weeping, was all I could remember"). The ghost is addressing her beau, who survived, but she's so distraught by their separation that she beckons him to rev up the engine again and join her in heaven. Creepy yet ethereal, pushed along by a grinding electric guitar, "Dead Man's Curve" is a modern-day, amplified Appalachian ballad. Knight's keen sense of the grimmer side of life doesn't end there. There's a hint of stoic, unflinching Blue Ridge mountains fatalism in her voice (even though she's from Massachusetts), and her songs are populated by other tragic women (the dead, long-suffering maid in the Celtic drone "Dar Glasgow") and mysterious troublemakers ("Black Eyed Susie"). Imagine Tom Sawyer's Becky all grown up, still single, and resigned to life. The hard-country arrangements, which swerve into sawdust honky-tonk or old-timey, never feel like re-creations of archaic mountain music. Bolstered by coproducer Steve Earle (whose label, E-Squared, released the album, and who plays guitar throughout), the music has rock & roll muscle. It feels both traditional and contemporary--a vintage John Deere tractor, refurbished with a Porsche engine. Little Plastic Castle: B- Got No Shadow: B+ The Northeast Kingdom: A- "Bring out the jester and shoot out the lights Rattle your diamonds and pearls There's swill for the swine and pills for the mind More rhythm and booze for the girls" -- Mary Lou Lord, "Throng of Blowtown" - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- my Mary Lou Lord page is at http://pages.nyu.edu/~rkb200/ To join Some Jingle Jangle List, the Mary Lou Lord mailing list, email me your with your name and email address. :) Email me for information about my zine I'M NOT WAITING. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 14:33:49 EST From: Andybye@aol.com Subject: kristin hersh In a message dated 98-02-05 14:44:30 EST, stuart@sph.emory.edu writes: > Well, on the first couple of listens, no. I think _Hips & Makers_ is > brilliant, and it's definitely on my Top 10 of all time. So, I had high > hopes for _Strange Angels_ since it's basically _Hips & Makers_ Part II. > It has the same sparse sound as _H&M_, this time with a few more added > instrumental flourishes than last. I think it may take a while to sink > in, though. It's not bad by any means. Just not _Hips & Makers_. So, my > opinion may change after repeated listening. I bought "Strange Angels" a couple days ago. I'd been waiting for this one for a long time, since "Hips and Makers" is one of my all-time favorites. I have to admit that I really was a bit disappointed at first. It just didn't pull me into it they way H&M did. But it's started to grow on me. Yesterday I had to make a long car trip, so I put it into the CD changer. I think the car is the best place to appreciate music (as long as you have a decent sound system) - like a mini surround sound system where the music just seems to flourish. I now have a full appreciation of "Stange Angels" - it's a lot more subtle than "H&M", but beautiful nonetheless. I think anyone who loved her first will come to like the follow-up. >Speaking of radio, the local "alternative" station has played Ani's new single >several times. I have missed it each time, but have been very surprised to >hear them mention it. Ani on the radio?? Wow, maybe this will be her "mainstream" breakthrough. Can't wait to hear what she's up to now - maybe I'll actually turn on the radio one of these days. Plus I've heard that some radio station here in LA is occasionally playing Tori's new song "Siren" - still haven't heard that one, either. - --Andy ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 11:37:27 -0800 From: "Ron Starr" Subject: Wall 'o Sound: Skunk Anansie? I hope this isn't straying too far from ecto content.... As long as wall-o-sound music has come up (Sleater-Kinney), would anyone recommend (or not recommend) Skunk Anansie? I've enjoyed their two cuts on the _Strange Days_ soundtrack, but know nothing about them. - - Ron Starr (rstarr@eskimo.com) ==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+= "Seriousness is the refuge of the shallow." - Rita Mae Brown ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 15:53:41 -0500 (EST) From: Magenta <4dm@qlink.queensu.ca> Subject: Re: Wall 'o Sound: Skunk Anansie? On Fri, 6 Feb 1998, Ron Starr wrote: > As long as wall-o-sound music has come up (Sleater-Kinney), would anyone > recommend (or not recommend) Skunk Anansie? For non-punk, complex, multi-layered wall-of-sound glory, go for Taste of Joy's album Trigger Fables. Breathtaking. (Yes, Joyce, I'm promoting the band again!) I.D. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 16:45:36 EST From: Riphug@aol.com Subject: Upcoming single from Tanita Tikaram Because I figured there isn't a very heavy volume on Tanita's mailing list, I recently subscribed to it. This is one of the first pieces of mail I received: <> She's starting to grow on me......and I think the reason she's been compared to Tracy Chapman and Toni Child is because of her low voice. Not nearly as low as that Kiss the Rain girl......(can't think of her name right now). Jill :D ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 17:00:38 EST From: Riphug@aol.com Subject: Re: Wall 'o Sound: Skunk Anansie? In a message dated 2/6/98 4:27:25 PM Eastern Standard Time, 4dm@qlink.queensu.ca writes: << For non-punk, complex, multi-layered wall-of-sound glory, go for Taste of Joy's album Trigger Fables. Breathtaking. >> I just so happen to have a copy of Trigger Fables for sale right now. I bought it in August at the Nettwerk booth at Lilith Fair and have only played it once. If anyone would be interested in buying it from me for $12.00 (for the CD and to cover my postage), let me know. First come, first served...... Jill :D ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V4 #40 *************************