Mazzy Star-STILL EP+live shows 2018:Sydney+CALIF. (2 gigs)

[Hermesacat]

Thanks Zarik for your yt upload of the live version of "Quiet..."
A very nice live recording of it. I posted about it at the FB fan Group with your yt link.

It's good the band's many unreleased songs from 2000 and earlier have been seeing belated releases
in studio versions. Yes, the abandoned album slated for release in the early '00s would surely have been more acoustic/subdued
than their prior ones.

Interesting that "Plain Gold Ring" they played live as a cover in 2000 morphed into "For The Rest of Your Life,"
a HS&TWI song with new lyrics that Hope has sole writing credit on, I believe.

There are some songs they played live only in 1990 as far as I know, and not after. Those ones might
not be likely see studio releases.

I hope you can come through on sharing the whole 2000 London show recording. Looking forward to that.
If so, hopefully you can do a lossless version to maintain audio quality for those who care about that aspect.

[MikeRMD]

Hey all,

Various thoughts here.

I have long been a fan of 'Music for Airports' especially the piano portion which I find very evocative and this was the first of the 'Ambient' series. Brian Eno's motive for the series was to produce music that was soothing and could be listened to in portions without losing the overall feeling which could replace the 'MUZAK' which he and many of us find more annoying than soothing. As in "how the f*** could they do that to that song?". So I love that music, saw an art exhibit of video and music by Brian at our main art gallery probably 35 years ago, and was stunned to see that The Alaska Orchestra will be playing it at the Australia festival. I'm not sure how well it will go over but glad to see the music is loved by others so much.

Thanks by the way to Emma for keeping this site going (I am not a FB'er) and to Hermesacat for keeping us up to date and being a 'librarian par excellence'. Prior to me being aware of him on the old BLVD I had been sent a CD of the 'Loppen' show by a guy in France and it is my fave live Mazzy despite it being not a full band show. Anders (the BLVD host) had attended one of the shows on that short tour and said it was just Hope, David, and Keith in a very stripped down show equipment wise and Colm sat in a bit on what Anders called 'amplified leap guitar'. One of the main reasons many of us love that live show is that the audience was respectful and quiet, and we heard some songs we hadn't heard before and they were good ones. Turns out Zarik had been given a live tape of the last show on that tour by someone who had no idea how rare or important it was and he had long shared 'Look on Down...' on YouTube (search for piano version). However he had hinted at a song he had titled 'Sinking' and now we have it as well. I like the version from the live show better than the studio version that will be on the EP. I like the song a lot and I find the addition of cymbal to be not only unnecessary but for me distracting from the beautiful melody and Hope's beloved phrasing. Same with the pedal steel although much of it comes through only when Hope is not singing. Thanks for sharing it Zarik.

As far as 'For the Rest of Your Life' goes I had trouble with the lack of credit given on TTDS to the Nina Simone song 'Plain Gold Ring' but in fairness the arrangement done by Hope, David, Keith, and Colm on the 2000 tour is unique and perhaps Hope and Colm felt that the song they put on TTDS bore little resemblance to 'Plain Gold Ring'. Maybe they could have mentioned that they had been inspired by the NS song but then legal hassles may arise.

Most of the time when Mazzy Star play live they keep fairly close to the arrangements from the albums. The one exception has been 'So Tonight...' where they have played around with arrangements a bit over the years so it will be interesting to hear the 'Ascension Version'.

Cheers

[Hermesacat]

Hi Mike: Glad to see you return to the site and offer your input.
Thanks for describing the band lineup for the 2000 tour, something I read
before, maybe in a prior post by you, but had forgotten.

The 2000 lineup brings up a question. If their usual usual keyboard player, Suki, wasn't
with them, who plays keyboards on "Quiet, The Winter Harbor" live in 2000, I wonder?
Hope has said multi-instrumentalist Colm sometimes plays keyboards (as does she) when
the're writing and recording for HS&TWI. Could Colm be playing piano on "Quiet,..." live?

Suki did not join the band on at least some of their 1996 European shows, also.
That well-known Dutch radio studio video from 1996 of the band performing "Flowers in December," findable on youtube, is lacking Suki. Instead, some guy with shoulder length blonde hair is filing in for Suki on keyboards and
second guitar. The guy is definitely not Will, as Will is also present with shorter hair, playing violin.
The same mystery guy filling in for Suki is also visible holding a guitar in an onstage photo of the band from Stockholm 1996.

Though I like the minimalist live version of "Quiet,..." without guitar, when I heard the studio recording,
the guitar seemed to have too minimal a presence. On it, I wanted a bit more guitar!

So at least 3 out of 4 songs on the "new" e.p. are songs at least 18 to 25 years old.
"Still" could be yet another old one getting a belated studio release. They never seem to inform us about
timeline histories on song releases. They like to leave us to try to figure it out all on our own!

[MikeRMD]

Good Day to you all,

Thanks for your thoughts Hermesacat and you made me wonder about the keyboard playing on the 2000 tour. The stripped down band thing included less members and equipment. I had always assumed it was David playing the organ or piano on ‘Look on Down...’ but perhaps it was Colm or even Keith. The band did not bring keyboards with them and used what was in the hall. The Copenhagen show has what sounds like a large pipe organ. Hope did have a glockenspiel with her which she played on ‘Rhymes ...’. I also forgot to mention a thought I had about the vibe that seems to come through from the 2000 shows. Given Hope’s reticence about touring perhaps the short length of that tour and the lack of having to promote an album led to it being a pleasant experience for her as opposed to the usual. Anders said it was a great memory for him.

Cheers

[Hermesacat]

On hearing the Copenhagen 2000 show I have thought before that I don't know of a better live vocal performance from Hope. So yes, something was working for her in 2000, it seems. However, I also recall an interview quote from Hope where she said something to the effect that some of the 2000 tour Scandinavian audiences were so quiet it made her a bit nervous! She doesn't like playing to noisy audiences, and quiet ones can make her nervous too. There's just no pleasing Hope while she's on stage, apparently!

The mystery as to who plays piano on the live London recording of "Quiet, The Winter Harbor" was solved by Suki Ewers who answered the question about it I'd posed via twitter. She tweeted this reply today: "It was David Roback." See screen capture below.

[Malavita]

forgive me if this has already been answered, but I seem to recall that the mystery guitarist/keyboardist on the Flowers In December performance actually commented on one of the youtube videos of that song.
This is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg0CDxhJd78
His youtube handle is Franken Stoned (sorry to blast this Franken Stoned)I can't find his real name.
There's a little fan q+a action in the comments.

[Malavita]

I think Kurt Elzner is the guitarist keyboard player in the 1996 tour era

[Hermesacat]

Thanks Malavita for your info. re the 1996 mystery keys player. Either I hadn't seen those yt comments from Franken Stoned before, or else I'd forgotten them. So, you think his real name is Kurt Elzner.
I recall reading somewhere that Holland studio TV broadcast had 4 or 5 songs performed, not just "Flowers in December." With luck, the rest of that set will turn up on video.

[Hermesacat]

Here's a journalist's REVIEW of Mazzy Star's "STILL" E.P., out officially June 1.
https://soundblab.com/reviews/albums/20 ... star-still
He got hold of an advance copy, and comments on all 4 songs. There's only going to be one song on the e.p. that will be completely new to me since there are live and other versions available already of 3 of the 4 songs. The song "Still" is described in the review as one with Hope speaking lyrics rather than singing. Since I don't know of live versions of any unreleased songs that have Hope speaking, it must be a song I've never heard before.

[Emma]

Mazzy Star will play 3 consecutive days at The Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House, June 11, 12, & 13. Tickets go on sale March 23.

This is the Concert Hall. I read it offers excellent acoustics.



This page mentions that the show will be filmed.
Check out the Vivid Live Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/sydneyoperahouse/posts/
This is where they will livestream selected shows in collaboration with Pitchfork. I don't know if Mazzy Star have been chosen for live broadcasting, though.

You can also check out the Sydney Opera House Music YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/SOHfestival
One section is dedicated to the Vivid Live Festival and contains clips of the 2017 shows (Air and Fleet Foxes). With luck, they will post some clips of the 2018 shows.