From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V13 #261 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Saturday, September 29 2007 Volume 13 : Number 261 To unsubscribe: e-mail ecto-digest-request@smoe.org and put the word unsubscribe in the message body. Today's Subjects: ----------------- 4th wave of Find Me orders...come to me ["Xenu's Sister" ] Re: 4th wave of Find Me orders...come to me ["Xenu's Sister" ] Re: The Universe: Boggling ["Xenu's Sister" ] RE: The Universe: Boggling ["Michael Quinn" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:01:24 -0700 (PDT) From: "Xenu's Sister" Subject: 4th wave of Find Me orders...come to me 51 CDs went out the door with me yesterday (I know, I said I was going to the post office Wednesday night but I didn't feel well and so went yesterday) and 49 remain on my dining room table. 10 of those are spoken for, either paid outright or Happy's waiting for checks, so I have 39 to sell between now and the time that Find Me appears on CD Baby, after which I'm not going to sell anymore, so this is the last chance for people to make sure Happy gets the entire sell price. I realize it'll seem to CD Baby that no one's interested in Happy CDs. I've sold 159 CDs so far that otherwise would have been bought at CD Baby (not to mention however many, I don't know how many, Happy sold at the concert). The Many Worlds CD has had *dismal* sales at CD Baby: less than 15 in the, what, 2 years? it's been available there, hardly worth what it cost Happy to place it with them, after I begged and pleaded and wrote her letter after letter, sending along all the recommendations that were given about CD Baby, and made a fool and a liar out of myself by insisting to her that they would sell like hotcakes, MWABTs flying out CD Baby's door (ok, that's an exaggeration, but I did think they would provide a steady income for her). I'm sure CD Baby is convinced that Happy has less than 50 fans around the world, and their Find Me orders are going to reinforce that. (am I bitter about her being so freaking obscure? noooooo) But, CD Baby will be there for future fans and future orders of Find Me. Right now I have 39 CDs I need to sell to willing and eager ears, so if anyone wants one, just follow the directions below. Pleaaasse write me and tell me when you've received your CD so I can mark you on my list as having received it. I still have 2 people from the 1st wave and 24 from the 2nd wave that I haven't heard from. Besides the 51 from my latest shipment, 5 more from the 1st wave went out after Happy received checks. I have 2 left, one that's waiting on a money order coming from Italy, and the phantom "Dave" disc. Someone on MySpace expressed interest in it, but I haven't heard from them since. Mike, or anyone, if you really think it should go to David Letterman, you should pay for it to hold it specifically, because I don't like having an unpaid-for CD just sitting there on the table, with a big "?" Post-it note on it. Vickie Instructions for ordering a Find Me CD: If you live in the US or Canada: Send 19.00 ($15.00 for the CD, $2.00 for First Class postage, and $2.00 for packing and handling) for one CD. If you live in the UK, Europe or Australia, send $21.50 ($15.00 for the CD, $4.50 for First Class International postage, and $2.00 packing/handling) for one CD. Anyone anywhere else should double-check with me on postage rates. $4.50 seems to be pretty common but just in case. If you're getting more than one CD, write me and I'll figure the postage. I'm going to assume that everyone wants one CD unless I'm told otherwise. If you're paying by PayPal, send to cptbryant @ aol . com Then forward me a copy of your PayPal receipt. If you haven't already given me your address, please do when you forward me your receipt. You can also put your address on the PayPal notes, and anote to Happy if you'd like. If you'd prefer to send a check or a money order, write me and I'll tell you where to send it. Include your address when you write me. If you'd prefer the CD sent by Priority, Express or Overnight, write me first so I can get rates. Vickie ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:41:32 -0700 From: Steve VanDevender Subject: 4th wave of Find Me orders...come to me Xenu's Sister writes: > I realize it'll seem to CD Baby that no one's > interested in Happy CDs. I've sold 159 CDs so > far that otherwise would have been bought at > CD Baby (not to mention however many, I don't > know how many, Happy sold at the concert). > > The Many Worlds CD has had *dismal* sales at > CD Baby: less than 15 in the, what, 2 years? I know in my case if the deal had been to simply order _Find Me_ through CD Baby, I would have run right out and done so. (Even more so since I had the pleasant experience of ordering some Noe Venable and Emily Bezar CDs through them. I think it's one of the few times ordering online hasn't caused me to swear at a web site.) Maybe I'll order a second copy through CD Baby. (I already have second copies of all the other Happy CDs that I splurged on a while back when Happy ran a special at auntisocialmusic.com). As you admit, you've shipped out a whole lot of copies of _Find Me_ that people would otherwise have bought somewhere else, and while I feel good about giving money straight to Happy, these direct-to-fan sales aren't helping to convince a retailer like CD Baby to stock and promote _Find Me_. It's not so surprising that relatively few people are buying new copies of _MWABT_ when it's been out for almost ten years and has been available through lots of other venues including Happy's own web site. Ultimately it's up to Happy to decide how she wants to distribute her music and what's most profitable and hassle-free for her, but I think it's also the case that getting her music out to a wider audience may take more effort than she can put into it herself, and finding a distributor who can do some of that for her might be more effective in the long run. Oh, by the way: Noe Venable. OH MY GOD. It's hard to get all the way through _The world is bound by secret knots_ when I just want to listen to individual songs like "Juniper" or "midsummer night's dream" or "feral" over and over and over again because they're SO AWESOME. And then that delays me listening to _The Summer Storm Journals_. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:01:29 -0700 (PDT) From: "Xenu's Sister" Subject: Re: 4th wave of Find Me orders...come to me - --- Steve VanDevender wrote: > these direct-to-fan sales aren't helping to convince a retailer like CD Baby > to stock and promote _Find Me_. Well, in actuality, CD Baby isn't in the business of promoting artists. They just stock, sell and send out CDs. That's all they do. If the CDs sell, then they get more in. If they don't, the CDs will still be there. They don't go out of their way to actually *promote* artists, that wouldn't be fair. They don't have to be "convinced" to stock an album. The $35.00 upfront per album fee is all the convincing they need. > Ultimately it's up to Happy to decide how she wants to distribute her > music and what's most profitable and hassle-free for her, but I think > it's also the case that getting her music out to a wider audience may > take more effort than she can put into it herself, and finding a > distributor who can do some of that for her might be more effective in > the long run. Yeah, I agree, but that's not going to happen. Happy would have to actively look for someone like that and as far as I know she's not interested. BUT, I don't speak for Happy and I never know what's really going on. Whenever I think that there must be things going on behind the scenes that I don't know about, it turns out there's nothing going on behind the scenes (the entire Samsom Music era for instance). Whenever I think that there's nothing going on behind the scenes, there's something going on behind the scenes that surprises the hell out of me (Ectofest 07, for instance). So I don't know. Happy's case is an odd duck. (I agree with you 100% about Noe) Vickie ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:17:16 -0700 (PDT) From: "Xenu's Sister" Subject: Re: 4th wave of Find Me orders...come to me I said: > Whenever I think that there must be things going on > behind the scenes that I don't know about, it turns out there's > nothing going on behind the scenes (the entire Samsom Music era > for instance). Of course, there was all that negative stuff going on that Happy wrote about in her journal that I didn't know was happening at the time, but what I meant was that, like most of us, I thought Samson had big plans for Happy, lots of promotions, tours, videos, TV appearances, all the stuff that could, would, and should have made Happy a household name (at least, musically-aware households) way back in 1998-99, but no, not a damn thing was going on. They were as perplexed at what to do with her as any schmoe off the street. At least we got a handful of shows, really nice-looking CDs and some Echoes airplay out of Samson. Vickie ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:40:27 -0700 From: Steve VanDevender Subject: Re: 4th wave of Find Me orders...come to me Xenu's Sister writes: > --- Steve VanDevender wrote: > > > these direct-to-fan sales aren't helping to convince a retailer like CD Baby > > to stock and promote _Find Me_. > > Well, in actuality, CD Baby isn't in the business of promoting artists. > They just stock, sell and send out CDs. That's all they do. If the CDs > sell, then they get more in. If they don't, the CDs will still be there. > They don't go out of their way to actually *promote* artists, that wouldn't > be fair. They don't have to be "convinced" to stock an album. The $35.00 > upfront per album fee is all the convincing they need. I suppose I'm still used to thinking of how other retailers seem to operate. But CD Baby still does some promotion, in things like their "Editor's Picks" and "Top Sellers" sections. Wouldn't it be cool to get enough people buying _Find Me_ through CD Baby to have it show up in "Top Sellers"? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 21:29:12 -0400 From: "JoAnn Whetsell" Subject: hello again Hello ecto. I feel like I've been in lurker mode for since the beginning of August. I moved across the country, started grad school (any UNC Chapel Hill people or neighbors, please send a shout out; there are some great concerts coming to the area soon), finally got home internet access again (yay!) but still have no speakers (boo). Anyway, I've been catching up on music, new and not-so-new. So, what I've been listening to lately: Ani DiFranco - Canon 16 years of music, 16 albums of original music distilled into a 36-song, 2-disc set. I might have made some different choices about which tracks to include, but I can't complain about what's here. It all flows really well, and while it doesn't cover the full range of her styles, it provides an enjoyable trip through her career. The 5 new recordings (of previously recorded and released songs) are all good too. The set is also well-packaged, and it's nice to have lyrics for all the songs. I'm also glad she didn't include one of those "this is an important artist" essays that seem ubiquitous in retrospectives these days. It would have been nice to hear her thoughts on her career though. (There's also a book, Verses, which collects some of her song lyrics (including, I think, some unrecorded songs), sketches, and a conversation with spoken word artist Sekou Sundiata. I don't have this but flipped through it in a bookstore, and it seems like a nice coffee table book, something to peruse once in a while rather than read straight through.) Clare Burson - Thieves Another in-store, intrigued-by-the-cover find. Thank goodness for listening booths. I was immediately captivated by Clara Burson's voice. This is solid melancholy folk. Not terribly different from others in the genre (like Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter), but not at all derivative either. A Fine Frenzy - One Cell in the Sea This album popped up as a recommendation when I was looking at something else on Amazon (though I don't remember what). I checked it out because the artist and album titles were so intriguing. And so is the album. Piano-based not-quite-pop. Jesca Hoop - Kismet More quirky hard-to-place music, though more pop and more accessible than Silver Screen Demos. My favorites continue to be the three re-recorded songs from that album (Seed of Wonder, Silverscreen, and Havoc in Heaven). I think these also remain the most original songs. Not that the new songs are slouchers. She references more genres including trip-hop/hip-hop, and some of the tracks are just plain fun. You might have heard "Money" in the promos for the new ABC series Dirty Sexy Money. But then there's the lovely, dreamlike "Love Is All We Have" about Hurricane Katrina. I keep listening and still don't really know how to describe it. One thing I can say: this album is all over the place, and it succeeds. Over the Rhine - The Trumpet Child late-night jazz cocktail lounge feel. like you have a drink in your hand, but because you're relaxed and life is good (not because you want to lose yourself in alcohol). highly recommended JoAnn and now, the sounds of dogs barking outside. ugh. _________________________________________________________________ Its the Windows Live Hotmail. you love  on your phone! http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/mobilehotmail/default.mspx?WT.mc_ID=MobileHMTagline2 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 18:29:34 -0700 (PDT) From: "Xenu's Sister" Subject: Re: 4th wave of Find Me orders...come to me - --- Steve VanDevender wrote: > I suppose I'm still used to thinking of how other retailers seem to > operate. But CD Baby still does some promotion, in things like their > "Editor's Picks" and "Top Sellers" sections. Wouldn't it be cool to get > enough people buying _Find Me_ through CD Baby to have it show up in > "Top Sellers"? Wouldn't it be cool if Peter Gabriel personally called up Happy to ask her to sing a duet with him, and Kate wrote Happy a note telling her that she loved the cover of "And Dream of Sheep," and David Bowie contacted her to tell her how much he is moved by her music (and that he liked her cover of "Space Oddity"), and Wendy Carlos wrote Happy to say how delighted she was to learn that Happy sang along with Switched-On Bach, note for note, as a child, and Peter Jackson used one of Happy's songs in his next film, and... Never gonna happen. Fun stuff to dream about though. If wishes were horses, how beggars would ride. Vickie (me? cynical?) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 23:00:06 -0400 From: "Robert Lovejoy" Subject: The Universe: Boggling Vicki just mentioned: > I'm sure CD Baby is convinced that Happy has less than > 50 fans around the world, and their Find Me orders > are going to reinforce that. (am I bitter about her > being so freaking obscure? noooooo) I have spent a good deal of my spare time over the past fifteen years pondering Happy's popular obfuscation. Strong melodies, pungent lyrics, and a voice that shines to the heavens (as well as below!). I wonder if it might be my fault. I have a history of being out of kilter with the musical tastes of the masses. It started back in my college days, when I heard WNDR in Syracuse play what I thought was going to be a massive hit. I fell in love with the song the moment I heard it. "River Deep Mountain High" had such energy and intensity - and it peaked at number 66 on the top 100. Since then, I seemed to always fall in love with the music others ignored. The Millennium put out an album called "Begin" that knocked my socks off. I might have the only copy. An L.A. band called Spirit stunned me with a song called "Mechanical World", and for the rest of their long career they were pretty much under the mainstream radar, with only three hits to speak of (and only one song in the top 20). It seems every music I loved was pretty much ignored by most everyone else. Even my favorite progressive band, Gentle Giant, never made it to the level of recognition I thought they deserved. My response to this conundrum was swift and immediate. I bought a bass guitar and learned how to play it. (Actually, that took some time). After a tour in Viet Nam I hooked up with a bunch of fellow veterans and we started a band in Colorado. Our first gig was a disaster but by the time we peaked we were opening for bands like Styx and Exile. When the inevitable breakup happened, I moved to New Jersey and started a progressive-type band with another army friend, which oddly enough no one wanted to listen to. I now work in the television postproduction industry and am doing very well, even playing for fun with some friends at the local Starbucks. No one comes to hear us particularly, but we manage to entertain those who come for coffee. My point is, music is one tough nut. I know so many talented musicians - I'd call them brilliant - who gave it up and became postmen or editors or truck drivers. I've heard music I thought was brilliant fade like smoky vapor because -people didn't get it? Fame and success in the music business is wildly elusive. Don't get me wrong, there's a ton of worthy bands out there that have overcome the odds and gained an audience. But for every one of them there must be fifty equally talented bands that got ignored or not appreciated, be it for being in the wrong place or time, poor representation by management, or audience bewilderment, or Lord knows what. Musical success is unfathomable. Ask Mozart. Talk about underappreciated Genius. Thankfully he was (barely) able to support himself as a composer for his short life. I'm willing to bet that there were other people from his time who could have been as talented and gifted, but did not flourish in music. Which brings me back to Happy. I have no doubt in my mind that she is one of the most gifted musicians currently orbiting Sol. Way up there. She creates a powerful, personal, incredibly deep music that reaches me so deeply it's almost scary. And that voice! Paganini had his fiddle, Jaco his bass, but Happy's instrument is her voice. It's a gift, just like Mozart's or Louis Armstrong's or Rich Laferriere's. (That last guy is the postman mentioned above...) I feel incredibly grateful that I got to hear Happy Rhodes perform in my lifetime. Several times, in fact. It's like I completed a religious pilgrimage. But I can't begin to explain why more people haven't noticed her. And I look back at a lifetime of music and I think of something Frank Zappa said (him again!) - most people wouldn't recognize good music if it bit them in the ass. I won't get into what passes for popular music these days. Maybe I will. There's an entire genre of music that seems to have eschewed melody for stattaco rhyming couplets set to a thumping beat. There are performances that seem more like organized aerobic exercises set to intense mudanity (needed a new word, sorry!). There are famous singers who seem to just warble to me. There is a lot of sizzle out there, and not a lot of steak. That's why I'm still happily on ecto. I've found out about a ton of great artists here I'd never have discovered as radio ignores them. In fact I think Mr. Zappa would exclude this forum from his statement. But I continue to wish that Happy Rhodes was as big a name in music as Christina Aguilera. I have a feeling that if she ever did make it Big, war would stop and mass enlightenment would occur. Or vice versa. Yeah Vickie, I feel your pain! Bob Lovejoy PS - Have I mentioned yet how profound "Find Me" is? Now I have! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:45:45 -0700 (PDT) From: "Xenu's Sister" Subject: Re: The Universe: Boggling Good post Robert (so it's your fault, eh?) - --- Robert Lovejoy wrote: > But I continue to wish that Happy Rhodes was as > big a name in music as Christina Aguilera. Not me, that's too big. It would disrupt Happy's happy life, I think. I'd settle for Sarah McLachlan's name, or even Paula Cole. Maybe half of what Kate has (makes a good living and is known and respected among other musicians). We've been through this before. Happy made her choices and if they were choices we don't agree with (like not changing her name, or touring, or whatever one might not agree with), there's not a whole lot we can do about it, and I for one generally admire her for doing things her own way. Like, I assume, Happy, I think it should be possible for someone to gain respect and a decent amount of recognition without touring 250+ days out of the year, but how to do that? It's a dilemma. Kate did it, but Kate was one of the luckiest people on the planet, and Happy's no Kate (meaning that she never had the safety net, the contacts, the advantages that Kate had even before she was ever signed). As I said before, Happy *WILL* get the recognition she deserves, I believe it with all my heart. I've just long given up the thought that it will come in our lifetime. Maybe our grandchildren or great-grandchildren will see a Happy Rhodes resurgence. In any case, people are still slowly discovering Happy. One fan at a time, is better than no fans at any time. Musicians too. If anyone's heard of the group When In Rome, the current lead singer just became a fan, thanks to seeing the video of Happy covering "Mercy Street." Little things like that are what warm my heart. Vickie ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 23:55:24 -0400 From: "Michael Quinn" Subject: RE: The Universe: Boggling Popular commercial music, to a large extent, has the same problem that politicians have. It has to appeal to a lot of people so it ends up just being "nice" and inoffensive but not with a lot of quirks or originality. Of course there are exceptions but I tend to like a lot of less popular bands because they are more in touch with their core fans and make music to please themselves rather than trying to "perfect" it for the market. Basically the saying "No one said life was fair" applies here. Some of the most talented artists are hidden in obscurity while others with dubious talent are at the top of the charts. I don't think sales have any relation to the quality of the music really. - -----Original Message----- From: owner-ecto@smoe.org [mailto:owner-ecto@smoe.org] On Behalf Of Robert Lovejoy Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 11:00 PM To: Ecto Subject: The Universe: Boggling Vicki just mentioned: > I'm sure CD Baby is convinced that Happy has less than > 50 fans around the world, and their Find Me orders > are going to reinforce that. (am I bitter about her > being so freaking obscure? noooooo) I have spent a good deal of my spare time over the past fifteen years pondering Happy's popular obfuscation. Strong melodies, pungent lyrics, and a voice that shines to the heavens (as well as below!). I wonder if it might be my fault. I have a history of being out of kilter with the musical tastes of the masses. It started back in my college days, when I heard WNDR in Syracuse play what I thought was going to be a massive hit. I fell in love with the song the moment I heard it. "River Deep Mountain High" had such energy and intensity - and it peaked at number 66 on the top 100. Since then, I seemed to always fall in love with the music others ignored. The Millennium put out an album called "Begin" that knocked my socks off. I might have the only copy. An L.A. band called Spirit stunned me with a song called "Mechanical World", and for the rest of their long career they were pretty much under the mainstream radar, with only three hits to speak of (and only one song in the top 20). It seems every music I loved was pretty much ignored by most everyone else. Even my favorite progressive band, Gentle Giant, never made it to the level of recognition I thought they deserved. My response to this conundrum was swift and immediate. I bought a bass guitar and learned how to play it. (Actually, that took some time). After a tour in Viet Nam I hooked up with a bunch of fellow veterans and we started a band in Colorado. Our first gig was a disaster but by the time we peaked we were opening for bands like Styx and Exile. When the inevitable breakup happened, I moved to New Jersey and started a progressive-type band with another army friend, which oddly enough no one wanted to listen to. I now work in the television postproduction industry and am doing very well, even playing for fun with some friends at the local Starbucks. No one comes to hear us particularly, but we manage to entertain those who come for coffee. My point is, music is one tough nut. I know so many talented musicians - I'd call them brilliant - who gave it up and became postmen or editors or truck drivers. I've heard music I thought was brilliant fade like smoky vapor because -people didn't get it? Fame and success in the music business is wildly elusive. Don't get me wrong, there's a ton of worthy bands out there that have overcome the odds and gained an audience. But for every one of them there must be fifty equally talented bands that got ignored or not appreciated, be it for being in the wrong place or time, poor representation by management, or audience bewilderment, or Lord knows what. Musical success is unfathomable. Ask Mozart. Talk about underappreciated Genius. Thankfully he was (barely) able to support himself as a composer for his short life. I'm willing to bet that there were other people from his time who could have been as talented and gifted, but did not flourish in music. Which brings me back to Happy. I have no doubt in my mind that she is one of the most gifted musicians currently orbiting Sol. Way up there. She creates a powerful, personal, incredibly deep music that reaches me so deeply it's almost scary. And that voice! Paganini had his fiddle, Jaco his bass, but Happy's instrument is her voice. It's a gift, just like Mozart's or Louis Armstrong's or Rich Laferriere's. (That last guy is the postman mentioned above...) I feel incredibly grateful that I got to hear Happy Rhodes perform in my lifetime. Several times, in fact. It's like I completed a religious pilgrimage. But I can't begin to explain why more people haven't noticed her. And I look back at a lifetime of music and I think of something Frank Zappa said (him again!) - most people wouldn't recognize good music if it bit them in the ass. I won't get into what passes for popular music these days. Maybe I will. There's an entire genre of music that seems to have eschewed melody for stattaco rhyming couplets set to a thumping beat. There are performances that seem more like organized aerobic exercises set to intense mudanity (needed a new word, sorry!). There are famous singers who seem to just warble to me. There is a lot of sizzle out there, and not a lot of steak. That's why I'm still happily on ecto. I've found out about a ton of great artists here I'd never have discovered as radio ignores them. In fact I think Mr. Zappa would exclude this forum from his statement. But I continue to wish that Happy Rhodes was as big a name in music as Christina Aguilera. I have a feeling that if she ever did make it Big, war would stop and mass enlightenment would occur. Or vice versa. Yeah Vickie, I feel your pain! Bob Lovejoy PS - Have I mentioned yet how profound "Find Me" is? Now I have! ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V13 #261 ***************************