From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V15 #315 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Sunday, December 31 2006 Volume 15 : Number 315 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Mini-Review [Eb ] My name is "Eb", and I wish you a Happy Poo Year ["Stacked Crooked" ] Re: My name is "Eb", and I wish you a Happy Poo Year [Eb ] Re: Top 10 Favorites Albums, 2006 ["Stewart C. Russell" ] NEW on DIME: Robyn Hitchcock - The Garage - Islington, London - 2002-01-25 ["woj" ] Food Sex Death...and Insects [xx ] Re: Food Sex Death...and Insects ["John B. Jones" ] Re: Illinois/Food Sex Death...and Insects [Eb ] syd remembered [HwyCDRrev@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 14:30:33 -0800 From: Eb Subject: Mini-Review Damn...this Jon Auer solo album is VERY good. I'm surprised. I might like this better than any Posies album. No kidding. Was this on any of the "top 10's" posted so far? http://www.amazon.com/Songs-Year-Our-Demise-Auer/dp/B000F4RHHU Much more personal than the Posies, with less of that tribute-band/ emulation feel. The only criticism I can make is that its tone is a bit unvarying (i.e, melancholy)...otherwise, great stuff. A long-ish album with 15 songs, and no track I'd want to cut. Eb ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 15:30:47 -0800 From: "Stacked Crooked" Subject: My name is "Eb", and I wish you a Happy Poo Year you know this art brut record that's ending up on everybody's top-ten list? this was released in 2005. in *may* of 2005. unless there's something i'm missing? i don't see anything in the band's wikipedia entry about it having not been released in the states until '06; but even if it had been, it still wouldn't qualify as an '06 release, would it? also, while the band is pretty good, am i the only one who finds the singer pretty damned annoying? anyway, i've started up a new blog -- no current-events-commentary in this one, so don't be shy about checking it out: . ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2006 00:42:26 +0100 From: Sebastian Hagedorn Subject: Re: My name is "Eb", and I wish you a Happy Poo Year - -- Stacked Crooked is rumored to have mumbled on 30. Dezember 2006 15:30:47 -0800 regarding My name is "Eb", and I wish you a Happy Poo Year: > also, while the > band is pretty good, am i the only one who finds the singer pretty damned > annoying? I think that's the point! As he "sings" in "Formed A Band": "this *is* my singing voice, it's not irony" ;-) You're absolutely right about 2005, though. - -- Sebastian Hagedorn Ehrenfeldg|rtel 156, 50823 Kvln, Germany http://darkstar.spinfo.uni-koeln.de/~hgd/ "Being just contaminates the void" - Robyn Hitchcock ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 17:44:42 -0600 From: Dolph Chaney Subject: Re: Mini-Review At 04:30 PM 12/30/2006, Eb wrote: >Damn...this Jon Auer solo album is VERY good. I'm surprised. I might >like this better than any Posies album. No kidding. Was this on any >of the "top 10's" posted so far? I like it very much too -- a top 20 pick for me. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 16:18:45 -0800 From: Eb Subject: Re: My name is "Eb", and I wish you a Happy Poo Year Stacked Crooked wrote: > you know this art brut record that's ending up on everybody's top- > ten list? > this was released in 2005. in *may* of 2005. unless there's > something > i'm missing? i don't see anything in the band's wikipedia entry > about it > having not been released in the states until '06; but even if it > had been, > it still wouldn't qualify as an '06 release, would it? I agree...and it was prominent enough in 2005 to finish all the way up at #23 in last year's Pazz & Jop critics poll. Eb np: Golden Smog/Another Fine Day (not so good...really muddy mix and overlong tracks, for starters) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 17:26:19 -0800 (PST) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Re: Mini-Review Eb wrote: > Damn...this Jon Auer solo album is VERY good. I'm > surprised. I might like this better than any Posies > album. No kidding. Was this on any of the "top > 10's" posted so far? At least one. > The only criticism I can make is that its tone is > a bit unvarying (i.e, melancholy)... Of course, the album's title kinda indicates that is going to be the case.... "I believe in the marketplace of ideas even if the other guy doesn't have any." -- Keith Olbermann . Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 21:54:14 -0600 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: Top 10 Favorites Albums, 2006 Spotted Eagle Ray wrote: > > Tragic irreplaceable musical loss of the year, James Brown's last minute > grab for the spotlight notwithstanding: Had to be Ivor Cutler. Old age isn't tragic, but the loss is. Stewart (in St Louis, of all places.) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 21:02:01 -0800 From: "Spotted Eagle Ray" Subject: Re: My name is "Eb", and I wish you a Happy Poo Year On 12/30/06, Stacked Crooked wrote: > > you know this art brut record that's ending up on everybody's top-ten > list? > this was released in 2005. in *may* of 2005. unless there's something > i'm missing? i don't see anything in the band's wikipedia entry about it > having not been released in the states until '06; US release was this year. I knew it was a out in the UK last year, but since most of my favorite records this year date to 2005 at the *most* recent, I considered it pretty damned current by my own lax standards... I never claim to be super up-to-date on this stuff. And yeah, they totally sink or swim depending on one's tolerance for the singer. I found the Modern Lovers comparison apt... but I suspect that the comparison extends to the band not having another great, or even good, record in them. I'm okay with that. - -SER ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 23:04:57 -0600 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: reap Turkmen dictator Saparmurat Niyazov, 66. (one seriously barking Hoxha-style nutjob.) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2006 14:48:13 -0000 From: "woj" Subject: NEW on DIME: Robyn Hitchcock - The Garage - Islington, London - 2002-01-25 http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=127966&hit=1 - --- In bot-dimeadozen-org@yahoogroups.com, DIME (www.dimeadozen.org) wrote: A new torrent has been uploaded to DIME. Torrent: 127966 Title: Robyn Hitchcock - The Garage - Islington, London - 25th January 2002 Size: 468.22 MB Category: Rock Uploaded by: ocelot Description - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robyn Hitchcock - The Garage - Islington, London - 25th January 2002 Robyn Morris, Christian, Damian. MD Master>Wavelab>Flac8 Gene Hackman Queen Elvis 1974 Nick Drake Chinese Bones America When I Was A Kid Viva-Setac Adoration of the City Somewhere Apart Dark Princess The Underneath Driving Aloud Encores: Winchester Airscape Ted Woody and Junior So You Think You're In Love Jewels For Sophia - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can use the URL below to download the torrent (you may have to login). http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=127966&hit=1 Take care! dimeadozen.org - --- End forwarded message --- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2006 10:12:54 -0800 From: "michael wells" Subject: another list to argue about Though this one with a regional flavor: Illinois Entertainer's 25 most essential local releases of the last ten years: http://illinoisentertainer.com/2006/12/29/cover-story-essential-local-albums - -96-06/ Some of the choices are interesting; why they picked Wilco's YHF over BEING THERE, the Pumpkins choice, etc. and some omissions are just plain insane: THROUGH THE TREES by The Handsome Family and VOLO VOLO from Poi Dog Pondering to name two. I would also have opted for something a little more garage guitar-driven - from The M's or Redwalls, say - to be more representative of the local sound, but it's still an interesting discussion. And Cheap Trick released their best album in many years in 2006 (ROCKFORD), so if you're looking for some fun New Year's party rock. MIchael ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2006 12:21:54 -0800 (PST) From: xx Subject: Food Sex Death...and Insects Saw a great documentary about Robyn last night on Sundance channel. I was channel surfing and saw a show on the guide simply titled "Robyn Hitchcock" - with no description. I went to sundancechannel.com and could not find any info on it. At first I thought it was about recording Ole! Tarantula. But it is about his *next* album. It was very behind the scenes and very low key. Well done and fun to watch. I had never heard anything about this before. It actually had footage from a show at Maxwell's from November of 2006. Good stuff. Track it down if you can. - -griff ps - happy new year to all, even eb! Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2006 13:41:33 -0800 From: "John B. Jones" Subject: Re: Food Sex Death...and Insects I don't have cable, so if someone could make a torrent of this, I'd be much obliged. I will go do some internet research just in case it's been commercially released. thanks! =jbj= On Dec 31, 2006, at 12:21 PM, xx wrote: > Saw a great documentary about Robyn last night on > Sundance channel. > > I was channel surfing and saw a show on the guide > simply titled "Robyn Hitchcock" - with no description. > I went to sundancechannel.com and could not find any > info on it. > > At first I thought it was about recording Ole! > Tarantula. But it is about his *next* album. It was > very behind the scenes and very low key. Well done > and fun to watch. > > I had never heard anything about this before. It > actually had footage from a show at Maxwell's from > November of 2006. > > Good stuff. > > Track it down if you can. > > > -griff > > > > ps - happy new year to all, even eb! > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2006 14:18:18 -0800 From: Eb Subject: Re: Illinois/Food Sex Death...and Insects michael wells wrote: > Some of the choices are interesting; why they picked Wilco's YHF > over BEING > THERE Why in the world would that surprise you? Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was an enormous breakthrough for Wilco, and the best reviewed album of its year. It's a mandatory choice. > some omissions are just plain insane: > THROUGH THE TREES by The Handsome Family and VOLO VOLO from Poi Dog > Pondering to name two. Well, I think one of the things working against Volo Volo was that IT WASN'T RELEASED DURING THE LAST 10 YEARS. Sheesh. This also explains the "interesting" choice of Smashing Pumpkins' Adore, rather than a more acclaimed earlier album. xx wrote: > Saw a great documentary about Robyn last night on > Sundance channel. > > I was channel surfing and saw a show on the guide > simply titled "Robyn Hitchcock" - with no description. > I went to sundancechannel.com and could not find any > info on it. Damn. I saw that listed too, and assumed it was just Storefront Hitchcock mislabeled. You should give more details about it! In other news, I heard Ole! Tarantula for the first time yesterday.... I like it fine, though it's no revelation. I appreciate that it's more of a pop record, instead of having the feel of another acoustic disc recorded in RH's closet. "Adventure Rocket Ship" is This Year's Non-Single, but its lyric didn't connect with me at all. That's a problem. Some other songs like "Belltown Ramble" and "NY Doll" had the feel of Robyn just writing some lyrics, finding a couple of nice picking patterns and then lazily improvising a vocal melody. Unsatisfying. His stuff badly needs more *punch* -- hammer some chords, instead of picking all the time. Sing more quick, percussive, multi-syllabic phrases, instead of all the lonnnng notes like you hear on "Underground Sun." And jeez, it would help SO much if he would simply deign to beef up his albums to 48 minutes or so. These brief discs with quizzical lyrics just can't escape feeling like some trivial "morsel," rather than a full meal. Things I did like? Well, his voice continues to age (or, more accurately, NOT age) beautifully. I liked "The Authority Box" a lot - -- some nice psychedelic gnash to that one, and fun vulgarity as well. I enjoyed the rich sax arrangements on "Museum of Sex" and the title tune -- the former also had an unexpected melodic twist ("Sea- forrrrrrd") which fell outside Robyn's usual vocabulary. And while "'Cause It's Love (Saint Paralellogram)" was disappointing in that Andy Partridge's "stamp" is not evident -- maybe the answering vocal wails between verse lines? -- there is some really hot, gritty guitar soloing in the final minute. That elevated the whole song. Is that Robyn or Peter Buck? I just feel so frustrated that I can't sit Robyn down and FORCE him to listen to something outside his familiar comfort zone. I can't think of any other artist about whom I feel this so strongly. Yes, Robyn, there is Dylan, the Beatles, Byrds and Barrett. But damn. I want him to hear Beck. I want to him hear more blues. More country. Some hip-hop. Some electronic stuff. Some '20s/ragtime/Randy Newman. More records (Elephant 6, etc.) which add traditional instruments which are outside the standard guitar/bass/drums combo. Etc. He doesn't even have to USE these influences in an obvious way. I just think he needs to be exposed to some sounds which could get him thinking in new ways, and lift him out of this same jangling, pentatonic UK-folk rut. Ack! Also just belatedly played this year's Quasi album, which is a solid rebound from the creatively exhausted Hot Shit. The best-*sounding* Quasi album by a mile (yay, Dave Fridmann), and while it's not the group's best set of songs (the second half is far inferior to the first half), it's quite an enjoyable listen. I wish Janet sung a little more, though. Eb ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2006 21:06:24 EST From: HwyCDRrev@aol.com Subject: syd remembered _http://video.on.nytimes.com/ifr_main.jsp?nsid=b20ca33a9:10fdb597e7b:-7516&st= 1167616519546&mp=WMP&cpf=true&fvn=8&fr=041606_094529_w1d0baee9x10aa16e22d5x714 2&rdm=205630.38054071498_ (http://video.on.nytimes.com/ifr_main.jsp?nsid=b20ca33a9:10fdb597e7b:-7516&st=1167616519546&mp=WMP&cpf=true&fvn=8&fr=041606_094529 _w1d0baee9x10aa16e22d5x7142&rdm=205630.38054071498) ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V15 #315 ********************************