Subject: 1996 Review (long)
Subject: Shoegazing 102.
Subject: Non-4AD HMIA (his marsupial is alive)
Subject: new releases
Subject: The 17 Year Itch (CAD-JADulations!!!)
Subject: The 17 Year Itch (CAD-JADulations!!)
Subject: Re: The 17 Year Itch (CAD-JADulations!!)
Subject: a Wiener Schnitzel made of Spam
Subject: Re: BIBLIOPHILE KOSTBARKEITEN
Subject: Re: Counting Crowes
Subject: Re: 4AD-L Digest - 30 Dec 1996 to 31 Dec 1996
Subject: Re: 4ad bands
Subject: The Site
Subject: Re: Brandon Capps+Scenic/Varnaline
Subject: Re: Counting Crowes
Subject: 10" long and damn proud...
Subject: Re: a Wiener Schnitzel made of Spam
Subject: Re: Elysian Fields [Brandon Capps+Scenic/Varnaline]
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 16:23:14 +0000
G'day,
My summation of the music of 1996 (all IMHO):
In general, 1996 was a year of disappointment. Many of my favourite bands
and artists just didn't come up with the goods, quality-wise. This is not
altogether a bad thing - it has led to a re-evaluation of which music gets
my hard-earned $$$, and thus allowed me to discover other, exciting music.
The despair over the stagnation of one artist leads to the joy of finding
another fulfilling their creative potential.
I will start with what I thought were the best releases of the year, and
some which should have been good, but were not. I'll only include two that I
thought stank. Rememeber that the following are just my humble opinions, so
please keep any flaming private, rather than to the list(s) in general.
*** Good Stuff, Gimme All Your Good Stuff ***
1. Orbital -"In Sides"
What can I say? The brothers Hartnoll put out their best effort yet.
Beautiful melody lines and dark & rumbling bass. An album full of cinematic
soundscapes and lush production. Make sure that you get the American
version, which includes the full 28-minute version of "The Box" on a bonus
disc. Can't wait for the live 'Satan' EP's.
2. Underworld - "Second Toughest In The Infants"
Only just pipped by Orbital, due to the Hartnoll's superior production
quality. Underworld are experiencing some well-deserved fame at the moment,
thanks to 'Born Slippy' - watch for the backlash to begin. This album opens
with the towering 'Juanita/Kiteless/To Dream of Love', and proceeds on an
eclectic path that includes jungle ('Banstyle'), techno ('Rowla'), blues
guitar loops ('Blueski') and the mighty 'Pearl's Girl'.
3. Stereolab - "Emporer Tomato Ketchup" - futuristic retro at its best.
4. Paradise Motel - "Still Life" - New Oz band. Think Bad Seeds meets Twin
Peaks.
5. Future Sound Of London - "Dead Cities" - Dougans & Cobain explore the
darker side of ambient. Love the flutey bits on 'My Kingdom'.
6. Red House Painters - "Songs For a Blue Guitar" - Mark Kozelek sings of
pain (again), practises his 5-minute guitar solos, and even manages to cover
both McCartney ('Silly Love Songs') and Yes ('Long Distance Runaround').
Better than expected, some wonderful meloncholia, and beautful guitar work.
Tip for other bands: just follow Mr K's guitar histrionics on the 12-minute
'Make Like Paper' if you want to get dropped from your label.
7. Crowded House - "Recurring Dream" - It may be a compilation, but it still
stands head & shoulders above a lot of contemporary releases. No one writes
a better tune than Neil Finn. The break-up of this band was sad, but what a
body of work they left behind, as evidenced by this essential compilation.
8. "Wipeout 2097" game soundtrack - Jam packed with fast & furious beats all
the way through, with FSOL/Fluke/Chemical Brothers/Underworld/Leftfield.
Will leave you bruised and scarred, but wanting more.
9. Rachel's - "The Sea and The Bells" - avant garde chamber music that
demands high rotation.
*** Disappointed A Few People ***
Pet Shop Boys - "Bilingual" - In all fairness, this isn't a bad record. It's
just that the Boys are capable of *much* better - witness the excellent
B-sides to the latest singles. The PSB still have that creative spark, and
will surely put out a killer next time (for I love them dearly).
Tori Amos - "Boys For Pele" - Tori has a beautiful voice, and a piano
playing style to kill for. On "Boys For Pele", she manages to hide both.
Lotsa half-whispers, cracked words, banging harpsichords, ridiculous lyrics.
I hope that this album was some sort of cathartic moment that allowed Ms A
to shed some demons, and that the next release will allow the actual to
match the possible.
Beloved - "X" - 1990's 'Happiness' was one of my favourites of that year,
full of bright melodies and Jon Marsh's sultry vocals. But like the Pet Shop
Boys above, this release just didn't seem to fulfill its expectation. Jon
Marsh has written some of the best tunes of the last ten years ('The Sun
Rising', 'Time After Time'), and this album has its fair share of the great
('Deliver Me'), but it fails to rise beyond its standard 4-to-the-floor
house sound. Hopefully better is to come (for I treasure The Beloved as well).
R.E.M. - "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" - It may only be a curio of life on the
road and studio out-takes, but Stipe and his band of merry men have produced
consistently great music since the 80's. This should have been better. At
least they have their mega-dollar recording deal to comfort them, for I
nearly put them into the batch below....
*** It's All Over Now ***
Cure - "Wild Mood Swings" - in which Cuddly Bob & Co become hapless water
buffaloes, stuck in the mud of mediocrity. Dull, soulless pastiche of their
former glory days.
Cocteau Twins - "Milk and Kisses" - ditto.
My humble opinions for the year just gone. Let's hope that 1997 promises a
cornucopia of musical delights.
Cheers,
Geoff
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 02:01:29 -0500
> Shoegazing (is that chewing gum I see? ;-).... now drone & blisspop...
>
> Geez, now I'm really confused!
>
> Carol
allright, well...we've established that Martin Denny is *not* shoegazing :)
Other than that, we see it coming from two different roads that are parallel,
yet still distinctly two avenues at different speeds - the first being the
Spacemen 3 flaking into the coffee of these other so called "shoegazing"
bands (slowdive, *RIDE*, early Lush) and the second citing Sonic Youth and
their '87 release _Bad Moon Rising_ as a spawning ground for tomorrow's
guitar effect heavy kids. non-relelvant but I found Sonic Youth through
_Evol_, then _sister_, then _goo_, then _daydream_ etc. point? I still
don't have _bad moon rising_.
...and there are surely other roads that we haven't discussed, for example
those who grew up on Joy Division, found GWAR, insisted that Black Tape for a
Blue Girl was pure evil, switched gears to Poison, discovered campiness and
kitsch, relished in Stereolab (all the while *still* listening to Abba and
adorning their walls with pictures of Bjorn and Frieda) and then decided they
would do nothing like that at all - and went forward with the critical and
identifiable pigeonholing description of shoegazing.
Now we're assuming that bands that are somewhat drone oriented are carrying
on what is considered shoegazing, because there is somewhat of a lack of
'traditional' shoegazing :) in the works today.
jason
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 02:01:23 -0500
> I'm listening to HMIA-King of Sweet now, and wondering if there are
> any other non 4AD releases from HMIA? I heard from an unrealible sorce
> once, that they had a few other 7" singles on a another lable. Is this
> true?
We are even less reliable, but will lend what we do know :)
--There was the 7" on Shaolin Temple this past spring entitled "melody farm"
which was for lack of a better description a possible outtake of _king of
sweet_. It was a split single with little princess btw.
--They also had the WB soil samples 7" featuring "Darling" from '93 and the
last I checked is still available in some parts of the world in exchange for
a kidney or a small skin graft :)
--4AD put out a 7" in '91 as a pre-release for _Livonia_ that had "if
july"/"how ghosts affect relationships" that are both on _Livonia_.
--The flexi from Warped Reality from earlier this year (which is available
from listy Susan assuming that she is still here) which is a split with
Prolapse.
There is also Warren's Time Stereo tape only label, which has served as the
creative outlet of the uncountable Defever side projects as well as a few
HNIA releases present (live in mexico) and future (the supposed live sets -
any word on those? anyone?).
There's tons more loosely related HNIA stuff out there, but that typing
venture would give me carpal tunnel - and that's just not good no matter
which angle you look at it.
jason
[email protected]
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 04:08:06 EST
To whom it may concern,
I don't know if this has already been made public, but here's the 4AD release
schedule for the first few months of 1997. All dates refer to the UK and the
rest of Europe:
TAD 7000 TARNATION You Will Understand 7" only
(no, that's no typo; the number really is '7000')
Release Date: 17.01.1997
ADD 7001 TARNATION Your Thoughts 7"/CD single
(can't find the release date)
BAD 7002 GUS GUS Believe 12"/2 x CD singles
Release Date: 07.02.1997
CAD 7003 MICHAEL BROOK Albino Alligator LP/CD
Release Date: 21.02.1997
CAD 7004 TARNATION Mirador LP/CD
Release Date: 04.04.1997
DAD 7005 GUS GUS Polydistortion Double-LP/CD
Release Date: 21.03.1997
BAD 7006CD SCHEER Demon CD single only
Release Date: 24.01.1997
Happy New Year,
Ralf
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 05:12:12 -0500
Seventeen...
Happy Birthday to 4AD, which turns 17 this month. After another
eclectic year, I'm solidly awaiting 4AD's 1997 line up of releases. We
find on February 21th Michael Brook's "Albino Alligator" soundtrack is
released. There's a new EP ("Believe") from GusGus on February 7th and
Tarnation's second album for 4AD hits stores April 4th. Look for a
special 7"-only from Tarnation soon with an unusual catalogue number and
a second, wider released EP too! scheer are back with a ew EP this
month, the aptly titled "Polydistortion" - the new album from GusGus is
out March 21st, His Name Is Alive are touring up and down the US west
coast, the "Death To The Pixies" comp is finally being readied for
release soon, Tanya Donelly's album is out in June probably and this
covers only highlights of the first six or so months of the year!! So,
all you believers out there, I hope you're as excited about this year's
4AD model as I am...
Happy Birthday 4AD!!!
Jeff Keibel
Scarborough, ON
Canada
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 05:15:22 -0500
Seventeen...
Happy Birthday to 4AD, which turns 17 this month. After another
eclectic year, I'm solidly awaiting 4AD's 1997 line up of releases. We
find on February 21th Michael Brook's "Albino Alligator" soundtrack is
released. There's a new EP ("Believe") from GusGus on February 7th and
Tarnation's second album for 4AD hits stores April 4th. Look for a
special 7"-only from Tarnation soon with an unusual catalogue number and
a second, wider released EP too! scheer are back with a ew EP this
month, the aptly titled "Polydistortion" - the new album from GusGus is
out March 21st, His Name Is Alive are touring up and down the U.S. west
coast, the "Death To The Pixies" comp is finally being readied for
release soon, Tanya Donelly's album is out in June probably and this
covers only highlights of the first six or so months of the year!! So,
all you believers out there, I hope you're as excited about this year's
4AD model as I am...
Happy Birthday 4AD!!!
Jeff Keibel
Scarborough, ON
Canada
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 06:09:15 -0500
when will hnia be touring? all i've heard about were the dates they did
opening for RHP, on the east coast...
*k*
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 06:18:22 -0500
> On Wed, 1 Jan 1997, Greyson Welch wrote:
>> SHITE YOUR POSTING A MESSAGE IN GERMAN. NOT EVERYONE HERE CAN SPEAK
>> GERMAN.
>
>
>Greyson, you ethnocentric dweeb.... The internet does exist outside the
>borders of the US of A. People are free to speak any language they want
>on any list (as far as I am concerned), and if you don't like it then
>just ignore the posts, or remove yourself from this mailing list.
Yes, but spam is spam, whether you can read it or not. I sent them a message
telling them that 4ad-l subscribers are not interested in their books about
Ceylon [sic] and Lao [sic] etc. and asking them not to send any more stuff.
If you do speak German, go ahead and flame them (good effort, T. Weibrecht,
but they probably don't read the list).
Larry
"et maintenant que je suis mort
il n'est plus question de panique"
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 08:24:53 EST
On Wed, 1 Jan 1997 01:00:21 +0000 Greyson Welch
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 08:57:25 -0500
On Mon, 23 Dec 1996, white schfuf wrote:
> > Which Nicole Kidman movie features a song from The Wolfgang
> >Press??
>
> Umm...is it "To Die For"?
>
> Which Robert De Niro movie features a track by Michael Brook (as well as
> Moby massacring a Joy Division song)?
>
I belive that would be "Heat"
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 11:13:44 EST
On Thu, 2 Jan 1997 11:58:55 +1100 Matthew Kirkcaldie
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 11:13:44 EST
On Wed, 1 Jan 1997 18:15:24 -0500 My Razorblade Suitcase weighs Sixteen
Stone
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 12:30:33 -0500
Hey, don't know if anyone else has mentioned this, but what happened to
"The Site" being re-launched on Jan 1st 1997? It don't look like anything's
changed to me...
Andie
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 13:11:31 -0500
I was reading this month's ish of CMJ and
in an article on Scenic (Aquatica, etc) there
was mention of a sometimes member who
plays with them named Brandon Capps.
Brandon (if its you) cool gig man, how are they?
Also somebody clue me into where I can
get a hold of some Varnaline and Elysian
Fields stuff. Any mail-order info? Anyone?
Steven
**************************************
Steven Venn, bfa, Graphic Designer
Dalmatian Design Communications
139 Golfclub Court, Richmond Hill,
Ontario, CANADA L4C 5E1
(905) 884-2601
"Listen pal, you can't waltz in here, use my toaster
and start spouting universal truths without qualification"
- Jude from Hal Hartley's "Surviving Desire"
"Would you leave the lights alone please.
Stop messing with the f**kin' lights"
-Future Sound of London on "ISDN"
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 12:51:03 -0500
Which Nicole Kidman movie features a song from The Wolfgang Press??
> Umm...is it "To Die For"?
Actually, it's "Malice". Bill Pulman and Nicole are trying to get to
sleep but the guy who rents the upstairs room (Alec Baldwin) is using
TWP for mood music during his favorite nocturmal activity. The director
even went behind Nicole's back literaly and used a long 30 second shot
of her uh... lower back area.
"Iceblink Luck" was used to decent effect in "Mad Dog & Glory", starring
Robert DeNiro, Uma Thurman and Bill Murray.
I was in a pub/restaurant on New Year's Eve where the canned music tapes
actually featured "500"! Totally blew me away to heat Lush inbetween
Steve Winwood circa late 70's and a Simply Red "effort".
Jeff Keibel
Next to Pickering, ON
Canada
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 15:09:23 -0500
Yeah, whatever happened to 4AD's limited 10" series. Did it go by the
wayside like Jive Bombers and the TWP remix album?
Keff