From: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org (trajectory-digest) To: trajectory-digest@smoe.org Subject: trajectory-digest V3 #97 Reply-To: trajectory@smoe.org Sender: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk trajectory-digest Saturday, November 6 1999 Volume 03 : Number 097 Today's Subjects: ----------------- happiness is ... [meredith ] Re: happiness is ... ["rachel stone" ] Re: ...um, y'all? [meredith ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 19:34:47 -0500 From: meredith Subject: happiness is ... ... hearing "The Indian/Boat Ride To Skidegate" on the radio. :) Just had to share. +==========================================================================+ | Meredith Tarr meth@smoe.org | | New Haven, CT USA http://www.smoe.org/~meth | +==========================================================================+ | "things are more beautiful when they're obscure" -- veda hille | | *** TRAJECTORY, the Veda Hille mailing list: *** | | *** http://www.smoe.org/meth/trajectory.html *** | +==========================================================================+ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1999 18:42:49 -0500 From: "rachel stone" Subject: Re: happiness is ... >... hearing "The Indian/Boat Ride To Skidegate" on the radio. :) Happiness is also hearing Abba (specifically "Mama Mia") performed by Veda in an intimate club. Rachel Who saw Veda last night for the second time within about two weeks. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 20:33:19 -0500 From: meredith Subject: Re: ...um, y'all? Hi! Why is WPKN in Bridgeport (89.5 FM, RealAudio at www.wpkn.org) my favorite radio station? Because on Friday nights things happen like most of _Here Is A Picture_ getting played. Everything from "The Indian" on, as it turns out. Okay, so I did call the station and say, "can you play something by Veda Hille?" but I was NOT expecting to get all this! It's good to know that my contributions are going to such a worthy cause. :) Except that the programmer was obviously not listening to what I said, because she just backannounced it all as being from "Velda Hill". ("Mama Mia"?!? Oy. Sometimes you gotta wonder just what goes through that woman's mind - but then that's a scary prospect, so maybe it's not such a good idea...) Anyway. John reminded us all: >UM THERE IS A NEW VEDA HILLE ALBUM... so let's >talk about it already! Um, okay. :) It took me a little while to get into this one, but that is usually the case with Veda's stuff. The only CD of hers I've loved from first listen is _Here Is A Picture_. I actively disliked _Spine_ at first, in fact, so when _You Do Not Live In This World Alone_ didn't click with me immediately I didn't panic. I'm still not enamored with the "bleeps and bloops", as I've heard them called... the electronic noodlings dripped all over the album really don't strike me as necessary. If they were integral to making the songs whole I could see it -- but they seem too extraneous, too tacked-on, and I find myself tuning them out wherever possible by thinking of the live versions, and how the songs are *supposed* to sound, without all the heartbeats, beeps, whines, scratches, and breathing noises everywhere. The biggest example of this is "Pony Bride". The single high-pitched tone that extends throughout the entire track is just at the right frequency to give me a splitting headache within seconds. By the end of the song I'm about ready to claw my eyeballs out. Which is a crying shame, really, since "Pony Bride" is one of my favorite songs of this album's era. However, that said, I still *love* this album. "3x thin" is the song of all of them that has reached out and grabbed me as the standout track, the song that gives me the same sort of fuzzy feeling inside that I get when I hear "26 Years" or "Boat Ride To Skidegate" or "Precious Heart" - it's almost like I can feel the music resonating within me saying "mmmh yes, this is *right*." The calm, almost resigned way in which she sings this sad story kills me ... and the lyrics! Veda has truly become one of the masters of adaptive songwriting. _Here Is A Picture_ got her used to the concept, and now she's putting the stories of others into song with a skill that's utterly mind-boggling. In "3x Thin", which tells the story of a boy who was kidnapped by his father and taken away to Europe for eleven years, told from the point of view of his mother upon his return, the refrain "you were blond and now you're brown" puts 30 pages of exposition into one short phrase. The only other artist I can think of who does this sort of songwriting to such effect is Kate Bush, and I daresay that at this point Veda does it better. Then there's "Killzone!" -- I don't know how much of the lyrics are transcribed precisely from the novel, but the whole tune still cracks me up. The album version is a lot more staid than the live version, especially from a vocal standpoint (live, she shouts the entire thing, not just at the very end like on the album), but I still can't resist hitting "repeat" a few times every time I give the disc a spin. The other song I can't listen to just once is "Wrong". If this song doesn't somehow become an international underground hit that will be, well, wrong. If I won the lottery tomorrow I'd distribute the album in the States, and send a single out to every college radio station in the country with that track on it. >I'll start... umm... have y'all noticed that triplets >play a huge part of Veda's lyrical and vocal phrasing >in this album? What's *that* about? No, I hadn't, but now that you mention it, you've got a point! Veda's always had a thing for 3, I think. There's the song "Three", of course, (which is naturally *in* 3), and I know there are other earlier examples but my mind is blanking right now because at the moment The Nields are playing on the radio and my brain is full of jangle. >First obviously >is "3xthin", where she says "thin thin thin", but she >also goes wild with it in (among other places) "a >peculiar value" with "dissolve dissolve dissolve" and >then (amazingly) "your face your face your face" three >times... Don't forget in "Batterie" there's "god beat down my door/gale gale gale offshore" (among other examples) too. >I'm not even sure what all the WORDS are >yet, either... Lord... oh, and what's that deal about >the companion book to the album mentioned in the liner >notes? I've been checking the site, but there's still >no place to order any companion book. Anybody with >any info? Anybody? I'm not sure what's up with that, but as far as I know it *will* be available soon. (Rachel, Veda didn't happen to mention anything about it last night or when she was at the WECC, did she?) Apparently there's also going to be t-shirts for sale eventually. I'm very much looking forward to the companion book, myself. I'm most definitely a lyrics person, and not being able to follow along with a new album when I'm still in the discovery phase drives me nuts. Okay, so all you Americans on the list, here's what we have to do. Veda needs capital in order to get down to the States to play again. She needs to sell a lot of CDs to make that happen. So you need to get all your friends to order this new album, and even if you've already gotten one, Christmas is coming, so order more! Let's buy all of her CDs so she can afford to bring the boys back south of the border (or at least come solo -- I don't care, do you?). She at least needs to get back to New York so I can see her play again. ;> Deal? +==========================================================================+ | Meredith Tarr meth@smoe.org | | New Haven, CT USA http://www.smoe.org/~meth | +==========================================================================+ | "things are more beautiful when they're obscure" -- veda hille | | *** TRAJECTORY, the Veda Hille mailing list: *** | | *** http://www.smoe.org/meth/trajectory.html *** | +==========================================================================+ ------------------------------ End of trajectory-digest V3 #97 *******************************