From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V2 #180 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 20 2002 Volume 02 : Number 180 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] Chat? ["Andrew Hamlin" ] [loud-fans] review of Carolyn Dorsey's swap CD [Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 May 2002 15:17:23 -0700 From: "Andrew Hamlin" Subject: [loud-fans] Chat? I'm at irc.eskimo.com #loudfans for about another hour. Hope to see some folk. Who put these imaginations on my fingerprints, Andy "Once there were two brothers. One ran away to sea, the other was elected Vice-President, and nothing was ever heard of either of them again." - --Thomas R. Marshall, from "Recollections" ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 May 2002 23:25:06 -0500 (CDT) From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: [loud-fans] review of Carolyn Dorsey's swap CD Carolyn sent me a very nice CD recently. As it lacked a title, I'll call it "Wallpaper Music," because the cover art - some painted patterns she'd done for a textiles class some years back - reminded me of wallpaper samples. 1. The Loud Family "We're for the Dark": Originally from the Badfinger trib CD _Come and Get It_, this came Carolyn's way courtesy of Joe Mallon and a previous swap CD. I like this version's arrangement, particularly the countermelodies heard in organ on one verse and a different line on cello (or a reasonable facsimile) in a later verse. 2. P.G. Six "When I Was a Young Man": Flute, modal harmonies, the percussion, the acoustic rhythm guitar...this kind of reminds me of early Jethro Tull (just after they left the blues behind) but then the snarly, compressed, distorted lead guitar places this even more strongly in the late '60s, with its own particular flavor. In some ways, all the more impressive that - just now, checking at All-Music Guide - this is a contemporary project, from a guy who also plays in Tower Recordings. Just what I need...more new music to check out! 3. Kaleidoscope "Colours": Not the US Kaleidoscope that was slide guitarist David Lindley's first gig, but a (presumably) Latin American band of the same name, this track being drawn from a comp called _Love Peace & Poetry: Latin-American Psychedelic Music_. It begins with electro-squiggles (theremin?) and an organ backdrop - more of that snarly "Incense & Peppermints" lead guitar...must be the '60s... Oh - and a what-the-fuck? bicycle horn between verses. (Maybe if I listened to the lyrics, it'd make sense...) 4. Clinic "Evil Bill": An instrumental built on a guitar riff that sounds very like a sideways version of the one from "Train 'Round the Bend" - sonically, the resemblance is strong as well. There's some fairly neat heavy amp reverb on some percussive guitar plucking, so you get that cool "doick-k-k-k" sound (I used to love just pulling the cord out of the jack w/that reverb on...), but really, this doesn't do much for me. 5. Ween "Take Me Away": Not bad in a sort of '70s pop hard-rock way - is it a BTO outtake? - but this is my problem with Ween: they always sound like they're impersonating a band or a style, but never with any particular investment. It's like, "look at us - we're so talented, we can sound like *any* of these bands" - but because they impersonate rather than work with, it leaves me cold. 6. R. Stevie Moore "Play Myself Some Music": I first heard this on the comp of NYC Loudfan-related bands Sharples put out a few years back, on which it was an unlisted bonus track. Carolyn says this is from an album called _The Future Is Worse Than the Past_, from 1999 or so - I notice that a song of the same title showed up on a 1983 release. Miles, Stewart: is this a rerecording, or was _The Future..._ a compilation album too? Oh - - did I mention this is an excellent track? I like the blend of synth and guitars, and the eccentric but effective harmonic sense. 7. Hello Kitty "Curse of the Frontierland": A low-key version of the Game Theory classic. Our singer - everyone's favorite Swedish-American - knows her limitations well, and rather than attempt to blast out the lyrics, tries subtlety instead, and achieves a pleasant, rather Liz Phair-like effect. A nice synth line as well - and wow, did that "Vince Furnier" achieve amazingly high levels of Scott-ishness with that guitar sound. I wonder what his secret is... 8. Brian Jonestown Massacre "Vacuum Boots": God save the tambourine. Nice, catchy, vaguely '60s feel (true of most tracks on this CD). 9. David Henderson "Song for Syd Barrett": As you might guess from the title, this song is a tribute to Syd Barrett - kind of a dizzying fact, since (some research reveals) the song is itself from a tribute album - covers of Martin Newell's songs. Anyway, it's an excellent track, whose opening chords are borrowed from Syd's "Astronomy Domine" but otherwise doesn't ape the idiom (except for a backwards guitar solo in the middle). Curious chorus: the first line is clear ("the chariot race in Roger's dream...") but the next one sounds different every time: choose from "...is an [icicle chain/icy cold cave/icicle cave/icy cold cage], you know what I mean" (no, I don't, exactly - but pretty much). (Syd's real first name is Roger, btw - as Robyn Hitchcock noted as well, in "1974" if I recall correctly.) 10. The Sunshine Company "Back on the Street Again": This is sixties folk-rock, Mamas & the Papas - style - although not reinforced by John Phillips' quality of songwriting. A bit too flute-intensive, and everything that goes with it (you know what I mean...). 11. Son Imaginario "Super God": Another from the Latin psych comp, and the only one (of three here) that makes that fact obvious, with its flamenco-like Spanish guitar opening chord sequence. The vocal is distorted, but it may well be in Spanish as well. Not bad, but not great. 12. The Byrds "Here Without You" (demo version II): Yeesh - all of a sudden, I must have about four or five versions of this track. That's okay - - it's a lovely song. As a demo, its sound is less full and lush than the studio recording, and the vocals are less exactly tracked. But that actually improves them, to my ears, as I can hear more clearly what each individual singer is doing. That's right, kids: actual human singing, untouched by digital hands. 13. Boards of Canada "Alpha and Omega": A tabla-like percussion bit and a flute-sounding loop (hey! Flute Loops...sorry), then a typical BoC analog-sounding synth part. A somewhat eccentric chord sequence, and some subtle tonal changes in that synth part, make this of more intrinsic interest than a lot of BoC tracks - which generally strike me as pleasant but not terribly remarkable. (At least based on _Music Has the Right to Children_ - this one's from _Geogaddi_.) 14. Avey Tare & Panda Bear "Alvin Now": Or is it "Alvin Row"? I was curious, so looked this one up on AMG. Anyway, an odd little waltz-like electronic number, with wordless and distorted vocals. 15. The Sunshine Company "I Need You": A fine version of the Beatles track (which would have made a good addition to Steve H.'s George tribute...), which emphasizes its modal character (damn! going all Alan W. Pollack on y'all) by reducing the song to two chords (A and G), and slowing and quieting it considerably. Acoustic guitar, harpsichord punctuation, and tremolo lead guitar color the sound. 16. The Continental Drifters "The Rain Song": I have the CD CDs that precede and follow _Vermilion_, from which this track is drawn - and every time I hear a _Vermilion_ track, I like it better than anything on either of the two CDs I have. Guess I bought the wrong ones. Who sings the lead on this - Vicki Peterson or Susan Cowsill? I love that aching, grainy strain that shows up now and again 17. Spirit "Sunrise": I've always found these guys intriguing, even though all I have is _The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus_ and two stray tracks from a rare '60s comp called _Psychedelic Dreams_ ("Topanga Windows" and "Dream within a Dream"). Something about them suggests they might be a precursor of sorts to R.E.M....anyway, I like it. 18. Steely Dan "Any World": A demo version of the song later fleshed out as "Any World That I'm Welcome To," this features a cheesy rhythm box, clinky electric keyboards, and rather raw backing vocals (featuring Walter Becker, seldom heard on official releases, as "The Voice of the Nasal Cavity"). Donald Fagen lunges at, and sometimes hits, the high notes on the middle eight, and is less assured elsewhere. But you know what? Somehow, this loose version brings out the fact that this (like many Dan tracks) is a very fine pop song, and helps deny the impression that Steely Dan did only superslick, vacuum-sealed, fuzak-like studio productions with the life sucked utterly out of them (and carefully replaced by embalmed dead jazzers). (That's not what I think, btw - I love Steely Dan - but it's a common perception.) 19. Beth Sorrentino "New Song #1": This is apparently from a live performance on WFMU. It's okay - but it's a little too quintessentially "girl with a piano" to escape from that ghetto for me. 20. The Aislers Set "One Half Laughing": I like this - again with a sort of sixties feel, but updated - and it seems to end only halfway through. But that's better than belaboring your point, isn't it. 21. Noonday Underground "The Light Brigade": This reminds me somewhat of Solex run through the dequirkifier. But Solex is better *with* the quirks. 22. Linda Smith "Telling Stories": The opening guitar figure seems borrowed from Joni Mitchell's "Free Man in Paris." Smith has an odd voice - - I'm not sure I would have ID'd it as female if I didn't have her name in front of me - but an interesting one, and I like the song, especially the quirky way that guitar figure occasionally adds an extra, syncopated beat to stretch the bar and add intrigue. 23. Kissing Spell "Yellow Moon": Parallel stacked harmonies, all in the right channel; organ, guitar, drums, and bass all in the left channel - oh, and there's a fuzztone guitar solo - yep, it's the sixties again! There's a nice little tricky piano/bass rhythm thingy toward the end that I like - but this would probably end up one of those tracks on _Nuggets 2_ that I can never quite remember. All in all, an enjoyable and intriguing CD: Carolyn's clearly into a lot of sixties-influenced stuff, and since that's an area I'm intrigued by, the CD's a good match. Plus, only five (maybe six) tracks I had before, at least in these versions - nice work! - --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 ::I feel that all movies should have things that happen in them:: __TV's Frank__ ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V2 #180 *******************************