From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V1 #70 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Monday, May 7 2001 Volume 01 : Number 070 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [loud-fans] Michael Quercio, The Truth and my slow slide to , senility [Roger Winston ] Opening windows (was Re: [loud-fans] The rest of Andrea's tape) [Elizabet] Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) [Miles Goosens ] Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) [Jon Tveite ] Re: [loud-fans] Record Fair Finds ["Andrew Hamlin" ] [loud-fans] [ns] Split Enz and more [Miles Goosens ] Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) / worst shows [Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeff] Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) [Stewart Mason ] RE: [loud-fans] Femmes ["R. Kevin Doyle" ] Re: [loud-fans] Fwd: New Brendan Benson CD [Sue Trowbridge ] Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) [Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Michael Quercio, The Truth and my slow slide to , senility At Sunday 5/6/2001 11:57 PM -0500, Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey wrote: >On Sun, 6 May 2001, Roger Winston wrote: > > > Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mix of wiseacreness. I am the Carrot Top to > > your Seinfeld > >Okay - but who's the Gallagher? I wouldn't wish that on anyone! BTW, I just wanted to make sure that everyone knows I was just tweaking Jeff, as we like to do to each other from time to time. My Milwaukee friend knows there ain't nothing to it. Smart-assery...get it? Although it is true that I could never achieve his level... Later. --Rog - -- When toads are not enough: http://www.reignoffrogs.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 09:08:56 -0500 (CDT) From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Michael Quercio, The Truth and my slow slide to , senility On Mon, 7 May 2001, Roger Winston wrote: > At Sunday 5/6/2001 11:57 PM -0500, Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey wrote: > >On Sun, 6 May 2001, Roger Winston wrote: > > > > > Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mix of wiseacreness. I am the Carrot Top to > > > your Seinfeld > > > >Okay - but who's the Gallagher? > > I wouldn't wish that on anyone! Little-known fact: Robert Plant once saw a very young Gallagher open for the Band of Joy in the late sixties. At that time, Gallagher hadn't refined his act to the crystalline, empyrean peaks of comedic genius that he would later achieve, and hadn't yet hit upon the ideal combination of smashing tool and thing to be smashed. At one point, in fact, he spent an entire evening attempting to smash a mallet with a wet noodle - a truly trying experience. The story goes that Plant had come across a rare cache of Chicago blues waxings inadvertently included in a shipment of fringed leather vests, including the extremely hard to find "anagram mix" of the Willie Dixon track that became "The Lemon Song," in which Dixon sang "smash my melon" instead of "squeeze my lemon." Plant debuted that version the night Gallagher opened for Plant's old band - - and yea verily, the proverbial lightbulb lit up over Gallagher's head, and comedy history was about to be made. - --Jeff J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html ::I suspect that the first dictator of this country will be called "Coach":: __William Gass__ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 11:58:49 -0400 From: Dana L Paoli Subject: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) One of the things that I really, really hate about buying new CDs is that little piece of tape that gets applied to the top edge of the CD case, which presumably prevents the CD from ripping open the shrinkwrap and fleeing the country. Even though the tape has a little tab that supposedly makes it a breeze to remove, I always have a terrible time getting it off. A friend of mine came up with a simple solution to the problem. I wish I could include a diagram, but I think it's pretty straighforward. You just pop the bottom tab of the CD cover out, and then fold the entire cover up and over (the tape will form a hinge). Then pull the cover away from the rest of the CD case. The tape will peel off of the case, and it's easy to then pull it off of the cover. Then replace the cover. A picture would be worth a thousand words. Suffice it to say that I tried it out yesterday and it works. - --dana ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 09:09:46 +0800 From: Elizabeth Setler Subject: Opening windows (was Re: [loud-fans] The rest of Andrea's tape) At 6:47 PM -0500 5/6/01, Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey wrote: >Speaking of...does anyone know how to make IE (5.5) open a new window at >full size? It initially opens at full size, but if I open a second window, >it defaults to this little teensy window that I have to expand in order to >read anything. I'll bet there's a bookmarklet somewhere out there that will do that... or if not, it shouldn't be too terribly hard to modify an existing one. Are you trying to open a new, empty window or open a link in a new window? (In case anyone doesn't know, bookmarklets are little bits of JavaScript that you can put in your browser's toolbar to make the damn thing do pretty much anything you want... I'm particularly fond of "stop music," "hide banners" and "make background white." http://www.bookmarklets.com has a whole bunch...) - -- Elizabeth ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 11:41:30 -0500 From: Miles Goosens Subject: Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) At 11:58 AM 5/7/2001 -0400, Dana L Paoli wrote: >A friend of mine came up with a simple solution to the problem. I wish I >could include a diagram, but I think it's pretty straighforward. You >just pop the bottom tab of the CD cover out, and then fold the entire >cover up and over (the tape will form a hinge). Then pull the cover away >from the rest of the CD case. The tape will peel off of the case, and >it's easy to then pull it off of the cover. Then replace the cover. I've been doing this for the last couple of years, and it does have a pretty high success rate. However, the last few indie CDs I've bought (THE FAULTS and the new Spoon, to cite the most recent two) have had extra-sticky plastic covers that seem fused to the jewel box, tore up when I tried to remove them even via the method Dana cites, and thus required tedious manual scraping to get most of the label and glue off... Anyone else notice this? later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 11:47:10 -0500 From: Miles Goosens Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Michael Quercio, The Truth and my slow slide to , senility At 10:47 PM 5/6/2001 -0600, Roger Winston wrote: >Oh, thank you soooo much, Exalted One. Your approval means the world to >me. If you could only see me jumping around doing my Happy Dance at >thought of being elevated to your level of smart-assery. But I'm afraid >that I will ever be the apprentice and you the master. I sup at your table >of sarcasm yet gnaw only on the bones. I am but the LFE channel in your >Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mix of wiseacreness. I am the Carrot Top to >your Seinfeld; the Christine Aguilera to your Britney Spears; the Janeway >to your Kirk. The SUV in my brain guzzles gas while yours smoothly runs on >fumes. Your pointed jibs are hallucinated on the purest opium, mine on >whipped cream NO2 cylinders. The Truth is in the Depleted Uranium of our >lives, oh yes it is. Fermat's Last Theorem is proven. My cat's name is >Mittens! I hear this spoken in the voice of Dave Foley's character from the Kids in the Hall skit where Dave is the Man Who Can Speak Only in Sarcastic Tones - -- even when he might be sincere... later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: 7 May 2001 09:47:01 -0700 From: mbowen@samoyedsoft.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) On Mon, 07 May 2001, Dana L Paoli wrote: > A friend of mine came up with a simple solution to the problem. I wish I > could include a diagram, but I think it's pretty straighforward. You > just pop the bottom tab of the CD cover out, and then fold the entire > cover up and over (the tape will form a hinge). Then pull the cover away > from the rest of the CD case. The tape will peel off of the case, and > it's easy to then pull it off of the cover. Then replace the cover. Hmmm...this might work. Guess I'll have to buy a new CD to see if it works...anyone have any recommendations? MB ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 11:55:30 -0500 From: Miles Goosens Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Record Fair Finds At 11:50 PM 5/5/2001 -0700, Andrew Hamlin wrote: >Actually, the presence of a "Circles" song is interesting--"Colliding >Circles" turned out to be one of the four nonexistent Beatles songs >fabricated by Martin Lewis. You'll find part of that story on this web page >courtesy Our Miles: > >http://www.rsteviemoore.com/beatles.html There is an unreleased George song called "Circles." But it's not "Colliding Circles." By the way, that particular page was indeed originally created by yours truly, but I haven't had any association with R. Stevie Moore since August of last year. Stevie does all of his own web design now. I really, really need to update my own personal page to reflect that -- not to mention adding best-of lists for 1998-2000... later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 09:59:36 -0700 (PDT) From: "Joseph M. Mallon" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) On Mon, 7 May 2001, Miles Goosens wrote: > I've been doing this for the last couple of years, and it does have a > pretty high success rate. However, the last few indie CDs I've bought (THE > FAULTS and the new Spoon, to cite the most recent two) have had > extra-sticky plastic covers that seem fused to the jewel box, tore up when > I tried to remove them even via the method Dana cites, and thus required > tedious manual scraping to get most of the label and glue off... > Anyone else notice this? Yes - the plastic seems to flake apart and disintegrate much more in new releases than it used to, thus making a great secondary market for adhesive removers like Goo Gone (an excellent product). J. Mallon ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 12:09:41 -0500 (CDT) From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) On Mon, 7 May 2001, Dana L Paoli wrote: > One of the things that I really, really hate about buying new CDs is that > little piece of tape that gets applied to the top edge of the CD case, > which presumably prevents the CD from ripping open the shrinkwrap and > fleeing the country. Even though the tape has a little tab that > supposedly makes it a breeze to remove, I always have a terrible time > getting it off. I think this is part of the record industry's ongoing efforts to alleviate the terrible customer panic that they might, inadvertently, buy a bootleg or used CD - the buyer panic that ensued last time such worries spread (remember those stupid little stickers Warner Bros. put on LPs in the mid-eighties?) made the running of the bulls at Pamplona look like a church picnic at the paralytics' retirement home. As for the more nasty stickies that refuse to take your obvious hints - I've found a mixture of WD-40 (to get the stickiness off) and rubbing alcohol (to get the slimy WD-40 off) works well. Or, just have a large supply of unused jewelboxes around and swap parts. This is practical for me because (a) of my arms race with Dr. Winston re massive quantities of CDs, and (b) since I've been reviewing CDs, I get lots of promo copies in dinky-ass cardboard sleeves, and I always forget I have them if I can't see the spines - so I put them in jewelboxes anyway. I think I recommended a jewelbox supplier (even individual components only!) here a few weeks back - if you're interested and lost that message, e-mail me. - --Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey, thinking of breaking into the Warner pressing plant with my own supply of obnoxious sticky tape and bootleg CDs - bwah-hah-hah-hah!! J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html ::a squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fast and bulbous...got me? __Captain Beefheart__ np: Old 97s _Fight Songs_ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 11:17:06 -0600 From: Roger Winston Subject: Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) Miles Goosens on 2001/05/07 Mon AM 11:41:30 MDT wrote: > I've been doing this for the last couple of years, and it does have a > pretty high success rate. However, the last few indie CDs I've bought (THE > FAULTS and the new Spoon, to cite the most recent two) have had > extra-sticky plastic covers that seem fused to the jewel box, tore up when > I tried to remove them even via the method Dana cites, and thus required > tedious manual scraping to get most of the label and glue off... Fortunately this isn't something I have to deal with since I've been putting all my CDs in plastic bags and ditching (donating, selling) the jewel boxes. Most jewel boxes come broken anyway when ordering CDs online. CDNow especially seems to use the same size giant box no matter how many CDs you order (I got one with a single CD a couple of weeks ago), with no packing material and only a ribbon holding the CD(s) in place. This is threatening to make a detour into Rant territory, so I'll stop now... Later. --Rog - -- When toads are not enough: http://www.reignoffrogs.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 12:18:19 -0500 (CDT) From: Jon Tveite Subject: Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) On 7 May 2001 mbowen@samoyedsoft.com wrote: > Hmmm...this might work. Guess I'll have to buy a new CD to see if it > works...anyone have any recommendations? I'm quite fond of the new Spoon CD Miles mentioned (GIRLS CAN TELL). The other CD from this year I like a lot is Kristin Hersh's SUNNY BORDER BLUE (on which she played all the instruments, I just noticed last night, and quite well -- she produced it, too). DOG IN THE SAND by Frank Black and the Catholics is growing on me, too. I saw them play last week (for about 2 hours, when 90 minutes would have been enough, I think). It was a pretty good show, although the multiple Pixies covers seemed a bit "we're just doing this to appease the fans", and they almost totally ignored PISTOLERO, which I liked a lot. I'm really looking forward to the new Burning Airlines (former members of Jawbox) album, which should be out soon, possibily this week, and a 7-song from Rebecca Gates of The Spinanes (www.badmanrecordingco.com). That trick where you unhinge the CD cover to remove the hateful plastic seal on top would probably work. I've seen music store personnel use that technique to open up an album I wanted to listen to in the store. Jon ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 10:22:46 -0700 From: "Andrew Hamlin" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Record Fair Finds >There is an unreleased George song called "Circles." But it's not >"Colliding Circles." Ah. So if I'm tracking right, George was working up six different songs during the White Album sessions--the four that made it on, plus "Not Guilty," which appeared years later on the GEORGE HARRISON album, plus "Circles." Now if only he'd thought to rhyme "yeti" with "spaghetti," Andy Lester was very, very good at not censoring himself. That's one of the hardest things for a writer, to figure out what you really want to say, then to say it, not to say what will sound good and will reflect well on you. Often that happens unconsciously, but Lester was able to remove his censor a lot of the time. Not all the time, but a lot of the time, and to do it more completely than most writers ever do. In that sense, he's a great inspiration to other writers. I can read Lester, and I can become aware of my own compromises or cowardice or hesitations, and I can say, "No, it doesn't have to be that way. You can make a fool of yourself." That's what a writer has to do. I learned this from John Irving, though when he said it to me I didn't really understand what he meant. Years later I did. He was talking about Neil Young and Bob Dylan and why they were heroes of his. He said, "Because they're not afraid to make fools of themselves, and you have to be able to do that." I didn't quite get it then, in '78 or whenever it was, but for a critic or any person who does his or her work in public, to take the stance of >You can't fool me< and to always be careful not to be fooled, to always be one step ahead, to always be a figure of good judgment and probity, is absolute death. It's the worst thing you can do. - --Greil Marcus, from an interview with Dave Weich at http://www.powells.com/authors/marcus.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 12:22:20 -0500 From: Miles Goosens Subject: [loud-fans] [ns] Split Enz and more One thing I did during my recent descent into lurk mode was continue my periodic reevaluation of Artists Who Everyone Else Who Likes The Same Music As Me Likes (But I Don't Like 'Em). One of AWEEWLTSMAML(BIDLE)'s recent subjects was Split Enz. In a bargain bin, I had found a copy of ANNIVERSARY, a live record from an early '90s reunion tour, and it could be had for such a nominal price that I thought "Why not?" So I did. I put it on the main stereo and headed into the kitchen to wash dishes while I listened. Through the first few songs, I had the same old reaction, consisting of two parts "ugh, too cutesy-poo" and three parts "ugh, too clumsy to be even half as smart as it thinks it is." But five or six songs in, I heard a song so aching and wonderfully constructed that I had to run back into the living room so I could examine the jewel box to find out what it was. I should have known. It was a song Neil wrote, "Message To My Girl." I'm beginning to think that I just don't like Tim Finn's songwriting very much. WOODFACE, the Crowded House record where Tim was a member, has the two worst clunkers in the Crowded House catalog, "Chocolate Cake" and "There Goes God," both of which were cowritten by Tim (to be fair, Tim also gets cowriting credits on the haunting "Four Seasons in One Day"), and the Finn Brothers album never really clicked with me either. So for now, Split Enz remains on the AWEEWLTSMAML(BIDLE) list, along with GbV, Stereolab, Pavement, Sparks (which I dislike for a lot of the same reasons I dislike Split Enz), and Elliott Smith. I'll keep trying -- hey, the Fall graduated from this list to the ATKAF (All-Time Kick-Ass Favorites) list, so it can be done. And while I'm hunting down attributions and misattributions, Grahame said: >Television comeback tour at the T&C -- as I think Miles said, was it just >the fact that you were hearing those songs played by those people, or was it >really that good. I think the latter. I would have liked to have said that, and to have seen Television in any incarnation! However, I've done neither. Jeffrey, Phil, and Ian all cited Television among their favorite gigs, so maybe one of them said it? I did a quick search of the Loud-Fan archive, but didn't turn up the quote... later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 12:30:49 -0500 From: Miles Goosens Subject: [loud-fans] Fwd: New Brendan Benson CD Brendan Benson's ONE MISSISSIPPI remains one of the best albums I've ever discovered through Loud-Fans, so I thought this would be of interest to our list... For those of you who don't have ONE MISSISSIPPI, which was Our Scott's #2 album of 1996, it's still available in finer dollar bins throughout the US. later, Miles >From: "David Bash" >To: "Audities List" >Subject: New Brendan Benson CD >Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 09:40:16 -0700 > >Hi Everyone, > >I've been listening to the upcoming Brendan Benson CD, called "Lapalco", and >I just can't heap enough accolades upon it. It's definitely the best album >I've heard this year! As good as One Mississippi was, "Lapalco" is even >better, with sparkling production values, killer hooks, and inventive chord >changes. You can definitely hear Jason Falkner's involvement, as he >co-wrote and produced several of the tracks. > >Lapalco is scheduled to be released sometime in the next few months on Air >Mail Recordings in Japan, which means that Air Mail will have released my >two favorites of the year (Splitsville's "The Complete Pet Soul" is the >other one). I'm in the process of contacting U.S. labels on Brendan's >behalf, as well. > >Brendan will be appearing as part of The Mood Elevator's backing band, on >opening night of IPO. >-- >Pop Rules!!!!! >Take Care, >David ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 10:47:29 -0700 From: "Andrew Hamlin" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) >Hmmm...this might work. Guess I'll have to buy a new CD to see if it works...anyone have any recommendations? Jandek--PUT MY DREAM ON THIS PLANET (well he actually doesn't use the sticky stuff, but it's still my Album Of The Year so far) David Thomas And Two Pale Boys--SURF'S UP Kinski--BE GENTLE WITH THE WARM TURTLE Shearwater--THE DISSOLVING ROOM Robert Creeley--ROBERT CREELEY Johnny Dowd--TEMPORARY SHELTER Kristin Hersh--SUNNY BORDER BLUE Dolly Parton--LITTLE SPARROW Shelia Chandra--"THIS SENTENCE IS TRUE" (THE PREVIOUS SENTENCE IS FALSE) Low--THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE Get those and report back to me! Andy By the way, I went to a baseball game in the Dominican Republic in November, and it was an amazing experience. Unbelievable. Q: Did you write about it? A: No. I'd been taken there for my birthday, and we decided to go to a game. They are mad for baseball. They serve cheese and crackers in the stands, and grapes, and shots of whiskey. They have a live band playing and moving around the stadium, and the announcer screams and yells. It was a great experience. At The New Yorker, we have the greatest baseball writer in the world on the staff so I wouldn't write about it, but it was amazing. The best player on the team, a young Dominican man, had just been killed in a car wreck, so it was a huge, emotional deal. People were wearing arm bands You would love it. A teeny-weeny ballpark. New, but teeny. But I forgot your question. [--Susan Orlean, "New Yorker" staff writer and author of THE BULLFIGHTER CHECKS HER MAKEUP, from an interview with Dave Weich at http://www.powells.com/news/authors/orlean_2001.html ] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 12:54:12 -0500 (CDT) From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) / worst shows On Mon, 7 May 2001, Jon Tveite wrote: > That trick where you unhinge the CD cover to remove the hateful plastic > seal on top would probably work. I've seen music store personnel use that > technique to open up an album I wanted to listen to in the store. Don't let the record industry know - since this defeats their attempts, they'll doubtless start packaging CDs encased in foot-thick lead shielding, with a special high-tech detonator set off by a combination only available through the company's website, accessible only by a coded password, half of which is provided to you at purchase, and the other half of which needs to be entered by the owner or designated representative of the store that sold you the CD (to prevent bootlegging, and resale!) Anyway, I can't think of any truly terrible shows by bands anyone's heard of that I've attended - although a Sonic Youth show in the late eighties/early nineties at UWM, at which their tuning equipment malfunctioned, came close (all those carefully calibrated overtones? Gone - - everything sounded like a chipper-shredder trying to pulverize a guitar.) Two memorably bad shows, though, were both at Ann Arbor when I was an undergrad for my first two years of college, from 1980 - 1982. The first one was someone who opened for...I want to say one of Ron Asheton's projects (which was itself pretty evil - they had a female vocalist who was fond of *putting the vocal mic right in front of the vocal monitor to create horrible feedback* - yeesh!). They were from Detroit and had some automotive-oriented name, and had hired some bozo announcer-type to make references to their (please remain seated, extinguish all open flames, and check all self-harm-capable weapons at the security desk in preparation for horrible, punning locution) "fanbelts" (geddit?). The main thing I remember was their bass player, who was trying to connect his instrument to his amplification with what looked like his little sister's Princess phone cord - it kept coming unplugged (which was actually an improvement), and I remember he looked sort of like Paul Simon might if he'd lost a fight with Andre the Giant and was on a rilly bad acid trip simultaneously. The vocalist was suffering from delusions of Jim-hood (Morrison) in his leather trousers and shirtless vest, but also was oddly shy: he never once looked at the audience. He also had no clue how to sing into a mic. Second worse: some band called...uh, Sewers of Paris? - again in A2 early eighties. This was a band victimized by Significant Other Syndrome: in this case, the rhythm (hah!) guitarist was clearly the sound guy's girlfriend, since her concrete-handed, arrhythmic attempts at playing were about five times louder than anyone else's instruments. Which might have been okay, actually - the band also featured the famous raving egomaniac lead guitar guy, for whom any moment not featuring his furious fretwork was an abomination against whatever god he worshipped (himself, I'm guessing). Oh yeah - the vocalist decided that night was a wonderful night to get really, really drunk and pretend to be Iggy, sorta, so he stripped down to his embarrassing underwear and pranced about uncoordinatedly, occasionally pretending to hump the guitarist's amp. Oh, did I mention? Said semi-nude vocalist was quite proud to let us know that that night only, *his parents* were in the house seeing his band for the first time. I looked in the back of the house, and two older folks were sort of trying to be invisible, doubtless trying to figure out how to travel back in time and liberalize the early sixties' abortion laws. I hope no one here was *in* either of those bands... Oh yeah: being a Milwaukee native, I saw loads of early Violent Femmes shows, before their first album came out - and they were a great live act. Very high energy, much better musicians than you might guess (even Gano's guitar playing), and tight as drums. Someone said they sounded just like their records - ?? - except that the records had a pretty live feel anyway. I thought they were much better and looser live than any of their records. - --Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html ::Watson! Something's afoot...and it's on the end of my leg:: __Hemlock Stones__ np: Tobin Sprout _Let's Welcome the Circus People_ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 11:57:57 -0600 From: Stewart Mason Subject: Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) At 12:09 PM 5/7/01 -0500, Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey wrote: >I think this is part of the record industry's ongoing efforts to alleviate >the terrible customer panic that they might, inadvertently, buy a bootleg >or used CD - the buyer panic that ensued last time such worries spread >(remember those stupid little stickers Warner Bros. put on LPs in the >mid-eighties?) made the running of the bulls at Pamplona look like a >church picnic at the paralytics' retirement home. I've been using the hinge-opening method for a while--my friend Valerie who used to work at a record store showed it to me--and Dana's right, it's by far the easiest way of doing it. However, if you want to talk annoying, remember those holographic silver tabs that used to be on the opening edge of CDs that were made of the strongest material known to modern science? Those sucked. >I think I recommended a jewelbox supplier (even individual components >only!) here a few weeks back - if you're interested and lost that message, >e-mail me. You can buy a box of 50 jewel boxes at CompUSA (and probably similar stores like Best Buy or Circuit City, though I've never looked) for about ten bucks. Given that my editor at Amplifier insists on shipping review copies without the jewel boxes to save postage, it's handy to have a box around. S NP: RUMANIAN RHAPSODY--Eastern European concert music conducted by Leonard Bernstein (yes, I did another vinyl blowout at Bow Wow--haven't counted the stack, but 22 inches of LPs for $30 seems like a bargain) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 08:14:25 -1000 From: "R. Kevin Doyle" Subject: RE: [loud-fans] Femmes Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey writes: I wrote that! I should mention that I saw them after a sloshed set from the Pogues. As fun as that was, their songs were, at times, unrecognizable (I remember realizing they were in the middle of "Sally McLennane" when I had thought they were playing "If I Should Fall From Grace With God" - to my horror, I had been 'singing along' up to that point). When the Femmes took the stage, and every song was recognizable, and was played with the same instruments they used on the albums... Ah, it sounded like the same band we'd been listening to all those years. Honestly, I couldn't tell you how sharp the set was. Most I've danced at any concert before or since... For that matter, maybe the highest percentage of dancing audience members I've ever seen. It was an outdoor show, and I think we destroyed the last of the lawn about four songs in when they launched into "Add it Up." No 'Southern Death Song,' though. I guess we can't have it all. R. Kevin ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 11:15:31 -0700 (PDT) From: Sue Trowbridge Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Fwd: New Brendan Benson CD - --- Miles Goosens wrote: > Brendan Benson's ONE MISSISSIPPI remains one of the > best albums I've ever > discovered through Loud-Fans, so I thought this > would be of interest to our > list... > > For those of you who don't have ONE MISSISSIPPI, > which was Our Scott's #2 > album of 1996, it's still available in finer dollar > bins throughout the US. Making this even more relevant to loud-fans, Scott's cover of Brendan Benson's "Crosseyed" is the current loudfamily.com MP3 of the Month. Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 11:23:04 -0700 From: Tim_Walters@digidesign.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) >Dolly Parton--LITTLE SPARROW I'll wholeheartedly second this (I may have mentioned my love for this album before, in fact), but since it's not in a jewelbox, it won't give you bar-code-sticker-removal practice. While those stickers are damned annoying, they do facilitate browsing by putting the title on top. As Stewart points out, anything is better than the holographic death grip. I first started using the reverse opening technique when those were prevalent, but it was only semi-effective on them. The vinyl era had some egregious offenders as well, though, such as JEM's bright orange stickers slapped right on the graphics. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 11:24:13 -0700 From: Tim_Walters@digidesign.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Michael Quercio, The Truth and my slow slide to , senility >the Christine Aguilera to your Britney Spears; Isn't Aguilera supposed to be the one who can actually sing? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 11:32:26 -0700 (PDT) From: "Joseph M. Mallon" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) / worst shows On Mon, 7 May 2001, Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey wrote: > Anyway, I can't think of any truly terrible shows by bands anyone's heard > of that I've attended - although a Sonic Youth show in the late > eighties/early nineties at UWM, at which their tuning equipment > malfunctioned, came close (all those carefully calibrated overtones? Gone > - everything sounded like a chipper-shredder trying to pulverize a > guitar.) This reminds me of one of the worst shows I've seen: Sonic Youth & Public Enemy at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, 1991ish. Live rap would be much more enjoyable if the performers would move the mic about 5 inches back from their mouths. I really like (and did at the time) the album PE were promoting, but Chuck D was unintelligible, and the sound was overpoweringly loud. Sonic Youth were their usual atonal, tedious, self-indulgent selves. They're pretty high up on my "others get them, I don't" list. We left early - my then-girlfriend had a headache, so we missed the riot that happened afterwards. Those rabble-rousing Gulf War protesters... J. Mallon ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 11:42:46 -0700 From: "Andrew Hamlin" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) >>Dolly Parton--LITTLE SPARROW > >I'll wholeheartedly second this (I may have mentioned my love for this album >before, in fact), but since it's not in a jewelbox, it won't give you >bar-code-sticker-removal practice. "Yeah, sorry about that. My bad." - --Carl the cow-invaginating alien, from the first full-length episode of "South Park." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 14:44:43 -0400 (EDT) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: [loud-fans] cd opening tip (ns) On Mon, 7 May 2001, Dana L Paoli wrote: > A picture would be worth a thousand words. Suffice it to say that I > tried it out yesterday and it works. this swing-and-peel is the traditional second act to a shrink-wrap removal technique which a record-store clerk showed me about a year ago when i tried to buy a CD opener: place the bottom edge of the CD on a reasonably sharp surface, like the edge of a table or most stereo components. pull the CD down sharply so that there's substantial friction between the case and the chosen hard object. the little ridges will make the shrink-wrap bunch and tear. it takes a little practice, but it works. except on Digipak CDs. a ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 08:44:06 -1000 From: "R. Kevin Doyle" Subject: RE: [loud-fans] Michael Quercio, The Truth and my slow slide to , senility >>the Christine Aguilera to your Britney Spears; >Isn't Aguilera supposed to be the one who can actually sing? Not to completely ignore the joke, but... as near as I can tell, Aguilera has a very strong voice. She puts me in mind of a story... In the '80s, different artists used to get to host an hour of MTV and play whatever videos they desired. I saw Elvis Costello host an hour around this time. I remember that mixed in with Tow Waits, the Pogues, and Costello's own videos, he played a Whitney Houston song. I was a little baffled, but afterwards Mr. McManus appeared and said "Whitney, you're a beautiful woman and have a tremendous voice, but please, please, let me write you some decent songs." I'm reasonably certain Whitney never took him up on the offer. I would like to hear Aguilera going to number one with a cover of Matthew Sweet's "Hide." Yes, that would make me happy. R. Kevin ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 19:01:55 From: "Brian Block" Subject: [loud-fans] me too (parts I+II) plus inquiry I'll begin by seconding an opinion of Doug's, just for power-of-numbers sake: >i managed to wade through coupland's _generation x_ at the behest of a >friend. i thought it had moments, but i thought it was also annoying and >facile....(but) i liked _microserfs_, quite a lot, not just for its satire >of geek culture, but also as a fairly credible romance, and >for some surprisingly interesting thoughts about the nature of >creativity.... _microserfs_ is one of my favorite novels of >the last fifteen years or so. Yes, exactly. I like Coupland's _shampoo planet_ better than _gen x_ as well (it's also as much a romance as anything else). but fundamentally he seems like a writer with one book in him, and while i too would like him better if he'd just shut up now, _microserfs_ was by far his funniest, wisest, and most charming example of his idea. Re: Rush i'll second Richard >Yeah, all the synthy stuff didn't do much for me either, until they >learned to integrate it better into their sound. For my money, >though, one later album stands apart as a return to form: PRESTO. >More balls, better lyrics .... and their >catchiest melodies in a long while. Very well produced by Rupert >Hine, producer of a couple of the best Canadian prog >albums (see also: Saga). and add that while ROLL THE BONES, next, was extremely VH-1 mild and awkward, COUNTERPARTS ('93), the heaviest and most roiling music of their career, has further excellent lyrics (more than not) and perhaps the most spectacularly busy-yet-spacious use of 64-track recording technology i've ever heard. It's true that Peart had renounced his Ayn Rand streak and had started to write intentionally uplifting (of all un-rock things) songs about human interaction; it's also true that COUNTERPARTS was the soundtrack of the summer i decided i had much better things to do than kill myself, which would make me biased except that it's the sort of album that's designed to do that. A musical question: i've seen at least one review of a recent album consisting of voice-and-piano songs performed, by a male, extremely slowly - -- slowly in the sense that compositions take 20 or 28 minutes without being even slightly prog-rock in construction. Anyone know who i mean? curiously, -Brian np: Ani DiFranco, REVELLING. The new one. Someone asked about this... she's seriously playing up her mellow funk styles on this album (see UP UP UP), which isn't what i'd choose, but her lyrics remain as sharp as ever and there's at least three songs ("Garden of Simple", "Tamburitza Lingua", "Marrow") i'll probably end up rating among her best. Haven't listened to the second disc RECKONING yet. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 12:07:41 -0700 From: Tim_Walters@digidesign.com Subject: RE: [loud-fans] Michael Quercio, The Truth and my slow slide to , senility >I'm reasonably certain Whitney never took him up on the offer. I'm sure you're right, but you can hear her sing the Soft Machine song "Memories" on Material's ONE DOWN album (with Archie Shepp on sax!). I believe it was her first recorded performance. I've never, to the best of my knowledge, heard Aguilera or Britney or J. Lo, but whenever the subject of teen idols comes up (which is far too often) on an a pro audio forum that I read, someone always pipes up attesting to Aguilera's pipes. ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V1 #70 ******************************