From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V13 #440 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Sunday, March 30 2008 Volume 13 : Number 440 To unsubscribe: e-mail ecto-digest-request@smoe.org and put the word unsubscribe in the message body. Today's Subjects: ----------------- Pummeled by Beauty ["Paul Blair" ] Goldfrapp [anna maria "stjärnell" ] Re: Goldfrapp [Timothy Jones-Yelvington ] Veda Hille - This Riot Life [Timothy Jones-Yelvington ] Re: Noe Venable, The Zipper Factory, March 28 ["Aly Fields" ] Re: Veda and Jane [Damon ] Re: Noe Venable, The Zipper Factory, March 28 ["Karen Hester" Subject: Pummeled by Beauty Thank heaven for Karen writing up the Noe Venable show tonight, since it's beyond my competence to do so at this hour, and she remembered a lot of details I wouldn't have. But here's a few additional thoughts: The Zipper Factory is a terrific space and I hope I get to hear more music there. The car seats are *comfortable.* Lighting and sound at the show were handled excellently; someone was awake back there. Ectophiles in attendance (that I know about): Karen Hester, Robert Bristow-Johnson, Dan Stark and Leif, Don Keller, me. Ecto goddesses in attendance--well, Karen's already mentioned that. When Karen pointed out that I was sitting right next to Alex Wong and right in front of Rachael Sage, I think I uttered "wow!" loud enough to embarrass myself. When we saw Issa walking across the aisle in front of us, Karen and I looked at each other and gulped. Most embarrassing moment ever for an ectophile goes to Robert Bristow-Johnson. (And I'm telling you this only because he knows I'm gonna.) After the show we saw him conversing with Issa; later when I got a chance to talk to him he said, "Yeah, Noe said her music meant so much--I've got to find out more." "...?" I responded. Turns out that Robert hadn't realized that Issa is the Artist Formerly Known as Jane Siberry. Noe started out on stage with only Greta Gertler and Jacob Lawson, for "Woods Part of When." It's a pretty song, but it doesn't send me into transports of ecstasy. But everything else did. Often during a show I wonder how the music sounds to someone who's never heard the artist before; in this case Noe would have captured their souls. I know this, because Noe played one or two new songs I'd never heard before, and they were old friends instantly. About two-thirds of the way through many of her songs, the music "wells up" or kicks into overdrive, and in this show those moments were particularly glorious; everything just came together. After the show I heard several people compliment Greta Gertler on her vocals: "You sound just like her. It makes it sound just like the album." But in fact, the show's relation to the album was more of an "And how!" It wasn't the sort of live show where the artist arranges everything differently to keep it from sounding just like the recording; it was rather one where the album winds up sounding like a pale reflection of what the music really could sound like. On one song--I wish I could remember which--Dean Sharp's heartbeat pounding on the bass drum added an unexpected energy to an already vigorous line. I remember thinking, "This is like the album, only more so." I feel the same frustration Karen does about being unable to remember more details. I was so taken with each song that it was difficult to remember the previous one. Which is probably why it's easiest to remember the encore. She asked for requests, but seemed concerned about playing songs the band wasn't prepared for. (In fact, she herself initially had a bit of trouble remembering the chords for "Feral.") After "Feral" the band had all but left the stage, but she insisted that she couldn't leave an audience after yelling at us like that, and asked Jacob Lawson and Todd Sickafoose to join her for "Pontito." "Now we enter the realm of the un-heard and unrehearsed," she said. Well you could have fooled everyone in that theater. It was perfect. I've noticed before, but never so much as tonight, how often the word "beauty" appears in Noe's songs. Fortunately, she doesn't just say it, she shows it. Now that it's all over, I'm feeling bereft. I haven't felt quite this way since I stepped off the Cowboy Junkies train in Vancouver and realized that there wasn't any more. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 04:49:28 -0700 (PDT) From: anna maria "stjärnell" Subject: Goldfrapp hi. welcome to the list Aly. Hope you will find many more things to enjoy here. and leonora..ah spring in cophenhagen..yes it's here in uppsala too at last after a miserable winter. still playing the goldfrapp and looking forward to the jill tracy. and the terami disc is lovely. Anna Maria ____________________________________________________________________________________ You rock. That's why Blockbuster's offering you one month of Blockbuster Total Access, No Cost. http://tc.deals.yahoo.com/tc/blockbuster/text5.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:07:37 -0500 From: Timothy Jones-Yelvington Subject: Re: Goldfrapp Jill Tracy finally got here yesterday. It's fantastic. tim On 3/29/08 6:49 AM, "stjdrnell anna maria" wrote: > hi. > welcome to the list Aly. Hope you will find many more > things to enjoy here. > and leonora..ah spring in cophenhagen..yes it's here > in uppsala too at last after a miserable winter. > still playing the goldfrapp and looking forward to the > jill tracy. and the terami disc is lovely. > Anna Maria > > > > > > ______________________________________________________________________________ > ______ > You rock. That's why Blockbuster's offering you one month of Blockbuster Total > Access, No Cost. > http://tc.deals.yahoo.com/tc/blockbuster/text5.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:18:06 -0500 From: Timothy Jones-Yelvington Subject: Veda Hille - This Riot Life Did anyone have any more comments about this?? I can't get enough of it! tim ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:59:05 -0400 From: Michael Curry Subject: Re: Noe Venable, The Zipper Factory, March 28 Karen Hester wrote: > So, Issa (Jane Siberry), Vienna Teng and Rachael Sage walk into a bar. > Instead of a punchline, there's a Noe Venable concert. Sounds like it was an all-star audience for an excellent show! I guess I can now kick myself for not making the trip down to the city, even if both of my traveling companions for such treks were out of town. I'm betting that the Veda Hille show at the end of April will also involve and all-star audience and an excellent show, but you can never attend too many of those.... Michael ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:11:59 -0000 From: "Henning Rech" Subject: Re: Veda Hille - This Riot Life Hi Tim, I wanted to wait until Vedas show here in May, to buy the album, but I feel I have to order it now. :-) Henning - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Timothy Jones-Yelvington" To: "Untitled" Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2008 2:18 PM Subject: Veda Hille - This Riot Life > Did anyone have any more comments about this?? I can't get enough of it! > > tim ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:53:37 -0400 From: "Aly Fields" Subject: Re: Noe Venable, The Zipper Factory, March 28 Off topic, but I can't stand Jane's new persona. Anyway, sounds like a great show! I should check out her music, I've heard much about her via ecto... On Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 12:38 AM, Karen Hester wrote: > So, Issa (Jane Siberry), Vienna Teng and Rachael Sage walk into a bar. > Instead of a punchline, there's a Noe Venable concert. > > The Zipper Factory's bar room is bordello red, with reclining sofas > and a maze of doors and crannies. You push aside a black velvet > curtain behind the bar to enter the theater, and settle into old car > seats to watch the show. So there we were, settling, discreetly > admiring Rachael Sage's outfit (so she dresses like that offstage > too!), and Vienna Teng and Alex Wong slip into our row. "If there's a > sing-along part of the show, we can keep our mouths shut" I hiss. > > The lights dim, marimba player Payton MacDonald and bassist Todd > Sickafoose come on for their opening performance, and the familiar > figure of Jane Sib- uh - Issa scuttles across the floor. Bloody hell, > we think. > > Payton used recorded percussion and looped his marimba live, to > interesting effect, if you're into a 30 minute jam. He and Todd are > great musicians (Noe described Payton's playing as clouds of > butterflies, and could instruct him to make "crickets fly through this > verse" when recording with him), but I did get restless. > > Payton and Todd were joined by Dean Sharp (drums; violin bow on the > edge of cymbals); Russ Johnson (trumpet, as seen with Rachael Sage); > Jacob Lawson (violin, as seen with Noe at Rockwood) and of course > Greta Gertler (piano, glockenspiel, beautiful harmonies). They hadn't > all played together previously, though they're all there on 'The > Summer Storm Journals'. Noe played two acoustic guitars and piano. > When at the piano, her long brown hair faced the audience, shining > like a horse's mane. > > The full-band Noe experience was incredible - the billowing sounds of > all those instruments made happy songs more exuberant and crescendos > more transcendent. Wow to Prayer for beauty, Into the wild, Juniper, > Is the spirit here, Feral. Actually, 'wow' to many things, our brains > afterwards couldn't hold all the great moments. Plus there was some > rocking out (yey Todd's bass plucking). Compared to Noe's usual 1 or > 2 backing musicians set-up, some subtlety was lost, especially in the > delicate moments between Noe and Greta's voices, or Noe's guitar > strings and Greta's piano strings. Not 'lost', perhaps; just a > different way of telling the stories. > > Noe played all of ' 'The Summer Storm Journals' except (?) Lion > Dreams, plus Juniper, Midsummer Night's Dream, Is the spirit here? and > Feral from 'The world is bound by secret knots', and Boots. Her > Harvard Divinity studies showed in new songs 'The honey of experience' > which was inspired by a Sufi idea (I could imagine Sufis spinning to > this), a wonderful piano-centered piece drawing on an African garden > of Eden story, and a song addressed to drummer Dan Morris who recently > died, referring to circular conceptions of life. "I'm a non > practicing secular humanist!" Noe said she couldn't end the concert > after shouting at us during 'Feral', so she finished with pretty > 'Pontito,' about a Oliver Sacks patient who compulsively painted his > hometown from memory. > > At the beginning of the encore, a voice from the audience called out > "Noe, why are you going to Divinity School?" Noe looks up from her > tuning and says "May I know who's asking?" and the voice in the black > says something like "you may ask..." Noe fumbled through some words > and then joked that to support her music, she needed a lucrative > career - so Divinity School! We all laughed, except for the > questioner. Then Noe talked about being fascinated by all religion, > and finding beauty in it all. She told a story about Allah hiding > Mohammad from his pursuers by weaving a spider's web over a cave > entrance. "The short answer is, I'm in it for the stories" Noe > finished. Then the questioner said that she didn't mind saying she > was Issa, but she didn't want that to have influenced Noe's answer. > Then Noe clasped her hands and said Issa is one of her heroes (or did > she say heroines, or idols?) They chatted after the concert. > > The music really is a blur so I'm having difficulty dredging up > details, other than 'wow'. Now that the film crew outside have > quietened down, it's bedtime. > K ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:54:14 -0400 From: morayati@email.unc.edu Subject: Re: Veda Hille - This Riot Life Haven't ordered it yet but it's in my next batch. It will also, incidentally, be my first Veda Hille album. Makes me a bit late to the party but it happens. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Timothy Jones-Yelvington" > To: "Untitled" > Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2008 2:18 PM > Subject: Veda Hille - This Riot Life > > >> Did anyone have any more comments about this?? I can't get enough of it! >> >> tim ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:21:36 -0700 (PDT) From: neile Subject: Veda and Jane We were listening to Jane's _When I Was a Boy_ the other day for the first time in well over a year. I had forgotten how brilliant an album that is, and was amazed at how much I still love it and how it doesn't sound dated, like so many old albums I love do. It was a joy to hear each song. I wish I could articulate better my responses to Veda's new album. The first time I heard it (and I have to admit, this happens the first time I hear any of her albums) I thought, "well, she's finally lost me," but that initial impression disappeared immediately on the second listen, and turned to "wow, listen to this, and *this* and **this**". It also is a brilliant album. Veda is amazing for how she can make a song both artsy and catchy. I'm curious as to how it will seem to someone new to Veda's music. I've got an update to our Veda page for the Guide nearly ready, and would love any comments on the album that anyone wants to add! - --Neile ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:14:19 -0700 From: Damon Subject: Re: Veda and Jane hi neile, all - > I've got an update to our Veda page for the Guide nearly ready, and would > love any comments on the album that anyone wants to add! i was lucky to be at the cd launch earlier this month (with art), which was wonderful. veda puts on such a great show. first she opened with duplex, which was fun - i hadn't seen them perform before. then, out came the eight-piece veda orchestra and off we went on another veda musical extravaganza. some new faces and some people she's been playing with forever like ford pier, patsy klein, peggy lee, and the bass player whose name i forget. i had not even heard samples of the new songs before this, and i must confess i don't have great concert hearing, but i thoroughly enjoyed the show anyway. i haven't actually had much chance to listen to the cd yet, though i think if it weren't veda i might have had a somewhat nonplussed first reaction similar to neile's. but i *know* by now that most anything veda does is going to grow on me pretty quickly, so i just kept listening and i quite love it now, though i still don't feel i've fully grokked it. she also played one song that she introduced as a kind of musical about alien abduction, which was fun. i was disappointed when she mentioned that it wasn't on the album! i think she said she'd be releasing it on itunes or some such. - -damon - -- dl+ecto@usrbin.ca: protecting my real address since 2002 (too late!) > EWS starts here! < http://www.last.fm/user/kalaleq/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:22:32 -0400 From: "Karen Hester" Subject: Re: Noe Venable, The Zipper Factory, March 28 Hi Aly, definitely check out Noe's music. You can download 'Prayer for beauty' ("she runs out in her stockings, as invisible cities they burn") and 'Ice dragons' ("can you feel the white furry hooves of time?") on her website, in addition to great earlier songs like Juniper and Boots. Live with them for a bit and see if it's your kind of thing. http://www.noevenable.com/music.php http://cdbaby.com/cd/noevenable4 etc K. On Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 1:53 PM, Aly Fields wrote: > Off topic, but I can't stand Jane's new persona. > > Anyway, sounds like a great show! I should check out her music, I've heard > much about her via ecto... ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:22:32 -0400 From: "Karen Hester" Subject: Re: Noe Venable, The Zipper Factory, March 28 Hi Aly, definitely check out Noe's music. You can download 'Prayer for beauty' ("she runs out in her stockings, as invisible cities they burn") and 'Ice dragons' ("can you feel the white furry hooves of time?") on her website, in addition to great earlier songs like Juniper and Boots. Live with them for a bit and see if it's your kind of thing. http://www.noevenable.com/music.php http://cdbaby.com/cd/noevenable4 etc K. On Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 1:53 PM, Aly Fields wrote: > Off topic, but I can't stand Jane's new persona. > > Anyway, sounds like a great show! I should check out her music, I've heard > much about her via ecto... ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:11:00 -0400 From: "robert bristow-johnson" Subject: Re: Pummeled by Beauty > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Paul Blair" > To: Ecto > Subject: Pummeled by Beauty > Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:21:36 -0400 > > > Thank heaven for Karen writing up the Noe Venable show tonight, since it's > beyond my competence to do so at this hour, and she remembered a lot of > details I wouldn't have. But here's a few additional thoughts: > > The Zipper Factory is a terrific space and I hope I get to hear more music > there. The car seats are *comfortable.* Lighting and sound at the show were > handled excellently; someone was awake back there. > > Ectophiles in attendance (that I know about): Karen Hester, Robert > Bristow-Johnson, Dan Stark and Leif, Don Keller, me. Ecto goddesses in > attendance--well, Karen's already mentioned that. When Karen pointed out > that I was sitting right next to Alex Wong and right in front of Rachael > Sage, I think I uttered "wow!" loud enough to embarrass myself. When we saw > Issa walking across the aisle in front of us, Karen and I looked at each > other and gulped. > > Most embarrassing moment ever for an ectophile goes to Robert > Bristow-Johnson. (And I'm telling you this only because he knows I'm gonna.) i would've if you hadn't. > After the show we saw him conversing with Issa; later when I got a chance to > talk to him he said, "Yeah, Noe said her music meant so much--I've got to > find out more." "...?" I responded. Turns out that Robert hadn't realized > that Issa is the Artist Formerly Known as Jane Siberry. yah, that was the merely the first faux pas of the evening. (i remember reading about the Jane/Issa transition, but cleanly forgot. i actually saw Jane S perform at the Bottom Line, i think in Nov/Dec 2001.) i caught up with her and tried to repair the damage. so much for these 52-year-old synapses. the second faux pas (that i am aware of) was mis-hearing "Deeshawn"'s name (i dunno how it's spelled) as "Shawn". > Noe started out on stage with only Greta Gertler and Jacob Lawson, for > "Woods Part of When." It's a pretty song, but it doesn't send me into > transports of ecstasy. neither me, but it's sweet, just not incredible. > But everything else did. except for the last one, i wasn't too hip on the new, not-yet-recorded, songs. > Often during a show I wonder > how the music sounds to someone who's never heard the artist before; in this > case Noe would have captured their souls. i was dismayed and embarassed to see, on two occasions, a couple people getting and leaving the show. how sad. pearls befoe swine, i guess. > I know this, because Noe played > one or two new songs I'd never heard before, and they were old friends > instantly. > > About two-thirds of the way through many of her songs, the music "wells up" > or kicks into overdrive, and in this show those moments were particularly > glorious; everything just came together. After the show I heard several > people compliment Greta Gertler on her vocals: "You sound just like her. It > makes it sound just like the album." But in fact, the show's relation to the > album was more of an "And how!" It wasn't the sort of live show where the > artist arranges everything differently to keep it from sounding just like > the recording; it was rather one where the album winds up sounding like a > pale reflection of what the music really could sound like. On one song--I > wish I could remember which--Dean Sharp's heartbeat pounding on the bass > drum added an unexpected energy to an already vigorous line. I remember > thinking, "This is like the album, only more so." Ice Dragons came second chronologically, and we knew then that the evening was historic, and then maybe Prayer for Beauty. i remember just rocking out on it (i had the best seat in the house) and it took every remaining morsel of my cannabisðyl_alcohol-steeped self-control just to keep from jumping up and playing air guitar. that was the faux pas that didn't happen. > "Now we enter the realm of the un-heard and unrehearsed," > she said. Well you could have fooled everyone in that theater. It was > perfect. it was. i drove down from Boston to see this. i had planned to stay overnight in NJ to check up on a house my wife and i own in Glen Ridge, but i was so stimulated that i just got in my car and drove up to Burlington Vermont overnight. (i kinda could tell that was happening after my experience the evening of Sept 8.) as with Happy, it is a matter of injustice that the name of this lady isn't a household word. an amazing experience. - -- r b-j rbj@audioimagination.com "Imagination is more important than knowledge." ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V13 #440 ***************************