From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V15 #166 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Monday, July 17 2006 Volume 15 : Number 166 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Holy Fucking! ["Stacked Crooked" ] Re: robYn on sYd ["Stewart C. Russell" ] Re: Holy Fucking! [Eb ] Re: robYn on sYd [2fs ] someone made a syd barrett video for BOB DYLAN BLUES [HwyCDRrev@aol.com] Re: Karen O Fucking! [Tom Clark ] Holly, no Poppy [Steve Schiavo ] Re: Holly, no Poppy [2fs ] Re: Karen O Fucking! [Jeff Dwarf ] The Graying of the Record Store [HwyCDRrev@aol.com] new robyn album news! [wojbearpig ] Re: new robyn album news! [Christopher Hintz ] Re: new robyn album news! [wojbearpig ] RE: new robyn album news! ["Brian Huddell" ] Reap [Jeff Dwarf ] RE: new robyn album news! ["Bachman, Michael" Subject: Re: Holy Fucking! <> eb, i know you're having difficulties coping, but still i must ask: are you outside your cockfucking mind? seriously, you're becoming much less reliable in matters of taste. for example, on account of your jisming all over it in every-other post, i checked out the first season of *Gilmore Girls* from the library a month or so ago. so stupid it was all i could do to get through the first episode. shit, man! maybe you need to go check in to a clinic, or something. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2006 17:36:09 -0400 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: robYn on sYd Eb wrote: > > I saw one of the most miserable films I've ever seen, yesterday: "Love, > Liza." Whew. I kinda liked that one for its very miserableness. It has a real "I'll just nip out and shoot myself" vibe going on. Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2006 14:46:03 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: Holy Fucking! Stacked Crooked wrote: > <> > > > > eb, i know you're having difficulties coping, but still i must ask: > are you > outside your cockfucking mind? Oh grow up, you silly bitch. Learn to fathom that not everyone squirts over the same records you love. The new album wasn't as well-reviewed as the previous one. It's not unassailable. I myself don't really enjoy the band, period. I'd be happy to see them live sometime, but that's as far as it goes with me. There's just too much post-Siouxsie bleating involved. > seriously, you're becoming much less reliable in matters of taste. > for > example, on account of your jisming all over it in every-other post, i > checked out the first season of *Gilmore Girls* from the library a > month or > so ago. so stupid it was all i could do to get through the first > episode. Well, of course not. It lacks that superficially perverse, fuckin'- wid-peeples-heads quality which you demand. And I never got the sense that you attached much worth to my opinions anyway, so I doubt you're experiencing any strong feelings of "loss" here. In any case, my feelings about Gilmore Girls have been more mixed, ever since Rory went away to school. I could never bear to miss the show, but it's no hour of ecstasy for me. Well...unless they start adding explotative underwear shots of Lauren G. to boost ratings. Eb ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2006 17:02:10 -0500 From: 2fs Subject: Re: robYn on sYd On 7/16/06, Stewart C. Russell wrote: > > Eb wrote: > > > > I saw one of the most miserable films I've ever seen, yesterday: "Love, > > Liza." Whew. > > I kinda liked that one for its very miserableness. It has a real "I'll > just nip out and shoot myself" vibe going on. Yes. Although I have to wonder at the choice of gas-huffing as drug-of-choice - in that, however dire its results may be, there's just something intrinsically comical about it. Which for me made the movie a weird combo of depresso-thon and ultradark comedy. Apparently I'm strange. - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2006 20:24:28 EDT From: HwyCDRrev@aol.com Subject: someone made a syd barrett video for BOB DYLAN BLUES _http://youtube.com/watch?v=uOokCdkIejk&search=barrett%20dylan_ (http://youtube.com/watch?v=uOokCdkIejk&search=barrett%20dylan) someone made a syd barrett video for BOB DYLAN BLUES ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2006 18:00:14 -0700 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: Karen O Fucking! On Jul 16, 2006, at 2:46 PM, Eb wrote: > Stacked Crooked wrote: >> <> >> >> >> >> eb, i know you're having difficulties coping, but still i must >> ask: are you >> outside your cockfucking mind? > > Oh grow up, you silly bitch. Learn to fathom that not everyone > squirts over the same records you love. > > The new album wasn't as well-reviewed as the previous one. It's not > unassailable. I myself don't really enjoy the band, period. I'd be > happy to see them live sometime, but that's as far as it goes with > me. There's just too much post-Siouxsie bleating involved. I made the mistake of seeing them on Conan or something before somebody gave me the CD. I could barely make it through the whole thing after seeing what fucking* poseurs they are. I'm sorry, but I'm too fucking* old to take seriously any new band that cares so much about image. - -tc *In the parlance of our times... ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2006 21:15:37 -0500 From: Steve Schiavo Subject: Holly, no Poppy - - Steve ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2006 21:43:44 -0500 From: 2fs Subject: Re: Holly, no Poppy On 7/16/06, Steve Schiavo wrote: > > Whoa. That is one painful-looking website. So the kids these days are into screaming headaches. (Oh - and there's no such name as "Tiffiny" yeesh! As if "Britney" weren't bad enough...) Anyway: not bad, really. I wonder if ol' Poppy had any input at all - advice, old guitars, etc. I think I like her voice a bit better than the songs, though. Also, it makes me feel slightly ooky to realize that I'm finding Ms. Partridge rather attractive. Thank god she looks nothing like Andy in a dress. Not that I'd know what that looks like, mind you. - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2006 21:10:46 -0700 (PDT) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Re: Karen O Fucking! Eb wrote: > There's just too much post-Siouxsie bleating > involved [with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs]. Karen O:Siouxsie Sioux::Michael Bolton:Otis Redding. "A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer." -- Mitch Hedberg "For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk. And we learned to listen. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together. To build the impossible. Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking. And it's greatest failures by NOT talking. It doesn't have to be like this! Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking. -- Stephen W. Hawking . Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 06:40:48 EDT From: HwyCDRrev@aol.com Subject: The Graying of the Record Store _http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/16/fashion/sundaystyles/16store.html?_r=1&ore f =slogin_ (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/16/fashion/sundaystyles/16store.html?_r=1&ore f=slogin) The Graying of the Record Store By _ALEX WILLIAMS_ (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=ALEX WILLIAMS&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=ALEX WILLIAMS&inline=nyt-per) Published: July 16, 2006 SO this is an evening rush? _Skip to next paragraph_ (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/16/fashion/sundaystyles/16store.html?_r=1&ore f=slogin#secondParagraph) _Enlarge this Image_ (javascript:pop_me_up2('http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/07/16/fashion/ 16store_CA1ready.html', '16store_CA1ready', 'width=720,height=600,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')) (javascript:pop_me_up2('http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/07/16/fashion/ 16store_CA1ready.html', '16store_CA1ready', 'width=720,height=600,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')) Keith Bedford for The New York Times The turnout is old school at shops like Normanbs Sound and Vision. Younger shoppers are busy downloading. Keith Bedford for The New York Times Norman Isaacs of Normanbs Sound and Vision remembers jam-packed aisles, but he has moved with the times. He sells used CDbs on the Web. On a recent Monday, six people b soon enough four, then two b were browsing the bins of compact discs at Normanbs Sound and Vision, a music store on Cooper Square in Manhattan, around 6 p.m., a time that once constituted the daily rush hour. A decade ago, the number of shoppers might have been 20 or 30, said Norman Isaacs, the owner. Six people? He would have had that many working in the store. bI used to make more in a day than I probably make in a week now,b said the shaven-headed Mr. Isaacs, 59, whose largely empty aisles brimming with punk, jazz, Latin music, and lots and lots of classic rock have left him, many afternoons, looking like a rock bnb roll version of the Maytag repairman. Just as troubling to Mr. Isaacs is the age of his clientele. bItbs much grayer,b he said mournfully. The neighborhood record store was once a clubhouse for teenagers, a place to escape parents, burn allowances and absorb the latest trends in fashion as well as music. But these days it is fast becoming a temple of nostalgia for shoppers old enough to remember bFrampton Comes Alive!bb In the era of iTunes and MySpace, the customer base that still thinks of recorded music as a physical commodity (that is, a CD), as opposed to a digital file to be downloaded, is shrinking and aging, further imperiling record stores already under pressure from mass-market discounters like Best Buy and Wal-Mart. The bite that downloading has taken out of CD sales is well known b the compact disc market fell about 25 percent between 1999 and 2005, according to the _Recording Industry Association of America_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/recordin g_industry_association_of_america/i ndex.html?inline=nyt-org) , a trade organization. What that precipitous drop indicated by the figures doesnbt reveal is that this trend is turning many record stores into haunts for the gray-ponytail set. This is especially true of big-city stores that stock a wider range of music than the blockbuster acts. bWe donbt see the kids anymore,b said Thom Spennato, who owns Sound Track, a cozy store on busy Seventh Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. bThat 12-to-15-year-old market, thatbs whatbs missing the last couple of years.b Without that generation of buyers, the future looks bleak. bMy landlord asked me if I wanted another 10-year lease, and I said no,b Mr. Spennato said. bI have four years left, then Ibm out.b Since late 2003, about 900 independent record stores have closed nationwide, leaving about 2,700, according to the Almighty Institute of Music Retail, a marketing research company in Studio City, Calif. In 2004, Tower Records, one of the nationbs largest chains, filed for bankruptcy protection. Greta Perr, an owner of Future Legends, a new and used CD store on Ninth Avenue in Hellbs Kitchen, said that young people never really came back to her store after the Napster file-sharing upheaval of the late 90bs; she has responded by filling her windows with artists like Neil Young and _Bruce Springsteen_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/bruce_springste en/index.html?inline=nyt-per) . bPeople come in and say: bI remember when I was 20, Steve Millerbs second record came out. Can I get that?b b she said. Industry statistics bear out the graying of the CD-buying public. Purchases by shoppers between ages 15 and 19 represented 12 percent of recorded music in 2005, a decline from about 17 percent in 1996, according to the Recording Industry Association. Purchases by those 20 to 24 represented less than 13 percent in 2005, down from about 15 percent. Over the same period, the share of recorded music bought by adults over 45 rose to 25.5 percent, from 15 percent. (The figures include CDbs and downloaded songs, with CDbs still an overwhelming share of the market in recorded music, 87 percent, in 2005.) The dominance of older buyers is especially evident at smaller independent stores in metropolitan areas, where younger consumers tend to be more tech-oriented and older music fans tend to be more esoteric in their tastes, said Russ Crupnick, an analyst with the NPD Group, a market research firm. At Normanbs, which is 15 years old and just around the corner from New Yorkb s epicenter of punk, St. Marks Place, shoppers with nose rings and dewy cheeks are not unknown. But they may only be looking to use the automatic teller machine. A pair of teenagers b he with ink-black dyed hair, and she in ragged camouflage shorts b wandered in one evening recently and promptly froze in the doorway, stopped in their tracks by an Isaac Hayes cut from the 70bs. They had the confused looks of would-be congregants who had stumbled into a church of the wrong denomination; they quickly shuffled off. Most of Normanbs other customers were old enough to remember eight-track tapes. Steven Russo, 53, for instance, was looking for jazz CDbs. Mr. Russo, a high school teacher in Valley Stream, N.Y., said that he values the store for its sense of camaraderie among cognoscenti as much as its selection. bItbs the ability of people to talk to people about the music, to talk to personnel who are knowledgeable,b he said. Richard Antone, a freelance writer from Newark whose hair was flecked with silver curls, said his weekly trip to the store is a visual experience as well as an auditory one. bI remember how people admired the artwork on an album like bElectric Ladylandb or bSgt. Pepperb as much as the music,b he said. The lost generation of young shoppers b for whom a CD is a silvery disc on which you burn your own songs and then label with a black marker b will probably spell doom for Normanbs within the next five years, said Mr. Isaacs, the owner. Several of his downtown competitors have already disappeared, he said. Some independent owners are resisting the demographic challenges. Eric Levin, 36, who owns three Criminal Records stores in Atlanta and oversees a trade group called the Alliance of Independent Media Stores, representing 30 shops nationally, said that businesses losing young customers are bdinosaursb that have done nothing to cater to the new generation. Around the country, he said, shops like Grimeybs in Nashville, Shake It Records in Cincinnati and Other Music in New York are hanging on to young customers by evolving into one-stop hipster emporiums. Besides selling obscure CDbs and even vinyl records, many have diversified into comic books, Japanese robot toys and clothing. Some have opened adjoining nightclubs or, in Mr. Levinbs case, coffee shops. bKids donbt have to go to the record store like earlier generations,b Mr. Levin said. bYou have to make them want to. You have to make it an event.b But diversification is not always an option for smaller stores with little extra space, like Normanbs. Mr. Isaacsbs continued survival is due in part to a side business he runs selling used CDbs on Amazon and eBay. He buys them from walk-in customers who are often dumping entire collections. Unlike the threatened independent bookstore, with its tattered rugs, dusty shelves and shedding cats, indie record stores in danger of disappearing do not inspire much hand-wringing, perhaps because they are not as celebrated in popular imagination as the quaint bookshop. (Record geeks can claim only bHigh Fidelity,bb the book and movie, as a nostalgic touchstone.) Still, the passing of such places would be mourned. Danny Fields, the Ramonesb first manager, points out that visiting Bleecker Bobbs on West Third Street in the late 70bs was blike experiencing the New York music sceneb in miniature b it was a cultural locus, a trading post for all the latest punk trends. bDropping into Bleecker Bobbs was like dropping into CBGBbs,b he said. (You can still drop into Bleecker Bobbs.) Dave Marsh, the rock critic and author of books on popular music, noted that rockers like Jonathan Richman and Iggy Pop honed their edgy musical tastes working as record store clerks. bItbs part of the transmission of music,b said Mr. Marsh, who recalls being turned on to cult bands like the Fugs and the Mothers of Invention by the clerks at his local record store in his hometown, Waterford, Mich. bIt seems like you canbt have a neighborhood without them.b ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 10:20:19 -0400 From: wojbearpig Subject: new robyn album news! thanks to tulloch for catching this! yep roc has updated their artist bio for robyn with news about the next rekkid: "What makes this record for me is the musicians I was able to gather," says Robyn Hitchcock of Ole Tarantula, a surreal vision and Technicolor celebration of life - from its inception and the whole catastrophe of it - till its groovy decay and inevitable last breath. "To me, the whole record is sadness cloaked in fun. But under that fun, more sadness," says Hitchcock. Such seeming contradictions are what make Hitchcock a credible narrator to his incredible kingdom of song, the one he's built on a foundation of dreamlike, whimsical, tragic comedy and set to gorgeous and slightly askew melodies for the last 30 years. In Hitchcock's universe, adventure rocket ships, exploding, twist-off heads and crawling things are the norm, as are supersonic harmonies and an ever-present chiming guitar sound. Through the years, those heavenly refrains, the harmonicas and the hilarity conspired and drew a blueprint for alternative pop as we know it. Is it any wonder he attracts stellar company when he settles in to make a record? Recorded in Seattle in September 2005 and March 2006, Hitchcock is joined throughout Ole Tarantula by the Venus 3 - Peter Buck, rcott McCaughey and Bill Rieflin - old friends who he notes are also "3/4ths of the Minus 5 and half of R.E.M." "We sound like a smart garage band, to my ears, when we play live. The record is a little more tidy, but they still rock, and rock me along with them. This is the rockingest record I've made in years," he says. The Venus 3 is joined by a cast of recurrent and new characters in the Hitchcock story: Soft Boys/Egyptians bandmate Morris Windsor and Sean Nelson (Harvey Danger) on gleaming background harmonies; Chris Ballew (Presidents of The United States of America) on harmony vocals and keyboards. Soft Boys guitarist Kimberley Rew assists on three tracks and the Faces' Ian McLagan adds his famous keyboard hands to "N.Y. Doll." "'N.Y. Doll' is one of my favorites," says Hitchcock of the elegy inspired by the recent documentary on the New York Dolls' bassist. "I never met Arthur Kane but his story is another example of how precious a life becomes when it's over." "Underground Sun," written for a friend of Hitchcock's who died last spring, jingle-jangles across the astral plane. "She was a very upbeat person so I wrote her what I hope is an exciting elegy, not a mournful one." Fuelled by mysticism, the choogling "The Museum of Sex" is in Seaford, Sussex, "But only visible at low tide," he explains. "It's an elegy for my life as a human. Again not too mournful I hope." "These songs were all written at home in London, though often reference the States. I've been commuting for over 20 years but I live here no matter how often I orbit through Los Angeles," says Hitchcock. Indeed, the West is an auspicious presence throughout Ol. Tarantula. "Belltown Ramble" is set in Seattle, its character and location drawn from "A 14th Century Uzbekistani warlord with an elegant name" and a bar in Belltown. San Francisco crops up in the Dirty Harry/Magnum Force-inspired, "Limitations, Briggs," as well as in the title song - "About where babies come from" - written after an extended stay in Tucson, Arizona. Hitchcock has long made insects and sea creatures his favorite subjects and they have their say throughout Ole Tarantula, his self-described "twenty-somethingth" album. "As a thinking person I'm completely in despair, but as a creature I'm quite happy," he told The Believer in 2005. That would explain quite a lot about the happy/sad world of Hitchcock's songs... Beginning as a strummer in Cambridge, England's folk clubs, by the coming of the first punk rock era, Hitchcock had developed into a bandleader, heading up folk-pop iconoclasts the Soft Boys, one of alternative rock's least sung but most influential bands. Yet by the time R.E.M., the Replacements and pre-alt-rockers like them revealed its influence on their own bands, Hitchcock had moved on to what would become his distinguished solo career. Recording and releasing records like his stark debut, Black Snake Diamond Role, the warm, all-acoustic I Often Dream of Trains and the psychedelicized Groovy Decay - sometimes with and sometimes without his band the Egyptians - Hitchcock would unwittingly help shape the pop strain of contemporary alternative rock. In 1998, director and fan Jonathan Demme placed him in a shop window for the concert film Storefront Hitchcock, introducing his engaging live show to wider audiences. As Hitchcock continues to record and tour as a solo and band act, his direction has ve "Years ago I wrote a song called 'My Mind Wants to Die But My Body Wants to Live' and that was the only lyric in it," he told The Believer. "And really, that pretty much sums me up." DATA * Engineered by Kurt Bloch * Recorded in Seattle, 2005 & 2006 * Robyn Hitchcock plays guitar, harmonica * Peter Buck plays guitar * Scott McCaughey plays bass * Bill Rieflin plays drums * Additional musicians: Morris Windsor (Soft Boys, Egyptians), Chris Ballew (Presidents of the United States of America), Sean Nelson (Harvey Danger), Kimberley Rew (Soft Boys, Katrina and the Waves), Ian McLagan (Small Faces, Faces); Colin Izod (saxophone) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 10:38:33 -0400 From: Christopher Hintz Subject: Re: new robyn album news! this isn't the andy partridge thing we've heard rumors about? but it still sounds intriguing. I do like the Scott McC/Bill Rieflin/ Peter Buck combo. On Jul 17, 2006, at 10:20 AM, wojbearpig wrote: > thanks to tulloch for catching this! > > yep roc has updated their artist bio for robyn with news about the > next > rekkid: ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 11:00:11 -0400 From: wojbearpig Subject: Re: new robyn album news! one time at band camp, Christopher Hintz (revcph@bright.net) said: >this isn't the andy partridge thing we've heard rumors about? considering the problems andy has had lately (broken tendon and tinnitus), one would think not. woj ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 09:38:41 -0500 From: "Brian Huddell" Subject: RE: new robyn album news! Ian Fucking McLagan! Even Eb might have to listen to this one at least once. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 09:12:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Reap The founder of Hooter's, Robert Brooks, has gone to the great melon field in the sky.... "A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer." -- Mitch Hedberg "For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk. And we learned to listen. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together. To build the impossible. Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking. And it's greatest failures by NOT talking. It doesn't have to be like this! Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking. -- Stephen W. Hawking . Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 13:18:35 -0400 From: "Bachman, Michael" Subject: RE: new robyn album news! Any idea on the release date? - -----Original Message----- From: owner-fegmaniax@smoe.org [mailto:owner-fegmaniax@smoe.org]On Behalf Of wojbearpig Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 10:20 AM To: fagmaniax; fegmaniax-announce@smoe.org; robynhitchcockclub@yahoogroups.com Subject: new robyn album news! thanks to tulloch for catching this! yep roc has updated their artist bio for robyn with news about the next rekkid: "What makes this record for me is the musicians I was able to gather," says Robyn Hitchcock of Ole Tarantula, a surreal vision and Technicolor celebration of life - from its inception and the whole catastrophe of it - till its groovy decay and inevitable last breath. "To me, the whole record is sadness cloaked in fun. But under that fun, more sadness," says Hitchcock. Such seeming contradictions are what make Hitchcock a credible narrator to his incredible kingdom of song, the one he's built on a foundation of dreamlike, whimsical, tragic comedy and set to gorgeous and slightly askew melodies for the last 30 years. In Hitchcock's universe, adventure rocket ships, exploding, twist-off heads and crawling things are the norm, as are supersonic harmonies and an ever-present chiming guitar sound. Through the years, those heavenly refrains, the harmonicas and the hilarity conspired and drew a blueprint for alternative pop as we know it. Is it any wonder he attracts stellar company when he settles in to make a record? Recorded in Seattle in September 2005 and March 2006, Hitchcock is joined throughout Ole Tarantula by the Venus 3 - Peter Buck, rcott McCaughey and Bill Rieflin - old friends who he notes are also "3/4ths of the Minus 5 and half of R.E.M." "We sound like a smart garage band, to my ears, when we play live. The record is a little more tidy, but they still rock, and rock me along with them. This is the rockingest record I've made in years," he says. The Venus 3 is joined by a cast of recurrent and new characters in the Hitchcock story: Soft Boys/Egyptians bandmate Morris Windsor and Sean Nelson (Harvey Danger) on gleaming background harmonies; Chris Ballew (Presidents of The United States of America) on harmony vocals and keyboards. Soft Boys guitarist Kimberley Rew assists on three tracks and the Faces' Ian McLagan adds his famous keyboard hands to "N.Y. Doll." "'N.Y. Doll' is one of my favorites," says Hitchcock of the elegy inspired by the recent documentary on the New York Dolls' bassist. "I never met Arthur Kane but his story is another example of how precious a life becomes when it's over." "Underground Sun," written for a friend of Hitchcock's who died last spring, jingle-jangles across the astral plane. "She was a very upbeat person so I wrote her what I hope is an exciting elegy, not a mournful one." Fuelled by mysticism, the choogling "The Museum of Sex" is in Seaford, Sussex, "But only visible at low tide," he explains. "It's an elegy for my life as a human. Again not too mournful I hope." "These songs were all written at home in London, though often reference the States. I've been commuting for over 20 years but I live here no matter how often I orbit through Los Angeles," says Hitchcock. Indeed, the West is an auspicious presence throughout Ol. Tarantula. "Belltown Ramble" is set in Seattle, its character and location drawn from "A 14th Century Uzbekistani warlord with an elegant name" and a bar in Belltown. San Francisco crops up in the Dirty Harry/Magnum Force-inspired, "Limitations, Briggs," as well as in the title song - "About where babies come from" - written after an extended stay in Tucson, Arizona. Hitchcock has long made insects and sea creatures his favorite subjects and they have their say throughout Ole Tarantula, his self-described "twenty-somethingth" album. "As a thinking person I'm completely in despair, but as a creature I'm quite happy," he told The Believer in 2005. That would explain quite a lot about the happy/sad world of Hitchcock's songs... Beginning as a strummer in Cambridge, England's folk clubs, by the coming of the first punk rock era, Hitchcock had developed into a bandleader, heading up folk-pop iconoclasts the Soft Boys, one of alternative rock's least sung but most influential bands. Yet by the time R.E.M., the Replacements and pre-alt-rockers like them revealed its influence on their own bands, Hitchcock had moved on to what would become his distinguished solo career. Recording and releasing records like his stark debut, Black Snake Diamond Role, the warm, all-acoustic I Often Dream of Trains and the psychedelicized Groovy Decay - sometimes with and sometimes without his band the Egyptians - Hitchcock would unwittingly help shape the pop strain of contemporary alternative rock. In 1998, director and fan Jonathan Demme placed him in a shop window for the concert film Storefront Hitchcock, introducing his engaging live show to wider audiences. As Hitchcock continues to record and tour as a solo and band act, his direction has ve "Years ago I wrote a song called 'My Mind Wants to Die But My Body Wants to Live' and that was the only lyric in it," he told The Believer. "And really, that pretty much sums me up." DATA * Engineered by Kurt Bloch * Recorded in Seattle, 2005 & 2006 * Robyn Hitchcock plays guitar, harmonica * Peter Buck plays guitar * Scott McCaughey plays bass * Bill Rieflin plays drums * Additional musicians: Morris Windsor (Soft Boys, Egyptians), Chris Ballew (Presidents of the United States of America), Sean Nelson (Harvey Danger), Kimberley Rew (Soft Boys, Katrina and the Waves), Ian McLagan (Small Faces, Faces); Colin Izod (saxophone) ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V15 #166 ********************************