From: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org (trajectory-digest) To: trajectory-digest@smoe.org Subject: trajectory-digest V1 #22 Reply-To: trajectory@smoe.org Sender: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk trajectory-digest Thursday, October 2 1997 Volume 01 : Number 022 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Brown & Fenner [kat ] Re: NYC SBT damn damn damn! [kat ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 1 Oct 1997 21:42:23 -0700 (PDT) From: kat Subject: Brown & Fenner hi all, this is not really veda related but I happen to like BTC and thought some of you might be interested in checking this out... >Saturday, September 27, 1997 >Former Choristers reinvent themselves > >Chris Brown & Kate Fenner find a new sound living in New York > >By KIERAN GRANT -- Toronto Sun > >Chris Brown & Kate Fenner are the first to admit they have a plain band >name -- Chris Brown & Kate Fenner. > >It was the only banner to fly when they embarked on their duo career after >the dissolution of their old band, The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir. > >"We've been talking to industry people who've been saying, `You've got to >get a band name. It doesn't make sense,'" muses Fenner. The duo, now based >in New York, perform songs from their debut album, Other People's Heavens, >tonight at Reverb. > >"But it's impossible to think of a band name that would encompass our >personal relationship, and what the music is demonstrating." > >Adds Brown: "At least we know we're not going to be sued." > >Brown and Fenner's musical and personal collaboration dates back to high >school, where the Bourbons first came together in the mid '80s. > >The group's retro-soul oriented pop was a hit with local audiences, but >things had grown stale by the time they relocated to Brooklyn two years >ago. > >The band disintegrated amicably. Singer Dave Wall came home to Toronto, and >went solo; guitarist Andrew Whiteman formed local dynamos Que Veda; bassist >Jason Mercer joined Ani DiFranco's band. > >Keyboardist and principal songwriter Brown and frontwoman Fenner stayed >behind to pick up the pieces. > >"I feel like we do have a history to answer to," says Brown. "We had people >who supported us for a long time. That's why I've come back to work in >Toronto periodically." > >Still, Other People's Heavens is not a continuation of the Bourbon's party >groove. With the sound scaled down, the songs are more insular, offbeat and >mature. > >"We just learned how to kick it with just the two of us," Brown says. > >"But I wouldn't necessarily call it a change. The seriousness of the >writing has always been important to me. This context allows for the more >subtle things to come out more." > >There's been nothing subtle about Brown and Fenner's experience in New >York, where a steady diet of gigging and session playing has exposed them >to endless musical possibilities. > >"America scares the shit out of me, it's so much further along the path of >destruction," Fenner confesses. "But there's this other world of people our >age moving in and through New York. > >"There was a vitality there. And a certain anonymity that forced us to get >down to business. It's cheating basically, because we can escape the bad >elements." > >"It's so thick," adds Brown. "You start to gravitate toward other people >who are doing a similar thing to what you're doing, not even taste-wise or >aesthetically, but just living a certain way." > >Brown's done work at New York's famed experimental music space The Knitting >Factory with jazz groups like the Sex Mob and The Lounge Lizards. Fenner's >sat in with some of the city's best "straight-up jazz" players. > >"We knew we had to reinvent ourselves," says Brown. "We were sitting on >these house gigs, which were like church: Two gigs a week, different people >sitting in with us. > >"Those were good, but they got too comfortable. So now we've pulled our >heads out of the sand and decided to let people know what we're doing." > >Says Fenner: "There's this concept collaborating on gigs, and you can >actually make money doing it. It's quite liberating, but a real change from >that all-for-one-and-one-for-all world of being in a band." > > ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Oct 1997 21:54:55 -0700 (PDT) From: kat Subject: Re: NYC SBT damn damn damn! >Greetings Hillebeans (as in "it doesn't amount to...") Ahh micheal, I'm not sure I am into that one either. >Don't say we weren't warned (by Veda), and Susan herself said "I'm here >to cheer you up" in an ominous parody of the SNL guys. I said to Bob >Moog "she's very monochromatic - black", because all her songs were >s-l-o-w dirges and because she was, in fact, dressed all in black. BTW, What is funny is lori, alisha and I(at the Vancouver Folk Fest) were so excited to hear OhSusanah after much discussion. So we hightailed it to a Sat. AM show where it was Prozac stage. After abotu 15 minutes, Alisha and I left to go hear spirtuals at the kids stage and never looked back. Oh Susanna is just soo... bleh... like a depressed and suicidal untalented Gillian Welch. >She started with a poem, standing in the midst of the audience, and >then sang along with a hip-hoppy sort of sampled tape. What I like most about Kinnie Star is that she does poetry in a good way.... Her spoken word stuff is by far my favorite and I like the fact that she likes to get into the middle of a crowd to do it. She also comes across as unpretentious which I really like. >She moved up to >the stage and started to play "Ophelia", broke a string and called for >the "Saviour Bitch" Of the Kinnie Star songs I know, I find Ophelia the strongest. Still like it though my opinion isn't popular. >She has an attitude reminiscent of Ani >(although nowhere near her instrumental prowess), and a mixture of >singing and speaking her lyrics (in English, Spanish, and French) that >made me wish for more solid singing. reminiscent in the sense that ani's attitude is now about how much she hates her fans? oh, but I digress. I don't mind her sing/speak thing, though I think her guitar is just enh. I haven't been impressed with electric guitar in general and KS does nothing to dissuade that notion. Anyhow, i am glad you all had a rockin' veda experience. I remain horridly jealous. And Michael, I miss hearing your stories and hope you are well, kat ------------------------------ End of trajectory-digest V1 #22 *******************************