🚀 go-pugleaf

Love-Hounds Digest			    Sunday, January 26, 1986, 14:27

Today's Topics:

				thanks!
			HoL Singles, RUTH Lame?
			sombre reptiles (2 msgs)
		    Interview comments, poetry, etc.

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Date: Sun, 12 Jan 86 15:22:55 EST
From: hsut@purdue-ecn.ARPA (Tsun-Yuk Hsu)


	To start off the new year two weeks late, a bunch of
mini-reviews...


The Explorers	Falling for Nightlife/Crack the Whip (12" single)

	The Explorers are Andy McKay, Phil Manzanera and James
Wraith (who? --- on vocals). Nice elegant dance music in the Roxy
Music mode, but nothing terribly spectacular. Wraith really sounds
like Bryan Ferry sometimes, especially on Crack the Whip.

Tuxedomoon	Holy Wars

	This was on some Best of '85 lists, but I was very disappointed
especially after the long wait. Blaine Reininger is gone, and the
band has a more commercial sound. Some of the tracks resemble good
film music, but nothing special. Winston Tong does a good Jim 
Morrison imitation on Bonjour Tristesse, but this is overall a
lowkey, unimpressive effort despite a few interesting moments.

Sonic Youth	Bad Moon Rising

	This is the most interesting album of '85 I've heard (sorry
Kate). Love that vicious guitar sound and the wailing, distraught
vocals. A set of harrowing, unforgettable sound pictures.

Fred Frith	Gravity

	If you like Fred Frith, you'll love this collection of
fake folk music and demented arrangements of light music cliches.
Frith is almost the Residents of the guitar.

Birdsongs of the Mesozoic	Magnetic Flip

	I was disappointed not to find their cover of Sombre Reptiles
on this album (is it on the EP, Doug?) Many interesting bits
here, though I liked side two and the Rocky/Bulwinkle theme better
than side one and the Rite of Spring variations.

Eberhard Weber	Colours

	You don't really hear Weber's rich bass lines that much in
this album (there's very little that compares with his solos in
Mother Stands for Comfort, for instance). His band plays very well
though. A nice album, just not enough Eberhard Weber.

Roy Harper/Jimmy Page	Jugula+

	Good '80s folk rock with strong political lyrics. Some of
the songs are too long for what they have to say, in my opinion.
There are some great snide remarks about the British music press
on the inner sleeve.



				Bill Hsu


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Date: Sun, 12 Jan 86 21:03:53 cst
From: ihnp4!uokvax!emjej
Subject: thanks!

Many thanks, Doug, for an interesting interview...a job I
would simultaneously envy and dread.  (I dare say I would start
and end with "Duh..." shortly before melting messily on the hotel
room carpet.)
			Looking for some Powdermilk Biscuits,
			James Jones

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Date: Mon, 13 Jan 86 11:08:25 est
From: nessus (Doug Alan)
Subject: HoL Singles, RUTH Lame?


> From: Steve Tynor <gatech!gitpyr!tynor>

> I can't believe I (a fervid Kate fan) am writing this and maybe this
> is the wrong group of people to write this to, but I'm getting sick of
> RUtH.  Doug says, 'Give it a chance, it's *perfect*!'.

I never said it was perfect!  I think it is excellent, but it is far
from the best thing Kate has done.  I've said on several occasions that
I really am not so wild about the four note synth hook.  I really do
like the rhythm, however.  It has a sort of hypnotic throbbing drone
that is similar in some ways to the effect of the rhythm in the song
"The Dreaming".

> Well, after repeated listening (both at home and on the radio), I have
> the same impression that I started with.  It's a lame song.  It's just
> too repetative.

I think you're just reacting this way because it's popular.  I don't see
how you can say that it's any more repetative than much of the stuff
she's done.  Repetition done properly is a very important tool in music.
Listen again to "Leave It Open" or "Pull Out The Pin".

> (Even the video (the one with Kate and friend dancing) is repetative!
> How many times do they repeat the stunt where he holds her in his
> arms, she throws her legs up over and behind his back...  It's a neat
> effect, just as certain aspects of the song are neat.

Boo!  Hiss!  I just don't see how you can say this!  The video for RUTH
is the best video I've ever seen.  It's perfect.  (All her other videos
are flawed in some way or another).  I never noticed any excessive
repetition in the video -- the move you mentioned is perhaps done twice?
And the dance is just so beautiful, and there are so many subtle things
going on:  There is symbolic crucification.  Kate and the male dancer
switch places several times.  There a visual argument.  There is the
imagery of Kate being trapped within herself.  It's wonderful!

> There are other, more interesting songs suitable for singles on the album.
> (Big Sky (tho not *much* better), Cloudbusting)

"The Big Sky" not much better than "lame"?  Urrgh!  "The Big Sky" just
keeps growing on me.  It is really a masterpiece.  I sure hope that it
is released as a single.  It would really show the charts what great
music is.  And it probably even has a chance of being pretty successful.

"Cloudbusting" was the second single in England, but it wasn't
exceptionally successful (it only made it up to 20), so it's unlikely
that it will be released as a single here.

Unfortunately, the least imaginative song on the album, the title song,
is definitely the next single in both the U.S. and in England.  It has
already been released as a DJ only promo single in the U.S.  (And has
been being played in very heavy rotation on WFNX.)  Kate is currently
working on the video for it.

> Though I can't confirm it (I'm not near my stereo right now), I
> believe the drum pattern used in RUtH is identical to that used by the
> Beatles in 'Baby You're a Rich Man'.  Can anyone confirm?

What???  It's not even close!

			"This cloud, this cloud says
			 'Noah, c'mon and build me an ark'"

			 Doug

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Date: Mon, 13 Jan 86 13:23:08 est
From: Tim Wicinski <wicinski@nrl-css.arpa>
Subject: sombre reptiles


Bill,  The only place I have seen the Birdsong's version of Sombre Reptiles
is on the 'Arf Arf Compilation' on (I believe) arf arf records.  
It features many Boston and Mass. bands, including the Pink Negroes.  
>From what I remember hearing, it's not a bad compilation, though I would
probably tape it anyway.   The Birdsong's version of Sombre Reptiles
pays great tribute to Eno's original piece while not copying it note 
for note. 

"Music is the cup that holds the wine of silence,
 Sound is the cup, but empty,
 Noise is the cup, broken."     -Robert Fripp

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Date: Sun, 12 Jan 86 22:28:56 PST
From: David Fetrow <ihnp4!uw-beaver!entropy!fetrow>
Posted-Date: Sun, 12 Jan 86 22:28:56 PST



 Thanks for putting the interview up! Especial thanks for keeping
it honest; most interviews read nothing like they sounded; yours
read "real".

 On "Waking the Witch" my recording (which was in the tape machine
at work while reading this) it is definitely: "Bless me father, Bless
me father for I have sinned --- UH". However it also sounds a bit
spliced up, so maybe that wasn't the original.

 Yes! I expect most of us would like to see some of Paddy Bush's
poetry but please check to make sure he knows it will be spread
around, copyright, etc. I have a few poet friends who write great
stuff but I can't share it with the net because that's the way they
want it. Speaking of which, is the Kate Interview non-distributable
or distributeable if your name is on it or what? It is, after all,
your property.

  -Dave
   ihnp4!uw-beaver!entropy!fetrow


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Date: Mon, 13 Jan 86 17:26:51 est
From: nessus (Doug Alan)
Subject: Re:  sombre reptiles

> [Tim:] Bill, The only place I have seen the Birdsong's version of
> Sombre Reptiles is on the 'Arf Arf Compilation' on (I believe) arf arf
> records.

Yeah, this is what it is on.

> It features many Boston and Mass. bands, including the Pink
> Negroes.

Actually, most of the bands aren't really real.  They are one-shot
bands put together by Eric Lindgren to do one song.  Birdsongs is an
exception.  Most of Eric Lindgren's solo stuff goes under the name
"Space Negroes".  I have his Space Negroes business card.  "The Space
Negroes -- 'Abstract Go-Go-ists -- Weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, Funerals".

> From what I remember hearing, it's not a bad compilation,
> though I would probably tape it anyway.

It's completely wonderful!  Buy it!

> The Birdsong's version of Sombre Reptiles pays great tribute to Eno's
> original piece while not copying it note for note.

Their version is just so good that I'm left

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Date: Tue, 14 Jan 86 08:34:45 est
From: nessus (Doug Alan)
Subject: Interview comments, poetry, etc.

> [James Jones:] Many thanks, Doug, for an interesting interview...

Hey, any time!  My pleasure.

> a job I would simultaneously envy and dread.  (I dare say I would
> start and end with "Duh..." shortly before melting messily on the
> hotel room carpet.)

Well, fortunately I had all my questions written out on 42 neat little
index cards (of which I made it through 13 or so).  Otherwise, I would
have just sat there with a glazed look on my face, or something.  I
wasted five or ten minutes before I remembered that I was supposed to be
doing an interview and started to record, being nervous and acting
neurotic...  (And wondering why her make-up looked so strange...  But
then when I went to England, many of the women were wearing the same
strange style of make-up...  And I went into a store, yesterday, and the
cashier was wearing that same unusual style of make-up -- and guess
what?  She had a British accent.)

> [Dave Fetrow:] Thanks for putting the interview up! Especial thanks
> for keeping it honest; most interviews read nothing like they sounded;
> yours read "real".

How do you know it didn't in actuality sound totally unreal, and I
doctored it up to sound real?  Just a thought....

> Yes! I expect most of us would like to see some of Paddy Bush's poetry
> but please check to make sure he knows it will be spread around,
> copyright, etc.

Actually, it's John Bush's poetry.  He's a published poet, so I imagine
he's not too shy about it.

Oh, you know there's a KB biog that has in it poetry Kate wrote while
still in school for the school journal.  Anyone want to see that?

> Speaking of which, is the Kate Interview non-distributable or
> distributeable if your name is on it or what? It is, after all, your
> property.

Yeah, sure.  Just don't sell it for profit, or anything.

			"Oh England my lionheart
			 I don't want to go"

			 Doug

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-- 
It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under.

Greg Skinner (gregbo)
{decvax!genrad, allegra, ihnp4}!mit-eddie!gds
gds@mit-eddie.mit.edu