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| Author |
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| 25 new of 131 responses total. |
mcnally
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response 66 of 131:
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Mar 9 16:05 UTC 2000 |
Are Fernhill Welsh by any chance?
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krj
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response 67 of 131:
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Mar 9 21:57 UTC 2000 |
Yes they are, why do you ask?
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mcnally
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response 68 of 131:
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Mar 10 03:54 UTC 2000 |
"Fern Hill" is the name of a poem by Dylan Thomas..
"..he's so unhip -- when you say 'Dylan,' he thinks you're talking about
Dylan Thomas, whoever *he* was. the man ain't got no culture.."
[from "A Simple Desultory Phillippic", by Simon & Garfunkel]
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dbratman
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response 69 of 131:
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Mar 13 18:34 UTC 2000 |
I've jotted down those names in #65, Ken, and will keep an eye out the
next time I get to Down Home, whenever that is. I'm still hopeful for
good new music, though it's been close to ten years since I was blown
away by anything new to me ...
But don't take my comments of alienation too seriously. I've been
steadily growing alienated from science fiction since 1977, which is the
year of the advent of Orson Scott Card, an author whose appeal utterly
eludes me. And that was only three years after I started reading the
stuff.
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krj
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response 70 of 131:
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Mar 19 03:11 UTC 2000 |
I'm looking for any thoughts on the Welsh band Gorky's Zygotic Mynci,
since a favorable review of their most recent album turned up in
"No Depression" magazine, of all places.
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tpryan
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response 71 of 131:
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Mar 20 17:21 UTC 2000 |
Last week on Lay Jeno, I saw Tom Waites sing one of his new
songs. It sounded like he was chopping brocolli:
"There's this house no one lives in...
we call it the house no one lives in.... etc.
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gnat
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response 72 of 131:
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Mar 21 04:56 UTC 2000 |
Gorky's are pretty cool... lilting psychedelic-tinged pop, much of
it sung in Welsh. Their latest is mostly in English, though. They're
touring right now, but I think the closest they're coming to these
parts is Chicago.
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krj
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response 73 of 131:
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Apr 28 04:05 UTC 2000 |
Department of Recycled Prose: I wrote this for Usenet today and figured
I would dump it in here as well. A reader from xs4all.nl was looking
for information about an Australian band named Mara; he was under the
impression that Pentangle bass player Danny Thompson had been a
member of the band. So I rambled on...
---
I don't think he was formally a member, though he did play bass on
two of their early albums. 1986's "Images" was a classic and it should
appeal to most people who liked Pentangle; it crossed Pentangle's
acoustic-jazz-influenced folk sound with Eastern European songs which
the band had learned from immigrants to Australia. Unfortunately it was
a UK LP-only release on the defunct Plant Life label and I am skeptical that
it will ever be reprinted. It would make a nice two-fer CD with
the band's initial incarnation under the name Tansey's Fancy, with
a self-titled album also on the Plant Life label.
I think "On The Edge" was the other album on which Danny Thompson
appeared. This one, on the Australian label Sandstock Music, appeared
on CD -- I got a copy in trade from an Australian acquaintance.
(Does anyone have any good Internet order sources for Australian folk
CDs?)
There are a couple of other albums: "Don't Even Think," was OK,
"Ruino Vino" I found disappointing. The most recent album, billed
as Mara with the Martenitza Choir, was titled "Sezoni." It was
released on Peter Gabriel's Real World label and so it should be
available just about everywhere. My complaint about the album:
too much choir, too little Mara Kiek.
I guess if I ever get around to putting up some web pages I will have
to add in a Mara discography. Cruising around on the web I just found
an album with Mara Kiek which I never heard of before:
"Songs with Mara" by the Meryl Tankard Australian Dance Theatre.
Mara Kiek also sang on two early music albums released on the
Hyperion label, one of which I have.
A google.com search on "mara kiek" will turn up quite a bit, but I don't
find a full discography.
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krj
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response 74 of 131:
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May 13 01:35 UTC 2000 |
Department of Family Vacations: Leslie and I are just back from a week-long
trip to the east coast, including a visit to the Baltimore Opera and a
big CD pigout on British Isles folk imports at the last retail shop
which I visit regularly which carries such goodies. Details to follow
in various items over the next few days, I hope.
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krj
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response 75 of 131:
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May 19 19:02 UTC 2000 |
resp:65 , further comment to David Bratman: the new (third) Tannas
album is a big disappointment; avoid it.
News item: Patti Smith is departing Arista. The BMG conglomerate,
which owns Arista, recently forced the label's founder Clive Davis
into retirement. Patti Smith said that she felt that Davis had
sheltered her on the label, even though her commercial potential
had always been marginal, and she did not want to stay after
Davis left. She said that she appreciated that Davis had never
pressured her to change her work.
Patti Smith's new album, GUNG HO, has only sold 27,000 copies so
far despite enthusiastic reviews.
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mcnally
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response 76 of 131:
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May 19 19:30 UTC 2000 |
The problem with an enthusiastic review for a Patti Smith album
is that it's sometimes hard to tell whether the critics are
enthusiastic about the album or about Smith herself. I've always
had the impression she was a critical favorite out of proportion
to her work, mostly because of her strong "cool" factor.
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krj
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response 77 of 131:
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May 22 03:08 UTC 2000 |
((note to self: Borders was playing the cd by local blues band
The Terraplanes today. It was nice; buy it when wallet recovers
from the SKR panic sales.))
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krj
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response 78 of 131:
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May 23 06:01 UTC 2000 |
Mike in resp:76 :: Aw, man, Patti is one of my rock heroes, and she has
been ever since I got those scratched-up used LPs of HORSES and RADIO
ETHIOPIA back in 1977 or so, back when those albums had gone out of print,
if I am remembering correctly. She sounded so much different than
just about everyone else back then.
I had not been keeping up with her albums since she started working
again, but the early reviews reported that her old guitarist Lenny Kaye
and most of the rest of her old band were back together for this new
album, and that's always been a sound I've loved. I just played GUNG HO
again tonight, and I'm really happy with it -- there were two songs which
had me hitting the track skip button, but that's usually been the case
for me with her albums. The songwriting seems pretty good -- better than
most performers from the 1970s are managing 20 years after their peak --
and the sound is classic, it sounds like the new album was recorded
just a few months after EASTER or WAVE, her late-seventies work.
Only 27,000 sold? Gack. Maybe America's not ready for a twelve-minute
song in praise of Ho Chi Minh.
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mcnally
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response 79 of 131:
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May 23 17:39 UTC 2000 |
I'm not saying that she hasn't produced excellent work during her
career, nor do I know anything about her most recent album..
I just approach critic's reviews of her albums with a little more than
my ordinary level of skepticism (which is itself substantial) because I
wonder whether she'd get panned if she produced an album that deserved it.
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krj
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response 80 of 131:
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May 23 21:32 UTC 2000 |
There is probably something to be written about the relationships
between sales, critics, and "importance," whatever that might be.
I'm reminded of a claim that the Velvet Underground's last studio
album LOADED only sold about 5000 copies in its initial release,
but almost everyone who bought one started a band.
Also an article from a 1980-era "High Fidelity" magazine, which
argued that with the exception of Elvis, the Beatles and (one other
performer, it was either the Stones or Dylan), the best selling artists
throughout the rock era has almost immediately been consigned to the
historical dustbin, while the artists who came to be viewed as important
generally had middling sales performance. Hmm, I wonder if the
MSU Library still keeps its old stock of "High Fidelity?" That was
a good magazine, I miss it.
This risks impinging on the MP3 item, number 240.
The way the record business used to work is that it had a lot of
producers and executives in it who were well aware of the cultural
importance of the lesser-selling work. They knew they had to turn in
a profit overall, but they had some latitude in their personal realms
to sponsor artists and projects for their artistic importance.
In the current era, with a mantra of profit above all, and with the
Soundscan program accounting for each and every sale as it happens,
such executives are getting squeezed out at the major labels.
Clive Davis' forced retirement
at Arista is one sign of this, although the guy is 66 years old, which
is above the corporate parents' retirement age. But look at the artist
reaction. Carlos Santana wants out of his Arista contract; Clive Davis
stood by him and kept him in the business for many lean years, and suddlenly
Santana spawns a monster hit album with legs. Davis was renowned as
a manager who took care of his stable of artists.
I'm meandering...
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brighn
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response 81 of 131:
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May 23 22:29 UTC 2000 |
An excellent example: Cleaning the basement recently, we found an old issue
of Bananas magazine with a headline such as, "Bee Gees vs. Beatles... which
is better?"
I hardly think anyone in the 00's would seriously compare those two, but at
the time of the ish (late 70s, I think), the Bee Gees were as popular as,
well, BBoys.
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carla
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response 82 of 131:
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May 24 18:24 UTC 2000 |
Patty Smith looked pretty rough the last time I saw her.
For half of the preformance, actually, Julie and I thought that she was Joey
Ramone.
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katie
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response 83 of 131:
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May 25 04:40 UTC 2000 |
Patti Smith will be playing at St Andrews on Thurs, July 6.
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jules
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response 84 of 131:
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Jun 5 23:53 UTC 2000 |
stereolab and sonic youth will be in pontiac sunday
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krj
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response 85 of 131:
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Jun 15 19:38 UTC 2000 |
Tower's magazine PULSE has cover features on the phenomenon I was discussing
above: artists who are critical favorites who are getting squeezed out
of the business. PULSE doesn't get very analytical about it though.
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krj
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response 86 of 131:
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Aug 8 19:15 UTC 2000 |
Ooooh, big triumphant find at Elderly Instruments yesterday...
I found the first two, out-of-print solo albums by Pal Shazar in a
used CD clearance bin, for $2.50 each. I never got around to ordering
these when they might have been available, and I have never seen them
before.
Pal Shazar was the woman lead singer in 80's pop duo Slow Children.
Slow Children were critical favorites in their day, but their career went
nowhere and somehow I doubt you'll hear them on the Big Sonic Heaven
radio show, though I think they would fit right in. Slow Children
were produced for at least one of their albums by Jules Shear,
who Shazar later married for a time, if that provides any context.
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krj
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response 87 of 131:
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Oct 1 06:25 UTC 2000 |
Question for Mike McNally: any thoughts on the new Bill Laswell project,
"Tabla Beat System"? Entertainment Weekly, of all periodicals, gave it
a good review. It's got Zakir Hussain on it, and also Talvin Singh
who is a Folk Roots magazine favorite.
There's also a Laswell Irish music project about which I know nothing.
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mcnally
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response 88 of 131:
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Oct 2 00:31 UTC 2000 |
I haven't bought a Laswell-related project in at least three years..
I bought several lemons in a row just before I cut way back on my
CD budget when I went back to school and due to several definite
misses and a couple of mediocrities, I quit buying the Laswell stuff
unheard. And since there really wasn't much opportunity to hear it
before buying (because of course it would be morally WRONG to download
it to check it out) I haven't bought any at all since then..
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carson
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response 89 of 131:
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Oct 17 18:44 UTC 2000 |
(I really liked the _Material Intonarumori_ CD he put out a year
or so ago, but can't speak to anything else.)
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mcnally
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response 90 of 131:
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Oct 17 19:40 UTC 2000 |
I'd been thinking of buying that one, since I had liked his previous
effort to include hip-hop elements in his music (Material's "The Third
Power") despite its flaws, and I'd wondered if he'd managed the combination
on "Intonarumori" without some of the borderline cheeziness that afflicts
"The Third Power")
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