From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V4 #287 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Thursday, August 20 1998 Volume 04 : Number 287 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Today's your birthday, friend... [Mike Matthews ] Re: Eva Trout [Andrew Fries ] Re: Phil Ochs [kerrywhite@webtv.net (kerry white)] pronunciation [queen of carrot flowers ] Body image (was re: womyn's music, protest songs) [queen of carrot flower] Clara*Thomas [Riphug@aol.com] Re: Clara*Thomas [Neile Graham ] Re: Clara*Thomas [charley darbo ] Charley's take of American folk music [charley darbo ] Re: womyn's music [charley darbo ] Re: womyn's music [charley darbo ] Should be: Charley's take _ON_ American folk music [charley darbo ] Re: womyn's music, protest songs [Steve VanDevender ] Re: Lambert Hendricks & Ross ["Joseph S. Zitt" ] Re: Eva Trout ["J." Wermont ] Re: Lambert Hendricks & Ross [charley darbo ] Re: womyn's music, protest songs ["C. K. Coney" ] Re: oy, to be e.mortal ["C. K. Coney" ] MWABT: A short post and the Pulse review ["Xenu's Sister" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 03:00:03 -0400 (EDT) From: Mike Matthews Subject: Today's your birthday, friend... i*i*i*i*i*i i*i*i*i*i*i *************** *****HAPPY********* **************BIRTHDAY********* *************************************************** *************************************************************************** ************ Martin Dougiamas (m.dougiamas@info.curtin.edu.au) ************ *************************************************************************** -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Martin Dougiamas Wed August 20 1969 Positive Tori Amos Thu August 22 1963 Leo Sam Warren Tue August 22 1961 Leo Henk Van Wulpen Sat August 22 1970 Leo Kerry White Wed August 22 1951 Exact Leo/Virgo Don Gibson Wed August 26 1959 Virgo Marcel Rijs Mon August 31 1970 A rose growing old Meredith Tarr Wed September 01 1971 Virgo Mary Lou Rowe Sat September 03 1960 Virgo Scott Zimmerman Mon September 04 1972 Virgo Mike Mendelson Fri September 04 1964 Virgo Richard Dean Wed September 06 1967 Virgo David Blank-Edelman Sat September 09 1967 Neon Holly Tominack Thu September 10 1970 Virgo Sharon Nichols (Rhodeways) Wed September 11 1963 Victim of Christianity Heather Russell Tue September 11 1900 Total Virgosity Karron Lynn Lane Thu September 14 3651 Ophelia Virgo Troy Wollenslegel Mon September 18 1972 Virgo Joyce Wermont Sat September 18 1954 Virgo Mark Frabotta Sun September 19 1965 Don't even THINK about parking here Joe Zitt Sat September 20 1958 Will Hack for CDs - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 17:12:27 +1000 From: Andrew Fries Subject: Re: Eva Trout In a message "Eva Trout" on 18/Aug/1998 15:16:31 "J." Wermont says: > Has anyone heard the Australian band Eva Trout? I stumbled on it > while sampling new CD's at the local listening station, and liked it > right away. The band consists of 2 women and 4 men, with the women > providing most of the vocal work. Yes, they have been mentioned on Ecto a couple of times before. OK, mostly by me :) ... Because they are from Sydney I've known them since around 93. They are a good, solid band, very enjoyable to see live. Just a correction though: there is only one woman in the band, Bek-Jean Steward. She is the one on the lead vocals, the backing is provided by two of the guys and perhaps the wonders of technology in form of overdubs . But the sound on the CD is *very* close to that of their live performances. > It's pop/folk-rock, and they sound similar to the Indigo Girls - > acoustic guitars, two female voices harmonizing (one of the singers > even has a husky, Amy Ray-ish voice) - but Eva Trout are definitely > more pop. Very definitely more pop! I know where that comparison to IG comes from, but it could be misleading. While Bek-Jean's voice can indeed sound a little bit like Amy Ray, Eva Trout offer no comments on social or political issues and have no agenda other than to simply write catchy pop songs and to have a good time in the process.... God bless them. > Definitely worth checking out! I second that. If we are talking about the same record, its title is "Along Woodland Rides, Through Tunnels of Evergreen". It isn't exactly new; here it came out in early 97 (or perhaps even late 96?) and was recorded nearly two years before it finally saw the light of the day... In fact, I'll admit it's been a while since I saw them myself and I haven't been paying that much attention latety. Could it be that they came up with a new record? It seems unlikely, but not impossible... __________________________________________________ Some people, you just wanna headbutt them in the hope of direct data download.... (from alt.gothic) http://www.zip.com.au/~afries/hall.html __________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 02:34:20 -0500 (CDT) From: kerrywhite@webtv.net (kerry white) Subject: Re: Phil Ochs Hi, I remembeer a tribute to Phil, either on tv or radio. Tim Hardin did Pleasures of The Harbor so beautifully that I saved it on tape (not sure I still have it) , even 'tho I am not much of a fan of the genre. KrW TV or not TV? That is the question. To suffer the lies of outrageous pitchmen, or to slit your throat with an electro-coated stainless steel blade? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 09:23:05 -0400 (EDT) From: queen of carrot flowers Subject: pronunciation Joe, in his infinete humour, said: > They rhyme with Fry-eggs and Tokes. I didn't mean to imply that I didn't know how to pronounce their names, but the posessive tenses looked daunting. (kind of like "wasp's nests.") - ---- Chelsea, the mod pixie home: away: tugboat@channel1.com odyshape@hotmail.com "I started out as a missionary, but I couldn't find a religion which didn't promise things to some people at the exclsion of others. The personal voyage into that kind of light shouldn't be denied to anybody." -- Patti Smith ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 09:22:59 -0400 (EDT) From: queen of carrot flowers Subject: Body image (was re: womyn's music, protest songs) Joyce said: >As for singing about body image, I'm not so sure *anyone* was doing that >back then. There wasn't much awareness about that issue in the 1970's, Do punk bands count? The Raincoats wrote a song called "Odyshape", and there are songs by the X-Ray Spex and the Slits about this very subject... - --C. - ---- Chelsea, the mod pixie home: away: tugboat@channel1.com odyshape@hotmail.com "I started out as a missionary, but I couldn't find a religion which didn't promise things to some people at the exclsion of others. The personal voyage into that kind of light shouldn't be denied to anybody." -- Patti Smith ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 10:47:33 EDT From: Riphug@aol.com Subject: Clara*Thomas I was hurriedly looking through the used bins at Disc-Go-Round yesterday, and came across this self-titled CD. I'd never heard of Clara*Thomas before, but there was a nice photo on the front and the back copy looked promising, so I bought it. Fortunately for me, it's pretty good! Accorind to the back, it's a 1997 promo copy from Mercury Records. Here's what it says: <> However, when I did a search on the trio, it appears that they've been around in Europe for awhile.....and that the album I have was released in Europe in 1998 under a different title. The only other information I found appears to be in Danish: DR Online - Musikstyring P3: P-titler: Clara Thomas Does anyone know any more about them? Jill :D *share the music!* ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 08:26:56 -0700 From: Neile Graham Subject: Re: Clara*Thomas Riphug@aol.com wrote: >Does anyone know any more about them? No, but if anyone else is curious about them, I've got a used copy they can have for a couple of dollars & the price of postage. I bought it last fall in London in a 3/10# bin and while I like the lead singer's voice the music didn't grab me. I'm trying to think who it's like. Vectored in the Velocity Girl/Eve's Plum area is probably the closest comparison I can manage. - --Neile - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Neile Graham ..... http://www.sff.net/people/neile ..... neile@sff.net The Ectophiles' Guide to Good Music .... http://www.smoe.org/ectoguide - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 09:09:46 -0700 (PDT) From: charley darbo Subject: Re: Clara*Thomas I love it myself. Kind of like the Cardigans with crunch. Nowhere near VG or EP in my ears, but I'll have to listen to it again when I get home tonight and see if I can find something else to describe them with. Brenda Khan comes to mind. Will try again later. - --charley - ---Neile Graham wrote: > > Riphug@aol.com wrote: > > >Does anyone know any more about them? > > No, but if anyone else is curious about them, I've got a used copy they can > have for a couple of dollars & the price of postage. I bought it last fall > in London in a 3/10# bin and while I like the lead singer's voice the music > didn't grab me. > > I'm trying to think who it's like. Vectored in the Velocity Girl/Eve's > Plum area is probably the closest comparison I can manage. > > --Neile > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Neile Graham ..... http://www.sff.net/people/neile ..... neile@sff.net > The Ectophiles' Guide to Good Music .... http://www.smoe.org/ectoguide > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 08:58:52 -0700 (PDT) From: charley darbo Subject: Charley's take of American folk music I know you’re all craving it. I guess it really boils down to my definition of art and my understanding of the _purpose_ of art. The words ‘art’ and ‘purpose’ seem somehow incompatible within the same sentence—who can say what the purpose of art is, or even insist that it _have_ a purpose?—yet both of them speak to the _essence_ of conscious human life: the reason for being, and the understanding of that reason. My feelings about American folk music also touch on my feelings about interpersonal relationships and communication, which is kind of the fourth circle in my map of human consciousness as I’m imagining it or the purpose of this discussion: First: the I: conscious recognition of the self as mind. Second: the question: the search for meaning: the need to understand one’s purpose. Third: the answer: the lifelong process of compiling a map of the universe so that one can try to understand one’s place in it: the ever nearly reached but never really attained answer. Fourth: the defining human need to overlay your map on another’s and find congruence: communication: giving, learning, love. For me, art is the documentation of the fourth step: the vessel via which one shares one’s understanding of the universe with another. As convoluted and baroque as I’m making this, this is precisely the heart of my reasons for not finding a fit with American folk music. Art, another’s art, another’s understanding of the universe, will be different from mine, to one degree or another. (It seems to me that finding overlap of the good parts of one’s map leads to loving relationships, while overlaps among the bad areas, and especially the inaccurately drawn areas, leads to relationships of conflict; even more than does the lack of overlaps, which can be very interesting.) Art, the concrete representation of one’s understanding of the abstract universe, can be communicated to another person in many different ways, but I think that all of those ways divide roughly into two different means: art that is offered as a gift, and art that is taught as a lesson. I, personally, am extremely open to the former style of communication, and extremely resistant to the latter. Art that is shared is art; art that is taught as truth is religion. Religion is, after all, in my definition, art that’s gotten out of hand: one person’s map of the universe imposed upon another person. I learn a great deal more about truth and its variations from real life, by both participation and observation, and its analog, fiction/metaphor/_art_, than from religion; dictation; pedagoguery (!); and the smug didacticism of American folk music. (How many of you thought we’d never get there? I can’t help but feel that having taken this circuitous route to reach a fairly minor point I’ve left anyone who was attempting to follow me fogmired several paragraphs back. ) (Anyway.) So even when I agree with the factual content of a folk song, and with its implied agenda, I bristle at--bristle’s too strong a word; I am rendered less than receptive by—the patronizing because-I-said-so tone _most_ American folksingers take on _most_ of the songs I’ve heard. And even that, of course, is vastly oversimplifying the matter, because often it’s not really a tone at all. Sometimes it even seems like a lack of tone; an apparent belief that the lyrics will say all that need be said and that the singer feels it’s unnecessary to invest the performance with any emotion. This is actually closer to what bothers me: the smug belief in the absolute truth of one’s lyrics, manifested by a cavalier delivery. Pete Seger can have the same vocal tone, the same emotional color, on a song about a happy little kid as he has on a song about the eternal horrors of war. Judy Collins has _one_ inflection. (Please don’t bother to disagree with me; this is all about my personal interpretations, and I’m fully aware that there are many people out there [even many Ectophiles] who feel differently.) All these trivial effects leave me feeling, when I listen to American folk music, like I’m being lectured at by someone who has no real conviction in what they’re preaching and very little respect for my intelligence: so much of it comes out sounding like children’s music. (And even with artists like the Indigo Girls and Jewel who may have taken the internals of American folk music further than the limits I describe above, that strident, insistent, histrionically _sincere_ sound that their music has in common with most American folk music is a sound I’ve been thoroughly inoculated against. Phranc, by way of contrast, works for me because she seems very disrespectful of those conventions and has a whole lot of fun messing with them. Instead of singing a song entitled "I Protest the Stereotypical Images of Women As Portrayed in Songs Produced by This Patriarchal Society," like a lot of those over-earnest folksingers would [and have], she does an exaggeratedly straight-faced rendition of "I Enjoy Being a Girl.") I’m much more interested in art, music or otherwise, in which I’m _engaged_ by the artist in a collaborative effort to reach a greater understanding of our common universe. - --charley _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 09:23:55 -0700 (PDT) From: charley darbo Subject: Re: womyn's music - ---Birdie wrote: >...to Lambert Hendricks & Ross....to...Carmen Miranda....to...The > Artist now The Sqiggle... Woo hoo! I've listened to all three of those in the last few days. I've been on a major LH&R kick lately. - --charley n.p. Kitty Margolis _Anthropology_ n.r. PowerPoint newsgroup (work is wet sucking noise at the base of my skull) _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 09:30:05 -0700 (PDT) From: charley darbo Subject: Re: womyn's music - ---Birdie wrote: >...to Lambert Hendricks & Ross....to...Carmen Miranda....to...The > Artist now The Sqiggle... Woo hoo! I've listened to all three of those in the last few days. I've been on a major LH&R kick lately. - --charley n.p. Kitty Margolis _Anthropology_ n.r. PowerPoint newsgroup (work is wet sucking noise at the base of my skull) _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 09:25:51 -0700 (PDT) From: charley darbo Subject: Should be: Charley's take _ON_ American folk music d'Oh! _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 10:27:34 -0700 From: Monroe/Fisher Subject: Re: gay artists/MWWBT & Equipoise Carolyn Andre wrote: >Given that, I believe only k.d. may fit the bill. (and it certainly caused >her problems when attempting to "make it" in any solid way in the >"country" community). I seem to remember the biggest backlash for k.d. lang came from the beef industry when she came out as a vegetarian even before she came out as lesbian. Could it be that the average country music fan is more vegephobic than homophobic? ;-) The recent thread regarding Rearmament and the release of MWWBT has prompted me to delurk. I have at some time obsessed over all Happy's albums except for maybe I & II. My favorite is still Warpaint followed closely by (contrary to recent popular opinion) Equipoise. MW may change all that. I've hardly played anything else since. When I first played it I kept thinking of how much it reminded me of Equipoise. Darker, almost minimalist while being lush at the same time. I know that doesn't seem to make sense...it's hard for me to describe. I was just afraid those that haven't yet got all Happy's albums might avoid Equipoise. Don't...it's one of her best...IMO. Favorites: He Will Come Again, SOS (still my favorite version), Runners, Out Like a Lamb & Cohabitants. Standouts so far on MW: Tragic, 100 Years, Ra Is a Busy God, & Winter. If Beggars just grabbed my attention last night. Didn't care for Roy at first but the middle part with violin and vocal drew me in. Wayne n.p. The Invisible Invisible - Laurie Freelove n.r. In the Land of Winter - Richard Grant ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 10:35:27 -0700 (PDT) From: Steve VanDevender Subject: Re: womyn's music, protest songs charley darbo writes: > I come down firmly on the side of those who haven't much use for > American "folk" music--I may elaborate later--I just wanted to offer > an exception to what I see as the general rule. Now that folk music has come up as a topic in Ecto, I can't get this song out of my head: "We are the folk song army Every one of us cares We all hate poverty, war and injustice Unlike the rest of you squares "There are innocuous folk songs, yeah, But we regard 'em with scorn. The folks who sing 'em have no social conscience, Why, they don't even care if Jimmy Crack Corn. "If you feel dissatisfaction, Strum your frustrations away. Some people may prefer action, But give me a folk song any old day. "The tune don't have to be clever, And it don't matter if you put a couple extra syllables into a line. It sounds more ethnic if it ain't good English And it don't even gotta rhyme...excuse me: rhyne! "Remember the war against Franco? That's the kind where each of us belongs. Though he may have won all the battles, We had all the good songs! "So join in the folk song army! Guitars are the weapons we bring To the fight against poverty, war, and injustice. Ready, aim, sing!" -- Tom Lehrer, "The Folk Song Army" But some would claim I'm just a notorious curmudgeon. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 11:46:43 -0700 From: Birdie Subject: Lambert Hendricks & Ross charley darbo wrote: > Woo hoo! I've listened to all three of those in the last few days. > I've been on a major LH&R kick lately. [ Birdie's arches one eyebrow in the direction of Charley] You've also listened to LH&R, Carmen Miranda, and the Squiggle all in the last few days? What are you one of my neighbors? I mean, what are the chances of THAT! ;-) Have you heard Dusty Springfield's cover of "Doodlin"? It's the best.... totally jammin'! Oh let's see, and Jane Siberry did...."Caravan" but I'd *love* to hear her do "Farmer's Market" live. What do ya think? If you think so too, send her an e-mail and say "Hey Jane, do that LH&R song "Farmers Market" Live......yeah, the one about the beans". Any other fab covers of LH&R out there (besides - Joni Mitchell's cover of "Twisted")...???? Birdie ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 13:51:49 -0500 (CDT) From: "Joseph S. Zitt" Subject: Re: Lambert Hendricks & Ross On Thu, 20 Aug 1998, Birdie wrote: > Any other fab covers of LH&R out there (besides - Joni Mitchell's > cover of "Twisted")...???? If I recall correctly, Barry Manilow did some *killer* LH&R covers on his first few albums. I especially remember "Cloudburst", but I think there were others. - - ---------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: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 13:48:44 -0700 (PDT) From: "J." Wermont Subject: Re: Eva Trout Andrew Fries wrote: > I second that. If we are talking about the same record, its title is "Along > Woodland Rides, Through Tunnels of Evergreen". It isn't exactly new; here it > came out in early 97 (or perhaps even late 96?) and was recorded nearly two > years before it finally saw the light of the day... I don't have the CD cover here at work, just the CD itself, which doesn't say much beyond "Eva Trout" - so I think it's eponymous. I don't remember seeing that other title on the CD cover (and one would think I would have noticed that title!). It does have a 1997 copyright date on it. Let's see if I can remember a few song titles... 1. Beautiful South (love the part where she says "Lay me down to die") 2. Don't remember this title, but the chorus goes: "Jenny, Jenny, you're making progress Head first through rolling thunder Free falling ... for someone Cause you really can't stand to be alone" 3. Soup Kitchen Does that help? Is it the same album you have? Joyce ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 12:16:16 -0700 (PDT) From: charley darbo Subject: Re: Lambert Hendricks & Ross Bette Midler did a great cover of "Twisted." And I don't think Jane's "Caravan" is the same song as LH&R's. Unless I'm wrong . . . - --Ch.D - ---Birdie wrote: > > charley darbo wrote: > > > Woo hoo! I've listened to all three of those in the last few days. > > I've been on a major LH&R kick lately. > > [ Birdie's arches one eyebrow in the direction of Charley] > > You've also listened to LH&R, Carmen Miranda, and the Squiggle all > in the last few days? What are you one of my neighbors? I mean, > what are the chances of THAT! ;-) > > Have you heard Dusty Springfield's cover of "Doodlin"? It's the best.... > totally jammin'! > > Oh let's see, and Jane Siberry did...."Caravan" but I'd *love* to hear > her do "Farmer's Market" live. What do ya think? If you think so too, > send her an e-mail and say "Hey Jane, do that LH&R song "Farmers > Market" Live......yeah, the one about the beans". > > Any other fab covers of LH&R out there (besides - Joni Mitchell's > cover of "Twisted")...???? > > Birdie > _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 16:54:27 -0700 From: "C. K. Coney" Subject: Re: womyn's music, protest songs charley darbo wrote: > In the first place. In the second place, one of the most haunting > songs I've ever heard was a Holly Near song about the women > "disappeared" by the Nicaraguan government. I speak no Spanish so this > attempt at the song's title is largely phonetic: "Ayuna Mujer > Desaparacida." Translates, if I remember, as "A Mother is Disappeared." Not bad for a non-Spanish speaker! It's actually "Hay Una..." That means "There's a woman (who's disappeared). So...go to the head of the class, gringo! :-) > Not that I'm a Holly Near fan I've always been a fan of Holly Near. She's got a wonderful voice, great politics, and her live shows have been emotional and empowering experiences for me and so many others, men and women alike. I'm curious as to why that particular song touched you so much, yet you don't consider yourself a fan. Have you ever seen her live? Carol ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 17:06:10 -0700 From: "C. K. Coney" Subject: Re: oy, to be e.mortal meredith wrote: > Hi! > > Okay, so after being up until 1 am last night catching up on ecto, I feel > qualified to respond to a few of the things that have been flying around > here of late. (See, I went out of town again ... I've got to stop doing > that! :) Sorry for the length. > > First, I saw a bit of misinformation floating about in some of the missives > here that I'd like to set straight once and for all: Veda Hille is *not* > Interesting. I'm sure I saw her listed on the Lilith Fair website on the Vancouver roster, but it could have been the WILMA site where I saw her listed. Wonder why the websites weren't updated to reflect reality? They were quick to correct sites when Lisa Gerrard cancelled her Duality tour & her participation in LF. One of those mysteries of webbed-life, I guess! > I've found the whole discussion about "womyn's music" to be fascinating. > My personal problem with the genre is simply that I find the music to be > crashingly boring. I can certainly appreciate where the music was coming > from and what the artists who made it were up against, but it would speak > to me a lot more if it were accompanied by more original instrumentation. > One of the most excruciating musical experiences of my life was attending a > Margie Adam concert my senior year in college (I can hear Valerie Nozick's > sympathetic wail from here ;). It was just so damned DULL, not to mention > really self-righteous. I never liked Margie Adam...neither her voice nor her musicianship are anything to write home about. But I wouldn't rule out the entire wimmin's (another spelling!) music genre because of a few stinkers! There have been some wonderful artists in this genre, albeit with some inconsistencies in their output. > We suffer for our goddesses. It's an integral part of the religion. :) > The greatest suffering is having to wait so long for new releases...and for *certain* goddesses (not to mention any names) to tour beyond the confines of the eastern seaboard & NY state environs! Ah, but we can always hope, eh? Carol ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 16:45:00 -0500 From: "Xenu's Sister" Subject: MWABT: A short post and the Pulse review I just sent this to rec.music.gaffa/Love-Hounds. - ---------------------- At 01:16 PM 8/20/98 GMT, Ronald Girardin wrote: >Hi Folks, > > can anyone give me details (title, label, catalog no., etc.) >thanks Happy Rhodes "Many Worlds Are Born Tonight" Samson Music (http://www.samsonmusic.com/home.htm) GC0141 (I was going to stop there, but since Happy commented on my relationship with this group in the liner notes :-), I'll add this next bit to the post instead of just the e-mail) Many Worlds Is Born Tonight is a very, very different album for Happy. This is a dense, highly textured, electronic, partially science fiction-themed album. Electronica pop with vocals, most of it is unlike anything she's done before. The album is packed with SF sound effects and Happy's trademark multi-octave vocal dubs. Songs range from the unlikely weird rock of "Roy (Back From The Offworld)" (it's about the Rutger Hauer character in the film "Blade Runner") to the snow-covered wasteland soundscapes of "Winter" (*not* the Tori Amos song) to the lush, Native American anthem "Looking Over Cliffs." I love it, very much, but it took many listenings to fully understand and appreciate. Happy started recording this long before she was signed to Samson Records, and it's still mainly just her and Kevin Bartlett on electronics and instruments, but other artists came in to lend a hand on certain songs, including Jerry Marotta (drums and percussion on 3 tracks), Carl Adami (bass on 2), Rob Taylor (violin on "Roy"), and Mitch Elrod and Kelly Bird (additional vocals on the song "Proof"). She also uses samples from various sources, including David Torn's Tonal Textures, and Project Lo. Here's a review from Pulse (with, hey, the inevitable Kate KonTent): .................................... Review by John Diliberto Pulse magazine August 1998 "Happy Rhodes is an upstate New York singer-songwriter and vocal chameleon who has been working an extraordinary magic for years on 10 self-produced albums. She draws immediate comparisons to Kate Bush: Her voice leaps to the same precarious highs, but she also touches deeper, seductive lows. At times her voice is knowing, poignant and serene, ascending into choirs, then whispering huskily into your ear that "Everything I do is madness." Rhodes has always delved into dark, interior states of mind, often arising out of a troubled childhood. Orchestrating a textured electronica landscape, she makes inquiries into God, existence and on "100 Years," computer games [a program, not games. vm]. Swampy, distorted percussion, searing e-bow guitars and looping melodies populate the interior rooms of a wired world, in which Happy Rhodes is a cyber-troubadour, keeping watch on our souls." .......... John Diliberto is the producer and host of "Echoes," a US PBS syndicated show. (http://www.echodisc.com/) Vickie DIVX = GREED - Boycott Circuit City! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 15:07:23 -0700 From: Birdie Subject: Re: Charley's take of American folk music charley darbo wrote: > I guess it really boils down to my definition of art and my > understanding of the _purpose_ of art. The words Œart¹ and Œpurpose¹ > seem somehow incompatible within the same sentence‹who can say what > the purpose of art is, or even insist that it _have_ a purpose?‹yet > both of them speak to the _essence_ of conscious human life: the > reason for being, and the understanding of that reason. Let's look at some stripped bare art - such as German Expressionist sculpture or block prints (Edvard Munch's "The Shriek") and where there is simply the human condition portrayed; "The Shriek" does ring of someone exposed to the concentration camps - and it speaks of the pain and horror of having witnessed what people can do to each other. There is no explanation as to *why* people inflict pain on each other - and the ~understanding~ in German Expressionistic art is limited to inspiring a compassion for the human condition. A feeling of compassion that is the responsibility of the viewer. Different people will of course respond in different ways to it. None-the-less "The Shriek" and othe GE art is understanding of peoples pain and suffering in so much as it is descriptive of it. Which, it is, positively brilliant at achieving. We could say Folk music is compassionate of the human condition; but I do prefer my Evard Munch's to the Joan Baez or Jewel's. I seem to require an honest edge that is completely unabashedly human and that _sincere_ tone found in past and current folk music is like cotton candy. If Evard Munch cut his block prints with a cotton candy view...I mean....he didn't did he.....the truly marvellous striking awe inspiring aspects of German Expressionist art is that it portrays the naked truth about the human condition under intense circumstances and by doing simply that - in one image "The Shriek" you gain insight into understanding the human condition prior to and during WW2. One image and it says so much. But it doesn't say a word about why the German's did what they did. It only speaks of the horror of it. It is abstract but utterly sincere. Whether it is the poets in Chile or "Gimme an F" Country Joe McDonald - you also do not have the cotton candy wrapping, and those are poems that moved people into action or music that helped propel people into action. For this reason certain art, books, music have been banned and/or burned and/or not shown or played over the ages......as it can inspire people to behave differently than the ruling class - status quo wants them to. Art can enlighten or enrage people or just help them keep moving. Artists have been killed and put in jail because of the power of their art to educate and/or enrage people. I'd rather there have been standard american folk songs than none-at-all - as from them sprung the rock and roll protest songs and you know, perhaps one of the other reasons LF seems so bland is everybody is prolly more concerned about getting a frozen starbucks drink or ice cream than......dealing with things like..... 1 out of 2 people will have develop some form of cancer - the salmon in the Pacific Northwest is seriously endangered - frog's and other small creatures are disappearing off the face of the earth at an alarming rate ( a 1/3rd are gone) and what about that weather....and diseases - viruses are on the rise....and that a million (new) children a year are used in the sex trades. There are some serious issues out there that need immediate attention. LF it seems has put the dealing of any issues on the back burner somewhere out of sight. This is the new folk scene? > Third: the answer: the lifelong process of compiling a map of the > universe so that one can try to understand one¹s place in it: the ever > nearly reached but never really attained answer. My place is where ever I am and to be a healthy dominate nurturing force with those people, animals, plants, aqualife, air around me - as I can be. Sometimes this becomes a real struggle and it isn't easy. It's hard to say become in shape when you are out of shape or are learning something new. This is a lifelong process and when I get an electric car, I'll let you know - in the meantime - I applaud them and people who own them. > Art, the concrete representation of one¹s understanding of the > abstract universe, can be communicated to another person in many > different ways, but I think that all of those ways divide roughly into > two different means: art that is offered as a gift, and art that is > taught as a lesson. I, personally, am extremely open to the former > style of communication, and extremely resistant to the latter. Art > that is shared is art; art that is taught as truth is religion. > Religion is, after all, in my definition, art that¹s gotten out of > hand: one person¹s map of the universe imposed upon another person. Let's compare your definition of art as a lesson to German Expressionism as art that teaches by being an abstract documentation of the human condition at that place - period of time. I do not consider it religion nor do I consider it art that has gotten out of hand. Therefore, your imposing of your map of the universe on to mine isn't jivin'. I do agree that religion partly is art that has gotten out of hand and has been used for centuries to manipulate and control large masses of people, beginning in time before weapons were what they are today. With today's missiles and nukes sitting in silo's pointed silently at distance countries - they are the new religion. They keep people controlled like a hand raised saying "You'll go to hell with one flick of this switch if you...." Meet the new boss - exactly the same as the old boss. Of course - the war-going-judgemental religions all were based on ~The Power in Numbers~ reality back in the days when combat was done by hand. The more hands the merrier....look at the catholic church - all the outdated insane (in this day and age) rules such as no birthcontrol or condoms.....that stuff all dates back and forward to world domination by the sheer numbers. I find this to be *the real stuff* of religion.....and it isn't art. It's about power and control and territorialism and pack mentality. I think a lot (not all) of them (religions) sprang out of fear. Fear of the natural world - fear of other men. Of tidal waves and invading huns. Dig? It was religion as a form of protection that hooked people into it. > I learn a great deal more about truth and its variations from real > life, by both participation and observation, and its analog, > fiction/metaphor/_art_, than from religion; dictation; pedagoguery > (!); and the smug didacticism of American folk music. Yes, but doesn't everybody? No. Some people are not artists and don't have the time to think about much - let alone make metaphors - - let alone art. This doesn't make artists more important than firemen by the way. It just means they can drink starbucks and discuss electric cars and frogs. > (How many of you thought we¹d never get there? I can¹t help but > feel that having taken this circuitous route to reach a fairly minor > point I¹ve left anyone who was attempting to follow me fogmired > several paragraphs back. ) No, actually, as you can prolly tell - I am of heavy duty scottish-welsh descent and as I am in the latitude of 34 bloody degrees - I have a need for a fog machine to keep me fogmired the whole day through. I appreciate it - altho I will admit that to stay utterly cool and unfettered I'll need big blue icebergs to start floating down Sunset Blvd....krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrsssssshhh. > (Anyway.) > So even when I agree with the factual content of a folk song, and > with its implied agenda, I bristle at--bristle¹s too strong a word; I > am rendered less than receptive by‹the patronizing because-I-said-so > tone _most_ American folksingers take on _most_ of the songs I¹ve > heard. I had a major row with a folk singer once who was drunk and flew around-the-bend & off-the-handle and they were wrongly accusing me of something and it ended with them shouting "Because-I-Said-So"!!!! The time before I had heard this was in "Mommie Dearest" with the Joan Crawford character shouting it. > And even that, of course, is vastly oversimplifying the matter, > because often it¹s not really a tone at all. Sometimes it even seems > like a lack of tone; an apparent belief that the lyrics will say all > that need be said and that the singer feels it¹s unnecessary to invest > the performance with any emotion. Bob Dylan springs to mind......well - ok - the guy has a very limited vocal range..... and very nasal. The lyric's have to say it with him otherwise, ahem, well you wouldn't sit around listening to him sing the telephone directory now would you? "Frankie Leeeeeeeee" "John Brownnnnnn" Other people are saddled with gorgeous voices and supply the cotton candy effect even if they sang about rape...so, they should stick to songs about flowers is what you are saying? >This is actually closer to what > bothers me: the smug belief in the absolute truth of one¹s lyrics, > manifested by a cavalier delivery. Well, that sounds like Dylan to me. I think you are confusing what peoples voices are capable of. Do you really think that Pete Seger or Bob Dylan can vocally produce more than a monotone? I don't. I've done shows with Dylan. I'm also going to have to hand it to both of those men (and hey, Bruce Springsteen) for having such incrediably long fruitful careers while sporting such limited monotone voices. Talk about having done a lot with very little. I don't believe in faulting people for the equipment they were born with - it's what they do with it...and those guys can seriously only do so much in terms of tone. It is unreasonable to expect otherwise. > Pete Seger can have the same vocal > tone, the same emotional color, on a song about a happy little kid as > he has on a song about the eternal horrors of war. Again...His tone has to do with the pipes he was given...and like Dylan - - the guy has a limited vocal range. >Judy Collins has > _one_ inflection. (Please don¹t bother to disagree with me; this is > all about my personal interpretations, and I¹m fully aware that there > are many people out there [even many Ectophiles] who feel differently.) Urm.....Are you confusing the key she sings in with inflection? No. Okay, but I would say Judy pretty much sings in the same key and I don't think you probably like that key and/or appreciate more range. Lot's of people can only sing certain types of songs as they can only sing in one key and one octave range! And no they shouldn't be prevented from performing because they have some feelings they want to sing about! Blues singers are not known for vocal gymnastics either. People like Luther Vandross or Whitney Houston can over inflect...and if real feeling is lacking...well...who cares about inflection. Inflection can be purely technical and there to *impress* with style and ability. I'd rather hear someone sing the blues - that has a limited range - but who means it than someone who may be technically a champ at the vocal gym but who is singing without conviction. > All these trivial effects leave me feeling, when I listen to > American folk music, like I¹m being lectured at by someone who has no > real conviction in what they¹re preaching and very little respect for > my intelligence: so much of it comes out sounding like children¹s > music. (And even with artists like the Indigo Girls and Jewel who may > have taken the internals of American folk music further than the > limits I describe above, that strident, insistent, histrionically > _sincere_ sound that their music has in common with most American folk > music is a sound I¹ve been thoroughly inoculated against. I agree on the conviction aspect. Except, while a performer can be full of conviction in say a love song - they may have no real abilities to maintain a healthy loving relationship with another human being in real life. So, convincing in song may have absolutely no meaning as far as real life goes....in otherwords....there are some very good method singers out there! Or simply people singing about what they *wish* they could have but will never have - so, they just have it in song - and are able to put all of themselves into that. And these are people who's art does not intersect with their real life, and has no purpose but in and of it's self as a song *because* of the personal inabilities of the artist to be intimate emotionally one on one with another person. People can be brilliant locked up in an isolation booth laying down vocal tracks to a song that maps out their desire for a lover but in real life same person could be terrified of such a relationship and do nothing but run from becoming intimate with anyone. So, even people sounding like they are singing with total conviction can be deceiving. Except for that they sound totally convincing. Sometimes I wonder if the bland singers have really exciting lives and the exciting singers have really dull ones. So, my point is that someone could sing this amazing song about interpersonal relationships - with a great range - and appropriate inflections and wonderful phrasing......and maybe behind the scenes be self abusive or in a rotten relationship. Sometimes songs are just wishes and sung by people in their own jails. >Phranc, by > way of contrast, works for me because she seems very disrespectful of > those conventions and has a whole lot of fun messing with them. > Instead of singing a song entitled "I Protest the Stereotypical Images > of Women As Portrayed in Songs Produced by This Patriarchal Society," > like a lot of those over-earnest folksingers would [and have], she > does an exaggeratedly straight-faced rendition of "I Enjoy Being a > Girl.") Ah yes, from The Flower Drum Song. The male organist at The Castro Theatre in SF played it quite well (every night for years) too - and long before Phranc did it. It all depends on what seats you've sat in. > I¹m much more interested in art, music or otherwise, in which I¹m > _engaged_ by the artist in a collaborative effort to reach a greater > understanding of our common universe. That was the intent of american folk music...and it worked. It's just that your universe is different than the union workers in the 20's, the cotton pickers, the gays in the 70's, and so on. Except that if you enjoy science in your music - try - "Both Sides Now" or "Windmills of your Mind"....and any other music which brings up things going around and around.... Like the seasons or the sun....or if you squint and look very hard...those wee little cells. Well, you know, since you did use the universe word. And words... Words are above all *sounds* assigned to describe things. But only if you have real audio in this here internet neck of the woods. Birdie ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V4 #287 **************************