From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V11 #307 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Sunday, September 29 2002 Volume 11 : Number 307 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: tshs tpvl [Eb ] Re: Nextdoor to Rhett Miller ["Russ Reynolds" ] Re: Enhanced, Death, Horses, and Scary Monsters [Aaron Mandel ] severe fire damage [drew ] Re: Rated PG ["Daniel L. Cotten" ] Horse's mouth [Eb ] Re: NDL + [Aaron Mandel ] Re: Horse's mouth [Stewart Russell ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2002 23:20:45 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: tshs tpvl >From: "Rex.Broome" > >To me it's so funny how avocates of various bands compete to show that >"their" guys did raga-rock first. "See My Friends" vs. "Paint It, Black" >vs. "Love You To" vs. "8 Miles" (not to mention "Why")... does it count if >they used a sitar? Does it count if they DIDN'T use a sitar? I don't believe "Eight Miles High" even falls in this category. The big story about that song isn't the influence of raga music -- it's the influence of modal jazz and Coltrane. *That's* what gets cited in all the academic rock-music books.... By the way, you neglected to mention "Norwegian Wood," which clearly came before some of the other songs you mentioned. I don't recall whether "See My Friends" or "Norwegian Wood" was released earliest, but I think one of those two is probably the first ("Norwegian Wood" obviously played a more important role in introducing Indian music to Western culture, regardless). Eb, who has the Beck disc but hasn't gotten around to giving it the Big Holy Listen yet ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 08:39:03 -0700 From: "Russ Reynolds" Subject: Re: Nextdoor to Rhett Miller two parts Tom, one part Stewart: >>> p.s. To whomever entered the Nextdoorland info into CDDB - "Soft Boys, >>> The"?? >> >> makes perfect sense when you are ripping CDs; means all your MP3s don't >> get filed under T. >> > > File 'em any way you want, the name of the band is "The Soft Boys". Then I guess I'm free to start a band called "Soft Boys, The" if I want to. That'll mess everyone up. By the way, remind me to never again order an eagerly anticipated album from Amazon the day before it hits the stores. Still waiting for Nextdoorland. That's what I get for being both enthusiastic and lazy. Anyone heard the new Rhett Miller yet? I'm surprised there hasn't been more buzz about this one on this list, especially with Hitch himself making an appearance on the record. Gonna prob'ly go buy it today. Factoid on Old 97's site says that among the names they've been billed under when doing "secret shows" was The Very Soft Boys..which they shortened to The V.S.B.'s when they opened for Robyn Hitchcock. http://www.old97s.com/trackframeset.htm?body=track3/factoids.htm - -rUss, The ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 11:46:01 -0400 (EDT) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: Enhanced, Death, Horses, and Scary Monsters On Fri, 27 Sep 2002, mary wrote: > Have any other fegs had the pleasure of witnessing a Big Battel? I saw them here at home in a gym of some kind. The sound sucked! And if you can't tell what the announcer is saying, half of the show is wasted as the performers posture and follow some plot line that is a mystery to you. Once they actually get going, though, it's impressive. Watching art students dressed as bananas and demons throw each other off the top of 20' balsa-wood buildings onto unpadded ground appeals to several of the major human instincts. a ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 13:35:16 -0400 (EDT) From: Christopher Gross Subject: Re: Enhanced, Death, Horses, and Scary Monsters I'm glad you brought this up, Mary, because I was just wondering about these discs myself. This morning I found myself in Best Buy, so I checked their price on Heathen ($13.99). While doing so, I noticed reissues of old Bowie albums that I don't own (including, yes,m Scary Monsters) for only $9.99. However, they all had that fine print on the back reading "This is an enhanced CD." Should I assume these are the nasty kind that you can't play in a computer CD-ROM drive? If the "enhanced CD" label is used for different kinds of CDs, is there any way to tell if they'll play in your computer before buying them? Thanks, Chris (who is saddened to hear that the horse thing is a myth -- the world seems a slightly blander place now) ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 13:50:57 -0500 From: "Brian Huddell" Subject: RE: Enhanced, Death, Horses, and Scary Monsters Chris: > I'm glad you brought this up, Mary, because I was just wondering about > these discs myself. This morning I found myself in Best Buy, > so I checked > their price on Heathen ($13.99). While doing so, I noticed > reissues of > old Bowie albums that I don't own (including, yes,m Scary > Monsters) for > only $9.99. However, they all had that fine print on the back reading > "This is an enhanced CD." Should I assume these are the > nasty kind that > you can't play in a computer CD-ROM drive? In this case, somewhat ironically, "enhanced" means the disc includes content *specifically designed* to be played on a CD-ROM. It has nothing to do with copy protection. I think the Bowie discs just have software to access Bowie's ISP, but other discs that are enhanced for CD-ROM include videos and press kits. +brian in New Orleans ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 14:41:56 -0500 (CDT) From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: Rated PG On Fri, 27 Sep 2002, Maximilian Lang wrote: > The Beck album is okay but is just SOOOOOOOOOOO soft rock. I was expecting > something folksier. The disc is slathered in strings that sound like they > came from a Pink Floyd album Okay, not counting anything after _The Final Cut_ (that is to say, not counting anything released under the name "Pink Floyd" that isn't really Pink Floyd: see also _Squeeze_ by "The Velvet Underground" and _Cut the Crap_ by "The Clash"), how many Pink Floyd albums have strings? I can think of only one - _Atom Heart Mother_ - and, uh, their usage thereon isn't very MOR. Strings aren't inherently awful; the usual problem is if they're both unimaginatively arranged and layered on in mass numbers (the "101 Strings" effect - sixties Muzak act). But I like that kind of late-sixties, orchestrated pop, so I'll probably like the Beck album once I get around to hearing it. I like the rest of his stuff, so... - --Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html ::glibby glop gloopy nibby nobby noopy la la la la lo:: ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 12:46:47 -0700 From: drew Subject: severe fire damage >From: Eb > >>From: drew >> >>What I WAS expecting was a >>little more fire and depth than I feel I got. > >Well, what was the last Robyn album which sustained any real "fire"? >"Fegmania," maybe? I can't think of a "fiery" song on _Fegmania_. I heard some on _Bram_ but hey, what do I know. I'm going to try to shut up about _Nextdoorland_ now anyway, at least as far as quality is concerned, because it'll just be all the more embarrassing in a few months when the album finally grows on me and I have to take it all back. Hell, I actually like the fucking White Stripes now. >From: "*FS Thomas*" > >Well Us is definitely rippable. But what about Up? I may have been misinformed. I certainly hope so. Drew ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 15:38:55 -0700 From: "Daniel L. Cotten" Subject: Re: Rated PG >Okay, not counting anything after _The Final Cut_ (that is to say, not >counting anything released under the name "Pink Floyd" that isn't really >Pink Floyd: see also _Squeeze_ by "The Velvet Underground" and _Cut the >Crap_ by "The Clash"), how many Pink Floyd albums have strings? > >I can think of only one - Atom Heart Mother_ The Wall and the Final Cut. And if we wanted to cheat--Music from the Body. >and, uh, their usage thereon isn't very MOR. More like a crap score for a non-existent spaghetti western? dc ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 15:44:42 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Horse's mouth Given my general despicability and yuckiness, some of you might be surprised to know that I've been corresponding with M. Seligman off and on, ever since he read my initial Nextdoorland review and sent me a bit of a counterattack. I guess we smoothed things out, after that. Anyway, he's lurking and reading the Feg reviews of NDL. He said I could pass on these comments about what he calls "the fundamental problem": "the vocals are too loud....that leads to them feeling a bit exposed, and the record is a bit stiff....I would love to hear this record with the vocals ducked back 15% and I think there may be ways of adjusting the stereo picture to achieve that? "I am listening to NDL now....I am happy it exists....I would prefer this record to have been made than not to have been......I am proud of it......but I share the frustrations of those who expected more...... "all th best "matthew x" He's also very, very fond of "Disconnection of the Ruling Class" off Side 3 -- his operative word seems to be "scruffy." He thinks it recaptures the old Soft Boys feel especially well, so watch for that song when it's readily available. (I haven't heard any of the Side 3 tracks yet, myself.) Personally, I'm a bit surprised at how "light" the Feg reviews have been. In the past, every Robyn-related release was put under the magnifying glass 'til it started to smolder. Line-by-line lyrical analysis, etc. Hm. I guess folks are saving their energies for the Bush/Iraq debates. Speaking of computer-savvy musicians, I received totally out-of-the-blue email from Carla Bozulich today...neat! Sure wish she'd come out with a new major release...has it really been five years since Butch? She has all kinds of strange little projects happening, though: http://www.carlabozulich.com/news.html Eb ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 20:47:12 -0400 (EDT) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: NDL + On Thu, 26 Sep 2002, Eb wrote: > Seems like you folks had some pretty sky-high expectations for this > disc, as if the long-term Beefheartian-rock-to-pleasant-jingle-jangle > evolution (de-evolution?) of his music suddenly would be reversed in an > instant. I don't know, what confuses me is that the album does seem to want to rock - -- the most distinctive feature is the two-guitar sound, the soloing, etc. Except it doesn't manage it most of the time. I guess I could be imposing my own agenda; that's certainly what I'm hearing most of the album's ardent defenders say to a variety of criticisms of it. So far I don't even think it stands up too well next to JFS/ASFB. And oh god, many of the lyrics are terrible. I don't buy the "Robyn's getting older" thing, since, well, this isn't getting-older stuff. They were still doing a wicked "Freeze" and "Old Pervert" on the last tour. On the other hand, I *like* "Lions And Tigers" -- very Globe Of Frogs to me. New Beck: fleh. a ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2002 11:37:34 From: Stewart Russell Subject: Re: Horse's mouth Eb flowed: > > Personally, I'm a bit surprised at how "light" the Feg reviews have > been. In the past, every Robyn-related release was put under the > magnifying glass 'til it started to smolder. I'm wondering if the list lost so many members after last year's unpleasantness? Did we drop below the tipping point of review inertia? I managed to get NDL yesterday (HMV at Yonge & Dundas -- had to put up with a barrage of crap Elvis impersonators instore, but I did get given a copy of the Koran outside). Listened to it a couple of times, it's too mixed up with PG's Up, Beck's Sea Change and Kimberley's recent release for it to be asserting itself -- and I don't have a stereo in the darkroom to listen. I reckon I'll like it a lot in a week or so, with a daily regime of listening. It does seem light, though. Side 3's vinyl only, yes? If so, and it it turns out to be quite the little rocker, I'll be ROYALLY fucked off. I can't afford a record deck, and certainly not for one EP. Stewart ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V11 #307 ********************************