Errors-To: admin at elephant-talk dot com Reply-To: newsletter at elephant-talk dot com Sender: moderator at elephant-talk dot com Precedence: bulk From: moderator at elephant-talk dot com To: newsletter at elephant-talk dot com Subject: Elephant Talk #1100 E L E P H A N T T A L K The Internet newsletter for Robert Fripp and King Crimson enthusiasts Number 1100 Saturday, 8 March 2003 Today's Topics: GIG BIZ: Park West, Chicago, March 14 Fripp interview in Swedish newspaper Mike Giles: "Progress" - A must for the old fans of KC Tony Levin's tour dates Private Lives redux australia? nashville 2000 shows Gigless and Slightly Thrakked Out of print stuff Re: It's time to vote in MD's annual poll/Crimson drummers/Mike Giles She carries me.... Who pays? The Power To Believe My Project cds for sale at gigs? Thrushhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Lyrics to Happy Lyrics to HWWYHTBHW GIG REVIEW: Birchmere (March 3) GIG REVIEW: 3/3 - Alexandria, VA GIG REVIEW: Washington Post Gig Review ------------------ A D M I N I S T R I V I A --------------------- POSTS: Please send all posts to newsletter at elephant-talk dot com To UNSUBSCRIBE, or to CHANGE ADDRESS: Send a message with a body of HELP to admin at elephant-talk dot com or use the DIY list machine at http://www.elephant-talk.com/list/ To ASK FOR HELP about your ET subscription: Send a message to: help at elephant-talk dot com ET Web: http://www.elephant-talk.com/ Read the ET FAQ before you post a question at http://www.elephant-talk.com/faq.htm Current TOUR DATES info can always be found at http://www.elephant-talk.com/gigs/tourdates.shtml You can read the most recent ten editions of ET at http://www.elephant-talk.com/newsletter.htm THE ET TEAM: Toby Howard (Moderator), Dan Kirkdorffer (Webmaster) Mike Dickson (List Admin), and a cast of thousands. The views expressed herein are those of the individual authors. ET is produced using John Relph's Digest system v3.7b (relph at sgi dot com). ------------------ A I V I R T S I N I M D A --------------------- Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 23:24:46 +0100 (CET) From: nsh at slicedsuitcase dot com Subject: GIG BIZ: Park West, Chicago, March 14 Hello again! In ET 1098 I posted that I had one ticket for the KC Chicago show at Park West on March 14. That offer is still open, but I was made aware that their show seems to be General Admission, so the seating assignment I told you about earlier may not be effective (it seems TM just puts seating assignment infos on every ticket...). If you're interested in the ticket ($40 or less if you ask), please e-mail me at nsh at slicedsuitcase dot com. Cheers, Nadim Nadim S. Haque sliced|suitcase internet services 'We move forward by coming from.` Robert Fripp ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2003 20:35:06 +0100 (CET) From: icomefromnowhere Subject: Fripp interview in Swedish newspaper Hej, I was surprised when I picked up my morning paper today. Dagens Nyheter has a Fripp interview on a whole fold up in the culture section. Not bad! It's an interview, probably from a recent press conference. It's not an interview in the style of "reporters question followed by Fripp's answer, all the way through" but interview citates interspersed with some interesting analysing of mr Fripp the musician and his ever ongoing project KC. Very well written. Fripp is described as the mystic, friendly dictator of KC. One quote (about finding a musical identity in the late 60's when almost every English artist was looking for American ideals). "For me it was rather like: if Hendrix had played Bartok, how would that have sounded? 21st Century Schizoid Man was the beginning of an attitude like that." (Please forgive my sometimes amateurish translation. I know mr Fripp is a very verbal person and I'm sure he expresses himself in a far more distinguished way. That may be a thing he h! as in common with Bill Bruford. I did an interview with him for the Swedish Broadcasting in 1999 and it confirmed my expectations that Bruford is a very verbal person. Polite, intelligent and fun too. Very British! I don't know if this information has any value for you but I'll take the chance to report when the "distinguished and dominating paper" has a big interview with one of my favourite musicians. Kind regards Peter Oberg Umea Sweden ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 08:33:56 -0500 From: "Louis Sormany" Subject: Mike Giles: "Progress" - A must for the old fans of KC I've just bought Mike Giles' solo cd intitled "Progress". I bought it by curiosity and I had no illusion about those recordings done "circa 1978", the other opus of Mike Giles ("Ghost Dances" with Muir and Cunningham) having let me really indifferent. But what a surprise! "Progress" is an amazing cd. I found in it the atmosphere of the excellent "McDonald & Giles" cd, of Pete Sinfield's "Stillusion" and even of some Caravan's or Camel's pieces. The sound is very good, Giles' drumming is excellent, his voice is not bad at all and we can hear a lot of instruments (viola, sax, flute, piano...) which give us good jazz-rock arrangements. Let's add that the booklet inserted with the cd is interesting. Really, it's a must for the old fans of the first incarnation of King Crimson and for all those who have appreciated the excellent "McDonald & Giles". Louis ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 15:10:31 -0500 From: "Mike Sherry" Subject: Tony Levin's tour dates Hello, I was just browsing through your site & noticed you list Bill Bruford's Earthworks tour dates, but Tony's current tour is missing. Just trying to help since the news is fairly recent, this is from www.papabear.com: TONY LEVIN BAND MARCH TOUR 3/19 - Cincinnatti - 20th Cent. Theater 3/20 - Detroit - Magic Bag 3/21 - Toledo - Headliners 3/22 - Chicago - Martyrs 3/23 - Madison, WI - Luther's Blues 3/25 - Indianapolis - Patio 3/26 - Columbus, OH - Little Brothers 3/28 - Trenton - Conduit 3/29 - Boston (Cambridge) - House of Blues 3/30 - New Haven - Toads Place Thanks for reading! Mike Sherry ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 05:26:52 -0800 (PST) From: Wasser Dan Subject: Private Lives redux After listening to Part 18 of Adrian's interview, it seems like Adrian agrees with we fans who feel like we want to know about the private lives of the artists (Crims). He admits to reading all the books about The Beatles and wanting to know all about The Beatles. So, there! Also, I appreciate Adrian's showing his Beatles influence in his music. I think it's a good thing. Dan ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 02:07:35 +1100 From: "cam@arthole" Subject: australia? my apologies if this has already been posted/answered here, upon listening the KSER interview with mr.belew at king-crimson.com, i was happy to hear him mention the possibility of touring Australia this time round (in part 1 i think)...can anyone confirm/deny the chance of KC heading down here?, thanks, cam. arthole: http://arthole.alphalink.com.au ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 09:45:42 -0800 (PST) From: Michael Stack Subject: nashville 2000 shows Hey guys, Many of you no doubt remember that before the whole BootlegTV thing collapsed, RF and company offered the Nashville rehearsals on their website for download. I've downloaded and burned these to CD and have enjoyed them. Unfortunately, something rather odd happened to my copy of the May 19th show. There's a lot of extra distorted noise on the last few tracks that makes them nearly unlistenable. So I'm looking for someone who has a copy of this show (and the other ones, as I'm listening to them now to see if they're ok) who would be willing to assist me in obtaining a clean copy of this. I of course would be willing to discuss trades, etc., as necessary to facilitate getting ahold of this. Please contact me off list as we don't want to clutter the list with these discussions. mike (mikestack1677 at yahoo dot com) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 21:35:44 -0500 From: JonnyJ Subject: Gigless and Slightly Thrakked Hello. Just in from the March 3 Krim show that wasn't that is, that was. Unfortunately after arriving to the Birchmere in Alexandria, Va I learned that Ade is very ill and tickets were being refunded and the Birchmere was offering a reduced rate for those that wished to stay for a short set. I opted to leave for various reasons but was dissapointed along with my friend. The rumour in the cue was that Robert, Trey, and Pat were going to play as a trio. Others thought that Ade was going to perform too. It wasn't clear because of the confusion about what was taking place. One thing the club owner was making very vlear was that you would get an automatic refund if you bought through ticket master. My best regards to the band and those willing to see how the evening would develop. And a special prayer for Adrian. Since I cannot attend tommorow night's show I hope that Krim can come around this area again maybe later in the year. Have a good show to all you lucky fans out in the rest of the tour. I'm sure the boys will be in great shape after they get rid of this bug. -Jon Johnson http://jonjohnson.iuma.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 15:42:31 -0800 (PST) From: rone at ennui dot org (circadian rhyme) Subject: Out of print stuff So i asked DGM about _Thrang Thrang Gozinbulx_ and _November Suite_, and their response was: They are currently out of print. We do not know if we will have them again or not. Well, heck, if they don't know, who does? Am i going to have to hunt Mr. Fripp on the streets of San Francisco on 3/28 and ask him? Never mind me, i'm just idly grumbling... rone ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 16:06:46 -0800 (PST) From: Mike Tanigawa Subject: Re: It's time to vote in MD's annual poll/Crimson drummers/Mike Giles The only commentary on Andy's time with the group that I have read is in Sid Smith's book and it is a quote from Gordon Haskell. Apparently Andy had been frustrated by the lack of a "groove" in the songs for "Lizard". I don't recall any other significant remark on Andy's performance from the other musicians of this period of KC. I personally like Andy's drumming on that album. I don't think it's necessarily better than Giles, Wallace, or Bruford; just "different". Subsequently Andy appeared on the four Greenslade albums. He seems to have been much happier there as the music does have a significant groove. Like Gordon, Andy quit on his own after deciding that KC's music was not for him. After all of the difficulties in recruiting new members Fripp probably would have kept them on if they had been interested in staying. By the way I've been lurking on the Haskell website a few times but find it comparatively uninteresting. I think Gordon's current work is quite good, but I'm put off by the intolerant attitude of some of the forum members (at least some of whom seem to hate King Crimson). Mike >I have read what some thought of Andy McCulloch's drumming, and KNOW that >many of Crimson's fan's were upset when Bill left, but have'nt read alot >more than this. > > I didn't mean that Robert or anyone else in KC "used" a particular drummer >in the sense of only hiring them for their ability to play on 1 song or >album, although that could be the correct term for what happened w/Andy >McCulloch? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 23:08:53 -0800 From: skysaw at earthlink dot net Subject: She carries me.... So I go into Tower Records to buy TPTB today, and the very second I lay my hands on a copy I hear "She carries me..." and The Power to Believe III comes over the in-store sound system. Man, did I get a chill! They had the CD playing on random with other artists and it was the only KC track I heard while in the store. On a tour note, the ticket that I bought from TicketBastard for the Wiltern show (without knowing exactly which row I was sitting in) turned out to be in the front row. I plan to bring a laser pointer to shine into Fripp's eyes all night, when I'm not fumbling with my DAT recorder and flash camera, smoking cigarettes and weed the whole time and blowing it at Adrian while my cell phone rings during soundscapes. And I plan to yell out for Cat Food and maybe Freebird. I'm no faithful audient, I'm a True Fan!! Matt Mahler ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2003 13:17:20 -0500 From: TBREEN at admin dot msjnet dot edu Subject: Who pays? RF claims, in a recent diary entry, that when the agent, manager, promoter or record makes a mistake, the artist pays. My I suggest a collorary? RE: KC's two shows at the Birchemere ( 3/3 & 3/4 ) in Alexandria, Va.. When Adrian Belew fails to preform due to illness, its the audients who pay ( $46 a ticket ). When the TOUR BOXES don't come packed with what's promised and the next night there are none with which to replace it, its the consumer who pays. By the way, last night's show ( 3/4 ) was priceless! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2003 18:32:32 EST From: Guitar86rick at aol dot com Subject: The Power To Believe I FINALLY got the Power to Believe. Since it just came out in the US Tuesday, I've only been able to hear about two songs off of it that I could download. The most recent King Crimson I have gotten my hands on was Thrak and Thrakattack, as I just began listening to KC last year. Everything was fresh to me. I listened to it last night and immediately loved it. This is probably my favorite KC album I have heard, even over LTiA, In the Court, Red, SABB, and Discipline. If I had to pick my favorite songs off the album, they would be Electrik and The Power To Believe II. All I can think of is this album. Buy it! P.S. - this has nothing to do with KC, but who played bass for the Doors? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2003 08:17:38 -0600 From: "Phillip Ciskowski" Subject: My Project I recently ripped all of my King Crimson and related CDs to MP3 files (still working on the rest of my collection). So now using playlists in my media player I can make all kinds of new compilations. The first one was redoing Frame By Frame using all remasters with no edits, plus having it go up through TPTB. The second one was all versions of Deception of the Thrush in chronological order, which is more interesting than you might imagine. The whole KC directory including all commercial, club, and Projekct releases (except for "B'Boom", which is the only one I don't own?!?) ripped at 160kbs comes to around 4.5 Gig, so I burned it to a DVD to listen to at work. Ain't technology wonderful? However, after all this I still can't find a use for "Thrackattack". Maybe I'll put it in a playlist with "Islands" so I can ignore them together. Phil Ciskowski ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2003 11:11:37 -0500 From: James Mason Subject: cds for sale at gigs? Just wondering if the BPM&M and the Thunderbird Suite cds are available for sale at the Crimso gigs this time around? Could someone verify? James ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 16:37:58 -0500 From: "Adam Aronson" Subject: Thrushhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Why can't people keep their #@*&%'ing mouths shut during Deception Of The Thrush? //thr@k ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 16:47:27 -0500 From: "bh" Subject: Lyrics to Happy I'm no better at deciphering lyrics than the next guy, but to my ears it sounds like Adrian is singing: "And when I have some words This is the way I'll sing Through a distortion box To make them menacing" -Brian H. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 17:00:31 -0500 From: Randall dot Hammill at hartfordlife dot com Subject: Lyrics to HWWYHTBHW In the line in question I hear: through a distortion box To make it menacing Don't have it here to check it though... Randy ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 19:46:43 -0800 (PST) From: Wasser Dan Subject: GIG REVIEW: Birchmere (March 3) When i arrived about a half-hour before showtime, I saw posted signs that the King Crimson show was cancelled due to Adrian's illness (laryngitis or something like that) and that ProjeKct 3 would be playing for an hour. You could get a full refund or, if you wanted to see the show, a $15 credit. I was torn as I'm not too fond of the Improv Crim and I was there to see Adrian as much as Crim (and to hear "Happy") ... but I figured, what the heck ... let's give it a try. Robert came out first, gave a short speech that "King Crimson is not feeling well" (or something like that) and that ProjeKct 3 would be performing instead. Robert introduced Trey's mom who was in the crowd. The 3 Crims played for about an hour ... "Flay" was the stand-out tune. Then they came back for an encore: Vroom. All in all, not a bad performance ... certainly, they made the best of a disappointing situation (for us fans). THEN THEY ALL SAT ON STOOLS IN THE FRONT OF THE STAGE AND DID A Q&A FOR OVER A HALF-HOUR. What a fantastic ending to a show! Robert was very personable and forthright. Trey wasn't too talkative but answered some questions. And Pat joked around a bit, too. All three confessed that they barely knew what they were playing during the show ... apparently, it was total improvisation. Then Robert told a great story about how/why he started to play guitar. Then, someone asked them to play another tune. They declined but Robert picked up his guitar and started playing Fracture (ahh, what music to my ears) ... but he playing it like FraKctured ... then realized what was happening and started playing FrakCtured while Pat and Trey were banging out the drum parts on their legs. Fabulous! Hey, these guys are normal! That Q&A session was worth the entire price of the show! A couple of (negative) comments, though: 1. You'd think that they would have moved Adrian's equipment off the stage ... Pat's kit was mostly blocked from view. 2. I was seated directly in front of Fripp but not once could I see his fingers/hands play ... he was turned to the side, almost with his back to the crowd the entire time ... I suppose it was mostly because he had to watch Pat and Trey, to know where everyone was going/heading ... but you'd think that he could turn around a bit for everyone to see. I mean, that's half the reason for seeing them live ... to SEE them play. All I request, Bobby, is that King Crimson return to DC when it is feeling better. Thank You. Dan ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 23:54:13 -0500 From: "Stick Man" Subject: GIG REVIEW: 3/3 - Alexandria, VA Hello all, Here is my gig review for the show at the Birchmere on 3 March. From my perspective, an unusual occurrence yields some bad and some good: It's cold in the parking lot and as we get in line, we find out Adrian has the flu so can't go on tonight. The other 3 will play and we will get a $15 discount/refund. I appreciate the discount, but I don't want that - I really want Mr. Belew. It can't be helped, so I am glad they will play anyhow. We wait in line for about 45 minutes while the box office tries to sort out the mess for everybody - the box office people were really nice but it was no fun. We finally get in the music hall and Robert comes out to do a soundscape. Trey's mom is here. I think everybody wanted the band (renamed Projekct 3 for tonight) to do well, but there is a sense of disappointment as the show gets underway (I see the application of expectation being a prison, but I confess I was looking forward to the whole lineup). It might not have been a conducive environment for creativity but the band played on. It was great to see each of them and I really like Trey's lines on the Warr guitars, but his instruments are coming out of the sound system with a sort of farty applesauce sound - I really wanted more clarity for his part in the mix. Anyhow, they play tunes with motifs from the newer CDs but the set is largely improvised and seems like the classic Jazz Odyssey - I think Robert said "Trey wrote this himself" for one section but I could be wrong. The band locked into a few grooves I liked along the way, but I have to say that overall I wasn't getting into it. Oh well, several hundred points to KC for going on with the show in spite of Adrian being sick. They could have easily cancelled the show and then we wouldn't have gotten any music, just disappointment. The thing that made the evening memorable in a positive way is that after playing Vroom as an encore (it was strong), the 3 of them sat down and fielded questions from the audience. There were some questions about instruments as well as questions about various lineups like Projekct X. There was also a non-question from some guy that went something like "Robert, you are better than Mahler and I want to have your baby" or something like that. Duh. Robert replied to the non-question by pleasantly recounting his entrance into the world of music. The band made a point of fielding questions from the females in the audience, one of which was related to being shy and resulted in an introspective exercise on Robert's part. Somebody also requested Frakctured, and Robert managed to tear through it solo, with some hand clapping/thigh drumming from Pat & Trey - I am glad we got to experience the questions/answers as well as the spontaneous version of Frakctured! Plus, for all the unwarranted abuse doled out about Robert Fripp in public settings, I want to say in response that he was very open in the Q&A and treated each questioner with respect. This wasn't my favorite concert of all-time, but the circumstances were tough. No matter what else is said, the evening was unusual and interesting. I'll close my review by wishing Adrian the best health soonest and saying thanks to Robert, Pat, and Trey for giving us a show under less-than-ideal conditions. Stickman -- http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 16:48:51 -0500 From: Dan Cooper Subject: GIG REVIEW: Washington Post Gig Review Thought you all might be interested in seeing what an "outsider" has to say about the band... Reprinted from the Washington Post, Wednesday, March 5, 2003; Page C09 By Dave McKenna During various side projects, members of the current incarnation of the enduring art-rock combo King Crimson have shown that they aren't absolutely opposed to melody and accessibility. Founder Robert Fripp, for example, played the guitar solo on David Bowie's "Heroes," and fellow guitarist and vocalist Adrian Belew picked away on the poppiest tracks of Paul Simon's "Graceland." But melody and accessibility took up very little space during King Crimson's Monday night show at the Birchmere. In their place were noise and complex structures that related to pop songs as free verse does to a limerick. Belew, who for years has handled the occasional vocal in the Crimson oeuvre, sat out the gig because of illness. So Fripp led the ad hoc trio through a set of mostly unreleased and mostly improvised instrumentals. As with typical Crimson, the sounds were as processed as James Brown's hair. Fripp sat beside a wall of preamplifiers that made his guitar sound like a keyboard or a xylophone -- but never a rock guitar; Pat Mastelotto's synthesized tom-toms occasionally made monster roars when struck; and Trey Gunn's arsenal of oddly shaped 10-string instruments produced screeching leads and thumping bass lines, sometimes simultaneously. The scheduled finale was "Vroom," a 1994 track that could be described as a very heavy and arty "Peter Gunn" theme. The band sat down after "Vroom" and, with the house lights turned up, entertained crowd questions. After queries about gear (Gunn likes silicon strings on his rubber bass), rehearsal time for the tour (there was almost none) and even stage wear, a fan requested "Fracture," from the 1974 album "Starless and Bible Black." Fripp plugged in his guitar again and offered an abbreviated, under-synthesized version of the track as Gunn and Mastelotto pounded out a rhythm with their hands and thighs. That performance drew the biggest cheer of the evening, and deserved it. ------------------------------ End of Elephant Talk Digest #1100 *********************************