From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V7 #429 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Tuesday, November 17 1998 Volume 07 : Number 429 Today's Subjects: ----------------- October in New York [The Great Quail ] RE: Lanois ["Chaney, Dolph L" ] Love the Hewitt ["Chaney, Dolph L" ] Re: Lanois [Eb ] This is just to say... [Natalie Jacobs ] Dreams (was: well sirs, what did you think?) [Michael Wolfe ] Re: This is just to say... [amadain ] Re: East Bay Boogaloo [Nur Gale ] 100% Robyn content. True! [lj lindhurst ] Re: This is just to say... [Capuchin ] Re: This is just to say... [Danielle ] Re: 100% Robyn content. True! [Capuchin ] Re: Vinyl Alert!! ["Michael R. Runion" ] Moose Me, Baby! ["Michael R. Runion" ] Re: NYC next weekend. [Briannupp@aol.com] Re: This is just to say... [Jon Fetter ] sonicnet review [desmond in a tutu ] FW: Freebies ["The Rooneys" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 16 Oct 98 16:37:54 -0500 From: The Great Quail Subject: October in New York >And apparently it's still October in New York! The foliage must be >beautiful!! Heh, heh. Well, to answer you -- and you are not the only one to note my backdated address -- I have set my computer back a month so I can recelebrate Halloween! Pretty ingenious, eh? THINK of all the candy I'm gonna rake in. . . . . OK, actually I am using a demo program that expires (expired?) November 15th, and since my boss is too cheap to get me a real copy, I had to trick my computer into thinking the demo was still fresh. Y2K problem? What Y2K problem? I plan to relive the birth of Modernism. . . . - --The Big Quailbowski PS: I *finally* saw the Big Lebowski, Eddie, and all I could think about was you -- I pictured you as the German guy with the marmet. PS: So who is going to post the Master List of all 1998 music releases? I can already sense the Top Ten Lists being formed. . . . Eat! Eat! Eat! +---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ The Great Quail, K.S.C. (riverrun Discordian Society) For fun with postmodern literature, New York vampires, and Fegmania, visit Sarnath: http://www.rpg.net/quail "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." -- H.P. Lovecraft ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 16:34:38 -0500 From: "Chaney, Dolph L" Subject: RE: Lanois On the Froom/Lanois point -- I'd like to bring two exceptions to the discussion: Lanois: Peter Gabriel's Birdy, So, and Us. Much crisper records than the more stereotypical releases (notably, co-productions with Gabriel). It could be argued that this is because Gabriel's last non-Lanois release, Security, was so arid. The balance between the approaches creates the great sound. Froom: American Music Club's _Mercury_. Other Froom productions have had as strong a set of songs (RT's Rumor & Sigh, arguably Ms. Vega's 99.9F), but even on those, the Froomisms didn't seem integrated. Mercury is full of odd touches and unmistakeable Froomage, yet it fits the characters and settings in Eitzel's songs. Comparing the versions of "What Godzilla Said To God When His Name Was Not Found In The Book Of Life" (aka "Nothing Can Bring Me Down") on Eitzel's solo _Songs Of Love Live_ with that on _Mercury_, all the production detail *works* and elevates the songs. Michael K.'s point about how hiring Lanois is "like hiring a backing band" is spot-on. However, it should also be pointed out that Lanois when to lay out of the proceedings and let an artist get a less processed sound, often moving along a continuum between heavy Lanoisie and more-or-less live recording (see Chris Whitley's _Living With The Law_, produced by Lanois protege Malcolm Burn with Lanois showing up on a track or two, or compare "With Or Without You" and "Trip Through Your Wires"). Songs on Froom records are usually more homogenous from one to the other. I bet RT had to fight to keep extra junk off of "God Loves A Drunk," else it would've sounded like AMC's "Will You Find Me?" -- a great sound, but would've been *wrong* for that track. I'm told that live early 90s recordings of RT and band absolutely SMOKE the Froom/RT records. Your weekly blahblah from... Dolph np: Starflyer 59 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 16:44:14 -0500 From: "Chaney, Dolph L" Subject: Love the Hewitt btw... just did a Metacrawler search for "Jennifer Love Hewitt". The results themselves are not that interesting. However, the top banner ad is for a company called Silicon Investor. I am NOT making this up. Dolph ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 13:50:37 -0800 From: Eb Subject: Re: Lanois Capuchin: >There was the classic ensemble >cast photo with everyone looking serious and straight ahead against a dark >background looking over one another's shoulders and standing in >aesthetically pleasing arrangment. All of their bodies faded out just >below the shoulder, except Jennifer Love Hewitt. She was the forwardmost >and her breasts were at the same level as the title and jutting forward. Oh yes, of course I noticed this too. Cleavage a go-go. Boy, if I had a dollar for every girl I've seen/met/known who was easily as attractive, talented, charismatic and (yes) "stacked" as JLH, I'd be very rich indeed. I am completely unable to fathom the JLH hype. Her publicist must be an utter genius. Quail: >PS: So who is going to post the Master List of all 1998 music releases? I >can already sense the Top Ten Lists being formed. . . . Coincidentally, that's exactly what I had to do this weekend: Best/Worst lists of 1998. But I think that I'll wait to post, until there's a flourishing thread on the subject. Eb PS Sorry, I thought Froom's production on AMC's Mercury was typically intrusive. About the only two Froom records I've heard where the production style didn't grate on me are the first two Crowded House albums and the Cibo Matto disc (where Froom's percussion fetishes finally found an appropriate home). ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 17:01:11 -0400 From: Natalie Jacobs Subject: This is just to say... ... there is a brief mention of Jay Hedblade in an odious "generation X" magazine called SWING which is inexplicably delivered to my office. The article is about 20-somethings and cable access. Apparently Mr. Hedblade has his own cable access show in Chicago. This is probably not news to the rest of you. Also, I would like to point out that, contrary to previous posts, quails are not flightless, except for some of the Galapagos Island subspecies described so movingly by Jon Fetter. Quails are perfectly capable of flight, which means, of course, that none of us are truly safe, and attempts to assassinate TGQ by pushing him out of his office window are futile. It's all-out war between the phyla in my apartment: the ants are eating my cat's food. n., who is still not certain who Jennifer Love Hewitt is, except that the sight of her makes me queasy p.s. I bet I'm even grumpier than Eb! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 22:05:10 +0000 (GMT) From: Michael Wolfe Subject: Dreams (was: well sirs, what did you think?) I had an odd dream the other night. I dreamed that I was in the audience for a production of Shakespeare's Julius Caeser. It was a pretty low rent affair, with a sparse stage, about 3 feet tall and backed with curtains, and the audience seated in about 6 rows of metal folding chairs. I was seated in the second row, in the very rightmost seat. The play is going along fine, and it comes to a point where there are 3 actors on the stage when one of them starts to forget her line. She's up there going "Um,...umm...err," stammering, trying to remember her line. The other two are just looking embarassed, and one of them tries to tell her the line, and she irritatededly replies "No, that's not it!" All three start bickering and arguing more and more loudly, right there on the stage, to the point where actors from offstage walk on stage shouting about how they warned them about this in rehearsal, but would anyone listen? Needless to say, all pretext of character has been dropped at this point. I turn to the guy sitting next to me and say, rather loudly, "It's a TRIUMPH of naturalism!!" I woke myself up giggling. Anyway, I thought the small PDX feg gathering last Wednesday was an unqualified success. For my part, I really had a great time meeting all of the other list-members here in Portland. I also took the opportunity to buy Mark Gloster's Monday's Lunch (note the caps. I bought the album, not a half-eaten sandwich.) I really love it. It really incorporates so many different influences: Call of the Wild and Bohica have a somewhat carribean feel to them, while Dinosaur is tinged with that Bay Area funk-punk sound (the instrumentation reminds me somewhat of FNM and perhaps Primus, though it's quite a bit less irritating than either, IMHO.) A fine sense of humor throughout, though the songs' themes are pretty serious. The humor just lets it go down easily; they don't feel like novelties at all. Good job, Mark! - -Michael ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 22:35:54 +0000 (GMT) From: Michael Wolfe Subject: Dreams (was: well sirs, what did you think?) Oh, by the way: np: Monday's Lunch, Mark Gloster and Big Rubber Shark :) - -Michael ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 17:43:35 -0500 (EST) From: Bayard Subject: Re: Vinyl Alert!! On Mon, 16 Nov 1998, Rich Plumb wrote: > And then he pulled out about 6 soft boys singles autographed by > everybody, even Kimberley. > > I'm not a collector, but anybody who is interested can get more > information and order through their website, www.vinylink.com In case you were too lazy to look, here's what they've got (it's a nifty store!) Hey Chris Gross, you have a phonograph or two, yessss? SOFT BOYS (I Want to Be An) Anglepoise Lamp/Fatman's Son UK 7" $30.00 Order Form Autographed by ROBYN, KIMBERLY, ANDY & MORRIS SOFT BOYS He's a Reptile UK 7" $25.00 Order Form Autographed by Robyn, Kimberly & Morris SOFT BOYS I Wanna Destroy You/I'm An Old Pervert FR 7" $30.00 Order Form On Armageddon Records & autographed by Kimberly, Morris & Robyn SOFT BOYS Invisible Hits UK LP $12.00 Order Form On Midnight Music SOFT BOYS Kingdom of Love + 2 UK 7" $20.00 Order Form Autographed by Robyn, Morris & Kimberly SOFT BOYS Only The Stones Remain/The ASking Tree UK 7" $30.00 Order Form Autographed by all but Jim SOFT BOYS Underwater Moonlight UK LP $5.00 Order Form On Living Crem SOFT BOYS Wading Through a Ventilator UK 12" $25.00 Order Form 6 tracks on Delorian, autographed by Robyn, Morris & Andt Andt: HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Balloon Man/A Globe of Frogs US 7" $12.00 Order Form Autographed by Robyn HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Balloon Man/Balloon Man US 7" $2.00 Order Form White label promo, no ps HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Black Snake Diamond Role UK LP $20.00 Order Form Autogrphed by Robyn & Morris on Armageddon Records HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Black Snake Diamond Role US LP $8.00 Order Form Nice copy on Glass Fish/Relativity HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Brenda's Iron Sledge UK 12" $20.00 Order Form Autographed by Robyn and also contains "Only the Stones Remain" & "The Pit of Souls Parts i - IV" HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Eaten By Her Own Dinner UK 12" $10.00 Order Form 5 track ep on Midnight Records HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Eaten By Her Own Dinner UK 7" $18.00 Order Form Autographed copy of this 3 songe ep on Midnight HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Eye UK LP $3.50 Order Form Nice copy on Twin Tone, 1990 HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Eye US LP $10.00 Order Form Sealed US pressing HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Fegmanial UK LP $25.00 Order Form Autographed by Robyn + 3 HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Froovy Decay GER LP $10.00 Order Form White wax on Line HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Gotta Let This Hen Out US LP $15.00 Order Form Autographed copy HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Groovy Decay UK LP $18.00 Order Form Autographed copy HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Groovy Decoy US LP $18.00 Order Form Nice autographed (by Robyn) copy on Midnight Records HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Groovy Decoy US LP $3.50 Order Form Nice uncut copy on Glass Fish HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Heaven UK 12" $10.00 Order Form 3 song ep on Midnight Records HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Heaven UK 12" $20.00 Order Form Nice autographed (by Robyn) 3 song ep on Midnight Records HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Heaven/Listening to the Higsons US 7" $5.00 Order Form Promo on Realitivity, no ps HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Invisible Hitchcock UK LP $10.00 Order Form On Glass Fish Records HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Madonna of the Wasps US CD $10.00 Order Form 3 track promo HITCHCOCK, ROBYN The Bells of Rhymney UK 12" $10.00 Order Form On Midnight Records HITCHCOCK, ROBYN The Bells of Rhymney UK 12" $18.00 Order Form Autographed by Robyn on Midnight Records HITCHCOCK, ROBYN The Man Who Invented Himself/Dancing On God's Thumb UK 7" $20.00 Order Form Autogrphed by Robyn & Morris HITCHCOCK, ROBYN Fegmania US LP $30.00 Order Form Fully autographed on back of jacket, promo stamp on front Just in case your problim is you have too much money!! =b ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 17:43:43 -0600 From: amadain Subject: Re: This is just to say... >article is about 20-somethings and cable access. Apparently Mr. Hedblade >has his own cable access show in Chicago. This is probably not news to the >rest of you. Sure ain't. He does the show with his brother. It's called "Image Mind Television" and he has interviewed Robyn (and included some taped performance as well) for it a couple times, too. If I call his answering machine I can also find out what times the show is on, but I am not sure how to find out otherwise, as Cable Access programming is not listed in the &*!@*#@& TV guide. His review of "Storefront" was in Sunday's Chicago Tribune. After unsuccessfully attempting to find it on the Chicago Tribune site, which is both overly-graphic-ed and exceptionally cranky to those who refuse to let them place cookies, I figured it would in fact be less trouble to just type the damn thing in rather than spend any more time trying to get it from the site. So here it is. Bear in mind that the Sunday record reviews at the Trib are always kinda blurb-like and seldom consist of any kind of deep, probing analysis- that sort of thing is saved for the articles about real quality artists like R. Kelly *snort*. Love on ya, Susan (review follows) ROBYN HITCHCOCK- "Storefront Hitchcock" (Jay Hedblade) Though "Storefront Hitchcock" is the product of two shows filmed for theatrical release by Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme, it likely won't break the British singer-songwriter out of his 20-year-niche as a cult artist. It's a blend of new and old tunes performed live by Hitchcock, primarily with only his guitar and vocals for interpretation. Because he isn't Hendrix or Sinatra in either department, the songs are the defining element. And though they are riddled with beauty ("Glass Hotel"), humor ("I Something You"), or pop blissfulness ("Alright Yeah"), Hitchcock's work has never been strictly commercial nor overly avant garde. He challenges listeners by juxtaposing Beatles harmonies with deceptively absurd lyrics ("You've got hair in places most people haven't got brains"), or by simply being horribly out of step with current musical fashions. Neither sexy rocker nor confessional folkie, what Hitchcock does do, with unique brilliance, is perservere. One must assume he's guided by a divine muse, for "Storefront Hitchcock" is another in a long list of rewarding releases by that rarest of rock 'n' roll commodities: an artist. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 16:03:08 -0800 From: Nur Gale Subject: Re: East Bay Boogaloo Gee.... St. John's is on College Avenue... no watering holes in that neighborhood, but there are a number of coffee hangouts. Cafe Roma (corner of Ashby and College Ave... about 3 blocks south from the Church) is one suggestion... or La Strada's (corner of Bancroft & College -- where Colleg Ave. ends at the campus -- hmmmm... gee, about 6-7 blocks north from St. Johns) is another... lots of outdoor seating at La Stradas. nur ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 18:58:58 -0400 From: lj lindhurst Subject: 100% Robyn content. True! bonjour! <--I say since I am french I have been happily listening to an AWESOME bootleg that I got from Bayard of the Robyn show in Seattle at the Crocodile Cafe (from this year). I am especially enthralled with "I Thought I Heard NASA Clapping". Is that the name of that song, first of all? Secondly, how long has he been playing this one? And thirdly, does anyone have the lyrics? If you guys already talked about this and I missed it, sorry... This is making me TRULY look forward to the Mercury Lounge show! So far attending the festivities: Bayard, Chris, Mary, gary, woj, Vivien (note french name) notably not attending the festivities: Capuchin nagging department: what, no doug??? (by the way, doug, Q and I agree that you should name your band "GOD SPEED JOHN GLENN") - -Monsieur Poodle Pants! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 16:15:31 -0800 (PST) From: Capuchin Subject: Re: This is just to say... On Mon, 16 Nov 1998, Natalie Jacobs wrote: > p.s. I bet I'm even grumpier than Eb! That's as may be, but I believe I hold the record for all out crabbiness. J. ________________________________________________________ J A Brelin Capuchin ________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 16:26:52 -0800 (PST) From: Danielle Subject: Re: This is just to say... Gnat and Jeme: > > p.s. I bet I'm even grumpier than Eb! > > That's as may be, but I believe I hold the record for all out crabbiness. Can I have 'bloody irritated', please? Danielle, who was actually in an OK mood yesterday _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 16:44:04 -0800 (PST) From: Capuchin Subject: Re: 100% Robyn content. True! On Mon, 16 Nov 1998, lj lindhurst wrote: > I have been happily listening to an AWESOME bootleg that I got from Bayard > of the Robyn show in Seattle at the Crocodile Cafe (from this year). I am > especially enthralled with "I Thought I Heard NASA Clapping". Is that the > name of that song, first of all? Secondly, how long has he been playing > this one? And thirdly, does anyone have the lyrics? This is also my favorite of the new songs. I first heard it in Portland the night before said Seattle gig (and again on the following night). Is your tape the one eddie made? I'm afraid I was talking quite a bit and may possibly have ruined the show. Did you get the crazy drunk woman babbling away as well? Eddie enjoyed her harmonies on Silver Dagger, anyway. Here are the lyrics eddie posted: I THOUGHT I HEARD NASA CLAPPING Who's gonna be the greedy boy? Me! I've gone and eaten what I loved: You! I've stuffed that rats' tails In the black slot provided in the letterbox Buzz Aldrin took me by the arm And said someday that I'd be rich I think he meant that I was Gonna be your lover in my lifetime And I thought I heard I thought I heard NASA clapping I thought I heard I thought I heard NASA clapping There'll be a golf course on the moon And we can sleep in lava tubes And we can bask in lunar winds And solar flares will do you nicely Nicely And there'll be cows and there'll be jails And sewage to pump into [? two syllables] bales As we contaminate the sky The moon becomes a shrieking skull But I thought I heard I thought I heard NASA clapping I thought I heard I thought I heard NASA clapping Who's gonna be the greedy boy? Me! I've gone and eaten what I loved: You! I've stuffed the rats' tails In the black slot provided in the letterbox But I thought I heard I thought I heard NASA clapping I thought I heard I thought I heard NASA clapping Oh I thought I heard I thought I heard NASA clapping Yeah I thought I heard I thought I heard I thought I heard I thought I heard Yeah I thought I heard Well I thought I heard NASA clapping > If you guys already talked about this and I missed it, sorry... We did, but most of us would bend over backward for you. (Did I say that? Goodness no.) > This is making me TRULY look forward to the Mercury Lounge show! Thanks. Rub it in a little more, ok? > So far attending the festivities: Bayard, Chris, Mary, gary, woj, Vivien > (note french name) > notably not attending the festivities: Capuchin That's better. > -Monsieur Poodle Pants! Sigh. Je. ________________________________________________________ J A Brelin Capuchin ________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 20:14:03 -0800 From: "Michael R. Runion" Subject: Re: Vinyl Alert!! Bayard wrote: > In case you were too lazy to look, here's what they've got (it's a nifty > store!) Hey Chris Gross, you have a phonograph or two, yessss? > HITCHCOCK, ROBYN > Froovy Decay > GER LP $10.00 Order Form > White wax on Line Ah man! The ever elusive Froovy Decay!!!! Quick...hey, back off Eddie! It's mine! (scuffle, scuffle) Ugh...Ahghg! No..no...my god, he really is the German guy with the marmet!!!! Mike (bloody and crippled, with only the memory of Froovy being ripped from my grasp) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 20:35:27 -0800 From: "Michael R. Runion" Subject: Moose Me, Baby! Hey all, The Virtual Cone Museum just celebrated its 20th Cone! Come gaze on the mystical splendor of "Moose Me, Baby!", a delightful cone brought to us by Ms. Kristy Duncan of Los Gatos, CA. The Kone Ceeper http://www5.palmnet.net/~mrrunion/cones.htm n.p. The wonderous 4/4/98 Mean Fiddler show! Damn, why haven't I listened to this before now! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 21:31:10 EST From: Briannupp@aol.com Subject: Re: NYC next weekend. I`d get thre ticket, NYC - great Place (hey John Lennon wanted to live there) and id be hard not to have a good time, specially for the reasons your going. You can`t buy time, but you can always buy a trumpet. -Brian ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 12:03:26 +0800 From: Jon Fetter Subject: Re: This is just to say... Quails are perfectly capable of >flight, which means, of course, that none of us are truly safe, and >attempts to assassinate TGQ by pushing him out of his office window are >futile. Not only that, but TGQ and his evil non-identical and chronologically-skewed twin Robert "I'm a golden god" Plant have Wonder Twin Powers. Push him out the window and its "Shape of an inflatable Easter bunny!" (or a dry giant puffball) as you're left watching him float down into the peaceful mid-town (or is it upper mid?) traffic. >It's all-out war between the phyla in my apartment: the ants are eating my >cat's food. I once ate "Five Phyla Stew." Pretty nasty, as the sea cucumbers had been dried and tasted preserved, unlike the fresh ones I can get here. I didn't like the tunicates either. There weren't any platyhelminthes or giant tube-worms from the Galapagos rift in the stew, thank the gods. I'm not suggesting you cook your cat with ants. Not unless the sea cucumbers are fresh. Jon, who's ashamed to admit that he balked at eating fried giant water bugs, crickets and grasshoppers in a Bangkok market--they were too greasy - ------------------------------------------------------------------- "To have a light, you gotta have a dark to put it in!" - --Arlo Guthrie ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 22:57:31 -0500 From: desmond in a tutu Subject: sonicnet review Animal Or Vegetable? "If it weren't for our rib cages it would just be spleens a go-go.'' By Seth Mnookin Yip. Yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip. (That's 44 "yips" in all.) What's "that," you say? Why, the opening of a Robyn Hitchcock song about the death of his father; what else? This is, after all, an artist who considers "something'' to be not only a verb but an active declaration of love. To tried-and-true Hitchcock fans, such pointed chicanery comes as no surprise. Ever since his emergence as the leader of the avant-pop outfit the Soft Boys in the late '70s, Hitchcock has been showered with the kind of praise that comes with cult superstardom: He's been called England's most literate rocker, music's last surviving surrealist and the world's only psychedelic-pop-folk maestro. However, even those aficionados who have every Soft Boys album, every Egyptians B-side and every K-Record 7-inch are only getting half the fun if they've never seen Hitchcock in concert. In addition to writing songs about sexually ambiguous teen-age nightmares and living-dead ex-wives, Hitchcock is an artist who finds that it makes exquisite sense to connect the above-mentioned tales about life ("The Yip Song'') and love ("I Something You'') with an extended narrative describing the existential nightmare and inevitable psychological terror experienced by some poor chap wrapped in duct tape who, due to a "problem with physics,'' finds himself suspended 8 feet above London -- where, naturally, everyone thinks he is an about-to-be-detonated bomb. Until recently, suburban home-dwellers had to be satisfied solely with the impossible-to-pigeonhole musical side of Hitchcock, missing out on the deranged, iconoclastic, free-associative monologues that pepper Hitchcock's live shows. But that's all changed with the release of Storefront Hitchcock, the soundtrack to the Jonathan Demme movie of the same name. "Storefront Hitchcock'' was filmed, and recorded, over three days in a Manhattan, N.Y., storefront in December 1996. And the movie, by all accounts, is delightful: Hitchcock, accompanied by violinist Deni Bonet (and guitarist Tim Keegan on a couple of tunes) sets up shop on 14th Street in front of 200 or so fans and does his thing. (Demme, who also directed the film version of Spalding Gray's "Swimming to Cambodia," seems like a perfect choice to choreograph such an outing.) More important (to us, at least), the resulting disc is one of those rarest of albums that can genuinely be called a true masterpiece, a delightful trip through Hitchcock's stubbornly individualistic world. Hitchcock has always been a more complex artist than he is given credit for. Many listeners still associate Hitchcock primarily with the ground-breaking, power-pop work he did with the Egyptians in the '80s. And while "The Man With the Lightbulb Head'' is a great song, Hitchcock has many sides: the gentle troubadour, the dour cynic, the ebullient trickster. All those sides are amply evident on Storefront Hitchcock. Fegmania!'s "I'm Only You'' becomes achingly wistful as Hitchcock slows it down and picks every note with deliberate forcefulness, while "Where Do You Go When You Die?'' (written for the movie) is downright menacing: Hitchcock's ominous, disjointed harmonica and his lowered, conspiratorial singing are almost creepy, and not in a transgendered kind of way, either. Throw in a moving cover of Hendrix's "Wind Cries Mary'' and a seven-minute version of Hitchcock's classic "Beautiful Queen'' and you have the makings for a wonderfully eccentric singer/songwriter disc. While Hitchcock's lyrics are impossible to label, musically Storefront Hitchcock is a delicate, multi-layered effort, marked by Hitchcock's crystalline voice, his deceptively simple guitar lines and Bonet's wonderful violin shadings. But the music is only half the story here, and to fully appreciate Hitchcock's intoxicating attitude you also need his verbal wanderings, whether he's discussing the importance of the human skeleton ("If it weren't for our rib cages it would just be spleens a go-go'') or the perfect living-room accessory ("A chair unable to cause you any pain whatsoever. It's designed not to upset you in the least: it's not even bland. You couldn't say, 'This is annoyingly comfortable' ''). The dozen songs on Storefront Hitchcock (including four new tunes) offer a wonderful snapshot of Hitchcock and his favorite themes: life, death, love and rotting fruit. The accompanying introductions (which, incidentally, have nothing at all to do with the songs they precede) deal with organized religion, glowing tomatoes and the importance of muzak. Throw it all together and you get Martha. I think Hitchcock describes her best: "Martha is a whole mass of molecules and complexes and things bound together by terrifying physical improbabilities and the truth is she could fly apart at any moment ... '' [Mon., November 16, 12:01 AM EST] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 03:35:06 -0500 From: "The Rooneys" Subject: FW: Freebies We're moving onward and leaving behind some RH quirks and some poorly recorded/produced music by RH & other fine musicians. If you're interested in owning (not selling) and willing to follow through quickly with a self-addressed stamped mailer, please reply to rooneya@pilot.msu.edu All Free and _No_ Credit Card necessary for age verification. RH Vinyl: One Long Pair of Eyes (Edit 3:56), The Ghost in You (Live 3:29), Freeze (Shatter Mix 4:16). Red Vinyl. Madonna of the Wasps (3:05), One Long Pair of Eyes w/ Spoken Intro (7:18), More Than This (3:52). Purple Vinyl. K-Records: I Something You, Zipper in My Spine, Man with a Woman's Shadow (Photo of Robyn & Dad on Cover) Bob 8: Happy The Golden Prince Kimberly Rew Vinyl: My Baby Does Her Hairdo Long, Fishing RH CD's: Stand Back, Dennis! Live in Athens, GA 2/3/88 (worse even than GLTHO) Rout of the Clones (Live in '78) (pales compared to Soft Boys double disc collection) Madonna of the Wasps Promo (Edit 2:45), (LP Version 3:05) Scratched and barely playable Invisible Hitchcock, Moist 2 CD, 1986. Alvin Lives (in Leeds) Anti Poll Tax Trax with 1 Hitchcock Track "Kung Fu Fighting" OTHER CD's: Killing Joke "Killing Joke" Stiff Little Fingers "Nobody's Heroes" with an order form for Cpt Beefhearts "Lick My Decals Off" Stiff Little Fingers "No Sleep 'Til Belfast" (Live, 74 minutes) Stranglers "Aural Sculpture" Stranglers "The Collection 1977-1982" Violent Femmes "Add it Up" (1981-1993) Violent Femmes "New Times" Naked Raygun "Throb Throb" ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V7 #429 *******************************