From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V13 #514 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Wednesday, June 11 2008 Volume 13 : Number 514 To unsubscribe: e-mail ecto-digest-request@smoe.org and put the word unsubscribe in the message body. Today's Subjects: ----------------- Today's your birthday, friend... [Mike Matthews ] Thea Gilmore in London: Accepting the Unexpected [Adam Kimmel ] Re: Mila Drumke in dreamland ["Jeffrey Burka" ] Retailers giving vinyl records another spin ["Mike Connell" Subject: Today's your birthday, friend... i*i*i*i*i*i i*i*i*i*i*i *************** *****HAPPY********* **************BIRTHDAY********* *************************************************** *************************************************************************** ****************** Sonja Juchniewich (no Email address) ******************* *************************************************************************** -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 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 Henning Rech Fri July 01 1960 Cancer BunkyTom Tue July 02 1968 Cancer Anders Hallberg Tue July 03 1962 Cancer Kevin Harkins Thu July 05 1973 Cancer Laurel Krahn Mon July 05 1971 Cancer John J Henshon Mon July 05 1954 The Year Of The Horse / Ruled By The Moon Jim Gurley Mon July 06 1959 Cancer Lisa Rouchka Fri July 08 1960 Moonchild with Java Rising Courtney Dallas Fri July 09 1971 Catte Michael Peskura Sat July 09 1949 HallOfFamer Finney T. Tsai Sat July 09 1966 Cancer - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:38:18 -0800 From: Adam Kimmel Subject: Thea Gilmore in London: Accepting the Unexpected Nothing had prepared me for this gig, I have to say.B Hot and weary and not in the best of moods, my default cynical state had already decided exactly what I was going to see. Nice to know that I can still be surprised. to say the least. I've never been so happy to be so confounded. A low-key and simple set-up, an acoustic set consisting of Thea on guitar and vocals, Nigel Stonier on guitar, vocals, harmonica and piano, and a multi-talented woman called Fluff who managed cello, viola, guitar and backing vocals. I predicted something laid-back and....well, predictable, but had sorely underestimated Thea and my own capacity to love music. She drew mostly from Liejacker, her new album (which I'm still loving and, if you haven't got it yet....well, why not?) with a few songs from "Rules for Jokers", one from "Avalanche" and one from "Harpo's Ghost" and everything was great until Nigel took to the piano, Fluff took to the wings and Thea took to the mic for a spare, haunting "Icarus Wind", at which point I thought....wow. Just....wow. I almost wept. From then on, the evening was more than just "great". It became one of the all time greats, for me, a truly incredible experience. A version of "This Girl Is Taking Bets", the number that -- on the last tour -- got the full electric treatment with Erin McKeown lending her guitar talents, this time round had only Nigel on acoustic guitar and Fluff laying down spiralling viola lines while Thea delivered her vocal with a manic energy and glee that made the air crackle. "Saviours and All" now contained a simple but devastatingly effective acapella vocal break, a new song called "God's Got Nothing On You", with just Thea on guitar and vocals, was utterly thrilling, and a traditional protest/folk song, the name of which I didn't catch, was enthralling. Sometimes I broke open with laughter, sometimes I broke down with tears. Sometimes it was hard to tell which was which. For "When I Get Back to Shore", people were invited up on stage to sing along. Us being English, only about a dozen did, but apparently it beat the count in Glasgow, where only one person got up. The finale was a version of "The Lower Road" that ended with Nigel and Fluff walking offstage and leaving Thea to finish the song alone. Throughout, as I've previously noted, Thea's voice was a wondrous, sensuous, bluesy thing, richer than it's ever been before and more beautiful than I'd ever imagined. There was also some ecto banter: as we were in Bloomsbury, Nigel mentioned TS Eliot. "Would he like my songs?" Thea asked. "He's probably more of a Nerina Pallot fan" replied Nigel, adding, "I have no idea why I said that" and breaking down in a fit of giggles. Later, when warning people that they would be asked up to join them onstage singing, Thea mentioned that there was someone there who would be definitely joining in. To which someone shouted out "It's Nerina Pallot!" I left stunned and enchanted. Not much more one can ask from a gig, really. Adam K. ____________________________________________________________ FREE 3D MARINE AQUARIUM SCREENSAVER - Watch dolphins, sharks & orcas on your desktop! Check it out at http://www.inbox.com/marineaquarium ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:42:32 -0400 From: "Paul Blair" Subject: Mila Drumke in dreamland Last night I dreamt that I went to Mila Drumke's website, and was looking to see if she had any upcoming shows. I saw a lot of shows listed and assumed they were at least a year out of date, since she hasn't played for awhile. So I contacted her and she said something about "this year," and I realized that the shows on her website weren't shows I'd seen or heard of before. She was going to be playing with Noe Venable on the coming Monday, 5/2. And then on Tuesday she would be *replacing* Noe Venable at the Living Room. Right away I wanted to mail ecto with the news, since I hadn't heard anyone else mention it on the list. So I went to my gmail and didn't see any new mail messages, which I thought was odd. I refreshed my window and at first I thought I saw only one new message, but then I realized that there was a *huge* number of new messages, hundreds and hundreds, but that I needed to scroll upwards to see them. Then I got started reading all the new messages, and then I woke up. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:08:10 -0400 From: "Jeffrey Burka" Subject: Re: Mila Drumke in dreamland Well, Paul, it's nice to know that even when you're asleep, you still have our community's best interests in mind... jeff n.p. _Free_, Concrete Blonde ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 09:16:48 -0400 (EDT) From: "Mike Connell" Subject: Retailers giving vinyl records another spin From AP. (BTW, I had noticed some vinyl in stores of late...and more offerings online) - Mike ___________________________________ Retailers giving vinyl records another spin PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) -- It was a fortuitous typo for the Fred Meyer retail chain. This spring, an employee intending to order a special CD-DVD edition of R.E.M.'s latest release "Accelerate" inadvertently entered the "LP" code instead. Soon boxes of the big, vinyl discs showed up at several stores. Some sent them back. But a handful put them on the shelves, and 20 LPs sold the first day. The Portland-based company, owned by The Kroger Co., realized the error might not be so bad after all. Fred Meyer is now testing vinyl sales at 60 of its stores in Oregon, Washington and Alaska. The company says, based on the response so far, it plans to roll out vinyl in July in all its stores that sell music. Other mainstream retailers are giving vinyl a spin too. Best Buy is testing sales at some stores. And online music giant Amazon.com, which has sold vinyl for most of the 13 years it has been in business online, created a special vinyl-only section last fall. The best-seller so far at Fred Meyer is The Beatles album "Abbey Road." But musicians from the White Stripes and the Foo Fighters to Metallica and Pink Floyd are selling well, the company says. "It's not just a nostalgia thing," said Melinda Merrill, spokeswoman for Fred Meyer. "The response from customers has just been that they like it, they feel like it has a better sound." According to the Recording Industry Association of America, manufacturers' shipments of LPs jumped more than 36 percent from 2006 to 2007 to more than 1.3 million. Shipments of CDs dropped more than 17 percent during the same period to 511 million, as they lost some ground to digital formats. The resurgence of vinyl centers on a long-standing debate over analog versus digital sound. Digital recordings capture samples of sound and place them very close together as a complete package that sounds nearly identical to continuous sound to many people. Analog recordings on most LPs are continuous, which produces a truer sound -- though, paradoxically, some new LP releases are being recorded and mixed digitally but delivered analog. Some purists also argue that the compression required to allow loudness in some digital formats weakens the quality as well. But it's not just about the sound. Audiophiles say they also want the format's overall experience -- the sensory experience of putting the needle on the record, the feeling of side A and side B and the joy of lingering over the liner notes. "I think music products should be more than just music," said Isaac Hudson, a 28-year-old vinyl fan standing outside one of Portland's larger independent music stores. The interest seems to be catching on. Turntable sales are picking up, and the few remaining record pressers say business is booming. But the LP isn't going to muscle out CDs or iPod soon. Nearly 450 million CDs were sold last year, versus just under 1 million LPs, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Based on the first three months of this year, Nielsen says vinyl album sales could reach 1.6 million in 2008. "I don't think vinyl is for everyone; it's for the die-hard music consumer," said Jay Millar, director of marketing at United Record Pressing, a Nashville based company that is the nation's largest record pressing plant. Many major artists -- Elvis Costello, the Raconteurs and others -- are issuing LPs and encouraging fans to check out their albums on vinyl. On Amazon.com, one of the best-selling LPs is Madonna's latest album, "Hard Candy". Some artists package vinyl and digital versions of their music together, including offers for free digital downloads along with the record. "We've definitely had some talks with the major retailers about exclusives on the manufacturing end," Millar said of United Record Pressing, which focuses primarily on independent recordings. An avid music fan himself, Millar says he has moved to vinyl in recent years. "Once I got my first iPod ... I'm looking at my wall of CDs and trying to justify it," Millar said. "The things I like -- the artwork, the liner notes, the sound quality -- it dawns on me, those are things I like better on vinyl." He welcomed back the pops and clicks, even some of the scratches. "I like that fact that it's imperfect in a lot of ways, live music is imperfect too," Millar said. Independent music stores, which have been the primary source of LPs in recent years, say many fans never left the medium. "People have been buying vinyl all along," said Cathy Hagen, manager at 2nd Avenue Records in Portland. "There was a fairly good supply from independent labels on vinyl all these years. As far as a resurgence, the major labels are just pressing more now." In this game, big retailers aren't necessarily competing head to head with independent sellers' regular clientele of nostalgic baby boomers, independent label fans and turntable DJs. "I cannot see that Best Buy or Fred Meyer would order the same things we would," Hagen said. "They aren't going to be ordering the reggae, funk, punk or industrial music." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:07:19 -0400 (EDT) From: Greg Dunn Subject: Re: Retailers giving vinyl records another spin The heck with that! Where are my Edison cylinders? Vinyl is just a cheap substitute for wax. :-) - -----Original Message----- >From: Mike Connell >Sent: Jun 10, 2008 9:16 AM >To: >Subject: Retailers giving vinyl records another spin > >From AP. (BTW, I had noticed some vinyl in stores of late...and more offerings online) - >Mike ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:15:06 EDT From: W1GGY2@aol.com Subject: Re: Retailers giving vinyl records another spin Wow, Greg, I knew you were old and all but... :-P Oh did I type that out loud? ;-) :::waves hello to Greg::: Amy N. In a message dated 6/10/2008 2:14:08 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, gregdunn@indy.net writes: The heck with that! Where are my Edison cylinders? Vinyl is just a cheap substitute for wax. **************Vote for your city's best dining and nightlife. City's Best 2008. (http://citysbest.aol.com?ncid=aolacg00050000000102) ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V13 #514 ***************************