From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V15 #116 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Wednesday, May 12 2010 Volume 15 : Number 116 To unsubscribe: e-mail ecto-digest-request@smoe.org and put the word unsubscribe in the message body. Today's Subjects: ----------------- 2010 so far [JoAnn Whetsell ] Re: 2010 so far [Sue Trowbridge ] Re: 2010 so far [Paul Jensen ] Re: Rachael Sage in the Wall Street Journal today :) [meredith ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 11 May 2010 13:28:39 -0400 From: JoAnn Whetsell Subject: 2010 so far PATTY GRIFFIN - DOWNTOWN CHURCH I don't much like gospel music, but I love Patty Griffin, so I thought Downtown Church, touted as Patty's gospel album and described by her as a faith exploration album, would be a gamble. One definitely worth taking, as it turns out. It's a beautiful album, gospel-styled, yes, but decidedly blended with folk, in the way of "Standing" from Impossible Dream, or even "Love Throw a Line" from that same album. The two originals fit in so well with the rest of the songs that I often forget which ones they are ("Little Fire" and "Coming Home to Me".) I have mixed feelings about the Spanish-language duet "Virgen de Guadalupe." Patty's vocals are not up to the standard of the English-language songs (unsurprisingly, for someone singing in a second language). It's also stylistically different, with a Mexican (I think) rather than African American sound. This can be heard as a disruption of the album or as a kind of interlude. The band is strong, as are the guest vocalists, who include Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, and Buddy and Julie Miller. It's a strong collection of songs, but highlights are the rockin', wailin', stompin' "Wade in the Water" and the quiet and affecting closer "All Creatures of Our God and King." LAURA VEIRS - JULY FLAME I'm not very good at saying *why* I like albums I like, so instead of trying to describe _July Flame_ I'll just say that it's gorgeous. There's a lot of natural imagery in the lyrics and the music hovers around lushness, spareness, and simplicity, with moments of each. Try "Sleeper in the Valley" or the energetic "Summer Is the Champion." GOLDFRAPP - HEAD FIRST A bright collection of fun, electro-pop songs. I swear I read a review that called it a "sugar confection" somewhere, which seemed exactly right. BEACH HOUSE - TEEN DREAM I love this album, but again, find it so hard to describe. It's sort of dream-pop, often gauzy, but harder and heavier than that sounds. Kind of? REGINA SPEKTOR - NO SURPRISES SINGLE Soft and sad and beautiful. From her website: "Hi! On Tuesday, April 27th, iTunes will release a cover i did of a Radiohead (i LOVE them, and thank them for donating their proceeds too!!! they are the best!) song "No Surprises". The proceeds will go to Doctors Without Borders Emergency Relief Fund. The show at Irving Plaza raised a lot of money but this gives a chance for more people to participate and donate to victims of earthquakes in Haiti and Chile." PAUL SIMON - BIKO SINGLE As part of Peter Gabriel's "Scratch My Back" project, he recorded songs by other artists and asked them to record one of his songs in turn. I'm not familiar with Gabriel's original, but Simon's cover is beautiful and understated. Really nice to hear new music from him again. Others I haven't listened to enough yet but will comment on later: Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM Patty Larkin - 25 Kaki King - Junior Natalie Merchant - Leave Your Sleep Mary Chapin Carpenter - The Age of Miracles Rachael Sage - Delancey Street JoAnn _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail has tools for the New Busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL :en-US:WM_HMP:042010_1 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 May 2010 15:15:00 -0700 From: Sue Trowbridge Subject: Re: 2010 so far On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 10:28 AM, JoAnn Whetsell wrote: > PAUL > SIMON - BIKO SINGLE > As part of Peter Gabriel's "Scratch My Back" > project, he recorded songs by other artists and asked them to record one > of his songs in turn. I'm not familiar with Gabriel's original, but > Simon's cover is beautiful and understated. Really nice to hear new > music from him again. I haven't heard Simon's cover, but JoAnn, you owe it to yourself to listen to Gabriel's version. I saw PG live a couple of times back when the song was fairly recent, and it sent chills up my spine, it was so amazing & emotional -- truly the sort of experience you never forget. (Along with the sight of PG launching himself into the audience and crowd-surfing during "Lay Your Hands On Me"!) Here's a performance of "Biko" from 1986: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLg-8Jxi5aE and some background about the song http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biko_%28song%29 - --Sue ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 May 2010 17:16:01 -0500 From: Paul Jensen Subject: Re: 2010 so far From your list, I will definitely second the Laura Veirs "July Flame" recommendation. It's a fantastic accomplishment, and a very welcoming entry-point to her work for those unfamiliar with her work. For me, the highlight of this year (so far) is, hands-down, Joanna Newsom's "Have One On Me". This enormous album (18 huge tracks spread over 3 cds) is ambitious, daunting, heavy, difficult - but also incredibly rewarding. You have to work at this album. You won't breeze through all 18 tracks in a single sitting and have a great time. The best approach is to tackle one or two songs at a time, studying her phrasing, unique timing, ever-changing melodies, and unparalleled poetic lyrics. The album has been out for about 3 months, and it's still revealing itself to me. "Have One On Me" is an epic accomplishment. Jonsi's album "Go" is another highlight for me. He continues to push his vocals to new heights. The album is bursting with joy. "Go" moves me to tears, but not in the same way Sigur Ros does... these are happier tears.. :) Natalie Merchant's "Leave Your Sleep" is a must-buy for Natalie fans.. (get the 2-disc edition).. I'll admit the ENTIRE album hasn't been a love-fest for me, but there are soooo many beautiful and enjoyable tracks scattered throughout, it's worth picking up. I feel like there have been others, but these are the ones that immediately come to mind. Paul - -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "This is the time. And this is the record of the time." -Laurie Anderson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 May 2010 18:23:06 -0400 From: meredith Subject: Re: Rachael Sage in the Wall Street Journal today :) Hi, On 5/10/10 3:35 PM, Collected Sounds wrote: > I don't think Rachael Sage sounds like anyone except Rachael Sage. And > I'm usually OK with comparisons. But I can't do it. Not with her. She's > unique. So I don't agree with their statement. What I *really* don't get is when people compare her to Alanis or Fiona Apple. Um ... whut? One could make an argument (with footnotes) that Regina Spektor was influenced by Rachael, and not the other way around ... but I guess I see where that comparison comes from more than most of the others. > And yeah, I'm not all that shocked that they spelled Sarah's name wrong. > So many do. *le sigh* I'm not shocked either, but I did *facepalm* when I saw it. (Actually what I'm most shocked by is that the Wall Street Journal has a Rock/Pop Editor. I had *no* idea they covered the arts at all until just two weeks ago. Who knew?!) > But I'm very happy for Rachael that she got mention in that big > publication! Good for her!! I'm going to really try and get my review > done for the release date. :) Yay! Can't wait to read it... Off to Joe's Pub... Meredith :) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 May 2010 17:11:36 -0600 From: neal copperman Subject: Re: 2010 so far I just heard Peter's version of Paul Simon's "The Boy in the Bubble" last week. Amusingly, it was being played by the DJ at KUNM before we went on to do an interview with the San Francisco-based Del Sol String Quartet and composer Chris Jonas for a multi-media string quartet show we were putting on. Everyone was totally blown away by the really interesting arrangement. I read a really glowing review of the latest PG tour too. Would love to be able to see him perform again! neal On May 11, 2010, at 4:15 PM, Sue Trowbridge wrote: > On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 10:28 AM, JoAnn Whetsell > wrote: >> PAUL >> SIMON - BIKO SINGLE >> As part of Peter Gabriel's "Scratch My Back" >> project, he recorded songs by other artists and asked them to >> record one >> of his songs in turn. I'm not familiar with Gabriel's original, but >> Simon's cover is beautiful and understated. Really nice to hear new >> music from him again. > > I haven't heard Simon's cover, but JoAnn, you owe it to yourself to > listen to Gabriel's version. I saw PG live a couple of times back when > the song was fairly recent, and it sent chills up my spine, it was so > amazing & emotional -- truly the sort of experience you never forget. > (Along with the sight of PG launching himself into the audience and > crowd-surfing during "Lay Your Hands On Me"!) > Here's a performance of "Biko" from 1986: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLg-8Jxi5aE > and some background about the song http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biko_%28song%29 > > --Sue ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V15 #116 ***************************