From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V6 #85 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Monday, March 27 2000 Volume 06 : Number 085 Today's Subjects: ----------------- lori amey ["JoAnn Whetsell" ] fvck phil collins [meredith ] emily bezar @ the living room ["JoAnn Whetsell" ] new haven house concert [meredith ] Re: new nields album [meredith ] Re: lori amey [Mark Miazga ] Re: fvck phil collins [Joseph Zitt ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2000 21:48:13 EST From: "JoAnn Whetsell" Subject: lori amey Hi. I've been enjoying these 2 discs for weeks now without fulfilling my promise of supplying comments, so here they are:] Type of music generally: Contemporary folk, with rock influences (especially on the Resignation cd) Comparisons: Her bio says Sarah McLachlan, Indigo Girls, Joni Mitchell, Natalie Merchant. Sarah McLachlan, vocally, but not particularly musically. The others I don't think I would compare her music to, but I think her albums would fit nicely in a collection with any and all of these artists. I might also add Susan Werner and Melissa Ferrick (though I think Lori's music is generally softer). General comments: Definitely the most striking thing about her is her absolutely gorgeous voice, high and very sweet. (I love her self-harmonizing.) She's also a good songwriter, and the music comes through with a nice blend of vocals and instrumentation and not over-produced. Recommended first album: Either. Nothing To Say for fans of folk and softer music; Resignation for those who prefer their folk with more of an edge. I personally prefer Nothing To Say a bit more. Nothing To Say Ecto priority: Highly recommended Comments: I really enjoy this cd. She has a really exceptional voice, and she uses it well here. "In the Gloaming" really showcases this, but her own compositions are every bit as good. "Heal" gets stuck in my head. Half the songs reappear on Resignation. Resignation Ecto priority: Highly recommended Comments: She writes in the liner notes "Once again, I have finished another project of which I am very proud..." and she should be. This is another really good album. 6 of the songs are new, and the 5 from Nothing To Say are considerably reworked. (The only mistake here was the latinized version of "Inside.") More rock and pop influences here, but essentially still folk, and still that beautiful voice. That's all for me. JoAnn ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2000 21:50:14 -0500 From: meredith Subject: fvck phil collins Hi! Well, Phil Collins won the Oscar for Best Original Song. I *knew* this was going to happen, but it still pisses me off anyway. I was SO hoping to get to see Aimee Mann have a litter of kittens onstage! The production number for "Blame Canada" was hysterical. Getting Robin Williams to sing it was a stroke of brilliance. Anyway... +==========================================================================+ | 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, 26 Mar 2000 22:06:17 EST From: "JoAnn Whetsell" Subject: emily bezar @ the living room Hi again. I had promised some time ago that my next e-mail would be an Emily Bezar concert review, and even though it isn't, here it is (finally). Set list (as far as I remember): Filigree of Noon was first Then (I don't remember the order) Four Walls Bending Lead White Cedar (solo) Black Sand Velvet Eye Kingdom Come Then, Rain in Calgary (solo) In This House (solo) 40 Mansions Seeing Emily play live was more amazing, more intense than I had imagined, and I was really really excited for this concert. She had a bass player and a guitarist with her, and even though they'd only had one rehearsal together, they sounded great. (I think the guitarist was from her former group The Potato Eaters). Emily plays with such intensity, moving her head and body and sometimes pounding the piano keys so that I could actually feel it in my body. In between songs she talked with the audience, checked on her son. She's very down-to-earth. I think my favorite song was "Rain in Calgary" which was just so.... wow. It occurred to me a few times throughout the show that I was sitting without moving, just so in awe. The only word I could think of to describe it was being absolutely mesmerized. Later I saw one of the posters for the show and it had a one-word quote from some newspaper or magazine or something that said "Mesmerizing." And I thought, how often do you see those things and think, yeah right, that's just hyperbole. But here it was so true. It's the best way I can think of to describe the effect of Emily's performance on me. So, definitely go see her live if you get a chance. JoAnn ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2000 22:05:22 -0500 From: meredith Subject: new haven house concert Hi! I'm sitting here looking over at the other side of the living room having trouble believing that only a few short hours ago an amazing concert was taking place here. Sarah Harmer, Leslie Feist, and of course Sarah Slean were all incredibly wonderful. Harmer's set was mesmerizing, Feist was charming and funny and the first song she played was so much like Mary Margaret O'Hara that I was having chills, and the last on that Omitron thing (or whatever the heck that thing was) was brilliant. And Slean ... well, let me just say that having Sarah Slean perform "Weight" just for you in your own home is one of those things that helps make life worth living. :) They're all wonderful human beings, too. Big thanks to them for sharing their talents with us, to Heather for bringing them here (and for being such a good sport when our front door bit her :}), and of course to everyone who came. Hopefully we can do it again sometime. :) +==========================================================================+ | 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, 26 Mar 2000 23:07:23 -0500 From: meredith Subject: Re: new nields album Hi! Josh responded: >_Play_ was a dissapointment?Umm, wow. :) I liked it eve better than _Gotta >Get Over Greta_, actually. "Easy People" is one of my favorite songs, >ever, but maybe that's just me. Maybe. :) My main problem with _Play_ was the song selection. TN had a large stable of songs to choose from when they made that album, and they took all the good ones and put them on the for-fans-only release _'Mousse_, and then the mediocre leftovers went on _Play_. I made a tape of the best songs from both those discs and put them in the order I wanted to hear them in, and the result was a really really good album. :} (Face it, "Tomorrowland" was *not* Nerissa Nields' finest lyrical hour.) In contrast, the only track I skip over on _If You Lived here..._ is the Barbie poem, and that's only because as a spoken word piece it's not something I need to hear every time. Every song on the album is strong and makes me want to sing along and be happy. +==========================================================================+ | 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, 26 Mar 2000 23:36:10 -0500 From: Mark Miazga Subject: Re: lori amey Lori Amey is a friend of mine and a frequent performer at a coffeeshop I run (http://www.TheCommonGrounds.com), so it was a thrill to see this message come through. I had no idea Lori had sent her discs in for review. Like JoAnn, I'd also compare her with Sarah McLachlan, but with much less ambient/atmostpheric touches. I'd throw the Indigo Girls in there for good measure, especially on her second CD. One thing about Lori's CD's that doesn't necessarily always come across is her very charismatic live performances. Such songs as her own compositions "Inside" (which rocks), "Shattered", and "Better Day" really take on new life live, and she's got hilarious stage banter. Her choice of covers is also remarkably well... everything from Melissa Ferrick's "Til You're Dead" to Patty Griffin's "Swimming with Snakes" to Ani DiFranco's "Gravel" to Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" to the Indigo Girls "Galileo" to, funnest of all, Duran Duran's "Rio". The crowd-pleaser for every show is her unique, goofy, and sexy cover of, believe it or not, "Rubber Ducky". Lori's a real charismatic performer. And that tremendous voice? It's all real. Her next CD will be a live one and I, for one, can't wait. As for her CD's, I like "Resignation" better, but only because more of my favorites are on it -- "Shattered", "Resignation", "Better Day" all appear on the second and not the first. I agree with JoAnn, though -- "Nothing to Say" is more for softer folk fans, while "Resignation" is a little more folk-rock. Mark - -- Mark Miazga miazgama@msu.edu 143 West Akers Hall, MSU East Lansing, MI 48825 (517) 353-4936 Brand new homepage: http://www.msu.edu/~miazgama Program Coordinator, The Common Grounds Coffeehouse http://www.TheCommonGrounds.com ** Info line: (517) 353-5057 MELISSA FERRICK performs on March 29! Academic and Social Activities Coordinator of Akers Hall. English & Secondary Education, Class of 2000 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 01:47:02 -0500 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: fvck phil collins The hands-down winner of tonight's proceedings: Pepsi. with Best Choreography going to The Gap. And yeah, the over-the-top "Blame Canada" was a masterwork. Like the South Park movie itself, they decided that the only way to handle it was to go completely fabulously nutsoid and overstated. The rest of the medley, well, marked another stage in Phil Collins's slow morph into Joe Cocker and Sarah McLachlan continuing more precipitious mutation into Liza Minelli. And if it weren't so late, I'd be tempted to pop in the DVD of The Matrix and watch it in slack-jawed awe yet again... - -- |> ~The only thing that is not art is inattention~ --- Marcel Duchamp <| | jzitt@metatronpress.com http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt | | Latest CD: Jerusaklyn http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt | | Comma: Voices of New Music Silence: the John Cage Discussion List | ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V6 #85 *************************