From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V15 #5 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Thursday, January 5 2006 Volume 15 : Number 005 Today's Subjects: ----------------- guilty pleasures [Dolph Chaney ] RE: guilty pleasures ["Bachman, Michael" ] Re: fegmaniax-digest V15 #4 [hssmrg@bath.ac.uk] Re: guilty pleasures [Dolph Chaney ] Re: guilty pleasures [2fs ] Violent Femmes & Duran Duran [The Great Quail ] Re: guilty pleasures [Spotted Eagle Ray ] Reap [hssmrg@bath.ac.uk] Re: guilty pleasures [Eb ] reap [Eb ] RE: guilty pleasures ["Bachman, Michael" ] Re: guilty pleasures [Eb ] Re: guilty pleasures [2fs ] Byrne-ing down the house [Tom Clark ] A Herculean work [Sebastian Hagedorn ] It's done Like This ["Brian Nupp" ] Re: Guilty Pleasures ["Brian Nupp" ] Re: Violent Femmes & Duran Duran [Jeff Dwarf ] Re: Guilty Pleasures [Spotted Eagle Ray ] Re: Violent Femmes & Duran Duran [Spotted Eagle Ray ] Re: Violent Femmes & Duran Duran [2fs ] Member of famed '60s singing family a hurricane-related death [MPys2626@a] Member of famed '60s singing family a hurricane-related death [MPys2626@a] Re: Violent Femmes & Duran Duran [Capuchin ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2006 08:37:06 -0600 From: Dolph Chaney Subject: guilty pleasures Now playing: Tegan and Sara, SO JEALOUS. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 09:50:20 -0500 From: "Bachman, Michael" Subject: RE: guilty pleasures Does Nouvelle Vague count? If so, I listened to it a dozen times or so last year. Michael B. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 10:06:21 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: guilty pleasures On 1/5/06, Dolph Chaney wrote: > Now playing: Tegan and Sara, SO JEALOUS. Why would that be guilty? I haven't bought it - but from what I heard, it's got some pretty good songs on it. And the folk aspect certainly shouldn't be guilt-inducing on a Robyn Hitchcock list! Bonus hipster points for production by the same guy who does the New Pornographers' stuff... - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2006 15:53:40 +0000 From: hssmrg@bath.ac.uk Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V15 #4 Just a swift bleuwydd newydd dda post to all our readers: There is a very interesting Michael Chapman article in that current issue of Guitar and Bass which features Beefheart licks. Apparently there was a big traditional folk reaction during the early 70s when singer songwriters such as him, me and several of my mates were made unwelcome by the bastard folk mafia. Shades of electric Dylan ect ect I am trying to find out why the station is Caerdydd Canalog but the library is Llyvfrgeg Ganalog  not to mention that St Marys becomes Eglwys Fair Come back Kay! More later - - Mike Godwin n.p. Stiffs Live Stiffs ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2006 10:25:09 -0600 From: Dolph Chaney Subject: Re: guilty pleasures At 10:06 AM 1/5/2006, 2fs wrote: >On 1/5/06, Dolph Chaney wrote: > > Now playing: Tegan and Sara, SO JEALOUS. > >Why would that be guilty? It's just a little lightweight and pop for my normal tastes, is all. It is good, but I prefer IF IT WAS YOU which was quirkier and more attitudinal. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 11:09:14 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: guilty pleasures On 1/5/06, Dolph Chaney wrote: > At 10:06 AM 1/5/2006, 2fs wrote: > >On 1/5/06, Dolph Chaney wrote: > > > Now playing: Tegan and Sara, SO JEALOUS. > > > >Why would that be guilty? > > It's just a little lightweight and pop for my normal tastes, is all. It is > good, but I prefer IF IT WAS YOU which was quirkier and more attitudinal. Ah. I guess I feel guilty (if I do) only if I end up liking something truly rancid in some way (which may or may not include the band Rancid). T&S don't fall below that threshold for me, even though you're correct in that insofar as I like what I've heard, it's definitely toward the very poppiest end of what I like. I can't really think of anything that came my way in '05 that met my own criteria for "guilty pleasures." (Doesn't mean it doesn't exist - just that I can't think of anything off the top of my head.) Although that's in part because I've decided to own my pleasures and not be "guilty" about them. - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2006 12:13:53 -0500 From: The Great Quail Subject: Violent Femmes & Duran Duran Rex writes, > To listen to retro-80's > radio (etc.) you'd think the Femmes were as popular as Duran Duran back in > the day. Well, I'd argue that to the people who really dig music, and would be most likely to actually actively pursue listening to retro-80s, the Femmes represent a certain college cache; where many of the popular masses who formerly dug Duran Duran as teens no longer seriously listen to music, or have simply turned to new pop. Time + Distance = Perspective and all that. >(Objectively I'd say that both bands's records sound as > respectively good and awful as they did back then, though.) I agree -- I still love the Femmes. But man -- those first two Duran Duran albums were great. Seriously -- especially the second. Listed to the entire "Rio" album and tell me that hasn't aged very well! Killer bass, maddening hooks, indecipherable lyrics... And Simon's thin, white tie and powder blue shirt.... - --Quail ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 09:53:34 -0800 From: Spotted Eagle Ray Subject: Re: guilty pleasures On 1/5/06, 2fs wrote: > > On 1/5/06, Dolph Chaney wrote: > > At 10:06 AM 1/5/2006, 2fs wrote: > > >On 1/5/06, Dolph Chaney wrote: > > > > Now playing: Tegan and Sara, SO JEALOUS. > > > > > >Why would that be guilty? > > > > It's just a little lightweight and pop for my normal tastes, is all. It > is > > good, but I prefer IF IT WAS YOU which was quirkier and more > attitudinal. The White Stripes covered Tegan & Sara, so it must be okay. And they at least started out on Neil Young's personal record label. I've never heard much by them but what I've heard sounded fairly diverse, hardly boilerplate Lillith stuff. I probably would/should like them more than my own guilty pleasure, which is playing right now: Kathleen Edwards. And really, her record is doubtless excellent for what it is, I just don't like much of the other stuff that is what it is. By "guilty" I probably mean "Miles would punch me for liking it and I would let him". Also listening to (finally) the John Cale album, which is good but so far I'm not liking it as much as HoboSapiens. I think it doesn't have the advantage of being the first great Cale album in years, but the second, so it's going to take a little while to reveal itself. (Well, so did HoboSapiens, but I loved that one right away.) Also, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, which is thus far slightly below my expectations but quite good. Horrid opening track followed by what ironically sounds like a really good John Cale cover but isn't, and then forward in the early-REM-meets-early-New-Order-with-Verlaine-on-vocals thing that sounded like a good idea at the time (to me, anyhow). Tons of bands like this these days, so why one catches my ear more than another is anyone's guess. My new record purchases for '05 are probably less than 10, so I guess all of the above make the cut for Tops of the Year. New Pornos and the usual suspects round out the list. I have no interesting or offbeat recommendations, really. Smoosh was fun. My friend's band The Shards is pretty good. Beyond that, I'm out. - -Rx ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2006 17:56:44 +0000 From: hssmrg@bath.ac.uk Subject: Reap Quoting fegmaniax-digest : > Really terrible news - Alex "St Clair" Snouffer has died. Alex was in the Magic Band the first 3 times I saw them in '68, and again on one of the 70s tours, wearing full evening dress complete with buttonhole. He WAS the Magic Band for me, more than John French or Bill "Zoot" Harkelroad. And that recent Beefheart licks issue of Guitar and Bass attributed some of his classic licks to Ryland P Cooder - there ain't no justice. - - Mike "traumatised" Godwin n.p. Owed to Alex, Captain Beefheart and His(sic) Magic Band ****************************** ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 11:43:32 -0800 From: Eb Subject: Re: guilty pleasures In recent weeks, I've been dealing with guilty pleasures a LOT because I've been skimming through my most marginal albums to find some stuff to unload. I've pruned about 25 albums so far, but a lot more bands/albums passed the taste test than I hoped. Some dubious acts whom I couldn't bear to eliminate have included: Archers of Loaf/Barry Black, the Association, Baby Flamehead, Bis, Blackgirls, the Cavedogs/Brian Stevens, Chickasaw Mudd Puppies, the Cleaners from Venus, Dont Mean Maybe, Eugenius, the Explorers, Flour, Margo Guryan, the Hoodoo Gurus, Matthew Jay, Daniel Johnston, King Missile/John S. Hall & Kramer, the Lewis & Clarke Expedition, Little Red Rocket, the Marshmallow Coast, Milla, Mono, the Nevada Bachelors, Oliver, Pianosaurus, the Pooh Sticks, Red Box, Red Five, Ruby, Shelleyan Orphan, Sing-Sing, the Soup Dragons, Stump, Swallow, Tubetop, Violet Indiana and the Webb Brothers. Bleh! Eb ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 11:54:36 -0800 From: Eb Subject: reap From the Cowsills website, dated January 4th: "We are deeply saddened to report that Barry's body has been found. The Cowsill family was just informed of this and more information will be posted on the site as it becomes available." ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 15:01:05 -0500 From: "Bachman, Michael" Subject: RE: guilty pleasures Eb: >In recent weeks, I've been dealing with guilty pleasures a LOT >because I've been skimming through my most marginal albums to find >some stuff to unload. I've pruned about 25 albums so far, but a lot >more bands/albums passed the taste test than I hoped. >Some dubious acts whom I couldn't bear to eliminate have included: >Archers of Loaf/Barry Black, the Association, Baby Flamehead, Bis, >Blackgirls, the Cavedogs/Brian Stevens, Chickasaw Mudd Puppies, the >Cleaners from Venus, Dont Mean Maybe, Eugenius, the Explorers, >Flour, Margo Guryan, the Hoodoo Gurus, Matthew Jay, Daniel Johnston, >King Missile/John S. Hall & Kramer, the Lewis & Clarke Expedition, >Little Red Rocket, the Marshmallow Coast, Milla, Mono, the Nevada >Bachelors, Oliver, Pianosaurus, the Pooh Sticks, Red Box, Red Five, >Ruby, Shelleyan Orphan, Sing-Sing, the Soup Dragons, Stump, Swallow, >Tubetop, Violet Indiana and the Webb Brothers. Bleh! Stump - A Fierce Pancake, is still in my collection as well. Michael B. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 12:27:24 -0800 From: Spotted Eagle Ray Subject: Re: guilty pleasures On 1/5/06, Eb wrote: > > > Some dubious acts whom I couldn't bear to eliminate have included: I don't purge ever (unless it's court-ordered, which could happen yet), but of this list I spot several that I have and likewise find, at best, less than essential, but hard to let go of. And a few that are on my "investigate someday" list. If I did/do purge, the axe would probably fall on those Bis, King Missile, Mono, Red Five, and Soup Dragons records. Chickasaw Mudd Puppies... I keep those without too much shame, and I was just thinking of them because I remember that my brother really liked House of Freaks, whom we both saw performing on MTV, doing a non-album track called, I think, "Chitlin' Cookin' Time in Cheatham County", and when I reminded him about it years later, he insisted that it had been Chickasaw Mudd Puppies, not House of Freaks, who had done that song. Both bands were rootsy guitar/percussion duos in the pre-White Stripes era, so they do kinda go hand in hand. Both Southern, too, I guess. - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 12:39:08 -0800 From: Eb Subject: Re: guilty pleasures > Chickasaw Mudd Puppies... I keep those without too much shame Meanwhile, I've never figured out whether I should classify White Dirt as an album or an EP. Nine tracks and under 25 minutes really ain't much of an "album." Eb ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 15:23:58 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: guilty pleasures On 1/5/06, Eb wrote: > > Chickasaw Mudd Puppies... I keep those without too much shame > > Meanwhile, I've never figured out whether I should classify White > Dirt as an album or an EP. Nine tracks and under 25 minutes really > ain't much of an "album." FWIW, if you're looking for objective criteria, some labels used different catalog numbering systems for EPs and full-length releases (if I recall, during the '80s the Warner labels were among them). - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 13:55:13 -0800 From: Tom Clark Subject: Byrne-ing down the house If somebody knows where David Byrne is today, please let me know. I swear I just saw him in the Apple Cafeteria but I'm not 100% sure it was him. - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2006 23:01:41 +0100 From: Sebastian Hagedorn Subject: A Herculean work Excuse me, weren't you in the Fall? Mark E Smith's band is legendary for its ever-changing line-up. Dave Simpson made it his quest to track down everyone who has ever been a member ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 17:17:18 -0500 From: "Brian Nupp" Subject: It's done Like This I see the dB's 1984 album "Like This" is finally being reissued. And Michael Bachman just pointed out to me that the 3rd Slowdive album "Pygmalion" is being reissued. Sadly, neither have any extra tracks. - -Nuppy ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 17:14:14 -0500 From: "Brian Nupp" Subject: Re: Guilty Pleasures I listen to all 3 Wham albums, plus Cyndi Lauper: She's So Unusual. There's more cheese I listen to too, but ...you get the idea. More importantly, I've been obsessively listening to old guitar instrumental records, and transferring them to CD. I usually find this gems for $1! Some current favorites: The 50 Guitars of Tommy Garrett: Maria Elena (1963) - I've listened to this over 20 times in the last two weeks. Amazing production and performance. Great percussion tracks backing melodic guitars, I'll never tired of. Tony Mottola: Mr. Big (1959): Produced by Enoch Light who was born in Canton, Ohio in 1905, just miles away from where I grew up. I love the primitive electric guitar sounds from this new era. Lester Square of the (early) Monochrome Set eat your heart out. Los Indios Tabajaras: Twin Guitars..for Lovers (1966): This has a nice rendition of "The Third Man Theme." Bogus 'fake' history on the album covers back is hilarious! Gorgeous percussions and guitars. Les Paul and Mary Ford: Lover's Luau (1959): The first record that Les started experimenting with a newly found studio tool: Multitrack recording! Ah, to name a few... any recommendations? - -Nuppy ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 14:39:28 -0800 (PST) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Re: Violent Femmes & Duran Duran The Great Quail wrote: > Rex writes, > > To listen to retro-80's radio (etc.) you'd think the > > Femmes were as popular as Duran Duran back in the day. > > Well, I'd argue that to the people who really dig music, > and would be most likely to actually actively pursue > listening to retro-80s, the Femmes represent a certain > college cache; where many of the popular masses who > formerly dug Duran Duran as teens no longer seriously > listen to music, or have simply turned to new pop. Time > + Distance = Perspective and all that. Supposedly that first Violent Femmes album has (or had) the odd distinction of being the only album to sell platinum (1 million copies for you non-USAns) while never broaching the Top 200 album chart. > >(Objectively I'd say that both bands's records sound as > > respectively good and awful as they did back then, > > though.) > > I agree -- I still love the Femmes. But man -- those > first two Duran Duran albums were great. Seriously -- > especially the second. Listed to the entire > "Rio" album and tell me that hasn't aged very well! > Killer bass, maddening hooks, indecipherable lyrics... > And Simon's thin, white tie and powder blue shirt.... I'll actually go so far as to say that while I don't own any Duran Duran, the only song of there's I've ever actively avoided hearing was "Ordinary World" and I think about getting around to getting their greatest hits thingy whenever I find myself with more store credit than other stuff I've found that I want. Haven't gotten it yet, but.... "A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer." -- Mitch Hedberg "Now I am going to tell you how we are not going to fight communism. We are not going to transform our fine FBI into a Gestapo secret police. That is what some people would like to do. We are not going to try to control what our people read and say and think. We are not going to turn the United States into a right-wing totalitarian country in order to deal with a left-wing totalitarian threat." - Harry S Truman . __________________________________________ Yahoo! DSL  Something to write home about. Just $16.99/mo. or less. dsl.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 15:28:44 -0800 From: Spotted Eagle Ray Subject: Re: Guilty Pleasures On 1/5/06, Brian Nupp wrote: > > > Tony Mottola: Mr. Big (1959): Produced by Enoch Light who was born in > Canton, Ohio in 1905, just miles away from where I grew up. I love > the primitive electric guitar sounds from this new era. Lester Square > of the (early) Monochrome Set eat your heart out. Weird memory jog: At the outset of the "lounge revival" (say, 1993?) my friend and office-mate Mark scored a series of three semi-professionally produced continuous mix tapes of "uneasy listening music"... shit, I forget what the series title it was, but someone had really put together a great big collection of weird lounge, early moog (Perrey & Kingsley etc.), bizarro exotica, fucked-up mellow surf music, some more recognizeable stuff like "Some Velvet Morning" and Lalo Schifrin film themes, early muzak versions of pop tunes played on coral sitars and god knows what else-- you could probably cross-reference a lot of it with RE:SEARCH's "Incredibly Bizarre Music" books-- and strung them together as a continuous thing. It was mindboggling, and we listened to it over and over again (I still have 3rd generation cassette dubs of them somewhere). For some reason the a capella version of "Windmills of My Mind" from those cassettes popped into my head just the other day. Anyways, the name Enoch Light Orchestra rings a bell as the perpetrator of some of the weirder things about which I could never unearth much info at the time... Nuppy, you didn't compile these and then send them back through time for us, did you? I'm gonna have to dig out the cassettes just to remember the name of the series... - -Rx ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 15:55:47 -0800 From: Spotted Eagle Ray Subject: Re: Violent Femmes & Duran Duran On 1/5/06, Jeff Dwarf wrote: > > > I'll actually go so far as to say that while I don't own > any Duran Duran, the only song of there's I've ever > actively avoided hearing was "Ordinary World" and I think > about getting around to getting their greatest hits thingy > whenever I find myself with more store credit than other > stuff I've found that I want. Haven't gotten it yet, > but.... I don't want to say that I really think Duran Duran were definitively and eternally bad (although I highly suspect it), but that's really because I've just accepted that this is a case where I just can't separate the music from its historical context. Intellectually I guess I buy that it's not that different from, say, later Roxy Music, and is basically good clean pop fun with admittedly decent hooks and no-more-crap-than average lyrics, but I always switch the station on their songs... even if it's okay, I've heard all their hits way too many times. And they are always lauded for being "music videos pioneers", which... I mean, thanks, I guess. Random Memory Synapse Flash #2 for today: an MTV interstitial spot from perhaps 1988 of Lou Reed doing MacBeth's "dagger" soliloquy as part of a "get kids to read" campaign. Those were different times. - -Rx ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 15:55:45 -0800 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: Guilty Pleasures On Jan 5, 2006, at 2:14 PM, Brian Nupp wrote: > More importantly, I've been obsessively listening to old guitar > instrumental records, and transferring them to CD. I usually find > this gems for $1! Some current favorites: > > The 50 Guitars of Tommy Garrett: Maria Elena (1963) - > > Tony Mottola: Mr. Big (1959): > > Les Paul and Mary Ford: Lover's Luau (1959): > > Ah, to name a few... any recommendations? Charlie Christian: The Genius of The Electric Guitar (Compilation, 1939) Bennie Goodman's guitar player. Laid the groundwork for generations of jazz guitarists. - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 17:55:40 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: Violent Femmes & Duran Duran On 1/5/06, Jeff Dwarf wrote: > The Great Quail wrote: > > first two Duran Duran albums were great. Seriously -- > > especially the second. Listed to the entire > > "Rio" album and tell me that hasn't aged very well! > > Killer bass, maddening hooks, indecipherable lyrics... > > And Simon's thin, white tie and powder blue shirt.... > > I'll actually go so far as to say that while I don't own > any Duran Duran, the only song of there's I've ever > actively avoided hearing was "Ordinary World" and I think > about getting around to getting their greatest hits thingy > whenever I find myself with more store credit than other > stuff I've found that I want. Haven't gotten it yet, > but.... I dunno - for me there's so little past the first two albums, and so much good stuff on the first two, that I'd say better off buying those first two and downloading - via utterly and completely legal means, of course - any decent tracks to be cherrypicked from later albums. Hmm: curiously, the above statement, while I meant it to apply to Duran Duran, applies nearly as well to the Violent Femmes... - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 18:59:12 EST From: MPys2626@aol.com Subject: Member of famed '60s singing family a hurricane-related death Member of famed '60s singing family a hurricane-related death 1/5/2006, 4:08 p.m. CT By CHEVEL JOHNSON The Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) A body found on a New Orleans wharf in December has been identified as that of Barry Cowsill, a member of the popular 1960s singing family The Cowsills, family members and a Louisiana coroner confirmed Thursday. Cowsill's body was recovered Dec. 28 from the Chartres Street Wharf, said Dr. Louis Cataldie, the Baton Rouge coroner and head of the state hurricane morgue in Carville. Cowsill, 51, was identified Jan. 3 from dental records, Cataldie said. Cataldie said he had not determined the cause of death but believed it to be related to Hurricane Katrina, which struck the city on Aug. 29. The family Web site said Cowsill, who had lived in New Orleans on and off for several years, left messages on his sister's telephone answering machine on Sept. 1 but had not been heard from since. "They tell us he'd been dead for quite some time," Richard Cowsill, his brother, said in a telephone interview Thursday. "We love him and we're going to miss him, but he's in a much better place, in my mother's arms." Richard Cowsill said no memorial service was planned and that his brother would be cremated. "He always said when I leave this place, you better party. And that's what we're planning to do," he said. In the 1960s, Barry Cowsill and three of his brothers Bill on guitar, Bob on guitar and organ, John on drums and he on bass formed a popular musical group that was eventually joined by their mother, Barbara, and little sister, Susan. It became the inspiration for the TV series The Partridge Family. The family from Newport, R.I., recorded a series of top hits between 1967-1970 including "The Rain, The Park and Other Things" and "Hair" and were spokespersons for the American Dairy Association, appearing in commercials and print ads for milk. The Cowsills got their start very early in Newport. Bill and Bob taught themselves how to play guitar and Barry and John later joined in. By 1965, they had a regular gig at a local club and were spotted by a producer for NBC- TV's "Today" show who booked them. The "Today" show led to a record deal and patriarch Bud Cowsill decided to add his wife Barbara and little sister Susan, 7, to the band. The band broke up in the 1970s, amid acrimony that reportedly left some members estranged from each other for several years. "It wasn't just the end of a business, it was the end of a family," Bob Cowsill said in a 1990 interview. Barbara Cowsill died in 1985. A telephone call to Susan Cowsill, who lives in New Orleans, was not immediately returned. In addition to his famous siblings, Cowsill is survived by two daughters and a son. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 18:59:12 EST From: MPys2626@aol.com Subject: Member of famed '60s singing family a hurricane-related death Member of famed '60s singing family a hurricane-related death 1/5/2006, 4:08 p.m. CT By CHEVEL JOHNSON The Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) A body found on a New Orleans wharf in December has been identified as that of Barry Cowsill, a member of the popular 1960s singing family The Cowsills, family members and a Louisiana coroner confirmed Thursday. Cowsill's body was recovered Dec. 28 from the Chartres Street Wharf, said Dr. Louis Cataldie, the Baton Rouge coroner and head of the state hurricane morgue in Carville. Cowsill, 51, was identified Jan. 3 from dental records, Cataldie said. Cataldie said he had not determined the cause of death but believed it to be related to Hurricane Katrina, which struck the city on Aug. 29. The family Web site said Cowsill, who had lived in New Orleans on and off for several years, left messages on his sister's telephone answering machine on Sept. 1 but had not been heard from since. "They tell us he'd been dead for quite some time," Richard Cowsill, his brother, said in a telephone interview Thursday. "We love him and we're going to miss him, but he's in a much better place, in my mother's arms." Richard Cowsill said no memorial service was planned and that his brother would be cremated. "He always said when I leave this place, you better party. And that's what we're planning to do," he said. In the 1960s, Barry Cowsill and three of his brothers Bill on guitar, Bob on guitar and organ, John on drums and he on bass formed a popular musical group that was eventually joined by their mother, Barbara, and little sister, Susan. It became the inspiration for the TV series The Partridge Family. The family from Newport, R.I., recorded a series of top hits between 1967-1970 including "The Rain, The Park and Other Things" and "Hair" and were spokespersons for the American Dairy Association, appearing in commercials and print ads for milk. The Cowsills got their start very early in Newport. Bill and Bob taught themselves how to play guitar and Barry and John later joined in. By 1965, they had a regular gig at a local club and were spotted by a producer for NBC- TV's "Today" show who booked them. The "Today" show led to a record deal and patriarch Bud Cowsill decided to add his wife Barbara and little sister Susan, 7, to the band. The band broke up in the 1970s, amid acrimony that reportedly left some members estranged from each other for several years. "It wasn't just the end of a business, it was the end of a family," Bob Cowsill said in a 1990 interview. Barbara Cowsill died in 1985. A telephone call to Susan Cowsill, who lives in New Orleans, was not immediately returned. In addition to his famous siblings, Cowsill is survived by two daughters and a son. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 17:40:42 -0800 (PST) From: Capuchin Subject: Re: Violent Femmes & Duran Duran On Thu, 5 Jan 2006, 2fs wrote: > I dunno - for me there's so little past the first two albums, and so > much good stuff on the first two, that I'd say better off buying those > first two and downloading - via utterly and completely legal means, of > course - any decent tracks to be cherrypicked from later albums. > > Hmm: curiously, the above statement, while I meant it to apply to Duran > Duran, applies nearly as well to the Violent Femmes... I think you're definitely right about the Femmes in this regard. I like their albums just fine and have most of them, but the new material isn't worth much. It's just fine, but nothing special. The basement angst is gone and the cleverness only shines through on maybe one track per album. The first album is all of your teenage vice wrapped up in stripped-down hooky pop. Hallowed Ground is those same boys reaching deeper and making more musically from what they have (by far my favorite). But I can't tell if my love for The Blind Leading The Naked is on merit or nostalgia and familiarity. There's an electric lushness to the production that is lacking on most of their other work for good and ill. 3 has some great songs badly produced and poorly ordered. After that, you can maybe pick two really worthwhile tracks from each record and that's it. J. - -- _______________________________________________ Capuchin capuchin@bitmine.net Jeme A Brelin _______________________________________________ ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V15 #5 ******************************