Re: Dixie Chicks Article in Dallas Observer
Jon W. wrote; he's just a flat out liar, as anyone who's read, for instance, the current Country Music magazine piece on the Chicks (a full page on the band's history - with quotes about it from Seidel - including a their first three album titles, with combined sales figures) can attest. A mean-spirited, chuckle-headed, lying asshole. PFlash wrote; geez, but how do you really feelwhat's up with such completely "mean-spirited" attacks on critics that for some reason are not liked what a waste of time... Well, it's not a waste of time IMHO when the points Jon and Cheryl and others on this list have been making about the chronic historical, logical, and cultural fallacies too many pop writers engage in when they attempt to write about country and bluegrass all come home to roost so malevolently in the space of one (or I guess two) pieces. Those two pieces were so chock-full of erroneous info, barely-hidden class-contempt and generalized bullshit they stand as their own refutations to anyone with enough sense to know better. Hell, I don't like Natalie Maines either, also think that the Chicks looked silly in their Grammy outfits (as most folks do) and am not a big fan of their music in general, but reading those 2 pieces of sickeningly self-referential "typing" had my jaw on the floor damn-near, and I've been reading Wilonsky's dreck for a long time now (and can take whatever worthless credit due for warning this list about him probably 2 years ago-he's an absolute charlatan of the highest order.) My big fear is that there's a pretty good sense of how revolting that sort of "journalism" is here with many of the writers who hang out on P2, but not much if any awareness at all in the larger world of pop ink-stainers. Frankly, I think it's high time someone did a generalized yet lengthy piece in No Depression or Country Standard Time on "How Not To Write Country Music" or "20 Biggest Mistakes Most Pop Writers Make re Country Music" (or whatever the hell Cheryl's list is titled g). Hell, even the next time the Oxford American does their Southern Music Issue-in fact *that* would be the ideal venue for it probably, and I can think of at least few suspects hereabouts who could probably do a decent job on it. I'm sorry, but it is high time that pop and rock writers got taken to the stocks and read the riot act over this in some sort of public forum. offtabed, dan bentele "They wanted it so bad that they forged ahead, playing every gig like a showcase and proving again and again that there's nothing less attractive than unrequited ambition with a banjo backing." (Michael Corcoran) "There was just something endearing about women honoring Patsy Montana and Bill Monroe like anyone still gave a damn." (Robert Wilonsky)
Re: pumpskully
In a message dated 4/23/99 3:27:27 PM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: You know, I really don't have a damned thing to add as I've yet to see or hear Pumpskully, but I did want to welcome "meggs", is it (?) to the list, and congratulate her on having maybe the most badass "soul-foodish" Internet handle I've ever seen. I mean Cheese Grits are just way up there on the high holy list of all things soul, right up there next to scrapple, chili, chicken-fried steak, cornbread, etc. etc. Damn I love cheese grits. signing off before another food thread arises like a tsunamig dan grits
Re: Artist of the Decade?
JP wrote; The lineups for those silly concerts are filled with white altern-acts because those people are the Beasties social peers. If the band hung out with The Roots or Mystikal, don't you think that's who'd be playing the show? Not to take issue with JP's main point about the Beasties not having much influence w/in 90's black music, but to be fair to their booking policy for the Tibetan Freedom Concerts, I do know-just from looking at my TFC CD I have that they have had a fair share of black hip-hop artists on the bill. To wit; A Tribe Called Quest, KRS-1, Biz Markie, Lee Perry and Mad Professor and Robotiks band, De La Soul, The Fugees, Ben Harper are all on the TFC 3-CD release from the '97 concert. Inside the booklet is a "Free-Tibet" rap written by Chuck D. as well, (who I'm also pretty sure has played at least one of the TFC's as well.) I do think Neal has a pretty valid point about how powerful the Beasties' influence has been in breaking various elements of hip-hop culture into the white middle-class, their whole Grand Royal label-'zine-clothing mini-empire is pretty good testament to that. But I'd also say that the Beasties have been as much a rock as a rap act in this decade MC Dan Bentele
Alan Jackson Everything I Love press kit fer free...
hey kids; Got an Alan Jackson "Everything I Love" press kit that I'm either gonna throw away (you know, glossy pic, weasel literature, etc. etc. in a nice folder) unless someone wants it. First come first serve... dan bentele
Moby Grape's Skip Spence Dies at 52
(from Wall Of Sound www site) April 16, 1999 Moby Grape's Skip Spence Dies at 52 Alexander "Skip" Spence, the musician whose heralded but troubled career included stints as the original drummer in the Jefferson Airplane and as founding rhythm guitarist for the acclaimed '60s band Moby Grape, died today in a hospital in Northern California. He entered the facility on April 5 with pneumonia, and his condition quickly grew worse. One of the many gifted musicians to emerge from the San Francisco scene in the late '60s, Spence was also an influential songwriter who, in addition to penning several songs for the aforementioned bands, released a solo album in 1969, Oar, which is regarded as an underground classic today. Sadly, not long after the album appeared, Spence was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, and subsequent years saw him spending a large portion of his life in residential-care facilities. At the time of his death, he was residing in a mobile home near Santa Cruz, where he lived on a subsistence income. Ironically, Spence's death comes at a time when a resurgence of interest in his work is occurring. In May, Birdman Records will release a tribute album featuring a number of Spence devotees among them Robert Plant, Beck, Tom Waits, and Robyn Hitchcock performing their versions of songs from Oar. Titled More Oar: A Tribute to Alexander "Skip" Spence, the CD is the brainchild of Reprise VP of Media Relations Bill Bentley, who was motivated by the desire to both raise money for Spence and to bring attention to what he considers a visionary work. Asked to comment on Spence's death, Bentley told Wall of Sound: "Skip Spence has always been a free spirit, and now his spirit is free. With all his medical problems, I don't think he would have wanted to be a prisoner of the medical profession. No one rocked and rolled more than Spence. His solo album, Oar, defined all the possibilities of what one man and his imagination could do. And with everything he did the Jefferson Airplane's first album, the Moby Grape, Oar, and beyond he leaves a legacy that will live forever." In June, following Birdman's release of the tribute CD, Sundazed Records will issue The Complete Oar Sessions, an expanded version of Spence's solo album, which adds five bonus tracks to the original set. A trust fund has been established to assist Spence's family with the late musician's medical bills. Anyone wishing to contribute may send a (non-deductible) donation to: Comerica Bank, CA, Attn: Marilyn Guzman, 1960 41st Avenue, Capitola, CA 95010. Checks should be made payable to: I.T.F. Alexander Lee "Skip" Spence. Russell Hall
Re: Cool stuff on TV.....
Stuart wrote; Dan posted a bunch of upcoming TV stuff, but omitted Mandy Barnett's appearance on Letterman tonight (Wednesday). Well, that's cause Yates was so high on that record. You gotta consider the source, sometimes. dan bentele
(Re: MIKE NESS)
a legend in his own hoops mind wrote; Between Heaven and Hell and the self-titled record with the Ring of Fire cover (I think it's a cover, but I don't know whose song it is, any help? g) I saw that, Purcell. Dylan, Jason Dingleberg, Mike Ness..don't know 'em, not worried. If they're not from Clinch Mountain, they're just pretenders...g cheers, dan stanley
Ralph Stanley on TNN
This actually just happened, one of those "Life and Times" deals, and I'm sorry I didn't check the dang Rockontv.com site and memo P2 on it (i missed the first 15 minutes of it myself). As is typical with those damn pseudo-documentaries, there was far too much damned talking and far too little actual showing of just why these folks are so special (that is, the narration was nonstop, even over Ralph and Co. singing short but stellar accapella gospel numbers-ack!). Anyway, quick question; at one point in the show Marty Stuart said something about neither of the Stanley Bros being in the Country Music Hall of Fame (or the Songwriters Hall of Fame)? True? Hope not. If so, Weisberger, you got work to dog Dan Stanley, the no-good, no-talent Clinch Mountain Boy.. p.s. oh, and check out this killer quote from the show g; "To be honest with you...Dad didn't even really know who he was." (Ralph Stanley II, re his dad's duet with Bob Dylan)
Re: MIKE NESS
Haven't heard this yet myself, but last night on MTV120 Nessie did a song called "Don't Think Twice It's Alright". This is a cover-ain't it? If anyone can fill me as to who it's by that'd be great. dan, pretty sure he's exposing once again a huge amount of ignorance.
Re: MIKE NESS
answering my own post, I write; Haven't heard this yet myself, but last night on MTV120 Nessie did a song called "Don't Think Twice It's Alright". This is a cover-ain't it? Yeah, it sure is, you idiot. Dylan, off of "Freewheelin'". Hey, Ralph didn't know who he was eitherG just ignore me, dan bentele
Cool stuff on TV.....
all times Eastern; wed 8:00 pm TNN Century Of Country: Bluegrass And Western Swing this 13-part documentary series is a tribute to a Century of Country music; explores the distinctive varieties of country music found is bluegrass and western swing; features Ricky Skaggs, Del Mccoury Band, Chris Thile, Nickel Creek, Bill Monroe, Monroe Brothers, Pete Seeger, Rainbow Quest, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs 10:00 pm BRV Profiles: Naked Nashville "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" - Part two of a three-part profile chronicles the current country music trend of marketing bland pop confections by tracing the careers of two Nashville up-and-comers -- the gritty, hard-living Dale Watson and aspiring singer-songwriter Keith Harling; includes interviews with Willie Nelson, Tim McGraw and MCA Nashville president Tony Brown thurs 3:00 pm BRV Profiles: Naked Nashville "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" - Part two of a three-part profile chronicles the current country music trend of marketing bland pop confections by tracing the careers of two Nashville up-and-comers -- the gritty, hard-living Dale Watson and aspiring singer-songwriter Keith Harling; includes interviews with Willie Nelson, Tim McGraw and MCA Nashville president Tony Brown 9:00 pm ABC The Drew Carey Show Drew and the guys decide to resurrect their high school band in an attempt to win a "Battle of the Bands" contest at the Warsaw. But their road to rock and roll stardom is hampered by their lead singer (who can't sing) and competition from the same band who used to make them miserable in school, The Undesirables (played by the psychobilly band, The Reverend Horton Heat (rerun) Profiles: Naked Nashville "Hillbilly Hollywood" - Everyone in Nashville writes songs and the final episode of this exclusive, three-part profile tries to uncover the secrets of songwriting success by talking with country music's reigning king, Harlan Howard, and rising star Matraca Berg; includes interviews with Kris Kristofferson, The Lynns (Peggy and Patsy Lynn) and Tony Brown 12:35 am NBC Conan O'Brien musical guest: Latin Playboys sat 5:00 pm TLC Rock N' Roll Moments Rare footage of legendary performers, including Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Roy Orbison and Aretha Franklin sun 8:00 pm TNT All-Star Tribute to Johnny Cash A musical tribute to Johnny Cash, including performances by Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, Brooks Dunn, June Carter Cash, Sheryl Crow, Chris Isaak, Wyclef Jean, Dave Matthews, Marty Stuart, Rosanne Cash, Bruce Springsteen, U2 and Trisha Yearwood (there's also a bunch of great Stones and Burritos stuff on Sundance and MuchUSA, but I don't know anyone who has those channels dagnabbit...) danTV
Re: Just back from 2 weeks in America...(long)
limey Louise writes; On Thursday we gigged at an empty La Zona Rosa (well nearly empty) The publicity was non existent and nobody new us. Yeah, it's not a big college town anyway. Our first night in Nashville wasn't so good (ahem). We weren't sure where to go to eat, and ended up in a place called Hooters (oh dear - naive English tourists g) Er, ahsorry about that, Louise g. You guys have killer pubs like Bag O' Nails and Fox and Hounds and we yanks have nifty places like...Hooter's. Impressive. great post! dan
Re: Best So Far - 99
Carl asked about this band; Or I could have them confused with Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her. ...and yeah, there was a band from (Japan, I think?), at SXSW with that name. I almost skipped a bunch of shows I wanted to go to and went to "SSKHKH" out of massive curiosity but didn't. So, they're named after an XTC song??? dan n.p. Sparkle Horse Kiss Her Kiss Her
Re: Masochism, Part II
Maybe a motto for next year's P2 Tshirt would be "Screw You, Christgau," or some witty equivalent. Oh, that is brilliant, Junior. On the other side of the shirt-or perhaps on some other form of merch, we should have a clip of some just bizarro over-written snip of Greil's as well, hopefully as old and weird and negative toward some twang idol as possible. I'm serious, let's do it! dan
Re: tv
is this really Fear of Pop with Ben Folds Five AND William Shatner? Oh yeah, I saw this about 4-5 months ago, and like Tom said, it is NOT to be missed. ...thinking this is another sign of the Armageddon Well it's gonna be one helluva an interesting Armageddon then...g "Spock! To the starbridge!" (or whatever Trekkies say to each other...) dan bentele, not a trekkie
Re: Going, going, gone
Well I, for one, will really miss your sorry ass. Remember to duck, and that we love ya man. dan bentele == == "There is only the Twang. The Twang shall set you free." (Jeff Wall) "Us Americans didn't climb to the top of the world's food chain to eat tofu, be sensitive, or drive tiny ass foreign clown cars." (Jeff Wall, 1999)
Re: Steve Earle and Del McCoury Band over America
KC Bill wrote; We (Jack Copeland, Nancy Copeland and Cathy Weigel) started out in the back of the really packed (though not sold out) venue, so the sound had to compete with the conversations around us, but this may have still been the worst overall sound I've heard in ages. Crap...I went tonight here in StL. It was horrid. Miss. Nights, rock venue. People would not shut up. I was halfway back or so, people would not shut up. I'm honestly gonna write a letter of apology to the McCourys and Earle, it was that bad. After the Buckner debacle last month I feel like a broken record. Hope if Kip or John or Jim Nelson or any other locals were there you were up really close. Steve tried to tactfully (well, tactfully for Steve (g) chide folks into maybe actually listening, but to no avail... I mean I felt like an asshole for even being there, and I apologize to all the musicians on stage because what I could hear was great. dan, pissed. sorry for even throwing this one up here.
anyone have Chris Whitley updates??/
I know he's on tour right now, is he still doing the solo-acoustic thing? (hope so, personally g). How are the shows? Please let me know if possible... thx, dan [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: boot me baby, but don't sell it
Larry wrote; (And after years of not participating in discussions because of the digest factor, and having posts ignored, it's an honor to be debated by Joe Gracey. And I'm not being facetious.) I don't have anything to add to the main point of this thread, but I do want to say to Larry (and others) that as a former digester/lurker/and someone who pretty much thought the few posts he ever did send thru were ignored (hell, they probably still are g), I can relate. But fwiw, I've always read your posts and gotten a lot out of them. I try to often drop an off-list note to tell folks when one of their posts strikes home for whatever reason, but don't always do it, for sure. All I'm trying to say is that just because you don't see a response to a post doesn't mean it didn't receive careful consideration. For what that's worth. dan
Re: Clip-Wacos Saturday night
No jaded hipsters standing 20 feet back Bullshit. Me and Bill were right about 20 feet back looking tres jaded and hip! And Yates was off to one side doing his part also. Damn reporters... Where was that clip from anyway Bill? More questions exposing my profound ignorance; besides "Wreck On The Highway", Wacos did what I'm pretty sure was another old cover titled "In Harm's Way", or something. Who wrote and made those songs big the first time around? Dan Bentele (who does know the author and performer of "Baba O'Riley", the song they closed with...g)
Re: Clip-Wacos Saturday night
hipster Bill rapped; Dan was so overcome in the mass hysteria he bailed on me, right after I bought him a Bud, the national beverage of St. Louis. That's mother's milk quality musta put Dan to sleep. g That was part of it, but I think it was Neko Case's nearly hip-high slit skirt that had rendered me in such a weakened state. Hit with that and Lankford's sonic assault left we a weakened hipster. have your way with me Neko, have your way! dan
Re: SXSW MOVIES of interest here
So Barry, what movie stahs did you see??? Was McConaughey (sp?) there for the EdTV thing? What about Elizabeth Hurley? Jenna Elfman? Did you invite any of them to Twangfest??? I need responses on this! dominick dan
Re: P2 Thanks and SXSW Highlights
-.) Calexico and Calexico with Richard Buckner . . . the coolest indie-grooves I have heard in a long time. I love that band . .. and hearing Richard sing Tom Petty's 'The Waiting' with them was a joy . . . "Yeah I chased a couple women around a-all it ever got me was down . . ." Oh man, speakin'a sticking a knife in and twisting itjust slay me why don't you. And to think I was talking to him an hour or so before that and he didn't tell me anything about that happening. Bastard...(;-)) I am sure there was more. But Shaver rules . . . let it be known. Indeed, and tho you mentioned him, his son's name is Eddie. If I was a solo artists looking for a hot ax to grace my next record I'd go directly there. Whatta player. (and Jim I'm sorry I missed your shows down there-I promise ya I'll make up fer that...) dan shaver
Re: majordomo/listproc change in P2?
arted going into my inbox instead of the correct folder for that list... I split based on the contents of the Sender field, which just changed from POSTCARD2-owner@ to owner-postcard2@.. Man, I wondered if I was the only person who noticed that or if I was going crazy, thinking "I know something looks different on that header but I dunno what"... Oh well, Yates probably screwed it up. And where is HE, anyway??? dan
Danlee2's SXSW '99
Holy shit, I got mentioned in a Marie Arsenault post...my life is over! g Man...whatta time. Despite all concerns voiced hereabouts (and internally-I hadn't been back to SXSW since '91), it was very worth the trip. Warning; this is a long, sickeningly self-indulgent post. I just hope it's kind of something folks who didn't get to go would want to read. To help in the deletion/skimming decision g, a quick run down of the contents w/in; Thursday nite: Eaglesmith-Buckner/ Jon Dee Graham-Billy Joe Shaver. Friday; Bloodshot Party (Waco Brothers)/ Those Bastard Souls-Grandaddy-Mercury Rev-Sparklehorse-Flaming Lips/ P2 after party. Saturday; ND-Miles of Music Broken Spoke Party/ Gourds Guided By Voices@Waterloo Park/ Bloodshot Showcase w/ Trailer Bride-The Blacks-Neko Case-Grievous Angels-Waco Brothers also; funny quotes throughout, food reviews (very short g), adjective "cool" typed many times, no charge, etc. etc. etc..(;-)) Thursday; Got in Friday 7:30ish. Black sheets of rain. Got lost in Austin several times, even tho I've been there many times years before. Tried to go to Eaglesmith-Buckner first @ Caucus Club and then run over to see Shaver at Jazz Bon Temps. As a wristband holder and non-bizzer, Eaglesmith- Buckner was the only show all week I could not get into, even tho badge holders were starting to joust for position-an uneasy beginning what with some of the "stay away if you're not in the industry warnings" I'd heard. No problem tho; I desperately wanted to see Billy Joe Shaver who I never had before, so I just headed to Jazz Bon Temps on 6th St. straightaway. Smart decision. Very cool and spacious club, no problem getting in, Jon Dee Graham was solid as an opener for Shaver, even tho I'd never heard his stuff. Funny quote was "Buy my new CD so I can stop painting houses!". excellent set. Shaver took stage 1ish and for the first 30 minutes anyway, I'll swear he just picked up the Good Book of hard tonk and wrote several new chapters, I mean I was just standing there with a huge grin the whole time. Called up 2 of Johnny Cash's kids, John Carter Cash and one of the daughters (not Roseanne) to sing "Georgia on A Fast Train", I think it was. Set eventually fell apart a bit due to a drum solo (?) and sound problems, but still ended strongly with "You Can't Beat Jesus Christ", I think. And man oh man, Eddie Shaver is a guitar gawd. I'd heard he was good but I meantotellya...he was damn good. Kind of combines best of SRV's throaty strat sound with a dirty slide, with a bit of metal and Cali country sound as well. Great quotes from Billie Joe during a tuning break; "We tune up just to prove we're country" (which was riotous). Also said he had lost a '29 Martin (I think?) to Dickey Betts, which Billie Joe said he "could not return because his uncle has cancer".(;-)). Sounds kinda cheesy but the thing that kept running through my mind was "man, if Billie Joe Shaver ain't Texas I don't know what is". I was a very a happy man. SXSW got off to a very solid start. Friday; Bloodshot Party, 3-6ish. Wandered in, didn't know anyone right away, started talking to a really cool chick from the aolND folder, Karen B. and we luckily started to figger out who some of the ND folks were (if anyone knows Karen's email addy please lemme know, you aol folk). Met Linda Ray and Jamie and her friend Kari, very cool. Couldn't believe this party was set up as cool as I'd heard it always was; just in back of a folk-art gallery, beer everywhere (even tho I was too scared to start drinking that early g), etc. etc. Missed Neko Case's set, very pissed at self. Other Bloodshot acts sounded good, but nothing really starts til Wacos take stage. Langford et. al. joke around for a bit, demand alcohol, joke some more...then All hell breaks loose. Wacos are a band I'd always heard of but never seen. Riotous. I mean I thought the Bottlerockets were the best bar band in America, and I probably still dobut I'd have to say it's up for grabs, even tho I think the 'rockets have better songs overall. Great time tho. Best quote; Wacos get Beatle Bob up on stage, Langford shouts "Sing a song you idiot!!!" Fantastic. And Bill is right, the Lonesome Bob-Waco collaboration on "Do You Think About Me?" was searing... more Friday; Despite many competing shows (Lucinda-REK vs. Walser Watson), I was a bit worried about getting twanged out over the long weekend so I opted for the V2 records indie-alt.rock showcase at La Zona Rosa, with a number of interesting bands I'd really never seen before and very much wanted to. I went very early about 8:45ish which turned out to be the *whole* key to getting in, because by 9:30 it was no go for most folk, even wristbands. saw Those Bastard Souls, which some one told me have ex-members of The Grifters in 'em (?), and struck me as kind of a Afghan Whigs/art-folk type of act, and not bad.
Re: clip: Hightech Hag
the Hag said; and I've got a studio here close by. . . . It rains a lot up here. That's low pressure, and low pressure is good for recording. . . . On a postcard day, the music sounds a little brittle." Wow; is that true, producer and P2 musicians? Interesting... dan
latest on Garth-ball
(from the wire)... "You might want to get a helmet." (San Diage manager Bruce Bochy, to Garth Brooks, heading to the plate helmet-less) Nope, not touching that one. dan == === "There is one word in America that says it all, and that one word is 'You never know'." (Cardinal pitcher Joaquin Andujar)
Kelly Willis (was Re: The Mountain (LONG w/1999 Reviews)
(i.e. Real: Tom T. Hall Project and Rig Rock Deluxe) and her duet w/ Farrar on Rex's Blues on the Red Hot Bothered. It is weird, she must be the single greatest compilations-related artist of all time, all 3 of those songs are just incredible. dan
Re: RIP Stanley Kubrick
Stevie explained; And it remains unavailable legitmately. And yes, Dan, our venerable British Board of Film Classification has a pretty tight grip on video over here. I' m expecting things to loosen up a little now that James Ferman (an expat Yank!) has gone. I hear that The Exorcist is finally getting a certificate. That's one that Ferman thought was likely to have a disturbing effect on teenage girls, and consequently was refused a certificate. He also has a bee in his bonnet about drug abuse, and took his shears to scenes in Pulp Fiction and Trainspotting (on vid) as a consequence. Good god; you guys should take his Yankee ass and boil it in the Tower dungeon. When I saw over there I actually took a tour of the London Dungeon, whatwith all of the reenactments of boilings, draw-and-quarterings, stretchings, etc etc. It''ll plant all kinds of ideas in your head depending on how many enemies you have in this world g. Anyway, things aren't all that much better over here with all the closings of independent video outlets and the effective banning of "Lolita" and "Last Temptation of Christ" through sudden mysterious fire code-violations and "Hollywood distribution fears", etc.. There's a lot of scared and small- minded folk in this world. But I'm serious-you guys oughta just fry that so-called American assmunch. You have my permission. dan bentele
Re: SUV's RE: Jones update 8pm
Jeff Wall; what Tera said. You are an unmitigated genius. Publish! dan bentele; guilty sometime meat-eater, alleged sensitive-guy, and driver of a foreign-made clown car == "Us Americans didn't climb to the top of the world's food chain to eat tofu, be sensitive, or drive tiny ass foreign clown cars." (Jeff Wall, 1999)
Re: The London Stage
Stuart, hallucinating about London, typed; Holy moly, the next thing I see is a guy playing an accordian singing like a castrato about nastly little children, accommpanied by a skid roperish guy with a wheel around trap set, and a guy in a waxed moustache playing string base. Kind of twangy in a cabaret sort of way. And in one song, one of the puppet masters pops out of a window plucking on a banjo. Catch it when it gets here. That was One Riot One Ranger, Stuart. (rimshot!), danranger
Re: Fw: HOOPS
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Since my return to P2, I keep seeing reference to a "fluff list". Is this for real? Beware Joe, you don't deserve it. You're too good for it. You won't respect yourself in the morningg beware the fluff! dan
Re: SUV's RE: Jones update 8pm
and are far from able to handle rough terrain, especially when driven by a certified moron of a soccor mom with a car phone in one hand and a mascara pen in the other, Just to be fair Matt, most of the SUV idiots I encounter are certified moron soccer dads g. I'll admit to liking 'em, and I have been dang tempted to get one. As someone who actually has to work at least a few weekends year on our farm, I would have at least some amount of cover in doing so, as you can't get around our farm very well (or even to it) w/out serious 4-wheel drive. But it has gotten just out of hand; here in St; Louis recently, I was driving right through *the* ritziest part of town right 7:30am, a a part of town where you cannot live unless you're hauling down serious serious bucks (Warson Rd for those interested, where I hear the Loui and Wendland estates are (;-)), and it was amazing to see all these solo-driven, starch-shirt SUV's being driven by all the docs and lawyers and execs who were heading either 5 miles to downtown Clayton or 15 or so to downtown St. Louis, all on generally pretty smooth pavement g. Like Neal said, the one great unjustifiable is the admissions standards, which are way below those required for cars. If they'd just fix those that would take a lot of the heat off. But like I said, I'm not on a high horse, I'm the only guy in my whole family who doesn't drive one, and my dad's the only one who even can justify it future moron soccer dad dan
Re: bad news concerning George Jones]
that people who cant hang up while they drive drive as badly as a drunk driver. I've known too many people who've had their cars totaled by dimwits who couldnt be alone with themselves in a car for a few minutes. Exactly; what I'm always wondering, as someone who has never owned a cell phone and has somehow survived nonethless-just what the hell are all of these folks talking about all the time? The few times I've ever absolutely had to make a call from my car I've taken the radical step of looking for a well-lit spot at a gas station and putting 35 cents inside it. And how in tarnation are they paying for it? Every cell-phone bill I've ever seen or heard of was damn-near confiscatory insofar as the charges. For emergencies I can see owning the things, but as far as everyday usage, unless your company's fronting it...I just have a hard time seeing the fascination. Now, funny little machines that you can type into.g bringback the party lines! dan bentele, on one of his fluffy streaks.
Re: RIP Stanley Kubrick
My brother - who's a year younger than me - was horrified by the movie. "Quit laughing, Jon! This isn't funny! Nuclear war isn't funny!" You gotta admit tho, Jon, *that* is brilliant. bio-chemical war ain't funny either, dan n.p. uhh..."Masters Of War", or something like that.
Re: Covers: A Follow-up
(Dodging that "anti-HNC" Stinger missile fired by the Ndubbinistas...g, I respond); Jon wrote; I dunno, Dan; I don't think I've ever seen anything but dismissals of Garth's "Shameless" or "The Fever," and not because people argued that they were bad jobs or that he didn't do a good job on them. The very *idea* that he was covering Billy Joel and (?) seemed to elicit plenty of vilification all by itself. Was this from rock crits or country crits? Probably the rock ones, I would guess. Either way I just think it's silly, because I think Billy Joel's a damn good writer and performer, and I guess it doesn't surprise me because there's a lotta dumb and hung-up hipster critics out there. I just don't think the fans-alt.country or not-are as hung up on a sort of 70's pop hit/ironic attachment thing as we might think (even tho I think a lot of what Jake wrote had merit). I haven't heard either of those Garth songs (I have actually, but they're just not coming back into my memory), so I don't know if they're good versions or not. And finally, Billy Joel married Christie-damned-Brinkley and you gotta give the man props for that alone! dan "a supermodel in every pot" bentele
Re: Roseanne, Rosannadanna?
Tera wrote; I got a black eye and have to buy both guys a beer. Damn straight!! Sorry for all that. It really was a misunderstanding, not meant in any part for the list. Like Joe said-no biggie. I told Tera she's off the hook as long as she flames Yates or someone else equally deserving instead.ggg make mine a Foster's, dan
Re: cheech and chong
and Joni Mitchell is the original hip chick... she gets slammed around mostly because of the various inferior imitators that she spawned, but she is the real deal... and always has been. that, and then folks almost never give props to the genius of Laura Nyro as well. She faded away into some pretty poor flower-powered earth-motherhood stuff from the mid-70's on, but from 67 to '71 or so she made great records, brilliantly weaving in and out of so many different styles within one song it was dizzying. And you *never* hear Alanis or Natalie or Jewel or hell-any of 'em mention her as an influence. dan, digressing.
Re: Covers: A Follow-up
Dina wrote; Now I just want to be sure my understanding is correct. If you are a Hot New Country star and you cover a 70's pop or rock hit, you will probably be vilified for it. In my book, not if it was a good song in the first place and you do a solid job of it. If it ends up being like almost all of the versions on the Rolling Stones or Eagles mainstream country tributes, then you'll be vilified legitimately, IMHO. If you are an alt-country star and you cover a 70's pop or rock hit, you will probably be lauded for it. Not even mentioning the casual listeners who might be drawn into fandom for you because of it, even your most ardent fans will appreciate this cover even more than they do your own songs. Did I get it right? I just don't think it's that easy, Dina, or complicated-if that makes any sense. At least with me, if it was good song in the first place and the alt.country act does a good job, then yeah, I think your fan base will be happy it was done (e.g. "Bad Time" done by the Jayhawks or "Harper Valley PTA" by Mike Ireland). I think Jake's piece on this was pretty insightful, but at the same time I don't think most fans-alt.country or otherwise-engage in "irony worship" (pre-emptively or not,) to the degree that they'll froth over any cover from their childhood AM memories. I'm sure it happens, but dan bentele
Re: Old 97s blurb
An Elektra spokesman who doesn't want to be named says the label isn't too thrilled with Fight Songs showing up "months ahead of time" on the jukebox. "You try to coordinate an effort to make an impact at once, and when it goes out piecemeal, it can lessen the impact," he says. "Even though this may seem minor, it's not, because every little thing like this adds up. It keeps happening and happening." Oh for goshsakes, is this all these guys have to worry about each day? How do I get one of these jobs??! Sheesh-this ain't like it's on an MP3 site with free downloading. dan "I think someone from P2 oughta drive down there, secretly tape it to DAT and then we'll set up a tape tree!" bentele
Re: Damn This Old LA Town
I think something got distorted below here, at least I *think* so Lance wrote this in sympathy w/ my painful live Buckner experience (painful due to the gabbers right up front with me); That assumes that Buckner has word-of-mouth "street cred," but wouldn't the word-of-mouth say that his word is MUCH MORE creative than whatever spills out of your cakehole? I don't get it, like I said, in the small picture. In the big picture it's obvious. "Hey, Fuckface! You're not in your living room watching TV! And that guy on stage is NOT a cathode-ray figment of your delusional self-importance! Shut the Fuck up!!!" Lance . . . feeling pain . . . And you're rude and disgusting. What a vile mouth you have! How dare you flame another poster that way. It is not funny! Who do you think you are? I've read your self-important postings lo these past months and I cannot believe that anyone could put up with your long, I-AM-GOD self-righteous rants.How dare you flame Dan for his opinions. Further, I cannot believe that anyone here has not touched upon this... and taken you to task for your long-winded bullshit. You are not pertinent, not valid and definitely not funny. I am ashamed of you. Tera ...anyway, if I'm reading you right Tera, don't worry about it, Lance was simply writing in sympatico and telling me what I (or anyone) should think about saying to the jabbermouths next time. At least that's what I think he was saying, and what I think you've you misread..(wow, this listserv stuff gets complicated sometimesg) anyway don't worry about it. dan
Re: THE DRAGON'S ROAR (fwd)
What I don't get is how Jana's gonna resolve this part; The ëHonky Tonk Divisioní of THE TOWER OF BABEL will go beyond the hype and marketing . with this part; . More like Bakersfield pioneer MERLE HAGGARD or Texas Outlaw WAYLON JENNINGS, CISCO is as physically charismatic as a young ELVIS PRESLEY and as dangerous and enticing as ëhillbilly deluxeí DWIGHT YOAKAM. Ruffling feathers and stopping listeners in their tracks wherever he goes, heís made a huge sensation with the release of his first studio project, WISHING YOU WELL FROM THE PINK MOTEL*. Now, I haven't heard Cisco's record yet, and I'm sure it's real good and all, but. Oh well, maybe this will turn out to be a vital new addition to the online music criticism, I'll keep my mind open. But in trying to tear David a new one in that Yoakum review retort, didn't she damn near accuse him of playing a role in Princess Diana's death as well??? I mean, Cantwell's a pretty solid writer, but he ain't that good! Dan, more fearful than ever of music critics...g
Re: Folk Alliance Recordings (Earle, the Warners, KWRU, etc)
Wow, thanks a ton for that write-up Steve. I just wrote a check for both of those Steve Earle tapes pronto! folkie for a day...g, dan
Skaggs' Grammy dedication
Did anyone mention this? Hope not. Related to our Ralph Stanley "Clinch Mountain Country-Grammies" thread, I saw last night on TNN that when Ricky received his Grammy he dedicated it to Ralph, and almost seemed wistful about the fact that Ralph's effort hadn't taken it instead. Also said he wouldn't have ever made it in the music biz without Ralph believing in him and getting him started. With the damned Grammys I doubt anyone in the room knew who he was talking about (sorry, still bitter g). Classy guy. Dan "Stanley"
Re: 1998 P2 SURVEY
Louise wrote; Well, Gemini's are the communicative types, so there's probably nothing better for them than joining a high volume mailing list. Librans are very sociable and like to get to know loads of people ( which they are doing on P2) and Sagittarians are just bloody cool! Taurians are plodders and don't quit anything. "Astrology is the most feeble-minded of the superstitions...I remember when at the Fleet Street paper where I worked, it was decided to fire the astrologist. I always wished I was the editor who wrote the sacking letter which began, "As you will have no doubt foreseen " (Christopher Hitchens, 1998) I couldn't resist (;-)), dan bentele
Re: Damn This Old LA Town
Barry wrote; The worst mistake is supposed to be to say anything about this rudeness or to try to hush it..Yoiu become an instant heavy. I'm afraid you're right Barry, but it is getting out of hand, I mean it's really getting bad. I was within oh, 15 feet last night of Richard Buckner as he played an abolutely riveting set and was surrounded on each side by groups of folks who could not shut up (or recognize the damn-near genius occurring right in front of them, YMMV on that g). If nothing else, why someone would want to be that close to a singer-songwriter as talented as Buckner while she's tearing his way through "22" and be laughing and carrying on about some irrelevant bullsh*t is just mind-blowing to me. Take it to the back of the room. I mean would these folks go to a book reading by a great author or a painting class with some leading painter and balance their checkbooks??? Somehow I said nothing, fearing that if I did I would just explode and end up getting kicked out-I was that near physically losing it. I mean it's getting bad, and I don't know what to do. Maybe just wait til the end of the entire show and politely ask them not to do it next time? Plead? Bribe them to can it? Start packing heat??? I hear your pain, Neal, dan bentele "If you don't shut the fuck up, I'm gonna have them turn the lights on here so everyone can see who the asshole is." (Steve Earle to persistent heckler, Amsterdam, 1996)
Re: Damn This Old LA Town
, who would go to a Buckner show to talk? Well, I'm ashamed to say this, but Son Volt fans. Plenty of 'em. It wasn't so much a scenester problem as a "I'm staking out my space now to yell "Whiskey Bottle 50 times", and I'll just wait til this dark-haired bearded poet weirdo gets the hell offstage", or something. I guess it's one of the downsides of Farrar's writing at least a fair amount of "crossover" material, and playing to his hometown crowd in St. Louis, I don't know. And I hear ya Linda, I should have said something, but I didn't want to get booted out of the place-I was too afraid I would just lose it if they gave me any guff, which I don't doubt might have happened. But what happened last night has given me new resolve, especially if I'm seeing someone who I can see again somewhat easily. Last night I was too afraid, I'd never seen Buckner plugged-in with a drummer, and it's just a totally different ballgame. Altho "transcendent" gets overused probably it was pretty close to that, at least for me. dan
Re: Who is Robert Wilonsky?
Does anybody know anything more about this obviously talented writer? Yeah, I know that someone posted a piece by him on LeAnn Rimes here a while ago that was so obnoxious and snide it made me wonder whether he'd propositioned her and been turned down. He also wrote a piece about Mermaid Avenue that provoked a fair amount of discussion because in it he alleged that Woody Guthrie was known, if at all, only as a "barren, soulless legend" who needed Bragg Wilco to be made human. Yeah, I gotta agree with Jon on this one. Wilonsky's a pretty good wordsmith, I'll grant you that, but he's written a number of things that, for various reasons, I and other P2ers have had a hard time with (none, of course that are coming to mind right now other than Jon's examples). I've read him over a number of years, since about 1989 when I lived in Dallas and he write for the Observer. My problem with his writing has always been how "subjective" his criticism is. I know that looks like an oxymoron or something, but what I mean is that he often strikes me as someone who has a really hard time doing a well-balanced review of any artist that isn't a personal favorite. I've seen him just savage folks that are generally pretty well thought-of musicians, and aren't considered "either/or" artists (such as Ani DiFranco, Tom Waits, Richard Buckner...). In Dallas around '90 and '91 or so, I often wondered about the guy's personal safety, his reviews were so consistently extremely pro or con on generally well-liked artists around town Anyway, we all grow up and hopefully get better at we do, if you think he's turning out some good stuff send it to the list. If nothing else his stuff has started some pretty interesting threads here before...g Dan
Re: Grammyszzzzzzzzz....
Jon wrote; You gotta have a little sympathy for Ralph Stanley; one of the unspoken (as far as I know g) goals of Clinch Mountain Country was to get him the Grammy. Yeah, I guess it woulda been nice, but hell-he doesn't need one, at least not a Grammy from the music industry as it was shown to the world on that night. dan
Re: Another good quote from the Village Voice web site
The year's most inexplicable musical fad was the vastly overrated genre of "Americana" a/k/a "No Depression," "progressive country," "regressive country," "independent country," "insurgent country," "alternative country," " (Blah blah blah, to borrow a phrase from Brad Bechtel g). What pisses me off about these sortsa dismissals is that, to me, they almost always seem to imply that any concerted (or even semi-concerted) effort to attempt to cover music, or a scene, or whatever that falls so untidily in the vast spaces between mainstream rock and country is bogus on it's face. Why is it so offensive that there are musicians or a magazine (even a listserv g) that are interested in making or following music that often borrows heavily from both genres, often rendering it difficult to neatly categorize as either Country or Rock? At least, that's what *I* get from these sorts of full-on crit dismissals. I realize I'm probably over-reading, but I still don't buy it, even if I do think there are too many pretenders to the throne and cooks in the alt.country kitchen if you will. I mean, show me a quote where Rob Bleetstein(?) or Peter Blackstock or Grant Alden or the Bloodshotters have ever said "*this* (alt.country) will be THE hot thing this year, we're really gonna break big and be the new grunge or whatever. Maybe someone's done this but I haven't seen it. Long on sincerity and short on talent, these are sensitive, educated, well- meaning writers who genuinely lament the end of Route 66 consciousness and the blanding of America. Which is why no one, critics or peers, wants to dog them. I'm not sure what Lipton means by that, but if he means that the alt.country crowd seems to be immune from similar attempts to cut the scene down to size he must not read much music criticism. Dan, offtabed and with more cliches than you can shake a stick at tonight...g
Snipping 101 (Re: 50/90)
Actually publish it to the list please. Everyone is so cool about deleting the excesses/repeats off their posts. cool, but wish I had seen it the first time. Unfortunately, of late, I wouldn't agree. Let's get it together folks, especially some of the new guys and gals. Glad to see the new blood, but cut the excess text, por favor thanks, crankydanbentele
Re: Plodding through Postcard2 digest...
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: can I inquire about something that puzzles me from time to time? How come we (the collective P2 mindset, that is, and maybe most serious music fans in general) are quick to slay these writers for their professional opinions every time we see them but then, at year end, for example, we jump at the chance to play critic and divulge our own top tens Cause we're just smarter than they are. Naw, I think Neal's gotta point, most of these guys like Kot write with a broad "critic-at-large" viewfinder on, and it is somewhat unfair to expect them to perform with incisive insight on every genre. I mean, they have to keep up with a lot more stuff than a lot of us on P2 do, most of us having an alt.country, roots rock, and maybe "contemporary folk"-heavy perspective g. I mean, I know I try to read and listen and follow the industry on a much broader scale than that, but reality is I pretty much can't or don't, especially as a non-weasel. Still, I think Jon's got a point on the near-total lack of country stuff, hell-even Rolling Stone regularly reviews a lot of mainstream country records. And I'll personally let Kot have it for not having any Earle, Yoakum, Emmylou, or Uncle Tupelo, especially with some of the silly stuff he did have on there. I'm really not upset that he doesn't have any bluegrass or "deep folk", I mean he obviously has to keep up with an awful lot of stuff. What I can't figger out is why Kot did this this early in the year, he's sure to miss some darn good records, even if I can't right now think of what they might be. Sadly (and tho this will have to be the subject of another post, from a purely "Kot-ian" perspective), I can't agree it's been a great decade for music. Good, interesting, but from a purely "songwriting" perspective, not great. I'd rank it certainly behind all the others going back to the fifties (60's first, then 50's, 70's, 80's and 90's). And tho this is surely a subjective opinion, I'd give "alt. country", folk, and roots-rock artists (many of those I listed above as well Alvin, Welch, Lucinda, Buckner, DeMent etc etc.) a lot of the credit for doing the heavy lifting as far as good songwriting goes for this decade (even tho I will concede "alt.country" is overrated as a genre, but not an idea.)) There. Did I cover enough shit in that post??? (;-)) Professionally and defensively yours, Aww, go back and eat your Kaballah. I'll have mine with lox and cream cheese. Egg bagel. g dan
Re: Twangfest (was Re: Half Mad Moon)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Oh and btw, despite what Matt says, the Damnations are the *best* band in Austin. Is anyone else annoyed by his constant cheerleading for the Gourds or is it just me? Yeah, but that's just Matt. I tend to give him a lot of leeway simply because he contributes so many killer quotables... g. dan "Without [Paul Westerberg's] songs, what would we have? Not just that, without his songs, what the hell would I be like? (Matt Cook) "I know more than I am remembering." (Matt Cook) (and if Purcell or anyone still has that great Cookster "ass-kicking" quote I'd *kill* to get it from yagracias)
Re: Nine Inch Nails in my Coffin
According to some DJ on Q101 (Chicagos Rock Alternative) The next Trent Reznor CD is going to be all Hank Williams covers. The DJ wasnt as excited as I was. If I was not in my car I might've called him up and given him what's fur. God. Say it ain't so. Aw, you guys obviously have no capacity for really bad art. What's wrong with you???g? I'd be fascinated to hear it, if only once. Dan, who still wants to hear that dang Pat Boone metal-covers rekkid.
Re: mainstream country query
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: And mostly, let's not forget the future of mainstream country, Allison Moorer. Yes. Her star is rising, and quick. Plus, of all the artists mentioned above, she is the *only* one that *really* hits me like I need to be hit. Equally hit. Done with monster deadline (woo hoo), but gotta go clean up cat puke, Thank you for that, Neal. dan bentele
Re: Blue Chip
(snip)...Garth may dream of slamming World Series homers. Haven't we all. But I suspect the Padres' ownership is setting up the golden one for an invitation to join their little ownership group...(snip) The ownership thing may be true, but what's really funny is that BlueChip wasted that many keystrokes taking the Garth try-out thing seriouslyg Dan Bentele
Re: SXSW - What is the deal
Nancy writes;
the trailer park. Sorry, but I agree, it sucks. We had a similar event in
Memphis called Crossroads, and it also bites ass. I just don't do them
anymore.
I dunno, just from our little world I've seen Neko Case, The
Damnations, Hadacol, The Gourds, Hot Club of Cowtown, Asylum St. Spankers, and
many others on the line-up. Those are folks that, while they may be nearing
"established" status in the alt.country world, certainly would qualify as
"largely unknown" in the more broadly defined universe of folks who go to
SXSW. If it takes acts like Lucinda and others on top of a bill to make sure
folks show up and see acts like that then I'd have to say there's still a lot
of good that can be done by having SXSW around.
If I have one major complaint (as a non-bizzer) about SXSW it's the
bloody wristband price, especially for out-of-towners. I'm hoping to get a
$65 "early-bird" one, but for those that can't score one of those it's $95,
which is pretty damn daunting. If there's anything that's cutting down on the
number of just plain ol' music fans showing up I would imagine that has a
little bit to do with it.
But mainly I like SXSW because the one year I went ('91) I saw Mojo
Nixon openly castigate all the AR people at Liberty Lunch for witnessing
Killbilly play an incendiary set and not signing them. Luckily, Flying Fish
did later that weekend.
Dan
Re: Radio M show about No depression music
Alex wrote; 1. BLOODSHOT (WHY ? Because of Alejandro Escovedo, P.V. Cosmonauts, Sadies, Split lip Rayfield,.. ) I can just see Bloodshot's next T-shirt right now; THE NO. 1 INSURGENT YUGOSLAVIAN RECORD LABEL Cool post, Alex. insurgently yoursg, dan (who promises to stop posting so damn much...)
Re: Bathroom Grafitti Philosophy
Nosequitr writes:WRONG "Jesus saves, and Esposito scores on the rebound." Most garbage goals in the history of hockey. As a hardcore Blues fan I was never fond of Phil Esposito, but true hockey fans know there's no such thing as a garbage goal. When PE lit the lamp, it counted just as much as those Lafleur and Orr solo breakaways!!! hockey rules, dan
Mike Ness (Re: SxSW)
Sheesh, isn't everyone?? g. I'll still put their "Making Believe" up against any rock cover of a country song And then Jon wrote something like "good thing that g is in there" (which *was* funny). That said tho, Nessie does have the ability, at least lyrically, to write many great country songs; "I Was Wrong" off of that last record they did (I think it was the last) was as powerful as any post-punk song I've ever heard, one of those songs that slices right into the core of the listener with a "man, that's a little too close to home" feeling-at least it did for me. I'd love to heard a country-oriented act cover that. He's a little too limited in the sound and type of songs he writes w/ Social Distortion, but I wouldn't put anything past the guy. If this thing is really gonna be an acoustic folkish-country record I'll be there the day it's released. Dan, still laughing at the Brooks/Padres clips.
Re: Playlist Feb 11, 1999 - PBS-FM, Melbourne, Australia
Sophie answers Neal's query re Wilco's "All Over the Place" EP; It was the 10" limited edition EP released on vinyl last year. I scored a copy from the Wilco website folk for being the "furthest away Wilco fan"... see, there are sometimes advantages to being 15,000 miles away from anything. :) Indeed, "extremely limited" is a bit more on-target. I think something like 500 fans have it after all the distribution; and while the folks on Wilco's web site admirable auctioned some copies off for charities, I know of no Wilco fan (and I know a few) that actually own it. How an effort this limited helps engender fan support I don't get. One of those situations where the bootleggers can actually do some good. Dan
Re: Playlist: Tennessee Saturday Night 2/6/9
Stay a Little Longer -- Pine Valley Cosmonauts with Neko Case and Bob Boyd -- Salutes the Majesty of Bob Wills -- Bloodshot I've been meaning to ask, who is this Bob Boyd fella? thanks, Dan
Re: First Posting
In case no one else knows, Alex does a radio show in Yugoslavia/Serbia that knocks the socks off of 95% of the radio shows here in the states! Well, let's see some of those play lists firstg Welcome Alex to P2! Absolutely, Alex. dan
Tonight; 11:35 pm CBS David Letterman musical guest: Willie Nelson
yer welcome-Dan also: Tuesday; 11:35 pm NBC Jay Leno musical guests: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt Wednesday: 11:35 pm CBS David Letterman musical guest: Chris Isaak
Re: Damnations TX (was Re: best so far
We've *never* been able to agree on anything (not even on the general worthlessness of Kenny Rogers), and I think if we ever did, we'd just have to shut the list down. After all, what would be the point of carrying on?g--don Don's right. Someone, anyone-maybe even me-has to come out of the woodwork and let this record have it. It's important, don't screw this up. Even if you think it's a good record. This list has a rock-solid three years invested in smear, recriminations, and general ill-will, and we can't screw this up now! Dan "my ass it's a good record" Bentele
Re: Wanted:Wilco
In a mess I have an advance of XTC's "Apple Venus Vol. 1" What the heck is that record about? Greatest hits, or what? Man I love XTC. dan
Re: Bottle Rockets
The group was dropped by TAG/Atlantic after releasing its 1996 album, "24 Hours A Day," which has sold 16,000 units, according to SoundScan. That is just a laughably stupid number. Proof positive that big money, or the lack of it, can make or break an artist. I realize that the 'rockets aren't the most marketable band, but Black Oak Arkansas, a band even uglier and far worse than Henneman Co. had 3 gold records in the 70's, at least according to that recent Oxford American. Dan
Re: Bottle Rockets
Black Oak Arkansas, a band even uglier and far worse than Henneman Co. had 3 gold records in the 70's That was the 70s And??? Dan Bentele
Skaggs on Conan.....
tonight. yer welcome-dan
Re: Rank the Hank question
You know, I don't listen to a lot of Hank W. myself because, frankly-in what can only be considered a pretty high compliment-he just scares the hell out of me. Dan Bentele
Lucinda/St. Louie/2-2-99
Excellent show if a bit dragg-y at times. She tended to overstretch and over-mine a few of her blues songs toward the end-I mean I think "Joy", almost reached Allman Bros-type length; my estimation would be 20 minutes long-yikes! Totally sold out and more, which really shocked me for St. Louis, I mean this show could and should have been at the American Theatre (which holds another thousand or so folks I think)..*wa* too many folks inside of Miss. Nights. But that's typical-they have absolutely no regard for folks who go to shows there. Personal minor complaint-no "I Lost It", which is my fave LW song. 2nd minor complaint, Lucinda pre-announces way too many of her songs, which to me takes away much of the initial adrenaline rush you get when that first unanticipated chord or note flows through the speakers and it just throttles your bodysomething about knowing exactly what you're gonna hear every time removes that, and it really bothers me Opened with "Pineola", which was just riveting. Just hearing her kick into that chorus "born and rayyy-zed in pi-ne-oh-lu"wow. Riveting. Other highlights; "Still I Long...", "Joy", and "Changed The Locks", which really crunched guit-wise... You know, the more I think about it, Lucinda could do well to release a live record, you know??? (hmmm(;-)) She looked good, good mood, great, I mean great band. 2 guitarists, bass, organ player and drummer. Huge number of guitars on stage-Mercury must be treating her well. And can anyone fill me in on the lead player's name (the kind of geeky-lookin' one, not the slide-player). And does anyone know what kinda of guitar he plays? It looks to me like some sort of non-typical Fender, and I'm just curious what it is-thanks. Anyway, just thought you guys would be interested, maybe Kip or John or someone else can add a bit more... Dan Bentele
Re: Buddy Guy (was Re: soul)
Why does GE Smith get so slagged? While I may not be a huge Hall Oates fan and band leading SNL might not be the most cred producing gig, I've always thought the guy can play. I'm sure he can, but as someone else said just watching the guy was painful. I use to watch a good deal of SNL in those days with buddies of mine who were pretty good guitarists themselves, and they would look upon those skit-ending close-ups on him as comedy sketches in their own right... Dan, who is honestly looking forward to the long-rumored "Sprockets" movie...g
Re: Zevon (was Re: other voices - Linda Ronstadt)
Carl wroteth; That viewpoint might be considered right-of-center, if gun ownership and military content are relevant variables to you. I think Zevon's written more gun songs than Ted Nugent has, and some of the percussion on "Jungle Work" consists of him shooting a pistol into a garbage can full of gravel. Hmmm, this is interesting; is he a big pro-gun dude? And what's the deal with military stuff? I have none of his stuff but all of the talk about him around here of late has really peaked my interest... Dan == == "We're not about to forgot that the core of our fans are people who get up in the morning and bake a lot of biscuits" (Earl Scruggs)
Re: Dixie Chicks (long)
I think Jon's made a good point about the bio on their official web site doing an actually pretty good job of discussing the band's past, but having seen the Chicks myself a number of times from '90 on, a couple of these passges just about made me blanch; . All the act needed was a charismatic lead singer"I loved watching them play," Natalie recalls. "Martie and Emily had always been the best part of Dixie Chicks. Uhhno. I realize this is their record company's doing, but both Robin Macy and Laura Lynch were not only better singers IMO, but *far* more charismatic, as it were. And I know Bob already said that but dammit I had to chip that in g. Dan Bentele, dedicated to reducing the fiber content of P2
Re: 2 queries
re Tera; For the younger generation who has never heard of a particular artist before but possibly has been curious enough to explore someone they've read about who has been an influence on a current "stars" career (or whatever else may stimulate their interest), I believe negating the songwriting credits or providing "false" credit is a disservice to the heritage of any musical form. Music is more than just the artist or his/her image. I f we wish to preserve our rich musical heritage, then I say we should accurately provide credit where credit is definitely due. This is like my second "me too" post in a week but...I don't care g. Very well put, and I feel even *more* strongly about this, when the credits aren't on a record I just about blow my top. That, and when I'm at a live show where some band plays a number of lesser known songs and doesn't give cred to either the song origin or writer. Dan
Re: Field Report:The Hogwaller Ramblers
CDs will be going out this week to various DJs and writer types that I've been culling from this list for the past couple of months. I hope ( you know who you are) like it. Make sure you slip a $5 into that Neal Weiss package; gua-ran-td positive ree-vyew. Guaranteed. Greil Bentele
speaking of Shatner......
Did anyone happen to catch his.performance (?) on Conan a few nights ago with some band called "Fear Of Pop"? Shatner did a kind of spoken word piece over some sort of avant-pop music, Ben Folds was on keys, and...man it was weird. Is this an ongoing act? Is there a record as well? I like really bad stuff like that, and I might even buy it. Hell, I still want to buy that Pat Boone metal record. I mean it was *wd*. uhh, insert some geeky Star Trek sign-off here, I never watched it, Dan
Re: Hazeldine/Mekons/Wild and Blue et al
MC 900 Ft. Ndubb writes: But who said Yes fans had the skills to differentiate so thoroughly? You'll never understand, Neal, you'll never understand. Dan n.p. a bootleg, actually: "Siberian Fugues; Tales From Topographic Oceans-The Unreleased Wakeman Jams"g
Musician question; Risk of Electrocution???
hey kids; So, I'm just getting around to reading my months-old copy of the Oxford American music issue, and inside it is a just incredible essay about the electrocution and very near-death of a young musician. It's written by the guy's brother, and what's so fascinating about this is not only how close the guy comes to playing the great gig in the sky, but all the phrases and thoughts that come out of his mouth as he emerges from his coma and his brain literally begins to unscramble itself. So, having been to a lot of shows but never having been a musician (or an electrician g), what do you folks do-other than the basics (grounding circuits, using clean cords etc.)-to know that you're kosher when it comes to plugging in or touching a mic? It was apparently some sort of ungrounded mic that zapped the kid in the OA piece. I mean I've been to a couple of shows where I remember mics making all sorts of bizarre noises and pops, and the look on some of the musicians' faces was certainly less than...comforting. 210, 220, whatever it takes, Dan
Re: the fifth beatle
- George Martin, their producer. George had a lot to do with shaping the sound of their recordings, and played on a number of their tracks. I try to avoid "me too" posts if I can, butme too. Without Martin, even imagining how many of the Beatles records would have sounded is pretty much impossible. A perfectionist, an ass-kicker, with a motherload of great ideas and solid grounding in classical music, they were really so danged lucky to have fallen in with him. Not a fan of his solo stuff tho...g Dan Bentele
One Fell Swooped....
Hey kids; Just wanted to chime in and say that I ventured out into the still- cold-but-starting-to-melt St. Louis muck last night and saw one of Gateway City's finest. Probably nothing earthshocking to impart that any of you who've seen OFS live, but they did deliver a pretty sharp 50 or so minutes of excellent folk-slash-bluegrass-slash-pop music which they do a really good job at. Lead vocalist Cheryl Stryker sounded great as always, as did the rest of 'em. I even met my first P2'er ever, rhythm player John Wendland, and he didn't even threaten me with any used Garth CD's or force any deadly Aquavit down my throat (nor did I upon him...g). Anyway, the coolest part was they featured several solid new songs last night, and supposedly are even venturing over to Europe to rape and pillage and convert unsuspecting Europeans to the gospel according to Swoop. Hopefully he'll even turn up here on the list to give us the lowdown on those developments and to offer some explanation as to how they became huge in Italy Dan "it's okay to spam the list every once in a while as long as the band you're in is damn good" Bentele p.s. I met Roy Kasten also and asked him to rejoin the list but he begged off claiming writer's block...g
Re: Archives:The Plan
In a message dated 1/14/99 3:07:12 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: As an added doohickey, I'll probably put a program called wpoison on the site that actually screws with the spambots. It's a recursive fake email and link creator that makes the bots gather non-existent email addresses and URLs, recursively making the bots gather non-existent email addresses recursively (a little self-referential humor...) Dammit, I just love it when people fight fire with fire. See if that "wpoison" thing can get their license plate numbers and I'll even egg their cars. For those interested. I'll be using MHonarc (http://www.oac.uci.edu/indiv/ehood/mhonarc.html) and procmail (info at http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/~reriksso/procmail/) to set it up. It'll be sitting on a FreeBSD box running the Apache webserver. I have no idea what any of that means Jamie, but it all sounds good to me. I approve. Make sure you re-flux the transducers too. expert aol "reply" button-clicker, Dan
Re: If you ran into Garth with your car...
Used CDs are fine as long as the artist and/or label is hurting less financally than you are. That's pretty good. Hey Matt, you should write a book similar to that Steve Earle In Quotes thing. I'd buy it. You know, I would too come to think of it. I gotta admit that in earlier times, I had big problems with Matt and some of the things he said on P2. But of late, I'd swear much of his writing has taken on some sort of haiku or koan-type quality (those are those Buddhist sayings like "what's the sound of one hand clapping...?", if I'm remembering correctly...) So anyway, yeah, I'd buy a book of your quotes too, Matt. Wasn't Purcell keeping a collection of 'em anyway? I've actually saved a few of them I think, but I save a lot of weird stuff. Dan p.s. here's one I saved, because it was so damn typical of my daily life: "I know more than I am remembering." (Matt Cook, 1998)
