Distro Deals and Disc Reveals
by Thomas Schulte
**************************************************************
Outsight brings to
light non-mainstream music, film, books, art, ideas and opinions.</font></p>
Published, somewhere,
monthly since July 1991o. Feel free to re-print this article.</font></p>
Please, keep Outsight
informed: </font></p>
Email Outsight at
outsight@usa.net.</font></p>
Ratings are (1) =
:(, (5) = :)</font></p>
Outsight Radio Hours
Internet radio Webcasts with live interviews:</font></p>
Sundays 6pm-8pm EST
http://www.new-sounds.net/</font></p>
**************************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS
***</font></p>
CD BABY PARTNERS
WITH MP3.COM</font></p>
MP3.com chose independent
music retailer CD Baby to facilitate the fulfillment and customer service backend
for artists selling pre-existing CDs from their MP3.com artist pages. MP3.com
artists now have the opportunity to place their music in CD Baby’s online store
as well as have the CDs warehoused in the company’s Portland headquarters alongside
the 11,500 independent titles that CD Baby currently distributes. MP3.com
promotes and sells music from 180,000 artists on MP3.com.</font></p>
The arrangement places
MP3.com’s existing membership in the ranks of the 11,000 plus artists that already
call CD Baby home. Over 1,500 artists already affiliated with both organizations
had their official CDs automatically linked from their MP3.com page to their
page within the CD Baby store. CD Baby handles all transactions, shipping
and customer service for CDs purchased on CD Baby (http://www.cdbaby.com/)</font></p>
PORCUPINE TREE SIGNS
WORLDWIDE DEAL WITH LAVA ATLANTIC</font></p>
<
p align=”left”> London’s
Porcupine Tree, the group led by multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson, inked
a global agreement with Lava/Atlantic Records. They are now recording their
seventh studio record and first for the new label. The high watermark for the
group was their 1996 album Signify (Delerium). Generally acknowledged
as an excellent album, this is also the element of their discography thought
to best represent the Porcupine Tree live experience. That successful album
apparently nurtured a desire for greater popularity resulting in the dismal,
song-based Stupid Dream (Snapper/K-Scope, 1999). In the Autumn of 2001,
Delerium released Stars Die – The Delerium Years box set, which presents
an overview of the 1991 to 1997 Delerium catalogue and will hopefully garner
a reaction to steer the group away from the mainstream and back to the art.
Visit the Website at http://www.porcupinetree.com.</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> Hear
or Buy Porcupine Tree at CDnow</a>
</font></p>
MORDAM TO DISTRIBUTE
ALIVE RECORDS & DISASTER RECORDS</font></p>
Beginning January
2002 Mordam Records exclusively
distributes Alive Records & Disaster Records from the Bomp! family of labels.
Alive Records joined with pioneer Bomp! Records in 1993. It focuses on high-energy
music: punk, Detroit-psych and primitive rock ‘n’ roll. Groups that released
titles on the imprint include Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, U.S. Bombs, G.G. Allin,
The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs, and plenty more. Disaster Records came about in
1998, when professional skater Duane Peters (U.S. Bombs, The Hunns), decided
to start his own record label dedicated to street punk rock. Besides Peters’
groups the Disaster Records catalog features records from Smogtown, The Richmond
Sluts and more. Ruth Schwartz founded Mordam Records in 1983. It is the exclusive
home to over thirty important independent record labels and publications. The
roster includes Alternative Tentacles, Sympathy For The Record Industry and
many others. In 2001 Mordam added New Red Archives, Scooch Pooch, The Cramps’
Vengeance Records and others.</font></p>
<
p align=”center”>Hear
or Buy Mordam Records on CDNow</a>
or Buy Alive on CDNow</a>
or Buy Disaster on CDNow</a>
</font></p>
DVD REVIEWS ***********************
Guided By Voices
The Who Went Home And Cried
http://www.musicvideodistributors.com/</font></p>
Guided By Voices
are at the heart of the lo-fi indie rock movement. There is little that is more
lo-fi than the half-dozen tracks performed here by the group as they jam on singer
Robert Pollard’s porch in Dayton, Ohio. This informal open-air performance is
captured with a video camera’s microphone. This is the musical central portion
of an afternoon and evening’s progression to a show that is the final appearance
for the bass player. This performance is only partially presented in muddy sound,
but bonus footage on the DVD includes nine selections with adequate sound captured
at the Whisky in Los Angeles.” (2)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/MOVIES/mv_item.html/itemid=1449261/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> More on this video title from CDNow</a></font></p>
Miklos Jancso, Director
The Red and The White
Kino on Video
http://www.kino.com/</font></p>
In The Red and
The White</i>, Hungary’s Miklos Jancso (Silence and Cry, My Way Home,
The Roundup) plunges us into the anonymous, confused melee in one of
the shifting, 21 fronts of the Russian 1918 Civil War. A beleaguered monastery turned
hospital is the central location of this opus, filmed grandly in black &
white Cinemascope. Ushering us to this place is arbitrary cruelty, sudden death
and ready debasement. The shirtless Bolshevik Reds, battling the uniformed royalist
Whites in the role of hunted in a demeaning game, collect at the monastery and
gather their wits. No attempt is made at character development as they strive
to continue their existence; the soldiers of both sides are nameless, impersonal.
The Reds’ overall hopelessness is broken by periods of individual triumph and
escapes and boils down to a call for rescuing cavalry. However, their final
slaughter on hillside leaves only a moment for honored remembrance by the cavalry
that arrives too late. Since history tells us of the Whites’ eventual fall,
this episode of useless death in the Whites’ favor underscores the absurdity and wastefulness
of war as Jancso intends. (3)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/MOVIES/mv_item.html/itemid=946854/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> More on this video title from CDNow</a></font></p>
Peter Clifton, Director
London Rock & Roll Show
Cleopatra/MVD</font></p>
The August 5, 1972,
London Rock and Roll Revival show was a summit led by such rock founders as
Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Bill Haley and Chuck Berry. Hippies,
Teddy Boys (‘50’s wannabes), bikers and pre-punks with dyed hair and festooned
leathers filled Wembley Stadium to pay homage to this pantheon. Clifton captures
energy and controversy in a show that features hit after hit and a running debate
about who is the true King of Rock: the nominal Haley, energetic boogie-woogie
maven Jerry Lee Lewis or a bitchy Little Richard? (The name of Elvis Presley
on a t-shirt is the only inroad that the king seems to have made with this British
audience.) Screaming Lord Sutch, while not patriarch of the movement, is on
hand to deliver an over-the-top, theatric performance. Also here is rockabilly
from Heinz and The Houseshakers. (4)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/MOVIES/mv_item.html/itemid=1449262/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> More on this video title from CDNow</a></font></p>
Steve Marriott
Steve Marriott Live
Classic Pictures/Music Video Distributors
http://www.classicpictures.co.uk/
http://www.musicvideodistributors.com/</font></p>
Steve Marriott (Small
Faces, Humble Pie) rocks the audience with Packet of Three live in 1985 at London’s
Camden Palace Theatre on this hour-long DVD. The nine-song performance includes
such Marriott classics as “All or Nothing,” “What Ya Gonna Do About It” and
“Tin Soldier” along with the obligatory “30 Days in the Hole” from the Humble
Pie catalogue and an excellent version of “Walking the Dog.” Marriott’s guitar
performance is top-notch and vocals are strong and lucid in a classic arena
rock style. Along with a biography and discography, this DVD includes an interview
with Marriott. (4)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/MOVIES/mv_item.html/itemid=1480682/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> More on this video title from CDNow</a></font></p>
Chen Kaige, Director
</font>Life
on a String</font></i>
</font></font>Kino
on Video
http://www.kino.com/</font></p>
<
p style=”margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt”>Kaige
is known for the excellent films Temptress Moon and Farewell my Concubine.
This 1991 film also exemplifies his memorable visual style. Each frame is arranged
as if for the canvas, for peerless effect. In this tale, a blind master and
his blind apprentice eagerly await the breaking of the one-thousandth “banjo”
string to grant them enlightenment and restored sight. This instrument is actually
the san hsien, a long-necked folk lute with a small, snakeskin-covered
body. Its distinctive plucked sound is only part of the musical treats
of this film. Nearly every chapter of the story includes a wondrous song with
a haunting beauty matching the singular, harsh otherworldly beauty of the lavishly
pictured landscapes of Inner Mongolia. There is an overt message to this film
of purpose and discovery for the individual over conflict and attainment of
the conglomerate nation. Twice in the film this becomes a cloying idealism,
but the beautiful visuals and memorable songs overcome all that to make this
a very worthy opus. (4)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/MOVIES/mv_item.html/itemid=946930/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> More on this video title from CDNow</a></font></p>
<
p style=”margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt”>
<
p style=”margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt”>Various
Artists</font></p>
<
p style=”margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt”>CRAPtv
Presents Lapdance 01, the DVD</i></font></p>
<
p style=”margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt”>CRAPtv
<
p style=”margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt”>http://www.craptv.com/
<
p style=”margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt”>
<
p style=”margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt”>This
is a 2-disc set drawn off an anti-film festival staged parallel to the better-known
Sundance Film Festival. Disc one features CRAPtv roving transvestite comedian
reporters, Troma Studio personages at play, nubile gals at play in nurse uniforms
and a hot tub and such interviews as Tammy Faye. Rock band DVDA, from South
Park</i>’s Matt Stone and Trey Parker, perform live with more music from Vynil,
an ad-hoc Bay Area Latin jazz summit, and Banyan, a Mike Watt project. However,
the jokes and scenarios wear very thin on this disc, even before the end is
reached. The promise after this disposable disc is The Lapdance 01 Film Festival
subtitled The Most Outrageous Short Films Ever Shown to the Public! There
are several films, though some are merely film trailers. Most are the type of
lowbrow humor you would expect from high school teens smoking joints: a penis
-wielding martial arts master and a hand farts study can be included here. More
engaging material can be found in a psychobilly video and Terence McKenna expounding
on the alien entities around us. Other highlights include a documentary on supposed
oligarch sex slave Brice Taylor, the gross-out makeup extravaganza Zitlover
and the makeshift bout among vagrants on Beach Bum Boxing. (2)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/MOVIES/mv_item.html/itemid=1413076/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> More on this video title from CDNow</a></font></p>
REVIEWS ****************************
Strobe Talbot
20 Pop Songs
</i>Alternative Tentacles
http://www.alternativetentacles.com/product.php?product=449</font></p>
This collection of
sugary odd-pop features the quirky stylings of Jad Fair. Monsters and sweets
and sappy thoughts are the content of these post-bubblegum creations. The rest
of the goofy trio is Mick Hobbs and Benb Gallaher. Mick Hobbs hooked up with
Fair in a late incarnation of Half Japanese. Previously, Englishman Hobbs worked
with many progressive groups in Britain, including The Work with Tim Hodgkinson
(Henry Cow). Benb Gallaher was the drummer and organist in The Jaunties, a sort
of Half Japanese side project as it featured Jason Willett, bass player for Half
Japanese. So, as one would expect, there is a lot of similarity to Half Japanese
in these 21 tracks recorded in Spain, Portugal and Maine over the course of
a year. (3)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1460772/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></font></p>
Chava Alberstein
</font>Foreign
Letters</font></i>
</font></font>Rounder
http://www.rounder.com/</font></p>
Chava Alberstein
is the preeminent artist in Israeli vocal music. Presenting material in Hebrew,
Yiddish and English, this is an album from one of the world’s oldest peoples
and one of the newest nations. It is no wonder that Chava says, “No matter where
I am, even if it’s in my own country, I feel like a guest.” This touchstone
for Israeli folk-pop comes from a guest of the world with mellifluous delivery.</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1475129/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></font></p>
Dayna Kurtz
</font>Postcards
from Downtown</font></i>
</font></font>Kismet
Records
http://www.daynakurtz.com/</font></p>
The tray card of
this album appears to be from a found postcard communication between mother
and daughter. Words from home, that is, postcards from downtown. The feel of
this album from this sophisticated jazz vocalist working in New York City has
a touch of the heartland and suggests reaching from urbanity to simpler, rural
warmth remembered. Kurtz’ lyrics are personal, intimate poetry and her delivery
goes from husky affirmation to whispering nuances: a full emotional spectrum.
It is her combination of songwriting and performance represented here that has
netted her legions of fans and a zealous cult following. (4)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1498912/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></font></p>
Foetus
Blow
Thirsty Ear
http://www.foetus.org/</font></p>
This is the remix
album of Flow. Flow itself was a superlative album from Foetus,
but the efforts of Phylr, Ursula 1000, Franz Treichler (The Young Gods)
and more ends up with ultra-effective post-industrial beat music. Following
Gash and the stifling business relationship with Sony, were 6 years of
chemical and alcohol suicide that ended with J.G. Thirlwell, a.k.a. Foetus,
making some changes and getting into that creative flow state that brought out
Flow. That triumphant, rebirth brilliance shines through on Blow,
a high water mark in the Foetus discography. (5)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1414675/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></font></p>
Anti-Nowhere League
Animal!: The Very Best of Anti-Nowhere League 1981-1998
Anagram Records
http://www.cherryred.co.uk/</font></p>
The obscenity-laden
career of these confrontational punk rockers is laid out in bare, chronological
fashion on this 18-track compendium. By sampling from the entire career of the
group, this is the only collection, of the several available, showing the entire
musical growth of the group. The disc starts with the track “So What,” that
was deemed obscene and then seized and destroyed by British police when it came
out as a single. This is the original banned version that was later covered
by Metallica on Garage Days. (4)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1464137/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></font></p>
Sid Vicious
Sid Dead Live
Anagram Records
http://www.cherryred.co.uk/</font></p>
These are recordings
made by Vicious himself at a September 21, 1978, appearance at Max’s Kansas City.
This hastily put together show had two sets. One set is entirely throwaway, captured
on the first half of the album, unless you want to use it as a Sid Vicious karaoke.
Vicious is nowhere in the mix, muddled and confused. The second half of the
disc is much more together and includes all you would expect including “Something
Else” and “Belsen was a Gas.” The final track is an interview with a rude and
uncooperative Sid. (3)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=437957/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></font></p>
Fad Gadget
The Best of Fad Gadget
Mute
http://www.fadgadget.com/</font></p>
Fad Gadget (Frank
Tovey) was the first Mute signing and along with Human League, Cabaret Voltaire,
etc., Fad Gadget directed electronic music of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
This 30-track double-disc includes all the singles and B-sides along with remixes
rare and new. Those early singles “Back to Nature” and “Ricky’s Hand” were dark
and innovative and still sound strong today on this compendium. (4.5)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1474791/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></font></p>
Hadacol
All in your Head
Slewfoot Records
http://www.slewfootrecords.com/</font></p>
It was a potent alcohol
elixir named Hadacol that sponsored Hank Williams’ radio show in the 1940s. Electric
guitar and a modern honky-tonk attitude suggesting high octane fuel on fast-
or slow-burn fuels these country and roots rockers. The core of the band is
brothers Fred and Greg Wickham. They grew up on pure country as well as roots
rock-n-roll in Missouri. This varied but ‘rooted’ inspiration allows them to
smoothly glide from ballads to rockers on this excellent album. (3.5)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1431122/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></font></p>
Gideon Smith &
The Dixie Damned
Southern Gentlemen
Small Stone Records
http://www.smallstone.com/</font></p>
Gideon Smith, a journeyman
of the North Carolina music scene, revels in powerful southern-style electric
blues-rock on this album. There are shades of Lynyrd Skynyrd without any gratuitous
slow-dance episodes. There are tinges of 60’s hard psychedelia ala Black Sabbath.
Southern Gentlemen is an overview of hard rock history with a perspective
taken from the Southern latitudes. (3)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1171860/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></font></p>
Willard Grant Conspiracy
and Telefunk
In the Fishtank
Konkurrent/Touch and Go</font></p>
It was Telefunk’s
association with Willard Grant Conspiracy singer Robert Fisher that finally
allowed Telefunk to get their much-sought Konkurrent recording session by involving
Willard Grant Conspiracy on this In the Fishtank chapter. The 6-song
recording is built around fin de siecle songs such as “Dig a Hole in
the Meadow” and the traditional 1869 hymn “Near the Cross.” Each group suggested
three of the antique songs, but the delivery is consistent. Telefunk takes their
electronica into the whispering background and allows the Willard Grant Conspiracy
acoustic approach to handle the melodies. Melancholy and instrumentally rich,
this is an exquisitely successful pairing based on gentle and respectful treatment
of the chosen material. (4)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005UKQF/qid%3D1013364063/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F0%5F1/outsighthomepage/002-3611104-5421630″
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at Amazon.com</a></font></p>
John Washburn
Stumbling Still Warm…
Wayward Records
http://www.johnwashburn.com/</font></p>
Washburn’s music
has an effective, direct rock beat to it, but nothing is overstated about this
primarily acoustic approach. Located now in New York City, which Washburn calls
“wonderfully dark and seedy,” seems to balance the rural aspects of his music
with just enough urban punch. This is Washburn’s solo debut after being a member
of promising but ultimately dead-end groups Clara Venus and more. The album
comes across as the worthy material of an earnest talented artist finally doing
his own music with the benefit of a wide spectrum of experience. (3.5)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1484517/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></font></p>
Robert McCreedy
Streamline
Safe House Records
http://safehouserecords.com/</font></p>
Long-time member
of The Volebeats, McCreedy contributed solid songs to that group since 1994.
One of those songs, “Two Seconds” got the attention of Laura Cantrell. She covered it
and shows up to make a guest appearance singing backup vocals on this, his first
solo recording since leaving the group after Mosquito Spiral. These detached,
imaginative acoustic impressions were mined from the hours traveling from Detroit
to Minneapolis to New York to Vermont to Nashville. (3.5)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1472279/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></font></p>
June Star
Telegraph
Safe House Records
http://safehouserecords.com/</font></p>
June Star’s roots
music features rolling arrangements from near a cappella vocal breaks
to shimmering mandolin touches. Vocalist Andrew Grimm delivers the lyrics with
emotion and conveyed honesty as he also keeps the roots grounded with southern-rock
guitar, classic banjo and the fluid, melodic harmonica that marks the performance
of a vocalist. His restrained, falsetto delivery marks this as a backwoods original,
especially on such rustic tracks as trotting “If I.” (4)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=382666/from=sr-4589690-1″
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></font></p>
Precious Bryant
Fool Me Good
Terminus</font></p>
Precious Bryant grew
up in Talbot County, Georgia, surrounded by a bevy of community folk, blues and
gospel musicians. Eventually she acquired a Silvertone guitar through a Sears
& Roebuck catalog and began her own career. Influenced by early rock-n-roll
and R&B, like the song “Fever” which she covers here, Bryant developed a punchy, strumming
folk-blues style first recorded by folklorist George Mitchell in 1969. Bryant
also appeared on a compilation of Chattahoochee River Valley artists, but this
is her debut full-length recording. These songs are all from her repertoire,
originals and the covers she learned from the radio and other regional
artists. Though recently recorded, this is a time capsule back to late ‘60’s
rural blues. When Precious sings her arrangement of Blind Willie McTell’s “Broke
And Ain’t Got a Dime,” we here the authenticity of real poverty experience and
the clarion voice of rising triumphantly above such conditions. The clear, easy
rhythms of her syncopation, heard as clearly on the title track as on any other,
keeps each song moving with a forward leaning, swinging rhythm like a muted
R&B bass-line. Bryant’s most melancholy visitation is the antique warning, “Don’t
Let the Devil Ride,” but even this carried the hint of a reassuring smile. Other
traditionals given the warm, hopeful Precious Bryant treatment are “Blues All
Around my Bed,” “You Don’t Want me No More”, “Ups and Downs” and “When the Saint’s
go Marching In.” (3.5)</font> </p>
<
p align=”center”> <f
