Love-Hounds Digest (Issue L12)
Love-Hou...@eddie.mit.edu
Topics:
* KommenTs in general
* Some record reviews
* Madonna and Sonic Youth?
* Mike Watt
* LH T-shirts?
* Chestbursting
* WHFS playlist...
* KaTching up with Love-Hounds
* Reply to Chris Valas: Give IED an inch...
* The 'Not Long Awaited' Rossi Comments on SO
* Hounding down that elusive fox
* marvicK To the rescue!
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Date: Tue, 22 Jul 86 13:54 PDT
From: IED0DXM%UCLAMVS...@WISCVM.ARPA
Subject: KommenTs in general
Well, Susanne, the US 12" of "The Big Sky" was released about June 25
or so, about the same time that MTV first started showing the video.
The 7", however, was only released last week. Criticism has been
leveled by IED at EMI-America's addle-brained release schedule, which
has resulted in complete market failure.
It's true that the U.S. 12" singles are packed in LP-quality board,
whereas UK 12"s are not. It cannot be concluded from this difference
that singles are seen as more disposible in the UK than in the US,
however, since UK 7" singles are usually released in much sturdier
sleeves than US 7"s.
Incidentally, it may interest business-minded Kate-fans to know that
Thorn EMI, the video branch of EMI in the US, has been purchased by
Menahem Golan and Whatsisname Globus, who co-run Cannon Films, the
Israeli-originated independent.
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Organization: The MITRE Corp., Bedford, MA
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 86 09:58:08 EDT
From: Chris J. Valas <cv%li...@mitre-bedford.ARPA>
Subject: Some record reviews
IED, why don't you listen to some different music? Doug used to beat
Kate to death regularly, but he tossed in enough material about other
musics to make his stuff worth sifting through.
Records IED doesn't need to know about:
Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists -- LIVE!
Fripp creates the analog equivalent of Frippertronics with a
pack of mixed-experience-level guitarists (the League, natch) and a
new standard tuning. Well. This is great guitar noodling and Fripp
is in his usual impeccable form. Some of the pieces could have been
omitted, particularly one which features slow scales interspersed with
single chords. This is something to put on when you're meditating
about the future of the acoustic guitar. On the whole, I prefer
Fripp's work with the ex-cop.
Jazz Butcher -- Bloody Nonsense
This guy let the domestics do the butcher number on the cover
of his US release. There is an incredibly fatuous review by some
wanker called C.C. Dammerung on the back. This particular piece of
crap was almost enough to make me pass up the record altogether but I
went ahead and bought it anyway. (Really, go into a record store and
read the review. Who is this jackass?) The Jazz Butcher's music is
far better than the cover implies. He sounds like Robyn Hitchcock
meets Elvis Costello over a few beers and they decide to do covers of
older Matt Johnson tunes. I saw him at Swifts on Monday and, like
Hitchcock, in person he manages to improve on the recorded material.
Best song of the night was a marvelous extended cover of Roadrunner.
If you can't see him, buy the record.
The Feelies have new vinyl out and are coming to Boston in early
August. These guys were doing the R.E.M. chiming guitar routine back
when I was in school. They do it a lot better, and are usually great
live, even though they used to only play gigs on national holidays.
Either these guys are weirder than us or they work for the post office
but either way, get the record "The Good Earth" and while you're at it
you might as well go ahead and buy their original record which is now
about six years old and may even be in the cut-out bins.
If anyone is interested in taking some real adventures in musical
innovation rather than spending the summer on the tame (though pretty)
stuff KB is doing these days, most of CAN's albums are available (when
you can find them) for under five dollars. Do yourself a favor. Find
out what Holger Czukay was like before he grew up.
With love,
Chris Valas
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Subject: Madonna and Sonic Youth?
Date: 23 Jul 86 09:30:09 PDT (Wed)
From: ts...@aerospace.ARPA
To further that subtle link between Madonna and Sonic Youth beyond
the Madonna "covers" done by S.Y. mentioned recently by Hoffboy, this
timely piece appeared in L.A. Weekly (7/18) (stolen by me for the
continuing education of L-Hs):
----------------------------------------------------------------
_True Blue_ could very well be Madonna's _EVOL/LOVE_ LP. The spinning
nexus of reality 2 fantasy is thematically constant. Her best songs from
the last few years have been tied to the top with this magic thread.
_True Blue_ is a true continuation, though it's unfortunately a bit more
refined, glossed and generic. But ... we don't care. "White Heat," the
James Cagney tribute, is a total romantic refusal to believe in either
side of the image allove (?) it to EVOLve through her headhole: "Can you
feel the rhythm of my mind/We're not going nowhere till you have a
change of mind." This single existential concept/decept is continually
apparent in the Sean/Sex devotional song "True Blue"; not so much in the
lyrics as in the cover portrait: What's going on here? Will we see the
other half of this photo? Extremely suggestive. Only time will tell.
The fine line between responsibility/irresponsibility is important to
this function and is dealt with in "Where's the Party?": "I'm not living
in fear/I'm just living in chaos." This is the necessary progress from
Henry Miller that 1986 demands. 2 other tunes of interest are "La Isla
Bonita," which is a warm affection to Mike Watt: "Last night I dreamt
of San Pedro ..." And "Live To Tell," possibly Madonna's greatest, most
stirring words and music yet. We've played this song 1,000 times and
are always transcended. The album's dynamics (all consonant) aren't 1/2
as interesting as _Like a Virgin_ or the 1st LP, but we have yet to be
inundated to the pleasure-center pliers of repeat, so who's to say?
It's not something we worry about.
-- Sonic Youth
----------------------------------------------------------------
This and other "reviews" (by Johathan Gold, Craig Lee, Skot Armstrong,
Belissa Cohen, Byron Coley; don't know most of them) are grouped under
the title, "Meditations on Madonna".
Fu-Sheng
p.s. who's Mike Watt?
p.p.s. anybody else interested in the KB silk-screen idea? I volunteer
Doug to take votes. :-)
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Date: Wed, 23 Jul 86 13:29:02 EDT
From: James B Hofmann <hof...@AMSAA.ARPA>
Subject: Mike Watt
Mike is the bassist of the late Minutemen. He was responsible for the
flipside of the Ciconne Youth New Alliance 45. He is now heading a newly
formed group called Firehose.
Who's Belissa Cohen?
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Date: Wed, 23 Jul 86 23:23 EDT
From: Tav...@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Subject: T-shirts
I'd be interested in at least two T-shirts. What would you put on them?
Would you be duplicating the black shirt? And who are "you" (i.e.,
who's doing 'em)?
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Date: Thu, 24 Jul 86 01:47:02 EDT
From: nessus (Doug Alan)
Subject: Chestbursting
A reliable source of rumour says that Kate has just seen the hottest
SF thriller of the summer and likes it a lot. Apparently it has
inspired her to write a new song, which will be released shortly as a
special between-album single. A working version of the lyrics have
gotten out; here they are:
CHESTBURSTING
I still dream of Aliens.
I wake up crying.
You're making eggs
But you're out of reach
When your cacoon encases me
You're like my tapeworm
That grew in my bowels
What made it special
Made it dangerous
So I flushed it and forget.
Everytime it pains,
You're here in my chest
Like the tapeworm coming out
Oh, I just know that something gross is going to happen
And I don't know when
But just thinking it could even make it happen.
Under the reactor
Wrapped up in this slime
You could see them coming
They looked too small
In their big metal lander
To be a threat to the mother Alien
I flushed my tapeworm when it got too big
I can't flush you down the toilet
Oh God! I can't forget!
Your son's coming out (Ouch!)
Your son's coming out (Agggh!)
Your son's coming out (Aaaghargaglephfftargletoopgaaaaaaggggh!)
-Doug
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Date: Thu, 24 Jul 86 8:23:39 EDT
From: James B Hofmann <hof...@AMSAA.ARPA>
Subject: WHFS playlist...
THE STRAWBERRY SWITCHBLADE - "Jolene" (Dolly Parton cover)
JOAN BAEZ - "Diamonds and Rust"
KATE BUSH - "Wuthering Heights"
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Date: Thu, 24 Jul 86 01:33:10 edt
From: Joe Turner <cutter%umass-bos...@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>
Subject: KaTching up with Love-Hounds
For those who care:
Please run out and grab a copy of the Japanese computer journal "Bit"
(July 1986 issue) and flip to page 192 for a mention of Love-Hounds.
(then flip to page 195 for a mention of my name, *hand-wave*)
Otherwise -
Things I Picked Up This Week:
"Cure for the Blues" by APB is kinda neat. "Sunset Song" has been getting
mucho airplay, but cuts like "Part of the Deal" and "Crooner's Lullabye"
show more promise.
"Well Well Well..." by the Woodentops is, well, come on, EVERYONE likes
the Woodentops, right? Whoever Animal Jesus is, s/he has found a good
band to produce. Lots of energy, tight playing, etc. BTW, one of the
guest producers on the album is Swami Ananda Nagara. Didn't he produce the
fine "25 O'clock" album by The Dukes of Stratosphear (XTC) ? Or am I being
silly? Best cut (I think) is "Steady Steady", which departs from the quick
pacing and lets loose with sheer paranoia and psychosis.
"The Drain Train" New Cabaret Voltaire. Kirk and Mallinder up to their
old tricks. I hated "Red Mecca" but liked the direction they took in
"Micro- phonies" and "The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the
Lord". This continues in that same vein. "Shakedown (the Whole Thing)"
is less found music and more melody - to wit, it's rather funky. It's
a weird album, in that record one, side one is 45rpm, side two is
33rm, and record two is 45rpm both sides and contains two versions of
"Shakedown (the Whole Thing)", a "dub" version and a "version"
version. Not bad 'tall.
K-T-shirts: Newbury Comics in Harvard Square has the ugly HoL t-shirts in
red, pale blue, and yellow. YECHH! Even IED must admit that the choices of
color are a little, well, uh, bad.
In the same vein: My brother is doing the printing of t-shirts for the
SF-Lover's net digest. I will confer with him about price and cost. It
would basically cost $10 or so. Probably less. We would need art, tho.
Any artists out there? Anyone with uncopyrighted pix of KT? (Anyone with
copyrighted pix of KT that we can get away with printing, even?) Should it
( \/ )
be a generic "I \ / Kate Bush" t-shirt, or should it be specifically a
\/
Love-Hounds t-shirt? Ideas anyone?
By the by, Doug. Kate isn't a god, she's a GODDESS. Unless, of course,
she's been to Sweden recently for one of THOSE operations, and is now
Kurt Bush...? Let's just leave it as "major deity"...
Forsooth. It is late. I must work. (Responsible adult, bah! Not worth it.)
Thankyou and goodnight.
Oh, screw the parity bits!
Joe
--------------------------------------
This has been number 25 in ZTT's Eternal Horizon series "What's Good for the
Geese..."
--------------------------------------
PS. Andrew Marvick - WHERE do you hear them counting off beats in the
beginning of "Watching You Without Me"? I distinctly hear "What... Four"
and then nothing else. (This is listening to the CD at LOUD volumes) This
leads me to beleive that the incident is NOT a recreated studio moment,
but is possibly a question... "What for?" (Just like someone made me notice
that the beginning of each episode of The Prisoner has #6 answering his own
question: "Who is Number One?" "You are, number six!" It's all in the parsing!)
[][][][][][][][][][]
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 86 23:24 PDT
From: IED0DXM%UCLAMVS...@WISCVM.ARPA
Subject: Reply to Chris Valas: Give IED an inch...
Well, Chris, IED was being just a little facetious when he asked what
was meant to be the rhetorical question, "Why listen to anything other
than Kate?"
SINCE YOU BROUGHT IT UP:
In fact IED wastes away something like 50% of his life listening
intently to extra-Katian musics. Yesterday he bought four LPs of more
or less obscure Debussy (he's suddenly and almost inexplicably gotten
hung up on the "Impressionists" Debussy and Ravel, trying to absorb
their respective complete works for piano solo); and listened
extensively to two of Ivo Pogorelich's recent CDs (his live Warsaw
Chopin recital and the Ravel Gaspard de la nuit/Prokoviev 6th Sonata
CD). IED's desert island pop top ten list, NOT including Kate, is as
follows:
1. Japan: Tin Drum and Gentlemen Take Polaroids
2. David Sylvian: Brilliant Trees
3. YMO: BGM and Technodelic
4. Ippu-Do: Night Mirage
5. Miharu Koshi: Tutu and Parallelisme
6. Ronny (produced by Peter Godwin): To Have and Have Not (12")
7. Doris Day (Andre Previn, piano): Duet
8. Scriabin: Complete Sonatas, Roberto Szidon, piano (DGG)
9. Rachmaninoff: 4th Piano Concerto, Vladimir Krainev, piano (Melodya)
10. Chopin: Op. 10 and 25 Etudes, Maurizio Pollini, piano (DGG)
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Date: 25 Jul 86 16:34:00 PST
From: "ROSSI J.A." <ro...@nusc.ARPA>
Subject: The 'Not Long Awaited' Rossi Comments on SO
Reply-To: "ROSSI J.A." <ro...@nusc.ARPA>
Between reading the comments of L-H people and reading the reviews of
SO in some of my more trusting places (e.g. Keyboard, Modern
Recording, etc), I managed to not buy (or listen to sans Sledgehammer)
PG #5. Well I picked up the cassette in Montreal Wed and I havent
played much else in my car since. I feel that, by far, theis is
Gabriel's best solo work to date. For the same reasons I am starting
to enjoy Lionheart and Never For Ever much more than HoL, I find I
like So.
Many people have claimed that PGIII is the PGs of all PGs.
Well, in much the same way that The Dreaming is probably Kate's most
interesting work to date, there does seem to be room, even in a single
artist's writings, for enough variance to put together a consistent
product which probably appeals to two entirely seperate subgroups of
music lovers. This is what I find in So. As for the claims that this
is a commercial 'Sell-Out' album (based, I would have to supose on
Sledgehammer alone, since I don't see much commercial Hit potential
for anything else on the album except for, maybe, Don't Give Up, which
with a convincing video become a a smash tearjerker ala Time After
Time), I obviously see no indications of this.
What I do hear is a welcome return to the Lamb Lies Down era Genesis
phrasing in Gabriel's style which was missing from all but PGI
(Sollsbury Hill in particular). The mere lack of the Keyboard
influence of Larry Fast with the substitution of Gabriel's own style
on the keyboards surely must add to the effect. I would have loved
this to have been PGI instead of PGV. In truth, I do like PGIII a
lot, but I like experimental things quite a bit. So hits that other
side of my musical tastes, with its reliable rhythmic romps through
melodically tasteful passages. I also like occassionally to listen to
lyrics that remain poetic and contain no discernable alternate message
which is hiding in rough symbolism (Sledgehammer is, of course, a
comic exception to that last statement. That Voice Again, In Your
Eyes, We do What Were told and especially the Thid id the Picture duet
with Laurie Anderson are examples of the flowing Gabriel I've missed
since Genesis. To even mention this LP in the same sentence with any
of Phil Collins albums does it a diservice.
As for the Don't Give Up debate. Kate does an appreciable job singing
lyrics which were written by PG in a melody composed by PG. I don't
see any special relevance for her role in the LP, however and I think
her inclusion in Games Without Frontiers was much more appropriate. I
really can't see Dolly Parton doing that vocal although I think I
would have chosen somebody other than Kate, if it were my choice
(Melanie would be my first choice and ? Oldfield who does work with
Mike Oldfield and did the memorable vocal on Voyage of the Acolyte,
second). I just guess I see a place for this sentimental type of
thing, especially from Peter Gabriel who brought us to know and
understand Rael in a similar manner. At any rate, now that he's
satisfied my interests with the album I've been waiting for, for all I
care he can go back to Shocking Monkeys, bizarre rhythms, and Larry
Fast effects for PGVI. If there is any deep meaning in the album, it
must be in the title.
'Man made light, at night, is very bright'
John
------
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Date: Fri, 25 Jul 86 18:22 PDT
From: IED0DXM%UCLAMVS...@WISCVM.ARPA
Subject: Hounding down that elusive fox
>Please run out and grab a copy of the Japanese computer journal "Bit"
>(July 1986 issue) and flip to page 192 for a mention of Love-Hounds.
Where? Huh? Maybe you could just reprint it for those of us who
don't know where to pick up latest copies of Japanese computer
journals? IED now feels particularly ignorant. Japanese? Huh?
>K-T-shirts: Newbury Comics in Harvard Square has the ugly HoL
>t-shirts in red, pale blue, and yellow. YECHH! Even IED must admit
>that the choices of color are a little, well, uh, bad.
IED readily admits it, Joe! Never meant to imply that these
gizmos were particularly attractive. The only really nice one
is the black "It's in the trees..." sweatshirt. Even the "designer"
HoL sweatshirt is a little lame. But t-shirts are not worn for
beauty's sake, are they, rather as cultural (or counter-cultural)
identification devices. As such the US HoL shirt functions
well enough, and it IS kind of cheery. (By the way, you are talking
about the WHITE shirt with three different colors of ink, right? Not
three different colors of t-shirt?)
>In the same vein: My brother is doing the printing of t-shirts for the
>SF-Lover's net digest. I will confer with him about price and cost. It
>would basically cost $10 or so. Probably less. We would need art, tho.
>Any artists out there? Anyone with uncopyrighted pix of KT? (Anyone with
>copyrighted pix of KT that we can get away with printing, even?) Should
> ( \/ )
>it be a generic "I \ / Kate Bush" t-shirt, or should it be
> \/
>a Love-Hounds t-shirt? Ideas anyone?
PLEASE not a soppy "I heart Kate" shirt -- Dale Somerville already put
out a "Kate is Love" bumper sticker which IED had to edit for public
presentation. Aren't there enough simple KT fan shirts, anyway? Much
preferable is the idea of a Love-Hounds design. Could you explain
what format the design must be in for transference by silk-screen?
Something IED has thought of wistfully in the past is a design based
on the KT monogram (seen in good form branded into the side of the
crate on John Carder Bush's cover for Lionheart), but written out by
hand in chalk-stick-like printing in a style similar to that in which
"ET" was spelled out in ads for the movie. This has nothing to do with
"ET", you understand, which IED didn't like much, anyway. But the
logo (minus the finger-to-finger image that accompanied the title) was
direct and attractive, and very simple. Also, if drawn in soft
charcoal on rough paper, the silkscreen transfer (in any color) might
look pretty stylish. Needn't be on the front, either. Maybe just
"Love-Hounds" on the front, with a good photo of Kate, and the logo on
the back? Criticism or alternative suggestions?
>By the by, Doug. Kate isn't a god, she's a GODDESS. Unless, of course,
>she's been to Sweden recently for one of THOSE operations, and is now
>Kurt Bush...? Let's just leave it as "major deity"...
Kate a god? Kate a goddess? Huh? What is all this religio-mumbo-jumbo?
Kate as the greatest living human being -- unquestionably. Goes without
saying. Kate as God, in some vague, generic, or aesthetic sense of the
word -- o.k. But Kate as "a god" or goddess? IED just doesn't get it.
>PS. Andrew Marvick - WHERE do you hear them counting off beats in the
>beginning of "Watching You Without Me"? I distinctly hear
>"What...Four" and then nothing else. (This is listening to the CD at
>LOUD volumes). This leads me to believe that the incident is NOT a
>recreated studio moment, but is possibly a question... "What for?"
>(Just like someone made me notice that the beginning of each episode
>of The Prisoner has #6 answering his own question: "Who is Number
>One?" "You are, number six!" It's all in the parsing!)
I'll let Kate answer this one herself (excerpted from the November '85
interview recently translated and posted in Love-Hounds by IED; IED's
italics just added):
Yves Bigot: On The Dreaming you went to some pains to announce on the
sleeve that this music must be played very loudly. That
amused me at the time.
Kate Bush: In the studio, you heard it really loud. FOR MIXING, WE HAD
TO TURN IT DOWN, TO PAY ATTENTION TO DETAILS, but my desire was to be
totally overwhelmed by the flood of sound....
It is definitely there, Joe. Keep listening, bars 1 through 8,
"Watching You Without Me". Count along with the beat from the very
first down-beat of the recording, voicing only the first beat of each
bar (that is, voicing ONE {two-three-four} TWO {two-three-four}, etc.)
up to eight -- the length of the rhythmic introduction of the song.
This is where you heard "What?" Actually, IED believes, it's "What's
that?" The speaker means, "What bar is that?" At bar four, that same
musician calls out "four", just as you said -- but he calls it out on
the third, rather than the first beat of that bar. In other words,
he's off beat by half a bar, a very common mistake. Another musician
then confirms the beat, on the FIRST beat of bar FIVE. IED hears him
saying "five" quite clearly. Following this, you can hear them
counting out the first beats of bars six, seven and eight in unison.
As IED admitted the first time he offered this explanation of the
passage, it was PROBABLY recorded quite early on in the rehearsals,
and probably at the original "demo" stage of recording. However,
knowing Kate's perfectionism, and the classic character of this
exchange, it IS just possible that it was actually a staged
re-recording of an incident similar to many that must have occurred
during the original demo stages of the recording.
[][][][][][][][][][]
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 86 15:12:15 edt
From: Joe Turner <cutter%umass-bos...@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>
Subject: marvicK To the rescue!
After an extensive listening to the CD with LH moderator Doug Alan, we
conclude that the exchange is not "What's that?" but rather "What is it?".
And yes, it's there...
On another point, Doug brought up something about _Waking the Witch_. Does
Katie-kins say "Help me, baby, talk to me, listen to me, tell them, baby" or
"Help me, baby, talk to me, listen to me come, baby"? Doug maintained the
word is "come", I maintain it's "tell them". Comments, anyone?
I am unsure how to get the journal "Bit". Maybe you should come to my house,
IED, and I'll show it to you. Perhaps you could appear for.... (drum roll,
pleez...)
The Second Semi-quarterly Biannual LOVE-HOUNDS Summer Gathering of
Wits, Bodies, Food, Money, Records and etc!!!
Time to be decided. Place to be decided. But it's the summer, and probably
nearing the release date of HoL from last year, definately time for a 6-month
anniversary of LH's continued existance, it's getting to be Kate's b-day soon,
and it's a good excuse for a party, anyway! Comments? Suggestions? Maybe
we could even have the LH t-shirt printed in time for it... By the by, the
price of a t-shirt, to be printed up and everything, would be about $6 - $8.
(Oh, and Douglas... as soon as those "The Dreaming" cd's come in, I'll give
you a ring....)
Save your parity bits for big cash prizes!
Joe
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End of Love-Hounds Digest