From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V7 #249 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Friday, July 3 1998 Volume 07 : Number 249 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: folkie stuff,revelling in evil? [dlang ] Re: gary numan ["mr. pointy" ] Gary Numan [dwdudic@erols.com (David W. Dudich)] more gary [dwdudic@erols.com (David W. Dudich)] anti-spice comment [dwdudic@erols.com (David W. Dudich)] Re: more gary [Christopher Gross ] Random musings/guitar solos ["Paul Montagne" ] Re: Gary Numan [amadain ] Re: folkie stuff,revelling in evil? [amadain ] Re: thread catch-up [Aaron Mandel ] cookie christ? [dwdudic@erols.com (David W. Dudich)] much stuff [Lorelei D Laird ] bit by the crossposting bug... [Bayard ] Re: Gray Mooin [fred is ted ] Re: thread catch-up [amadain ] Re: more gary, etc. [fred is ted ] Re: Gray Mooin (and gratuitous Kraftwerk) [amadain Subject: Re: folkie stuff,revelling in evil? Susan wrote: The thing is though, that revelling in it (evil)is to me part and parcel of this drive, because finding the limit of one's own personal capacity for evil and the enjoyment thereof is an important aspect of imagining human limits in general. Perhaps I am being obtuse, but isn't this what serial killers do,revelling in their capacity to do evil and pushing the boundaries all the time ? Or are you just speaking theoretically?Is it ok to know your capacity for evil by reading about it , or imagining it ? because in some people even that may lead to an dangerous obsession . Really, the only advantage i could think of knowing ones capacity for evil would be so you could avoid indulging in that capacity. However, It would be very probable that if you did find out your capacity it might be too late to turn back. I really think that your premise is flawed, but if you can come up with a good argument to support it I might change my mind. dave ( for once in serious mode) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Jul 1998 09:46:48 -0400 From: "mr. pointy" Subject: Re: gary numan also sprach amadain: >I just bought the import of "Pleasure Principle" myself which is why I have >been listening to him a lot again (used, 10 bucks, somebody dumped theirs >at "Quaker Goes Deaf"). They have really excellent liner notes, neh? i just picked up his new one, _exile_, last week and am still digesting it. after one and half listens, about the only thing i can say about it is that it's almost a parody of goth-ness. also, i guess it was last year, beggar's banquet put out a 2-cd tribute album to gary. most of it is laughable -- basically bands trying to out-numan him -- and it would have been nice if songs weren't, uh, replicated -- there are a two covers of "we are so fragile" and three "are 'friends' electric?". however, an pierle's cover of the latter comes really close to capturing the essence of the original -- and she does it on a piano! yow. woj ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Jul 1998 14:38:07 GMT From: dwdudic@erols.com (David W. Dudich) Subject: Gary Numan >> You mentioned Gary Webb (oh yeah, Numan), in a recent post! I just >>got (at great expense and trouble) the Japanese import of "Replicas." >>"Me, I Disconnect From You" is from God. Gary Numan...ah yes, it is great to see other friends ozzeing out. My self, I have 10 of his albums (I had more, but my brother destroyed them "for the good of the band".) The first album, 'tubeway army', is not that great, except as a comedy record. It seems like, on that album, he wrote the same song over and over again...i jokingly call it "I'm a robot that plays with myself too much alone with metal". 'Replicas' is a bit better. the title cut was on my answering machine for a while. I can't find 'pleasure principle' anywhere (the one with 'Cars', which some of the fegs have seen me perform, unplugged, wearing a Gary Numan mask.) 'telekon' has some good tunes, too. A good primer is a two disk 'best-of 1978-1983' import set (I found mine at best buy for 15 bucks). > >I just bought the import of "Pleasure Principle" myself which is why I have >been listening to him a lot again (used, 10 bucks, somebody dumped theirs >at "Quaker Goes Deaf"). They have really excellent liner notes, neh? He is >really fascinating to me. There's something sort of compellingly fragile >about him, it shows in the music, so exquisitely brittle and emotional >almost in spite of itself. I once read somewhere that "he put a human face >on dance music", and I think that hits the nail on the head. > Well, 'human' i think is going a bit far...:-) But seriously, he just did a US tour, behind his new album 'Exile'. I heard some clipps at the "Nuworld' site.. http://www.numan.co.uk/ Not bad. >I also see him as occupying this sort of strange middle ground between the >then-dying RB-CEF art tradition (my own awkward acronym for >RoxyBowieCaleEnoFripp so I don't have to type it out in full constantly) >and the synth-pop bubblegum yet to come. Well, some call him "a poor man's david bowie". No one quite achieved again what >he did, and actually few others even tried- Depeche Mode and various >Bauhaus offshoots tried to imitate that frail, emotional yet very hook-y >style, but they only came off sounding clumsy at it. The best thing he did in this style was a 1983 single called "Warriors". Check out the Webb site :-). He runs it! -luther ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Jul 1998 14:45:28 GMT From: dwdudic@erols.com (David W. Dudich) Subject: more gary >n.p. Gary Numan, "The Pleasure Principle". A man ahead of his time. In the >21st century when we all have housework robots, I want mine to have Gary >Numan's voice. > >------------------------------ Have you heard his recent voice? He sings a lot more human. (He also looks just like Dave Kendall, who I'm sure most of us remember introing Robyn videos with that great accent...:-)) -luther ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Jul 1998 14:47:41 GMT From: dwdudic@erols.com (David W. Dudich) Subject: anti-spice comment On Fri, 3 Jul 1998 01:17:03 -0400 (EDT), you wrote: >Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 20:43:54 -0400 (EDT) >From: Aaron Mandel >Subject: Re: totally irrelevant > >On Thu, 2 Jul 1998, tanter wrote: > >> >Yes, but you have to admit, Beckham *is* a wanker... > >> According to Dr. Ruth and other sources, most men are..... > >is this the one engaged to Posh Spice? i'd definitely be forced to seek >other outlets... If *I* were engaged to a spice girl (shouldn't the Warhol Clock be running out on them about now?), I would seek Electrical outlets. Girl power my ass! -luther ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 11:47:05 -0400 (EDT) From: Christopher Gross Subject: Re: more gary On Fri, 3 Jul 1998, David W. Dudich wrote (of Gary Numan): > (He also looks just like Dave Kendall, who I'm sure most of us > remember introing Robyn videos with that great accent...:-)) He looks even more like a guy I know in the DC area named Mario Salguero. Same haircut, even. When Gary Numan played the 9:30 Club a couple of months ago, all of my friends/acquaintances and I took one look at the figure on the stage, then looked back at the audience to make sure Mario was still there.... At that show I was favorably impressed when Gary and his band played "Cars" as their third song, instead of saving it for an encore. To me that said he was confident in his new music and didn't see himself as an 80s nostalgia act. Compare that to his near-contemporaries Flock of Seagulls (not to insult GN by the comparison). When they played DC a couple of years ago in support of their new (!) album, they saved all their big 80s hits for the encore, presumably to avoid having everyone leave halfway through the show. - --Chris np: Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie etc. ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 09:15:26 -0700 From: "Paul Montagne" Subject: Random musings/guitar solos Well I thought last Thursday's show at the Alladin in Portland was a great performance from Robyn, and ranks as one of the best in terms of the material he played. I'm sure Ive never heard him do Unsettled or Insanely Jealous and am grateful he did slightly more obscure/unreleased material. The crowd seemed small to me compared to previous years and there was nary a blurb in the local press about his arrival. Must be aging rock star syndrome. The kids just don't get it. Sorry I couldn't follow you all to Ringlers but I had a long drive (pathetic excuse says Eddie, "I have to work at ten tomorrow morning in a different state for crissakes"). It was good to see all of you again though. I didn't see any report on the Seattle show. Did I miss a post about that? I was curious to see if the Tuatara gang were playing with him... For those of you who can do Real Audio, Sub Pop has put a few release on the net for playback, one of which I have had continuously playing at work for the past week, the Scud Mountain Boys "Early Year". If you like the alt country stuff and appreciate the Red House Painters, this CD will warm your hearts. Its actually a 2 disc set of there first two releases. Give it a try at http://www.audionet.com/jukebox/subpop/. Included are rousing renditions of Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves, Wichita Lineman and Please Mr. Please among others. Not to start a thread about favorite guitar solos or anything, BUT.....I was listening to Tom Waits Big Time last night and came to the conclusion that Marc Ribot's guitar solo on 16 Shells is flat out the best damn solo I have ever heard. It surpasses Adrian Belew's solo on the Talking Heads The Great Curve, which has always topped my list. Bye for now Paul np:Billy Bragg and Wilco-Mermaid Avenue ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 11:33:30 -0600 From: amadain Subject: Re: Gary Numan > It seems like, on that album, he wrote the same song over and >over again...i jokingly call it "I'm a robot that plays with myself >too much alone with metal". Well, now that you've called Tubeway Army that I'm sort of at a loss to know what to call that movie "Tetsuo The Iron Man" :). > I can't find 'pleasure principle' anywhere (the one with >'Cars', which some of the fegs have seen me perform, unplugged, >wearing a Gary Numan mask.) As I said, I got lucky, someone dumped a bunch of these rereleases at a record store I visited last week. I mean, literally, they were in the "new arrivals" bin, they had only been there a day or so. I was enthusing over "Pleasure Prinicple" and the counterwench was like "Well then, you'd better come back and get 'Replicas' soon if you want it because you and I both know that at 10 bucks these won't be here too long". Anyway, I love "Cars" because it is probably the weirdest song ever to become a top 40 smash. It is just the most fascinating document of paranoid introversion. I can't get over it. > Well, 'human' i think is going a bit far...:-) You think? To me he just sounds like a very vulnerable human being. I mean really, to my ears the more he tries to sound like a robot the more he actually sounds like a person imitating a robot. It's a strange but nifty effect :). That's why I said if I owned a robot I'd want it to sound like him. > Well, some call him "a poor man's david bowie". No, that would be Peter Murphy :). Love on ya, Susan ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 11:22:14 -0600 From: amadain Subject: Re: folkie stuff,revelling in evil? >Perhaps I am being obtuse, but isn't this what serial killers >do,revelling in their capacity to do evil and pushing the boundaries all >the time ? Or are you just speaking theoretically? Well, actually there are two things here. First off, I was speaking of it as a valid artistic philosophy, not as in constantly acting it out, which maybe wasn't clear. Secondly, I see a difference between doing this for a purpose, e.g, to attain some broader understanding of human capacities and the darker side of human nature, and doing it because you're a sicko who can't help themselves, which is more the serial killer end of things. There's a huge difference to me obviously also between thinking or even play acting it, and actually doing it- being Michael Caine is different from being the character he created in "Dressed to Kill". I was really referring to the former. >Is it ok to know your capacity for evil by reading about it , or imagining >it ? because in >some people even that may lead to an dangerous obsession . To me yes, I think so. I tend to think that reading/seeing/listening doesn't put ideas in the head of someone like that. It may reinforce what's in there, but the drives are already there. To say that reading say, Poe, puts grim ideas in someone's head that -makes- them do things is not right. Such people fasten on to things like that because they are near to hand and closer to the violence in their head, but could conceivably develop fixations on "Ant & Bee" were that all that were available for their imagination to feed on (actually more serial killers seem to be inspired by the Bible than any horror or porn fiction, AFAIK). I think sane people don't develop this problem from reading/imagining. Sane people are also generally pretty good at distinguishing reality and fiction, as well. Damn this argument is sounding familiar :). >only advantage i could think of knowing ones capacity for evil would >be so you could avoid indulging in that capacity. A big advantage to me would be that in knowing it, you can get ahold of it, understand it, and sort it out, and perhaps by so doing eliminate it altogether. It's sort of hard to get control of something that you're in total denial about having, which actually is a pretty key characteristic of the average serial killer personality- total lack of self-awareness in this department. This may reflect a different perception of human nature on your part, as well. I personally believe that everyone has some evil, some selfishness, some weakness, some ugliness in them. It is far better to try and deal with it and understand it, and know where it comes from and what it is when you see it, than it is to just blindly act out. >However, It would be very probable that if you did find out your capacity >it might be too >late to turn back. What's the harm in KNOWING? If you know you can try to sort it out. If it's too big for you to sort out you can try to get help. But if you don't - -know- anything about it, you're doomed to be a slave to your own drives. >you can come up with a good argument to support it I might change my >mind. I tried :). Love on ya, Susan ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 13:10:20 -0400 (EDT) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: thread catch-up On Fri, 3 Jul 1998, amadain wrote: > Ted, my friend, it appears that you and I have now two big things in common > (three if you count Robyn fanship). Dr. Laura Schlessinger also strikes > -me- as a dangerous and actually pretty hateful person. Ewwwww. i guess i'm a thorough elitist, but i had figured that nobody liked her except people to whom all the subjects she addresses are so shocking and better-not-discussed that they exult in her righteous anger... one of my flatmates has a habit of watching "Talk Soup", a daily summary of things that happened on talk shows that day. the smug announcer invites viewers to laugh at the poor slobs that watch this stuff "for real" and yet (a) there you are on the couch watching talk shows, albeit in bite-size chunks and (b) most of his derision is actually spent on the guests, who like as not are getting pooed on for being different. drives me crazy. (i don't like sounding like i think i'm british, but "apartmentmate" is long and clunky, and "roommate" and "housemate" are inaccurate. any suggestions would be welcome.) > I once read somewhere that "he put a human face > on dance music", and I think that hits the nail on the head. > ... [other people] tried to imitate that frail, emotional yet very > hook-y style, but they only came off sounding clumsy at it. New Order, i think, did something very similar but inverted the human/mechanical equation. on the other hand, they are one of the handful of bands for whom my fondness started me on the path to my current type of music-love, and so they're -- for me -- beyond reproach... pretty much everything i've ever heard, i interpreted relative to those bands. aaron ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Jul 1998 18:51:22 GMT From: dwdudic@erols.com (David W. Dudich) Subject: cookie christ? >The star of my presentation was "The Cookie Monster" - someone had once >given me a gigantic one - he is almost as big as me - though I'm only >5'2". > >So poor Cookie Monster had all these problems with abusing himself and >his addictions...my favourite shot was "Cookie" strung up on a tree, with >red lipstick on his mouth, wearing a garter belt and a bra - and - well - >sorry to those who I will be offending - he was strung up as if on a >cross {no actual cross was used in the making of this scene} - and >looking very dead. > >Of course, when I showed it in class my teacher said: >"What the hell was that and what do you think you are going to do with it." > >Now, I am a very over-sensitive person, especially when I am in pain...so >I just wanted to bawl...but I turned on the light, dug my nails into my >palms, stared him in the face, and retorted: > >"Win the $500 prize for best audio-visual presentation of the year," >then I turned on my heel and walked out of the room then ran to the >bathroom and cried for about half an hour. This sounds like Performance art....COulda applied to the NEA for funding.... :-) -luther ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 13:55:48 -0400 (EDT) From: Lorelei D Laird Subject: much stuff Hi. I'm Lorelei the lurker. Normally I like to skulk in the shadows for a while before introducing myself, but things got interesting. To introduce myself: I'm nineteen and originally hail from San Diego, California, to where I am returning for a visit on Wednesday. I'm about to be a sophomore at Carnegie Mellon University (in lovely sunless Pittsburgh, PA), majoring in professional writing and history. I'm also a DJ at WRCT Pittsburgh, CMU's radio station and one of the few independant stations in the area. Right now I'm wasting the summer away working at one of the dorms here and volunteering at the ACLU. I like good books, shiny things, surrealism, and vegetables, and I love music. A short list of musical obsessions (aside from Robyn): early REM, Talking Heads, Soul Coughing, the Cure, Paul Simon, an obscure New Zealand band called The Chills, new wave/eighties/intelligent synthpop, some ska. Things I've been meaning to become obsessed with: goth music, sixties folk-rock, New Order & Joy Division, the Byrds, Syd Barrett, trip-hop, early King Crimson. I remember and forget more on a regular basis. I also sleep a lot. Can any of y'all recommend anything else for me to be obsessed with? On Gary Numan: I think he's one of the most clever artists to come from the eighties synth explosion,in a way that most people, back in the days of "Cars" didn't catch. His new album, while much darker and probably intended at least partially to capitalize off the trendiness of the "goth" scene, is also pretty good, even though it's nothing like The Pleasure Principle. On the subject of Hyperion: Ack! William Gibson a pathetic hack? Neuromancer was kind of a "busy" book (in that the description was thick and sorta confused me), but it was certainly not terrible. Gibson is considered a god in some of the more literate computer circles. CMU, as you may know, is a big computer school, and the whole cyberpunk thing is very, very popular. Excerpts from mail: 3-Jul-98 Re: thread catch-up by Aaron Mandel@eecs.harvar > > (i don't like sounding like i think i'm british, but "apartmentmate" is > long and clunky, and "roommate" and "housemate" are inaccurate. any > suggestions would be welcome.) The Man Who Occasionally Wanders Through My Kitchen? cheers all, Lorelei ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 17:24:17 -0400 (EDT) From: Bayard Subject: bit by the crossposting bug... Subject: Re: Mixy's Memoirs From: gwrah@aol.com (Gwrah) Date: 1998/06/25 Message-ID: <1998062500321900.UAA26364@ladder01.news.aol.com> Newsgroups: alt.gothic [More Headers] [Subscribe to alt.gothic] That was an awsome story, makes me feel like I'm not alone in the engineering world of spontainious misshaps. I'm a engineer for a radio station in Detroit, and once while setting up for a band (Robyn Hitchcock) I triped over a cable and all 190 lbs. of me crashed into our baby grand piano. After much laughter by Robyn and his and my crew, Robyn says quick sample that........ Matthew (gwrah, pronounced cA-rAh) ICQ# 14065857 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 14:38:51 -0700 (PDT) From: fred is ted Subject: Re: Gray Mooin - ---amadain wrote: In ref to Gary, > He is really fascinating to me. There's something >sort of compellingly fragile about him, it shows in >the music, so exquisitely brittle and emotional almost >in spite of itself. I once read somewhere that "he put >a human face on dance music" Dance Music?!? Who the heck is doing the mashed potato to "Cars"? :). Human face?!? Oh, alright... > > I also see him as occupying this sort of strange >middle ground between the then-dying RB-CEF art >tradition (my own awkward acronym for >RoxyBowieCaleEnoFripp so I don't have to type it out >in full constantly) and the synth-pop bubblegum yet to >come. No one quite achieved again what he did, and >actually few others even tried- Depeche Mode and >various Bauhaus offshoots tried to imitate that frail, >emotional yet very hook-y style, but they only came >off sounding clumsy at it. Man, you've put wayyy more thought into GM than I had thought possible or healthy :). Two words: Kraftwerk. Interesting that both Kraftwerk and Gary have gone on the tour this year. Who's next? Can? The Korgis? Fad Gadget? The mind reels. Maybe Robyn could do a retro/analog synth disc. Wheee! He does have a nasal singing voice at times, a prerequisite for the genre. Recovered happy childhood memory--my dad playing "Autobahn" alot in the summer of 1974--yiz gets cool points there pops! Ahhh, cloudland revisited. Ted "yeah, we get high on music." Kim Deal _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 17:13:33 -0600 From: amadain Subject: Re: thread catch-up >i guess i'm a thorough elitist, but i had figured that nobody liked her >except people to whom all the subjects she addresses are so shocking and >better-not-discussed that they exult in her righteous anger... Actually her demographics are huge. I was once ranting about how evil she was to a guy who sold radio advertising, and he told me she was a big money-maker, and ironically women 25-45 (ME!) are her second biggest demographic, after older people of all stripes, which notion was less shocking to me. Her regular audience is in the millions. I believe she is second only to Limbaugh, who is also objectionable but is at least occasionally entertaining, and right in front of Art Bell, who is - -exceedingly- entertaining and what I would call "an old pro", one of those AM veterans who's just as happy selling hand-cranked radios as Camel cigarettes, and just as happy talking to people who supposedly saw Bigfoot as talking to Mayor Richard Daley :). Anyways......I repeat that I was exposed to this bitch-on-wheels involuntarily through my grandmother. She sent me "How Could You Do That?" as a birthday gift a few years ago, and of course, me being the curious goof that I am, I had to go mess with my blood pressure and read the whole simple-minded, badly-written, hate-filled, arrogant, obnoxious thing! I will say tho that it was a source of great amusement to my roommates, so it wasn't totally useless. Now what I want to know is- where does a chick who's taken a couple of counseling classes get off giving people (suffering, confused people who call ostensibly for HELP, not verbal abuse) such arrogant attitude????? "AMERICA'S MOM"?????? "DR." (of -physiology-!) Laura??????? Seemingly obsessed with snippily and snottily advising people of different religions not to marry when she herself is an Orthodox Jew married to an Episcopalian????? Ah, the wonders of modern media celebrities. >bite-size chunks and (b) most of his derision is actually spent on the >guests, who like as not are getting pooed on for being different. drives >me crazy. Some people think that shit is really funny. IMO it's unbelievably fuckin cruel and I avoid it on principle, though at one time I had something of a morbid fascination with it for that very reason- I just couldn't believe what I was watching. >> ... [other people] tried to imitate that frail, emotional yet very >> hook-y style, but they only came off sounding clumsy at it. > >New Order, i think, did something very similar but inverted the >human/mechanical equation. I think you're totally onto something here. I hadn't thought of them at all because they seem I dunno, generally "brighter" and missing for the most part the dark, introverted, self-consciously Bauhausian-modernist quality that I associate with Numan. Vince Clarke-era Depeche Mode sprang to my mind first because the kind of detached but curiously tragic feel of "Replicas" and "Pleasure Principle" seemed to be what they were trying for (on "Speak And Spell" in particular). Though of course they lacked the precise attack and fragile elegance of those Numan albums, and in that department New Order does come close. Love on ya, Susan ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 15:07:05 -0700 (PDT) From: fred is ted Subject: Re: more gary, etc. > >n.p. Gary Numan, "The Pleasure Principle". A man ahead of his time. In the > >21st century when we all have housework robots, I > > want mine to have Gary Numan's voice. Make mine Marvin (the Paranoid Android)!! BIG favor to ask y'all (espc. Britfegs). Anyone remember the Marvin T.P.A. song that came out in maybe 1981? It had a sort of synth-disco sound. One memorable lyric went "ten billion logic circuits, maybe more... they make me pick the garbage off the floor..." The song got some (lotsa?) play in the UK. Can't find it for the life of me. > >----------------------------- >(He also looks just like Dave Kendall, who I'm sure >most of us remember introing Robyn videos with that great accent...:-)) > -luther LOL! Brings up a vital question--where do all the used-up MTV VJs go? My theory is that they end up right next to the Mountain of Missing Left Socks (as seen in a John K.-era Ren&Stimpy). Probably hang out with the Red Shirt crewmen from the old Star Trek. n.p. on M2: Rachid, "Pride" Great song--could be big. Ted "yeah, we get high on music." Kim Deal _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 17:40:54 -0600 From: amadain Subject: Re: Gray Mooin (and gratuitous Kraftwerk) >Dance Music?!? Who the heck is doing the mashed potato to "Cars"? >:). Well, it's kinda designed to be that, isn't it? Otherwise all that wicked good drum attack is kind of wasted :). Incidentally, hip hop guys apparently think he's Godly and almost as good as George Clinton in terms of stealable grooves. This according to the PP liner notes. >Man, you've put wayyy more thought into GM than I had thought possible >or healthy :). I put way more thought into music in general than a lot of people consider possible or healthy. I can't really seem to help it, I just have that kind of brain. Trivia? I know not this word, trivia :). >Two words: Kraftwerk. Extremely different IMO. Firstly, Kraftwerk seems to me to come out of sort of a (dare I say it?) proggie tradition. I mean, "Autobahn" sounds inspired by the Pink Floyd of "More", "Atom Heart Mother", &C. as much as by the Futurists. Gary Numan is more reminiscent of a very different stripe of art influence (more Expressionist, I'd say) and also a different kind of artband influence, specifically the Roxy/Eno/et al (still haven't figured out a good shorthand for that!) crowd. He seems to me to be much more inspired by the "Low" album than anything of Kraftwerk's. The instrumentals on PP are very very close to those of "Low" and to a lesser extent "Heroes", as is the lyrical paranoia. Important to note also the combination of analog bass and drums, and the viola, along with the synthesizers and electronic percussion. Kraftwerk was determinedly all-machine, it was part and parcel of their whole Futurist-style ethos. Secondly, Gary Numan seems to be interested in crafting this sort of little sci-fi world and painting portraits of isolation, paranoia, and alienation, whereas Kraftwerk don't seem to be much interested in this kind of thing. Actually they strike me as for the most part altogether sunnier. They're Futurists. Numan is an Expressionist. Love on ya, Susan the over-thoughtful :) P.S. "Glass Flesh" and the Monday's Lunch CD arrived yesterday. Thanks thanks thanks to Mark Gloster. I am listening to GF now, and so far I like the Kevin Slick, Mark Gloster, and James Dignan tracks the bestest, but everything is good! :) ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V7 #249 *******************************