Subject: Re: state of the label flamewar kickoff
Subject: Re: Lush / Cocteau Twins Guitar Effects
Subject: What in TARNATION????
Subject: Back once again
Subject: DEM'S FIGHTIN WORDS!!
Subject: Re: DEM'S FIGHTIN WORDS!!
Subject: the 4ad-l digest explosion...
Subject: I finally wrote a review of sorts for Friday's Elysium show
Subject: Re: Pygmalion ignorance
Subject: Nick Cave vs. Simon Bonney
Subject: A new list
Subject: New Lisa Gerrard
Subject: Re: Bowery Electric
Subject: Re: 4AD-L Digest - 14 Aug 1995 to 26 Aug 1995
Subject: Mirror Pool reactions
Subject: Re: Bowery Electric (and Kranky, too!)
Subject: Re: Bowery Electric/Kranky
Subject: Re: Bowery Electric
Subject: Re: Bowery Electric
Subject: Faith & Disease (tour dates)
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 1995 22:55:41 -0600
On Tue, 22 Aug 1995, einexile the meek, but mighty wrote:
> ... boy do Scheer scare the daylights out of me...
I agree 200% with you, e. Could it be that the lack of quality
releases from 4AD and the discovery that other labels, and
independents for that matter, are producing really great stuff have
allowed us to view 4ad without our rose tinted glasses? It used to be
that if a band released anything on 4AD I would like it. For me, the
decline became noticable with _Euphoria_. I can't really explain it, but
I didn't get a good feeling from the Insides. However, that same year The
Glee Club hit the top of my year's top ten. It's more of a gamble these
days isn't it?
Cheers!
Elaun
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 1995 23:21:29 -0600
There was an article in a guitar mag last year (last summer? Good grief!)
all about Simon and Robin and the massive pedal collection that they have
(esp. Robin). Of course I don't have the magazine, but my friend does so
when he returns from his tour in a couple of days I'll ask him for the
info. It was quite a detailed article as I recall.
Stay tuned.
Elaun
X Elaun L. Cable x Rm. 127 MacEwan Hall x "My life suits X
X Spoken Word Director x University of Calgary x me very well..." X
X CJSW 90.9 fm x Calgary, AB x X
X x T2N 4N1 x X
X [email protected] / [email protected] X
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 1995 22:34:36 -0700
Entertainment Weekly gave Tarnation an A!!!
god, who the hell were they REALLY listening to??
they called it country-type music, by the way....
Yeah, 4AD's a country label now...rock on.
Ivo
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 1995 22:58:21 -0700
Hiya kids,
I'm back from my long hiatus... I'm sure everyone's thrilled.
Anyways, In case yr not aware of it, Laika and Pram are both playing LA
in september... So if'n any of you 4AD kids are going to go, please let
me know. Kelli and I will be at both shows.
And if anyone knows Karen Scotts e-mail address (hello Jason Schmitt),
I would really appreciate it.
-jOHN 1973 beauty queen runner up
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 00:33:30 -0700
On Sat, 26 Aug 1995, Elaun Laurene wrote:
> It used to be
> that if a band released anything on 4AD I would like it. For me, the
> decline became noticable with _Euphoria_. I can't really explain it, but
> I didn't get a good feeling from the Insides. However, that same year The
> Glee Club hit the top of my year's top ten. It's more of a gamble these
> days isn't it?
I think a closer analysis of the problem might show that you are actually
quite mad. Euphoria is a better album than Mine, my friend. It is
undeniably brilliant. It may be annoying or send you personally into no
thrill of ecstacy, but do you *honestly* call Euphoria an album lacking
sufficient class, originality, finesse, care, dexterity, or glamour to
fit in with the best labors of love circa what we all seem to agree were
4AD's Glory Years? Why? Since the subject at hand is the quality of 4AD
releases and not just personal preference, you are making an aesthetic
judgement here. I am really curious as to what problem you could possibly
have with this album. I don't know a lot of people who love it, but I've
never seen someone denounce it. I personally think it is better than both
Mine and Spoonfed Hybrid, though by not too wide a margin.
Okay, maybe not undeniably, but you really have got me wondering if you
should perhaps be hospitalized for this.
einexile, scheerslayer
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 10:27:12 +0200
einexile the meek
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 08:42:14 -0700
*smiles* Very cute...the digest refuses to arrive for over
two weeks, and then suudenly, this morning, it belches
forth so many posts that my mail reader has to seperate
it into 20 different packets!
Somebody mentioned this happening to them...I'm just curious
if this is a sign that the digest is now "well" :)
very amused,
-julian-
who bought too much at Aron's last week, and thus cannot
afford the Lisa Gerrard disc :(
--
Julian Stewart
[email protected]
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 08:18:56 -0700
I don't think that anyone else from the 4ad-l was there.
To start out I should say that their CD has taken a while to grow on me.
The music doesn't really jump out at you, it just kind of starts to submerge
you, like a good Red House Painters song. After I attuned myself to some
of the subtleties going on the singing and guitars began to pull me along.
I would probably agree with most of the descriptions given on the list of their
sound. A remote point of reference I thought of is The Glee Club's quiet
moments (none of that rock stuff), but the Moon 7X comparison is probably
closer though. I could even go so far as to make a _Victorialand_ connection
to songs like "Sweetly Said." The slower songs remind me of the atmosphere of
a warm summer evening with that lingering lazy heat of the day fading with
the sun.
So after listening to their cd for a couple of weeks I finally got a chance to
see Elysium play last night at Stage Left in Glendale. They were just
incredible, sublime even. If you get a chance, you must go see them!
(I'm sure we'll hear more about their Oct. tour soon.) They played most of the
songs on the cd and a few others. The opening with "Glistening Ganache" was
perfect. For a few moments I could barely believe that these four people in
front of me started making sounds-- exactly like a song I had recently come to
adore. Their performance of "Proud Man," one of my favorites on the cd, was
just as incredible. Jenny Adams' voice ranges from whispering to playful to
plaintive and heart-breaking, always with a slightly edged tone.
Compared to their recorded sound, their live sound has more energy, wider
dynamics and a broader pallette of guitar sounds. When I talked a bit to Tony
after the show he explained the last part was because they originally recorded
his guitar with only a little Zoom box for effects, without the small
collection of pedals he had last night.
The coffeehouse setting was nice too. It seemed like almost all of the people
there were friends with the band; about half of the songs were jokingly
dedicated to people in the audience. So when they play near you go see them!
so there will be new faces in the audience. Great music, extra nice people,
what more can you ask for?
-nick
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 12:08:09 -0400
On Mon, 21 Aug 1995, Rufus T. Firefly wrote:
{about slowguys)
> ... currently am
> looking to acquire as much of their stuff
> as I can sniff out here in the
> backwaters of bucolia.
> I've seen much chatter and adjectives of
> praise heaped on 'Pygmalion' yet
> it exclusive available via import? Is it even an import??
> *befuddlement*
yes import.. yes all their stuff is superb.
my fave is _just for a day_, very hazy... flowing
thick harmonies, and beautiful melodies...
consistent as far as texture goes...
_souvlaki_ more varied in style... still very
slowdive... this is their rawk! album (as rock as
they get) just get them all...
and for those who werent around last time...
i still have all the slowdive lyrics (correct unless
the band is lying...) for everything from the first
ep up through _in mind_ ep...
if you want them, send a message to: [email protected]
with a subject of: give me the Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 10:43:43 -0700
Forgive the "Johnny-come-lately" appearance of the post...
I've been "digest-challenged" until recently.
I'm not really going to do a comparison/contrast between
Nick and Simon (sounds like Duran Duran, eh? :)...I'm a
big Cave _and_ Crime fan. And I believe Simon Bonney's
solo material deserves more than the summary dismissal
it has received here.
I saw Simon in Chicago about two months ago, in a small
backroom of a bar. It was basically an acoustic show,
with Simon singing and playing acoustic, another acoustic
guitar player, an electric bass player, and Simon's wife
Bronwyn on violin and backing vocals.
There were perhaps 20 people in the audience, and I had
ample opportunity to chat with Simon after the show.
This was easily the best show I've seen in a while...the
atmosphere was intimate, the performance flawless. And
yes, Simon is definitely showing a heavy country influence
these days. However, he's picked the best country: prime
Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings...
I've never been a huge country fan (save Patsy Cline),
but I find Simon's new direction quite engaging.
-julian-
--
Julian Stewart
[email protected]
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 10:43:59 -0700
I'm still planning a new mailing list; the technical
details have been worked out, but things are currently
stuck in the conceptual stage-- I'm hoping to create
something with a decent shelf life.
This is _not_ meant to be in "competition" with
4AD-L; that would be an utterly pointless and futile
exercise, as 1) The list is rather DIY, with minimal
automation, and I would never be able to keep up with
the amount of subscribers that 4AD-L supports and
2) 4AD-L already caters to 4AD-type discussion.
I'm more interested in creating a list for the "other"
music I'm into.
I'll post details once I have everything worked out...
it will take a bit of time, as I'm quite busy
preparing for my move back to California (yay!!!).
If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, flames, etc.,
feel free to send them to me.
-julian-
--
Julian Stewart
[email protected]
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 15:52:35 -0400
I got The Mirror Pool a couple days ago, and thought
I'd add my comments to the ongoing discussion.
On the whole I'm disappointed. To be honest, I never
really liked DCD. People kept telling me I would, and
I tried, but they never did it for me.
Then for my birthday this year a friend gave me the
"Toward The Within" video, and another friend gave
me the CD, and I loved them both. The live performances
had a presence and an energy which I didn't find in the
studio albums, which struck me as too slick.
Lisa's performance in Toward The Within, in particular,
was captivating, so I had high hopes for the solo album.
Basically, The Mirror Pool is everything I didn't like
about the DCD studio albums. It's too cool and slick.
I feel like it puts a great distance between the artist
and the listener. Sure, it's interesting and original,
but it doesn't manage to make me care.
My two cents...
--Phil
([email protected])
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 13:16:04 -0700
At 11:47 AM 8/26/95, [email protected] wrote:
>Bowery Electric are a three piece based in NYC who have just released their
>self-titled debut on Chicago's Kranky Records (the next bastion of hip)
Goshdarn, sounds like my kind of stuff. I will write it down on my little
list. Kranky, yes, Kranky ... does someone have a discography for this
label, or info on who runs it and what kind of cereal they have for
breakfast? Labradford, and the little bits of Jessamine I've heard, are
mighty fine and highly atypical of US indie music. Is Kranky the US
equivalent of Too Pure?
>PS. Mr. Alfke (and some of you other lurking fogies), do you recall this
>list being this... negative, oh, let's say sometime back in '91 or so? For
>some reason, everything seemed to have been (ahem) kinder, gentler, and
>altogether cooler, but I think that's only nostalgia speaking.
I think we've always had flamewars, although in the past they tended to
have more direct musical content and be about _bands_ (PJ Harvey,
Stereolab, Medicine...) rather than off-topic stuff. This is still the most
worthwhile music related mailing list (or newsgroup, obviously) I know of.
__________
Jens Alfke|__________________ "In this story we sit down on Luna Bridge
[email protected]| And catch snow in our cupped hands
__________________________ And music is coming from the houses
http://www.inow.com/~jens/ Or it sings inside me. I begin to mend."
--Karen Peris
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 17:02:44 -0400
after not receiving a digest in weeks, i just got a 300k file of digests
covering 8/14 - 8/26! Was there some problem over at American.edu?
s25
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 16:58:37 -0400
Currently, I'm on my fourth listen to this latest bit of DCD product.
I was introduced and hooked on DCD circa "A Passage In Time" and have
since acquired all of the LPs (except "pasage..' oddly enough). Hence,
one could say I'm a DCD devotee. As for my prefernce on the Brenden/Lisa
talent slide rule, I'll through my lot in with the 'whole greater than
the sum of the parts' gang.
But with eager salivation I did march to the music shop and procure my
copy of The Mirror Pool. As for the album art, pseudo-artsy schlock for
the most part, although the inside portrait of Lisa is very nice.
The music itself is very evocative of some sort of enigmatic opera, both
tragic and epic. On the whole, the album is not particularly
earth-shattering, but still very nice. The orchestral backing is very
complementary at times and at other times limiting (such as "werd") in
its inherently static and conventional tonalities, working with something
as eclectic and enigmatic as Lisa's vocals.
Lisa's Yang Ch'in performances are fast becoming a favorite inovation of
mine in DCD's recent material, and they are especially nice here
("laurelei" in particular).
As a intro to DCD, this would not be a place to start. But this isn't
exclusively an album that is DCD fans only, as it's a very nicely done
and majestic album in it's own right.
*********************************************************************
Mike Welker [email protected]
"I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking
among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.
I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the pork chops?
WHat price bananas? Are you my Angel?..."
-Allen Ginsberg,
from "A Supermarket in California"
*********************************************************************
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 17:20:04 -0400
>Goshdarn, sounds like my kind of stuff. I will write it down on my little
>list. Kranky, yes, Kranky ... does someone have a discography for this
>label, or info on who runs it and what kind of cereal they have for
>breakfast? Labradford, and the little bits of Jessamine I've heard, are
>mighty fine and highly atypical of US indie music. Is Kranky the US
>equivalent of Too Pure?
I suppose the TooPure comparison may be apropos in that both labels do come
across as steadfastly iconoclastic purveyors of "hip music as we (the label)
acknowledge it". Indie as fuck, more rock than pop, just a hair inscrutable,
and whatever trend they follow is entirely their own. TooCool, if you ask
me. Not bad for a label with only seven releases to its name. Here's what
their roster consists of thus far:
Labradford
Dadamah
Dissolve
Spiny Anteaters
Jessamine
Bowery Electric
And as far as I can recall, they've only released albums, no singles. And
many of these albums are meticulously and majestically packaged. The
Jessamine album is a screaming example. I bought the LP for the packaging
and the CD for the two bonus tracks. Now there's good marketing for ya. :)
Dadamah and Dissolve are two New Zealand bands (now defunct, I believe), and
the Spiny Anteaters (what little pathetic smidgen I heard at the store)
reminded me somewhat of a very lo-fi hybrid of Pavement and Can. A number of
my Xpressway/kiwimuzik afficionado friends are pretty enthusiastic about
Dadamah. And everyone sings hosannahs about Labradford and Jessamine.
With respect to the men behind the curtains, from what I've been told, Kranky
is operated by the fellow who publishes/edits the toohip 'Your Flesh' zine
and the now-ex-head buyer at Cargo distribution. No idea what sort of
breakfast cereal they consume, but goshdarnit, I want some.
Anyway, that's enough prattle about them.
Cheers,
hk
PS. On the subject of marginally thislisty (and that's a stretch) bands,
does anyone know whatever happened with the now-defunct Dog Faced Hermans?
Are any of them still making music?
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 1995 00:08:14 +0200
>At 11:47 AM 8/26/95, [email protected] wrote:
>>Bowery Electric are a three piece based in NYC who have just released their
>>self-titled debut on Chicago's Kranky Records (the next bastion of hip)
>
>Goshdarn, sounds like my kind of stuff. I will write it down on my little
>list. Kranky, yes, Kranky ... does someone have a discography for this
>label, or info on who runs it and what kind of cereal they have for
>breakfast? Labradford, and the little bits of Jessamine I've heard, are
>mighty fine and highly atypical of US indie music. Is Kranky the US
>equivalent of Too Pure?
I don't give a flying fuck for Too Pure, but Kranky really is a great label.
In addition to Iniatialboy's posting, here's a complete discography:
KRANK 001 LABRADFORD 'Prazision' dLP/CD
KRANK 002 DADAMAH 'This Is Not A Dream' CD
KRANK 003 JESSAMINE 'Jessamine' LP/CD
KRANK 004 THE SPINY ANTEATERS 'All Is Well' LP/CD
KRANK 005 DISSOLVE 'That That Is Is Not' LP/CD
KRANK 006 LABRADFORD 'A Stable Reference' LP/CD
KRANK 007 BOWERY ELECTRIC 'Bowery Electric' CD
I don't know if there is a CD too, but note that these guys did a wonderful
self-titled double-7" on HI-FIDELITY RECORDINGS (sic).
The address:
Kranky
P.O. Box 578743
Chicago
IL 60657
Take care,
Frank
++++++++++++
[email protected]
++++++++++++
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 18:54:11 -0400
>Labradford, and the little bits of Jessamine I've heard, are
>mighty fine and highly atypical of US indie music. Is Kranky the US
>equivalent of Too Pure?
Uh, I dunno, but there's a big article in this week's Village Voice about
how "post-rock" stuff like this could be the next grunge, which is a stupid
rock-crit prediction if ever I heard one...
Larry
PS the new Labradford is much better than the first one, but that's just my
2/100ths of a $...