From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V5 #138 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Monday, April 19 1999 Volume 05 : Number 138 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Dead Bees on a Cake [Tamar Boursalian ] expedition of 33 [dave ] Miss Young at Downtime ["Donald G. Keller" ] re: Dead Bees on a Cake ["Chris Stack" ] Neile's March Obsessions [Neile Graham ] Re: Dead Bees on a Cake [meredith ] pamela means/patty larkin live [meredith ] In memoriam Cappucino Heaven [Philip David Morgan ] Re: Dead Bees on a Cake [Joseph Zitt ] mandolin [joann.whetsell@oberlin.edu (JoAnn Whetsell)] Concert in Atlanta [Neile Graham ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 00:14:04 -0700 From: Tamar Boursalian Subject: Re: Dead Bees on a Cake Hi! Heather Russell wanted to know: >Any opinions on this new album by David Sylvian? I've always liked his >music... I really like it a lot. I'm not really good at going in depth about these things, song for song, but what I can say is that I find myself reaching for it when I want to listen to something. It's really quite lovely, as all of David Sylvian's music is, in that sort of dark way. It makes you feel warm yet desolate at the same time. How does that work? Anyway, I give it two thumbs up. Go get it. While you're at it, if you like Jeff Beck, get his new album too. And for those of you who are fans of Steve Hackett, he has one coming out on the 26th or so. Have a good one, - --Tamar (tamar@u.washington.edu) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 09:19:53 -0400 From: dave Subject: expedition of 33 In 1774 Juan Bautista de Anza, captain of the presidio at Tubac (then in New Spain, now in southern Arizona), led an expedition of 33 across the deserts of Sonora and Alta California to determine the feasibility of settling Alta California, which led to the colonization of San Francisco in 1776. http://anza.uoregon.edu/ - -- +-----------------------------------------------+ + dave + + Visit Sideshow Bob's House of Wax and Waffles + + Female vocalists, Christian, and Polish music + + -=-=- and the fabulous Kasia Kowalska -=-=- + + http://magpage.com/~sspan/ + +-----------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 09:43:16 -0400 (EDT) From: "Donald G. Keller" Subject: Miss Young at Downtime So on Friday night, after only three hours' sleep the night before (left much of a freelance proofreading assignment to the last minute) and a full day of work, I went off to Downtime, a club I'd never previously been to, to see Kristeen Young. woj, who had never seen her before, decided to come into town for the show, and so we drove up to 30th Street near 7th Avenue (=way= out of my usual orbit). Downtime is a touch posh, and seems more like a bar with music, rather than a music space with a bar, if you know what I mean. We grabbed a table near the front and listened to the last song by Sarah Hudson, an OK singer/songwriter who had a cellist (and acoustic guitar part on tape, which seemed odd to me) accompanying her. I spotted Kristeen Young standing along the side waiting to go on, and went over to say hello. The first question from the peanut gallery, of course, is "But what was she =wearing=?" This time it was a kind of peasant dress with a flared skirt, all in shades of black and gray; her hair (also black, in case anyone doesn't know) was done up in tiny braids and decorated with small white flowers; I noticed when I went up to her that she had something written or drawn on the backs of her hands, but it wasn't until mid-set when she took off the short black jacket she was wearing over the sleeveless dress that one could see she had lettering from shoulders past her wrists reading (right arm) OBLIGATORY (left arm) TATOO. The whole effect, in woj's apt phrase, was "Dorothy goes to Hell." (woj had suggested, on the way over, that we should try and guess what her getup might be. I replied my imagination couldn't keep up with hers in that area. I was right.) There's a curious paradox about Kristeen Young. I was noticing this time, watching her walking around getting set up to play, that her body English when she's not performing is rather demure, and in conversation she's quiet and a bit shy. But once she gets on stage, she's completely uninhibited. It's tempting to succumb to cheap amateur psychoanalysis and remember her talking in interviews about her strict religious upbringing (similar to Tori Amos, as it happens), and think about the theory that in performing we present our inner selves (we'd say things in a song we'd never say in real life), and speculate that her everyday demeanor is still obedient to her upbringing, while her performing style and mode of dress is in rebellion against it. But there's also the fact that in interviews she's expressed puzzlement that people think she's weird; and it's clear that to her there =is= no paradox, that it's all her. Well, enough of that. Finally she was ready, along with her drummer Jeff White, and as with the last set I saw she kicked off with the squirrely synth riff of "Night Blindness," one of the songs that forms the solid middle range of her new album =Enemy=. It doesn't rock as hard as some--in fact it's almost a fast ballad--but the crashing keyboard riff on the chorus lifted me out of my chair a couple inches. As always the power of her voice was a distinct pleasure. Again following the previous set, White rolled into the tasty paradiddle that introduces "Take Me," the "Kashmir"-like song that is one of her heaviest. Last time it was a highlight; this time it was a little off from that, but still most satisfactory. (Similar remarks apply to the half-spoken, hammering "Have you ever worked with anything HI-TEK?" which has several times been the best thing she played, but this time, late in the set, was merely very good.) She played two new songs, one she'd done last time, a pretty typical fastish pounding rocker; the other, next to last, was more complicated, and really terrific. It began with an obsessive little high-register keyboard riff and then lurched into a syncopated main mid-register riff; the opening came back later to be developed as the bridge. It's one I'm eager to hear again. She also did the ballad "Sacrifice," probably my least favorite track on =Enemy=; the music is a little more conventional than usual, the lyrics overextend the metaphor of "music is my muse," and the vocal style oversells the material. She closed the set (there was no encore) with "Enemy," another solid midlevel song. Among the best songs she did was "Mouth to Mouth," one of several where she sets the keyboard going by itself and does ballet moves with the microphone stand about the stage; the song's striking layered keyboard riffs and variety of vocal inflections make it a perennial strong live number. But the finest moment was mid-set, where she started up the nagging little chord-alternation of "Incubator," and I slumped with delight in my chair; I knew I was in for it now. She hadn't played the song when last I'd seen her a few months ago, and so it had been nearly a year since I'd seen it performed, and that was before I'd gotten to know it from the new album. And something she hadn't previously done in live performance was play the additional countermelodies of the song "live," moving back and forth from the keyboard microphone to the center-stage microphone. It's a remarkable piece, to say the least, especially watching her act it out with copious hand-gestures; and the performance was tremendous, every squeak and simper dead on the mark. Thinking about it later, I realized that (in keeping with the Oz reference and remembering that Shirley Temple was originally supposed to play Dorothy) it's kind of a demented version of "On the Good Ship Lollipop," while at the same time the carefully-composed extreme vocal mannerisms are actually somewhere in the vicinity of Schoenbergian =sprechgesang= (=Lollipop Lunaire=?). It's also a kind of mini-catalog of what Miss Young is capable of vocally, not only the goofy upper register but the lower register (illustratively on the line "gets me down"), full-blare mid-register, and coloratura flourishes. Is "Incubator" her best song? Still in the flush of seeing it done so well so recently, this week I think so; I might change my mind next time she plays "Skeletons" (which is starker, more stripped-down, and more extreme in a different way). Or when she plays an even better version of "HI-TEK." Certainly "Incubator" is her most =characteristic= (not typical; something like "Mouth to Mouth" falls in that category) in the way it covers all the bases of her art within the compass of (in the end) a unitary work of art. She said after the set that she will probably play in New York again in about a month. I'll be there. Appendix: The name of this mini-essay is "Gothic Laughter." I've noted before that while watching Kristeen Young I feel the alternating tendencies to be swept up by the performance, and to laugh. I would never want her (or anyone else) to think I was laughing =at= them, and so I've given some thought to the phenomenon. There's one kind of laughter that occurs, where the music is so intense that I can hardly stand it, to which my reaction is a laugh of delight (which sometimes turns into a whimper of surrender). In the middle of something like "...HI-TEK" or "Incubator" I'm very apt to react like that. But the other kind of laughter is caused by a rhetoric of extremity, to which the Goth impulse is very prone. Understand, I'm very susceptible to the Goth impulse; I'm what Robert Christgau described as a "technical depressive" (the kind of person, he pointed out, liable to love the second Portishead album); the darker and gloomier the music, the more I like it. But at the same time, when I take a half-step back from it, it gives me fits of giggles, say, to look at the band names/album names/song names of various Goth outfits (My Scarlet Life, My Dying Bride, Switchblade Symphony, etc. etc.). Still, there's a considerable difference between ironic distance (which for me anyway is only half a step from getting back into the flow) and cynical detachment (where the laughter would be dismissive). So if I find myself laughing a bit at the outrageousness of "Incubator," say, or the Cure's "Siamese Twins" ("Is it =always= like =this=?")--which is only one of my favorite songs in the world--it's only a kind of respite from the jawdropping power that the song will have on me again in a matter of seconds. (And this incidentally is very similar to the effect of =Buffy the Vampire Slayer= and similar humor/horror pieces; the little half-laugh in the middle of a horrifying or heartrending scene that provides a momentary respite from the intensity.) n.p. "Incubator," which is still making me laugh. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 11:32:39 -0400 From: "Chris Stack" Subject: re: Dead Bees on a Cake I too have been a David Sylvian fan for a long time. I got DBOAC and it is "OK"...not great but not as bad as I feared. It combines many of the directions he has explored on his last three or four albums. Let me outline my tastes to give you some perspective of my opinion... I thought "Gone to Earth" and "Secrets of the Beehive" were fantastic. Everything back to Japan's "The Tin Drum" are probably in my top 30 all time favorite CDs list. I am a big Robert Fripp fan but, I thought "Gods Monkey" was the only good song on "The First Day". The rest was ...well, let's just say that I listened to GTE more the first day I had it, than I have listened to TFD ever. DBOAC contains WAY too much use of Fender Rhodes electric piano. For me, any is way too much. It shows up here in 4 or 5 (I think) songs. There is also WAY too much standard drum kit in the rhythm section. There are so many percussion options available now that (to my tastes) Ride Cymbal=No Imagination I love improvisation but...some of DBOAC feels a little too improvised to me...kind of like some parts of Rain Tree Crow. Anyway...my two cents worth... ========================== Chris Stack cstack@dbtronics.com ========================== Understanding that which is at our door is the first step towards understanding that which lies beyond. -Hypatia ========================== ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 17 Apr 1999 22:30:05 -0700 From: Neile Graham Subject: Neile's March Obsessions Boy, I have trouble getting these out in any timely sort of way, but as it's only my own deadline I'm trying to make probably none of you guys really notice. Anyway, here's my listening report for March for anyone interested. POP/ROCK *Thea Gilmore, _Burning Dorothy_ (U.K. release) I asked Geoff Parks to get this for me on the basis of a review in Mojo, It's folk/rock, rather Susan McKeown (vocals) meets pre-_Dilate_ Ani Difranco (sound). Though perhaps she doesn't have quite the vocal or songwriting range of those artists, this is a very enjoyable disc and the songs really stuck in my head. It's a keeper, and this is the one I've played most. *Kari Rueslatten, _Spindelsinn_ (& _Mesmerized_) (Norweigan release) I got both these discs at the same time, and I really love _Spindelsinn_ but _Mesmerized_ has already gone off to another home. They're both basically pop/rock discs, but _Spindelsinn_ is more rough-trad.-folk oriented while _Mermerized_ was way more pop-sounding and just left me cold. Funny the difference there. _Spindelsinn_ is still pop, but the trad. roots make it more musically interesting to my ears. *Ephemera, _Glue_ (Norweigan release) Great haunty pop songs. It's hard to me to pick out who exactly to compare them to for information's sake. Cath from Norway already described them here as "a wonderful mixture of... Cranberries, Velvet Belly, Bjork, Kari Rueslatten and Suzanne Vega" and I think that's the definitive description so far. A really enjoyable disc! *Willow, _Willow_ (Seattle release) This is a tape ep of one of the Persephone's Circle group (that Mary Lydia Ryan also belongs to) of female singer/songwriters from Seattle. It sounds as though she was just learning how to record at the time (on the first song the vocals are buried) but the songwriting is strong, and so is her rich voice. Really promising. *jr, _the vision of the fool ep_ (Seattle release) Great jazzy/folky/pop/rock from another member of Persephone's Circle. Not sure who to compare her work. She's got a throaty rich voice kind of like Joan Osborne, and the songs aren't that far from her earlier stuff, especially the way she uses her voice. Strong songwriting here, too, hooky and haunting. *Aiko Shimada, _Window_ (Seattle release) This (another Persephone's Circle member) is gentle and jazzy pop, and is quite quiet and introspective--a nice change of pace, and not at all boring because she really knows how to structure a song and she has a lovely voice. *Sleater-Kinney--The Hot Rock (wide U.S. release) I've enjoyed hits a lot. The vocals and approach seem very early Throwing Muses to me, though Jim disagrees with me about the approach part. As other people have said, I love the interplay of the two singers a lot. *Nov. 9th [Kristeen Young]--Waiting Like Witch Doctors (St. Louis release) *WaterWorks [Kristeen Young]--WaterWorks (St. Louis release) Amazing how much they sound like what's she's doing now--she has grown since them, but they're still pretty darn good. Thanks, Bob! *Frogpond--Count To Ten (wide U.S. release) Great indie rock to play loud! (Thanks for this, Bob) TRAD. FOLK *Triakel--Triakel (Swedish release, also available in the U.S. through Northside Records at http://www.noside.com/) This is a traditional group from Sweden, which features the vocals of Emma Hardelin, who also sings with Garmarna. These are wonderfully simple clear versions of the songs. Wish I knew Swedish and could understand the lyrics. *Martin Carthy--Signs of Life (U.K. release) Mostly a great delight, as always, but I never did like "Heartbreak Hotel" the first time, and I'm not sure about his cover of the Bee Gee's "New York Mine Disaster, 1941", either, but this album has wonderful versions of some great, classic traditional songs, like "Sir Patrick Spens", "The Wife of Usher's Well", and "Barbary Allen". *Steeleye Span--Horkstow Grange (U.K. release) This is Steeleye Span's first album without Maddy Prior, and I like it much more than I anticipated. Like all of their later albums it's a bit of a mixed bag, and parts are better than others, but the high points are _very_ good--and are among my favourite moments from the band. The album opens well, with "The Old Turf Fire", then "The Tricks of London", and "Horkstow Grange" (the song the group gets its name from), then misteps (for me) with the next two songs "Lord Randall" and "Erin"--just a little lacking in verve for my tastes. "Queen Mary/Hunsden House" is nice, and then I _love_ their long version of "Bonny Birdy" which alone is worth the price of admission. "The Bonny Irish Boy" is lovely, and "I Wish That I Never was Wed" a delightful romp. The next, "Australia", is another I don't like much, but that last two tracks are quite strong, "One True Love" and "The Parting Glass". Overall, this is a surprisingly good album! - --Neile n.p. jr, _the vision of the fool_ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Neile Graham ...... http://www.sff.net/people/neile ....... neile@sff.net Les Semaines: A Weekly Journal . http://www.sff.net/people/neile/semaines The Ectophiles' Guide to Good Music ....... http://www.smoe.org/ectoguide ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 14:27:59 -0400 From: meredith Subject: Re: Dead Bees on a Cake Hi! Heather inquired: >Any opinions on this new album by David Sylvian? I've always liked his >music... I've listened to this several times, always as a backdrop to doing other things. Sylvian's music has always been like that for me. I have no clue what any of the song titles are (which is *very* unusual for me), and I'm even fuzzy on the album titles - I just know that his is one of the few male voices that can make me swoon, and I just love listening to it. The new album isn't any different for me in that regard. I think the repeated bee metaphor in his recent album titles is apt, because his voice reminds me so much of amber honey. Yum. :) +==========================================================================+ | Meredith Tarr meth@smoe.org | | New Haven, CT USA http://www.smoe.org/~meth | +==========================================================================+ | "things are more beautiful when they're obscure" -- veda hille | | *** TRAJECTORY, the Veda Hille mailing list: *** | | *** http://www.smoe.org/meth/trajectory.html *** | +==========================================================================+ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 14:38:19 -0400 From: meredith Subject: pamela means/patty larkin live Hi! While Don and woj were in NYC seeing Kristeen Young on Friday night, I was up at the Iron Horse with Mike Curry and JeffW seeing Pamela Means open for Patty Larkin. (If I hadn't already bought the tickets for that when Kristeen's postcard came, I definitely would've been in NYC too - oh well.) As expected, it was a really good show full of kickass guitar work. Pamela Means did a 5-song opening set, which was so well received she came back and did a one-song encore. It was clear that we weren't the only ones there mainly to see her, which was good. Her set was more understated than usual - she didn't even wail on "Uncle" as much as she usually does, but it was still a good set. Then Patty Larkin hit the stage and did her usual gig, blowing everyone away with her guitar playing and making hilarious comments in between songs. She only did one new song, which reminded me very much of Susan Werner's "Year Of the Bad President" both in melody and subject matter (and I daresay Svetlana's done it better :). And only one song on her blue-green Strat ("Coming Up For Air"), which was disappointing. She did make a really funny comment as she strapped it on, about how traditional English music would have been much changed if they'd had the whammy bar at their disposal. "Forget about the bagpipes - they would've been wandering around the Moors with their whammy bars, thinking they were just the shit." (This while providing a musical example with her own whammy bar - it really did sound like a pipe drone. :) Maybe you had to be there ... Cry^3 in Stamford tonight ... whee! +==========================================================================+ | Meredith Tarr meth@smoe.org | | New Haven, CT USA http://www.smoe.org/~meth | +==========================================================================+ | "things are more beautiful when they're obscure" -- veda hille | | *** TRAJECTORY, the Veda Hille mailing list: *** | | *** http://www.smoe.org/meth/trajectory.html *** | +==========================================================================+ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 15:01:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Philip David Morgan Subject: In memoriam Cappucino Heaven Good afternoon, all: We lost a fine, nine-month-old institution, Cappucino Heaven (Smithtown, Long Island, New York) last week. Family-run, it was notable for featuring local musicians (Marci Geller, Crystal Rose, Jim Dexter, Jill "Turtlehead/ Adele Truth" Decker, et.al.) most nights of the week... Last night I drove thru downtown Smithtown, and I could swear one certain mermaid had this devilish grin.... Guess. Philip David (in search of things local and indie) 4/18/1999 - -- n.p.: a Megumi Hayashibara CD (this is your resident _otaku_ writing here). - -- http://dianewolkstein.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 18:28:26 -0400 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: Dead Bees on a Cake On Sun, Apr 18, 1999 at 11:32:39AM -0400, Chris Stack wrote: > I am a big Robert Fripp fan but, I thought "Gods Monkey" was the only good > song on "The First Day". The rest was ...well, let's just say that I > listened to GTE more the first day I had it, than I have listened to TFD > ever. Have you heard the live album, "Damage"? Far superior to the studio effort, including songs from earlier in his career. Pretty much the same band (Fripp, Gunn, and... uh... Mastelotto?) ferocious and lyrical. Unfortunately, my copy is gone -- if anyone wants to sell/trade a copy, please let me know! n.p. the choir at the Baprist church next door n.r. Goossens, Mittlebach, Samarin: The LaTeX Companion ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 00:26:00 -0400 (EDT) From: joann.whetsell@oberlin.edu (JoAnn Whetsell) Subject: mandolin Hi. Thanks to everyone who responded on the mandolin question. I got a used one yesterday, and I love it. Tonight I learned 2 songs. Just wanted to let everyone know. - -JoAnn np: Nothing! (surprise) nr: My English paper. Ugh. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 21:03:56 -0700 From: Neile Graham Subject: Concert in Atlanta To anyone in the area, I recommend this. I have no idea about Myssouri, but I love both Underwater (a group which includes former members of Rosewater Elizabeth who have been mentioned here several times in the past) and The Changelings. - --Neile >X-Sender: nomad3@pop.mindspring.com >Mime-Version: 1.0 >Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 23:18:34 -0400 >To: nomad3@mindspring.com >From: The Changelings >Subject: Friday, April 23 w/ Myssouri > >The Changelings are pleased to be playing Myssouri's CD release party this >Friday at the Echo Lounge. > >The line up is: >10:00 Underwater >11:00 The Changelings >12:00 Myssouri > >Directions to The Echo Lounge: >From I-20 Exit Moreland Ave South. >Go to Glenwood Ave and make a left. >Make a right at the first light which is >Flat Shoals. We are on the right side our address is >551 Flat Shoals Ave SE Atlanta, GA 30307 >(404) 681-3600 > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Neile Graham ...... http://www.sff.net/people/neile ....... neile@sff.net Les Semaines: A Weekly Journal . http://www.sff.net/people/neile/semaines The Ectophiles' Guide to Good Music ....... http://www.smoe.org/ectoguide ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V5 #138 **************************