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

[Hermesacat]

Hi Emma:
Thanks for posting your excellent research with links re. the Vivid Live fest in Sydney.
I had no idea there'd be filming and possibly livestreaming of Mazzy Star's sets. This is very good news!
I just re-posted your info. to the FB fan Group, and quoted you there.

I'll paste here below my own added comments I left there:
If there is video livestream of Mazzy Star, I'll try to record it and of course
will share any recording obtained. But the video recording software I have may or may not be up to the task.
So, hopefully, others can also try to record any video stream and share with fans.

We don't know how much video of Mazzy Star's shows may become available. So, other fans and I would be grateful if those attending Sydney shows can try recording audio (or video) of whole sets,and share their recordings with the rest of us. Recordings of whole sets are rarer and more valuable, imo, than are photos and short video snippets. Photos and video clips are easy to find on Instagram and easy to re-post here which I'll do
with any I find on Instagram or elsewhere. It's recordings of whole sets that are harder to come by. So, I hope
those Group members here who are attending shows can try to record shows they attend and share their bounty!

[Hermesacat]

Also, here's a music site's short review of Mazzy Star's "STILL" e.p. It mentions: "Still is set to release June 1, 2018 on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify." And there's the 12" vinyl release that also comes with a download card for digital versions of the songs.
http://altcitizen.com/first-listen-mazzy-star-still/

[Hermesacat]

Another review of "STILL."
https://aestheticmagazinetoronto.com/20 ... tar-still/
This one mentions there's no harmonica on "That Way Again" unlike in the 2000 live versions, something Emma said on another thread she's curious about.
And here's a review from Paste mag:
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/ ... eview.html

[Hermesacat]

Here are links to five more reviews of "Still." Journalists seem to like it. I haven't noticed one yet expressing disappointment in the e.p.
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/mazzy-star ... t-reviews/
https://glidemagazine.com/207166/mazzy- ... um-review/
https://www.setlist.fm/news/06-18/mazzy ... s-73d6be85
https://www.spin.com/2018/06/mazzy-star ... ep-stream/
https://www.stereogum.com/1999304/strea ... um-stream/

How are the rest of you here liking the e.p.?
I'm pretty happy with it. I like all the songs. Not surprising, as I've not yet
ever encountered a Mazzy Star song I didn't like. But I'd wondered if a second
studio version of the song "So Tonight..." might seem redundant. Instead, I think
I prefer the e.p. version to the original. I like the organ in it which is absent
from the original. Plus I think I mostly like the guitar parts of the new version
best. The song "Still" is kind of minimalist vocally and musically, both, but I
like it. At 2 minutes long, it's probably the shortest song they've ever released.
The violin adds atmosphere.

Always liked "That Way Again" since first hearing it via the live 2000 Copenhagen recording some years back. The studio version's a bit different. I like the electric guitar on it that isn't on the (acoustic) live version.
On the other hand, Hope's harmonica on the live version's very appealing, but is missing on the studio one.
"Quiet, The Winter Harbor" is appealing, as I commented about earlier.

Evidence suggests all four songs are old songs written long ago, and that most, if not all,
are likely recordings from many years ago too. We already had 18 to 25 year old alternate recordings
of 3 out the 4 e.p. songs.

Credits showing on the back of the sleeve of the 12" vinyl release of Still
(Discogs site has a photo of the sleeve's back) offer clues about age of recordings.
The musician credits are: "Hope Sandoval, David Roback, Suki Ewers, Keith Mitchell,
William Cooper Glenn, Paul Olguin, Josh Yenne."

I date the songs this way: The original version of the song "So Tonight..." dates to 1993.
We know of live recordings of both "That Way Again" and "Quiet, The Winter Harbor"
from their 2000 tour. And a fan here (Rossetti1828) shared a photo of a set list used on stage in London, 1994
he collected at the show that included "That Way Again."

Though I don't know of any prior recordings of the song "Still," it sounds to me like Hope's 1990s voice, so it may possibly be that old, or close to it. And since Mazzy Star's violin player William Cooper Glenn is credited on the e.p., that's likely him playing violin on the song "Still." Will died (of cancer) in 2001, so that would date the recording to 2001 or earlier.

Paul Olguin is credited. He played bass on Mazzy Star's 1990 album "She Hangs Brightly," and is credited for
bass on "Lay Myself Down" from the 2013 "Seasons of Your Day" album. But "Lay Myself Down" also credits Will on keyboards which means that recording is another old one from 2001 or earlier.

"Quiet, The Winter Harbor" is the one song where I think I can hear a few
deeper tones in Hope's voice suggesting it may possibly have been recorded a bit later than the
other three where Hope's voice sounds younger to me. Josh Yenne is credited on the album. That's likely
his pedal steel on "Quiet, The Winter Harbor." I don't think Josh has been playing with the band for very many years. He did tour with them in 2012, and has worked with them since. So, "Quiet, The Winter Harbor" may be a recording of recent years, or else Josh over-dubbed some steel guitar on an older recording.

In several or more interviews Mazzy Star have said they've recorded large numbers of songs that have never been released. Sounds like there's a huge "vault" of unreleased Mazzy Star songs hidden away...With luck, they'll open their song vaults again soon and let us hear some more unreleased songs!

[Hermesacat]

Pitchfork review:
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/ma ... -still-ep/
Plus some others:
https://music.mxdwn.com/2018/06/03/revi ... tar-still/
https://northerntransmissions.com/still-mazzy-star/
https://www.allmusic.com/album/still-mw0003171693
http://www.undertheradarmag.com/reviews ... r_still_ep
(I haven't seen any negative reviews by any disappointed reviewers anywhere).

[Hermesacat]

Mazzy Star's official FB page recently posted this STILL review item ("swaps exquisite melancholy for urgent despair") with two amusing comments both likely written by Hope I assembled into one composite pic below.
https://www.facebook.com/MazzyStarOffic ... 2823419775

[Emma]

Does anyone know the set list of the first Sydney show?

Instagram shows a few video clips of MS performing Fade Into You, Lay Myself Down, Quiet The Winter Harbour and Blue Flower:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj4wOioDVZT ... =mazzystar
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj4wHwCDm2K ... =mazzystar
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj44n_WFCM_ ... =mazzystar
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj40WM0BAHZ ... goldwaters

This IG picture includes a list of MS songs; I wonder if it is tonight's set list?
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj4xzjKl0Hl ... =mazzystar
Hmm... It would be unusual to see them play Free, I'm Sailing, Happy, Wasted and Mary of Silence. Maybe it's just the poster's favourite songs. What do you think?

The visuals and the lighting looked particularly beautiful.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj5aCcsgUYd ... =mazzystar
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj5qXx2hbnX ... =mazzystar
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj40sEUFr3q ... =mazzystar

[MikeRMD]

Hello Emma et al,

First Emma thanks for keeping this site going.

As far as the set list goes it was more the length of it that surprised me. Then I ‘had a thought’ that perhaps they will be performing different songs each of the three nights. The band have always been good about playing virtually all their songs live. Wish I could say the same about HS&TWI. Many of the BLVD’ers wrote that ‘Sets The Blaze’ was their favourite song on TTDS and it’s never been played live. Nor has ‘Fall Aside’ which was my fave. We can all hope that MS play a wide variety of songs over their three shows.

Cheers,
Mike

[Emma]

First Emma thanks for keeping this site going.
As far as the set list goes it was more the length of it that surprised me. Then I ‘had a thought’ that perhaps they will be performing different songs each of the three nights. The band have always been good about playing virtually all their songs live. Wish I could say the same about HS&TWI. Many of the BLVD’ers wrote that ‘Sets The Blaze’ was their favourite song on TTDS and it’s never been played live. Nor has ‘Fall Aside’ which was my fave. We can all hope that MS play a wide variety of songs over their three shows.

Hi Mike,
Thanks for keeping visiting this forum and posting.
I agree it would be great if they changed the set list every night. They have demonstrated
they can perform literally all their album songs on stage and deliver excellent live renditions of the studio versions. I must say I sometimes like the live versions even better than the studio recordings!
Unfortunately, I don't think the set list will vary for these three shows.
A FB member posted the songs they performed at the first two shows and they looked pretty similar.

Here is the set list of the first show (06/11)
1. Flowers In December
2. Ride It On
3. California
4. Lay Myself Down
5. Quiet, The Winter Harbour
6. Look On Down From The Bridge
7. Blue Light
8. Disappear
9. She Hangs Brightly
10. Fade Into You
11. Halah
12. Blue Flower
13. So Tonight That I Might See (Ascension Version)
14. Wasted
15. Happy
16. I've Been Let Down (encore)
It would be nice to hear the live versions of "Happy" and "Wasted" as these songs have been rarely performed.

High quality photos of the first show have been posted to the FB page of the Sydney Opera House:
(Click on them for full size - All photos by Prudence Upton)




You can view the rest here:

This page contains nice shots of the first show:
http://scenestr.com.au/event/MazzyStar- ... mitstart=0





It also includes a review posted by a fan:
http://scenestr.com.au/music/mazzy-star ... e-20180612

A second review from the Sydney Morning Herald:
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/mu ... 11a0q.html

Hope and David did a radio interview for the DoubleJ radio show after their first Sydney concert... and the interview includes a scoop as Hope announced she had done a new collaboration with Mercury Rev
The radio interview is available here for six days:
http://doublej.net.au/programs/karen-le ... -star-live

[Hermesacat]

Thanks Emma for collecting and posting material from the Sydney shows.
I hadn't seen the scenstr site photos (scenstr has some good ones) or review, and had seen only some of Prudence Upton's excellent photos you found.

A few additions: Hope and David did a second radio interview the same day as the ABC Radio Sydney one Emma links to. The second one was for ABC Radio Melbourne and is available for play-on-demand here for some days still (less than a week, I think). The Melbourne one is shorter (at 9 mins.+ in length) and not as good as the Sydney one. The interview portion starts at around the 45 minute mark of Myf Warhurst's June 12 show:
http://www.abc.net.au/radio/melbourne/p ... st/9838634
Hope did an interview with an Australian news site entirely on the subject of the song Fade Into You, here:
https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/m ... 4956b75227

A few negative "reviews" of the June 11 show focus entirely on THE DARKENED STAGE:
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real- ... 5b8be49795
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -dark.html

And a good positive review:
https://www.cyclicdefrost.com/2018/06/m ... f-june-18/

Re. the sets being played, I wish they were playing more songs from STILL, and some more lesser-done songs, They're mostly doing tried and true songs they've played a thousand times, although it's good they're doing the rarely played Happy and Wasted, as Emma says. I think I read on FB someone mentioning they did Into Dust on June 12, so they may be varying their sets slightly. But it seems they do tend to like to rehearse a set and stick fairly close to it for the duration of a tour. A FB Group member has messaged he recorded the June 11 show on his phone and will share. I don't know how good its quality is. If I get hold of it or other recordings, I'll share it here and elsewhere. Anyone reading this who has Sydney recordings to share, do let us know! I'd not heard of Mercury Rev till Hope mentioned her collab with them in that interview. Someone left a comment some weeks ago at the FB Group informing us Hope has a new collab coming out in Sept., but the commenter did not provide any details. Maybe the Mercury Rev one is it.

Will post more stuff here later.