From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@ecto.org To: fegmaniax-digest@ecto.org Reply-To: fegmaniax@ecto.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@ecto.org Subject: Feg Digest V4 #150 Fegmaniax Digest Volume 4 Number 150 Send posts to fegmaniax@ecto.org Send subscribe/unsubscribe commands to majordomo@ecto.org Send comments, etc. to the listowner at owner-fegmaniax@ecto.org FegMANIAX! Web Page: http://remus.rutgers.edu/~woj/fegmaniax/ Archives are available at http://archive.uwp.edu/pub/music/lists/fegmaniax/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Topics: ------- ------- Re: English tour dates Re: Brian Wilson Moss Elixir homebrew The Bangle angle ingrediants for mossy liquor Re: Webcor! Webcor! Beefheart, Bangle Re: BRIAN WILSON'S WAY OVERRATED? Re: Wilson Re: Beefheart, Bangle Re: Beefheart, Bangle anybody need some peaches? August 23rd Moss singles? Yet another Moss Review of sorts Color Out of Space catching up! Review from CMJ, August 12 issue Jasper, Don't Sell Your "Moss" Back! Re: BRIAN WILSON'S WAY OVERRATED? best of the moss, The Great Ray Re: BRIAN WILSON'S WAY OVERRATED? Re: Color Out of Space Alligator Man ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 12:32:15 +0100 (BST) From: M R Godwin Subject: Re: English tour dates On Thu, 15 Aug 1996 HAMISH_SIMPSON@hp-unitedkingdom-om4.om.hp.com wrote: > Does RH ever come North of the border (the England-Scotland one that is)? > Haven't seen him in the Bath / Bristol area for many years, come to that. Exeter and Southampton are just a bit far out, man... - Mike G ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 13:07:01 +0100 (BST) From: M R Godwin Subject: Re: Brian Wilson Brian Wilson is a great surf musician. 'Help Me Rhonda' is fine. 'Fun Fun Fun' is fun, almost as good as Jan and Dean's 'Little Old Lady From Pasadena'. That's it. He doesn't rate as a serious songwriter in the Arthur Lee / Bob Dylan / Lennon-McCartney / Lou Reed league. I think he even has to pay a percentage to Chuck for 'Surfin' USA'. Some people rate 'God Only Knows'. I always preferred the Barron Knights parody about the groups getting elected: "I like it at Westminster, because there is a nice young spinster She doesn't need any lessons on procedure at all-night sessions She's the most promising backbench MP" As for 'Good Vibrations' you can't even dance to it - it could be the record that made 'Bohemian Rhapsody' possible... - MG PS Oops, no Robyn content. Better add him to that list of serious songwriters to conform with regulations. "You'll never hear surf music again" - FVZ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 09:37:15 -0600 From: mbrage@surgery.bsd.uchicago.edu (Michael Brage) Subject: Moss Elixir homebrew Feg Homebrewers, I was hoping that we could come up with a recipe and brew "Moss Elixir". I imagine it to be a English Bitter or something dark - a stout perhaps? Let's converse. Michael ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 96 08:11:00 -0800 From: Russ Reynolds Subject: The Bangle angle The Hungry Intruder chimed in with a few words, some of which were these: >Witness the Bangles' suck covers of _Going Down To Liverpool_ >and _Human Music_, too. Where can we find that "Human Music" cover? Also, I thought I remember someone once saying they actually covered "Balloon Man", which I know was written with them in mind. Is there any truth to that rumor (maybe live?)? I'd be friends with Susannah Hoffs too, if she would let me.* - russ. *damned restraining orders... ------------------------------ From: "James Isaacs" Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 17:15:56 CET-1CST Subject: ingrediants for mossy liquor If we could brew a Mossy Liquor instead, I would recommend Cynar, a liqueur here in Germany made from artichokes. It would probably remind some readers of Moss Elixir itself. (Which I happen to like, although I cannot compare it to Mossy Liquor, to be honest) James ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 16:24:42 +0100 (BST) From: M R Godwin Subject: Re: Webcor! Webcor! RH once listed Clear Spot among his top 10 albums. Apart from this recent 'Grow Fins', are there any other Captain Beefheart songs he has performed live? - Mike PS I find I have the Soft Boys Song Number 4 on a Midnight Music sampler. Did someone say that this was interesting / rare / good? Should I bother to listen to it, or just file it away again? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 13:16:32 -0400 (EDT) From: Bayard Subject: Beefheart, Bangle On Thu, 15 Aug 1996, M R Godwin wrote: > RH once listed Clear Spot among his top 10 albums. Apart from this recent > 'Grow Fins', are there any other Captain Beefheart songs he has performed > live? according to my list of songs RH has covered, he's done "Clear Spot" (it's a song as well as a record, right?). I just posted the list 7 months ago, so if anyone wants a copy, email me. > PS I find I have the Soft Boys Song Number 4 on a Midnight Music sampler. > Did someone say that this was interesting / rare / good? Should I bother > to listen to it, or just file it away again? That busy, are you? :) I can't remember for sure what song #4 is like at the moment, but i think it's less rare now the "near the soft boys" ep is on the UM reissues. NB: Susannah Hoffs is opening for Solution A.D. at the 9:30 club this coming monday, the 19 (and thus should logically be appearing elsewhere in the nearby future.) Maybe she'll do a robyn song. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 13:29:33 -0400 (EDT) From: Terrence Marks Subject: Re: BRIAN WILSON'S WAY OVERRATED? > Sorry, but "Betty" is much more interesting. And besides he basically admitted > he ripped off most stuff on UK TV a few weeks ago. (e.g. Surfin' USA=Sweet > Little Sixteen) Umm...Surfin USA wasn't ripped off...it was a note-for-note copy of Sweet Little Sixteen. The Beach Boys made no attempts at hiding the similarities. Terrence "The Human Mellotron" Marks ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 11:04:40 -0700 From: gondola@deltanet.com (E.B.) Subject: Re: Wilson >From: BC-Radio@corecom.net (Brett Cooper) >Are you suggesting that Brian Wilson has high production values? Look, I'm >not trying to knock anybody here, but Brian Wilson is way overrated! To >me, Robyn clearly leaves him in the dust! > >Brett Adding my two cents: Do you play an instrument? I tell you, when I first started playing Brian Wilson, it completely blew my mind. It's like he writes in a whole other LANGUAGE. Really. As far as lyrics, sure, Robyn beats him. But musically, Wilson is simply jaw-dropping. The more you know about chords and things, the more you realize how incredibly unique he is. His style is like a VIRUS. Play some of his stuff on piano for awhile, and all of a sudden you start "Wilsonizing" everything else you play (changing bass lines to non-tonic notes, using his moving-bass-vs.-steady-rhythm-chords bit, etc.). I'm in complete awe of him. It's just too bad he's not better organized. So much of his stuff sounds like bits and pieces spliced together. It's fascinating to hear, but I think that's one of the main reasons why his later stuff hasn't sold as well. Here, I'd also like to plug last year's Brian Wilson/VD Parks disc, "Orange Crate Art." Not quite incredible, but there are plenty of incredible moments. Hitchcock is brilliant, but he'll never touch my soul like Brian Wilson. EB Playing right now: Bricks' "A Microphone And A Box Of Dirt" (1992 side project from Mac from Superchunk). What can I say? I just got back from a trip to North Carolina -- the classic "Internet rendezvous" thing. ;) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Beefheart, Bangle Date: Thu, 15 Aug 96 11:58:27 -0700 From: Tom Clark >I can't remember for sure what song #4 is like at >the moment, but i think it's less rare now the "near the soft boys" ep is >on the UM reissues. Love "Song #4". I think it's the last entry on the SB 1976-1981 CD. It ends (fittingly) with Robyn's voice in the studio saying something like "alright, that's it then...". I've always cosidered it a "see ya, mates. i'm off on my own!" type of thing. that's it then, -tc ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 16:13:00 -0500 From: "Gene Hopstetter, Jr." Subject: Re: Beefheart, Bangle Tom sed, >Love "Song #4". I think it's the last entry on the SB 1976-1981 CD. Actually, it's the last song on the _Underwater Moonlight_ CD reissues. A right nice tune, I think, too bad we didn't hear it more often. >It ends (fittingly) with Robyn's voice in the studio saying something like >"alright, that's it then...". I've always cosidered it a "see ya, mates. > i'm off on my own!" type of thing. I agree. I think you can hear the tape slapping around the reel on a tape recorder or something, too. "...where's there's a barrel there's a bung..." "Pornography teaches us what to forget." -- Bruce Adams +++++++++++++++++ Internet Publishing Specialist + Gene Hopstetter, Jr. + Cadmus Digital Solutions +++++++++++++++++ http://cjs.cadmus.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 22:04:40 -0500 (EST) From: Dolph L Chaney Subject: anybody need some peaches? Dear folks, many of whom will have NO IDEA who each other are: I AM EMPLOYED!!! I have taken the Reference Librarian position at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. The job will begin right after Labor Day. It is an *amazing* fit with my abilities and interests, situated within a small, laid-back university atmosphere. The university also happens to be within an hour of my sister, with whom I'll be staying until I can find an apartment for my fiancee and I to share after getting married on the 26th of October. So, here is the address/phone info as far as I have it: --- from 17th Aug til 30th Aug: Dolph Chaney 2707 Iowa Ave Connersville, IN 47331-2423 (317) 825-4060 --- from 30th Aug til further notice (approx 20th Oct): Dolph Chaney 134-D Bentley Pkwy Woodstock, GA 30188 (770) 516-3579 Any cards, gifts, cash prizes, and good vibes should be sent to these addresses. I will have e-mail at Oglethorpe, but I don't know the address as of yet (they're still ordering my computer). If you wonder about anything else, you can reply to my indiana.edu address; I'll check my e-mail for the last time here tomorrow night. In the meantime, THANK YOU. Each and every person who gets this note, among others that may have slipped past me, has contributed to my success over the past year, and a little of it belongs to each of you. Now, you won't be getting pieces of my paycheck or anything, but my guest room will remain open for any one of you should you want it. Take care, folks. Dolph ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 13:53:09 -0400 (EDT) From: Carl Abraham Zimring Subject: August 23rd Anyone know the significance of the name of RH's publisher, August 23rd? Obligatory review: My initial reaction to the CD (The LP's in the mail) is enthusiasm unmatched since I first heard Underwater Monnlight a decade ago. The production suits the material, and avoids the fussiness (or, to use Robyn's term, constipation) of the Egyptians' albums, while varing the arrangements more than Eye & IDOT. The writing seems to be on that continuum towards maturity he's pursued since Eye without the gloominess pervading Respect. Alright Yeah could get commercial airplay, and I even like the horns on DeChirico Street. My biggest problem will be deciding which one or two tracks will get airplay on my radio show this week. One negative comment - the photos are pretty blah (sorry Michelle). Carl ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 96 15:18:00 -0500 From: Jim Moore Subject: Moss singles? I asked this awhile back and got no response, but thought I'd try it again. Any word whether or not there will be a CD single release from Moss Elixir? Inquisitively yours, Jim Moore jimm@dbu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 14:28:04 -0500 From: Jay Brownlee Subject: Yet another Moss Review of sorts Well, I went out and purchased my copy of ME, still looking forward to it after having listened to Mossy Liquor and thinking to myself, "Gee whiz, this record means the CD will have real possibilities." First, let me say this: I consider ME & ML to be separate entities even though they contain six songs exactly as they appear on either. Being a collector scum, I have always appreciated different versions of songs and often find the same song can be interpreted in different ways and be appealing in very different ways. So, to save argument amongst potential replies, I'll just avoid the comparison altogether. However, Moss Elixir is simply the strongest album since Eye. The songs sound better thought out musically, are produced better (read: not with the overwrought keyboards layed on unnecessarily in the subsequent Egyptians records) and is definitely a throwback to the better days of Hitchcock's solo career- namely Invisible Hitchcock & I Often Dream of Trains. Having said that, I will admit to being an 'old school' Hitchcock fan; I began listening to Hitchcock in the IH, IODOT & EoL period, so excuse me for not liking the feeble corporate attempts to "break" him into the mainstream that has characterized the latter Egystians recordings. This music is real- no sugar added in unnecessarily to attract Hootie & The Blowfish fans. Sorry, but "Respect" didn't gain mine. This album regains it. Of course, reading the list, there have been numerous expressions of disappointment that ME would not be the record to "break" RH. Bah, I say. There's no need for RH to "break"; not all great artists are "popular" in their time. Whether any one else cares about RH, I could care less; it's their loss- not mine. Additionally, complaints that Andy & Morris simply appearing would have made this record better are pointless. Although I really think both are talented guys, I think the Egyptians had run their coarse. This is a ROBYN HITCHCOCK album- and that's who I've always admired most anyway; I'm terribly pleased to hear Robyn's personality again. Oh, well, one lurkers opinion; flame if you must... Jay Brownlee zippy@world-net.net ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 17:42:38 -0500 From: mlang@inch.com (Steven Matrick) Subject: Color Out of Space I know I have only been on this list for a short while, but my band the Favorite Color has just put out a CD entitled Color Out of Space... I can't resist the opportunity to offer it to the people on this list because you all seem to have similar musical reference points-- and Robyn Hitchcock is our biggest influence. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to offer it to a bunch of people who REALLY listen to music. Anyway, the 10 people on the Loud Family list (apologies to Doug) that have bought it have really enjoyed it and Robyn and Scott Miller are certainly peers. I thought this wouldn't be offensive cause it provides a little variety from the discussion of Moss Elixir. Anyway, the record is eight bucks ppd and you can email me if you are interested. Sorry, if this annoys anyone. It is not totally off topic: Robyn heard and liked our last tape. :) Steven Matrick The Favorite Color ______________________________________________________________________________ Top Five Records of 1996: 1. De La Soul- Stakes is High 2. Sammy- Tales of Great Neck Glory 3. Ride- Tarantula 4. A Tribe Called Quest- Beats, Rhymes, and Life 5. The Favorite Color- Color Out of Space SHAMELESS (Sorry but truth has always been more important to me than modesty and anyway I don't write the songs. IBC will knock it out next Tuesday anyway!) ______________________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 96 17:02:43 CDT From: Truman Peyote Subject: catching up! First of all- re-hello to Kay! We missed you! Hope you are up Mossy dancing again right soon. Also congrats to Dolph Chaney- what say we take him up on his offer and converge on him in Atlanta in a feg-swarm :)? Seriously, I wish you all the best. And now we get down to brass tacks- All this I'm reading about this being the best album since "Eye" really bothers me. Since I think "Eye" is mind-blowingly brilliantly wonderful, I can't quite understand this comparison. I like a few tunes, especially DeChirico, Happy Bird, Speed of Things and Beautiful Queen (but I much preferred the "Mossy" version- I miss those swoony strings), and You and Oblivion is lovely and moving. Um, I think that about covers what I really dug, that is to say slightly less than the whole album. The rest is fairly mediocre in my view, though not embarrasingly awful like "Perspex". I hope I spelled embarrasing correctly. I also hope I can find that asbestos suit :). As for that silly reviewer who noted Robyn's "twee sensibility" and "think Donovan meets Dada", well, all I have to say is- I remember this one rock critic who insisted on referring to David Bowie as a "willowy rocker", and I felt much the same feeling of revulsion. No one wants to kill YOU, Aaron Sparrow, they want to kill the asanine person who formulates these phrases :). Susan ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 96 18:08:25 CDT From: Truman Peyote Subject: Review from CMJ, August 12 issue Robyn Hitchcock, "Moss Elixir": Over the years and albums, Robyn Hitchcock's slowly grown from being an eccentric and goofy psychedelic troubador to being a pretty mature artist, and the fact that he's managed to do it without too many people notcing is a pretty monumental achievement. Though he's certainly not the strangest person ever to park his buggy in the Warner Brothers lot (Captain Beefheart or Mark Mothersbaugh probably holds that honor), he does seem rejuvenated by the label switch: This is the most confident, strident Hitchcock album in many a moon. Of course, it's pure Robyn Hitchcock, 12 cuts of skewed lyrical visions and simple, memorable tunes, a formula that he previously perfected but that's now just a little older and more down-to-earth. That is the triumph of "Moss Elixir": Robyn Hitchcock has grown up slowly, confidently and without turning sour or alienating anybody; this time, he mixes in quite a few real details and life experiences with his usual wordplay and strange scenes. It's almost like another "Eye" or "I Often Dream of Trains", but instead of being a modern-day Syd Barrett, he's just being Robyn Hitchcock. Fans of the old mad-hatter Hitchcock will revel in the delirium of "DeChirico Street" or "A Happy Bird Is A Filthy Bird", while the new wiser Hitchcock emerges on "Sinister but Happy", "This Is How It Feels", and "Speed Of Things".- James Lien A few brief comments, cause I couldn't help it: One- If I had written this many run-on sentences in a high school English paper, I would have been whupped upside the head!!! Shameful :). Two: RH was a modern-day Syd Barret on IODOT and Eye? This made me want to scream. Three: The old "mad-hatter" was not wise? Has this fellow actually heard Eye or IODOT, not to mention Underwater Moonlight? Four: It's that old "psychedelic troubador" thing again. Someone put that phrase out of its misery! The "mad-hatter" thing was offensive to me too, but at least it was new. I guess, however, that since the review was mainly positive (and in a trade magazine, to boot), I shouldn't carp overly much. Susan ------------------------------ From: RxBroome@aol.com Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 04:08:22 -0400 Subject: Jasper, Don't Sell Your "Moss" Back! Somebody sez: " The rush on hearing the electric "Beautiful Queen" for the first time is worth the price of admission." Agreed. Like I said, I listened to this for the first time at work, rather louder than I should've, given that I'm usually on the phone with someone. Someone I was talking to in San Diego was just in the process of asking mw what the hell that was in the backgound when "Beautiful Queen" came on, and I said, "Robyn Hitchcock. Wait, this sounds really good. (Drums come in.) Hey, this IS really good!" To Dave, because I know you: I understand your disappointment, but I don't know what else could've happened to three year's worth of material other than this. You said it yourself: the material is THERE. This is how the man himself decided it should sound when it came out-- a decision so difficult that he did two different versions of six songs. You ARE right that the "Mossy" versions of "Devil's Radio" and "DeCherico" are superior-- "DR" is a judgment call, but "DS" is really lame on "Elixir" (whereas I STRONGLY disagree that "I Am Not Me" requires a band, and believe that if it HAD been recorded with a band, the deafening cries of "SELLOUT" clogging the list would by now have made passage unthinkable) -- but look at it as a songwriter, which you are. Think of the shitty, uneven album that you and I made together... the unevenness was the result of too much disparate material accumulated over too much time, not because ANY of the material itself was bad. Same thing applies here, with the Robyn album. These songs are good. Maybe they don't hang together, but that's what happens in musical limbo. At least our boy hung in there. Now that he has a fighting chance, let's not dilute it by cluttering the used bins with copies of "Moss", which, if nothing else, is the definitive document of Robyn's "lost years". Let's show that we appreciate the souvenir and eagerly look forward to whatever Robyn may do now that he's signed again, and writing towards creating records. Personally, I will miss the crazy label-less Robyn, ever inclined towards busting a freestyle. Rex PS-- how about that new REM single? Michael Stipe is now the only person to do a duet with Patti Smith and end up sounding more like Patti Smith than Patti Smith does. I still love REM. I can't believe they're allowed to be so arty and still be superstars. Or so earthy. It's probably the fact that artiness and earthiness cancel each other out, and nobody notices them being specifically one or the other... the "average" is therefore acceptable. Which means the same band can be beloved of both the most and least discerning. That tension is as explicit in the new single as the first one; I salivate over this new album. Many of you will disagree. Fine; don't buy it... but by the same token, if you're not interested and therefore don't buy it, don't bore me with your bitchy uninformed opnion. ------------------------------ From: HAMISH_SIMPSON@HP-UnitedKingdom-om4.om.hp.com Date: Fri, 16 Aug 96 08:59:16 +0100 Subject: Re: BRIAN WILSON'S WAY OVERRATED? > > Sorry, but "Betty" is much more interesting. And besides he basically admitte > d > > he ripped off most stuff on UK TV a few weeks ago. (e.g. Surfin' USA=Sweet > > Little Sixteen) > > Umm...Surfin USA wasn't ripped off...it was a note-for-note copy of Sweet > Little Sixteen. The Beach Boys made no attempts at hiding the > similarities. > > Terrence "The Human Mellotron" Marks > Am I missing something. You mean just because he didn't hide it means it wasn't a rip off? (I think I see a loophole in the copyright laws.) Hamish (the opportunist) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 17:15:19 -0800 From: james.dignan@stonebow.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: best of the moss, The Great Ray Jim Moore jimm@dbu.edu opined: >I >could take tracks from Moss and Mossy and make my own NEW Moss, >here's what I'd do (only picking 12 songs): Don't tell me the title of the New moss, let me guess: Moore's elected? >After opening my new copy of Moss Elixer, I noticed the words "The Great >Ray.: It's located under the clear CD tray, on the left-land spine. > >Anyone know what this refers to? another tribute to his dad, mayhap? James James Dignan, Department of Psychology, University of Otago. Ya zhivu v' 50 Norfolk St., St. Clair, Dunedin, New Zealand pixelphone james.dignan@stonebow.otago.ac.nz / steam megaphone NZ 03-455-7807 * You talk to me as if from a distance * and I reply with impressions chosen from another time, time, time, * from another time (Brian Eno) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 04:07:38 -0400 (EDT) From: Terrence Marks Subject: Re: BRIAN WILSON'S WAY OVERRATED? > > Am I missing something. You mean just because he didn't hide it means it wasn't > a rip off? (I think I see a loophole in the copyright laws.) > Diff between a ripoff and a remake. Surfin USA was just a cover with different words, not a ripoff. Kinda like saying that the Soft Boys ripped off John Lennon with their version of Cold Turkey, and so on... Terrence "The Human Mellotron" Marks ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 11:00:39 +0100 (BST) From: M R Godwin Subject: Re: Color Out of Space Hi Steven I just thought that you would be interested to know that my last band was called Color Out of Space! We have only done one gig since 1987, so I don't expect that there will be much conflict of interest - us H P Lovecraft fans should stick together! Best of luck - Mike Godwin ------------------------------ Date: 16 Aug 96 03:34:34 EDT From: The Hungry Intruder <101356.2516@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Alligator Man Does anyone know who originally wrote/recorded 'Alligator Man' (the, as far as I know only, collaboration between Robyn Hitchcock & Alex Chilton)? It's copyrighted to Chance/Newton, whoever they may be. Aidan ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The End of this Fegmaniax Digest. *sob* .