From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V2 #3 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 Thursday, January 3 2002 Volume 02 : Number 003 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] nobody doesn't like Sara Lee? [Vivebonpop@aol.com] [loud-fans] ny times obscure albums (ns) [dana-boy@juno.com] Re: [loud-fans] nobody doesn't like Sara Lee? [Miles Goosens ] Re: [loud-fans] Robbie Williams (ns) [Stewart Mason ] Re: [loud-fans] Robbie Williams (ns) ["Joseph M. Mallon" ] Re: [loud-fans] nobody doesn't like Sara Lee? [Vivebonpop@aol.com] Re: [loud-fans] more songs, more questions [Aaron Mandel ] Re: [loud-fans] author, author! [AWeiss4338@aol.com] Re: [loud-fans] more songs, more questions ["Joseph M. Mallon" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] nobody doesn't like Sara Lee? At 10:04 AM 1/3/2002 -0500, Vivebonpop@aol.com wrote: >*Also, which Gang of 4 albums was she on? I only have two, "Entertainment" >and "Hard" and she's on the latter, if memory serves. What others out of >curiosity? First of all, take the money you were thinking about spending on Sara's album and go get SOLID GOLD, SONGS OF THE FREE, and possibly MALL, which you could probably fish out of used bins for a combined $15.99. Second, Sara came on board for SONGS OF THE FREE when Dave Allen left the band for Shriekback. Third, try to erase every vestige of HARD from your memory. I was doing pretty well with erasing it from my own memory until you jogged it just now! later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 07:29:06 -0800 From: "Andrew Hamlin" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] ny times obscure albums (ns) >http://nytimes.com/2002/01/03/arts/music/03POPL.html Looks like they still want you to "register." And they've closed out the most-amusing "cypherpunks" end-run, too. Anybody wanna cut'n'paste to the list? Not that the spam I already get isn't colorful... Andy Q: I was wondering, going back to that theme that we discussed earlier on, if you feel sometimes that coincidence and duplication is a way in which nature is breaking through the surface of our civilized lives. That is, we may not know what it means. But we have a sense that something beyond us is taking place. A: Certainly, my own life experience is that when I thought I had things sorted and I was in control, something happened that completely undid everything I had wanted to do. And so it goes on. The illusion that I had some control over my life went up to about my thirty-fifth birthday. Then it stopped. Now I'm out of control. - --W.G. Sebald, from an interview with Joe Cuomo at ttp://www.newyorker.com/ON-LINE_ONLY/ARCHIVES/?010903on_onlineonly01 . Mr. Sebald's latest book, AUSTERLITZ, was published in October; he died on December 14 in a car smash near his home in England. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 10:33:36 -0500 From: dana-boy@juno.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] ny times obscure albums (ns) > Looks like they still want you to "register." And they've closed > out the > most-amusing "cypherpunks" end-run, too. > > Anybody wanna cut'n'paste to the list? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Ok, I wouldn't want the occasional ad for Tiffany & Co. to interfere with your porn-spam enjoyment. Best of the Obscure Among 2001's Albums By JON PARELES ow that every computer and every apartment is a potential recording studio and every musician could be a do-it-yourself independent label, more than 20,000 albums are released each year, more than any single fan, radio station or critic could possibly assess fully. That means that richly deserving music can go unnoticed, drowned out by better-promoted albums or rendered inaccessible because it eludes the easy categorization that could make it marketable. Top 10 lists and end-of-the-year surveys invariably leave music critics dissatisfied, since so many other worthwhile albums linger largely unnoticed: albums on independent labels and, now and then, albums on major labels that were never treated as high priorities. In this annual roundup, the pop and jazz critics of The New York Times choose their favorites among the underdog albums of 2001: albums that hail from around the world and all over the musical map, including some zones that are too new to have names. Jon Pareles 1. Gigi: "Gigi" (Palm Pictures). Ejigayehu Shibabaw, or Gigi, is a songwriter from Ethiopia; her producer, Bill Laswell, is an old hand at international fusions. In songs about love and the country she left behind, Gigi's modal melodies and urgently questioning voice rise out of grooves that swirl jazz and funk into the complexities of Ethiopian pop, broadening the music without Americanizing it. 2. Califone: "Roomsound" (Perishable). Guitars slide and creak, drums rustle and thump, and voices calmly intone fragmentary images in Califone's mysterious songs. Rummaging through a dusty repository of roots Americana, the band assembles music that seems to sleepwalk its way to passages of casual beauty. 3. Phoenecia: "Brownout" (Schematic). There's usually a beat in Phoenecia's electronic music, but dancing isn't a priority. The momentum is more inward, conjuring underwater ripples or outer-space vastness with sounds that squelch and ping and echo. They add up to tracks that are often eerie and occasionally droll. 4. Henry Threadgill's Zooid: "Up Popped the Two Lips" (Pi). Leading what is probably the world's only ensemble of oud, tuba, cello, guitar, drums and his own alto saxophone and flute, Henry Threadgill writes meticulously constructed compositions that sound as if they're evolving their open- ended melodies on the spot. The music is transparent, conversational and highly volatile, with bluesy, emotional crests that arrive as unexpectedly as gusts of wind. 5. The Dismemberment Plan: "Change" (Desoto). Scrabbling, shivering, jabbing, pealing electric guitars and rhythms out of rock, funk and drum-and-bass rev up philosophical musings and surreal visions in the Dismemberment Plan's songs. There are glimmers of Talking Heads, the Police and Sonic Youth, but the band isn't looking back; it's trying to solve perennial conundrums. 6. The Holmes Brothers: "Speaking in Tongues" (Alligator). Sherman and Wendell Holmes have been singing gospel on the blues-bar circuit for two decades. This album, produced by Joan Osborne, fully captures their fervor and soul-band kick in contemporary songs like Bob Dylan's "Man of Peace" and Ben Harper's "Homeless Child," the brothers' own material and staples like "Farther Along." It's an affirmation not just of faith, but of Southern grit. 7. Dashboard Confessional: "The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most" (Vagrant). Revenge is songs for Christopher Carrabba, the high-voiced, acoustic-guitar- strumming singer behind Dashboard Confessional. He hurls bitter accusations and savages his own self-pity  "a walking open wound, a trophy display of bruises"  but never neglects pop melody while he gets all worked up. 8. Aceyalone: "Accepted Eclectic" (Ground Control/Nu Gruv Alliance). Fast- talking, funny and completely uninterested in the clichis of gangsta rap, Aceyalone spills out intricately rhymed boasts and advice over whatever backup might present a challenge, from a minimal piano bounce to, in the title track, an orchestra. 9. Psyco on da Bus: "Psyco on da Bus" (Platform). The drummer Tony Allen was the rhythmic spark in Fela Anikulapo Kuti's pioneering Afro-Beat bands. With his current band, anything goes so long as it's got a sparsely kinetic beat. The songs, segued together like a disc-jockey set, are largely rhythm tracks, with Mr. Allen intoning phrases like "Afro-Beat, push your mind." He warps his old groove toward Curtis Mayfield funk, "Bitches Brew" jazz or dub reggae while vocals, lacerating guitar solos, chromatic keyboards and all kinds of samples wander by. And he gleefully disregards his own advice to "keep it simple." 10. Erik Sanko: "Past Imperfect, Present Tense" (Jetset). Erik Sanko, formerly of Skeleton Key, could be Paul McCartney's depressive twin, with a similar reedily sincere voice and ear for tunes. On his solo album he jettisons Skeleton Key's metallic clatter  and nearly all percussion  in favor of brooding understatement. The songs are the testimonials of someone who knows all too well how things go wrong and that he's often the one to blame. Neil Strauss 1. Various Artists: "Now Thing: 15 Dancehall Instrumentals" (Greensleeves/ Mo'Wax). This is not reggae as you know it. Imagine a handful of innovative dub producers putting their minimalist minds to work on techno, electro and drum-and-bass, and you have this futuristic-sounding compilation of bottom-heavy instrumental versions, most featuring the knob-twiddling of Lenky (Stephen Marsden), who has emerged from Buju Banton's band to become one of Jamaica's most innovative newcomers. 2. Nagisa Ni Te: "Feel" (Org Records) and "Songs for a Simple Moment" (Geographic). Beautifully understated, the acid folk of Japan's Nagisa Ni Te (Shinji Shibayama and Masako Takeda) seems to hover frozen in the air. It often feels so pure, direct and honest that even though the lyrics are in Japanese, they still seem intelligible. The beautifully packaged "Feel" is the band's fourth and latest album, and "Songs for a Simple Moment" collects more than 15 years of slow soundscapes from Nagisa Ni Te (and its predecessor, Hallelujahs). 3. Her Space Holiday: "Manic Expressive" (Tiger Style Records). The San Franciscan Marc Bianchi reaches new heights on his second album, a post-pop bricolage that mixes computer-arranged strings, soft clicking electronica and gentle vocals into a textural dream. 4. Dave Soldier and Richard Lair: "Thai Elephant Orchestra" (Mulatta). One day, a New York composer met an expert on Asian domesticated elephants, and together they reached some sort of freakish epiphany and decided to see if elephants could learn to play music. So they rounded up six Thai elephants, rigged up a 10-foot elephant keyboard, gongs, drums, xylophone, harmonicas, thundersheets and even a theremin, and structured an aleatoric proboscidean jam session. In the liner notes, Mr. Lair calls the elephant Luuk Kob "the Buddy Rich of elephant percussionists." They're quite serious, but they also know it's funny. 5. The Allenko Brotherhood Ensemble: "Allenko Brotherhood Ensemble" (Comet). Between South African kwaito music, the many growing African hip-hop scenes and a spate of quality African funk reissues, it was a great year for this music. The Allenko Brotherhood sets D.J.'s, producers, musicians and vocalists loose over drum tracks by the former drummer for Fela, Tony Allen, and doesn't give your feet and mind a rest. 6. Milemarker: "Anaesthetic" (Jade Tree). Some punk purists don't like it that Milemarker is putting more new wave in its punk, more pop in its politics and more alternating male-female vocals in its songs, but all of this is making it a better band. Some compare the new Milemarker to the Faint, but in its use of technology to build a thesis about man and machine it's more akin to Grandaddy. 7. D.J. Show: "Ta Dominado!" (Pandisc). There's little more exciting in music than when cultures collide, as in the new sound of Brazil, the songs of the bailes funk (funk balls), in which Miami bass, hip-hop, house and Brazilian music collide in tantalizingly raw music, the soundtrack to everything from booty-shaking to club fighting. 8. Crydamoure Presents "Waves" (Crydamoure). Along with the oddball vocoder electro of Gamers in Exile from Rome, this compilation of mostly French house music has been a personal favorite. From the label run by Guy-Man (of Daft Punk) and D.J. Rico comes 19 tracks of ultra-clean, heavily gated and modulated beats-and-synths, most of them never on CD before. 9. Peru Negro: "Sangre de un Don" (Times Square Records). Wildly passionate and festive, yet with a darker, smoldering intensity, Peru Negro affirms its status as the crown big band of Afro-Peruvian music on its first legitimate United States album in a 30-year- plus existence. 10. Chessie: "Overnight" (Plug Research). Stephen Gardner seems to work, sleep and eat trains. By day, he works on a Capitol Hill committee involved with rail transportation, and by night (with Ben Bailes) he makes ambient techno based on trains, railway stations and movement along the tracks. Chessie's interpretation of its obsession is more suggestive than literal, making for an immersive composition that still holds up apart from its concept. HONORABLE MENTION: Jeff Kelly: "Indiscretion" (Parasol): After 17 years, when are the highly literate and melody-savvy Mr. Kelly and the retro psychedelic pop band he leads, Green Pajamas, going to get, at the very least, a decent cult following? Ben Ratliff 1. Ted Nash: "Sidewalk Meeting" (Arabesque). A remarkably disciplined saxophonist from the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra turns in something unexpectedly wild  an album based on a sound in his head, a mixture of nuevo tango, jungle-band Ellington, slightly dissonant accordion wheezes and New Orleans parade rhythm. 2. Dan Zanes and Friends: "Family Dance" (Festival Five). If you're of a certain age  more than 10, say  you may be excused for missing the current work of Dan Zanes, former leader of the rock band the Del Fuegos. His second album since switching to the crayons-and-apple-juice market is true children's music, but executed with such sweet (and un-gooey!) humor, casual multiculturalism and shambling groove that you can call it your own. 3. Otto: "Changez Tout" (Trama). An electronic music producer from Recife, Brazil, Otto made one previous album, 1999's "Samba Pra Burro." Here, 28 different artists remix him. It's postmodernism as a cultural credo: "Here, remixing begins in the skin," he writes, "through years of racial miscegenation." 4. Axel Dorner and Kevin Drumm: "Axel Dorner/Kevin Drumm" (Erstwhile). A meeting of two experimental improvisers from different scenes, Vienna and Chicago, with trumpet, electronics and guitar. But you hardly hear those instruments as such; it's music made from scratch. 5. Robbie Fulks: "Couples in Trouble" (Boondoggle). Mountain music, roots-rock and the white, Southern American vernacular are at his bottom layer, but Mr. Fulks is as modern as anyone. This album has the constantly changing instrumentation endemic to the avant-rock scene in Chicago, resulting in tremendous breadth; the cruelty in his writing comes from compassion, and his lyrics, with their sharp character- drawing, are literature. 6. Faudel: "Baida" (Mondo Melodia). The first album of the young star in Algerian rai music  a few years old now but just released in the United States  sounds like some of the most porous pop in the world: it's disco, orchestral hip-hop, French balladry, Gypsy rumba and electronic music, darkened with Faudel's keening ancient wail. 7. Marcus Roberts Trio: "Cole After Midnight" (Sony Classical). Perhaps no other jazz musician inhabits the space between the music our grandparents called jazz and bold, bullish art-music as comfortably as the pianist Marcus Roberts. If his recent albums aren't getting noticed now, it may be because they hold too many ideas. This, a reinterpretation of Nat King Cole songs, sounds eminently rediscoverable. 8. Etta Jones: "Sings Lady Day" (Highnote). The final statement by one of our greatest old-school jazz singers before her death in October, and a last-minute acknowledgment of Billie Holiday, the singer she was always compared to. Her voice slides around pitch like it's oiled, leaving gaping rests for the music to catch up with her  all foxy shrewdness, with no hint of resignation. 9. Moacir Santos: "Ouro Negro" (MPB/ Universal Brazil). An arranger/composer/ saxophonist in Brazilian jazz, an unsung hero here (he made several albums for the American label Blue Note in the 1970's) and a largely behind-the-scenes figure there, gets the royal retrospective treatment: re-recordings of his best songs with a top-notch band and guest singers on the level of Milton Nascimento. Mr. Santos, in charge of arrangements on the album and singing here and there, resists category: he has a ton of music in him. 10. Reid Anderson: "The Vastness of Space" (Fresh Sound). Mr. Reid, a young jazz bassist, is a careful composer with good ideas about what jazz can do now: he sets it up with backbeats and two saxophones with lines gently intertwining, an art-pop mistiness. It's full of ballads that don't sound anything like the old kind of jazz ballads. [demime 0.97c removed an attachment of type image/gif which had a name of n.gif] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2002 09:43:01 -0600 From: Miles Goosens Subject: Re: [loud-fans] ny times obscure albums (ns) At 10:07 AM 1/3/2002 -0500, dana-boy@juno.com wrote: >The NY Times publishes today a list of their critics' choices for great >overlooked albums. Nothing on it really made my heart beat fast, and >they missed Kevin Tihista (whose MP3 this week is pretty good -- a more >rocking take on an album track), but it's worth a look. Hey, but Neil Strauss has ex-V-Roy Scott Miller in his top ten -- even though Strauss drops a Ryan Adams comparison on him. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/23/arts/music/_23STRA.html Personally, I think either (any?) Scott Miller lays waste to Ryan Adams' derivative, solipsistic, overinflated, unmemorable catalog. I thought HEARTBREAKER had some promise, even if it was overlong and ballad-heavy, plus his June '00 set with the Esquires was incredibly good, but with GOLD, he's just moved from ripping off Wilco's A.M. to ripping off the Band's first two albums. later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 10:40:37 -0500 From: dana-boy@juno.com Subject: [loud-fans] not Sara Lee (ns) First of all, take the money you were thinking about spending on Sara's album and go get SOLID GOLD, SONGS OF THE FREE, and possibly MALL, which you could probably fish out of used bins for a combined $15.99. >>>>>>>>>>>> I'd also highly recommend getting the Peel sessions CD, which has a few songs that improve on the Entertainment versions. I think it's still in print, or at least not that hard to find. Possibly it's included in the box set, but I'm not sure. - --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/web/. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2002 09:56:42 -0600 From: Miles Goosens Subject: Re: [loud-fans] not Sara Lee (ns) At 10:40 AM 1/3/2002 -0500, dana-boy@juno.com wrote: >I'd also highly recommend getting the Peel sessions CD, which has a few >songs that improve on the Entertainment versions. I think it's still in >print, or at least not that hard to find. Possibly it's included in the >box set, but I'm not sure. Yeah, those Peel Sessions are great! There's a box set? There was a two-disc anthology (100 FLOWERS BLOOM) two or three years ago, but I remember it as not being superior to A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY... later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 11:07:54 -0500 From: dana-boy@juno.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] not Sara Lee (ns) > There's a box set? There was a two-disc anthology (100 FLOWERS > BLOOM) two > or three years ago, but I remember it as not being superior to A > BRIEF > HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY... >>>>>>>>>>>>>. Sorry for the confusion. I meant the 100 Flowers Bloom thing. Do 2-disc things count as box sets? I've seen that usage, but don't know if it's common. - --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/web/. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2002 12:10:53 -0600 From: Miles Goosens Subject: Re: [loud-fans] not Sara Lee (ns) At 11:07 AM 1/3/2002 -0500, dana-boy@juno.com wrote: >> There's a box set? There was a two-disc anthology (100 FLOWERS >> BLOOM) two >> or three years ago, but I remember it as not being superior to A >> BRIEF >> HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY... >>>>>>>>>>>>>>. > >Sorry for the confusion. I meant the 100 Flowers Bloom thing. I was hoping that there *was* a GoF box that I hadn't heard about! >Do 2-disc >things count as box sets? I've seen that usage, but don't know if it's >common. I dunno. I've seen it too. Perhaps I labor under the shadow of BIOGRAPH, but "box set" implies to me: 1) more than two discs 2) a "box" of some sort, though lots of sets formerly in 12" x 12" or 12" x 6" boxes have been reconfigured to "sit in the bin size" over the last few years (Columbia and Ryko come to mind -- BIOGRAPH itself, the Clash box, the Sandy Denny and Nick Drake boxes, etc.) It's difficult for me to think of two discs in a slimline case to be a "box set." Not that any of this matters. I'm glad to have the Chills' SECRET BOX, even if it only meets one of the two criteria (three discs, but in a slimline threefer case)... later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2002 12:06:38 -0600 From: Chris Prew Subject: Re: [loud-fans] ny times obscure albums (ns) >> http://nytimes.com/2002/01/03/arts/music/03POPL.html > > > Looks like they still want you to "register." And they've closed out the > most-amusing "cypherpunks" end-run, too. > You can still use "cypherphunk" and password "cypherphunk". Just a minor twist. Chris ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 13:31:41 -0500 From: dana-boy@juno.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] ny times obscure albums (ns) You can still use "cypherphunk" and password "cypherphunk". Just a minor twist. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Or just register, for christ's sake. I gave them my email address several years ago, and to date they still haven't sent goons to my house to demand protection money. And if you don't want them to have your address, there's no one forcing you to read their paper online. God, when I signed onto to loud-fans I didn't realize I was joining an anarchist cell!! Maybe Juno does a better job of keeping down the spam, but I've given my email address to a ton of sites, and I get about two unwanted messages a day, tops. - --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/web/. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 13:58:35 -0500 From: dana-boy@juno.com Subject: [loud-fans] Robbie Williams (ns) Just out of curiosity, does anyone have anything to say about him. I recently received the best swap-tape (swap-minidisc actually) that I've ever gotten, and the best song on it was by this guy. It's called "Rock DJ" and sounds like a cleverer "One Night in Bangkok" with more disco attitude. Wondering if it's a one-hit wonder or if he's got other material as good. Apologies if the song is all over MTV and the radio. I live on a desert island, and get all my news of the world via carrier seagulls. - --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/web/. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 11:03:04 -0800 From: "Andrew Hamlin" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] ny times obscure albums (ns) >God, when I signed onto to loud-fans I didn't realize I was joining an >anarchist cell!! The beard I got. Will have to look around for a bomb, though. And our collective's copy of the ANARCHIST COOKBOOK was, last time I checked, moldering away in a basement on Green Lake's east side, Andy Extend Natural formula that is guaranteed to increase penis size by an average of 26%. ***** Get RESULTS NOW with EXTEND! ****** ****** Thicker ****** ****** Longer ****** ****** Confidence-building penis ****** ****** Increased sexual stamina ****** ****** Fullness with every stroke ****** ****** Deeper penetration ****** ****** Superior sexual stamina that you and your sexual partner have always imagined ****** !!!!!!!!!!!! CLICK UNDERLINED LINK TO RECEIVE INFORMATION !!!!!!!!!!!! [--from some spam I got last Saturday] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 14:11:13 EST From: DOUDIE@aol.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Robbie Williams (ns) Robbie Williams is a guilty pleasure of mine. The song Hero (do I have that right?), which you definitely would know on first listen is incredibly addictive with a soaring chorus and was all over the radio the past two years. Why guilty? Because it sounds exactly like Elton John who I am not a big fan of. Mr. Williams was formerly the lead singer of boy band sensation Take That. Happy New Year, Steve Matrick n.p. The Webb Brothers- Maroon, which was on far less few lists that I would have thought. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 14:16:27 -0500 From: "glenn mcdonald" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Robbie Williams (ns) He used to be in Take That, the UK version of New Kids on the Block, but went solo several years ago. "Rock DJ" is on last year's _Sing When You're Winning_ (not to be confused with _Swing When You're Winning_, which is his lounge-singer album). If you can tolerate one song, you might be able to tolerate more, but be forewarned that like all British boy-idols he seems to feel obliged to include lots of treacly "sensitive" ballads on every album. I'm not a fan. glenn ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2002 12:46:41 -0700 From: Stewart Mason Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Robbie Williams (ns) At 01:58 PM 1/3/02 -0500, dana-boy@juno.com wrote: >Just out of curiosity, does anyone have anything to say about him. I >recently received the best swap-tape (swap-minidisc actually) that I've >ever gotten, and the best song on it was by this guy. It's called "Rock >DJ" and sounds like a cleverer "One Night in Bangkok" with more disco >attitude. Wondering if it's a one-hit wonder or if he's got other >material as good. I never paid much attention to Robbie Williams until my friend Lea was playing his first US album, THE EGO HAS LANDED, in her car last summer, and I thought most of it was pretty terrific. The single, "Millennium," was particularly good. The Elton John comparison is right on, and I'd add in a comparison to George Michael circa FAITH. This is pure UK chart pop, in other words, leavened with a smart-alecky attitude that's the love-it-or-hate-it aspect. Stewart ______________ Prosciutto is ham. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 12:09:23 -0800 (PST) From: "Joseph M. Mallon" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Robbie Williams (ns) On Thu, 3 Jan 2002 dana-boy@juno.com wrote: > Just out of curiosity, does anyone have anything to say about him. I > recently received the best swap-tape (swap-minidisc actually) that I've > ever gotten, and the best song on it was by this guy. It's called "Rock > DJ" and sounds like a cleverer "One Night in Bangkok" with more disco > attitude. Wondering if it's a one-hit wonder or if he's got other > material as good. In addition to all the other info already posted, I'll add that Mr. Williams and Nicole Kidman have the #1 single in the UK now with a cover of "Something Stupid" from SWING WHILE YOU'RE WINNING (an album of swing covers - mostly Sinatra). Here's a caustic review: http://www.canoe.ca/JamAlbumsW/williams_robbie_swing2-sun.html Shwing while you're sinning, J. Mallon ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2002 14:14:27 -0600 From: Chris Prew Subject: Re: [loud-fans] ny times obscure privacy policy(ns) > You can still use "cypherphunk" and password "cypherphunk". Just a > minor > twist. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> > > Or just register, for christ's sake. I gave them my email address > several years ago, and to date they still haven't sent goons to my house > to demand protection money. > > And if you don't want them to have your address, there's no one forcing > you to read their paper online. > > God, when I signed onto to loud-fans I didn't realize I was joining an > anarchist cell!! > > Maybe Juno does a better job of keeping down the spam, but I've given my > email address to a ton of sites, and I get about two unwanted messages a > day, tops. > > --dana I liked the concept of marketing better when I wasn't expected to actively participate in it being dumped on me. Just because internet marketing as a form of revenue is a necessary evil doesn't mean it isn't still evil (so to speak). Chris ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 15:35:33 -0600 From: "Dennis McGreevy" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] ny times obscure albums (ns) dana sez: God, when I signed onto to loud-fans I didn't realize I was joining an anarchist cell!! <><><><><><><><><><> we're sorry, dana. we all simply assumed that you understood your denial of the upper case in your name was a secret signal that you were "one of us". jeff, is it too late to recall the bot that crawls the web deleting any files that contain dana's social security number? - --dennis, who hasn't gotten any spam from the times either ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2002 15:32:53 -0600 From: Bill Silvers Subject: [loud-fans] More obscure albums Sure to place me once again near the top of the "least like other loudfans lists" list. -b.s. My Favorite Records of 2001 1) Roger Wallace- THAT KIND OF LONELY- The record didn't knock me out the way HILLBILLY HEIGHTS did, and after it's all said and done I won't bother worrying whether it's as good or not- it was my favorite record this year, and that's enough. Hardcore Texas honky-tonk done with smooth style by one of my favorite singers (and tightest bands). I suppose it's a good thing that I'm not closing the Continental Club every Monday night after his weekly show, but it isn't that I haven't wished I could. 2) Sam Phillips- FAN DANCE- An enthralling collection of songs from a uniquely captivating artist. Sam creates a magic here distinct from, but comparable to her best record, MARTINIS AND BIKINIS (though you could as easily make a similar mix and match comparison with any (save the failed experiment of OMNIPOP) of her secular records, according to your taste). Sam's the shit. 3) Scott Miller & The Commonwealth- THUS ALWAYS TO TYRANTS- Scott Miller is an unusually acute writer, sharing a rare sense of place and perspective. He also fucking rocks. I'll never forget the V-Roys, but I'm sure looking forward to more music from Scott Miller. 4) Jim Lauderdale- THE OTHER SESSIONS- Ace country songwriter (and underappreciated, at times rightly so, solo artist) creates just about his most consistently satisfying collection of songs ever (PRETTY CLOSE TO THE TRUTH remains his best record), in a honky-tonk frame of mind. It'll be fun to see how many hits other folks have with these tunes. 5) Frank Black and The Catholics- DOG IN THE SAND- Frank Black's best, most consistent record since his eponymous 1993 solo debut. It's kinda slight, kinda stupid and a little more than kinda weird, but damn it's fun. Blast off! 6) The Derailers- HERE COME THE DERAILERS- The record the Derailers always wanted to make? The record that strips the Derailers of their (undeservedly dismissive) "Buck clone" status? The record that gets the Derailers radio airplay in this cracked time and place? I'm glad they're making records and I'm glad they made this one. 7) Gillian Welch- TIME (THE REVELATOR)- A compelling statement of individual/dual artistry, which nonetheless somehow really broke less new ground than its proponents staked a claim to. "I Dream A Highway" can't support its own weight. Still, there's no denying this is Welch's best set of songs since her debut. 8) You Am I- DRESS ME SLOWLY- Indie pop-rock's not dead, it's just not available on many stations you'll hear in the US, but this record- the best yet from a band that deserves to be at least big enough to get a US distributor- displays so much songcraft and skill that its lack of wider distribution seems *so* wrong (See #4 RECORD or HOURLY DAILY for proof). 9) Rhonda Vincent- THE STORM STILL RAGES- Rhonda Vincent is one of my favorite singers- I didn't hear another better this year- and her band is at top form on this one. 10) Sloan- PRETTY TOGETHER- The rest of the world's best band changes-up, focus on song craft over arena rock and succeed admirably. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 16:55:27 EST From: Vivebonpop@aol.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] nobody doesn't like Sara Lee? In a message dated 1/3/02 10:18:32 AM Eastern Standard Time, outdoorminer@mindspring.com writes: > Third, try to erase every vestige of HARD from your memory. I was doing > pretty well with erasing it from my own memory until you jogged it just > now! > > Well, leave it to me, list pariah, to bring it all back in 360 degree, full-dimensional stereo in your mind. I didn't say so, but I thought this record blew chunkies as well, which explains why I got it so cheaply, back in the late eighties. It must be the embarassment of their catalog, kind of like that Ministry album, "With Sympathy" where laugh-a-minute Al decides to fake being a Brit. Oh please, M Lloyd Cole "Don't Get Weird On Me Babe" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 16:55:51 -0500 (EST) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: [loud-fans] more songs, more questions On Sat, 29 Dec 2001, glenn mcdonald wrote: > If you're curious (if nothing else, then about exactly how little > technical ability is necessary to have fun with home recording), there > are mp3s on my web site at www.furia.com/songs ("Seven of Mourning, > Eight of Stars" and "Holy Life" are the new ones). And the two songs they're grouped with from earlier this year sound even better as part of an EP which, conveniently, is exactly the length of a trip between my apartment and my office. Woo woo for glenn! I'm glad I heard The Sleep Ward during 2001 (just barely) and thus can put it on my year-end list in good conscience. Meanwhile, the world of UNauthorized free music online has taken a new turn with the phenomenon of what the British are confusingly calling "bootlegs" -- mixes of two or more well-known pop songs, like the Strokes/Christina Aguilera track that I think someone posted about here. Check out http://www.thedr.freeserve.co.uk/topbootlegs/ especially the Pied Piper/Axel F, Nelly/Tramps and Kraftwerk/Whitney Houston ones. The Osymyso collage is pretty good too. aaron ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 16:58:08 EST From: Vivebonpop@aol.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] nobody doesn't like Sara Lee? In a message dated 1/3/02 4:55:27 PM Eastern Standard Time, Vivebonpop writes: > Lloyd Cole "Don't Get Weird On Me Babe" uh, now playing, I mean ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2002 18:08:30 -0500 From: jenny grover Subject: [loud-fans] author, author! Andrea, congrats on the book! I hope it does well for you. Anyone know of a good place to self-publish a book of poetry? It's too long for the chapbook formats I've seen advertised and X-libris doesn't format for poetry. (I hope to get a novel out with X-libris this spring. I'll let you guys know if and when that comes together). Jen ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 19:16:41 EST From: AWeiss4338@aol.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] author, author! In a message dated 1/3/02 6:09:09 PM Eastern Standard Time, sleeveless@citynet.net writes: > Andrea, congrats on the book! I hope it does well for you. > > Anyone know of a good place to self-publish a book of poetry? It's too > long for the chapbook formats I've seen advertised and X-libris doesn't > format for poetry. (I hope to get a novel out with X-libris this > spring. I'll let you guys know if and when that comes together). > > Thanks! I hope so too. I think Iuniverse does publish poetry, and 1st Books, although they are really expansive. I wish you luck and sucess with your book, I've heard good things about X-libris. Andrea ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 16:17:21 -0800 (PST) From: "Joseph M. Mallon" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] more songs, more questions On Thu, 3 Jan 2002, Aaron Mandel wrote: > Meanwhile, the world of UNauthorized free music online has taken a new > turn with the phenomenon of what the British are confusingly calling > "bootlegs" -- mixes of two or more well-known pop songs, like the > Strokes/Christina Aguilera track that I think someone posted about here. Here's a fun trick: try to name all the songs sampled in "Introspection". J. Mallon ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 19:59:23 -0500 (EST) From: Michael Mitton Subject: [loud-fans] New Yorker's Favorites For what it's worth, here's the list of twelve favorites from The New Yorker (no authors cited): Aaliyah--"Aaliyah" Nikka Costa--"Everybody got their Something" Bob Dylan--"Love and Theft" Missy Elliott--"Miss E...So Addictive" Gorillaz--"Gorillaz" Jay-Z--"The Blueprint" Langley Schools Music Project--"Innocence and Despair" Sparklehorse--"It's a Wonderful Life" Nortec Collection--"The Tijuana Sessions Vol.1" Prince--"Rainbow Children" The Strokes--"Is This It?" Gillian Welch--"Time (the revelator)" Maybe the real purpose of this post is just to invite Dana to rant against The New Yorker again. - --Michael ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V2 #3 *****************************