Fegmaniax Digest <==----------==> (Send posts to the list to fegmaniax@nsmx.rutgers.edu) (Send adminstrative requests to majordomo@nsmx.rutgers.edu) (Send comments, etc to the listowner at owner-fegmaniax@nsmx.rutgers.edu) <==----------==> Volume 3 Number 67 Today's Topics: ------- ------ Producers RE: Ptolemaic Terrascope Interview pt.3 Robyn sampler info The Difference radio show You and Oblivion new track "Statue w/ a walkman" on cd old RH interview circa RESPECT producers? [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Sat, 29 Apr 1995 15:42:02 -0500 (CDT) From: MILES GOOSENS Subject: producers? To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu MIKE, a.k.a. "Rickenbacker Boy," says: > Personally, I'd like to see him record with Mitch Easter, and not because > of the REM connection. Listen to some of those Game Theory and Loud Family > albums he's produced for something that has a big sound but sounds intimate > at the same time. Plus Easter _really_ knows how to get a great drum > sound. I'll second this recommendation; Easter has a great ear for producing pop music, and the GT/LF stuff, the dozens of southern garage-pop bands he's produced, his own Let's Active, should all be testimony to his producing prowess. And I think Steve Albini would be entirely the WRONG choice for Robyn. It's not that artists don't sometimes need producers to push them in new directions, it's that Albini is now wedded to this "it ain't alternative unless it sounds like it was recorded in a barrel" nonsense. Albini did a great job on the Pixies' _Surfer Rosa_, but that was before his ego (or perhaps anti-ego?) reached its current size. P.J. Harvey's _Rid of Me_ and Nirvana's _In Utero_ are great albums DESPITE the hand of St. Albini at the controls. Later, Miles [][][][][][][][][][] From: mikester@bix.com Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 17:31:34 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: producers? To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu >I'll second this recommendation; Easter has a great ear for producing pop >music And not just pop music, but _skewed_ pop music. ---Mike (Nickname o' the month - "Rickenbacker Boy") [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 19:17:29 -0400 To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu From: jojones@mailbox.syr.edu (John B. Jones) Subject: Re: producers? >>I'll second this recommendation; Easter has a great ear for producing pop >>music > >And not just pop music, but _skewed_ pop music. > >---Mike (Nickname o' the month - "Rickenbacker Boy") I've been lurking all week--sorry--I've felt I haven't much to say.. But about producers--the '89 interview with Dierdre O Donoghue is great---Robyn talks about Brian Eno and going to some exhibit or lecture that he gave when Robyn was but a wee lad. He made it sound like he really liked Eno and that he would love to have Eno produce him.....But other than that interview, I've never even so much as heard him MENTION Eno, let alone talk of him producing anything. I like Eno alot, tho I don't think I would like a collaboration between Robyn and Eno. But I just thot it interesting. My favorite Eno is the ambient stuff--especially "The Pearl" with Harold Budd. He is an interesting songwriter as well. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- John B. Jones e-mail: jojones@mailbox.syr.edu LYRIC OF THE MONTH: "If life is a performance, and I am not an actor, am I supposed to lay down and die?" -Juliana Hatfield "Its good to see so many of you wearing glasses" -Robyn, Seattle, May 1, 93 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [][][][][][][][][][] From: OLDSCHREC@aol.com Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 23:53:34 -0400 To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: RE: Ptolemaic Terrascope Interview pt.3 PT: What are your earliest memories of the Beatles? RH: The Beatles, I guess I was ten and somebody at school had a NME and I thought, this is a silly name-The Beatles with an "a", that's a stupid joke. Then I heard "Please Please Me" once and I was hooked, like everybody else. The Beatles were something everyone had in common; this was thirty years ago, there was Dr. Who and everybody knew who the Daleks were and there was the Beatles and everybody knew who George Harrison was. It was a world where everyone understood the same reference points. Obviously it wasn't the same case for me later on, you realised that hardly anyone else actually knew who Mervyn Peake was. You couldn't just walk up to somebody on the street and talk to them about J.G. Ballard and most people wouldn't have a copy of "Trout Mask Replica" , but those days, at ten, the reference points were universal. So whenever I hear The Beatles I always feel I've got a lot in common with everybody else. It was good in that respect--it unified people. [][][][][][][][][][] From: OLDSCHREC@aol.com Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 01:17:29 -0400 To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: new track "Statue w/ a walkman" on cd I just got the new MOJO mag from the U.K. and they advertise a sampler available from Virgin Megastores of Robyn that contains the STATUE WITH A WALKMAN track on Sequel Records. Anyone know how to get this mailorder??? Pete [][][][][][][][][][] From: sprano@cvax.ipfw.indiana.edu Date: Mon, 01 May 1995 01:34:19 EST To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: You and Oblivion Most of you may not care about this...but my girlfriend Carey and I just made love to Robyn's "you and Oblivion". The music swirled around our ears and now the track "Keeping Still" is coursing through my brain over and over! This isn't bianca, so I won't go into the details :) but this CD is fast becomin-ing one of my favorites, ranking right up there with IODOT and EYE. When Carey and I talked with Robyn after the Park West show in Chicago, he mentioned that he thought the disc might be "too long" and thought it should have been edited down by RHINO. I personally love all the tunes and am glad none were omitted! The last word on the last track ("If I Could Look") is "YOU"...and then...OBLIVION! Great effect. I've also heard that there is a new song called "You and Oblivion" which would continue the joke started with "Queen Elvis" of putting the title track on the NEXT album! "September Cones" is also a very nice song. I recently acquired a new boot called "Stand Back, Dennis!" a 74 min. disc with nice packaging and liner notes which (if you haven't seen this one) contains 17 songs from the 2/3/88 Athens, GA. show with special guest... (who else?) Peter Buck.I'm sorry, that date should be 3/25/88. It also includes Robyn the mimic doing a perfect Bob Dylan impression on the song "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands"from KCRW-FM on 4/24/89 AND a great version of The Doors' "The Crystal Ship" in response to a listeners call-in request on KROQ-FM on the same night! If anyone would happen to have any complete radio interviews for trade, please let me know. I'll also make copies of "Stand Back, Dennis!" for anyone with something to trade. Just e-mail me and I'll get on it! I'm going to exit now, so I can go play my bongos along to "Keeping Still"...it's a blast to "accompany" Robyn with whatever your instrument might be, another great facet of the new CD. I swear, I hope this man goes on entertaining us until he's dust. Here's hoping the chickens get their "human soup"...HAL. PS-What are YOUR favorite tracks on Y&O? [][][][][][][][][][] From: sprano@cvax.ipfw.indiana.edu Date: Mon, 01 May 1995 02:19:52 EST To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: old RH interview circa RESPECT Here's an obscure interview that I happened upon recently from a local rock paper in Columbus, Ohio during the Respect tour for your archives: "Undisguised folk truths drawn from decades of campfire wisdom, nurtured on a diet of The Band, the Beach Boys or Billy Bragg," is how RH sums up RESPECT, his seventh album with the Egyptians' Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor. RESPECT, like their previous A&M releases, is a glorious concoction of harmonies, tunefulness, lovingly crafted arrangements and prosaic imagery. But it is also Hithcock's most unambiguous collection of songs to date, a bold and heartfelt statement by a songwriter evolving to new heights of revelation and artistry. "I'm not trying to produce anything that makes people go 'oh, wow, that was clever,'" Hitchcock says. "A lot of the old songs have words as foliage, verbiage, a screen of words. There was a big gap between expression and communication. But I've got more confidence about my songs now. I wanted to get something that has feeling in it, that's close, kind of right in your third eye." Going back to the days of the Soft Boys, Hitchcock has been singing his songs in public for more than 16 years now. Thesing of time has brought out his introspective side, and he is coming to express his reflections about love, death and every day life in a much more direct manner. For as long as he's been writing and performing music, Robyn has also found other means for creative expression. Like his late father, Raymond Hitchcock who died last year, Robyn is an accomplished painter (a touring exhibition of the United States is palnned for the future) as well as a poet and short story writer. The unvarnished, personal nature of RESPECT demanded a different approach from past Egyptians records. Shunning the excruciating technical processes of a recording studio, the band brought a 40-foot mobile recording unit out to Robyn's home on the Isle of Wight in England. Producer John Leckie (The Falls, Stone Roses) was installed as a fourth pair of ears, and most of the electric instruments were left on the mainland. "With PERSPEX ISLAND we made a very formal record with a producer," Hitchcock says. "We rehearsed hard, did all those things we'd never done before, and made this very sophisticated, kind of Beatles record, really. But while we were promoting it, we went 'round playing a lot of acoustic stuff at radio stations, and we also did a lot of stuff on the bus, with Morris playing a Coke tin and a shaker, and Andy on acoustic bass, just like campfire style." So I thought, let's do this at home, just do it in the kitchen where I write all these songs, and get away from all the production." However, he admits, "The dynamic became so complicated that it actually doesn't come out acoustic at all." Overdubbing, horns and a Metcalfe-arranged string section does indeed leave RESPECT sounding very fleshed out, while minimilism guides the starkly pretty "Arms of Love" (which has already been covered by R.E.M.), the impressionistic first single, "Driving Aloud (Radio Storm)" is rich, full-blown irrisistable pop music. But the mandate of simplicity left its mark. Freed from their traditional instrumental roles, the band subverted the professionalism that can stand between a song's essence and its realization on record. "One of the things an awful lot of bands suffer from is that you become so good at being yourself that you can switch it on and off," Metcalfe says. "If Robyn writes a four-minute poppy song, we're very good at coming up with a nice bass riff and a backbeat and some harmonies. But for this, we weren't able to hide behind the things we normally do. We had to think about it much harder, and think about what the songs were actually about." And, on RESPECT more than ever, the meaning of the songs, and the sentience that lies behind them, is what drives Hitchcock's art. "It was a bit of a freak show for the intelligentsia. Sure, I'm intelligent, and I'm a freak, but I think there's more to it than that. The important thing is the emotion in the songs." On another note, how about a thread of least-liked RH toons? Mine would have to be "Oceanside" (something about the "gonna rock you" line bugs me!) and "arms of Love" although I like REM's version.Anybody else? Another fun thread game might be "RH Segues". For example..."Messages of Dark" segued into "Vibrating". Others? An ugly fully-grown adult, HAL. [][][][][][][][][][] From: sprano@cvax.ipfw.indiana.edu Date: Mon, 01 May 1995 02:40:09 EST To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: The Difference radio show Hey Monty...so what did Robyn have to say about "DeChirico Street" on that Todd R.-hosted radio show called "The Difference" that you mentioned? And DOES anyone have a tape of it? to trade??? I'm also still searching for a kind soul to send me a copy of Statue w/a Walkman and the 2 Ptolemaic Terrascope tracks...please help. Tell me what you are looking for in return! Waiting for eternity...HAL. [][][][][][][][][][] From: jturner@rpms.ac.uk (like a stationary dude) Subject: Robyn sampler info To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu Date: Mon, 1 May 95 9:47:29 BST Here's the track listing for the Virgin-only (no jokes, please) Robyn sampler: City Of Shame (BSDR) Night Ride To Trinidad (GD) Heartful Of Leaves (IODOT, but credited to F!) I'm Only You (F!) Listening To The Higsons (GLTHO) Airscape (EoL) I Got A Message For You (IH) Queen Elvis II (E) Surgery (Y&O) Statue With A Walkman ('previously unreleased') 'All tracks personally selected by Robyn Hitchcock' (so it gives us an idea of what he'd put on HIS sampler tape) Queen Elvis II is credited as 'Queen Elvis III' on the cover, but sounds like QEII to me. 'Statue With A Walkman' sounds the same as the version on the Fast Forward CD. Other tracks are from the original issues of the albums. It has a fairly awful photo of Robyn on the front (the same as the one that appeared in some magazine ads here in the UK), plus a slightly cuter one on the back, Robyn in sunshine, shades and lizard shirt. He's in shadow from chest down, so we can't see what stage his diet had reached at the time. The insert is just an illustrated listing of the reissues. Available in the UK from Virgin Records at two pounds 99 pence. Virgin mail order: tel: (0)171 631 1234 fax: (0)171 580 9546 Catalogue number is Sequel RSACD 899 An alternative route may be via Sequel Records, West Heath Studio, West Heath Yard, 174 Mill Lane, London NW6 1TB Tel: (0)171 433 1641, fax (0) 171 431 4368 ('enclose one pound 50 pence & an A4 sae or 8 dollars for a fully illustrated catalogue') Another alternative may be to ask Rhino if they plan to release it via K-mart or something. Speaking of dodgy sleeve designs, the new Bucketfull of Brains is 'imminent' apparently. The front cover boasts '17 Robyn Hitchcock releases reviewed in this issue!' which gives you some idea of how long its been since the last one was out. (The rest of the magazine hasn't been printed yet, but should be within the next week or so). Jonathan. [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Mon, 1 May 95 11:03 GMT+0200 To: fegmaniax@ns2.rutgers.edu From: hardaker@iaccess.za (Mike Hardaker) Subject: Re: Producers Interesting one, this. I don't know who'd do the best (as in most appropriate) production job on RH. However, I'd be *fascinated* to see what George Martin would do... Alternatively (if you'll pardon the pun), Brad Wood's production for Liz Phair has a stripped-down, bare-knuckle element which, applied differently, might work very nicely. And then part of me says a 'transparent' producer like Tom Wilson might produce interesting results. Or how about Fred Maher, particularly if he can get the sort of feel he had with Lou Reed's New York? Or, for something rather more angular, there's Tom Waits. Or even Nick Lowe... Mike [][][][][][][][] End of this Fegmaniax Digest. Archives can be found on fegmania.wustl.edu:/fegmaniax and ftp.uwp.edu:/pub/music/lists/fegmaniax. For administrative questions, subscription requests, and all that boring crud, send mail to fegmaniax-request@nsmx.rutgers.edu. Slipping you the midnight fish...