From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V9 #264 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Saturday, September 23 2000 Volume 09 : Number 264 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [ebmaniax-l] Elastic Meat [Eb ] Re: [ebmaniax-l] Elastic Meat [Tom Clark ] Re: new email address [grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan)] Re: [ebmaniax-l] Elastic Meat [Eclipse ] Re: [ebmaniax-l] Elastic Meat [Eclipse ] Re: [ebmaniax-l] Elastic Meat [GSS ] gnatmaniax! [Natalie Jacobs ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 16:41:55 -0700 From: Eb Subject: [ebmaniax-l] Elastic Meat Yup, another night out, in this inexplicably stuffed month o' concerts. Well, stuffed by my own standards, at least. I was really looking forward to last night's show at the Roxy, a sold-out double bill of new labelmates Elastica and the Meat Puppets. (The same bill performs again, tonight.) Both bands have released albums which are reasonably important to me, both bands haven't toured/recorded much in recent years and both bands I've only seen once before, under poor circumstances (I saw Elastica at Lollapalooza from waaaaaaay back on the Irvine Meadows amphitheater lawn, and I only saw the Meat Puppets once in 1989, at a time when I owned just one of the group's albums.) The night turned out to be a bit anticlimactic. Of course, the Meat Puppets have a retooled lineup -- only leader Curt Kirkwood remains. By all accounts, Cris Kirkwood is busily writing his obituary, nowadays. Curt has three new musicians with him: a second guitarist, a bassist/backing vocalist and a drummer. The drummer was a real horror. His playing was fine, but he was alarmingly redneck. Looked like someone who would hang out with those guys in "American Movie." Long greasy hair, painfully skinny, sweaty, unshirted...and he kept standing up between songs and flashing two-fisted, rock 'n' roll peace signs to the crowd. Without irony. "Wooooooo!!" At the end of the set as he was leaving the stage, he grabbed the mike and attempted to get the crowd chanting something like "We are so fuckin' cool." Jeez, what a dork. The band definitely didn't have the same synergy of the old trio. The new players are all noticeably younger (and physically smaller) than Kirkwood, and they felt like a backing group more than equal peers. There were only a few older songs played -- the set list was mostly unheard, fresh material. (The years-overdue album comes out on Tuesday, but I haven't heard it yet.) The new songs were strong, though I wish there was a bit more geetar-pickin' and a few less power chords. There wasn't much instrumental flash, not even in Kirkwood's own playing, and that's a shame since he remains one of our few genuine, alt-rock guitar heroes (Tom Verlaine, Robert Quine, Billy Zoom, Thurston Moore, J Mascis, Tom Morello...ummmm, who else?). Sometimes I wished the second guitarist wasn't there, muddying up Kirkwood's own lines. Not much stage patter, and not as fun as it should've been. I overheard an older guy behind me, sniffing that the group would be better if they didn't sing. Well, he wouldn't be the first one to criticize Kirkwood's vocals, certainly. The room was full for both bands' performances, but the audience's character seemed to radically change for Elastica. I guess the grizzled indie-rockers went back to the tables, and the boppers all moved up front. Me, I stayed where I was in the middle of the standing crowd, feeling unpleasantly cramped. The fans really went berzerk, when the band finally hit the stage. Elastica has six members, nowadays: central figures singer/guitarist Justine Frischmann and bassist Annie Holland, a guitarist (whom I was told used to be in Linoleum), a drummer, a keyboardist and...uhh...someone else. I say "someone else," because I still haven't figured what the heck this girl was doing onstage. She had a couple of keyboards in front of her, but she rarely touched them. When she did, it was only to produce one-finger effects. Mostly, she just made annoying rockstar faces, hopped around the stage and jiggled her chest. Oh yes, and added intermittent backing vocals, usually unnecessary and just doubling what Justine was singing. Whatever, baby. Boy, did she think she was hot stuff. Upon checking my CD today, I discovered she goes by the simple name "Mew." Figures...just another example of her posturing. So, that was two eyesore musicians in one sight. At least one too many. Frischmann has an undeniable natural charisma, though she wasn't as attractive as in her pictures. Still, there's something about the relaxed sling of her shoulders which is really sensuous and appealing. Don't ask me to explain. You just get the sense that she's athletic and graceful, and could throw you a football without looking silly. She was wearing an incongruous, sleeveless Lizzy Borden T-shirt (who in the world remembers *that* band??) and low-riding jeans which showed her boyish yellow briefs in back. While we're talking T-shirts, maybe I should add that "Mew" was wearing a Sassoon shirt (also sleeveless), while Holland was wearing a black shirt with an image of a man named something like "Alice Cooder." Couldn't quite make out the name, but he had long hair and looked somewhat ghoulish. Oh, and Frischmann had her Patti Smith armpits a-growing...which I find kinda sexy, personally. The crowd was wild. During the most raucous moments, Frischmann would pogo up and down while playing, and the fans in front giddily bounced in response. However, as the concert proceeded, I was sadly realizing that despite the immediate appeal of her vocals and the band's punky textures, they really don't have many first-rate songs. Basically, it comes down to "Connection" (still one of my favorite singles of the past decade), "Stutter," "Car Song," "2:1" (which wasn't even played last night, I believe) and maybe "Mad Dog." The rest are just serviceable genre pastiches, always listenable but rarely inspiring. I fervently hoped the second album would straighten out the uneven debut's limitations (especially after taking five years to arrive), but instead, it's a trashy collapse which leads me to conclude the band's prime has already passed for good. I was really surprised the group bothered to play their version of "Da Da Da" (the final track -- and most blatant filler -- on the new album), because covering that tune couldn't be more pointless. Weird tic of Justine: She'd blurt "Cheers!" after almost every song, as if she was Elvis saying "Thankyouverymuch." I wearily spent the encore set in the lobby, wanting to avoid the exit traffic. As I left the club, I had a disturbing hallucination in the sky: a gleaming billboard with Judge Judy's huge, maniacally grinning face and the caption "Ruler of the Free World." Um...I *did* hallucinate that, didn't I? After the show, I wandered down the street to the Viper Room to say hi to the increasingly legendary Lawndart, who was DJing. Prior to getting there, I didn't realize this meant I would see *another* show. So, chalk up a new name alongside Spinal Tap, the Who and the Bangles on my "Least Likely Acts to See in the Year 2000" list: *Nick Heyward*. Yeesh. I didn't even recognize him when he came onstage. He was older and a bit paunchier, and playing acoustic guitar while gently perched on a stool. No other musicians, though he was joined halfway through the set by a female singer named "India Dupre" (I think), sort of a skinny, 35-year-old version of Britney Spears with a wispy, ingenue voice. The songs -- all mellow ballads - -- really weren't so different from his Haircut One Hundred hits: melodic, pleasant, inoffensive and trivial. I would've watched the whole set, but Lawndart (whose impatience and minimal attention span are ever a source of amusement and/or frustration) urged us outside about three-quarters through the performance. Very well. After the show ended and the crowd trickled away, he pinned me in the DJ booth, fearsomely waved some vinyl and resumed his ongoing attempts to turn me gungho about '70s funk. Heh heh. Gotta admire his perseverance. Meanwhile, I'm *probably* seeing Brian Wilson & the Pet Sounds Symphony on the 24th, and it looks like I'll be spending my birthday on the 30th with Laika at the new Knitting Factory. I expect next month to be far less compacted. King Crimson, Beck and Suicide are the only strong candidates, as yet.... increasingly bleary Eb ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 17:21:53 -0700 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: [ebmaniax-l] Elastic Meat on 9/22/00 4:41 PM, Eb at gondola@deltanet.com wrote: > There wasn't much instrumental > flash, not even in Kirkwood's own playing, and that's a shame since he > remains one of our few genuine, alt-rock guitar heroes (Tom Verlaine, > Robert Quine, Billy Zoom, Thurston Moore, J Mascis, Tom Morello...ummmm, > who else?). I smell a thread!! Here are two for discussion: Richard Lloyd and Joey Santiago. Cheers! - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 13:03:42 +1300 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: Re: new email address >James Dignan wrote: >> >> James Dignan is now contactable by the friendly pixels of surf4nix on >> > >I wonder why anyone would choose the name of the harbour that the Fair >Isle Ferry sails from, near Sumburgh (Shetland), for their addy? It has >some very special connections for me. > > Stewart I wondered how long it would be before someone pointed out the origin of my address! (I should have guessed it would be someone up north of the border...) Truth is, a friend of mine and I once decided to find the part of Brotain with the weirdest place names. She said Dorset (Compton-Pauncefoot, anyone? How about Piddletrenthide?). I said Lincoln (home of Mavis Enderby (the village, that is)). Then we discovered the joys of Shetland names. Aird of Sleat. Muckle Flugga. Fugla Ness. Ward of Veester. Laxobigging. Bay of Fladdabister. And, of course, Twatt (yes, it does exist. It's on the B9071, just north of the junction with the A971). For some reason, the name Grutness sort of stuck, and I've used it for various things since (those with my album will see that it was released by Grutness Productions). James ***PLEASE NOTE THE GNU ADDRESS - yes, I can finally email from home! Yay!!!*** ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 18:52:46 -0700 (PDT) From: Eclipse Subject: Re: [ebmaniax-l] Elastic Meat dave navarro, peter buck, perhaps even blixa bargeld.. Eclipse On Fri, 22 Sep 2000, Tom Clark wrote: > > remains one of our few genuine, alt-rock guitar heroes (Tom Verlaine, > > Robert Quine, Billy Zoom, Thurston Moore, J Mascis, Tom Morello...ummmm, > > who else?). > > I smell a thread!! > > Here are two for discussion: Richard Lloyd and Joey Santiago. > > > Cheers! > -tc > > ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 18:58:23 -0700 (PDT) From: Eclipse Subject: Re: [ebmaniax-l] Elastic Meat > The night turned out to be a bit anticlimactic. Of course, the Meat > Puppets have a retooled lineup -- only leader Curt Kirkwood remains. > By all accounts, Cris Kirkwood is busily writing his obituary, > nowadays. Curt has three new musicians with him: a second guitarist, a > bassist/backing vocalist and a drummer. The drummer was a real horror. i saw the Meat Puppets in phx in 90 or 91, maybe... outdoor show in Hayden Square with Charlatans UK and TMBG. great show! i read sometime in the last few months that Cris' brother (his name escapes me at the moment) had gone missing. he was apparantly a known junkie and this wasn't the first time he'd disappeared, but this was definitely the longest and (iirc) they were assuming the worst. the articles is probably archived on the Phoenix (AZ) New Times website somewhere.. Eclipse np: Wire - The Ideal Copy ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 08:41:16 -0500 (CDT) From: GSS Subject: Re: [ebmaniax-l] Elastic Meat > i read sometime in the last few months that Cris' brother (his name > escapes me at the moment) had gone missing. he was apparantly a known > junkie and this wasn't the first time he'd disappeared, but this was ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 20:55:50 -0400 (EDT) From: Natalie Jacobs Subject: gnatmaniax! So NXNW is in town... as I hadn't heard of 9/10 of the bands, I decided to pass on a wristband. (Most of the bands are either local bands I could hear any time and/or pretty uninteresting-sounding.) But I did decide to opt for an evening of "cuddle-core" (did I make that up? It seems too clever for me) courtesy of the Portland-based Magic Marker label. I actually missed all but two of the acts.. Y'see, this was all taking place in a pizza parlor. No, really. I ate some of the pizza and got really sick, so I didn't get to see Kissing Book or Boycrazy , but they're both local so I wasn't too put out. I did get to see Seattle's own Tullycraft - boy howdy, were they twee. But good if you like that sort of thing. The singer and guitarist were so clean-cut that they looked like frat boys who wandered in by mistake, and the singer's voice was so high that I seriously thought he'd been huffing helium before the set. The indie kids dug 'em - there was this little shock-haired Asian girl doing a funny little boogie at the front, which was entertaining. The next band was supposed to be the All-Girl Summer Fun Band (who are just as irritating as their name implies) but they were replaced at the last minute by the Minders! Well... *one* Minder: Martyn Leaper with a left-handed archtop in tow. He did an all too short acoustic set, his voice audibly shaking - obviuosly nervous without a band to back him up. Apparently he'd only had a day's notice. I wish he'd played more. Among other things, I learned in the course of the evening that Robert Schneider is actually South African (weird!!), and Jeff Mangum is renting out inner tubes for a living. I'm happy to report that Martyn Leaper *has* gotten a haircut, thus negating my former fears. So that was NXNW. I could have basked in the glow of Amy Correia at noon today, but I was still feeling sick from the pizza, and I still have the lingering suspicion that she sounds like a marginally more talented Sheryl Crow (ack). slightly less nauseous n. p.s. Pardon misspelllings, this connection is slow. ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V9 #264 *******************************