From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V16 #14 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Wednesday, January 17 2007 Volume 16 : Number 014 Today's Subjects: ----------------- guardian islington review [wojbearpig ] Re: guardian islington review [The Great Quail ] Re: guardian islington review [Rex ] Re: guardian islington review [Jeff Dwarf ] 15-1 [Jill Brand ] reap [Eb ] independant islington review [wojbearpig ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2007 08:13:54 -0500 From: wojbearpig Subject: guardian islington review http://music.guardian.co.uk/live/story/0,,1991177,00.html Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 Islington Academy, London *** (out of 5) Ian Gittins Tuesday January 16, 2007 The Guardian "I'm an elder statesman of indie, you know," observes a deadpan Robyn Hitchcock, "a superannuated cult dude." It would be churlish to quibble: a 25-year career in which he has released 15 albums has established Hitchcock as a fixture in music's margins, the wacky benign uncle of English psychedelia. Hitchcock may be a fringe figure but his 1970s band the Soft Boys (formed at Cambridge University) were a large influence on REM, whose guitarist Peter Buck and drummer Bill Rieflin form two-thirds of his Venus 3 tonight. In his lurid floral shirt, Hitchcock retains the air of an eternal student: only his curtains of grey hair betray his 53 years. His forte has always been a prim, clean-cut version of acid rock, powered by gentle whimsy. In equal thrall to the Byrds and the Goons, he routinely subverts his band's plangent jangle with his diligently zany lyrics as on Ol! Tarantula, the title track of his new album. The Museum of Sex, likewise, is little more than a volley of absurdist, dislocated phrases, but the band sound tight. The leather-jacketed Buck is a fluid maestro, visually anonymous save for a trademark shimmy of the hip on the dextrous garage rock of Adventure Rocket Ship. Hitchcock functions at a tangent, taking five minutes to explain why (A Man's Gotta Know His Limitations) Briggs is based on the denouement of Dirty Harry II. The Authority Box seems set on psychological self-examination, but then rallies to reach a typically surrealist conclusion: "Fuck me, I'm a trolley bus!" A terminal Syd Barrett buff, he encores with "the best song ever", See Emily Play, plus his own 1979 romp Give It to the Soft Boys. Robyn Hitchcock will stay this fastidiously far out for another 25 years yet. 7 At Empire, Belfast (028 90 249276) tomorrow, then touring. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2007 10:11:11 -0500 From: The Great Quail Subject: Re: guardian islington review > The Museum of Sex, likewise, is little more than a volley of absurdist, > dislocated phrases > The Authority Box seems set > on psychological self-examination, but then rallies to reach a > typically surrealist conclusion: "Fuck me, I'm a trolley bus!" Ugh. Why can't more reviewers study the use of metaphor? - --Quail ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2007 08:39:38 -0800 From: Rex Subject: Re: guardian islington review On 1/16/07, The Great Quail wrote: > > > The Museum of Sex, likewise, is little more than a volley of absurdist, > > dislocated phrases > > The Authority Box seems set > > on psychological self-examination, but then rallies to reach a > > typically surrealist conclusion: "Fuck me, I'm a trolley bus!" > > Ugh. Why can't more reviewers study the use of metaphor? Word. "Sex" in particular is as succinct and tightly to-the-point thing as you're likely to hear from anyone. (The song, not the act.) - -SER ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2007 10:17:21 -0800 (PST) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Re: guardian islington review Rex wrote: > The Great Quail wrote: > > > The Museum of Sex, likewise, is little more than > > > a volley of absurdist, dislocated phrases > > > The Authority Box seems set on psychological > > > self-examination, but then rallies to reach a > > > typically surrealist conclusion: "Fuck me, I'm a > > > trolley bus!" > > Ugh. Why can't more reviewers study the use of > > metaphor? > > Word. "Sex" in particular is as succinct and > tightly to-the-point thing as you're likely to hear > from anyone. (The song, not the act.) Once you figure out the word before "the museum of sex" is seafoam (which isn't that hard, though it's not a song used in that many songs; "Museum of Sex" and "All Apologies" are all I can think of), it is. Before you figure that out, I suppose it might seem a bit random. But you really should do enough homework to know that before you're writing a review.... "I believe in the marketplace of ideas even if the other guy doesn't have any." -- Keith Olbermann . ____________________________________________________________________________________ Don't get soaked. Take a quick peak at the forecast with the Yahoo! Search weather shortcut. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/#loc_weather ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:51:09 -0500 (EST) From: Jill Brand Subject: 15-1 Jeff wrote: "1998 (well, January 1999). Atlanta beat Minnesota on a Morten Andersen field goal, after Gary Anderson's only miss of the entire season, a 38 yarder. Minnesota became the first 15-1 team to not make the Super Bowl." And, I believe that the 2004 Steelers were the second. GO PATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jill, who will not be offended if people make fun of her even though she is not as strong or quick at LT ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:18:46 -0800 From: Eb Subject: reap http://billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp? vnu_content_id=1003532370 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007 10:27:34 -0500 From: wojbearpig Subject: independant islington review Robyn Hitchcock And The Venus 3, Islington Academy, London By Simon O'Hagan Published: 17 January 2007 (4 out of 5 stars) He seems a lovely bloke, Robyn Hitchcock, and he's got some tremendous songs - warm and witty and very English, with echoes of early Bowie, Steve Harley and Marc Bolan. We know where he's coming from, and we like it. It's just a shame that someone didn't tell him to go easy on the inter-song rambling when he took the stage at the Islington Academy, the halfway point of a 12-date British tour that precedes a visit to the States in the second half of March. At times Hitchcock sounded like a panellist on Just a Minute, and rather less funny. Torrents of whimsy poured forth on subjects as diverse as the Tufty Club and Diana, Princess of Wales's "assassination", and the audience shifted uncomfortably, waiting for the moment when Hitchcock and his band launched into their next number. But what didn't work as stand-up somehow translated very successfully into music. Take "Ole Tarantula", the title track of his latest album, an anthemic and irresistibly catchy piece about extremely large spiders that really took off with the addition of trombone and sax to the two guitars and drums that make up the Venus 3. One of those guitars belonged to the unobtrusive but brilliant Peter Buck, better known for his work with REM. It was a joy to hear him play, never more so than when he picked up his 12-string to bring a Byrds-like dreaminess to the title track of Hitchcock's 1999 album Jewels in Sophia. Hitchcock - the one-time Soft Boy - is nearly 54. He's been in bands for more than 30 years. Lean and louche, he still has a full head of floppy blond hair, which he makes much of with frequent, girlish tosses of the head, of a kind not seen since the mid-Sixties. His voice is wonderful - appealingly nasal in a John Lennon kind of way, and capable of both great lightness and great depth. He's brimful of ideas, energy and humour, and when, mid-encore, he prefaces a song with an uncharacteristically brief announcement that this is "the best song ever", you're fascinated to know what might come next. Ah, yes. "See Emily Play". A boisterous version it is, too, and if anyone is worthy of jumping on the Syd Barrett bandwagon, then it's Hitchcock. ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V16 #14 *******************************