From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V9 #153 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Sunday, June 1 2003 Volume 09 : Number 153 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Today's your birthday, friend... [Mike Matthews ] Re: New Happy songs, with a catch, and Vienna, and Schubas [meredith ] nyc tripleheader [meredith ] Ithaca Festival/Katherine Aelias Band [Dan Riley ] Re: Maple Shade House Concert [Tom Masapollo ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 31 May 2003 03:00:04 -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********* *************************************************** *************************************************************************** ********************* Urs Stafford (no Email address) ********************* *************************************************************************** -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Urs Stafford Thu May 31 1973 Give Way Perttu Yli-Krekola Thu June 02 1966 Kaksoset Alex Gibbs Thu June 08 1967 Betelgeuse Gleb Zverev Tue June 09 1964 Gemini Sonja Juchniewich Mon June 10 1963 Pegasus Joerg Plate Mon June 12 1967 Gemini Chris Montville Tue June 13 1978 Gemini Ectoplasm (original name) Mailing List Thu June 13 1991 Fuzzier blue Paul Huesman Wed June 14 1967 coffee drinker Mark R. Susskind Wed June 15 1966 Gemini Dave Upham Sun June 15 1958 Gemini Mike Matthews Mon June 16 1969 Pr. SAFH Albert Philipsen Mon June 17 1968 Gemini Neal R. Copperman Thu June 17 1965 Gemini Susan Kay Anderson Tue June 17 1969 Gemini Ecto-The Mailing List Tue June 18 1991 Fuzzy blue Tracy Barber Mon June 18 1956 Gemini Greg Dunn Thu June 18 1953 + Paul Blair Thu June 18 1964 Objectivist Mike Connell Sat June 18 1955 Apollo David Lubkin Fri June 20 1958 OurLady Marisa Wood Fri June 20 1969 Gemini Cheri Villines Sun June 20 1965 Gemini-Leo rising Ray Misra Sat June 20 1970 Gemini Nik Popa Sun June 22 1969 Cancer Teresa VanDyne Thu June 23 1960 Cancer Dave Torok Mon June 24 1968 Cancer Ethan Straffin Thu June 24 1971 Cancer Kevin Dekan Mon June 27 1960 Cancer Samantha Tanner Tue June 30 1970 Wild Goose - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 31 May 2003 13:28:42 -0400 From: meredith Subject: Re: New Happy songs, with a catch, and Vienna, and Schubas Hi, >If you're an Ectophile on vacation (who is reading this days or a >couple weeks later) and I don't know you, and you're a >lurker so I can't look up your posts, I'm gonna need an essay. >It doesn't have to be long, but it better be sincere. Tell me how >you found Happy, what you've heard, what you own and your >favorite songs. Wow, an essay contest! Maybe you can post the best ones you get. :) >Btw, anyone who is on Vienna Teng's tour path ought to make sure >they catch her. It was a fantastic concert! Yay! I'm so glad you got to see her. I knew you would love her music. It's great that the two of you got to meet. >These people are coming to Schubas. These names are familiar but I'm >drawing a blank on them. Any MUST GOs? > >Gemma Hayes Wasn't there a thread about her here recently? Or am I hallucinating again? I haven't heard of the others, sorry. But if you go to see any of them please let us know how it was! =============================================== 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://muzak.smoe.org =============================================== ------------------------------ Date: 31 May 2003 15:29:04 -0400 From: Dan Riley Subject: Re: Funny run-in with David Torn meredith writes: > >Even if it's an acoustic performance not available anywhere else, haven't > >people ever heard of tape and mp3s? > > I dunno... there's just something about holding the actual thing in > your hand. You can't get Tori to sign an MP3 at a future > meet-and-greet. I had this sudden vision of a Tori fan asking her to PGP sign his mp3... - -dan np: unfortunately, not the Katherine Aelias Band--they're supposed to be playing at the Ithaca festival today, but so far it has been rain, rain, rain all day. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 31 May 2003 15:25:12 -0400 From: meredith Subject: nyc tripleheader Hi, Thursday evening woj and I went to the legendary Greenwich Village club The Bitter End for the first time (believe it or not), to see a tripleheader of House O'Muzak alumnae: Chris & Meredith Thompson, Holly Figueroa, and Edie Carey. As expected, it was a great night. The Bitter End is one of those places I've always heard of, and I always see it on people's tour schedules and think "I should go to that show", but invariably something else is going on to prevent me from going. This time we marked it on the calendar and decreed that this is what we were going to do on May 29th, the fact that Rachael Sage and also Elysian Fields were going to be playing elsewhere in town that very same night be damned. We got there just before the Thompsons took the stage, and since there was hardly anyone else there at that early hour we got a great table in front. They did their usual energetic, so-perky-it's-almost-disturbing thing, and the set included all my favorite songs of theirs (including their wonderful cover of Dave Carter's "Tanglewood Tree"). For those who aren't familiar with them, the Thompsons are identical twins who look like they fell out of an episode of Little House On The Prairie. They have beautiful soprano voices that harmonize as well as you'd expect. Chris plays the guitar (*very* well, I might add) and Meredith plays percussion (sometimes a pair of congas, but here she just had a nice djembe) and flute, which isn't as much of a throwback to the folk scene as parodied in _A Mighty Wind_ as you'd think. They're both really nice people, though sometimes I wonder if they were born of woman or if they actually came from a pod somewhere. I seriously wonder if it's possible for them to be sad, or angry, or have anything but a nice word to say about anyone. (I don't think they swear either, not even a little bit.) Anyway, they were fun, and after they were done it was Holly's turn. We were a bit puzzled to see a solo setup, since the show had always been billed as "Holly Figueroa and Edie Carey Share The Same Band". We saw a bunch of gear in the back room, and there were guys sitting with Edie who looked like they could have been a band, but Holly was by herself. After she belted out her first couple songs she explained that she was supposed to have a band, but the drummer was MIA so they couldn't do it. She looked really upset, and remarked that she was very close to crying -- that must have been incredibly disappointing, since this was supposed to be such a big show and I don't think Holly has ever performed in NYC with a band before. (It turns out that the missing drummer was Dean Sharp, who is a familiar name to ectophiles from his days in Happy's band, and also with Jane Siberry and Rachael Sage. Last time Holly was in NYC, back in January at Makor on a bill with Rachael, Dean jumped in and accompanied Holly throughout her set even though they had just met for the first time at sound check. You'd think they had been playing together for years, it was so good. I hope he's ok -- I can't imagine that he would wilfully blow off a gig like that.) Holly managed to do a great set anyway, mostly stuff from her latest CD _How It Is_. She brought a couple friends up to sing backup on a couple songs, Kym Tuvim and Evan Brubaker, who produced _How It Is_ (and played bass in Edie's band). Her voice, as always, was a force of nature, almost too big for the room. (When she played in our living room, there was never a question that she wouldn't need any amplification.) It amazes me the cool things she's able to do with her guitar, seeing as she's only been playing since the summer of 1999. She has an unorthodox style (not quite as bizarre as Jules Shear or Kate McDonnell, but not the music-school way either), and she has a finger-picking technique that I know I wouldn't be able to figure out even if I played guitar for ten years. On one song in particular, "Scary", she plays an attacking arpeggio thing that is fascinating to watch. It makes me wonder how incredible she'd be if she'd been playing all her life. She confirmed what was obvious from looking at her, that she's 6 months pregnant with her second child (a boy). She told me that she probably won't be back in this time zone until March, but hopefully then she will play in our area because one of the people involved in running The Space, the new music venue here is a friend of hers, and wants to make a show there happen. Yay. If for some reason that doesn't work out, there is always our place again. :) Edie Carey closed out the night. Despite Dean's absence she did still play with a band, because her regular dummer, Chris Farnelli (sp?) just happened to be the audience and borrowed Meredith Thompson's djembe. Her entire set turned out to be an audience group effort, since during the first song she broke a string, and fellow Live From New York member Teddy Goldstein jumped up to be her guitar tech and she borrowed Chris Thompson's guitar for the next couple songs until he could get the string changed. :) She played mostly new songs, since her new CD is getting mailed out to those who pre-ordered it this week (it's officially out in August). They all sounded really good, and I'm looking forward to getting the CD in the mail soon! (She was just as goofy as ever, too. Even if I didn't like her music, I think I'd go see her play just to be entertained between songs.) Usually it's a bonus just to have two artists on a bill that you want to see, but to have three is almost unheard of. Kudos to The Bitter End for hosting one of the better nights of live music I've seen so far this year. =============================================== 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://muzak.smoe.org =============================================== ------------------------------ Date: 31 May 2003 19:33:24 -0400 From: Dan Riley Subject: Ithaca Festival/Katherine Aelias Band > np: unfortunately, not the Katherine Aelias Band--they're supposed > to be playing at the Ithaca festival today, but so far it has been > rain, rain, rain all day. Just as I was sending that, the downpour dropped to a light drizzle, so I headed down to the Commons. All the stages are covered, so the show was indeed going on. The band did make two smart adjustments for the weather: electric bass rather than upright acoustic, and electronic drums played by finger-pad rather than drum kit. They did one cover, Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb", with the lead guitar part played on electric violin and the vocals in folk-style duet harmony (it actually worked quite well), and the rest originals. They do have a (fairly annoying, sigh) web site now, http://katherineaeliasband.com , with some extremely lo-fi audio clips (do not buy CDs off their site--no security). After KAB, I caught the tail end of the Ithaca Talent Education Chamber Orchestra (Suzuki Method, associated with the Ithaca College music school), doing a quite creditable performance of some fairly tricky Bartok, and a bit of the Gourmet Jug Band (complete with washboard, string bass and dobro--lots of roots music in Ithaca). Then the downpour resumed, and I fled for cover. - -dan ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 31 May 2003 22:16:42 -0400 From: Robert Lovejoy Subject: Maple Shade House Concert All I can say is Wow. I just had my proverbial socks knocked off once again by the insanely talented Ms. Rhodes. Playing to a rapt crowd of about 30, maybe more (I was relatively in front), Happy had us mesmerized from the start. As the set warmed up the audience became even more rapt. And it's worth noting that during the first song, one of Robin's kittens sat down near Happy and watched her play as intently as the rest of us. It was delightful.. I believe the set list was the same as Meth's LRC in New Haven a while back. After the performance Happy chattered with various attendees, making each of us feel quite special. She must have posed with people for so many pictures that I suspect she still has blue spots in her vision. All in all, a most memorable experience. Special mention must be made to the tasteful, wonderfully complimentary percussion of Bob Muller. Again, Wow. Bob Lovejoy PS - I came to listen and I didn't bring a camera. I look forward to seeing everyone's shots! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 01 Jun 2003 01:29:13 -0400 From: Tom Masapollo Subject: Re: Maple Shade House Concert Bob, Ditto on everything you said! It was a night to be remembered. I went home and played even more Happy Rhodes CD's. It's wonderful to see a great artist perform in such an intimate setting. Thanks to Robin for hosting it too. I think the house concerts are a good idea. Let's keep it going. later, tom m. ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V9 #153 **************************