From gajarsky@pilot.njin.netWed Apr 12 21:17:34 1995 Date: Wed, 12 Apr 95 16:13:22 EDT From: Bob Gajarsky To: cc: ; Subject: Consumable, 4/12 ==== ISSUE 36 ==== CONSUMABLE ======== [April 12, 1995] Editor: Bob Gajarsky Internet: gajarsky@pilot.njin.net Sr. Contributors: Jeremy Ashcroft, Martin Bate, Al Crawford, Dan Enright, Tim Kennedy, Reto Koradi, David Landgren, Tim Mohr, Joe Silva, John Walker Other Contributors: Kelley Crowley, Tim Hulsizer, Melissa Pellegrin, P. Nina Ramos, Michelle Richmond, Jamie Roberts, Linda Scott, Ali Sinclair, Jon Steltenpohl, Jorge Velez, Scott Williams Technical Staff: Chris Candreva, Dave Pirmann, Damir Tiljak, Jason Williams Address all comments, subscriptions, etc. to gajarsky@pilot.njin.net ================================================================== All articles in Consumable remain (C) copyright their author(s). Permission for re-publication in any form other than within this document must be obtained from the editor. ================================================================== .------------. | Contents |-. `------------' | `------------' REVIEW: Annie Lennox, _Medusa_ - Jon Steltenpohl REVIEW: New Order, _(The Best of) New Order_ - Bob Gajarsky REVIEW: Nitzer Ebb, _Big Hit_ - Jamie Roberts REVIEW: Moby - _Everything is Wrong_ - Joe Silva REVIEW: Sarah McLachlan, _The Freedom Sessions_ - Jeremy Ashcroft REVIEW: Jann Arden, _Living Under June_ - Tim Kennedy REVIEW: hHead, _jerk_; Sons of Freedom, _TEX_ - Johnny Walker INTERVIEW: Mike Pinder - A Mood for Today - Joe Silva TOUR DATES: Black Velvet Flag, For The Ladies, Goo Goo Dolls / hHead, Indigo Girls / Band de Soleil, Low Pop Suicide / Latimer / Compulsion, Kathy McCarty NEWS: Errata (with Voyager), Labels on the net (World Domination, Bar None), Wonder Stuff NEWS: Grammy Awards on the Net (Recap) - Brad Waddell INDIE REVIEWS: Valhalla - Linda Scott, Think of 3 - Reto Koradi Back Issues of Consumable --- REVIEW: Annie Lennox, _Medusa_ (Arista) - Jon Steltenpohl The title is the only thing ugly about Annie Lennox's new album. _Medusa_ finds Lennox's voice as beautiful and stunning as it was when she was a Tourist, a Eurythmic, or even a _Diva_. To fans of Annie Lennox and the Eurythmics, this should come as no surprise. When Annie and Dave got it right, the result was pure magic, and _Diva_ proved that Annie Lennox could have that same magic without the help of Dave Stewart. Although an album of covers, _Medusa_ shares the magic of Lennox's past work. Stephen Lipson returns as collaborator and producer, and, like _Diva_, the sound is based on keyboards and synthesizers with guitars, flute, orchestra, and percussion added. Chimed arpeggios float up and down the soundscape, and a subtle beat runs in the background. Lennox's voice is sampled and layered over and over again like a chorus of angels. "No More 'I Love You's'" begins _Medusa_. The lyrics are bittersweet, and the mood goes from mellow to intense and then eases off at the end. She makes this a classic Annie Lennox song. Not only are the vocals filled with passion, but underneath the lyrics and the notes, you can feel Lennox experiencing the actual emotions. It's one of those traits that elevates Lennox to a level that few artists ever reach. Like Freddie Mercury and Janis Joplin before her, Lennox lives every note of every song. "Downtown Lights" recalls both the feel of _Diva_ and the best of the Eurythmics. It starts out with a steady beat and a calm, synthesized background. Lennox enters with a powerful whisper and, then, at certain times, the song backs off and focuses on the sparse, pulsed harmony that was the trademark of the Eurythmics albums of the mid-80's. That sound was missing from _Diva_, but Lennox has returned to it for parts of _Medusa_. _Medusa_ closes with the Paul Simon song, "Something So Right." It is a self-conscious confession of one lover to another, and it's a quiet lullaby that you fall in love with instantly. Although it may never have been a big hit, "Something So Right" is one of those songs that people cherish long after the big hits seem old. Thankfully, _Medusa_ isn't a typical cover collection that's dominated by worn-out hits. Annie Lennox has such a distinctive flair that _Medusa_ might as well be an original album. Like her previous work, fragility and strength are balanced equally throughout _Medusa_. It is an amazing feat that Lennox pulls off again and again. _Medusa_ is one of Annie Lennox's most engaging and consistent albums. --- REVIEW: New Order, _(The Best of) New Order_ (Qwest/Warner Bros.) - Bob Gajarsky New Order, the British group formed from the ashes of angst pioneers Joy Division nearly fifteen years ago, has recently released their second compilation album, _(The Best of) New Order_. Although a best-of album was released nearly six months ago in Europe, the American compilation bears a different look than its imported counterpart. Excluding several remixed songs ("True Faith '94", "Bizarre Love Triangle (remix by Shep Pettibone)", "1963 '95" and "Blue Monday '88"), the new version has no songs in common with the previous greatest hits collection, _Substance_. And, in a pleasant change from the norm, Warner Brothers contacted New Order's fans to determine what tracks to include. The source for this feedback? The Internet, in the New Order fanzine *noise*. Six of the poll's top ten songs made the collection, and some songs which were mysteriously omitted from _Substance_ surface here, including "Love Vigilantes" and "Age of Consent". An airy version of "1963", remixed by Arthur Baker surfaces, as does another Baker remix, the first single from the collection, "Let's Go (Nothing For Me)". While New Order has been criticized for weaker albums since the advent of _Substance_, this one highlights the influential songs from each of those releases (such as _Technique_ and _Republic_) to put together a nearly flawless selection of tunes. The one-off World Cup song, "World In Motion", sees its first appearance on any album and, like most New Order songs, reflects layers of keyboard sounds piled on top of each other to create irresistible pop/dance/alternative music. When track selections differ, European releases, in comparison to their American counterparts, are usually a better buy. Licensing difficulties and monetary arrangements often result in the European issues yielding more and/or better tracks for the collection. However, _(The Best of) New Order_ is a break from that vicious cycle. The European version of New Order's compilation is nice, but the American version is a crucial must-get to any fan of keyboard based alternative music. --- REVIEW: Nitzer Ebb, _Big Hit_ (Geffen) - Jamie Roberts This new effort by an ever-present big name in industrial-lite leaves me with a big question. Try and guess what it could be... Cohesive wouldn't be an appropriate word for _Big Hit_. It seems Nitzer Ebb tried every conceivable style and approach, and came up with nothing on all of them. "Cherry Blossom" is a painful attempt to approach the harder, cutting edge. It falls flatter than one could imagine, sounding corny and almost pathetic. The buildup in "I Thought" is agonizing, with no payoff to follow. They even take a stab at balladeering with "Boy" (excuse me while I put the tissues away). The formula (if there was one intended) is not even close to working. However, just when I was getting mad that I had to listen to this, I heard "Hear Me Say". It was a glimpse back to the "Join In The Chant" days, that reminded me not only of their past driving beats, but also of the fact that they rarely make proper-english sense. Now for the question...Big Hit? In whose book??? --- REVIEW: Moby - _Everything is Wrong_ (Elektra) - Joe Silva Don't be fooled. In that seemingly small niche of the musical spectrum where the colours of techo reside, there are more than a handful of sub-genres to contend with. Granted, most of the partitions are still established by small packs of finicky British club rats who insist that all their beats be pure and should they deviate a BPM in either direction, they'll take their devalued pound notes and spend them elsewhere. "Jungle" techno is coming, so they say, but for the moment, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. But if you need a more concrete illustration of the disparate factions, just take a juxtaposing look at the spliff toting Alex Paterson of the Orb and Moby. The former sticks to his blissful washes of sound and Pink Floydian cum spaceman extravagances which put him at the top of the ambient heap while Moby..well, Moby's a synth patch of a different colour. Anytime you take a severely pissed, militant Christian vegan and arm him with a Mac, a keyboard and major label, there's bound to conflict among the faithful. When the hordes filled Madison Square Garden (!!) for a techno fest that Moby took part in circa his last release, (1993's _Move_ EP), they were more than a little stunned when he showed up onstage with an electric guitar and actually used it. And while he's made no secret of his past affiliations with all manner of musical styles, six-stringed and otherwise, they had yet to surface in the very up front manner that they do on _Everything is Wrong_. All bets are now off. Deceptively stepping off with the elegiac "Hymn," Moby lunges from the disco bent of "Feeling So Real" to a Doc Maarten-ed harcore version of his "All That I Need is to Be Loved" and back to the Erasuresque feel "Everytime You Touch Me" in under ten minutes. No, the transitions aren't necessarily smooth (sort of like a compilation tape you make ten minutes before you head out for Spring Break...), but as a portrait of someone who's making a valid attempt to display any amount of their musical depth in the space of one project, you've got to figure the options to be somewhat limited. And while most wouldn't dare turns up their trendy snouts at the Beasties for mixing in their punk heritage with the hip-hop sensibilities that they copped later in life on _Ill Communication_, Moby will likely be skewered by the ravin' masses who labeled him a messiah ages ago. But to hell with that. Let Moby stradle as many genres as his hard drive will store. For those who have dared to labour through a couple double CDs worth of billowing, undefined ambient landscapes peppered with the odd organic and earthy sample or two tossed in for flavouring might appreciate Moby's struggle for diversity. From the delicate structure surrounding Mimi Goese's elysian vocals on "Into the Blue" to the dance-purist smack of "Anthem" there's enough here to forever yank Moby out of the techno pigeonhole he might be lodged in. --- REVIEW: Sarah McLachlan, _The Freedom Sessions_ (Arista/Nettwerk) - Jeremy Ashcroft A full-length music CD that's also a multimedia CD-ROM for no more than the cost of a regular CD? Perhaps this release is a preview of what we can expect of all future CDs. _The Freedom Sessions_ can be thought of as a companion piece to Sarah's previous release, _Fumbling Towards Ecstasy_, since seven of the eight tracks are alternative recordings of tracks from that album. Although Sarah's own comments on the CD-ROM that they are "outtakes, rough-mixes and experiments" sells them short - the songs are every much as "finished" as the originals and in some cases, possibly more interesting. Notably, the single track that isn't a "cover" of one of her own songs is a cover of someone else's - Tom Waits "Ol'55". To cover the the music first of all... For anyone unfamiliar with Ms. McLachlan, I would suggest that she could almost be considered a female Peter Gabriel - there's a certain depth and richness in the recording, the combination of new technology and acoustic instruments and the willingness for experimentation. Probably Sarah's finest instrument is her own voice - my favourite track, "Good Enough", is a prime example. Over a simple piano and (synthesized) orchestral backing, Sarah combines both her rich, deep voice with her lighter, higher voice to great effect - hard to describe, but almost a happy melancholia. Some of you may know her song "Hold On" from the excellent _No Alternative_ AIDS awareness compilation - this album features a much simpler, piano accompanied version. Personally I prefer the original in this case, but - without giving away all the secrets - there are still more versions of the same song hidden away somewhere. Another personal favourite is the reworked "Ice" - Sarah almost disowns it on the sleeve notes "often mistakes are the best way to learn how not to do it", but her almost abstract electric guitar experiments make it a really engaging track for these ears. Since most of the fun of CD-ROMs is experimenting and discovering things for yourself, I'm hesitant to say too much about it, but as a taster for those of you with a multimedia setup on your Mac or Windows machine... Launching the program presents you with a screen of various icons - a compass, a lizard, plane tickets, etc. - together with a spoken greeting from Sarah, inviting you to click the icons to explore. For example, clicking on Sarah's name brings up a brief biography, clicking on the compass gives you an animated chart showing the route of Sarah's last North American tour and you hear her comments about life on the road. To check out Sarah's back catalogue, you click on a picture of the sun - that gives you photos of her previous three album sleeves and clicking on one of those gives you the track listing. Click again on a song and you either hear a minute or so of the track or a clip of the accompanying video. Clicking the plane tickets brings up a section about a visit Sarah made to Thailand and Cambodia to film a documentary for Canadian TV. Apart from seeing clips of her meeting children there and singing to them, this section also tells you about the charity work she was supporting over there and about the horrors that the charity works to prevent. Don't worry - the tone of the rest of the CD-ROM is much less serious, though again, I don't want to spoil the surprises any further. In summary, though the CD-ROM aspect of the disc is perhaps less interactive than others that have been released, they are usually 3 or 4 times more expensive than regular CDs. As a "free" extra, I think Sarah and her record company should be supported - I'd certainly enjoy similar additions from my own favourite bands and I'd suggest this was an essential buy for anyone that likes her kind of music. --- REVIEW: Jann Arden, _Living Under June_ (A&M) - Tim Kennedy It is a peculiar feature of the North American subcontinent that they seem to produce lots of female singer songwriters with their handwritten CD sleeves. Is it all Joni Mitchell's fault? The UK just doesn't generate them, despite its high turnout rate of pop stars 'per head of population'. Jann Arden Richards has got a wonderful voice. It is a real pleasure to listen to such a superbly tuned set of tonsils. Her music quite often strays into the easy-listening department of the musical store of life, but in these days when wide sections of the hip and cool are re-evaluating the likes of the Carpenters what the hell is wrong with that? She is 32, and has been through 'the school of hard knocks', working her way round her native Canada (even fishing for a living) until finally landing the big one with this platinum CD last year. She knows how to knock off a cheerful tune too. With a voice of this fine timber and often heart-rendering quality, it would be easy to go for tragic little minor key numbers and try for the drippy bedsit marke; she could even make a fine country singer if she wanted to. Some of the CD reminds one of Maria McKee, Arden having a powerful voice and having a rather 'earthy' aspect to her delivery. Her material isn't far removed from M. McKee's especially on the opener "Could I Be Your Girl" which even has a slightly dance beat and an almost spiritual feel. Lyrically Jann deals in the cut and thrust of real-life relationships. There are lots of biblical references and most songs are written in the first person. She is adept at expressing emotions without being self-indulgent and there are some nice vocal touches, for example on "Demolition Love", a quiet number rendered powerful by some inspired singing. If one wanted to be cruel one might tag her 'a new Stevie Nicks'; the track "Looking For It" almost falls into this category. There is some nice guitar playing on this song. "Insensitive" and "Gasoline" continue in this varied though familiar vein. She is old enough to have grown up with later Fleetwood Mac's _Rumours_ and that ilk. I'd like to think she endows this oft-abused musical tendency with a little sensitivity and a lot of heart. Okay-the lady was never a combatant during the punk wars, but her emotional life has seen plenty of conflict, and showing through as it does, this prevents _Living Under June_ from being a bland listening experience. To comment specifically on the lyrics seems a little caddish, when Jann has already bared her all. They are quite interesting and moving in parts. The guitarist utilizes all the flourishes of 70s guitar balladry with aplomb and embellishes the voice nicely. The rest of the accompanying instruments merge professionally into the background. On "Unloved", an acoustic ballad, she is joined by Jackson Browne who apparently popped his head round the door a few times during the recording of the CD. As for all girls, Mum is special and Jann's gets her picture on the CD as well as her own song "Good Mother". Indeed it is quite a moving track and another great vocal performance. Mom Arden is lucky; Siouxsie Sioux once did a terrible hatchet job on her old Ma on an album. Parents of musical offspring take heed... The only track I take issue with here is the jazz weepie "It Looks Like Rain". She sounds like Streisand on this. I don't look upon this sort of thing as being anything to do with pop music, rock music or whatever - call me prejudiced if you will. It should stay in the section of the record store marked 'For Terminal Grownups Only'. The other standout track is "I Would Die For You" which ooh, almost rocks, well she sounds like she means it anyway. The guitar gets a little bit raunchy though the song is no pacier than say Springsteen's "Point Blank". Perhaps this isn't the CD to slip on while getting ready to go out for a night out with the boys, or girls. If you put it on for when friends came round there'd be a few awkward silences. It's "nice quiet evening in" music, and there's no harm in that. Jann can inspire and give insights, and this is a good CD. I would like to hear her voice doing more folky material next, with maybe the kind of strings/acoustic arrangements that for example Nick Drake once used. The AOR ballad style of much of the material here has been done too much by other people -if not with quite so much feeling. --- REVIEW: hHead, _jerk_ (IRS);Sons of Freedom, _TEX_(Divine Industries) - Johnny Walker Similarities: Both Canadian bands. Both produced and/or recorded by Dave "Rave" Ogilvie (Skinny Puppy). Both use standard guitar / bass / drums setup. Both bands can be contacted by their fans on the Internet. Differences: Everything else. These two releases encapsulate the extremes of Canadian rock, being as far apart in spirit and intent as Toronto is in miles from Vancouver. Unfortunately, the basically bland soundscapes of the former city's hHead, rather than the pulverizing, uncompromising, funky hard rock of the latter's Sons of Freedom, is the rule rather than the exception in the "rock scene" in the Great White North. hHead's _jerk_ really isn't bad: it just sort of lays there like a faded rug that really wouldn't cause you to take notice one way or the other. What we've got here is perhaps the ultimate geek-rock mix: Rush crossed with Pearl Jam, albeit PJ Lite. hHead comes up with a brand new mutation: Geddy Vedder! The album's lead-off track, "remedial," for instance, critiques the alienating effects of the educational process, and sports a catchy enough riff and an OK hum-along quality along with some rather mundane lyrics ("I'm stupid I guess / but I'm not trying my best / because this assignment is bogus"). Both Geddy Lee and Eddie V. have written similar diatribes, but they usually invest them with a bit more spirit than is found here. As the album rolls on, it soon becomes apparent that every song is tailor-made for the new 90's genre of "victim-rock." There's no joy on _jerk_, and yet there's no real anger or rage either. This is prozac-fueled stuff which neither hits the highs or plumbs the depths: _jerk_ is always polite, typical of the city which spawned it, a place so conservative that the acronym TGIF has there been changed to TGIM (Thank God It's Monday). A couple of times the band threaten to bust out of the fog, as on "gipped," which, with its bluesier atmosphere sounds like a sub-Meat Puppets outtake. But then it's back to the land of Nod for the title track, a real musical dud which tells the tale of another victim--this time a jilted lover--but gets lost in its own inertia. The song "will," which is apparently some kind of ode to Sylvia Plath, most appositely sums up hHead's problem: they obviously _aspire_ to the kind of feeling expressed in Plath poems like "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus," but they can't summon up the "will" to achieve it. hHead are thus lazy victims who want the payoff without the making the necessary emotional investment. They can't bust out of the confines of middle-class life enough to really feel, and so end up whining neurotically instead. Sons of Freedom (SOF), in complete contrast to hHead, explore the territory outside society's bourgeois limits with wicked glee. The latest SOF release, _TEX_, is a rollicking good time spent on life's fringes, with hardly any time spent wallowing in guilt and self pity, but plenty of it spent in a variety of altered states. Everything that hHead fears to acknowledge, SOF embrace. Not since the mid-70's heyday of Bowie, Reed, Iggy Pop and the criminally overlooked Only Ones has anyone explored the actual world which lies beyond the mere cliche of "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" with the elan of SOF singer/lyricist /guitarist Jim Newton (who, in both looks and outlook, could be the brother of Only Ones leader Peter Perrett). And, as usual, Newton is backed up on _TEX_ by the tightest hard-rock unit in the biz, the "3 Dons" (Binns-bass; Harrison- guitar; Short--drums), who produce a funky instrumental maelstrom which sounds like an amalgam of _Funhouse_-era Stooges, mid-70's druggie-rock Aerosmith, Killing Joke and even early PIL. This heady brew provides the backdrop for Newton's dark and decadent lyrical obsessions, as he trawls both the backstreets and the hidden recesses of his own psyche. In contrast to hHead's inertia and solipsism, SOF is a band of experience and action. On _TEX_, songs like "Sugar High" and "Yer Too High" (catching on to Newton's muse?) function as Songs of the Siren, making you want to go out in the world and do nasty, forbidden things. "Sugar High" especially is pure, unadulterated SOF, freed from the corporate yoke (_Tex_ being a indie release following major label classics _Sons of Freedom_ and _Gump_ and subsequent corporate fuckups), with Newton detailing a stream of consciousness hallucination of joyous debauchery: "Kisses sour / slip on a condom / sex with poison, that's my sin . . . Sugar high." The song ends with Newton going over the top vocal-wise as his band mates exhort him in the background. Would have been fun to be in the studio for this one. Other _TEX_ songs unite the extremes of high and low, body and mind, sacred and profane, in one unique package. "Heaven," a long-time concert fave, is one of the very finest numbers in the SOF repetoire, sounding sort of like _Berlin_ era Lou Reed trying to rewrite "Stairway To Heaven," dropping all the Celtic tomfoolery and adding a dash of downtown dirt. Sheets of metallic guitar overlay a looping Curtis Mayfield-styled bassline as Newton evokes a scenario which makes you question whether there really IS any difference between religious and narcotic-fueled revelation: "Take a picture of this place / and watch it fade away . . . When you see your past and future blending into one / You're in heaven . . . this is heaven." Highlights abound throughout _TEX_'s 16 tracks. "Get your God away from me / Or I'll bring him on his knees before me . . . Will I ever come down again?" wonders the stoned narrator of "Yer Too High." No Geddy Vedder here! Meanwhile, the 3 Dons concoct a seemingly limitless amount of rhythms which will have you leaping around the living room in no time. The extended instrumental break in "I Believe," for instance, could be used to define the term "white noise," the intensity building almost unbearably before the song's descending main riff kicks back in. The spooky "Underneath Yer Window" is a nice change of pace, based around a solitary guitar figure and a more r&b styled vocal from Newton. "Best Friend" is likewise rock solid punk-funk built around an irresistible rhythm. So I guess you know which of these albums I'd buy if I were you. The Vancouverites win hands down. So far, of all 95's releases, _TEX_, with nary a duff track, has remained glued to my CD changer the longest. As for hHead, well, they'd like to be suicidal but they're only depressed. Which makes them depressing, somewhat like the music scene in the city they hail from. Good night, Geddy Vedder. And, to contact these bands? hHead can be reached at: hHead@tvo.org while Sons of Freedom info can be obtained at: jimbobo@wimsey.com The hHead interactive press kit can be obtained at the FTP sites that distribute Consumable, included at the end of this issue. --- INTERVIEW: Mike Pinder - A Mood for Today - Joe Silva It's probably a generational issue, but when my editor first made mention of possibly speaking with Mike Pinder, I wasn't struck by any bolts of recognition. But then a clump of press arrived in the mail, and I was once again staring at a small vacuum in my pop knowledge. It happens all the time. Just when you think you have the majority of pop history lodged under your belt, you read something that reminds you that you've still only grasped a twenty-fifth of it at best and you're still missing out on a slew of "must haves." But this one, I should have nailed to the floor right away. Go to the sacred spot where you keep your records, pull out the Moody Blues' _Days of Future Passed_ (you've got one, trust me...) and flip it over to the back side of the sleeve. There's Mike Pinder's name. One of the founders of the Moody Blues, Pinder was the one of the people who toted around this weird keyboard called the Mellotron back in the heyday of the first UK pop invasion. From their dawn until the zenith of their career, Pinder remained with the band's through most of its artistic success'. But at the end of the band's world tour in 1974, Pinder left the UK and eventually severed ties with the band after the sessions for _Octet_ soured. But for a lost pop figure, Pinder can still generates a fairly big stir. Recently, while promoting his newest batch of songs, _Among the Stars_, Pinder signed autographs for seven hours worth of fans in a Las Vegas record store. On the day I spoke to him, he had just received an order for 2,500 more copies of the new record, which may not seem "mega" in terms of the Pearl Jam market, but Pinder's sold every copy of his CD right out of his home grown label. No distribution deal, no major league contract, nada. Considering that most of rock elders of his era couldn't see themselves even driving by a studio without six figure assurances on paper first, Mike's attitude is rather distinct. After years in the industry where he "got to know the names of more limo drivers than anybody else...," he prefers it that way. The following is an excerpt of our conversation: Consumable: When you were putting _Among the Stars_ together, was there any thoughts on your part of going to an established label with it? Mike Pinder: No, no it was the opposite thought. I kept it quiet and made my own plans and it's just working out great. It's a great opportunity for me and my wife Tara to work together. The whole idea is to keep control of what we're doing. It's a lot of work, but everything I'm doing is floating on good will. C: What are some of the more memorable experiences you've had with the fans now that you're getting back in touch? MP: One girl said she had been using Moody's music and now my new record as a pain killer. She rolled back her sleeve and showed me this giant scar all the way up her arm where she'd had this incredible operation and she said "The only way I've been able to control the pain from this is by playing your music." She was just beaming. C: Are there any creative memories you attach to this record, in terms of when you put it down? MP: It is somewhat of a diary of a decade because I did continue to write. As you can tell from some of the various songs, some were done when my children were younger. So I am presenting it that way, as a sort of catching up or what I did while I was away. A lot of people refer to me as this "lost Moody," but well, yes, you might have thought I was lost, but I was actually in this other place and this is what I was doing. This is my log. Mostly they were head arrangements, which I like very much because the unexpected can happen. C: Does the 'Follow Your Bliss' shirt that you're wearing on the cover clue us in to any New Age spiritualism that you're into? MP: Well I'm very aware of it. It would be true to say that I was New Age in 1976 with _The Promise_ [his previous solo release]. That was the way the New Age was before it became commercial. I'm fully expecting to see New Age birthday cards from Hallmark next week. And if you pick up any of the magazines, everyone wants your $500 (US) for seminars. It's just another big supermarket of people cashing on people who are searching. So I'm very unhappy that New Age has been turned into a musical box. All of these new Adult Contemporary stations, they all started playing New Age music and now they're playing all this smooth jazz. There's about eighteen or twenty top artists who are doing the real thing, but everything else is just filler to me, just drum machine, midi studio jazz wanna-bees. I think it's a terrible format. So the whole New Age idea has nothing to do with the original movement was about back in the sixties. I don't align myself currently with any of that kind of stuff. C: To settle some of the conflicting stories of you're leaving the Moody's, did it have more to do with being sick of the rigmarole of recording and touring over and over again, or not being satisfied creatively? MP: When I left and I came to the States in 1974 after the world tour, we had visited 57 countries, playing for millions of people and we had just about done everything at that point. We had been back in the studio one time and it was very unfruitful. We just sort of sat there for a couple weeks, looking at each other in the studio. The well had run dry at that time. I wanted to come to America, because I saw the awesome potential. I think the guys didn't have a great time accepting that I did that even though I told them I was only twelve hours away by plane. Then Tony Clark came over to organize a reunion, and at that time I still hadn't received my permanent residency card and I couldn't come to England, because I couldn't back in as was the case at the time. I think what happened was that the way the message got interpreted there was that 'Mike doesn't want to come to England, you've got to come to America if you want to do this.' which is a very arrogant statement. So they had that sticking in their craw and the lack of communication, put everything into a total shambles. No, I didn't have a nervous breakdown. No, I didn't go live with the Hopi Indians. C: Is it hard for you to be objective about their stuff now? MP: It is obviously not quite the same kind of music as when I with the band, but I still find some of it quite pleasurable even though it does have a slightly different direction. They're doing what they want to do and as long as they're happy, that's all that matters. The contact had just become a vacuum, but more recently I've been making the effort to be more in contact. In fact, I met with John and Justin two weeks ago in Reno and we were all quite friendly. Enough water's been under the bridge. Mike Pinder will be releasing another album in the near future featuring some of his poetry as well as a book in the fall. His current album is titled _Among The Stars_ and can be ordered via phone at 800-PINDER1. --- TOUR DATES: Black Velvet Flag April 12 New York, NY ABC No Rio April 15 Cambridge, MA Middle East For The Ladies April 15 Boston, MA T.T. the Bear's (with Fuzzy) April 22 Boston, MA Middle East (with Tuscadero) May 1 Hoboken, NJ Maxwell's (with Velocity Girl) Goo Goo Dolls / hHead April 13 State College, PA The Crowbar April 14 Sea Bright, NJ Tradewinds April 15 Hoboken, NJ Maxwell's April 16 Philadelphia, PA TBA April 18 Washington, D.C. 930 Club April 19 Virginia Beach, VA Abyss April 20 Atlanta, GA Masquerade April 22 New Orleans, LA TBA April 24 Houston, TX Urban Art Bar April 26 Columbia, MO The Blue Note April 30 Milwaukee, WI TBA May 1 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue May 2 Chicago, IL Cabaret Metro May 3 Detroit, MI St. Andrews May 5 Cleveland, OH Peabody's May 6 Buffalo, NY Blind Melon's Indigo Girls / Band de Soleil April 18 Hanover, NH Dartmouth College April 19 Burlington, VT Memorial Auditorium April 20 Providence, RI Brown University April 21 Saratoga Springs, NY Skidmore College April 22 Atlanta, GA Earth Day April 24 New Haven, CT Palace Theatre April 25 Poughkeepsie, NY Mid Hudson Civic Center April 26 Philadelphia, PA Tower Theatre April 27 Bethlehem, PA Stabler Arena April 28 New Brunswick, NJ Rutgers Intramural Field Low Pop Suicide / Latimer / Compulsion April 13 Omaha, NE Ranch Bowl April 14 Springfield, MO Regency Showcase April 16 Minneapolis, MN 7th Street Entry April 17 Milwaukee, WI Rave April 18 Chicago, IL Double Door April 19 Grand Rapids, MI Reptile House April 20 Detriot, MI St. Andrews Hall April 21 Toledo, OH The Underground April 23 Pittsburgh, PA Cloud Nine April 24 Toronto, ONT TBA April 25 Cleveland, OH Grog Shop April 26 Cincinatti, OH Bogarts April 27 Buffalo, NY Neitze's April 28 Albany, NY Saratoga Winners April 29 Long Branch, NJ Brighton Bar April 30 Boston, MA Mama Kin May 1 New Haven, CT Toad's Place May 2 New York, NY Limelight May 3 Philadelphia, PA JC Dobbs May 6 Baltimore, MD 8x10 May 7 Washington DC Bayou Kathy McCarty April 12 Gainesville, FL Covered Dish April 14 Jacksonville, FL Einstein A Go-Go April 15 Savannah, GA Velvet Elvis April 17 Atlanta, GA The Point April 18 Athens, GA Atomic Music Hall April 19 Charlotte, NC Tremont Music Hall (tentative) April 20 Columbia, SC Rockafella's (tentative) April 21 Richmond, VA Twisters April 22 Washington, DC The Republic Garden April 25 Philadelphia, PA Tin Angel April 26 New York, NY Brownies April 27 Providence, RI Met Cafe April 28 Boston, MA The Rat (tentative) April 30 Northampton, MA Bay State Motel May 1 Toronto, ON El Macombo May 4 Syracuse, NY Bogey's May 5 New York, NY Bottom Line May 6 Hoboken, NJ Maxwell's May 8 Oberlin, OH Oberlin College May 10 Chicago, IL Lounge Ax May 11 Cleveland, OH Grog Shop --- NEWS: ERRATA RE:Voyager - The information from last week on Voyager was erroneous - here is the complete and correct information, authorized by the producers of the event, Satellite Productions. Voyager 2, on Saturday April 22, is not sold out - plenty of tickets are still available. This is the only night that Plastikman will perform live. The Detroit room will feature John Aquaviva, Richie Hawtin, Terry Mullen, Eric Haupt and Boomer. Orbiting DJ's include Derrick Carter, Lenny Dee, Adam X, Josh Wink, Scott Richmond and Overload, and the ambient room will feature Greg Campbell, Matthew Hawtin and BPMF. And, of course Plastikman will perform live. Voyager 1.5, on Friday April 21, showcases the talents of the two pioneering techno scenes in America - Detroit and Brooklyn. The Detroit Room will include Dan Bell aka DBX, John Aquaviva, Richie Hawtin, Terry Mullen, Eric Haupt and Boomer. The Brooklyn room will include Frankie Bones, Jimmy Crash, Heather Heart, Terra, Sprout, Einstein, Grin as well as a live performance by Disintegrator Both events are at the Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage. For further information and ticket information, call the Satellite Hotline at 212-465-3299. Labels arriving on the net: World Domination has a site on the World Wide Web at http://underground.net/Worlddom/ (make sure the "W" is a capital letter). One of their artists, Low Pop Suicide, is on tour (see dates listed later in this issue). Hoboken's Bar/None Records, which helped launch the career of They Might Be Giants, Freedy Johnston, The Tindersticks, Yo La Tengo, Kathy McCarty/Glass Eye, Esquivel and many other artists, has an e-mail account. They can be reached at BarNoneRec@aol.com and will send out catalogs of their material upon request. Miles Hunt, formerly of the Wonder Stuff, has quit as MTV Europe's 120 Minutes host and plans to make more music. He takes a dim view of his Wonderstuff back-catalog and lists the Golden Palominoes' _Pure_ among his favorite albums last year - so future projects may sound utterly unrelated to the Wonder Stuff. The Stuff, without Miles, has reformed under the name We Know Where You Live. The Grammy Awards on the Net - Brad Waddell The Information Superhighway still has some potholes, but the events that are happening sure show exciting promise. On March 1, the Grammy Awards telecast was carried live on the Internet, and it used nearly all of the capabilities of this new medium, and was quite an event. The company who set it up was Metaverse, the company formerly known as mtv.com until MTV sued Adam Curry, former MTV VJ for use of the name for his Internet server. Adam then quit MTV and went on-line full-time, creating music newsletters and World Wide Web sites for corporations and events such as Woodstock 94. During the Grammys, a booth was set up backstage which had two cameras pointed at the grammy feed and the backstage press room >From this, live video was fed directly to the Internet. However, to call this video is a loose use of the term, as it is a window about the size of 4 icons (1 inch by 1 inch) in black and white. The speed of the video was based on the speed of a user's network connection, which for me was 14.4bps, so on average I got 1-2 frames per second, and no sound. Also on line was the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) system where Adam, the people watching, and stars who came by the booth could all chat on-line in real time. I saw posts from David Crosby (while he was captured by the video camera) and Garth Brooks. Unfortunately, the chat system was plagued by people connecting up wrong, and typing one character per line, scrolling the text off the screen too fast. Those with the best video reception were those at work or school with ethernet or direct connections, while those of use in the on-line cheap seats had intermittent video feeds where cameras would drop out entirely, come back later, and sometimes not update for minutes at a time. A web page was set up for the show, with an easy link to download the video program, and with pictures of the nominees (and sound samples of the major awards) easily displayed. It also had a direct link to the telnet chat window which changed as the show progressed. A winners page was added, although this was not continually updated during the presentation. I was frustrated that they did not do more updates, since I was hoping to hear if Nesmith's "The Garden" had won best New Age album, and Nesmith's Pacific Arts employees were calling me to see if I heard! Eventually I begged someone on the chat line, and they told me who won. They also had a bulletin board of sorts, where you would enter a message via the web page, and it would be posted to an on-line page of viewer comments. Interspersed in the web page were photos taken moments earlier, probably with a digital camera. Photos of various celebrities were included, as well as a diary of the adventures of setting up the entire process. Backstage interviews, in a complete live form, allowed the viewer to witness more than the 2-3 seconds which appears on Entertainment Tonight. As a whole, the experience was fun, even with all the problems, as it took another step towards showing how the Internet can be the people's medium. It showed that we are on the cusp of a social change which will eclipse the introduction of the telephone, where digital communication will become as common as the VCR, and everyone can operate the Internet equivalent of pirate radio/tv and underground newsletters which reach millions of potential readers with almost no fees. --- REVIEW: Valhalla (DEMO) -Linda Scott Valhalla is a central Pennsylvania rock band formed in 1992. Currently unsigned, they have written 25 songs, developed a fan base and appeared at area concerts. Judging the band by its three track demo tape is especially difficult due to poor recording quality. These guys sound like a weaker version of Pearl Jam. Singer Rob Siler has an interesting voice, but doesn't sound quite like Eddie Vedder, but guitarist Jack DeFrank and drummer Dave Turner produce some music which definitely has a PJ feel to it. Better use of the talented DeFrank could be made with longer solos where Siler remains quiet. It's unfortunate that just a tape was used because the musical quality has the potential to be quite good. Valhalla will be taking the next step up from local band and is currently being courted by several labels, so be looking for them soon. For further information on Valhalla, contact their representative, Michael Heicklen, via electronic mail at mjh@primenet.com --- REVIEW: Think of 3, _Personalities_ (Thinking Man Studios) - Reto Koradi This self-recorded 3-track EP is the first common release of Josh Drennan (guitar, vocals), James D. Harvey (guitar, bass) and Peter A. Van Emburg (drums). The relaxed sound is dominated by melodic bass lines that unavoidably create associations with early Level 42. Together with the excellent drumming, they give the solid basis for catchy melodies that dig deeper and deeper with repeated listenings. Josh's vocals are pleasant, although not highly characteristic. Only one track rocks more by adding Prince-like guitars. A promising debut, these very talented and skilled musicians would deserve a chance for a full length release. Think of 3 can be reached by e-mail at thinkof3@aol.com or by phone at (610) 695-9216. --- To get back issues of Consumable, check out: FTP: eetsg22.bd.psu.edu in the directory /pub/Consumable ftp.etext.org in the directory /pub/Zines/Consumable FTP by mail: mail bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu put the word help anywhere in the message. 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