From: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org (jinglejangle-digest) To: jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Subject: jinglejangle-digest V1 #5 Reply-To: jinglejangle@smoe.org Sender: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jinglejangle-digest Thursday, February 12 1998 Volume 01 : Number 005 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [MLL] Sarah Good [laser72@juno.com (Cheryl A Chastine)] MLL - list is back - post away! [Rachel ] SF Show [Kevin Wan ] mary lou on phoenix! [ak720@osfn.rhilinet.gov (Peter Capineri)] Addicted to Noise article [Rachel ] MLL ATN review [Rachel ] MLL archives available [Rachel ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 21:50:31 -0500 From: laser72@juno.com (Cheryl A Chastine) Subject: [MLL] Sarah Good >This time I'll have the final word >This time I'll win the case >I won't become a _____ girl again Yes, the lyrics are "I won't become a Sarah Good again." The Salem witch trials, cf. Arthur Miller's _The Crucible_. (She's also called Goody Good in the play -- short for "Goodwife" Good.) If I remember correctly (and it has been a while): not only is Sarah Good one of the women accused of witchcraft -- she's one of the ones who turn traitor by confessing falsely to witchcraft in order to save her life; and when women confessed, they also accused more people of witchcraft. She therefore contributes to the witchcraft hysteria by making more accusations (thus endangering more lives!) and by making it seem like there really is witchcraft afoot. So you could extend the metaphor to Mary Lou in numerous ways, all fascinating; bottom line, that's probably the most complex lyric in the song. Sorry to get overly literary, Cheryl "Kenneth Starr was indignant last week when his office was charged with leaking, though he said he would investigate." -Anthony Lewis _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 07:57:57 -0500 (EST) From: Rachel Subject: MLL - list is back - post away! The list is back, some messages may be on their way, but the listowner says everything is cool. Also, please use this address and not the old list. thanks, rachel "I hate myself for sitting here waiting by the phone you're probably out right now with that Kim Deal clone The only thing left to like out of you is how many songs I've written that are new" -- gaze, "any way" - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- my Mary Lou Lord page is at http://pages.nyu.edu/~rkb200/ To join Some Jingle Jangle List, the Mary Lou Lord mailing list, email Majordomo@smoe.org with ONLY "subscribe jinglejangle" in the BODY. Email me for information about my zine I'M NOT WAITING. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 11:49:46 -0800 From: Kevin Wan Subject: SF Show In response to ZeroWork >>I was there and the vocals seemed really clear at least in the back of >>the room. yeah... i guess in the back it was more clear, because when i was watching whiskeytown (i sat up the back stairs) it sounded a lot better. i was up front when MLL was up so perhaps i got more of the drums and guitar noise than i wanted. >>680 tickets sold pus guests well, that was a rough estimate from my POV (550). it seemed to fill up more as the set ended so i assumed that most of the crowd had been there to see whiskeytown. >>the crowd responded better to her than Whiskeytown really? i honestly thought that the crowd was made up of predominatly Whiskeytown fans. when Mary Lou began i didn't feel a big rush toward the stage but i did when Whiskeytown took the stage. and i heard less applause and more background conversation during her set. maybe it was the difference from the front and back again. >>SHE NEVER PLAYED IN SAC! we were on a plane to NY to shoot her video, so >>I don't what Sacramento show you were at. well actually, i wasn't at the Sac show! but i met someone at the SF show that was visiting from the east bay that said she was going to the Sac show. we exchanged numbers and i called her later to ask how it went so she must've mislead me. must've been an elaborate ploy to get me to call her (yeah... i wish!) heh :) kev ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 15:15:20 -0500 (EST) From: ak720@osfn.rhilinet.gov (Peter Capineri) Subject: mary lou on phoenix! mary lou is on the cover of the providence phoenix! if you run right now you might be able to get it, but i think it'll be gone tomorrow if not already! quick! - -peter ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 19:27:44 -0500 (EST) From: Rachel Subject: Addicted to Noise article this article is from Addicted to Noise: http://www.addict.com/MNOTW/lofi/980211/980211_3101.shtml Mary Lou Lord Emerges From Shadows The 13 tracks from former street musician focus on feelings of lost or unrequited love. Addicted To Noise Staff Writer Chris Nelson reports : When Mary Lou Lord signed her first major label deal (with Sony's Work Group) in 1995, she didn't intend to make an album immediately. What the Boston busker couldn't predict was that a full three years would pass between the day she signed on the dotted line and the recent release of her full-length debut, Got No Shadow (see review in Addicted To Noise's "44.1 kHz" album reviews section). It was precisely such a relaxed work schedule that allowed Lord to create what she hopes is an album for the ages rather than a flavor of the month. "When I listen to the radio, there seems to be a lot of manufactured hits," Lord said recently by phone from her Boston home. "My record is more of an old-fashioned LP -- I don't hear a lot of filler on it, and it doesn't have a hit that pops out. It's more like a '70s whole thing." What unites the 13 tracks on Got No Shadow into a "whole thing" are recurring themes of lost (or unfound) love, be it through feelings of unrequited devotion ("His Lamest Flame"), a languished relationship ("Two Boats") or secret admiration ["Subway" (RealAudio excerpt)]. All but two of the tracks were penned by Lord and her songwriting partner, Nick Saloman of the band Bevis Frond. In addition, several famous folks turned out to lend a hand on the disc, including former Byrds frontman Roger McGuinn, Geraldine Fibbers guitarist Nels Cline and Beastie Boys keyboardist Money Mark. "The album doesn't sound like the '90s," Lord said in a voice more earthy than the whispers she intones on Got No Shadow. "There are no techno beats or manufactured rhythms on this record. It's very song-oriented, and lots of times when you're dealing with songs instead of sounds, there's something humble about that." There's also something humble about working in a medium with which one is not familiar, as Lord discovered when it came time to record Got No Shadow. Lord's venues of choice have always been the street corner or a subway platform, and, thus, she and Saloman had written these songs primarily for her voice and acoustic guitar. When it came time to lay down tracks in the studio, Lord had to both arrange parts for the other musicians and work through the process of recording innumerable takes of her own work. "It was a challenging record," said Tom Rothrock (Beck, Elliott Smith) who, with partner Rob Schnapf, produced Got No Shadow over the course of three-and-a-half months. "The recording process is inherently intense," he said. "In this situation you add on top of that Mary Lou, who is incredibly driven and hard upon herself, and Rob and myself, who at the same time are pushing her as far as she can be pushed. Sometimes the tension would build and explode." Lord, herself, described the recording as "emotionally taxing." "I worked alone [before], and for me to bring in all these different personalities - -- it was fun, it was new and exciting," she said. "But at the same time, it was a lot of work. It was a little bit weird for me to be performing out of real time, without an audience. Singing the same line 20 times to get it right, it loses its honesty a little bit. But that's the compromise for perfection." Earlier this month, Lord hit the road with a full band for a tour that runs through April. Because she now has traveling companions, she said she'll be less likely to stage her characteristic, impromptu street-corner shows; still, Lord said she recently spent six hours playing songs from Got No Shadow on a Boston subway platform. "I played 'Two Boats' quite a lot that night," Lord said. "I'm becoming more familiar with the songs and the feeling now, because I had been listening to the album. I think I had missed them in their own acoustic context." [Wed., Feb. 11, 1998, 9 a.m. PST] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 19:50:36 -0500 (EST) From: Rachel Subject: MLL ATN review and here's the review ATN refers to: from: http://www.addict.com/html/hifi/Reviews/44.1kHz/ Sweet Subway Songs By Beth Winegarner The story: The story is that Mary Lou Lord was playing on the streets of Berkeley (that's California) one day, who-knows-when, when a crazy guy came shambling along, came cakewalking, came eye-rolling, came wiggle-stepping along -- then stopped dead, right smack in front of her, she being, of course, this sunny, incredibly real and sane folk singer. Now this man had a genuine, you know, really not-at-all-sane look on his face, but he was diggin' the music and diggin' in his pant pockets, and the yuppies gathered 'round, who were also diggin' the music, and they started diggin', also, in their pant pockets for their wallets and -- with one collective eye on the not-at-all-sane looking man -- they grabbed and held onto those wallets, tight. The crazy man continued to dig, with great intensity and growing frustration, until he finally came up with his very own, quite definitely empty hand. Then, suddenly, seized by inspiration, he ripped out his entire pant pocket and, with great force and conviction, hurled it into Lord's guitar case. This very selfsame pocket hangs on Lord's wall, and whenever she gets miserable, she looks at it and becomes less miserable, sometimes substantially less so. So now you know these things about Lord: 1) She was and always will be, in some respect, a street performer; 2) No matter how much money she makes with this major-label debut, a pocket stuffed with greenbacks will not likely replace the empty pocket on her wall any time soon. The review: On Got No Shadow, Lord's voice is sweet as she sings catchy, well-crafted songs and plays acoustic guitar. Accompanying her are guitarist Nick Saloman, singer/songwriter Elliott Smith, keyboardist Money Mark and singer Shawn Colvin. Several of the tracks on Shadow were co-written with Saloman, the frontman of England's Bevis Frond. The album opens with the upbeat "His Lamest Flame" and an arresting image: "The knees are bent and the hands are clasped ... a sudden glimpse through Heaven's gate/ Is all that I'm allowed." Lord's narrator longs for a relationship she can't attain -- the yearning is dressed up in a catchy, sing-along tune that counters pain with pure pop joy. Lord returns to the topic of missed chances in "She Had You." She sings along with fuzzy guitar, "I had a friend there/ And she was a waste of space/ She tried to match me/ She couldn't stay the pace/ She was a no-one/ She was a loser/ But she had you." Lord's delivery is bittersweet but doesn't lower itself to mere vindictiveness. It is the voice of someone who believes success is the best revenge. "I went to college/ I got a fancy car/ A drop-dead apartment/ And now I'm a shining star/ She never made it/ She's selling Avon," Lord continues. Lord's slower numbers on Shadow are delicious, from the wistful melancholy of "Throng of Blowtown" to "Down Along the Lea," the tin-whistle embellishments and staccato drums of which give it an almost Celtic flavor. Lord dips into American folk on her cover of Elizabeth Cotten's "Shake Sugaree," a song about poverty: "I'm goin' sailin' in a wooden shoe/ I'm lookin' for a star I can tell my troubles to/ Oh lordy me, didn't I shake sugaree?/ Everything I got is down in pawn." One of the nicest treats on Shadow is the pairing of Lord's voice with Colvin's. Lord's rounded, warm tones blend perfectly with Colvin's cooler, edgier delivery. The duo's work on "Seven Sisters" gives the chorus necessary tension, and their heavenly harmonies on "Two Boats" raise gooseflesh. Shadow closes with "Subway," an ode to Lord's favored stomping grounds. "There's no sun and no starlight to shine on the rails/ The spray-painted words of the prophets who failed," she begins over simple, strummed guitar. The slow pace of the song is in poignant contrast to the rushing nature of the scenes she describes. Listeners come and go, but Lord remains a fixture on the platform, at times lonely but never alone. "So hold my eyes/ While the rest of the city flies by/ And the tips and the tokens you left me today/ Are the price of my ride on the subway." If Shadow has a flaw, it's that these songs flow from one to the next, and sometimes it's difficult to tell them apart. By the same token, Lord's album floats the listener along on a gentle sea of folksy melodies, buoyed by the sharp storytelling of Lord's and Saloman's songs. It would be a tragedy if Lord were marketed as the next Jewel, another doe-eyed blonde toting her guitar from rags to riches. Lord's work is much smarter, richer and tougher and, besides, Jewel will probably never resume playing in cafes while Lord may well be playing subways (and loving it) until the day she dies. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 00:39:06 -0500 (EST) From: Rachel Subject: MLL archives available I just wanted to let everyone know that if you missed something on the list or just joined or whatever, you can go to www.smoe.org and click on mailing lists and then go to "Archives" and read the old digests. There should be a FAQ too but I have to write one up. So if you ever accidentally delete list mail or you don't get your mail, you can go there and see what's up. Also, I put up a photo of me and Mary Lou from the video shoot (and some others) at: http://pages.nyu.edu/~rkb200/photos.html cheers, rachel "I hate myself for sitting here waiting by the phone you're probably out right now with that Kim Deal clone The only thing left to like out of you is how many songs I've written that are new" -- gaze, "any way" - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- my Mary Lou Lord page is at http://pages.nyu.edu/~rkb200/ To join Some Jingle Jangle List, the Mary Lou Lord mailing list, email Majordomo@smoe.org with ONLY "subscribe jinglejangle" in the BODY. Email me for information about my zine I'M NOT WAITING. ------------------------------ End of jinglejangle-digest V1 #5 ********************************