From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V16 #422 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Saturday, December 8 2007 Volume 16 : Number 422 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Please to make a goddam list (and check it twice) [Tom Clark ] Re: that's odd... [michaeljbachman@comcast.net] Re: Best of 2007 [Sebastian Hagedorn ] RE: Best of 2007 ["michael wells" ] Re: that's odd... [Rex ] Re: gothgirls [grutness@slingshot.co.nz] Re: that's odd... [michaeljbachman@comcast.net] Re: that's odd... [kevin ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 19:25:27 -0800 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: Please to make a goddam list (and check it twice) On Dec 5, 2007, at 8:55 PM, Stacked Crooked wrote: > neighbour is looking for obscure xmas songs. please begin submission > process...now! One I forgot: "Merry Christmas From The Family" by Robert Earl Keen Not too obscure, but better than the Jill Sobule version. - -tc (playing Uno and drinking martinis) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 17:24:22 -0500 (EST) From: djini@voicenet.com Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V16 #420 Eddie directed: > > neighbour is looking for obscure xmas songs. please begin submission > process...now! > What Can You Get A Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Has A Comb)? from the Star Wars Xmas album. Jeanne ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2007 06:59:10 -0800 From: "michael wells" Subject: Best of 2007 I'm impressed with our restraint in not pummeling each other with "Best-of" lists yet, but I can't take it anymore. Here's the first salvo. Michael The best: LOVE IS SIMPLE - Akron/Family. I like the image of stumbling on a remote, tree-lined grove where some amazingly talented, cosmically freaked-out people are building a communal sound around a bonfire at night. Try picturing Dead Can Dance working through some unreleased Zappa. Completely and utterly insane, and my favorite album of the year. MOMENTO - Bebel Gilberto. Softly radiant, enganging Brazilian arrangements frame Bebel's stunning voice. No "Latin lounge" cheese here, classy and elegantly produced. Might be the best make-out album ever. THE HISTORICAL CONQUESTS OF JOSH RITTER - Josh Ritter. Does it say something that the short little 'bonus tracks' are better than most other albums this year? Of everyone who has been touted as part-Dylan, this guy has not only the verbal dexterity to pull it off but that little something that allows him to turn a bittersweet phrase so that it really connects. Plus he can sing, and he knows how to do a slow song instead of just dumping the words out there. A worthy follow-up to THE ANIMAL YEARS, one the best albums of the decade. IDEAL FREE DISTRIBUTION - Ideal Free Distribution. Does this belong in late '06? Who cares, it's so good it counts for two years. Early Yardbirds harmony arrangements meet 90's power pop. Consistently excellent, and it holds up to extended replays. Thx to Stewart for tipping me to this. When you play something for JBJ, and he says he likes it, you know you're onto a winner! THE VELVET RUT - Paul Curreri. It would be nigh on impossible to equal the subtle, cohesive splendor of his SPIRIT OF THE STAIRCASE, and instead of trying Paul goes reeling tipsily off into the Virginia hills with this partly electrified workbook. Sly, slightly countrified pop alternates with quiet, acoustic reflections on the ironic twists of life, plus killer guitar picking. SONGS FROM CANDYAPOLIS - Keith Morris. What is independent 'Americana' music? Try this. His promo material says "A finely crafted and musically overflowing song cycle: from Pentecostal, snake-handling Gospel to dreamlike odes to Appalachian hoe-downs to achingly beautiful lullabies." Uh, that's about right. A really amazing debut album, more at http://cdbaby.com/cd/keithmorris MADE IN CHINA - Martin Atkin's China Dub Soundsystem. Longtime industrial heavy (PIL, Ministry, etc) hits China with a tape recorder and gets his mind blown by all the stuff erupting in the fake "free" time before the Olympics. Mixed back at his lab here in Chicago, it is unreal (if a bit overwhelming). LET US NOW PRAISE SLEEPY JOHN - Peter Case. Makes the list just for the sound and the lyrics. God, I can't Peter's voice...but no-one else is penning music like this anymore. Might be our best living writer that is still pumping out stuff on a regular basis. THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE - Admiral Twin. Kansas City harmony rockers deliver their most cohesive disc yet - every song is perfectly executed, and while they may not all be attention grabbers the whole thing is very, very good. Think a bit of New Pornos mixed with The Freddy Jones Band, just a bit same-y throughout. The contenders: OUR EARTHLY PLEASURES - Maximo Park HISSING FAUNA, ARE YOU THE DESTROYER? - Of Montreal NEW MAGNETIC WONDER - Apples in Stereo. I think the last quarter of the album is the shit, but otherwise I'm kind of half-hearted about the rest. SNAKES AND ARROWS - Rush. Normally a staple of my "Best Of" lists, this one has some of their best in recent years and some of their worst. Killer instrumentals, a couple of rockers, but ultimately overwhelmed by the confessional tone to the lyrics. I don't need a hard-rocking Joni Mitchell here, guys. TONES OF TOWN - Field Music. If you know P:Ano, this is like P;Ano lite. AN END HAS A START - Editors CRAZY IS CATCHING - Craig D'Andrea. Very smart, skillful fingerstyle guitar. A little Hedges in there, but definitely his own thing. AMIINA - Kurr. Pure Franco-Tunisian lusciousness. Is there any other kind? NEON BIBLE - Arcade Fire. That compressed overhead production is starting to bug me; clearly the songs are written for their revival-quality shows, and they seem only claustrophobic here. The pretenders: FAR FROM REFUGE - God is an Astronaut. A lot of mid-tempo that never seems to go anywhere. I appear to be missing the point. RAISE THE STAKES - Trademark ASH WEDNESDAY - Elvis Perkins. Good if you're a completely self-absorbed loner living through northern winters. TWILIGHT - Future of Forestry. If no one is a forest, and they hear this album, will...anyone...oh, forget it. THE BESNARD LAKES ARE THE DARK HORSE - The Besnard Lakes. I hear the buzz, it just doesn't connect. LOW STARS - Low Stars. Eagles? A little Cat Stevens? Can that be a good combination? LIGHTHOUSE - Chris O'Brien DJIN DJIN - Angelique Kidjo STRANGELET - Grant-Lee Phillips ROSES & CLOVER - ALO ESTIMATED CHARGES - The Flying Other Brothers SUGAR AND SPITE - Unkle Bob. Everything in the recipe says I should love this album. I don't, but it is still pretty good. Nope: DRUMS and GUNS - Low. Lo-fi. Low interest. LIKE, LOVE, LUST and the OPEN HALLS OF THE SOUL - Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter UNMASTERED - Jay Brannan. Usually "lack of formal guitar training" can be considered a hindrance. MARRY ME - St. Vincent HATS OFF TO THE BUSKERS - The View. Don't see what all the hype is about, really. Song of the Year, hypno-Latin division: 'Roda (Grateful Dub mix)' - Ceu Song of the Year, pseudo-Christian division: 'I Wanna Marry You All Over Again' - Derek Webb Song title of the Year: 'Don't be Afraid, You're Already Dead' - Akron/Family 2006 discoveries PURPLE GIRLFRIEND - The Goldstars. Oh. My. God. THE GREAT DISSENT (OR), HOW QUANTUM PHYSICS SAVED MY LIFE - Big Ditch Road. This is what I think Tweedy & Co. should sound like. And I wonder why I like Darin's voice and not Richard Buckner's, given the obvious similarities...but this has the twisted immediacy that I get from Ryan Adams without the meandering lameness that Wilco has become. It's sometimes very downbeat, but connects like a bullet when it goes there. Great music for listening on headphones while riding n a train through Normandy. I'm just sayin'. MAKERS - Rocky Votolato. Echoes of solo Paul Simon. James, you might like this. [demime 0.97c-p1 removed an attachment of type application/ms-tnef which had a name of winmail.dat] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Dec 2007 13:30:07 +0000 From: michaeljbachman@comcast.net Subject: Re: that's odd... - -------------- Original message -------------- From: Rex > On Dec 6, 2007 11:43 AM, 2fs wrote: > > > > > > > > I class Sonic Youth as later than Wire. "Two People in a Room" is the > > > blueprint for SY, to my ears, quite a few years beforehand. > > > > > > > I never would have thought of Wire as any sort of blueprint for SY...and > > at first, thinking of the Wire song you name, I couldn't hear it at all. > > > > Until my mental jukebox came upon "'Cross the Breeze" - that'd make a > > pretty fine segue! > > Rex wrote: > Very little else by Wire relates to Sonic Youth (except in general > experimentalism) to my ears, but the first time I heard "Two People", I > thought, holy shit, that's half of "Daydream Nation" right there. Or > "Sister"... think "Stereo Sanctity", f'rinstance. > > Wire really invented a lot of shit. For reals, I mean, more than most bands > that get credited with doing so. Usually when someone mentions a pop band > as being the "first" to do something, you can find a pretty clear antecedent > somewhere else. And you can trace a lot of Wire to Krautrock or various > other art-rock forebearers... but there's a hell of a lot on those first > three albums alone that seems to have just sprung forth, as it were, > self-living. My god, they're so gifted! > The third Neu! album, "Neu! 75" ranks very high on my trendsetting list, and pre-dates Pink Flag by a couple of years. A primer for Wire, Stereolab, Sonic Youth and many other bands. Michael B. NP The Go-Betweens - 1978-90 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Dec 2007 15:17:04 +0100 From: Sebastian Hagedorn Subject: Re: Best of 2007 - -- michael wells is rumored to have mumbled on 8. Dezember 2007 06:59:10 -0800 regarding Best of 2007: > The best: Geez, I don't know a single one of those! Actually I haven't even heard of most of the artists ... My own list will come a little later. At least I've got 18 actual 2007 albums to choose from! That's way more than in past years ... - -- Sebastian Hagedorn Am alten Stellwerk 22, 50733 Kvln, Germany http://www.uni-koeln.de/~a0620/ "Being just contaminates the void" - Robyn Hitchcock ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2007 08:40:53 -0800 From: "michael wells" Subject: RE: Best of 2007 Sebastian: > Geez, I don't know a single one of those! Actually I haven't even heard of most of the artists ... Then have fun exploring! I see that I forgot to include Okkervil River's THE STAGE NAMES as well. Ack! Michael ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2007 10:20:53 -0800 From: Rex Subject: Re: that's odd... On 12/8/07, michaeljbachman@comcast.net wrote: elf-living. My god, they're so gifted! > > > The third Neu! album, "Neu! 75" ranks very high on my trendsetting list, and > pre-dates Pink Flag by a couple of years. A primer for Wire, Stereolab, > Sonic Youth and many other bands. There are definitely several Neu! songs which are different from several Stereolab songs in exactly no ways at all. . > > NP The Go-Betweens - 1978-90 Cool how you can still listen to this long after hearing/memorizing all the original proper albums, huh? That doesn't happen often. - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2007 07:32:06 +1300 From: grutness@slingshot.co.nz Subject: Re: gothgirls >James says: > >re: goth girls: > > > me too - as a quick glance at some of my paintings will testify! >> (several of the ones at > > will give some idea >> of what I mean). > >they're lovely. the landscapes are very nice as well; i like the >simplicity with the intense colours. thank you - I'm glad you like them! >i was thinking you have an awful lot of goth girls out and about in >NZ, but then i saw the explanation of the term "Drift-netting", so >maybe fewer than i thought. > still quite a few, I'm glad to say - not all of those pictures are driftnetted. James - -- James Dignan, Dunedin, New Zealand -.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.- =-.-=-.-=-.- You talk to me as if from a distance .-=-.-=-.-=-. -=-. And I reply with impressions chosen from another time .-=- .-=-.-=-.-=-.-=- (Brian Eno - "By this River") -.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Dec 2007 21:30:14 +0000 From: michaeljbachman@comcast.net Subject: Re: that's odd... - -------------- Original message -------------- From: Rex > On 12/8/07, michaeljbachman@comcast.net wrote: > elf-living. My god, they're so gifted! > > > > > The third Neu! album, "Neu! 75" ranks very high on my trendsetting list, and > > pre-dates Pink Flag by a couple of years. A primer for Wire, Stereolab, > > Sonic Youth and many other bands. > > There are definitely several Neu! songs which are different from > several Stereolab songs in exactly no ways at all. > . > > > > NP The Go-Betweens - 1978-90 > > Cool how you can still listen to this long after hearing/memorizing > all the original proper albums, huh? That doesn't happen often. > > -Rex I've been playing all my 1990 cd's for the last few weeks. The 1978-1990 song sequencing and selection was so much better than the other compilation, Bellavista Terrace. I also bought some from 1990 that I never had before: The House Of Love - The House of Love (butterfly cover), The Lilac Time - & Love For All, and World Party - Goodbye Jumbo. Michael B. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2007 20:34:15 -0800 (GMT-08:00) From: kevin Subject: Re: that's odd... World Party - Goodbye Jumbo. Love that World Party. Put the message in the box, etc... ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V16 #422 ********************************