Chalkhills Digest Volume 6, Issue 84
Date: Friday, 21 April 2000

          Chalkhills Digest, Volume 6, Number 84

                  Friday, 21 April 2000

Topics:

                     RE: Coelecanth?
          I need your songs. Give me your songs.
   SPOILER: Keep "Boarded Up" 'til 5/23, (if you want)
                  Metallica and Napster
                   The rights to works
                         Nonsuch
                           plug
            at the risk of being ridiculed...
              AUTOreverse 10: Martin Newell
                  Them's Fightin' Words
                     Prince of Orange
                        Randomness
             EricJohnsonNonsuchChurchOfWomen
                       CDR Problems
                 Another newbie arises...
                    bitch bitch bitch
         Japanese Demo Tracks - virgin [unopened]
                   Second Planet (AV2)

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Atmosphere to ocean / Radios in motion.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 12:13:29 +0100
From: "Smith, David" <David.Smith@tfeurope.com>
Subject: RE: Coelecanth?
Message-ID: <802EE5D7277AD21188D10008C728D44803255DED@TFSECMSG02>

OK, OK, After reading two solid hours of Chalkhills (17 Chalkhills in
the 10 days I was on vacation - thanks!), I'd love to be able to
respond to some of the more contentious postings - but I can't
remember them!

What sticks out for me was Harrison's sign off from his 6-65 posting,
which read:

<Harrison "Freebooter! Coelecanth! Bashi-Bazouk! Ectoplasm!" Sherwood>

Harrison, not by any chance a "Captain Haddock" fan from the TinTin
books? If my memory serves (which it probably doesn't) that was the
string of abuse he hurled at the Tibetan monks in TinTin in Tibet.

If so, all I can say is "CHANG!".

Oh, and something else - Napster . . . *takes deep breath*. I've got about
40 of my favourite singles on my PC at work, to get me through the day.
They were all downloaded from Napster. I also own them all on CD at home.
I think the big deal here is that Napster are doing no more than making
piracy easier - the piracy itself comes from us, the users.

Who, in their lives, can honestly say they've NEVER taped a record, video'd
a film, bought a bootleg etc. There's no difference. Don't blame the rail
company 'cos some git nicks your seat!

Dave Smith
Marketing Executive, Thomson Financial ESG

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 10:10:35 -0500
From: "Wiencek, Dan" <dwiencek@crateandbarrel.com>
Subject: I need your songs. Give me your songs.
Message-ID: <CCCF24B992E6D311BE670050DA793DE03AD1F6@escorp1.crate.barrel.com>

*** No XTC content whatsoever. You have been warned. ***

It's like this: I'm writing an article on mix tapes for Pop-Culture-Corn
(http://www.pccmag.com). Or rather, the article is about *pre*-mix tapes:
tapes that already have the songs selected and arranged, so that you simply
pick the tape you want, dub the tunes, download the artwork, and go.

There are seven different pre-mix tapes, each on a particular
tongue-in-cheek theme (see below). Where I need your help is in picking the
songs. Each tape will have a list of ten "main" (well-known) songs and a
shorter, "grab bag" list of slightly lesser-known songs (between 6-8) from
which the reader is supposed to choose. If I racked my brains, I could
possibly pick 18 songs for every one of these; however, I think it'd be a
lot more effective (funnier) if the lists reflected a wider taste and
knowledge of music than my own. So I ask for your help.

Send as many song ideas as you can, for any or all of the following topics.
Send them OFF-LIST. I'll say that again: SEND THEM OFF-LIST. I don't want to
clog the list with this. Please use my Netscape address:
nonsuchdan@netscape.net (easy to remember, eh?). Generally, the better known
the artist/song is, the better it will work for the article, but any style
or genre is acceptable. I guess "familiar-but-unexpected" is what I'm
shooting for. (And XTC is just fine.) I'll credit everyone whose
submission(s) I use.

Thanks very much in advance. And now, the topics:

1) "I Want to F*** You. Right Now."

[Heavy, steamy grind music; James Brown, Barry White, etc.]

2) "This Relationship Isn't Big Enough For the Two of Us"

[Vicious, piss-off-and-die breakup songs]

3) "I Have Been, Am, and Will Be Watching You"

[Surveillance, unhinged love, creepy possessiveness. "Every Breath You
Take"; Beatles' "Run for Your Life"; Costello's "I Want You" or "Living in
Paradise," etc.]

4) "Life Is Miserable and Will Only Get Worse. Why Not End it Now?"

[Really, really depressing shit; songs about doing yourself in]

5) "I Have No Imagination or Creativity Whatsoever"

[Completely lame, overplayed frat-boy classic rock, AOR, and eighties
teen-pop; nothing after 1989. Steve Miller, things like that.]

6) "I Am So in Love With You Even I Find it Nauseating"

[Nightmarishly sickening love songs; "I Just Called to Say I Love You,"
etc.]

7) "My Parties Suck"

[Lamest, most overplayed party songs imaginable; "Celebration," "Dancing
Queen," "Hard to Handle" etc.]

Thanks again ... Chalkhills roolz!

Dan W.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 11:31:18 -0400
From: fagnello@ascap.com
Subject: SPOILER: Keep "Boarded Up" 'til 5/23, (if you want)
Message-ID: <852568C7.0055C4B3.00@notessmtp2.ascap.com>

MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD!!!

Hello Chalksters:

Now that I've gotten everyone's attention, some thoughts about Wasp Star:

"Playground" - I love to hear Colin reinterpret Andy's demo bass parts.
The fast scale near the end of the demo sounded impressive until I heard
Colin's off-the-wall lick separating the first chorus and verse on the
final.  I exclaimed "Yeah! That's why HE'S the bass player..."  I find
young Holly's vocals irresistible.  Hope I'm not becoming a dirty old
man... The guitar lick reminds me of Paul Kossoff (Free)...Song comes
complete with Black Sea anvil...

"Stupidly Happy" - Andy must be using that Dennis Fano guitar (sounds here
like a high-rent Jazzmaster.)  Can't sound EXACTLY like Keith...If they do
a video, they could use the same studio that animated the tilefish on "The
Sopranos," -- if we need extra proof...

"In Another Life" - It's interesting that 2 of Colin's 3 songs here are
bassless..
One thing I've noticed about the finals is all Beatle-like production
touches of the demos are gone -- except for this one (sounds like a "lost"
3rd song from the "Free as a Bird"/"Real Love" sessions)...Robyn Hitchcock
comes to mind, too...My favorite lyric on the album -- Bowie's "Heroes" for
a 40-something couple...

"My Brown Guitar" - You can't take the Beatle-isms out of the writing,
though..  Crunchy vibrato-ed guitar compliments the sensuality of the
lyric...don't let its unassuming nature fool ya, this is top-shelf
Partridge...

"Boarded Up" - Don't fret so much, Colin.  Your town's not that far from
Oxford and London.  I have to go into the city, we're "two-by-four-ded up"
in my 'burb, too...Though it made less sense, I liked the drunk woodworm of
the demo better than the "sophistoplot" of the final...

"I'm the Man Who Murdered Love" - This song is positively reborn.  Raising
the key a half-step to Eb puts the vocal right in Andy's wheelhouse - he's
never sounded more engaging or effortlessly commercial.  The bass part has
been simplified, too -- transforming a clunky folker into a "#1" (in a just
world, of course.)

"We're All Light" - He's pretty darn commercial here, too... My candidate
for least changed song from the demo (excepting the theremin and hip hop
drum)..."I Don't Want to be Here" is not here because this one's a little
like it and blows it away...

"Standing in for Joe" - Sounds like Colin was listening to 10cc, especially
bassist Graham Gouldman... The guitars are like Gouldman's Wax bandmate
Andrew Gold...Favorite double entendre: "This actor he plays all the
parts..."

"Wounded Horse" - Andy visits the "Stagger Lee" chord progression...
Thought this was the weak link here, until I realized the melody had taken
up long-term residence in my brain...

"You and the Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful" -- Changing the groove from
Afro-Arabic (see Song Stories) to Dave Matthews jam-band seemed regressive;
but, as many Chalksters mention, the less you hear the demo, the more you
like the final...Love the trombones...

"Church of Women" - Again, as long as I don't hear the demo, I think the
big space between notes at the beginning of the guitar solo is acceptable,
even tantalizing.. Dave Gregory was right about that demo, merely
off-the-top-of-Andy's-head fast scales...

"Wheel and the Maypole" - The "Everything Decays" segment is one of my
all-time favorite Andy passages.  Sublime marriage of chords and melody,
the likes of which we used to get from Paulie Macca... This suite almost
gives 70's prog-rock a good name...Thought they took it a little too
"outside" in the long fade, though...

Taken together, AV1 and AV2 shows a brace of songwriter/performers with
more range than the '99 Mets infield.  They may be older, but their
learning curve keeps ascending.  The only way for most younger acts to
compete with this kind of prowess is not to, and pretend they're not there
(which, sadly, has worked so far.) These guys can do no wrong.  I'll go
wherever they care to take me... .

Cheers,

F.A.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 11:49:57 -0400
From: Keith Hanlon <keith@orchestraville.com>
Subject: Metallica and Napster
Message-ID: <a04310101b524d66a0509@[216.233.248.162]>

Bill Douglas wrote:

>The only reason Napster exists is because radio is not
>serving any real function promoting new music, and the
>record labels are not doing enough to get the radio
>stations to play new music.

Now that, my friend, is a great point. This coming from the guy who
defended Napster a couple of digests back.

This issue is more complicated than "stealing." I'm sure performers
said the same thing when radio was first introduced in the 30s. It'll
be interesting to see where we'll be five years from now.

Keith

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 17:50:52 +0100
From: "Steve Pitts" <spitts@thesaurus-computers.co.uk>
Subject: The rights to works
Message-ID: <802568C7.005C8E15.00@mail.thesaurus-computers.co.uk>

Chalkfolks,

> Billy Bragg is another artist who owns the copyright to his own records <

The most obvious example I can think of is Roy Harper, who has bought back
the rights to all his albums (no mean feat, since his back catalogue
comprises some 20 studio albums plus another dozen live/radio performances)
from the various record companies, and reissued them all on his own label,
Science Friction. It seems that such a situation is fairly rare though,
which makes the debate over Napster an ironic one in my book. Not in the
least it seems to me that the record companies have far more to lose, from
any radical alteration to the way that music is distributed, than the
artists do.

As for overrated XTC albums, I don't see how any of them could be. The one
factor that makes XTC stand out in my record collection is that every album
that they've ever released is good enough to warrant listening to again and
again, and indeed I'd have trouble even picking out individual tracks that
I dislike. Whilst other artists with considerable bodies of work come close
to this in my estimation - Squeeze, The Jam, Roy Harper, Billy Bragg, Peter
Gabriel, Joe Jackson, Tom Petty, The Beautiful South, Steely Dan, Talking
Heads - none of them quite achieve it, and there are others - Mike
Oldfield, Elvis Costello, The Clash, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Siouxsie And
The Banshees, Wire, Suzanne Vega, Paul Simon, OMD, King Crimson, Steve
Hillage, The Fall, Ian Dury - who have produced some real howlers in
amongst the gems.

Sacred cows - from the discussions so far I'd say the most sacred of them
all is The Beatles. FWIW I've never grokked their stuff at all, and I run a
mile every time one of their tracks assaults my ear-drums. Maybe that's
just the old punk in me, but then how do you explain away some of the other
artists listed above, or maybe it is just a rebellion against their utter
ubiquity??

Cheers, Steve

NP: Independant Intavenshan - Linton Kwesi Johnson

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 18:35:06 +0100
From: "David Seddon" <D.Seddon@btinternet.com>
Subject: Nonsuch
Message-ID: <00be01bfaaee$c5c93720$c89701d5@default>

Ed said that more people on the list slag off Nonsuch than praise it.  "Not,
of course, that I'm in any way willing to fish through the digests
gathering statistics..".

Well no sweat, Ed.  I'm sure you're right, tho' I for one will always
maintain that it's their best album (till I hear one better!).  To me
Skylarking is the overated one.  And, I think it's fair to say that letters
in praise of it have far outweighed letters against it.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 10:10:47 -1000
From: "Jim Smart" <jismart@ksbe.edu>
Subject: plug
Message-ID: <38FF6444.72D7B91B@ksbe.edu>
Organization: 3Tripper

I'd like to take a moment to plug a magazine I just got. It's the
latest issue of AUTOreverse. It's an indie mag full of sass and
attitude, yet it also provides helpful information and lengthy
interviews with photos. The current issue has a LONG Martin Newell
interview, as well as a short side interview with Dave Gregory. The
magazine also features a nice interview with our own Mitch Friedman,
and is in fact put together by our own Ian. Very worth the five bucks
it costs.  Get it at: http://AUTOreverse.net/

Jim

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 10:31:55 -1000
From: "Jim Smart" <jismart@ksbe.edu>
Subject: at the risk of being ridiculed...
Message-ID: <38FF6938.CEA68E49@ksbe.edu>
Organization: 3Tripper

*SPOILER ALERT*

Um, as far as the debate about which is Colin's worst song, Standing in for
Joe or War Dance, I can't really participate because I like them both a
lot. I've always felt War Dance is one of the better songs on Nonsvch, and
it's one of my favorite Colin songs. Bungalow is much less interesting to
me. And Standing in for Joe has a really strong beat provided by the string
section. It's Colin's stongest song on Wasp Star. It rocks.

I guess that beauty is in the ear of the wasp holder.

In Another Life is OK, but the lack of bass throws me off, and the way the
lyrics spin off into oblivion at the ending kind of bugs me. At first the
song seems to be about marriage, and the choices we make, and what other
choices (or other universes) might be like, and it seems to be working. But
then he starts making rhymes about cigs and pigs and "test matches we might
win" and ends with the meaningless "and your mother buys her gin"....which
seems to have no purpose other than to rhyme with win, which wasn't a very
compelling line anyway....so the whole thing just unravels for me at the
end. "Boarded Up" I'm actually starting to like, though it doesn't fit on
this album. It would fit on the White Album, maybe! It's lyrically very
good. I love the line about the death watch Beatle band,
because...um....I'm in one! Yes, I play the part of Paul in a local Beatle
tribute band called the Daytrippers. So I get his point there.

The song I am starting to skip when I play Wasp Star is Wounded Horse. It's
just starting to grate. I'd be better off not having heard the great songs
that could have been chosen instead of this one. In fact, if there were
ever an Apple Venus III (which there won't be, unless it's in another
life), and it had all the demos not yet recorded, it would be at least as
good as I and II.

Man, this post was supposed to be about me sticking up for War Dance, but
now it's spun out of control, not unlike what I accused Colin of in Another
Life.  Hmmm.

Jim "well if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black" Smart

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 16:23:47 -0400
From: Ian C Stewart <ian@autoreverse.net>
Subject: AUTOreverse 10: Martin Newell
Message-ID: <38FF6752.DD51F25A@autoreverse.net>
Organization: http://www.AUTOreverse.net/

http://www.autoreverse.net/
AUTOreverse HOMEPOP EXPLOSION ISSUE Featuring Martin Newell

AUTOreverse, the magazine for, by and about home recording artists
around the world, features a long (13 pages!) interview with Martin
Newell in its newest issue. It's a hilarious and revealing portrait of
The Jangling Man himself, offering a rare glimpse of the man behind the
poetry and pop music.

To commemorate this special occasion, the AUTOreverse website, in
cooperation with Jarmusic (http://go.to/jarmusic), is offering an
exclusive MP3 of Martin's band THE CLEANERS FROM VENUS. The song is
"Incident In A Greatcoat" and it's from the forthcoming CLEANERS
compilation "My Back Wages," out this summer on Jarmusic. You can
download it now or listen to the song in streaming Real Audio!

AUTO10 also includes interviews with US homepop mack-dads Jason Garcia
of Household Names, Pat Dull of Break Up! Records, Mitch Friedman (of
Mitch Friedman) and Ben Gott! There's also a suprise with Dave Gregory
and R Stevie Moore... Shhhhhh.... Top secret stuff.

In addition to the interviews there's over 100 reviews of self-released
and microlabel recordings from all points on the glob. If you've put out
a CD, record or cassette of your own music, send us a copy for review in
the next issue! It'll be fun!

Follow the link on the AUTO homepage to order the magazine.
Distributors get in touch for wholesale rates.

cheers!
Ian C Stewart,
editor, tea boy, camel clutcher

AUTOreverse
you record it | we review it
http://www.autoreverse.net/

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 18:22:38 -0700 (PDT)
From: Molly Fanton <mfanton99@yahoo.com>
Subject: Them's Fightin' Words
Message-ID: <20000421012238.2633.qmail@web1302.mail.yahoo.com>

Nonsuch dull, tripe?  What the bleedin' hell world do
you come from?  Nonsuch is a great album.  I love
about 95% of the album.  It's in my top five XTC
albums ever next to Skylarking, Oranges & Lemons,
Mummer (yes, I like Mummer got something wrong with
that?) and Apple Venus Vol. 1 (for the people who hate
this magnificant album :p, I LOVE this album too).  I
like most of XTCs albums, except White Music and Go2,
but I have to relisten to them, so maybe my mind will
change.  I know we have every right for our own
opinions, but calling Nonsuch sull or tripe is like
saying Oranges & Lemons is overproduced, don't get me
started on this one.  (It's NOT overproduced, I don't
judge an album because of it's productions if it
sounds good to me I'll get it.)

Molly

=====

Molly's Pages
http://www.angelfire.com/mn/mollyfa99/index.html

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 01:07:59 +0100
From: "Pete W." <peter.wright2@virgin.net>
Subject: Prince of Orange
Message-ID: <38FF9BDE.A9CDBD42@virgin.net>
Organization: Netscape Online member

"Jake Bryson" wrote.......

> (re Wasp Star)
>  add Prince of Orange and the album would have been a classic.

At last - someone else who recognises the brilliance of this track. I am
amazed it isn't mentioned more when the AV demos are discussed and I was
seriously pissed off when it didn't make the cut for AV1 or WS.
Sadly , the only copy I have of the PofO demo is on cassette and wearing
mighty thin (and it was about 10th generation to start with !!)
Is there a CD available of all the AV demos (ie not Homespun) of
reasonable quality ?
Cheers chaps
Pete

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 16:59:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Sean Robison <dabahbs1@go.com>
Subject: Randomness
Message-ID: <5683765.956275158308.JavaMail.dabahbs1@gomailjtp02>

>From Todd Bernhardt:

>Okay, Jake, as your e-mail address implies, you may be
>a "bigtuffguy," but I've had about enough of this talk
>from you and others on the Playground. There is NO Sting
>on this album. Andy does not sound like Sting. He does
>not write like Sting. Sting should be so fucking lucky.

Ouch. Sorry, but I agree with the masses that parts
of "You and the Clouds..." has a Sting-esque jazzy feel to
them. BUT! This is not a bad thing. Andy just took a Sting
sound and improved on it.

>And "Wounded Horse" is funny, especially the "slice of
>misery" solo.

Why is everyone bashing "Wounded Horse"? It's a good song.
Andy sounds like he's having fun playing and singing it.

As for the Nonsuch bashers - c'mon, kids, this is a good
album. If anything, AV2 sounds like the next logical step
from Nonsuch. Nonsuch showed signs that the band's
songwriting was becoming more commercial - less of the
quirky elements that exemplified "Black Sea" and "English
Settlement" - and a more mature sound that someone who has
had 12 additional years of life behind them would write.
Personally, I think Nonsuch could have been a hit had
Virgin not let it gather dust in the corner.

I applaud XTC for continuing to grow and mature in their
songs. Any band that continues to crank out the same
sounding album over and over again gets very boring (e.g.
Rush). XTC manages to produce new and interesting sounds
every time - they keep up with the new song styles and
technologies and then put their "twist" to it.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 21:28:12 EDT
From: WESnLES@aol.com
Subject: EricJohnsonNonsuchChurchOfWomen
Message-ID: <90.3495720.263108ac@aol.com>

THIS JUST IN:

Eric Johnson's best disc is Tones, the other's pale in comparison by a
LONGshot.  I saw Eric during this tour in a very small venue, about 30
people.  Also caught Holdsworth, WOW, in the same club a few weeks later.
Holdsworth?  Who, you ask?  SHAME.  Those two gigs were bettered by Joe Pass
in a smoke filled basement of a jazz club.  Holy shit could that guy play.

Nonsuch, great to see so many folks take up for this album.  The only
troubling thing is that in the posts I don't see the best damn song on the
album listed.  "That Wave" is THE song on Nonsuch, a masterpiece.

Oh, if I read one more post that doesn't give "Church of Women" it's due, I
may just track all of you down and feed greedily on your sour innards.

wesLONG
http://members.tripod.com/~The_Last_Balloon/index.html

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 17:28:51 -0700
From: "Digitalmaster" <digitalmaster@earthlink.net>
Subject: CDR Problems
Message-ID: <001f01bfab28$9235bca0$0200a8c0@digitalpc>

Tim here has a little question about how CDR's screw up:
>>>>>I have just bought a Phillips CDR with Adaptec EZ-CD software included.
My real problem is that it is not able to record the last track on the CD
i.e.on a two track CD single its only picking up the first track, a four
track single the first three and on a sixteen track album the first
fifteen.  Weird eh!<<<<<

And what do I say?:
There is a defect in either the software version (doubtful), bios version,
or hardware.  I would recommend returning it.  It is burning the TOC at the
end of the CD incorrectly.  That is most likely your problem.  The other
problem would be that you are not closing the disk.  In Easy CD Creator
(assuming you have 3.5 or 4.0, when you start recording, you need to click
on "Close Disk" in the properties section.  That will solve your problems.

If you did do that, then its the hardware.  Companies never admit fault, so
don't ask them.  I knew a guy who worked for HP.  He was a complete loser
who dropped out of high school (not that dropping out is always bad, he was
just really stupid).   Most tech's on the phone are people who cant get real
jobs making good money so they work for big companies as "dumb-fucks"
answering questions that they know nothing about.  Really, never call tech
support.  If you don't some of these idiots will have to get real jobs.
Really, how many of you have ever talked with an intelligent tech support
person on the phone?  They are as retarded as the guy in elementary school
who took a fucking hour to read one damn paragraph.

Digital "I'm in a good mood today" master

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 14:46:25 -0700
From: "Steve Young" <sjyoung@hotmail.com>
Subject: Another newbie arises...
Message-ID: <20000420214835.7569.qmail@hotmail.com>

My name is Steve Young and I hail from Northern California.  I was first
introduced to the works of XTC (let me just come out and say it... "the
lads"!  There, I really feel part of Chalkhills now) through TMBG's cover of
25 O'Clock.

I first picked up a copy of O&L in my university's library, and dubbed some
of the tracks (Garden, Skeleton, Loving, Pink, Chalkhills) to a cheesy,
hissy tenth-generation audio tape.  After a few months I could withstand no
longer and sought to complete my collection utterly, definitively,
eternally.  During my "non-album tracks" phase I casually picked up a
mint/sealed copy of "Beeswax" (CD) at my local record store, then sold it
back for a pittance because:  "wait, I already have all these songs."  Alas,
fellow Chalkhillians, I have since learned my lesson.  Or have I?  I passed
up a cheap copy of "a school guide to XTC" not six weeks ago...

Re: Wasp Star.  I do have Napster, but in a month I have not seen a single
track from the latest offering.  That is to my benefit, of course.  I am
weak-willed.  Besides, I will buy five hundred copies come May and play them
simultaneously on five hundred stereos, each disc about .5 seconds ahead of
the last.  So the opening sounds of "Playground" will begin again & again &
again, and wash up over itself, and as the song grinds into gear my head
will explode.

I am among those who have really enjoyed reading the first impressions of
WS.  A lot of the negative reviews (which seem mostly based upon defeated
expectations) will probably help me enjoy the album, since I have tricked
myself into expecting a dumbed-down barrel of shite.  To coin a phrase.

I need to draw a distinction between "music spoilers" and "lyric spoilers".
I agree with the many who have argued that music cannot be spoiled through
words.  But I believe the intellectual satisfaction from reading lyrics is
comparable to the satisfaction of hearing them sung - at least, more
comparable than simply reading about a song's use of guitar and then hearing
the licks yourself.  So I just scroll down through lyrical bits (as soon as
my eye catches them).  No biggie.

I'd like to throw in my vote for "Nonsuch".  I realize there is a strong
anti-faction on Chalkhills, but while the album serves me better as a
collection of songs than as a cohesive LP, "Rook", "Wrapped in Grey", "Then
She Appeared," and "Humble Daisy" give me outright chills.  Chills!  I
mean - my god - what a frighteningly beautiful and overwhelmingly playful
little bundle of musical and lyrical creativity.

"Bye bye!"

Steve Y.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 16:00:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tyler Hewitt <tahewitt@yahoo.com>
Subject: bitch bitch bitch
Message-ID: <20000420230029.29369.qmail@web2104.mail.yahoo.com>

Someone didn't like my dismissal of Nonsuch, stating:

You should try investing in a pair of ears, they're
quite useful when listening to music.

very odd, considering that just a few sentences before
he wrote the following:

...the plastic sounding tuneless
dirge that is River of Orchids...

Which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's not
ME who needs to invest in a pair of ears...

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 15:30:37 -0700
From: Steven Reule <steven@obsessed-with-music.com>
Subject: Japanese Demo Tracks - virgin [unopened]
Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.20000420153037.00709d9c@pop.calweb.com>

In Chalkhills 6-82 Thomas wrote:
>>Fellow pink things,
>>I'm fleshing out my collection & can't seem to find "Demo Tracks" (the
Japanese/Virgin release from Nonsuch) or "Dear God/Homo Safari" on CD
anywhere on the Net. Even Ebay came up dry. Anyone have any suggestions?
============

Yes! There is a SEALED version of Demo Tracks (Japanese EP) on ebay now,
just posted. Go to:
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/music@obsessed-with-music.com/
and click on the item number

Thanks!

Steven

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 18:15:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: Tim Snyder <tim@cs.georgetown.edu>
Subject: Second Planet (AV2)
Message-ID: <200004202215.SAA09327@vivid.georgetown.edu>

I pay only skimworthy attention to this list, so this may be
a Suject retread.  But I'll ask anyway: what's the situation
with Apple Venus 2?  Last I heard, it was to be released
"following" AV1, and it was a more electric set of tunes than
AV1.

I need an update!

Best/Enjoy,
 Tim

------------------------------

End of Chalkhills Digest #6-84
******************************

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21 April 2000 / Feedback