lifeblood: listlogs: 2004v07n071-news

ig-news-digest thursday, april 22 2004 volume 07 : number 071

today's subjects:
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[ig-news] re: some of the girlfriends article ["amy m." <indigrrl1200@hot]
[ig-news] madison concert last night! [monkeemaidjules@yahoo.com]

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date: wed, 21 apr 2004 02:04:18 -0600
from: "amy m." <indigrrl1200@hotmail.com>
subject: [ig-news] re: some of the girlfriends article

[sherlyn's note: this message was originally sent to the indigo
girls mailing list at netspace.org.]

amanda writes:

>hi all,
>
>i haven't seen this posted yet - so here is as much of the
girlfriends
>article as is included on their web site. is anyone willing to type
out
>the rest?

yeah, ok, i'll bite...what? i have no life! want to make something of
it?! (kidding...heh, heh, heh. seriously...) anyway...picking up at
the "l word" question (which was an awfully suspenseful place to
leave it. and refraining from editorializing):

girlfriends: you could make a guest appearance on "the l word".

saliers: ugh. i've seen an episode and who *are* those people? where
do they live? i read an article where the people behind teh who
talked about making sure it appealed to more than just a lesbian
audience by making it titillating for men, by reeling them in. and
that's just disgusting.

girlfriends: there are a lot of different takes on love on this
album. emily, do you find that being in a long relationship is fodder
for your songs?

saliers: relationships are my favorite thing to write about. there
are so many different avenues to explore. the best way to learn about
yourself is in a relationship: it's this microcosm of reality.
my partner is very supportive of my exploring these issues
in the music. but you know, people assume that you are writing
directly from your experience, but i don't [always] write that way.
for example, on this record, the song "come on home" is not about my
relationship but about what can happen in a bad relationship where
things don't change. while the song "free in you" is a straight up
love song. it's just, "i love you, thanks a lot."

girlfriends: amy, you're also tackling love on this album. do you
have a girlfriend these days?

ray: i do. she's a new girlfriend. it's been, wow, only about a
year. she's amazing, an independent filmmaker. and this is it for me.
she's the one. she's a real femme, a great woman. and she lives with
me and i really dig it. i haven't ever had this. i understand what
everyone means now about finding the person and not looking any
further.

girlfriends: congratulations. forgive me, but this has become the
question of the day: will there be kids?

ray: she's gonna have kids, but not for a long time. she's younger
than i am. she also travels a lot for her work, which is so great,
and i appreciate that she needs to do that. i've gotta make a
decision for myself about kids, but i know that definitely we're
gonna have a family.

girlfriends: there's talk of both of you doing solo albums.

ray: i just started [mine] last weekend. i'll be working with a punk
band in alabama and with people like jody bleyle (of team dresch). at
the moment i'm writing for both the indigo girls and this solo
project, but that's the way it always is with me. sometimes the
electric songs--like the song "heartache for everyone" on this
album--i think of as more of a solo record song, but that line can
get a little blurry.

saliers: amy is better at distinguishing her solo songs than i am. i
write all the time but it becomes indigo girls music. truthfully,
working on this project is like pulling teeth for me. i get caught up
in what direction to go in. i'm really into r&b and hip-hop right
now. but i don't want to be some girl who's inauthentic, putting out
a hip-hop album. what i really need is to set some time. i just got a
pro tools rig at my house where i'll be able to build tracks. i think
solo work will come out of the experience of putting that together.

girlfriends: any concerns that you'd have to be branded in a new way
for a solo effort?

saliers: branded? uh, no, i'd never let that happen.

girlfriends: your relationship with sony/epic ends with this record.
are you glad to sever your major label ties? will you now record on
the label co-founded by ray [daemon]?

ray: daemon is mine so we feel it would be a conflict for us to
record on it. i'll do my solo albums with daemon but we haven't
really decided what to do after epic. it's a couple of years yet.
they've been as good as they can be for a major label. that being
said, the label stuff is bad right now. there is so little support
for songwriters and musicians. if you are a pop artist, then yes, a
big label is where you want to be. a major label can pay for your air
time, get you out there. for us, that's no longer such an issue.

saliers: we've been lucky, they've been good to us, but this is
definitely our last record with them. we have friends with smaller
labels who might take us on. it's too early to tell just yet.

ray: you know, so much of the infrastructure that a major label used
to provide, musicians can manage to do themselves now. i don't know
if brick and mortar stores are really who you need to market to
anymore, or what will be happening to them. in some ways that's awful
but in other ways it's great for more underground musicians. it is
creating space. it's like underneath all this shit there's something
beautiful.

girlfriends: that's a lovely quote, amy.

ray: thank you. i'm sure ani [difranco] said it first, but it's
true.

- -brooklyn-based lauren dockett co-wrote the not-made-for-daytime sex
talk.

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date: wed 21-apr-2004 11:47am
from: monkeemaidjules@yahoo.com
subject: [ig-news] madison concert last night!

[sherlyn's note: this message was originally sent to the indigo girls
mailing list at netspace.org. also, someone else mentioned that
apparently it's just been announced that the girls will be back in
wi in july...]

howdy ya'll!

well, i'm exhausted this morning, but this fatigue was totally worth it! the concert in madison last night was probably the best one i've been to, on many levels. the orpheum has a strange stage that must be at least seven-eight feet high, so front row is not really a first pick for most people considering then you're only really seeing the band from about the hip up! but after waiting in the rain and the 45 degree weather for two hours my girlfriend and i decided that it was the principle of the thing and scored two front row slightly left of center seats. after three concerts i've finally gotten to sit on amy's side for once. wow what a thrill. ; )

anyway, the show went pretty much on schedule and the setlist went something like this:

(in no particular order)

least complicated
heartache for everyone
dairy queen
kid fears
watershed
virginia woolf
let it be me
galileo
closer to fine
wood song
power of two
shame on you
get out the map
go
oziline
starkville
yield
fill it up again
romeo and juliet
come on home

i think i remembered all of the songs played, anyone else is more than welcome to correct me if i forgot a few.

the girls were in great form, both all smiles. and for the first time in three years the wisconsin crowd got up to dance at the first number and never sat down! it was an incredible experience, one i've heard other folks give accounts of, that it's just a big swarm of folks moving to the beat the whole time, getting the "full" indigo experience. i finally got it! it was such a blast, standing about five feet from amy-albeit she was eight feet *above* me as well-and really getting to see every expression on their face and having them respond to the crowd by waving and smiling to folks in the audience. it was an all around positive experience. except that i nearly got kicked out for taking pictures and getting caught. *rolls eyes* security had nothing else to do since they couldn't keep the crowd coralled in their seats, i guess. i only ended up with one decent shot of amy. if anyone else took pics from this concert i'd really like to see 'em, i always try and take a
few
photos at every concert and this one was really handicapped.

they weren't *too* talkative, but they were in very high spirits. emily got entangled in a cobweb that was stuck to her mic and i swear took almost three solid minutes trying to disengage herself from the sticky threads. amy laughed uproariously at this. there were no technical difficulties and it was very laid back and enjoyable.

major highlights: emily walking backstage with sulli while amy donned her black guitar to serenade us with "romeo and juliet"! oh my gosh, i'm not normally one of those fans who becomes goofy and lovestruck during a concert, but amy just blasted the whole crowd! men and women alike were swooning, at least from where i was standing! her range must be improving, and i don't mean her voice. it was *so* incredible, the whole crowd singing it back with her, very passionate, something i won't forget.

someone requested watershed, a woman who was recovering from a pretty serious illness i guess, and it really made that song mean even more. the woman who'd requested it was up front with us and she looked to be almost in tears. very charged.

a couple, a man and woman, slow danced in the sort of semi-circle the crowd had made in front of the stage during "come on home" which was really beautiful. the audience seemed to be full of people last night that *really* loved the girls and really had connected their life experiences to all of the songs. the whole show was like that, one memory after another brought on by the songs the girls selected.

all in all a fabulous concert! hope to hear from more people who were there! and i realize it hasn't even been 24 hours, but i never found a copy of the show the girls did at the madison civic center last year and really would be thrilled if someone had booted this show. let me know if there will be a copy available out here at some point, i have a pretty sizable boot list for trade! ok, peace and love folks, enjoy the upcoming concerts!

~juliana

"part of emily is saying, 'we're working hard, and now you just shot us in the foot.' but i feel like we're shut out of that (rolling stone) anyway, so why not go out in a blaze of glory?" ~amy (indigo girls) discussing emily's reaction to "lucystoners".

"overload the ruler with information and [he'll] kill you just to simplify things."
- -hagrid discussing ogres to harry potter in "the order of the phoenix (think about bush when you read this...)

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end of ig-news-digest v7 #71
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