From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V13 #369 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Monday, January 14 2008 Volume 13 : Number 369 To unsubscribe: e-mail ecto-digest-request@smoe.org and put the word unsubscribe in the message body. Today's Subjects: ----------------- pandora, music/music/marriage, my best of 2007, and my comments about Find Me [jessica spurling ] Re: New discovery: Beach House [Craig Gidney ] Re: New discovery: Beach House ["Sue Trowbridge" ] Re: New discovery: Beach House ["Sue Trowbridge" ] Re: New discovery: Beach House [Timothy Jones-Yelvington Subject: pandora, music/music/marriage, my best of 2007, and my comments about Find Me Hi! Ok, this email got very long. So here is an overview of the points I make so you can read the ones you actually care about or skip any/all of it. 1) I used pandora to make a station from the recent 'best of 2007' threads, and I LOVE IT. And I love ecto and you guys are all great. 2) I had lost my passion for new music (and really, all music in general, except for music I was making with my band). But I've regained it, and I also am married. 3) My best of 2007. (Noe and Happy) 4) My comments about Find Me (which I mostly really LOVE) So... You don't really need to read the rest of this unless you actually want the details :) - --jessica 1) You guys are awesome. Thank you to everyone for being patient with each other, and letting everyone express their own opinion, whether they don't love happy and/or her music, and whether they do. :) Vickie, this list wouldn't be what it is without you, and I love you and your input too. I hope you don't feel too badly about how folks interpreted your comments about the absence of Find Me on best of 2007 lists. And I am glad that everyone calmed down, and stayed, and started talking more, and sharing their thoughts about music they liked! Also, Pandora (pandora.com) is awesome. I have been going through the best of lists and recommendations, and created an "ecto recommends 2007" station for myself. Pandora doesn't have everything everyone's mentioned, but it has a good high percentage of it. I just did this this morning. So far it has played Emily Haines, Christine Fellows, Vienna Teng, Patty Griffin, Sea Wolf, Pernice Brother, Jacob Smigel, Cake, Jem, Merril Bainbridge, Holly Brook, Rose Melberg, Tegan & Sara, Rilo Kiley, The Eames Era, Annie Hayden, Chantal Kreviazuk, and Nada Surf. I didn't love the Cake or Chantal Kreviazuk. Everything else it has played has been great! It being pandora, not all of those were in the seed list. But that's what I love about pandora! 2) After leaving New Jersey and my old life in 1994, I stopped collecting music. I stopped listening to new music. I stopped going out to see new music. I stopped following ecto. I left my old world behind and didn't stay connected to it and my new world didn't have many things in common with my old world. I still LOVED music, and kept listening to my old music. I honestly have NOT listened to the radio except for KQED (the local public station) since 1994. I haven't even looked into any online radio stations. I haven't gotten into music sharing. This was all old life stuff I never managed to pick back up. I poured myself into my work, and didn't have much else in my life. Most of my relationships weren't very serious. My one 5 year more serious relationship was with someone with whom I had some overlap in musical taste, but mostly not. Our tastes in music continued to get further apart, too. I did learn about some good music from the girls he dated after me though. :) But still, my relationship to music was not what it had been. A few years ago, a big change happened for me. I started playing bass with some friends who were just 'playing around with music'. Nothing serious. Some of us considered it just a way to get some practice playing with folks in, like our drummer, who is quite accomplished, but most of us were wanting to learn to play at all (me) or learn to play better. After a couple of years of that, it had pared down to just three of us - a guitarist, drummer, and me on bass. After a year of that, the three of us were actually not too bad. We didn't play songs. We just made music. It was pure magic. We'd get on stage (our own stage in our own studio - we had never played out 'til recently), and we'd just make music. We don't talk about it. we don't plan anything. we start fiddling, and it turns into long musical songs that i adore. After a year or so of that, a second guitarist joined us. We got over the initial period of awkwardness with a new person (change is hard :), but it worked out really well. The four of us continue to this day to just get together and make music. But in addition to the magical just making music silently, we've also started to write songs. We've got 10 originals so far, we do two covers (syd barret's Octopus and the pixies Where Is My Mind? to give you a feel for what kind of music we like/perform), and we've got more originals in the works. Ok so that was a long way to explain that while I haven't paid any attention to new music for the last 4 or 5 years, I've been making music, and it has totally changed my life (for the better!). :) In more ways that one. :) Not only is making music the most fun I've ever had and is incredibly soothing and fulfilling and wonderful, but my bandmates are some of my closest friends. In fact... the original guitarist (john) and I became very close friends. we did _everything_ together. The woman I was dating at the time asked me occasionally if there was anything going on between john and I. There wasn't at ALL. We weren't even attracted to each other and there were plenty of reasons we each had that we would never want to date the other. john is really NICE. I don't like to date nice people. (I didn't want to get too close to anyone). And john likes to date nice people and he knew I wasn't terribly nice to the people I dated. After years of close friendship and being in a band together, he knew all of my downsides and quirks and i knew his. Well, I won't explain here how it happened :) but one day a little over two years ago, john and i discovered that we truly loved each other and that the physical connection worked too. We got married last July. :) I didn't really mean to make that such a long story. The point of point #2 is that music's been a HUGE part of my life for the last 4-5 years, but I still haven't been out learning about new music or paying much attention to new music. One deterrent for me is that I don't want to collect cds any more. Another is that I don't want to spend money (at itunes, say) on music that I don't know if I will like or not. Another is that I don't care to participate in any potentially illegal file sharing (even though I strongly believe that the illegality of sharing music is DUMB AS HELL). So anyway. Pandora has COMPLETELY changed this. I am now able to easily listen to almost any new music I want to check out AND i am constantly introduced to even more new music I didn't know about but really like. _and_ any time I hear something I like, if I want to know more about the artist or album, Pandora always has info about the artist (sometimes some great info) and often even info about the album. This has rekindled my long dormant love of paying attention to, learning about, listening to, and loving new music. 3) best of 2007. Hmm. Well I only got into pandora at the end of 2007 and I can't say that anything made a huge difference to my 2007 life except Noe Venable. Was introduced to her at the ectofest. Got the cds she had available there. Love them all. I sure wish I'd known of her back when she was in san francisco :) But that's ok. I'm so glad I get to hear her music now. So Noe's Summer Storm Journals, and Happy's Find Me are my top for 2007. On that note: 4) Find me. I like Find Me quite a lot, though I don't love ALL of it, and I had an interesting time with it. At first, I really _didn't_ like most of it. The only two songs that I liked on first and second listen were "One and Many" and "She Won't Go". My very first thoughts on hearing it were "Hrm. much like her later stuff, and .. i'm not sure I like it even as much as that stuff". My first introduction to Happy was Warpaint. Which I LOVE. Then I heard her first 4 and wow. quite different from warpaint but some of my favorite stuff ever. As she continued to make music it seemed she got more and more well produced and lush and I still loved all of it but it often takes me longer to get into music that's that way. So "Find Me" struck me, immediately, as not that different from some of her other stuff and I think that I had allowed myself to have a preconception that given the long break between albums, that this would be more different. I also heard it immediately after her performance in boston, which was of mostly older songs, and in a pared down setting (And it was SOOOOOOOO awesome in so many ways!). So my gut reaction when I first heard Find Me wasn't the most positive. I read later that the material on Find Me _is_ in fact very old. She just only got around to finishing it up and releasing it. This makes it make a lot more sense, stylistically. Perhaps it's not fair to have had such preconceptions that result in a negative impression. But at least I recognize that it was happening. :) So anyway, I kept listening to Find Me, because I had a feeling that I'd get so much more out of it if I got more familiar with it. And indeed that is exactly what happened. I LOVE "One and Many". I like Little Brother - I didn't at first but now I like it a lot and am happy when it comes on. Find Me grew on me too. I have to let myself get into the right head space for it and just enjoy the sound of this amazing voice, and the little sounds in the background. and appreciate the words. She Won't Go is still a favorite. Here and Hereafter is still not a favorite. I often skip it. I just can't get into it. It's the words mostly. just not for me. Charlie was the third song I really liked (after One and Many and She Won't Go). I've no idea what it's about but I love the sound(s). Actually the sound_s_ are one of the things I love the most about Happy's earlier songs and this mixing of sounds is evident on much of Find Me. There will be pretty sounds, high sounds, low sounds, grindy sounds, weird sounds, all in the same song. And it'll work. And I love it. Charlie is awesome for this. Maybe one day I'll figure out what the words are about. :) "Can't Let Go" - I have mixed feeling about this song. Mostly I like it. Something about it I don't love. I won't hit skip if it comes on though. "Queen" I really like but it was one that took longer for me to really get into. But I'm glad I appreciate it now. it's pretty cool. it's got lots of my favorite happy touches. "Treehouse" is the same for me. Wasn't sure about it at first but I love it now. I can't really connect with the words/sound in the chorus, but I love the rest of it enough that I always want to hear the whole thing. "Chosen One" reminds me of some other Happy songs but I don't really like it. I don't really like the words. And the sound is too similar throughout the song and despite some very pretty layered vocals I just find this song boring and I will definitely skip it if it comes on. And lastly, I like "Fall". It starts all high and pretty and enticing.. it's like it's drawing you in. The second section I almost don't like (and didn't at first) but there's enough going on here and it's mellow but in a good way and overall I like the song and like to hear it when it comes on. So there are two songs on Find Me that I still usually skip and don't love. The rest of them I either like, like a lot, or really love. There's a fair bit of variety to the mood/feel/tempo/rhythm of the songs on Find Me. I don't find that it's a great album for me to put on and listen to in order. I'll still do that sometimes :) But I find it works best for me in a mix. I have to thank john for his attitude about the album, which helped me a lot in getting into it. john had never heard happy before we went to boston. I almost NEVER play any ecto-ish music in john's presence or in the presence of my bandmates. We're not an ecto band... my bandmates' musical interests and influences are very different from mine. There's a lot of overlap, actually, in that I love most of what they love. But none of the three of them ever had ecto-music influences in what they love. And I, having spent the last 14 years not pursuing new music much nor sharing music much, have not ever given them anything to listen to or mentioned this kind of music at all. john, of course, has heard some of the music I like, but i tend to avoid high voices (he is not generally a fan), passionate voices (he is not generally a fan), any voice with vibrato (he hates vibrato) and anything with a piano (he hates piano based music generally). This rules out a lot of ecto music. :) But he LOVED happy. And now I play her all the time and he is glad. He tells other people how great she is. :) When we got home with Find Me and I wasn't listening to it much or skipping songs, he'd say "hey, leave that on, I like it". Knowing that he liked it helped me give it the time it needed for me to truly appreciate these songs and love their weirdnesses and fabulous sounds. Thanks for reading if you got this far. :) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2008 16:54:08 -0500 From: "Paul Blair" Subject: Re: New discovery: Beach House 3/26 at Schuba's in Chicago4/2 at Bowery Ballroom in NYC other dates: http://www.beachhousemusic.net/Beach_House/Shows.html On 1/12/08, Paul Jensen wrote: > > You might think a band named "Beach House" would produce sunny and > lighthearted music.. but what they deliver is sadcore at its finest. > The songs are gloomy, spacious, haunting. Victoria Legrand's dreamy > vocals drift over sleepy soundscapes. If a comparison must be made, > think Cat Power mixed with Mazzy Star? But they still have a style and > mood all their own. What a fantastic discovery! > > (note: this review is reflective of their self-titled debut.. I've not > heard much of their newer album, "Devotion", yet) > > http://www.beachhousemusic.net/Beach_House/Media.html > > Paul > > -- > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > "This is the time. > And this is the record of the time." > -Laurie Anderson > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2008 17:30:25 -0800 (PST) From: Craig Gidney Subject: Re: New discovery: Beach House Thanks guys. Just listened to and purchased Beach House and really enjoyed it. Thanks, Ecto! Do anyone else use emusic? - --Craig Blog: http://ethereal-lad.livejournal.com - ----- Original Message ---- From: Paul Blair To: ecto Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 4:54:08 PM Subject: Re: New discovery: Beach House 3/26 at Schuba's in Chicago4/2 at Bowery Ballroom in NYC other dates: http://www.beachhousemusic.net/Beach_House/Shows.html On 1/12/08, Paul Jensen wrote: > > You might think a band named "Beach House" would produce sunny and > lighthearted music.. but what they deliver is sadcore at its finest. > The songs are gloomy, spacious, haunting. Victoria Legrand's dreamy > vocals drift over sleepy soundscapes. If a comparison must be made, > think Cat Power mixed with Mazzy Star? But they still have a style and > mood all their own. What a fantastic discovery! > > (note: this review is reflective of their self-titled debut.. I've not > heard much of their newer album, "Devotion", yet) > > http://www.beachhousemusic.net/Beach_House/Media.html > > Paul > > -- > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > "This is the time. > And this is the record of the time." > -Laurie Anderson > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2008 18:44:58 -0800 From: "Sue Trowbridge" Subject: Re: New discovery: Beach House On 1/13/08, Craig Gidney wrote: > Thanks guys. Just listened to and purchased Beach House and really enjoyed it. Thanks, Ecto! > > Do anyone else use emusic? Me!! I'm always interested in eMusic recommendations. Some months I use all of my downloads right away, and other months I wind up "wasting" some of them (I'm on the 40 tracks/month plan). I have discovered a lot of good music through eMusic that I probably would never have found if I'd had to go to a record store and buy a CD. I'm more liable to take a chance on something because of the relative ease & inexpensiveness of downloading. - --Sue T. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2008 18:44:58 -0800 From: "Sue Trowbridge" Subject: Re: New discovery: Beach House On 1/13/08, Craig Gidney wrote: > Thanks guys. Just listened to and purchased Beach House and really enjoyed it. Thanks, Ecto! > > Do anyone else use emusic? Me!! I'm always interested in eMusic recommendations. Some months I use all of my downloads right away, and other months I wind up "wasting" some of them (I'm on the 40 tracks/month plan). I have discovered a lot of good music through eMusic that I probably would never have found if I'd had to go to a record store and buy a CD. I'm more liable to take a chance on something because of the relative ease & inexpensiveness of downloading. - --Sue T. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2008 20:54:51 -0600 From: Timothy Jones-Yelvington Subject: Re: New discovery: Beach House Why don't emusic downloads roll over?? I was kind of shocked when I realized that. Doesn't seem like you should lose something you paid for. ~tim On 1/13/08 8:44 PM, "Sue Trowbridge" wrote: > On 1/13/08, Craig Gidney wrote: >> Thanks guys. Just listened to and purchased Beach House and really enjoyed >> it. Thanks, Ecto! >> >> Do anyone else use emusic? > > Me!! I'm always interested in eMusic recommendations. Some months I > use all of my downloads right away, and other months I wind up > "wasting" some of them (I'm on the 40 tracks/month plan). I have > discovered a lot of good music through eMusic that I probably would > never have found if I'd had to go to a record store and buy a CD. I'm > more liable to take a chance on something because of the relative ease > & inexpensiveness of downloading. > > --Sue T. ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V13 #369 ***************************