From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V8 #117 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Friday, April 26 2002 Volume 08 : Number 117 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Today's your birthday, friend... [Mike Matthews ] Re: ecto-digest V8 #116 [Allan Anderson ] suzanne vega online chat (yesterday) [Jeffrey Burka ] Re: suzanne vega online chat (yesterday) [invader woj ] Cranes, Black Cat, Washington DC 4/24/2002 [Craig Gidney ] [none] [dmw ] FW: Patty Griffin at The WAM! Festival, 4/27 ["Sherlyn Koo" ] Re: Sarah Slean (was Re: suzanne vega online chat (yesterday)) [andrew fr] Re: Sarah Slean (was Re: suzanne vega online chat (yesterday)) [meredith ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 03:00:01 -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********* *************************************************** *************************************************************************** ******************* Christine Waite (no Email address) ******************** *************************************************************************** -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Christine Waite Tue April 25 1972 Taurus Matt Adams Thu April 26 1962 Taurus Brad Hutchinson Tue April 28 1964 What sign? Geoff Parks Sun April 30 1961 Taurus Marty Lash Sat May 01 1948 Taurus Barney Parker Fri May 02 1986 happy cat Gray Abbott Tue May 03 1955 Suprised Tamar Boursalian Tue May 03 1966 Taurus Richard A. Holmes May 07 Taurus Steve Ito Fri May 08 1970 DA Bull... Brian Gregory Thu May 09 1963 Eclectic Heidi Maier Wed May 10 1978 Taurus Patrick Varker Wed May 12 1954 Torius Philip David Morgan Sat May 12 1962 Chinese Tiger in Bull Clothing Steve Fagg Tue May 13 1958 Nightwol Karel Zuiderveld Fri May 13 1960 Stier Michael Colford Wed May 16 1962 Taurus Christopher Boek Tue May 19 1970 Taurus Julia Macklin Mon May 20 1968 ethereus Yngve Hauge Fri May 21 1971 Gemini Lisa Laane Tue May 22 1973 Gemini Jewel Kilcher Thu May 23 1974 The Gem - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 00:36:45 -0700 From: Allan Anderson Subject: Re: ecto-digest V8 #116 ecto-digest wrote: > Among the featured performers is Amy X Neuburg, who > is always worth seeing! She will be doing a revue called "Life & Death & > Love & Insects." I second that! Amy is great stuff. I'll have to make time to go see what she's up to now. Hopefully the others will be great as well. - -- After my illness, it said in my stars that I would astonish people with my frankness -- Abe Rat ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 08:26:41 -0400 From: Jeffrey Burka Subject: suzanne vega online chat (yesterday) Suzanne Vega did an online chat yesterday at washingtonpost.com. Nothing earth-shattering, but still some interesting bits here and there and probably worth a read. http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/02/entertainment_vega042402.htm jeff n.p. _Night Bugs_, Sarah Slean (I'm totally obsessing over this. Totally. I think I've determined that it's actually better than the _Universe_ ep, which is such a relief after my disappointment with _Blue Parade. The new album is all over the board -- rock, girl-with-piano (though not in the sparse, confessional way...), cabaret and all bursting with bombasty goodness. Interesting lyrics, fabulous vocals, great string and horn arrangements (fun, playful horns! in a sarah slean song!). Great new arrangements of a few tracks from _Blue Parade_ that blow the originals out of the water (e.g. "Weight"). And "Book Smart, Street Stupid" alone is probably worth the price of admission. Wow.) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 09:09:24 -0400 From: invader woj Subject: Re: suzanne vega online chat (yesterday) when we last left our heroes, Jeffrey Burka exclaimed: >Suzanne Vega did an online chat yesterday at washingtonpost.com. Nothing >earth-shattering, but still some interesting bits here and there and >probably worth a read. there was also an article < http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/21/arts/music/21NIEV.html > (free registration, blah blah blah) about suzanne and her work putting together the forthcoming _vigil_ compilation in the new york times over the weekend. _vigil_ is a collection of songs by greenwich village songwriter's exchange members (featuring suzanne, christine lavin, and jack hardy) that take a look at life in the post-9/11 city. the comp's website, which isn't quite done but has a link for pre-ordering from amazon, is < http://www.vigilcd.org >. woj ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 07:41:04 -0700 (PDT) From: Craig Gidney Subject: Cranes, Black Cat, Washington DC 4/24/2002 The first time I saw Cranes was during the Forever tour. That show was primarily interesting due to the fact I meet Jim and Alison Shaw, the songwriting siblings at the center of the band. The show itself was kind of disappointing. It was marred by technical difficultiesat one point the monitors overheated, effectively causing an unforeseen intermission. But even worse, Alison suffered from extreme stage fright, and had to strain to be heard. All of that was corrected in last nights performance. There was only one glitch at the beginning of the opening version of Cloudless. The sound afterwards was really goodthey didnt bury Shaws fragile little girl lost vocals. And Alison has developed some stage presence. O.K., shes not a Natalie Merchant or Siouxsie Siouxno patented, trademarked movesbut she doesnt hide, either. Dressed in a halter top and a cottonprint Indian-style skirt, she was relaxed and looked very comfortable on stage. While singingin fine voice, it should be noted--she had her eyes closed, and did a little hand-pantomime thing, and in-between songs she smiled and joshed with the audience. Songs from all of their cds were coveredTo Be, Jewel, Adrift Future Song, Loved, and a majestic Adoration, in the twin styles that Cranes coverambient and ethereal folk or looming goth verging on the industrial. Catch them if you can. - --Craig ===== Book and Music Review Editor, Spoonfed. http://www.spoonfedamerika.com Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 07:54:28 -0700 (PDT) From: Craig Gidney Subject: Collection Darnell Andrea, Tristesse des Manes. Often hailed as a French analogue to Cocteau Twins, CDA has always been more classically minded than most dreampoppers. Part of this has to do with the prominent use of the cello, and Cloe St. Lipards (what a great name) Liz Fraser meets Edith Piaf vocal stylings. The past few CDA albums have been harsher, experimenting more with dance and lite industrial timbresbut Xaviers cello took center stage even then, scraping and sawing. Still, as interesting as some of the later works were, I missed the earlier, more pastoral approach that CDA displayed on their first albums. So this new album is a bit of a treat. CDA takes both old and recent material, and recasts them as 19th Century piano and cello pieces. The gentle piecesreminiscent of heathered moors and intimate salonshave three main components that play well against each other. The mournful sound of the cello, the cascade of the piano, and St. Lipards quavering, rich voice. Available at Middle Pillar.com. - --Craig ===== Book and Music Review Editor, Spoonfed. http://www.spoonfedamerika.com Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 11:13:19 -0400 (EDT) From: dmw Subject: OT (blather): me and attachments hey it's come to my attention that at least a couple of people with whom i share mailing list subscriptions are getting things that look like e-mails with attachments from me. these are forgeries. in at least once case the apparent originating address has been defunct for years. i've got nothing to do with whatever these are, but they've probably got nasty payloads. if you can, if you get one, please forward with all headers attached to dmw@mwmw.com so i can analyze them, but don't risk infecting your system with whatever they contain. this is not a typical outlook express thing where it goes to everybody in my mailbox -- i don't even have a mailbox to be exploited. and i generally don't send attachments if i can help it -- i usually post something somewhere and send a link to it. much less overhead. sorry for the inconvenience/boring message. - -- d. - ------------------------------------------------- Mayo-Wells Media Workshop dmw@ http://www.mwmw.com mwmw.com Web Development * Multimedia Consulting * Hosting ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 11:43:09 -0400 (EDT) From: dmw Subject: [none] On Thu, 25 Apr 2002, Craig Gidney wrote: > be heard. All of that was corrected in last > nights performance. There was only one glitch > at the beginning of the opening version of > Cloudless. The sound afterwards was really > goodthey didnt bury Shaws fragile little girl > lost vocals. And Alison has developed some stage huh. a divergent opinion here: i thought the sound was by no means good; there was a lot of low-range mud, and especially, there was a sharp eq boost (i think at the 220Hz low A but don't hold me to that) that resonated nastily whenever anyone sang or played near it -- it did a lot of damage to the intelligibility of shaw's vocals (not in the sense of making out actual words, which is pretty near impossible, but in the sense of losing consonants, sibilants, and the tonal qualities that make her voice interesting to start with, in a swamp of hum.) shaw's sense of pitch is generally kinda weird, weird enough that i'm not inclined to fault most of it -- she does what she does, and you like it or you don't -- but in "lillies," which was sung in places where the record has more of a spoken/sing-song approach, the chorus notes seemed painfully off in places -- maybe she couldn't hear herself very well when the band got loud. also, for my taste, they were way too reliant on sequencers. a guy playing keyboard is one thing, but when the main hook of the song is coming from a tape loop...well, i dunno. the new drummer is really good (and the drum sound was a bright spot in the mix), the guitar player is pretty good; i would rather have heard some of the keyboard hooks adapted to guitar and the looped percussion stuff played on real drums. amused by: a. shaw apparently lugged a guitar through customs to strap it on and play one chord for about four bars -- well, at least it could be discerned in the mix. j. shaw's guitar rig included a marshal 4x12 cabinet angled back at him (like a monitor) a little weird, but pretty damn gutsy given that much of the time he was playing a hollow body instrument. (i had seen cranes once before, on the _loved_ tour, and thought a. shaw's stage presence then was comparable to last night -- not forceful, or especially interesting, but not projecting deer-in-the-headlights terror or anything. i remember liking that show a lot better than last night, but then, i was probably drunk.) (& Craig, sorry i didn't say i was gonna be there in advance so we could say hi -- found out very very last minute) - -- d. clearly turning into his own worst nightmare np vapors _magnets_ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 06:45:13 +1000 From: "Sherlyn Koo" Subject: FW: Patty Griffin at The WAM! Festival, 4/27 Hey folks, Forwarded from the folk-music mailing list... - -sherlyn - ------- Forwarded message follows ------- From: "Flora Reed" To: Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 01:43:05 -0400 Subject: [FM] Patty Griffin at The WAM! Festival, 4/27 Reply-To: folkmusic@grassyhill.org Hi everyone-- With all this talk about Patty Griffin, I had to tell you about the following festival where she is headlining! Along with being the publicist for Signature Sounds I'm also working with the wonderful WAM! (Women and Music) Festival happening this Saturday, April 27th at Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA. Our main stage line-up this year is really fantastic: Patty Griffin Kris Delmhorst Tish Hinojosa Toshi Reagon Voices on the Verge (featuring Erin McKeown, Jess Klein, Rose Polenzani, and Beth Amsel) Jill Sobule Antigone Rising bitch and animal Alix Olson Doria Roberts Plus special guests! Our second stage line-up includes: Amy Fairchild, Edie Carey, and Anne Heaton. With crafts, artisans, hot air balloon rides, and festival refreshments this festival is not to be missed! For directions and complete festival information, please visit: www.wamfest.com. Tickets are $24 adv./$30 the day of. South Hadley is 2 hours West of Boston, 3 1/2 hours from NYC, 45 minutes from Hartford, and 2 hours from Albany. best, ~flora - -::- : -::- : -::- : -::- -::- : -::- : -::- : -::- Flora Reed Signature Sounds Tour Publicity PO Box 106 -::- Whately, MA 01093 ph: 413.665.4036, f: 509.691.0457 flora@signaturesounds.com www.signaturesounds.com - -::- : -::- : -::- : -::- -::- : -::- : -::- : -::- - ------- End of forwarded message ------- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 19:42:13 -0400 From: marasu@hotmail.com Subject: Re: OT (blather): me and attachments It's a worm I have received a few times, and one that made it look as if I sent it. I have noticed a line in the headers called "X-Apparently From:", and the email address therein is some familiar email address, which is interesting because the straight "From:" line is usually an entirely unfamiliar email address. - -- Mark Susskind - ----- Original Message ----- Wrom: NYCGPKYLEJGDGVCJVTLBX Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 11:13 AM ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 19:59:08 -0400 From: meredith Subject: Sarah Slean (was Re: suzanne vega online chat (yesterday)) Hi, Jeffy enthused: >n.p. _Night Bugs_, Sarah Slean (I'm totally obsessing over this. >Totally. I think I've determined that it's actually better than the >_Universe_ ep, which is such a relief after my disappointment with _Blue >Parade. The new album is all over the board -- rock, girl-with-piano >(though not in the sparse, confessional way...), cabaret and all bursting >with bombasty goodness. Interesting lyrics, fabulous vocals, great string >and horn arrangements (fun, playful horns! in a sarah slean >song!). Great new arrangements of a few tracks from _Blue Parade_ that >blow the originals out of the water (e.g. "Weight"). And "Book Smart, >Street Stupid" alone is probably worth the price of admission. Wow.) And for a view from the opposite end of the spectrum: I find _Night Bugs_ completely unlistenable. It completely affirms every one of the fears I'd had since listening to the EP last summer. I wish I could turn back the clock and make it so I had never heard of Sarah Slean prior to the release of _Night Bugs_ -- then maybe it would do something besides totally depress me. If I didn't know what a gorgeous voice she has, or what incredibly beautiful music she can make when she's not trying to channel some dead cabaret singer, I could possibly enjoy this CD. But as it is, her singing style on this CD makes me cringe. It is totally beyond me why someone with such a vocal gift would deliberately set out to sound like hell. The new songs are a bit easier to take, because I don't find myself fondly thinking back on how wonderful the original versions sounded and fervently wishing she'd just left well enough alone. (I'm still not sure how much I would have been able to enjoy the CD if I hadn't heard her earlier work though, because the whole neo-cabaret thing leaves me cold. I just read an interview with Sarah in the Canadian press which says that now she's "more Rufus (Wainwright) than Tori", which I think sums up why I don't like what she's doing now. My aversion to Rufus Wainwright has been well documented in these pages. :) Oh well. At least I still have working copies of _Universe_ and _Blue Parade_ for those times when I need a Slean fix. ======================================= Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth ======================================= Live At The House O'Muzak House Concert Series http://www.smoe.org/meth/muzak.html =====Next Up: Molly Zenobia 5/5/02===== ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 21:17:06 -0400 From: meredith Subject: Fwd: Crow/Phair Forwarded from another list ... >For all you Crowflies and Phairies - Sheryl Crow will be on The Tonight >Show tonight (ha!) with Liz Phair. Ms Liz backs up Ms Thang on a song on >her new album, so I assume that's what they will do tonight on Tonight (ha >HA!). But I could be wrong. ======================================= Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth ======================================= Live At The House O'Muzak House Concert Series http://www.smoe.org/meth/muzak.html =====Next Up: Molly Zenobia 5/5/02===== ------------------------------ Date: 26 Apr 2002 11:24:00 +1000 From: andrew fries Subject: Re: Sarah Slean (was Re: suzanne vega online chat (yesterday)) On Fri, 2002-04-26 at 09:59, meredith wrote: > I wish I could turn back the clock and make it so I had never heard of > Sarah Slean prior to the release of _Night Bugs_ -- then maybe it would do > something besides totally depress me. If I didn't know what a gorgeous > voice she has, or what incredibly beautiful music she can make when she's > not trying to channel some dead cabaret singer, I could possibly enjoy this CD. > > But as it is, her singing style on this CD makes me cringe. It is totally > beyond me why someone with such a vocal gift would deliberately set out to > sound like hell. The new songs are a bit easier to take, because I don't > find myself fondly thinking back on how wonderful the original versions > sounded and fervently wishing she'd just left well enough alone. > > (I'm still not sure how much I would have been able to enjoy the CD if I > hadn't heard her earlier work though, because the whole neo-cabaret thing > leaves me cold. I just read an interview with Sarah in the Canadian press > which says that now she's "more Rufus (Wainwright) than Tori", which I > think sums up why I don't like what she's doing now. My aversion to Rufus > Wainwright has been well documented in these pages. :) I'm in a difficult position here. On one hand I loved "universe" and "blue parade". On another, I hate everything I hear about this one. "fun, playful horns!"? Somehow that brings back the nightmare of Ani's mariachi band. Rufus, cabaret? No, thanks - that's just not for me. But even while thinking that, I head over to her website and to my surprise the snippet of "Book smart, street stupid" turns out to be pretty cool. But somehow, after reading Jeff's and Meredith's comments, I doubt this 30-second snippet is representative of the whole CD. Is it? And BTW, what's up with that? 30 second RealAudio sample is supposed to represent the whole album?!? Compare this to my recent post about Lunascape, who had 6 whole, (or nearly whole) songs to download - roughly half of their entire disk. sarahslean.com used to be more generous with their samples before she signed up with a major. You'd think Atlantic Records would have more bandwidth to burn than some indie artist, but so much for that theory. What to do, what to do? We have two conflicting opinions, meredith's and Jeff's. With no disrespect to Jeff, meredith seems closer to my tastes. I can't really make my own mind on the basis of sound samples and my recent bank statements strongly discourage the attitude of "just get it and find out". If I have to decide between spending my cash on Lunascape who are not afraid to put their goods on display, and Sarah (or I should say Sarah's recording company), who want me to get hers sight-unseen, I'm going to chose Lunascape! - ---------------------------------------------------------------- "I'm out of bed and I'm dressed, what more do you want?" - spotted on a T-shirt - ---------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 21:36:45 -0400 From: meredith Subject: Re: Sarah Slean (was Re: suzanne vega online chat (yesterday)) Hi, andrew noted: >even while thinking that, I head over to her website and to my surprise >the snippet of "Book smart, street stupid" turns out to be pretty cool. >But somehow, after reading Jeff's and Meredith's comments, I doubt this >30-second snippet is representative of the whole CD. Is it? It isn't too far off. HMV.com has clips from three different songs ("Eliot", "Sweet Ones", and "Weight"), as well as a clip from the video for "Sweet Ones". The audio clips will give you a very good idea of where she's at with this release. ======================================= Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth ======================================= Live At The House O'Muzak House Concert Series http://www.smoe.org/meth/muzak.html =====Next Up: Molly Zenobia 5/5/02===== ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V8 #117 **************************