Chalkhills Digest Volume 11, Issue 9
Date: Sunday, 20 February 2005
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 11, Number 9
Sunday, 20 February 2005
Topics:
Revolver
Re: Satanic Panic
Facts re: digital downloads officially straightened
Re: Sufjan anyone?
Futuredogs
XTC Forum "Our Favorite XTC Songs"
crass self promotion
Slightly off subject....
Okay, okay...but only because I can't sleep...
Blogs
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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 05:26:54 -0800 (PST) From: Al LaCarte <allacarte@yahoo.com> Subject: Revolver Message-ID: <20050215132655.15129.qmail@web50304.mail.yahoo.com> All: Revolver. Check. Revolver. Okeedokee. Revolver. Got it. Once upon opine, a few people came together and onesided that "Revolver" was the best Beatle record. I'm pretty sure Harrison (not George) was there. I told them they were all right, but I couldn't come in...actually I was very busy that day. I love "Revolver" - especially the side closers. Some of JL's best work there. George was on fire, Ringo did the best he could with the first of his two under-water adventures, and Paul still churning out beautiful melodies from his seemingly endless supply. Dentist pimping acid, book of the dead, backwards guitars. It's great. I get it. Still, I'm certain I like all of these better: 1) Abbey Road 2) A Hard Day's Night 3) Rubber Soul (Still can't decide which one...) 4) The Beatles H. Al Chemy NP: Starclock Never playing: Air Supply "But I'm Le Tired" http://www.endofworld.net/
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 07:41:36 -0800 (PST) From: The Colonel <captainextraneous@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Satanic Panic Message-ID: <20050215154136.42954.qmail@web41208.mail.yahoo.com> > A big "Thanks You!" to Patrick (The Colonel) for his > best of 2004 list. He recommended the > album "Satanic Panic In The > Attic" by OF MONTREAL. > I decided to give it a try, bought it and began > listening. And I thought "This is pretty bad!". > (The first song is called " Disconnect The Dots".) > I almost gave up on it right there, but luckily I > went on to the second song. And listening to the > second song I thought "Wow! This is great!". As I > continued through the CD I really feel for > this wonderful band. Very Kinks-ish, but yet much > more than just a 60s pastiche. > > So I join Patrick in highly recommending this > album. (Just skip the first song!) Tim: Thanks for the kind words, and glad you found something you like on my list!! I've known about this band for a while, but this was the first album I heard by them that really hooked me. BTW, I think that first track is great, but it's definitely a departure from the band's regular sound; more 80's synth than 60's psych, so I understand your reaction... There was also an EP of cover tunes, which is given away free with the album. I highly recommend that as well, especially their cover of the Shins' "Know Your Onion" (my favorite new band in the last several years!)... I mention this because the EP did NOT accompany 'Satanic Panic' when I bought it, but I later found all of the tracks available as free downloads on Of Montreal's official site... So check those out too, if you haven't already!!! Also, I second the opinion of whomever was discussing the Futureheads in the last digest. I love the style and sound, but the songs just don't do anything for me. Really, the only one that hooked me was the cover of "Hounds Of Love." Dogs Die In Hot Cars had a much better album song-wise, IMHO. But to each his own! -The Colonel
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 12:12:48 -0500 From: Duncan Watt <dwatt@fastestmanintheworld.com> Subject: Facts re: digital downloads officially straightened Message-ID: <D1408205-7F74-11D9-91B1-000A957DB5CA@fastestmanintheworld.com> In my last missive re: getting paid for digital downloads off of legal downloading services, I said that iTunes/Napster/etc. was paying micro-labels only 2-3 cents/download. I was wrong - they pay on the average about 65 cents per *downloaded song* to the distributor, who then takes a cut(as they should, between 9-18 cents, depending), netting the label about 45-50 cents per *downloaded song*. Here's where I was confused - some of these services offer *streaming downloads* as part of their subscription service package. These *streaming downloaded songs* net the label about 2-3 cents per 'download' after the distributors' cut. Result: listener can hear the tune a few times, pay only the subscription fee(which they paid already anyway), artist/label gets paid 15 or so cents, and listener has no reason to purchase... anything! Sweet Action! Or even cooler: you use AudioHijack to record the streaming download, then you don't need to buy ANYTHING, and you don't even need to *endure* the boring(!) wait for your P2P client to <heavy, strained voice on> fiiinnnnd the sooongg you're loookingg to steeaall... God, can't this stealing thing work FASTER? I.... just... want.... to.... steal.... some..... R. Stevie Moore.... songs.... after all, Sherwood likes him, he's probably good.... dammit! Why isn't XTC on iTunes? I know personally people close to the band have been looking into it. Could it be because they haven't found a way to do it without watering down the value of selling real CDs? Because with the new model of subscription-based streaming songs, there's NO WAY TO MAKE REAL MONEY FROM IT? Please - wonderful, thoughtful, interesting, complex adult-oriented music is really over, at least until the government goes about breaking the monopoly and someone figures out a way to get an *entire generation* of young adults who are used to getting music for free to realize that if you don't make it possible for an adult musician to clear a profit on interesting work, they'll stop making music altogether, and we'll all be left with a choice of Avril and The New Avril. It still costs more to make an Apple Venus Vol. 1 than is possible to make back, now that touring and radio in the US have been taken over by ClearChannel. It's all about good-looking young people with rich parents and grandfathered luckily-we-made-it-before-Napster acts and cross-promotion-ready actors. And "college-radio-acts"...woo-hoo, I *really* want to hear what that 25-year-old has to say, let alone *play*... There's no more room on the radio, in the stores, on the TV, even in the clubs and colleges (can you say ClearChannel block-booking?) for non-mainstream acts that make over $15,000/year. Either PAY FOR YOUR MUSIC, change the system or go eat your thin major-label UsherGruel. Hey- it's free! Isn't that what you *wanted*?!?! Maybe you could just HOPE Andy into writing and recording a new CD, hiring musicians, paying engineers and studio time, making promotional materials, coordinating distribution, etc. on his own dime just so he can not get airplay and lose any possible chance of clearing his investment to thieves. Love (and enjoy your Avril), Your happy pal Duncan ps stiill young and good-looking and write songs that are less than 2:45 and get to the chorus before :15 and have unpolitical lyrics and are in 4/4 time and are correctly auto-tuned and produced with no dynamic range and talk about things that only under-30's could possibly care about? Then here: another hopeful castle-stormer pointed out that if you're only interested in selling(hee-hee!) things digitally, CDBaby has a better offer than The Orchard, which also distributes your physical product to all the online record stores (Amazon, CDnow, VirginMega, etc.) for people to physically purchase. CDBaby requires the customer to actually go to CDBaby's site to purchase your stuff, which is a deal-breaker for serious micro-labels. Look, I know it's not really over, I'm just too old-and-tired to lead the revolution myself... but tell me what I can do to help *you* change it, young'un, and I will. Music - not bad sync-dancing, not lip-syncing, not video, not "hey, that 14-year-old has great tits" - is The Best. pps anyone see Jamie Foxx(yes, the actor) kick hapless Alicia "no, I really *do* think I'm sexy" Keyes' ASS on the Grammys Sunday night? YES! Take THAT, little fake-musician-with-the-right-cheekbone-structure! ppps now go steal some R.Stevie Moore, see what THAT does for your karma, dickweed
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 06:34:42 -0800 (PST) From: pancho artecona <partecona@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Sufjan anyone? Message-ID: <20050215143442.17908.qmail@web52304.mail.yahoo.com> Greetings form N'Awlins, While looking at the burgeoning lists I've noticed the absence of one Sufjan Steve. Just wondered if anyone was digging him like I do. A bit Sufi, a bit stereolabish and quite ingenious. I first heard him on a friend's recommendation (ripped cd) and have since PURCHASED almost all of his work...I do have an ethic after all. It is extremely important to support your fave musicians in the barren wasteland of the electronic frontier (eye opening info, Duncan). Anyway, that's it. PRXTCFAN ps-thanks for the lists, I've got plenty of exploring to do.
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 20:34:22 -0500 From: "Scott Barnard" <brainiacsdaughter@hotmail.com> Subject: Futuredogs Message-ID: <BAY22-F18958BC0A420FC5DB55589BD6C0@phx.gbl> I suspect that I like Futureheads more than Todd does, though they remind me more of Wire than of XTC. I also suspect that I like Dogs Die In Hot Cars less than does the esteemed Mr. Relph - "I Love You 'Cause I Have To" is, I'm sorry, an awful song. But there was an interesting blurb in the January issue of Mojo wherein Ross Millard of Futureheads discussed his favourite albums of 2004: "I also like the Dogs Die In Hot Cars record. It's a really divisive one - you either love them or loathe them. But I think they've got a lot of good songs. They're kind of later XTC, where we're earlier XTC. Maybe we should do a show together. We open, they close and we kind of do XTC's whole back catalogue." Not a bad idea, but something tells me that this guy has never heard Apple Venus.
------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 10:53:09 -0800 (PST) From: Jeff Eby <jeffaeb@yahoo.com> Subject: XTC Forum "Our Favorite XTC Songs" Message-ID: <20050216185309.76471.qmail@web11606.mail.yahoo.com> With the recent talk about the odd division between some chalkhills members and XTC Forum posters I'd thought it'd be at least a good idea if those of who regularly keep track of both could point out things of interest. I was very surprised to find out that so many people on this list didn't know about the September meeting, which was certainly never meant just for Forumers. So I just thought I'd point out a little something going on at the XTC forum right now. http://www.xtcidearecords.co.uk/cgi-bin/ikonboard/topic.cgi?forum=34&topic=581 Max, a forum masochist, has volunteered to take on the task of organizing a "favorite XTC song" poll. It's been attempted a couple times before on the forum but with little organization and poor results but I think this could work, especially if alot of people contribute. and while you're there why not drop a line at the forum meeting thread to say if you're planning on coming (maybes accepted). Nothing official, just an attempt at figuring out how big the thing is likely to get. http://www.xtcidearecords.co.uk/cgi-bin/ikonboard/topic.cgi?forum=35&topic=706 Jeff "Spastic Minnow"
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 10:50:53 -0500 From: "Chris & Melany" <ellaguru@comcast.net> Subject: crass self promotion Message-ID: <004501c51508$76648cf0$fe0cf645@Sony> been going through the collection here and decided to part with some old things via ebay. http://tinyurl.com/65d5w not to be a total bandwith hog, ill do 3 b&p's of the XTC 1/24/80 DVD. thanks... cr
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 23:23:03 +0000 (GMT) From: Mark <bigdoubleya@yahoo.co.uk> Subject: Slightly off subject.... Message-ID: <20050217232303.49498.qmail@web26306.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Went to see one of my top 2 favourite bands (no prizes for guessing the other) that hasn't played a gig for over 7 years yesterday: The Wedding Present May not, to some of you, have the same melodious intent as XTC but WOW, if you get a chance go along. Mark ===== Bjarne Stroustrup (inventor of C++): "There's an old story about the person who wished his computer were as easy to use as his telephone. That wish has come true, since I no longer know how to use my telephone"
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 00:52:55 -0800 From: "Pastula Aaron" <pastula12@hotmail.com> Subject: Okay, okay...but only because I can't sleep... Message-ID: <BAY24-F5D4BDF342C20FB1028734A26E0@phx.gbl> ...thanks to my roommate and the "Magnum P.I." marathon going on in the next room... The Best Damn Desert Island Top Ten List, Period: 1. XTC - Skylarking Truthfully, just about any album from the world's greatest band could have taken the top slot (and probably fill the remaining nine), but for me, this is the Kubrickian Monolith of records. I first heard it when I was 12, and it was responsible for the most profound musical evolutionary leap of my life. 2. Mike Keneally - Boil That Dust Speck Easily Mike's best record; a brilliantly complex catacomb of an album that I still haven't completely managed to find my way out of. Anyone who is even remotely a fan of progressive rock, or pop, or whatever, simply MUST own this record. 3. Genesis - Trick of the Tail I love all the old Genesis records, but to me this is the perfect blend of progressive complexity and pop catchiness. Phil Collins is the man; with this album and Brand X under his belt, he can play all the Disney music he wants as far as I'm concerned. 4. Gentle Giant - Free Hand These guys never got the recognition they deserved. Not only could they perform incredible vocal arrangements, but each member of the band could proficiently play no less than fourteen instruments at the same time. 5. Peter Gabriel - Sixteen Golden Greats This wouldn't be on here, save for the fact that lately I can't get the solo piano version of "Here Comes The Flood" out of my head, and that it's the best album for when you're driving the I-5 corridor through central California. I mean, "Big Time" at 90mph...does it get any better? 6. Elvis Costello / Burt Bacharach - Painted From Memory Because you can never have too many flugelhorns, and because "God Give Me Strength" is just an awesome tune. One of the few albums I know of that can be played at any time, regardless of mood or tidal patterns. 7. Mike Keneally - Wooden Smoke Vastly different from BTDS, but it contains my all-time favorite MK song, "2001." I'm still trying to figue out what the story is that runs throughout the concept of the album. Anyone know? 8. XTC - English Settlement When I die, I want to come back as this album. 9. Radiohead - Kid A These guys are easily the Pink Floyd of my generation. I don't know how they manage to get better the further they stray from traditional song structure and so-called "listenable" music, but they do. 10. Frank Zappa - The Yellow Shark When I hear this, I think how stunningly unjust it is that he didn't live longer. Compositional technology was catching up to his brain, and I think he was finally getting to a point in his life when he could make exactly the kind of music he wanted without nearly the hassle he was used to. Such a shame, but this is a great swansong. Okay, I think I can get to sleep now. AP
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 12:55:06 -0800 From: Phil Corless <phil@pkmeco.com> Subject: Blogs Message-ID: <6.0.1.1.2.20050218125251.00b93628@pop.mindspring.com> Harrison's post about his blog makes me wonder if anyone else on Chalkhills has their own blog... I'd like to start a list. I've got two: http://www.pkmeco.com/familyblog/ http://www.pkmeco.com/cdablog/ Phil Corless www.pkmeco.com
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