From: owner-ammf-digest@smoe.org (alt.music.moxy-fruvous digest) To: ammf-digest@smoe.org Subject: alt.music.moxy-fruvous digest V1 #961 Reply-To: ammf@fruvous.com Sender: owner-ammf-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ammf-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk alt.music.moxy-fruvous digest Thursday, November 5 1998 Volume 01 : Number 961 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: WBER radio spot [kdsinthhal@aol.comatose (KdsInThHal)] Re: who is going to Baltimore and Wilmington? [Chad Schrock I noticed that FDC has the radio spot listed as having taken place on >November 3rd on WBER in Rochester, NY. According to info I have >received recently from WBER, taht spot is scheduled for 4:00 pm on >Thursday, November 5th. Just thought I'd mention it. Perhaps the >morning spot reported as having taken place on November 3rd on >WCMF in Rochester is in error as well? Anyone have any confirmation >for this? they were on wcmf on the 3rd and will be on wber today at 4, yes. i haven't seen fdc yet (in a minute!!) but they weren't on wber tuesday. see y'all at harro.. umm.. i think i'll be wearing a black sloan shirt. ... see ya. sarah lava.home.ml.org linnellgirl@tmbg.org "i'm writing 'young and gifted' in my autobiography, i figured who would know better than me? i'm certainly the former but i'm not so much the latter, but no one's gonna read it, so i'm sure it doesn't matter" - sloan ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 09:53:48 -0500 From: Chad Schrock Subject: Re: who is going to Baltimore and Wilmington? Wbsmiles wrote: > > >> This is so cool, we're going to be an infestation :) > >> Flyers/Fruvous fans unite! > > > >OK, that means I'll be the lone Caps fan! :) > > No way Chad! You're not alone. Go Caps Go!! WooHoo!!! Way to go Wendy!!! - -- chad@ radix.net ...who really should be getting ready for work right now... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 09:55:22 -0500 From: Chad Schrock Subject: Re: who is going to Baltimore and Wilmington? Srm9988n@aol.com wrote: > Chad wrote: > > > OK, that means I'll be the lone Caps fan! :) > > In the inimitable words of the Philly sports fan: > Boooooooooo!!!!!!!! heh. Let's go Caps!!!! :) > (that's okay, I'll still give you a brownie. Are we still > on for dancing?) you bet!!! > -- Lori (homicidal Gelfling) ahh! forget I said anything. :) - -- chad@ radix.net ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 14:33:56 +0000 From: Richard Butterworth Subject: Re: A Noho review Chad Schrock had a small rant: > There are too many > FruHeads, like me, that are short!!! You're short?!!? For a tree perhaps. Don't tell me you *were* wearing stilts after all. Tinkerty tonk Richard (only back three days and already writing Fruvous-irrelevant rubbish again) - ---------------------------------------------------------- `This is an ancient Knocking-Scottish-Castles-Down ballad. But I sing it like a girly love song.' -- Kate Rusby - ---------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 14:55:52 GMT From: ceelove@ibm.net (Colleen Campbell) Subject: Re: *IMPORTANT TOUR UPDATES* On Wed, 04 Nov 1998 18:19:24 -0500, Moxy Fruvous wrote: >Fri Feb 19 Toronto, ON Lee's Palace >Sat Feb 20 Toronto, ON Lee's Palace >Sun Feb 21 Toronto, ON Lee's Palace *5th Annual Fruvous and Friends for >Choice* *erk* Guys, I may be out of line in saying this, it may not be my place, but I'm going to risk it anyway. I think this is a sacrifice for Fruvous. They'd planned on playing the Rivoli for four days, and it's something they were really committed to doing, because it's a small venue and they wanted that intimate atmosphere. I don't know the details, but I suspect the venue was changed to a larger one at least in part to accomodate us, the Fruheads, coming up that weekend for the Fruhead Convention on Saturday. If that's the case, I'd like to give a very humble thank-you to Fruvous. I know it means a lot to me that they're willing to try to please us, a fairly small part of their total fan-base. If you get the chance and you're similarly grateful, please do let them know. ceecee, hoping Fruvous is happy with the decision ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 15:01:02 GMT From: ceelove@ibm.net (Colleen Campbell) Subject: Arbie bein' a sweetie On 29 Oct 1998 16:09:15 GMT, "Arbie Fru" wrote: >After Colleen Campbell >> ceecee, whose significant other is *finally* figuring out just what it >> means, that she's a Fruhead. .. >> >To which I say: >If he's not lookin' like a scared rabbit about now I think you got yourself >a keeper Colleen ;) >(Always know I'll get a smile when I see you posting) Well, he deserves kudos for putting up with me on Sunday. I came home exhausted (had to get up at 8-something after the Saturday night parties to be at work back in Boston at 10:45), and I was downright grumpy. I wanted my Fruheads, I wanted my Fruphoria, I did *not* want my boyfriend-who-doesn't-go-to-Fruvous-shows. But he listened patiently to my ramblings, coddled me, cooked dinner for me, snuggled me while I drooped in mild post-show depression. Everyone cheer for cee's boyfriend, who has to deal with her even more often than y'all do! And thank you, Arbie. I've saved this post of yours for a week, treasuring it every time I read it again. . . *smile* cee ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 14:46:28 GMT From: ceelove@ibm.net (Colleen Campbell) Subject: music, mayhem, massage: 10/29-10/31b (DARN long) Chad has done an excellent job of capturing the Fruvous portion of 10/30 (thank goodness, because I don't have an eidetic memory and would have spent hours coddling my brain, trying to get anything relevant out of it), Dante has given a run-down of the delicacies of the area, I'm sure someone will follow up with a weather report or hotel rating *grin*; all that's left for me is to pan around and do a writeup on the Lifestyles of the Lucky and Insane, a few of the Fruheads who made it to the shows of late October, and my own feelings on having been there for it all. The weekend started for me on Wednesday night, when Richard made it back to our neck of the woods (he'd been exploring the bellybutton and ingrown toenail of the woods in the last two weeks) for another night at FruCasa. To my surprise, he accepted a massage from me (okay, so y'all might not all be obsessed about things like this, but: the English are the only people in the world with *more* personal space than the Americans, i.e. distance which they generally require to be comfortable with someone else near them), then serenaded me in return with mandolin, one of my favorite instruments. (For those of you who haven't yet been turned on to Billy Bragg, listen to "Everywhere" off the "Don't Try This At Home" album; that says it all.) For the record, Richard came armed with gifts for the hostesses of FruCasa: Vika got cookbooks and I got CDs. Are we that predictable?! Er, well, yeah, we are. . . Thursday, Loren and Zard joined us (and I got to show the three of them around my workplace, which has to be seen to be believed: how many of y'all get paid to sit around reading in front of a fireplace?), were strangely amenable to going to get baklava nearby (no, really! took very little arm-twisting!), and met me at the The Paradise after I got off work. Also meeting us were, oh, a few dozen other Fruheads, some coworkers, clients, and local friends of mine, etc. This was especially odd for me: a little over a year ago, I'd gone to a Frushow there (with Hamill on Trial opening; what a difference from Jess Klein), been surprised and delighted by how many people I knew in the audience, and decided on that trip north to move to Boston. It never wears off, guys. I've been here nine months and the magic just keeps going. This particular time, I was reveling in the fact that I could walk 15 minutes to get to a Fruvous show, whereas last year I had to fly for hours. (Not that I *did* walk; it was damn cold!) Anyway, I hugely enjoyed dancing and renewing my acquaintance with umpteen people, and I got all squiggly inside just looking at the crowd assembled of (reportedly) 600 people--and knowing that some of them were there because of me. It means a heck of a lot to me, to be able to contribute to Fruvous fan-base now. The show was excellent. Sadly, it's been eclipsed by the two subsequent shows, so I can't do it justice; if I'd seen it on its own, I wouldn't give it such short shrift. It started off with "Sahara" (not the extended jam, just going straight into it), followed by "Laika" (which I enjoy but which makes my fingernails itch to hear the "Bargainville Tour era" version, slow and swinging). I believe "Half as Much" came next, which I'm sad to say is the only one of the new tunes which really hasn't grabbed me at all, even with repeated listenings; my attention wanders. After that, of course, they started frolicking musically: Dave commented that the Paradise really is, well, paradise (and of course got some smart-ass rejoinders from the others) and they played a tribute to it in the form of "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," done in ska form (because Fruvous is always behind-the-times and the intend to release a ska album next year, after it's no longer trendy). After that I'm a bit lost. High points: "Pisco Bandito" elicited screams from me that heralded just how badly I'd be treating my vocal cords for the weekend: I might as well pour carbolic acid on them and have done with it. (I teased Murray on Saturday that I knew it was all a conspiracy, an attempt to get me to scream, personally, so that I'd destroy my voice and sing an octave lower--just so I'd be able to sing *his* parts.) The GE&H "Not the Beatles!" part was, I believe, the longest I've ever heard, but for the life of me I can't remember what they went off on; a tangent leading them halfway to Jakarta and back, basically! The "drama class" interrogatory-sentences stuff, including Mike suggesting they visualize beating up Murray Foster. "Kids' Song" was delightful but, sadly, the mics really went out on that one, to the extent that Dave spoke gibberish-mock-static into his at one point rather than singing his line. And Murray told a story about a "visitation" that afternoon he'd had, assuring us that he's a skeptic: he was lying in bed--(screams from the audience); "alone!" he amended--and heard a few steps in the room. Mike told him that he (Mike) had sent his ghost to the room to use the can, but that Murray's ghost had been in the bathroom, so those few steps Murray had heard were Mike's ghost going to pee in a bottle instead. Someone said that sounded like a bit of an anti-climactic story, and they talked about how all ghost stories would be that way in the future: Dave said, ". . .and then they opened the door, and it was the janitor. Normal janitor, with all five fingers and toes." It took a second, and then the audience howled. "That would be a scary story!" Fruvous concluded. "Janitor with five fingers and toes." Mike also commented on the words "in re," i.e. "in regards to," and said how, being raised Catholic (hope I'm getting this right) he noticed that Christ had a sign over him as he was being crucified, "In ri." "Yeah," snapped Mike, "In re this crown of thorns, dad! In re the vinegar soaked sponge! Getting the point!?" When Jian stepped away from the drums and Mike took up the harmonica, I blithely assumed "Fly," just as blithely ignoring the fact that Mike wasn't putting the harp into one of those doohickeys that looks like headgear so he could play the drums too, and blithely ignoring the fact that Jian's political speech wasn't the one normally leading up to "Fly." He railed against Clinton, saying we shouldn't impeach him for the Monica thing (applause)--but that we *should* impeach him for the fact that he's misrepresented himself as a liberal (more applause), including signing a bill to increase revenues going to the military by $8 billion, just what we need, right? Sadly, a couple of whoops and claps for that, too, which Jian ignored as he went into a beautiful, heartfelt version of "Stuck in the 90's" (with the line about "Sounds like more George Patacki"). It's been far too long since I've heard it, and I hadn't realized how much I missed it; used to be one of my favorites, when sincerely sung. The most wonderful moment of the show for me, though, was hearing their gorgeous arrangement of "Early Morning Rain." Is it just me, or are we being especially priviledged lately to hear such gems from their early career? "Road Runner Song" came out recently, and "Marion Fruvous" has turned up a couple of times. I'm totally all for it. But "Early Morning Rain" was a stunning song that I would have welcomed no matter how many times I'd heard it: the pathos to it, the imagery, the poignance. Inspired me, all by itself, to go back and start digging around in earlier folk music, to find another such "bijou." After that, the Paradise staff impressed me by vaulting into first place as rudest bouncers I've ever encountered. They threw us out, even those patently and patiently waiting for Fruvous to come out for a visit. I left after enduring my share of rudeness; found out later that the lads *had* made an appearance, but ah well. I'm told that Jian especially was glad to be out, to meet Richard (who will gracefully refrain from tooting his own horn), almost inarticulate with pleasure in saying, "I'm such a fan of your posts!" Day two of the triple crown: 10/30, NoHo. The Paradise might as well be in my backyard, yes, but NoHo feels like it; though it's 100 miles away from Boston, it feels like a very reasonable drive to get to quality music. Many of you may have come on board since Marty Cosgrove left (he used to be one of the main posters here, a couple of years ago) but I think you'd agree with something he once said to me. After the first tape tree came out--from a 10/95 recording at the Iron Horse--he said that the Iron Horse was going to be Fruhead Mecca. Given that I'd travel from Jerusalem itself to get to a Fruvous show there, I'd agree; and given the Fruhead contingent waiting en line (and hell, off line--one of the few things that CAN get y'all offline ;) ), I'd say that others can second that. A couple other people have mentioned what it was like, being on that line. There were people in line before 4:00, and it was quite nippy. Doors were originally announced to be 5:30, but as everyone learned upon arriving, they weren't going to open until 7:00. Eep! Most of us didn't bother staying on line, but bounced around, greeting and snuggling everyone; Andy wasn't surprised to find I lived up to my rep as a massageslut (as many other people found out shortly). It was an amazing experience, being excited afresh as we discovered that someone else from online was there. The locals didn't know what to make of us, and some of them were, sadly, rude--obstreporously getting in our faces about their assumption that we as a group intended to cut in front of them. Lots of reunions with people I hadn't seen in months--Sirilyan, Hugo, Doug Levy, Ingrid and hKatherine, Chris and Zard, Angel and Sarah--please don't anyone be offended that I can't remember your name personally, as I probably shorted out some synapses with excitement then. Lemme put it this way: I hardly noticed it was cold, and this is the girl already beginning to whimper that her thin Floridean blood is curdling at the onslaught of fall chilliness. (There were also some people conspicuously and lamentably absent: Dan Carp, Llesi, Rosemary, Heatherrr Rolph, Gordon--Gordon, where were you? I hope at another great concert instead.) I counted up three countries, four provinces, and at least sixteen states represented there, and I'm sure there were more. Hey, poll: pipe up if you came from a state other than California, Texas, Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, DC/Maryland, North Carolina, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, or Delaware. Once they let us in, we milled around, forming into little pockets of Fruheads. We weren't pockets of insanity, though: the Fruheads may have been standouts in how far we traveled for the show, but we were on par for rabid enthusiasm. I'm sure I wasn't the only person there whose voice gave up on her in disgust and took a vacation to Maui for a few days. (We're reaching an uneasy settlement at this point.) I had carved my Very First Pumpkin Ever with the Fruvous Bargainville logo (I thought it very cute), and I found that one of John Greene's friends had done the same thing: they both ended up on stage, glowing happily. Jess Klein has an amazing voice and a sense of quirky self-effacement I found rather endearing. This was my third time hearing her, and this venue worked the best for it--a fairly quiet, respecting crowd. There was one clear "standout" song, though, a jouncy in-your-face call to feminist attitude with a catchy refrain: "Hey hey, flirt with this/ I am a certified hard-core bitch/ I do not care for your point of view/ But I'll let you live and that's the only thing I'm gonna do." The surprising thing is that there were guys singing and clapping along! Another I really liked was "Jane," which she described as being about a relationship that you know will end, it's just a matter of time, which I've been known to be able to relate to. Her closing song that night was a Tom Waits cover that I really enjoyed (heck, I can't remember a Tom Waits cover I *haven't* enjoyed, though Tori's "Time" will never be surpassed for me). I found my place far back in the crowd, wanting to have lots of space to dance myself to exhaustion. Ended up dancing boisterously with Ben Cordes and fiancee Tara, a couple of MIT'ers, and Jonathan Edelson, who turned out to be my "dad" on a tape tree a couple of years ago, to my amusement. The whole crowd was *jammin'*, believe me. They weren't rowdy, though (until the VERY end, when a couple of people hollered for GE&H, after "Lee," with the band clearly about to go into "Drinking Song".) For the most part, the crowd was extremely responsive, occasionally talking with the band. (Jian put on a purple hat backwards, a la "Tim" from the "Your New Boyfriend" tour, and spoke in a silly inflection when he was reading his parts of the narrative; at one point he forgot to put the hat on and everyone hollered for it.) They were respectfully quiet for serious, lyrically complex or emotionally wrought songs, like "Follow the Road" (my first hearing, and I definitely need to hear it a couple more times just to get the depth it conveys), "If Only You Knew" (each of them picked 3 songs they wanted to include in the first set, and someone else picked that for Mike; whoever it was, thank you!), and "I Will Hold On." There was much singing along for "Homeward Bound," a real treat since I haven't known of it being included in a setlist before. And of course, massive enthusiasm for dance-your-booty-off songs like "Psycho Killer" and "BJ." The best treat for me? "Sad Today." Thought I'd *never* hear it live, and in fact they haven't played it live, as far as I'm aware, since it was recorded. I grabbed somebody nearby and waltzed--badly. *grin* In the second set, as we knew would happen, they called Rachel down to stage (in what sounded like fairly realistic improv banter). Thing is, there were three Rachels in the audience; one was easy to eliminate, as she was on the dance floor, but there were two from the balcony, and I don't even know if Jian knew which was Tom's Rachel! So he was questioning them, "Do you have a boyfriend?" "No, the first answered; "or a girlfriend, either." That elicited some screams! (And hey, she was really cute, too.) Tom's Rachel was second, and Dave manuvered the other into the background while Jian explained to our heroine that he actually knew she had a boyfriend Tom, and here he was to ask her a question on stage. Tom went down on his knees and Fruvous serenaded her with a beautifully harmonized "Will you marry me?" I'm not normally one for weeping, but I teared up just watching the emotion on the stage, and the crowd was ecstatic. Tom and Rachel stayed on stage as Fruvous sang "Fell in Love." There's no way to convey the mood in writing; it was an incredibly private moment that several hundred happened to be witness to. The second set, on the whole, was rather normal pieces; I enjoyed getting "Darlington Darling" (with Jian jumping back and forth unpredictably and occasionally bumping into Murray). It was a fast-paced, high energy set, with relatively little banter and improv, if I remember right. And as others have already described, "Lee" was an amazing treat; it came across as very. . .I dunno how to say it. . . human. Chris was nervous and Dave was a little shakey himself (not surprising, a quiet song at the end of two demanding sets), but somehow that just contributed to it for me. The other lads didn't join in--sat quietly around the stage--but I kept imagining their harmonies as if they were there After that, NoHo staff shoo'ed us out fairly soon--understandably, as they'd be staying open late the next day for the post-show party. Fruheads dispersed back to The Valley Inn (where one room became "Club 151"), Motel 6 (where most of the cool people were staying *smile*), and various homes in the area. I was up til 4 a.m., babbling and cuddling and just reveling in it all. How many times I said, "You can just feel the love!" I played massage slut again, which earned me some concubinage--beautiful women feeding me pizza while I worked, who could ask for anything more? Heehee.. . I was surprised that Cal accepted a massage, as he's said in the past that he likes staying high-stress to keep his edge (and I certainly won't argue with a winning formula). I was *marvelous* to catch up with Chris Traugott, ramble at poor AJ (receptive ear that he was; bet he knows better than to inquire after my relationship now!), giggle at Chad (zonked on the floor long before we vacated his room). I never feel quite so at-home as on Fruhead weekends: a lot of the best moments of my life have been while enmeshed in the giddiness and conviviality of Fru-congregations. Okay, guys, this is already one of the longest posts, if not THE longest, that I've ever written, and I haven't even tackled day three, and I don't honestly feel up to it, not at the same kind of length. For starters, it was a much more low-energy day for me (partly 'cause Ingrid had piled my hair on my head and I didn't want to shake it down, partly 'cause I couldn't scream anymore, and partly 'cause of exhaustion); for seconders, I'm not the person best suited to talk about a setlist of covers: I've learned about a huge amount of music by Fruvous covering or referencing it, but that should be a clue into the fact that until they *do*, I'm ignorant. I didn't know a lot of the material they did that night, and what I did know was frequently because they'd covered it in the past. Especial treats for me, though, were "Dancing Cheek to Cheek" and "Please Please Me" (I'd thought I'd never hear them do either live, having bad tapes of them previously), "Miss Otis Regrets" (a sobering Cole Porter piece), "Signed Sealed Delivered" with John Greene tickling the ivories until they gasped for mercy, "Billie Jean" (YAAAAAY! amusing, I thought, that when Dave started up the banjo, you could hear a single hoarse shriek, followed by a roomful of cheers when Murray laid on the bass line), "Poor Napoleon" and "Oliver's Army," and "Early Morning Rain," which was tighter than Thursday's performance and, with Murray's rich voice gliding into every corner of that venue, left me almost unable to breathe. "Gulf War Song" was possibly the most heartfelt I've ever heard it, which is saying a lot, and left me tearing up for the second time in two days there. So you can depend on Chad for a better review for the remainder, and hopefully more knowledgeable people like Chris & Zard and Doug Levy (and Richard, whose country produced a lot of the artists covered that night) will fill it out for you. As for me, I've got work--yes, I get to go sit in front of a fireplace and make people happy for a few hours. I hope this vicariously conveyed some of the bliss that's still swirling around in me, several days later, for those of you who weren't able to experience it firsthand. ceecee P.S. One last thing. A friendly soul told me, this weekend, that I'd come across as full of myself on the newsgroup: told me that until he'd met me, he'd thought I would be egotistical. For example, that I called myself a "landmark." I can get really, really caught up in a moment and not notice that I'm excluding others, but I'd like to be able to excuse it as frivolity and ditziness, not a lack of concern for others' feelings, so I'm sorry if any of you have felt that I've been dismissive towards you, in person or on line. As to the "landmark" comment--guys, it's a joke. I've been at folk festivals where others have pointed out that I'm very easy to spot, even from afar, and people have joked, "We'll meet at cee in half an hour." Sorry if anyone thought I was taking myself seriously; it's hard to convey inflection over a purely word-based medium, I know, and I'll try harder to make myself understood in the future. ------------------------------ End of alt.music.moxy-fruvous digest V1 #961 ********************************************