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 V5 #14 Fegmaniax Digest Volume 5 Number 14 Tuesday January 21 1997 To post, send mail to fegmaniax@ecto.org To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@ecto.org with the words "unsubscribe fegmaniax-digest" in the message body. Send comments, etc. to the listowner at owner-fegmaniax@ecto.org FegMANIAX! Web Page: http://remus.rutgers.edu/~woj/fegmaniax/index.html Archives are available at ftp://www.ecto.org/pub/lists/fegmaniax/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Topics: ------- ------- Re: Lady Mitchell tape setlist Re: Sugardoug and the light shines through your chinese rocks Re: and the light shines through your chinese rocks Re: and the light shines through your chinese rocks Re: and the light shines through your chinese rocks Re: and the light shines through your chinese rocks Re: Sugardoug Crack pipe burnin' (RE: Ain't Talkin' 'Bout RH) Captain Beefheart (no RH) Rock on TV Sugarplastic-Radio Jejune Curious movies.. (no RH - shock!) Leppo RH on 45 Lope at the Hive... Old Hitchcock article Take two Re: and the light shines through your chinese rocks re: Lope at the Hive... Suga5rplastic and James (no, the band) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 14:34:25 -0500 From: "Hal 'n' Carey" CC: fegmaniax@clairseach.ecto.org Subject: Re: Lady Mitchell tape setlist Outdoor Miner wrote: > > Jeff Lawrence (jlaw@qucis.queensu.ca) and I were wondering > if there is a complete Lady Mitchell '78 setlist out there? > Neither one of us has had much luck in nailing down every > song. The Soft Boys Live @ Lady Mitchell Hall - Cambridge, UK 11.27.78 Setlist: I Want To Be An Anglepoise Lamp Do The Chisel Wey-Wey-Hep-Uh-Hole Human Music Give It To The Soft Boys Hear My Brane I Wish I Was A Boy Heartbreak Hotel A Most Peculiar Voice Caroline Says Muriel's Hoof/ Rout of the Clones Return Of The Sacred Crab Blues In The Dark The Bells Of Rhymney Sandra's Having Her Brain Out The Pigworker Skool Dinner Blues Cold Turkey Leppo And The Jooves Have A Heart, Betty (I'm Not Fireproof) e1: I Like Bananas (because they have no bones) e2: Wading Through A Ventilator Lineup: Robyn H. v,g Kimberley Rew g,v Andy Metcalfe b,v Morris Windsor d,v Jim Melton harmonica, percussion, v ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 14:45:26 -0700 From: gondola@deltanet.com (Eb) Subject: Re: Sugardoug >From: Outdoor Miner > >>And can I go on about The Sugarplastic? I saw this CD top so many year-end >>top 10 lists, that I had to buy it. What a great album. I can't stop >>listening to it. So far, THREE people have come over while I was playing >>it and asked me which XTC album this was! Do they have any other albums >>out? > >As one of those people who had it on their top ten, I feel qualified to >say "no, this is their debut." Maybe other folks know of possible indie >stuff they had out before, but I've never seen anything but _Bang, the >Earth Is Round_. The Sugarplastic has an indie album called Radio Jejune, released in 1995 on the LA-based Sugar Fix label. I know the label's email address, in case anyone's desperate to buy the disc. It's less "produced" and arranged than Bang The Earth Is Round, perhaps a bit more dated-sounding (a shade too much early-'80s power pop for me) and sounds a lot more like the Kinks than XTC. Worth getting though, certainly. And I used to have a cassette of the Coolies' Doug, but I'm pretty sure I got rid of it awhile ago. I don't know...I didn't find anything too revelatory about that band. And an album of trashy Simon & Garfunkel covers? Puh-leeze! ;) The John Lennon ripoff ("Poverty") was sort of a guilty pleasure, though. Oh, and someone earlier said something about the Who tribute "Pussy Cook." You're a bit mixed up. The Who ripoff was "Cookbook," and the "Pussy" song ("Pussy [something]") mocked the Beastie Boys. Eb ------------------------------ From: RxBroome@aol.com Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 19:19:08 -0500 (EST) Subject: and the light shines through your chinese rocks Haven't posted for a while, and everything I've read lately has been mostly non- Robyn, so here's some retarded observations and/or questions for y'all: 1) "Chinese", one of Robyn's favorite generic adjectives ("...Water Python", "...Bones", "More... Boys") enjoys a very rich rock legacy. In addition to the Heartbreakers/ Ramones "Chinese Rock" that we're all abuzz about, there's Pere Ubu's "Chinese Radiation" and any number of songs called either "China Doll", "China Girl" or just plain "China". Anyone care to expand the list? 2) Has anyone seen "Sling Blade"? Terrific film, but also worth mention for music geeks because it contains a scene where Dwight Yoakum flies into a drunken rage and grabs Vic Chesnuttttt's wheelchair and smashes poor Vic against the wall as John Ritter looks on in horror (!!!)... Vic is also seen briefly playing bass in Dwight's "band". File under "shockingly accidental musical collaborations, 1996". 3) Hey! My CD collection is rapidly approaching 1,000 titles, and the way I'm storing them (in basically a 5' by 5' square composed of interlocking plastic Laserline units) isn't going to hold up much longer. For those of you to whom 1000 CD's seem like a pittance: how do you do it? Bookcases are too deep and don't have enough shelves, and the wooden "CD" units I've seen don't hold much more than 200 apiece. Short of shelling out big bucks for multiple versions of the classy CD towers sold at Z Gallerie, what should a boy who'd rather preserve his cash for more music do? (Reply off-list if you wanna, but I bet there are others out there who face similar problems!) 4) Best of 1996 and the Future of Music, 1997 and beyond: Well, in contrast to most of you, I would certainly list "Moss Elixir" as one of my favorites of the year. Partly because it was deeply emotionally resonant with the year's events, and partly because it finally gave me a decently- recorded document of many of my favorite songs that Robyn's performed at wonderful concerts over the last three "underground" years. Otherwise, who can say? "Rock" "music" has become too diverse to really say what's the "best" of any given year anymore... we're all playing favorites at this point, so I'll champion this year's Throwing Muses release that nobody even heard, and nobody will care that I champion it. I also thought that REM delivered their most inspired and inspiring record of the decade in '96, but all anyone could talk about were the disappointing sales figures. So again, nobody, will care. But what CAN we all agree on? Most people I respect agree that Beck really delivered one of the most solidly important and slammin' records of the year. Okay. Other than the old standby's, did anyone really "break through" for me? Well, I bought more music in 1996 than in any previous year, and as usual, the vast majority of it was "old" stuff. In 1996 I pursued in earnest for the first time the music of Love, the Kinks, Pere Ubu, Mecca Normal, the Jam, Roxy Music, the Chills, Felt, Nico (solo), John Cale, the solo releases of Robert Forster and Grant McLennan of Go-Betweens ?fame?, Shoes, Spacemen 3, and many other not- even- newcomers (to the point where some of them are dead) as well as experiencing periods of renewed fascination with many old favorites. Whatever-- it was rewarding for me, but again, who else could be paid to care? I seem to have been ahead of the herd in abandoning the post-grunge guitar bands for what's now being called "electronica"-- this is what I was really into around 1989, a musical fusion movement which went into a kind of diaspora- like tailspin after 1992 (post- Nirvana), turning very scattershot and only sporadically rewarding. Looking back on 1996, however, the best of the "new" lot included Beck, Luscious Jackson, Orbital, Underworld, Black Grape, Chemical Brothers, etc... even Kula Shaker, fer Chrissakes... all of whom owe a lot more to the late '80's "Rave" / "Madchester" / "psychedelic hip-hop" scene than they do to the "punk" "revival" set off by grunge. Perhaps the record that sums up 1996 better than any other is "The Moog Cookbook", which applied the most cynically postmodern revisionist hipsterism to the most pathetically pseudo- earnest tunes of the retro-punk set, illustrating the perverse dichotomy between the two aledgedly copacetic mindsets for all to see, whilst simultaneously sounding both snider and more earnest than anyone else had the balls to actually be. And it sounded better than Sereolab... cool. Flame away, my brothers and sisters. But remember, I still like Robyn. Rex ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 19:05:07 -0600 (CST) From: Truman Peyote Subject: Re: and the light shines through your chinese rocks On Sun, 19 Jan 1997 RxBroome@aol.com wrote: > 1) "Chinese", one of Robyn's favorite generic adjectives ("...Water Python", > "...Bones", "More... Boys") enjoys a very rich rock legacy. In addition to > the Heartbreakers/ Ramones "Chinese Rock" that we're all abuzz about, there's > Pere Ubu's "Chinese Radiation" and any number of songs called either "China > Doll", "China Girl" or just plain "China". Anyone care to expand the list? There's a lovely John Cale number about a junkie on the China seas. Surprised you're not familiar with it. > 3) Hey! My CD collection is rapidly approaching 1,000 titles, and the way > I'm storing them (in basically a 5' by 5' square composed of interlocking > plastic Laserline units) isn't going to hold up much longer. For those of > you to whom 1000 CD's seem like a pittance: how do you do it? Bookcases are > too deep and don't have enough shelves, and the wooden "CD" units I've seen > don't hold much more than 200 apiece. Short of shelling out big bucks for > multiple versions of the classy CD towers sold at Z Gallerie, what should a > boy who'd rather preserve his cash for more music do? (Reply off-list if you > wanna, but I bet there are others out there who face similar problems!) Stackable plastic "milk crates" (I put that in quotes because these aren't actually milk crates, they're just designed to resemble them :)). The ones I have hold about 175 cds each and as an added bonus, are also collapsible, which rocks when you're moving and want to pack the cds somewhere else. Just took a look at one and couldn't find the brand name anywhere, but I know I found them at some "Crate and Barrell"-esque store for around 7 bucks each. That's what I did before, anyway. The apartment I moved into a couple months ago just -happened- to have a built-in bookcase whose shelves were perfectly sized for cds though, so I got lucky in that regard. Looks a lot classier than the crates, which are now collapsed and in storage. > Perhaps the record that sums up 1996 better than any other is "The Moog > Cookbook", which applied the most cynically postmodern revisionist hipsterism > to the most pathetically pseudo- earnest tunes of the retro-punk set, > illustrating the perverse dichotomy between the two aledgedly copacetic > mindsets for all to see, whilst simultaneously sounding both snider and more > earnest than anyone else had the balls to actually be. And it sounded better > than Sereolab... cool. Unfortunately not better than Barry Adamson's record, though. Yeah, that one. The one with Jarvis Cocker doing guest vocals on "Set Your Controls For The Heart of the Pelvis" :). Ignored by hipsters everywhere in spite of its pedigree, but much more worthwhile listening than the "Moog Cookbook", which was clever but ultimately disposable- yet another calculated product marketed straight at sneering "cocktail nation" wanna-bes. Ick. Almost as annoying as the Pizzicato Five, another favorite of that particular set, though really it is pretty much impossible to get more annoying than that :). And by the way, I may take some hits here, but IMHO it's not too hard to sound better than Stereolab, those masters of the unholy faddish fusion of annoying girly vocals, Eno riffs, and yeye. Give me a break. I will maintain to the end that someday I will be proven correct in my contention that the emperor is in fact wearing no clothes. Love on ya, Susan ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 20:55:36 -0600 (CST) From: donald andrew snyder Subject: Re: and the light shines through your chinese rocks On Sun, 19 Jan 1997 RxBroome@aol.com wrote: > 3) Hey! My CD collection is rapidly approaching 1,000 titles, and the way > I'm storing them (in basically a 5' by 5' square composed of interlocking > plastic Laserline units) isn't going to hold up much longer. For those of > you to whom 1000 CD's seem like a pittance: how do you do it? Bookcases are > too deep and don't have enough shelves, and the wooden "CD" units I've seen > don't hold much more than 200 apiece. Short of shelling out big bucks for > multiple versions of the classy CD towers sold at Z Gallerie, what should a > boy who'd rather preserve his cash for more music do? (Reply off-list if you > wanna, but I bet there are others out there who face similar problems!) Although their attributes are practical, not aesthetic, I prefer what is affectionately known as a Rubbermaid "tub." Debaters use them to tote their many files, but a smaller size is available just over the height of a disc (standing up). The number one reason to use tubs: When moving, your discs are already packed (Yeah I know this is far too lazy). Andy ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 19:29:02 -0800 (PST) From: "Dot, the Itchy God." Subject: Re: and the light shines through your chinese rocks On Sun, 19 Jan 1997, donald andrew snyder wrote: > On Sun, 19 Jan 1997 RxBroome@aol.com wrote: > > > 3) Hey! My CD collection is rapidly approaching 1,000 titles, and the way > > I'm storing them (in basically a 5' by 5' square composed of interlocking > > plastic Laserline units) isn't going to hold up much longer. For those of > a disc (standing up). The number one reason to use tubs: When moving, > your discs are already packed (Yeah I know this is far too lazy). also, during major flood events---they FLOAT. as was a concern of mine recently, although not to worry no real concern. rex, and others, i recommend a substance called wood. this wood can be bought in many locations and comes in many forms, it can be attached to other things and to itself (talk about amazing). it can be found in nature as well but is rather ungainly to work with in that state. but, seriously, unless blessed by good fortune of having a pre-built space as someone mentioned, it is best to construct your own. this gives you two things--one a proper space the way you want it for what ever (wood can be used to store more than cds) and a full afternoon or evening of full-force fun! over, .chris ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 23:09:21 -0500 (EST) From: Nitnit Subject: Re: and the light shines through your chinese rocks On Sun, 19 Jan 1997 RxBroome@aol.com wrote: :1) "Chinese", one of Robyn's favorite generic adjectives ("...Water Python", :"...Bones", "More... Boys") enjoys a very rich rock legacy. In addition to :the Heartbreakers/ Ramones "Chinese Rock" that we're all abuzz about, there's :Pere Ubu's "Chinese Radiation" and any number of songs called either "China :Doll", "China Girl" or just plain "China". Anyone care to expand the list? How about "Visions of China" and "Communist China" by Japan? They also had "Canton" (instrumental), and "Cantonese Boy". -- Wanda Chu, Internex Online refugee tintin@io.org (soon to be wand@interlog.com) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 22:36:25 -0600 From: Outdoor Miner Subject: Re: Sugardoug At 02:45 PM 1/19/97 -0700, Eb wrote: >The Sugarplastic has an indie album called Radio Jejune, released in 1995 >on the LA-based Sugar Fix label. I know the label's email address, in case >anyone's desperate to buy the disc. It's less "produced" and arranged than >Bang The Earth Is Round, perhaps a bit more dated-sounding (a shade too >much early-'80s power pop for me) and sounds a lot more like the Kinks than >XTC. Worth getting though, certainly. Kinks is the magic word, and I like early-'80s power-pop just fine (nothing like them Game Theory and Shoes albums!), so I guess this moves up to must- have! Thanks for the info. What's the e-mail address? >And I used to have a cassette of the Coolies' Doug, but I'm pretty sure I >got rid of it awhile ago. I don't know...I didn't find anything too >revelatory about that band. And an album of trashy Simon & Garfunkel >covers? Puh-leeze! ;) Hey, I make no claims for _Dig?_ other than it's a good time. But _Doug_ is kinda like the first Wayne's World movie -- you don't expect it to be that funny, or that good, but somehow it pulls it off. I suspect that a third Coolies album would have been the aural equivalent of _Wayne's World II_ -- about three decent jokes and 90 minutes to fill... The John Lennon ripoff ("Poverty") was sort of a >guilty pleasure, though. Oh, and someone earlier said something about the >Who tribute "Pussy Cook." You're a bit mixed up. The Who ripoff was >"Cookbook," and the "Pussy" song ("Pussy [something]") mocked the Beastie >Boys. Yes, "Cookbook" (just imagine a Townshend-like "Coook-boook!" backing vocal) was the Who send-up -- "tribute" implies wayyy more respect -- and "Pussy Cook" the pseudo-Beasties-style pseudo-rap track. Later, Miles ===================================================================== "I kicked the habit Shed my skin This is the new stuff I go dancing in" -- Peter Gabriel, "Sledgehammer" Miles Goosens goosenmk@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu ===================================================================== ------------------------------ From: Robert Sutton Subject: Crack pipe burnin' (RE: Ain't Talkin' 'Bout RH) Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 20:57:24 -0800 >And can I go on about The Sugarplastic? I saw this CD top so many year-end >top 10 lists, that I had to buy it. What a great album. I can't stop >listening to it. So far, THREE people have come over while I was playing >it and asked me which XTC album this was! Do they have any other albums >out? As one of those people who had it on their top ten, I feel qualified to say "no, this is their debut." Maybe other folks know of possible indie stuff they had out before, but I've never seen anything but _Bang, the Earth Is Round_. No, this is NOT their debut. I picked up their first album (I believe) in 1995 called "Radio Jejune" on their own label (I presume) "Sugar Fix Recordings". Great album. Havent heard the major label yet. Gotta get it. No rush as my CD player is busted. Did see them with Loud Family in Seattle. Loud Family was uncharacteristically weak. Sugarplastic was very good despite some of the borrowed equipment they were playing with. Robert ------------------------------ From: bryanm@doc.state.ok.us (Bryan Moore) Subject: Captain Beefheart (no RH) Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 10:05:45 -0600 This is listed for todays Cable TV 3:00 pm - COM - Saturday Night Live : musical guest: Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band (rerun; repeats at 12:30 am) There seem to be some Beefheart fans on this list. This should appear on the Comedy Channel at 3:00 EST. Bryan "No matter where you go, there you are" - Buckaroo Banzai ------------------------------ From: bryanm@doc.state.ok.us (Bryan Moore) Subject: Rock on TV Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 10:36:21 -0600 I forgot to mention that the Captain Beefheart info came from http://www.satchmo.com/rockontv/ They try to keep a schedule of bands appearing on TV. Bryan "No matter where you go, there you are" - Buckaroo Banzai ------------------------------ From: hpunch@pipeline.com Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 11:46:45 -0500 Subject: Sugarplastic-Radio Jejune With all the talk about Bang, The Earth Is Round and wondering if it's their debut, well no it is not. The put out a self released disc called Radio Jejune which some find better than Bang. They sell this disc at their shows, but there's a wonderful distributor called Not Lame records that carries it. Their e-mail is popmusic@notlame.com. The mailing address is Not Lame Recording Company P.O. Box 9756, Denver, CO 80209. They also have a website http:/www.notlame.com. It's great for hard to find independent releases. They also carry an album by John Dunbar named The Man Who Never Learns that is often compared to I Often Dream Of Trains, who happens to be ME. ( Sorry , but I couldn't avoid this little plug) You can look up the review on their webpage. But if anyone's on the list is interested, they can write to me directly and I'll mail you one directly. JD ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 11:22:12 -0600 From: LSDiamond Subject: Curious movies.. (no RH - shock!) >Bryan > >"No matter where you go, there you are" - Buckaroo Banzai ooh a man after my own heart. Buckaroo is one of the best. *Grin* Anyone else ever heard of "the Wizard of Speed & Time", though? There's another excellent flick. my homepage has a link to a page somewhat about it.. http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/1542 good luck finding much else about Mike Jittlov on the Web, though.. i've found surprisingly little. LSDiamond ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Where was I? I forgot the point that I was making I said that if I was smart that I would save up for a piece of string And a rock to wind the string around. Everybody wants a rock To wind a piece of string around. ~ They Might Be Giants - "We Want a Rock" ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jan 97 10:08:00 -0800 From: Russ Reynolds Subject: Leppo I saw the Rutles on VH1 over the weekend, and was amused to discover that in the early days there was a 5th Rutle named Leppo. I think the Rutles RAWKumentary originally aired in 1977 or 1978, about the same time as the Jooves were in their heyday, no? Jumping on anything that mo-mo-mo-mo-mo-moves, -Russ ------------------------------ From: HAMISH_SIMPSON@HP-UnitedKingdom-om4.om.hp.com Date: Mon, 20 Jan 97 18:45:24 +0000 Subject: RH on 45 Item Subject: cc:Mail Text Hi guys, I'm back up and stateside although my mail is limping at the moment. Since Jay mentioned "Stars on 45" (so it's his fault) I thought I'd throw in an RH connection. Anyone have Captain Sensible's "Glad It's All Over"? The 12" (and the promo 7" if I remember right) have "Damned On 45" on the b-side. This is an excellent track. I played it before I packed my vinyl away for the move (sob) and I notice it has "Brenda" nestled in there. Only the guitar riff, but it does mean that Unca Bobby gets a credit on the sleeve. Bet you'll all sleep better tonight. Talk to you again soon (when my mail is repaired). Glen, I'll give you a call sometime soon. (Like when we finally get rid of the ants.) (Hamish) and a happy new year P.S. Got a promo copy of ME at the weekend. (I love this place.) Great album. "Beautiful Queen" is just.....well....beautiful. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 16:06:05 -0500 (EST) From: Eugene Subject: Lope at the Hive... I was lookin' around stores today and I finally found after many years of looking (at Dynamite Records in Northampton, for the two other area people) Lope at the Hive or Two Halves for the Price of One (whatever the record is called.) Is this their fifth album? On it in the corner it says, "check out Robyn Hitchcock's new Black Snake Diamond Roll." Which I guess means it was released after his first solo album. I guess none of this is really news to people, I just never knew when it was released. Does anyone know how common it is? I don't think I've seen it in stores before. It was only seven bucks too. That's probably not bad. -Eugene ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tipper Gore said to Lou Reed, "Lou Reed, how can we communicate better with our children?" Lou Reed responded, "We would probably have to sit down and talk about it over a bottle of scotch, and maybe, some crack." It's back! My lovely Humor Home page: http://hamp.hampshire.edu/~ebmF92 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 15:33:11 -0500 (EST) From: Tracy Aileen Copeland Subject: Old Hitchcock article I was cleaning up and came across this article from the April 1992 issue of _Guitar Player_ (in my defense it has not been on my floor since 1992). It doesn't seem to be on the web page, so, without further editorial comment ... rz ** ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 15:36:49 -0500 (EST) From: Tracy Aileen Copeland Subject: Take two Sorry about that - power outage while I was uploading the file, but Pine sent the letter in progress anyway. As I was saying. Robyn Hitchcock: Hungry Babies And Wet Socks "I've been playing guitar since before most people were born, and someday I'll play my last A chord or C chord, which is a strange thought," says British singer/songwriter Robyn Hitchcock, whose new album _Perspex Island_ (A&M) distills his free-associated wit and sense of romantic irony into a bracing spirit of jangly Rickenbackers and acoustic-style rhythms. "All thought is free association to some degree, isn't it?" he queries. "It all depends on how much you have to justify what you say. Nobody knows how the mind works." Hitchcock's endlessly imaginative mind has been confounding and intriguing listeners for years, beginning with his band Soft Boys n the late '70s, whose masterpiece, _Underwater Moonlight_, combined the Sex Pistols' angst with an _Abbey Road_-period melodic sensibility. Often compared to John Lennon, Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett, and poet Edward Lear, Hitchcock is best known for his evocation of an organic underworld teeming with bizarre fauna and absurdist physical interaction, an ethos visually manifested in his stunningly surreal cover paintings. Supporting his colorful verbal landscapes is his equally articulate right-hand pickstyle, which on his two predominantly acoustic releases, _I Often Dream Of Trains_ and 1990's _Eye_, creates a kind of finicky folk that's not sentimental enough for the coffeehouse, and too acerbic and sharply poetic for most rock audiences. "Basically, I'm an acoustic player, and the acoustic state of mind for me is sitting at this particular table and staring out the window," says Robyn in his London drawl. "You strum or pick, and it goes from there. Some points of the room seem to start a song better than others, but even those you can't guarantee." Robyn's acoustic influences go back to the late '60s, when as a neophyte songsmith he absorbed the folk-rock explosion as manifested by Pentangle, Roy Harper, Robin Williamson, and the Incredible String Band - "that ornate, picking guitar." "When I got hold of an electric, it was very hard to control," he recalls. "There weren't chorus pedals in the early '70s, and it was hard to make a nice noise. So I innately started picking, which makes you sound like Roger McGuinn or something. Everybody else was trying to play like Eric Clapton, but when I did leads I tried to play like Barry Melton from Country Joe And The Fish." Hitchcock's nasal Cockney, song-supportive arpeggios, and breathy strum style make _Eye_ and _I Often Dream Of Trains_ acoustic listening experiences with few antecedents. And he utilizes the steel-string's inspiring compositional qualities to create vocal melodies that move in parallel with the untampered, spontaneous flow of his lyrics. "I think you can revise songs," he says, "but I can't labor long and hard while I'm doing them, because I couldn't concentrate. I'd find that I have a frying pan full of potatoes and my mouth is full of ostrich feathers or something. Obviously the great gift would be to be able to edit yourself very quickly - to be able to realize overnight what it takes other people six months to realize - to adjust and correct it, rather than trailing around like a hungry baby that needs dealing with, or a pair of wet socks." Robyn perceives plenty of virgin ground between acoustic and electric music. "There's 'acoustic music' and then there's 'rock'", he muses. "What you don't get are 10-minute electric guitar pieces with no drums, or acoustic songs with drums but no bass - both of which are things I'd like to do.," On the title track of his first A&M release, _Globe Of Frogs_, Robyn plays warm acoustic guitar over hypnotically stuttering tabla drum embellished by the melodic doubling of a grand piano. On earlier acoustic tracks like "Get Me A Spanner, Ralph," he goes with country-style harmonica and washboard rhythms, enhancing the wry flavor of his cowboy-in-a-derby sendups. Lately Robyn has begun to channel his knack for active imagery away from sci-fi super-stratums and into the development of his songs' emotional truth, peeling away the many "layers of protection" which he claims sidetracked him into "adopting other people's masks." "There's a lot more about relationships," he says of his recent work. "I prefer my newer songs to the old stuff, which I think sounds a bit childish now. You've got to have something to show for your years. They always say that when you're young, you're brash, and when you get older, you get more considered, more harmonious. But that doesn't have to be. You might get old and go completely berserk. Not everyone faces away in a serene glow - although I'd rather do that than scream on a clifftop somewhere and be blown out to sea." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 16:24:17 -0500 From: mrrunion@tng.net (Runion, Michael R.) Subject: Re: and the light shines through your chinese rocks At 07:19 PM 1/19/97 -0500, Rex wrote: >>1) "Chinese", one of Robyn's favorite generic adjectives ("...Water Python", >>"...Bones", "More... Boys") enjoys a very rich rock legacy. In addition to >>the Heartbreakers/ Ramones "Chinese Rock" that we're all abuzz about, there's >>Pere Ubu's "Chinese Radiation" and any number of songs called either "China >>Doll", "China Girl" or just plain "China". Anyone care to expand the list? "7 Chinese Bros." - REM (or is this one just too obvious to mention?) >>3) Hey! My CD collection is rapidly approaching 1,000 titles, and the way >>I'm storing them (in basically a 5' by 5' square composed of interlocking >>plastic Laserline units) isn't going to hold up much longer. For those of >>you to whom 1000 CD's seem like a pittance: how do you do it? Bookcases are >>too deep and don't have enough shelves, and the wooden "CD" units I've seen >>don't hold much more than 200 apiece. Short of shelling out big bucks for >>multiple versions of the classy CD towers sold at Z Gallerie, what should a >>boy who'd rather preserve his cash for more music do? (Reply off-list if you >>wanna, but I bet there are others out there who face similar problems!) I'm almost in the same boat. I've been using a big black video cassette kinda thing with doors for several years, but now that is hopelessly full. I'm considering building my own shelves (CD size of course) on one entire wall somewhere in the house. I don't see any other alternative. __________________________________________________________ Mike Runion Cocoa, Florida email: mrrunion@tng.net (home) email: Michael.Runion-1@kmail.ksc.nasa.gov WWW: http://www.spacecoast.net/users/mrrunion/default.htm "A perfect circle of acquaintances and friends, Drink another, coin a phrase..." -REM __________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 16:40:45 -0500 From: "Gene Hopstetter, Jr." Subject: re: Lope at the Hive... Another Eugene sed: >I finally found Lope at the Hive or Two Halves for the Price of One >(whatever the record is called.) > Does anyone know how common it is? I don't think I've seen it in >stores before. It was only seven bucks too. That's probably not bad. Ack. I paid $20 for mine. But it's in mint condition, and it doesn't have that Black Snake Diamond Roll sticker, either. But I wouldn't pass it up for $7 -- I've never seen another copy of it. Just having the lyrics to "Only The Stones Remain" make it worth the money, I think. +++++++++++++++++ "Money feeds my music machine." + Gene Hopstetter, Jr. + -- The Lemon Pipers +++++++++++++++++ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 11:54:53 +1100 From: james.dignan@stonebow.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: Suga5rplastic and James (no, the band) The 5 is silent. >>And can I go on about The Sugarplastic? I saw this CD top so many >>year-end top 10 lists, that I had to buy it. What a great album. I can't >>stop listening to it. So far, THREE people have come over while I was >>playing it and asked me which XTC album this was! Do they have any other >>albums out?<< They have two out, and are working on a third. Sorry, don't know the title of the other one (their debut), and it's apparently pretty hard to get, but it was talked about for a while on the XTC list (Chalkhills). >>I too used to be among the Tim Booth haters, but that was an opinion >>based on "Sit Down" and the more irritating moments of _Strip-Mine_. A >>friend of mine convinced me to give _Gold Mother_ and the spectacular >>_Laid_ another chance, and I learned to love Mr. Booth. Maybe his voice >>is to you what Dylan's or Morrissey's are to others (or what Billy >>Corgan's and Alanis' are to me), but I would urge you to at least take a >>flier on _Laid_ before you write him off.<< Seven's not a bad album, and Laid is great. 'Course being an Eno fan helps (it's Eno's delightful backing vocals and fiddly bits in "Sometimes (Lester Piggott)" that make that good song great IMHO. Like the cute title, too... presumably refers to the galloping rhythm of the song. But I digress), but the songs themselves are pretty damn fine, and suit Tim Booth's vocals. "One of the Three", "Low low low". Great stuff. FTTAI (for those that are interested), in the Eno diary "A year of swollen appendices" the Domed One has this to say about the album: "So often I get a song in my head, tantalised by its beauty, can't place it, and then recall that it's from 'Laid'." (August 7th) 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) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The End of this Fegmaniax Digest. *sob* .