From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V16 #557 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Sunday, March 30 2008 Volume 16 : Number 557 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: It is kind of funny, actually [Michael Sweeney ] Re: fegmaniax-digest V16 #556 [Rex ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:03:24 +0000 From: Michael Sweeney Subject: Re: It is kind of funny, actually Rex wrote: >I owe an apology to Eddie if he's refrained from posting a review of "Tusk"because I was supposed to do so as well. I've just finished listening to ittwice, and I really like it. A lot. It has almost everything I like exceptfor bad singing. I don't know if I would've really gotten it until maybefour or five years ago, but it's an instant click.< ...Ya know, strangely enuff, as the resident "Tusk"-booster, I actually had a passing thought about the overdue reviews the other day...and (pessimist that I am) my processed end-thought was "Well, they probably didn't like it too much -- not enough to comment...yet not hating it enough to rip..." So this was a pleasant Saturday-morning kick-off read for me (as previously stated, I DO realize that I am often too bound into my appreciations for my favorite artists and art that I become defensive / protective...prick "The Great Gatsby," "Stardust Memories," or "London Calling" and do I not bleed?) >3) "Storms" is not the song I thought it was.4) Still can't see myself coming into wilful possession of a Stevie Nicksrecord, but her presence here grates not at all. What's up with that?< ...Also, of course, me = huge Lindsey Buckingham fan, but...to me, his collaboration / arranging / overall ballast work on S.N. songs within the Mac is what successfully completes the songs and often prevents them from floating off into the aether. "Storms" is a good example of what might have been just another (as I call 'em) "girl trapped in her room with a notebook" song from Stevie without the musical depth LB helps add. As I think I've also stated before, I got into "Tusk" right when it came out and I was 17..and I also ended up getting various bootlegs, works-in-progress recordings, etc. back then -- and, almost without exception, everything that she was then working on w/LB that later came out on her solo rekkids was vastly superior (IMHO) in the demo version then in the later-finished, meandering, I-need-an-editor (and a collaborator) way...That's always been my reaction, anyway -- Stevie w/LB = OK to great; Stevie on her own = meh to OK. >5) It's really good.< I was also refelcting on this the other day while watching a great collection of YouTube posts of "Tusk" tour stage rehearsals / sound-checks...and another thing that struck me is that while LB has the majority of the songs AND sets the production tone, another factor in my appreciation was that there weren't the occasional Christine clunker here (like, later, songs like "Little Lies" and "Everywhere" became) -- even mid-tempo / slow stuff like "Over and Over" and "Brown Eyes" still work for me 25+ years on. >)7) I've long held that if there were some Great MusicSynthesizing/Averagizing Machine that could listen to your whole recordcollection and spit out the statistically "perfect" album for a givenlistener, it would compact mine into a copy of "Loveless"... but it mightjust as well come out sounding something like "Tusk", I think. Weird.< I do recognize that, for me, my love for this work is so inextricably intertwined with its time in my life (17, tied to two of the most important friend / beyond relationships in my life, seeing the tour that year) that I can't necessarily make a completely independent ruling on it...but it IS (at times, for better or worse) one of the "perfect" records for me...and, to perhaps leaven my jism-y comments a bit, it took hopeful consumption of three more w/LB Mac albums ("Mirage," "Tango in the Night," and "Say You Will") and three LB solo LPs ("Law & Order," "Go Insane," and "Out of the Cradle") before the 4th, "Under the Skin," hit me (and stuck with me) with anything close to the appreciation I have for "Tusk." (Although, the unreleased LB disk, "Gift of Screws," which was cannibalized among "The Dance," "Say You Will," and "Skin" might have ended up being even better...) ...OK -- back into the bunker...thanks for enduring this analysis / fan-boy spewing... Michael "Is it?" Sweeney _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live Hotmail is giving away Zunes. http://www.windowslive-hotmail.com/ZuneADay/?locale=en-US&ocid=TXT_TAGLM_Mobi le_Zune_V3 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:14:39 +1300 From: grutness@slingshot.co.nz Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V16 #556 > > 7) I've long held that if there were some Great Music > > Synthesizing/Averagizing Machine that could listen to your whole record > > collection and spit out the statistically "perfect" album for a given > > listener, it would compact mine into a copy of "Loveless"... but it might > > just as well come out sounding something like "Tusk", I think. > > > >In my case I suspect it would average out to Sailin' Shoes by Little Feat. >Either that or the 3rd Big Star album, whatever you want to call it. On the >other hand I've still never heard Tusk (and still not that interested). mmm. Probably something like John Cale's "Fragments from a rainy season" for me, I'd guess (though on the whole I prefer "Paris 1919") - - though any program that can work out how to average Throbbing Gristle, Bert Kaempfert, Elvis Costello, and Harold Budd (among myriad others) has its work cut out for it. 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: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:03:56 +1300 From: grutness@slingshot.co.nz Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V16 #556 >6) Surely someone before me has remarked on the odd similarity between "Save >a Place for Me" and Brian Eno's "I'll Come Running", right? I'd never noticed that, but you're right (it's "Save me a place", BTW). I like the way the FMac song seems to speed up, but at a rate that's slow enough that you're not sure whether it's just your brain plying tricks on you. 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, 29 Mar 2008 17:12:56 -0700 (PDT) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Re: Finally, the motivation Axl needs to finally get Chinese Democracy out this year 2fs wrote: > On 3/26/08, Jeff Dwarf wrote: > > > > http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/49539-ichinese-democracyi-in-2008-free-dr-pepper-for-all > > > Hee-hee. > > It'd be funny if GnR do release it - and bankrupt Dr. P... Well, at 3 cents a can to manufacture -- if that -- I don't think $9 Million will bankrupt Cadbury-Schweppes, especially since they would make it up free publicity/sales/etc. "I'm not tempted to write a song about George W. Bush. I couldn't figure out what sort of song I would write. That's the problem: I don't want to satirize George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporize them." -- Tom Lehrer "The eyes are the groin of the head." -- Dwight Schrute . ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:26:37 -0400 From: "SH McCleary" Subject: RE: pop matters review of SFD & I DVD Watched it Thursday night. Was most amused perhaps by Buck going on and on about how awful it is to tour with REM, spending (paraphrasing here) hours and hours shaking hands with people he doesn't know. Being rich and famous does, apparently, suck. Geez. Also made the connection with Robyn's comment from the Bottom Line 2003 show about John Paul Jones coming 'round and playing mandolin at parties. "Okay, JP, go!" Overall, it was a pretty good way to spend an hour and a half (the review's right -- the added features with the songs in progress are pretty interesting). === SHMcCleary http://www.flickr.com/photos/prodigaldog ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:52:16 -0700 From: "kevin studyvin" Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V16 #556 On Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 4:14 PM, wrote: > > > 7) I've long held that if there were some Great Music > > > Synthesizing/Averagizing Machine that could listen to your whole > record > > > collection and spit out the statistically "perfect" album for a given > > > listener, it would compact mine into a copy of "Loveless"... but it > might > > > just as well come out sounding something like "Tusk", I think. > > > > > > > >In my case I suspect it would average out to Sailin' Shoes by Little > Feat. > >Either that or the 3rd Big Star album, whatever you want to call it. On > the > >other hand I've still never heard Tusk (and still not that interested). > > mmm. Probably something like John Cale's "Fragments from a rainy > season" for me, I'd guess (though on the whole I prefer "Paris 1919") > - though any program that can work out how to average Throbbing > Gristle, Bert Kaempfert, Elvis Costello, and Harold Budd (among > myriad others) has its work cut out for it. > Sounds more like Music For a New Society to me. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:13:19 -0700 From: Rex Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V16 #556 On Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 6:52 PM, kevin studyvin wrote: > > > mmm. Probably something like John Cale's "Fragments from a rainy > > season" for me, I'd guess (though on the whole I prefer "Paris 1919") > > - though any program that can work out how to average Throbbing > > Gristle, Bert Kaempfert, Elvis Costello, and Harold Budd (among > > myriad others) has its work cut out for it. > > > Sounds more like Music For a New Society to me. HoboSapiens is a pretty good match as well. - -Rex ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V16 #557 ********************************