Don't you wish you'd never, never met her?

[sovay]

Got my page proofs for "The White Swan" (in TEL : Stories) today, and they are beautiful. I can't wait to see—and read—the entire anthology. [edited 2005-03-31 16:28] And it has a nice-looking advertisement, too!

TEL : Stories Edited by Jay Lake Wheatland Press August, 2005 ISBN: 0-9755903-3-2 Pre-order soon from Wheatland Press Did you ever read a story and say to yourself, "Oh my God, someone can do that with the language?" TEL : Stories is dedicated to the idea that there is no such thing as stylistic excess. Featuring a reprint of Greer Gilman's "Jack Daw's Pack," as well as new fiction from Forrest Aguirre, Gregory Feeley, Jeff VanderMeer and many other fine authors, TEL : Stories offers twenty-eight different views of what style in fiction can be.

In other news, I'm trying to figure out how on earth I managed to make it all the way to grad school without ever listening to PJ Harvey. I love her work. A professor of mine introduced me to her last fall with To Bring You My Love: it was instant addiction. A day ago, I borrowed Rid of Me; and given that I've been listening to it almost nonstop since then, it may be about to displace To Bring You My Love as my favorite PJ Harvey album. I'm not really familiar with any of her recent stuff, though. I've got Dry and Is This Desire?, which are likewise fantastic—I retain a certain preference for the three earlier albums, but Is This Desire? has "Angelene," "The Wind," "A Perfect Day, Elise," and "No Girl So Sweet," which are individually some of my favorites—but I've never heard either Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea or Uh Huh Her.

Recommendations, warnings, abstract thoughts, anyone?

Comments

[blindsidepubs.livejournal.com]

Uh Huh Her is.... incredible. I can't speak for Stories.

Purchase Uh Huh Her first opportunity you get.

[sovay]

I'll file that under "recommendations," and take it. (As soon as I have some money . . .) Thanks.

What do you like so much about it?

[gwynnega]

Stories is very good, though it sounds more like Patti Smith than PJ Harvey in places (which, since I love Patti Smith, is okay with me). Dry and Rid of Me are my favorites.

You might also want to check out Marianne Faithfull's new album, Before the Poison, which PJ Harvey worked on - especially the song "My Friends Have," which is very PJ-esque. (You can get a download of "My Friends Have"> here.)

[gwynnega]

ding! ((see below))

Hee! We seem to be sharing a brain again.

And forgot Marianne Faithfull has a new album, ooh....

It's really good. Possibly her best ever.

[sovay]

I know not from Patti Smith. Likewise, I am totally unfamiliar with Marianne Faithfull (except for her appearance on the soundtrack of City of Lost Children), but that was a really neat song. Thanks! Is that typical of her usual work?

[gwynnega]

I know not from Patti Smith.

Oh! It's not such an outlandish statement to say that without Patti Smith, there would've been no PJ Harvey. I HIGHLY recommend her albums Horses and Easter.

but that was a really neat song. Thanks! Is that typical of her usual work?

Marianne Faithfull's stuff is mostly not quite so rock'n'roll oriented, but she's always interesting. And since you're a Waits fan, I think you would like her usual style...

[sovay]

Am now trying to picture music that reflects elements of both Tom Waits and PJ Harvey. I think this might cause cerebral hemorrhage. I'll have to try it.

[gwynnega]

Hee! With any luck it will prove less dangerous!

[sovay]

I'm waiting for 4-Track Demos to show up in the mail. I've been curious about that one for years, anyway, as Caitlín R. Kiernan credits "Hardly Wait" as one of the inspirations for her story "Glass Coffin" in Tales of Pain and Wonder.

[sovay]

That's a mixed bag, for me. I like the Dresden Doll's demo version of "Girl Anachronism" far better than the studio version on their eponymous first album, but that's primarily because of an effect of overlapping and conflicting voices that was later changed, and perhaps because it was the first version I heard. (Same for Jill Tracy's "Extraordinary": I much prefer the jazzier voice-and-piano arrangement on Quintessentially Unreal to the slower, orchestrated take on Diabolical Streak.) On the other hand, I think the studio recordings of "Missed Me" and "Truce" are much stronger than the demos on A Is For Accident, and despite a lyrics change I love the studio version of "Coin-Operated Boy." It all depends on what changes. And sometimes it doesn't matter that much—I've decided I like a later, more stripped-down variant of Bob Dylan's "Tangled Up in Blue" (a concert performance) better than the bluesy, jangling original on Blood on the Tracks, but that doesn't mean I won't listen to them both.

[sovay]

The demo of "Girl Anachronism" isn't exactly an unretouched performance, since the effect of alternating lines cutting one another off doesn't work without two voices and Amanda does all the vocals herself: the studio version is a lot closer to what their live performances sound like. But I tend to like live performances of "Girl Anachronism" (both the ones I've heard in person and the video that was up at their website until quite recently, when they updated the page; go check it out if you haven't already) better than the version off their studio album, even if secondarily to the demo, so I'm beginning to think it's something about that specific recording that doesn't appeal to me quite so much.

It all depends what you want out of the performance. There are some effects you can achieve in a studio version that it's very hard to get live. There's a certain spontaneity to live performances that's hard to replicate in a recording session. And all sorts of other factors besides. There are some songs I prefer one way, some another. (See earlier comment.) And fortunately, for those of us who prefer the live recordings, there are bootlegs. : P

[spectre-general.livejournal.com]

I was always embittered towards PJ Harvey, on account of the fact that I always went to go look in the music store for Harvey Danger, and all I could ever find was her.

This probably isn't a good enough reason, true. Still everyone should go listen to Harvey Danger.

[sovay]

I am a total music ignoramus. So far I've been recommended Patti Smith, Marianne Faithfull, and Harvey Danger, none of whom I'd heard of . . . Enlighten me?

[spectre-general.livejournal.com]

Harvey Danger is (or maybe was) a Seattle band that came out a little after all the other Seattle bands (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, whatever).

They are perhaps best known for their 'one hit' "Flagpole Sitta'" Which was on the soundtrack to a lot of things for a while, and includes the lyrics:

Been around the world and found that only stupid people are breeding.
The cretins cloning and feeding,
And I don't even own a TV.

Put me in the hospital for nerves and then they had to commit me.
You told them all I was crazy.
They cut off my legs, now
I'm an amp-u-tee-God-damn-you!

And this one, "Show me the Hero" from their second album:

I went to lunch with Jesus Christ.
He said some words about humanity. Fundamental Christianity, yeah.
The food was very nice.
But then he had to go and die for my sins and stick my ass with the check.

They're my second favorite band.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Okay, seconding the Patti Smith rec because I had actually just kind of assumed you must have heard of her because everything else about you indicates that you would listen to Patti Smith. Horses is my favorite and is one of the rare albums I sit down with every so often and just listen to straight through on headphones, like reading a book.

My Marianne Faithfull fave is Broken English, with my song picks being 'Broken English' itself, 'Ghost Dance' (which is a cover of Patti Smith, oddly enough), and 'The Ballad of Lucy Jordan', which is one of the most heartbreaking songs I've ever heard.

I could use a bit of a guide to P.J. Harvey, frankly, as I've had and loved a copy of To Bring You My Love for years, but don't know a thing about her other work. Where should I start?

[sovay]

Is This Desire? is closer in style to To Bring You My Love than any of her other albums, so you might want to start with that; those two were my introduction to PJ Harvey. Dry is her first album and has some incredible songs on it, like "Happy & Bleeding," "Sheela Na Gig," and "Water," but it's a much sparer, rawer sound; Rid of Me, even more so. But right now, To Bring You My Love and Rid of Me are the two albums that I like most consistently overall.

I realize that probably didn't help you at all . . . If so you wish (and this doesn't violate your beliefs about copyright), I will send you a couple songs from each album so you can get a feel for them. Let me know.

everything else about you indicates that you would listen to Patti Smith.
Er . . . like what?

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

My beliefs about copyright indicate to me that should I like the songs I will shortly be spending a fair quantity of money on P.J. Harvey, so that would be great!

I'd assumed you'd heard of Patti Smith because she's a) one of the proto-punk-gothic people who is the direct musical ancestor in some ways of the things that, say, the Dresden Dolls do and b) she's one of the great poets and wordplayers of rock music, and uses language in an impressionistic and layered way that reminds me of, for instance, Angela Carter. So she seemed like someone you'd have been likely to have run across.

[sovay]

Nah, I'm all backwards. I heard the Dresden Dolls first (live in 2002) and branched out from there. (I'm pretty sure I'd heard Jill Tracy before that, however. That must count for something.) But any songwriter who reminds you of Angela Carter definitely goes to the top of my to-hear list.

Music forthcoming!

[skotodes.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'm still surprised that you listen to modern music at all. Seems like a recent change.

How do you feel about Bjork? She's often classified with PJ Harvey, though I don't know enough PJ to say if that's accurate. But the two have worked together; I have an mp3 of them doing "Satisfaction" live at some sort of MTV event. Bjork's newest album, "Medulla", is almost all vocal. There are choruses, Tuvan throat-singers, vocal percussion, etc. It's very weird, but you might enjoy it. If you're downloading tracks, go for "Where is the Line" or "Who Is It". But her best song is still "Bachelorette", from the album "Homogenic".

[sovay]

I'm still mostly unfamiliar with Bjork outside of Dancer in the Dark and earlier pieces like "Hyperballad," but I have heard a few of the songs from Medulla and I have to say they're very neat, albeit seriously weird. I'd love to hear what she and PJ Harvey sound like together.