Hi - my favourites on this disc were
The Second Most Beautiful Girl in the World
Captain of Quarantine
Wow and Flutter
Under Our Feet
Mt. St. Helens
Deep and Heavy Love Vibes
Beautiful Child
Swervin in My Lane
Maracas
A Quarter to Three

No, really, Deep and Heavy Love Vibes is right up my street!

Mike

Review of Bob’s More Songs About Insects And Cars

Hi Bob – finally here’s my review of your CD! Sorry, I’m late!


Music for Baritone with Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators (Excerpt) – Alvin Lucier and Thomas Buckner

NMCOT to begin with, I’m afraid

Firefly – Heavens To Betsy

I don’t mind this song

Mosquito Song – The Caulfield Sisters

I really like this song! Is the rest like this?

Unsorted – Nailbiters

Not bad, either

Baby, I – R.E.M.

I quite like R.E.M., but I’ve never heard of this song before, but then you said it was old. Although it’s not the same style as it is today, you can hear the distinctive R.E.M. sound in a way...

The Second Most Beautiful Girl In The World – Courtney Love

I like her voice and the melody of the song, but not so much the musical accompaniment...might grow on me, though

Lost Fallen and Vine – Rosewater Elizabeth

I LOVE this voice! It reminds me of Madredeus lead singer (forgot her name...) very much! Is the rest like this? It’s a beautiful song!

(You Can Do It Over Again) It’s a Bird – Home

What a contrast to the last song...! NMCOT

Captain of Quarantine – Shannon Wright

LOVE this song! Is the rest like this?

Wow and Flutter – Stereolab

Cool Song! I could listen to more of this. (Reminds me of the style Lauren and Scott had on their compilations...)

Under Our Feet – Superchunk

Ah – Superchunk was definitely a band on Scott’s Mix. I liked Watery Hands and I also quite like this one! Should add Superchunk to my list of bands to be checked out...

Mt. St.Helens – Mira

Another cool song! Is the rest like this?

Deep And Heavy Love Vibes – Eric Lyon

What a great piece of music!!! A bit long maybe, but very exciting – there are so many things to listen to. Usually I’m not so much into long instrumental pieces, but I really like this one! I like that rhythm and especially the calm part in the middle before it gets going again! You can hear the vibes, actually...

Antarctica – The Great Big New Ones

Not bad. Could listen to more of this!

Beautiful Child – Fleetwood Mac

I never really liked Fleetwood Mac, but this doesn’t sound bad! Quite a nice song, actually...

Stereo Sanctity – Sonic Youth

NMCOT

Capital A – Lois

Cool song! Is the rest like this? Which album is this from?

Swervin in My Lane – New Sand Mountain Wildcats

Too country-like for me, I’m afraid...would have to be in the right mood for it, I guess

Maracas – Sleater-Kinney

A, Sleater-Kinney again, another band that Scott introduced on his mix. Would have to listen to more, but I guess quite like their style

A Quarter To Three – Sleater Kinney

Not bad, either


Conclusion: Great mix and introducing some great music, I had never heard before! The best for me is certainly Rosewater Elizabeth, Shannon Wright, Lois, Superchunk and Sleater-Kinney. Thanks for sharing!

I just found your compiliation in my desk, along with a blank CD to which I was supposed to copy it for Annika about six months ago. Yikes! Sorry Annika. I'll get to it.

I'm listening now, after having heard various tracks out of context on my iPod in shuffle mode.

I love the Shannon Wright number. I love the sound of a nice guitar recorded properly by someone who knows how to do it so that its tone can be heard in the mix. I'm a bit of an acoustic guitar nut - can you tell?

The Rosewater track is kinda nice too.

Sonic Youth: a racket. I've a mate who's a big fan of them and he often would put some on at the most inappropriate times (such as when we're trying to crash and Wish You Were Here is the general request). I just never got Sonic Youth.

The Home track sounds like two tracks played on top of each other, and not two tracks that go together very well.

Stereolab track is simply great. Catchy as hell.

The Captial A track I like - starts out sounding like the Housemartins of all bands!

Quarter to Three didn't grow on me.

Antartica didn't grow on me either.

New Sand Mountain Wildcats, however, I liked right away. I could listen to more of those sweet harmonies.

REM: A band that went unnoticed by me for years for some strange reason. Now I really like them but tend to prefer their earlier stuff. Guess it don't get much earlier than this!

Courtney Love: some interesting lyrics. Not really my sort of thing though. BTW, do you use the word 'shag' in the US to mean anything other than tobacco? I guess Austin Powers has made it a global term!

That Music for baritone thing sounds like something out of a Tarkovsky movie. Probably sounds better in its proper context.

The Mosquito song didn't grow on me.

Firefly - sounds like karaoke.

Unsorted - nice pace. A grower.

Maracas - like it. A grower.

Superchunk - another grower.

Eric Lyon: Now this I like!

Fleetwood Mac. I have Tusk. A masterpiece.

All in all, an interesting compilation. Sorry for the mediocre review.

No, thanks for the nice review. And I'm amazed to get two positive reviews for Eric Lyon -- I was sure everybody else would hate it. (And yet it was the only song that I knew from the outset that I was going to use. It seemed essential to the shape of the rest of the disc, if that makes any sense.)

As for "the shag" in the Courtney Love song, I believe that refers to the dance of that name. I've never heard the word used refer to tobacco.

Thanks again, although I'm a bit confused: Hasn't Annika already done a review of this compilation?

In the UK, shag is slang for the act of making love. In Holland, it's a type of tobacco.

Yeah, Annika has reviewed it but she would often send me a blank CD when sending me the compilations to make her a copy as she doesn't have a CD burner.

Hi Cams,

no problem at all! After all I am most grateful that you do copy the CD's for me anyway. I suppose Freya keeps you very busy and you devote a lot of time to her which is what you should do!!
Anyway, you already copied Bob's compilation for me (which is why I was able to do a review...!) and the blank CD is for Zeynep's compilation. But don't worry if you can't make it right now.

By the way - have you decided about the Francis Cabrel concert in Strasbourg? Would be great to meet you!

Cheers,
Annika

As a much, much, much belated (and potentially useless) response to Annika's review, I'm glad you like the Rosewater Elizabeth piece. It's funny you said the singer sounds like the woman from Madredeus; the first time I heard Madredeus, I thought, "This sounds just like Rosewater Elizabeth."

A lot of their two albums (Faint and Le Petit Morte) sound like this, although those are out of print and hard to find now.

The Lois, Mirah and Caulfield Sisters songs are very representative of the rest of their work.

Also, the Caulfield Sisters finally have an EP that's out and for sale if anyone's interested. It's for sale on Other Music's web site (www.othermusic.com is the address, I think). And www.truthflies.com also is selling it despite the fact that it's not listed on their site; you just have to mail them $10 and hope for the best.