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November 21,2008
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August 2001 Parasol Newsletter Issue #45 The Parasol move is complete. Thanks for your patience while we got the phones and computers working together. If you're ever in the area, please drop in for a visit: 303 W. Griggs Street in Urbana, Illinois. Call for directions - 217-344-8609 - if you get close and just can't find us. We're all still buzzing about licensing the rights from Warner's Sweden to distribute all three The Soundtrack of Our Lives CDs in the U.S. through Hidden Agenda/Parasol. Their full-length releases, Welcome to the Infant Freebase, Extended Revelation, and Behind the Music are genuinely among my favorite albums of the past five years. You might consider getting your orders in before someone wakes us from this dream. I bought the first two as imports, so at the $11 domestic price you can get all three for a little more than I paid for Infant Freebase. And that's a good one to start with if you're afraid to jump in. I'll have full reviews of all three next month. SPOTLIGHT
"Ambrosio's Song (She Looks Like Mary)" - Inspired by the book The Monk by Matthew Lewis. It's one of two songs I've written about this wild and great novel, the other coming out on the next Pajamas album. "Balthus, King of Cats" - About the painter and particularly a painting, "Cat With A Mirror no. 3," of which I've tried to convey the spirit of in sound and music. "Mrs. Newton" - About a 19th century painter -James Tissot, who fell madly in love with a divorced woman -Mrs. Newton- and lived with her in scandal and sin at his London home until she died, at age 29, of consumption. He painted her many times and when she died he found it hard to face and tried to communicate with her (I think to some success!) through seances. It's just a great romantic story. "The Jailer's Song" - A man (the jailer) relates to his wife his guilt over a woman condemned as a witch, who he knows in his heart is innocent, as the flames of her execution light the distant morning sky. "The Ghosts of Holy Rosary" - A sort of medley based on 3 songs I wrote when I was a kid in the 1970s. A kind of meditation on my memories of that school and, of course, the girls that went there.... "The White Witch" - inspired by the "Narnia" children's books by C.S. Lewis. Kelly observes that the recent Green Pajamas EP, In a Glass Darkly, was more along the lines of his previous solo stuff and his gothic Goblin Market side project. Psych-pop fanatics take note, Indiscretion is haunted by the same psychedelic phantoms as much of The Green Pajamas' work, filled with gorgeous, glorious psychedelic pop songs, songs which rate amongst Kelly's finest work, ever. "I'm pleased with this record in many different ways. It grew out of nothing into a sort of 50-minute exercise on guilt, especially Catholic, and desire. It's more of an electric guitar record than I might have earlier envisioned and perhaps a bit more up-tempo as well. It may surprise some." This is a great follow up to his 4-CD box set Melancholy Sun.
Elusive Canadian psych-garage-pop-cult mastermynd Gregory Watson falls into the category of those who have definitely had "too much to dream last night". He has allowed his especially analogue recordings as The Orange Alabaster Mushroom to be re-combined in the digital realm. A collection of eccentric 60s pop-alchemy and exquisite psychedelic lunacy, mystical melodic songs and assorted hallucinations culled from nearly a decade of recording. The mind-expanding sounds of dirigible guitars, overdriven organs, helium-pitch vocals and a Ringo drum fill falling down the stairs… The OAM is influenced by Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd, Donovan, The Rain Parade, Electric Prunes, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Dukes Of Stratosphere, The Soft Boys, 13th Floor Elevators, Love, and what we imagine are loads of oddball 60s and 70s psychedelic obscurities. Fans of the psych-pop-mod-freakbeat sounds of the incredible 'Nuggets' box sets will find plenty to drool over, The Orange Alabaster Mushroom is indeed cut from the same paislied, technicolor cloth. Once the esteemed UK imprint Earworm Records produced their 12-track vinyl-only compendium of The Orange Alabaster Mushroom last Fall we hoped it was only a matter of Time (and Space of course) before Hidden Agenda was able round up the necessary okays en route to releasing a CD version: A collection of all The OAM's 45 singles, sundry compilation tracks, five unreleased freak-outs, plus three bonus tracks which are in addition to the tracks previously compiled on Earworm's vinyl version, which is for all intents and purposes out-of-print and unavailable. A great majority of these songs are available on CD for the very fyrst tyme. Coming Soon... The Soundtrack of Our Lives-Welcome to
the Infant Freebase (Hidden Agenda) CD In stock now! IN CASE YOU MISSED IT... …NPR (National Public Radio) featured Parasol's Sweet Sixteen, Volume 3 on its "Director's Cuts" segment during the July 8 Weekend Sunday show. Visit http://www.npr.org/programs/wesun/directors/ to hear the piece in its entirety. There has never been a review, live performance, or radio show that has generated as much direct interest in a Parasol release as this exposure on NPR. We've sold hundreds of copies since the segment aired and are still selling 25 copies a week through Parasol Mail Order alone, as folks who were just getting up that morning now figure out what they had scrawled on that envelope next to their bed. As NPR's Ned Wharton pointed out, all of the songs are good, and, "Hey, it's only five bucks!" Many NPR listeners also took a chance and purchased Parasol's Sweet Sixteen, Volumes 1 & 2, or have followed up by buying CDs from the participating artists. Jenifer Jackson got the biggest boost, likely because they highlighted "Mercury, The Sun & Moon" from her stunning Birds CD. If you're not familiar with many of the Parasol artists that we talk about every month, the Sweet Sixteen samplers are a great way to get acquainted. Hurry though, Volume 3 is going fast and the first two volumes are nearly out of print. Note: Volume 4 will be ready in September. SOME PARASOL RELATED ARTIST ANSWERS SOME QUESTIONS Orange Alabaster Mushroom's Greg Watson 1. Mixing session you wish you could have
attended- 2. Songs you think you probably shouldn't
like but just can't help yourself- 3. Favorite record that you can't find on CD
(or CD you can't find on vinyl)- 4. First Concert- 5. Favorite Bass Player- Greg Watson is the mastermind behind the Canadian psych-rock band Orange Alabaster Mushroom. The band's CD Space & Time was just released on Hidden Agenda and contains three bonus tracks that didn't appear on the vinyl version, originally issued on UK's Earworm label. The Archive July 2001 June 2001 May 2001 April 2001 March 2001 February 2001 January 2001 December 2000 November 2000 October 2000 September 2000 July 2000 May 2000 April 2000 March 2000 February 2000 January 2000 December 1999 November 1999 September 1999 August 1999 July 1999 |
