Errors-To: admin at elephant-talk dot com Reply-To: newsletter at elephant-talk dot com Sender: newsletter at elephant-talk dot com Precedence: bulk From: newsletter at elephant-talk dot com To: newsletter at elephant-talk dot com Subject: Elephant Talk Digest #471 E L E P H A N T T A L K The Internet newsletter for Robert Fripp and King Crimson enthusiasts Number 471 Thursday, 5 March 1998 Today's Topics: NEWS: B.L.U.E. tour dates correction NEWS: Steve Hackett NEWS: Wetton, Levin, Bruford, etc. NEWS: B.L.U.E. in Baltimore 4/17/98 NEWS: Kevin Ayers & Mushroom p.p.k.c. nitpicking... Was Peter Sinfield the real Lizard King? Comics / KC connection Guitar Craft w RF Seattle Wetton's sound (ET #470) Montreal this 'n' that Sign of 4 Mastelotto status studio musicians ------------------ 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 ETWEB: http://www.elephant-talk.com/ You can read the most recent seven editions of ET at http://www.elephant-talk.com/cgi-bin/newslet.pl IRC: Regular get-togethers at #ElephantTalk on Undernet Sundays at Noon PST / 3pm EST / 8pm GMT Mondays at 6pm PST / 9pm EST / 2am GMT THE ET TEAM: Toby Howard (Moderator), Dan Kirkdorffer (Webmeister) 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 3.0 package. ------------------ A I V I R T S I N I M D A --------------------- Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1998 00:56:40 -0500 (EST) From: PBearRec at aol dot com Subject: NEWS: B.L.U.E. tour dates correction Hi all, tony levin here, via my record company's e-mail. The tour dates for Bruford Levin Upper Extremities have been slightly changed from what we had on our web site last week. Sorry about the mixup. They are now: April 13 New Haven / Toads Place April 14 Philly / T.L.A. April 15 Washington / Birchmere April 17 Baltimore / Orion (2 shows) April 18 New York / Knitting Factory (2 shows) April 19 Boston (Cambridge) / House of Blues / Live Internet Broadcast Hope to see you there, t.l. p.s. In a few weeks, we'll have the cd ready for sale or excerpt listening on the site (papabear.com) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 07:26:04 -0500 From: Kudos Management Subject: NEWS: Steve Hackett Elephant Talk readers (browsers?) may be interested to know that our next release will be a concert recording from Japan where Steve (a confirmed fan of early Crimson) is accompanied by Ian McDonald, John Wetton, Chester Thompson and Julian Colbeck. In addition to the expected Hackett and Genesis repertoire they also enjoyed themselves enormously with versions of "The Court of the Crimson King" and "I Talk to the Wind" plus a gorgeous acoustic performance of "Heat of the Moment" - a much overlooked song in my view and often unfairly defined by its original thunderous appearance. However, enough rambling! Regards, Billy Budis Kudos Management ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Mar 1998 00:36:42 -0500 From: Gary Davis Subject: NEWS: Wetton, Levin, Bruford, etc. Hello Friends! There's a new Artist Shop newsletter out which you'll find in it's entirety at . Here's a special edit for Elephant Talkers. Last time I was letting you know about the upcoming John Wetton release, the score to the film, Chasing the Deer. I ended up with 64 pre-orders for that by the time the CD came out which made it the second highest pre-ordered CD in the history of The Artist Shop! Care to guess what the highest was? You'll find the answer at the bottom of the note. It may surpise you ;-) Anyway, now that Chasing the Deer is out, I can tell you that, although it is a short CD, the music is gorgeous. Four of the tracks are purely instrumental showcasing Wetton's talent as a multi-instrumentalist. Knowing nothing about the film, I was delightfully surprised by the Celtic influence in the music. I really hope that Wetton does more instrumental music like this in the future. This is a totally new side to his musicianship! You'll find cover graphic and soundbite for this on our Voiceprint page at . A new live set on both CD and video is coming out in April from Steve Hackett's Camino label . Called The Tokyo Tapes, these were taken from Steve's recent tour of Japan. His band for these dates was nothing less than a full blown progressive supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist John Wetton of King Crimson, UK, Asia, etc., Ian McDonald, the original keyboardist/flutist/saxophonist for King Crimson, keyboardist Julian Colbeck who has peformed with ABWH, and drummer Chester Thompson who was part of Genesis' touring band for a number of years. These powerful performances are not to be missed! Songs performed include those of Steve Hackett, King Crimson, Genesis and Asia. The CD will be released in the first part of April while the video will be released in the latter part of the month. But don't wait. Order yours now! Big news on Magna Carta page with Liquid Tension Experiment. I've had a promo of this for a couple weeks now and it's hardly left my CD player! LTE is an incredible amalgam of musicians with Tony Levin on bass, stick and upright bass, John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater on guitar and drums respectively, and Jordan Rudess of the Dixie Dregs on keyboards. This quartet composed and created a complex, yet vibrant, record of instrumentals that showcase the amazing compositional and performance abilities of these noted players. Mixed by Dream Theater producer Kevin Shirley, this is hands down the best album to come out of Magna Carta yet! I'm not sure how they're going to top it, but I'd love to see them try ;-) And that's not all for Tony. Bill Bruford and Tony Levin will be doing a short tour of the east coast to promote their forthcoming album, Upper Extremities. Here's the info which you'll also find on our Discipline page at : Bruford - Levin Upper Extremities Bill Bruford -drums, percussion and a little keyboards Tony Levin -basses and stick Chris Botti -trumpet David Torn -guitars and loops CONFIRMED PERFORMANCE ITINERARY EAST COAST APRIL 1998: April 15th Birchmere in Alexandria, Va April 16th Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia, Pa April 17th Orion Sound Studio's in Baltimore, Pa 2 shows April 18th Knitting Factory in New York City, N.Y 2 shows April 19th House of Blues in Cambridge, Ma Speaking of Bill Bruford, I have a very interesting item in stock. One of my customers special ordered a UK import of Bill Bruford's Earthworks/Heavenly Bodies. Unbeknownst to my customer, a friend of his in Japan found a copy and sent it to him (GOOD FRIEND!!!), so this copy is now available! Heavenly Bodies is basically a collection of various tracks from the four Earthworks albums and also includes TWO PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED LIVE TRACKS! The cost is $20.95 and it's available to the first person to order it. If I get a bunch of orders, I'll see if I can special order more of these. I've just updated our import section . There was an awful lot of new things to add from the past month or so. But I think those things of most interest to you would be the following items: R, 33.95....BELEW,ADRIAN-BELEW PRINTS: THE ACOUSTIC ADRIAN BELEW VOLUME TWO J R, 38.95....V/A-PROGFEST '97 (2CD) J R, 24.95....WETTON,JOHN-ARKANGEL + 2 As exciting as what's recently been released are those imports that are slated for release in the near future. On our import pre-order page you'll find the following titles and descriptions: 438512 BRUFORD, BILL & TONY LEVIN-UPPER EXTREMITIES: OVERVIEW $28.95 Japanese edition of 1998 collaborative outing by these two prog legends that recently worked together as the rhythm section on King Crimson's last album. 438572 HACKETT,STEVE-LIVE IN JAPAN + 3 $38.95 Japanese edition of live album with three bonus tracks. 06756 HACKETT,STEVE-LIVE IN JAPAN $71.95 Laserdisc 1998 Japanese reissue of this 100 minute show by the former Genesis member, along with Ian MacDonald (King Crimson, Foreigner), John Wetton (Asia, King Crimson, Family) and Julian Colbeck (Yes). Featuring close captioning, THX sound and Dolby Digital Surround Sound, it contains 15 tracks. 438522 PROJECKT 2-PROJECKT 2 $28.95 Japanese edition of 1998 collaborative outing by King Crimson members Trey Gunn & Adrian Belew. Robert Fripp supervised the project. Oh, and for those of you who are wondering what CD is the all time champ for pre-orders in The Artist Shop, it happened last August as we were taking pre-orders for the rerelease of Synergy's Cords album. I had 72 order for that before it was released! And it continues to sell well. You'll find it on our Third Contact page at . Gary ************************************************************** Gary Davis The Artist Shop The Other Road http://www.artist-shop.com artshop at artist-shop dot com phone: 330-929-2056 fax:330-945-4923 SUPPORT THE INDEPENDENT ARTIST!!! ************************************************************** Check out the latest Artist Shop newsletter at http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 20:57:39 -0500 (EST) From: Adam Levin Subject: NEWS: B.L.U.E. in Baltimore 4/17/98 Orion Sound Studios 2903 Whittington Avenue Baltimore, Maryland Friday, April 17th 1998 - 7:30PM and 10:00PM An Evening With Bruford Levin Upper Extremities Bill Bruford -Drums, Percussion and a little Keyboards Tony Levin -Basses, Stick David Torn -Guitars, Loops Chris Botti -Trumpet TICKETS: $15 cash pick up/$16 credit card orders at: Of Sound Mind in Savage Mill 8600 Foundry Street Savage, MD (301)497-6488 Hours: Wed 12-6PM/Thu-Sat 12-8PM Tickets will only be available at Orion on concert nights. See http://www.ari.net/prog/shows/showcase/ for the full concert schedule and driving directions. -Adam --- "...if one strives at hearing for the sake of constant virtue, out of seeking liberation from cyclic existence, gradually one becomes a Hearer." - Chandrakirti ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 04 Mar 1998 14:47:59 -0800 From: PT Subject: NEWS: Kevin Ayers & Mushroom Here's an interesting show that I thought some King Crimson fans might also enjoy: On Saturday May 23rd at the Bottom Of The Hill Club in San Francisco - will be a rare performance by ex-Soft Machine mainman Kevin Ayers. This will be one of only 2 USA shows that Kevin is doing. the other show will be in LA. The show will also include a performance by the band Mushroom - (whose primary guitarist is heavily inspired by Fripp) which Audion Magazine (UK) has declared in their latest issue as 'the best example of Krautrock inspired rock from the USA today' and goes on to make further comparisions; 'John Cale & Terry Riley's Church Of Anthrax running into Tony Conrad with Faust' and then they say 'Faust merges seamlessly with King Crimson's The Talking Drum, while Xhol Caravan and Kollektiv get a look in' Final statement: 'it's easily the best I've heard of this type of music from the USA since Ra Can Row. Yes, I rate this higher then Escapade' Mushroom will play before Kevin - then Kevin will play a solo set and then Mushroom and Kevin will play together some old Ayers classics and perhaps some Soft Machine surprises....... Anyone interested in buying a copy of the Mushroom disc reviewed in Audion - should e mail Mod Lang records at ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 16:40:00 -0500 From: eminus at juno dot com (Justin E Coffey) Subject: p.p.k.c. nitpicking... A lurker speaks! - > Or else (and this is probabbly more likely!) the PP means "per pro" > "on behalf of" (or words to that effect), oo, in this case. This is probably what Fripp meant by p.p.k.c., but, as a matter of clarification (while we're on the subject of Latin abbreviations), r.i.p. does not actually stand for "rest in peace." It is an acronym for "requiescat in pace," which means, "may he (or she or it) rest in peace." > Sheesh, this is getting anal.... Not anal, just consistent. I'm a Classics geek, what can I say? [ Thread closed! Take this to private email please. -- Toby ] Jack Secret ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 12:49:14 -0700 (MST) From: Jim Bauer Subject: Was Peter Sinfield the real Lizard King? A lot has been said in these pages dumping on Beat. Personally, I can't really tell much of a difference between Beat and the rest of 80s Crimson. It seems, though, that Islands is also on the most hated list, often coming in second for that dubious "honor." It seems to me that a lot of people aren't recognizing that Fripp was not the star of these albums, Sinfield was. Specifically, I'm referring to a record review I once read on Lizard saying, "the music takes a backseat to the lyrics on this one." This is certainly true of Lizard, and to a lesser extent, Islands. During this epoch, Fripp receded into the background while Sinfield came into his own, something he didn't do until after their first two albums. Maybe the "most hated" album title should go to In the Wake of Poseidon, as McDonald had left the band and Fripp was just floundering around trying to find a direction and Sinfield's star had not yet ascended at this point. Another thing... to continue the Roxy Music thread I started, I don't see Siren as "most hated." To me, it'll always be Country Life, though The Thrill of it All ranks as one of Ferry's best. It's simply that the rest of the material sucks. And so it goes. (I am really Curt Vague&Nuts.) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Mar 1998 21:00:47 +0000 From: Denis Rodier Subject: Comics / KC connection Hello all, I just received the Epitaph playback postcard set and imagine my surprise when I saw a DC comics jacket (issued to freelancers only) in the crowd. I thought I was the only comic book artist in this crowd and now there's one who works for the same company! whew! If this person is on the list please e-mail me privately; I'm awfully curious to know who you are! Cheer "Prog is not dead, it just smells funny" Paraphrasing (of course) Frank Zappa ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 19:36:18 EST From: MongoBoy Subject: Guitar Craft w RF Seattle I'm curious if any ETers attended the Guitar Craft Level 1 course held in Seattle last month. It was advertised with RF in attendance. For those of us who've never attended a Guitar Craft course it may be interesting to get a review of sorts. Matt Lehman Seattle Wa ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 18:10:49 -0800 (PST) From: syd at intergate dot bc dot ca (Chris Trinidad) Subject: Wetton's sound (ET #470) Mike Tanigawa said: >Now here's a question I have. I seem to remember an early 1974 article in >Circus or some similar magazine (long before they sold out and went heavy >metal). John Wetton states, "I play very hard and break a lot of strings" >and mentions a "flicking technique that seems to come naturally". > >Does anyone know what this technique could be? It's probably just the result of low string action, overdriven amp and DIGGING in with his fingers which gave his sound a lot of bite, not unlike Jack Bruce's sound. It's especially apparent on Starless and Bible Black on the live improv stuff. But as far as I know, Wetton didn't play the Larry Graham style of slap and pop. Chris Trinidad ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 04 Mar 1998 22:34:29 -0500 From: forestm at mail dot colba dot net Subject: Montreal IN ET #470 you wrote: > Another idea I have is to try to get King Biscuit Flour Hour to release a > CD of their great recording of King Crimson live in Montreal, 1984, Hi! You may want to know that during his last gig in Montreal recently, Fripp explicitely stated that the upcoming live 2cd set from the 80's is in fact their 1984 show in Montreal. Michel :) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1998 01:00:20 -0700 From: Eb Subject: this 'n' that A couple of things: If you have a chance, check the rec.music.progressive newsgroup. There's a series of Elephant Talk digest parodies titled "Elephant Dung" which are HILARIOUS. I'm tempted to forward one of them to ET, but perhaps that would be heavy/ill-mannered. ppkc = post partum King Crimson??? previously played [in] King Crimson? pontificating prig [of] King Crimson? ;) >From: Brad Davison >Subject: Male and Female > >Elaine Erb treated this topic pretty well in her post (ET#466). Just imagine the phonetic horrors if Elaine and I became a couple.... Eb np The Who/Odds & Sods reissue -- *12* extra tracks!! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1998 10:20:28 +0100 From: Thomas Olsson Subject: Sign of 4 Darren Franck wrote: >A bit regarding the Metheny thread..a few months ago, after hearing raves >about Derek Bailey at the local record store, I decided to pick one up of >his CDs. The one I picked was "The Sign of Four", with Metheny and a couple >of drummers. I must say that it was the most unlistenable piece of avant >garbage I've ever heard, and I actually enjoy THRaKaTTaCK. Maybe that makes >me a hypocrite, but it seems that they never even attempted to play >together...just an assortment of squinks and noises in an effort to prove >how far out there they could go. Is this a valid criticism or just a >refusal to accept any non-KC improv? I'm just curious as to what "The Sign >of Four" was all about. > [...] my problem with "The Sign of Four"...to my ear, it exceeds the >limits of music. Darren Franck is certainly entitled to have an opinion on this as well as other subjects. However, I can heartily recommend "The Sign of 4" for those interested in free improvisation. Of course, the improvisations are not 100 percent free as one can hear if one listens attentively to any of the three CDs that make up "Sign of 4". This goes for all other free improvisations I've heard so far as well. Basically, it is a question of being familiar with the musical coding. Also, to a lot of people, I imagine, KC exceeds the limits of music. "Happy new ears" Thomas Olsson. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Mar 98 11:41:37 -0500 From: marc_i_roemer_at_dsd at ccMail dot Census dot GOV Subject: Mastelotto status Several have wondered, so I thought I'd (re)run this by you all: > > Date: Tue, 4 Nov 1997 07:59:15 -0500 > From: Discipline Global Mobile <73064 dot 1470 at compuserve dot com> > Subject: News update from Fripp, shameless marketing weasel that he is... > > ..PROJECkT THREE has begun by Pat Mastelotto sending me a CD of his > rhythmic suggestions. (Very interesting is the dance version of "Pie > Jesu"). The personnel is Fripp, Gunn & Mastelotto. > Checking spelling and punctuation before sending this off, my spell-checker would make it Frappe, Gun, and Mistletoe. Like, don't even THINK about kissing me! Bring me my dessert now, or I'll BLOW YOUR HEAD OFF! Marc ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1998 09:02:35 -0800 (PST) From: Ryan S Subject: studio musicians Hi gang, last week Ken refered to Tony Levin as a "whore". I respect him far too much to label him like that, but I can't help but feel that agreeing to play on just anybody's album is really giving away your artistic integrity, especially in the case of a master like Tony Levin. Maybe I'm young and can afford to have high ideals, but I would never accept money to add my bass lines to a crappy band. Granted, I'm not a professional bassist, but my music means too much to me to sell it. I've had a problem with studio musicians, most are very talented, but some just have horrible taste. I would never not like a band because he played with some terrible people (ala Belew with NIN and worse Pat M with MR.MR.) but I have to admit I think differently about them. Personally, I'd rather work a 9-5 crappy job then play cheese for a living. That brings up another topic: does personality or appearence matter in evaluating a band. Obviously some band live or die on image alone, like most metal bands. On a lesser level, some prefer bands that are highly animated on stage. For example someone told me Dream theater's drummer was better than Neil Peart. I asked him why and he said "Mike Portnoy is animal, Peart just looks bored." IMHO, I think Peart is much better than Portnoy. Anyway, this guy was a drummer and still made his judgement on his personality and/or stage presence. On a final level, psychologically when we attach a face to music we enjoy, we have good feelings about the individual or band, although we don't know them as people. When we hear something bad about the band or person (i.e. Fripp is a jerk) it also challenges our perception of the music. Personally, the personality of a musician is revealed thru his music, and reading about the person or band usually affirms my believe about what they are like as people. Although less important than the music, I would be lying if I said personality or image had nothing to do with my opinion of a band. Comments? [ ... by private email only please. -- Toby ] Thanks for reading, RS ------------------------------ End of Elephant-Talk Digest #471 ********************************