TEE "The Earth Explorer"

TEE is a five piece flute front progressive rock band from Tokyo, Japan. Their so-called 'European' sound is unique considering their far-east origin. The imaginative tunes with complex ensembles and rhythms will definitely catch the attention of prog lovers all over the world. Their sound will remind you bands like Camel, King Crimson, Asia Minor or even Frank Zappa on some parts. The band was formed in 2004 when... more

Kevin BARTLETT

You may not know his name but you have definitely heard his music more than once or twice in your life. Maybe on HBO, or on MTV, or on VH1, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel. Doesn't ring the bell? How about American Idol Rewind, or Dr. 90210? We had interviewed Kevin Bartlett a couple of years ago when his second solo album GLOW IN THE DARK was released. Bartlett has been quiet since that time but but he has been secretly brewing new projects. A few months ago he had put a new song...more

Peter Hammill, founding member of Van Der Graaf Generator, released his 28th solo album " nearly 3 months ago. He recently got back home from a short tour covering North America, Canada and Italy. In the 70's when bands like...more

FRIGHT PIG Barque At The Lune *** REVERSAL OF GRAVITY Scuba Gear ***

Happy Rhodes / The Progressive Community of EctoFest 2007

Fandom is a collective enterprise. On Saturday September 8, eighty Ectophiles, fans of the singer-songwriter Happy Rhodes, piled into a humid Cambridge, Massachusetts venue to witness their reigning deity. Our keyword was community -- a community of artists and fans exchanging energy. It’s this same communal exchange that Happy conjures in Collective Heart, a song written for her fans and played near the beginning of her set, which includes the lyric, “this collective heart is rushing life to my hands, from every land come synergy.” And indeed, fans came from as far as Germany and Scotland to see Happy perform at Ectofest 2007, the latest in a series of events featuring Happy and like-minded female artists.

I’ll dispense with the basics upfront. Happy Rhodes is a singer-songwriter who in the mid-1980’s began recording a series of ten (soon to be 11) albums of richly melodic layered soundscapes, set apart by Happy’s gravity-defying four-octave vocal range. With her higher range sounding almost exactly like early Kate Bush and her lower range resembling Annie Lennox, most first-time listeners assume they’re hearing a duet. Since 1991, Happy’s fans have carried on a lively email conversation over Ecto, the “fuzzy blue” Happy-centric listserv that from the get-go has prioritized community-building. The mailing list was formed in response to a bitter flame war in a Kate Bush fan group with the intention of creating a safer space. List founder Jessica Koeppel recalls that the list’s “fuzziness” was a reference to its friendliness (although she can’t recall why it was “blue”). Ecto has always welcomed conversations about similar artists, and the term Ecto, taken from an early Happy song and album of the same name, has grown past its origins to become an umbrella term encompassing an entire subgenre of fierce, multi-dimensional female (and occasionally male) musicians. The related Ectophiles’ Guide to Good Music is one of the most sophisticated archives of amateur criticism online. The first Ectofest was planned in 1999 by Ectophiles Meredith Tarr and Chuck Stipak and held in Danbury, Connecticut. The Danbury event was repeated twice thereafter, in 2000 and 2001, with a one-time West Coast spinoff, also held in 2001. The tradition was revived this year by Boston-area Ectophile Robert Bristow-Johnson. In addition to Happy, this year’s festival included singer-songwriters Noe Venable and Casey Desmond.

As a developing songwriter, Happy Rhodes found inspiration in progressive rockers like Yes and Peter Gabriel. Despite the fact that many of my favorite female singer-songwriters cite progressive rock as a primary influence, I’ve never taken the time to investigate the genre. I’ve had only the sketchiest notion of what prog rock entails, and must confess to having been somewhat polluted by mainstream rock critics, for whom “prog rock” often seems to serve as a shorthand designating excess and self-indulgence. I decided that before writing about Ectofest 2007 for a prog rock website, it would be a good idea to better acquaint myself with the term. A quick and dirty perusal of the Wikipedia progressive rock entry informed me that progressive rockers in fact employ much of what I look for in my favorite musicians, including a fusion of diverse styles, heady subject matter and complex song structures that are influenced by classical and avant-garde composition and transcend the limitations of verse-chorus songwriting.

Like prog rockers, female singer-songwriters are often stereotyped as excessive and self-indulgent. Three-dimensional femininity is more or less outlawed in the world of mainstream pop and rock. Western patriarchy is fond of nurturing a gendered dichotomy between intellect (masculine) and emotion (feminine) that makes any marriage of the two threatening, if not downright unintelligible. A key component of progressive rock is its ability to be both enjoyed emotionally and studied intellectually. Similarly, Ecto-friendly artists like Happy, Issa (formerly Jane Siberry), Kate Bush, Emily Bezar, Veda Hille and Noe Venable merge intellect and emotion in innovative ways. Still, the mainstream music industry views this complexity as commercially unviable. Thus it’s up to the Ectophiles to help this music reach listeners.

On that note, Ectofest 2007 was a resounding success. Beyond the transcendent performances (which were pretty goshdarn transcendent), the festival nurtured community. Happy’s fans are a rich gallery of eccentrics that includes writers, musicians, sound engineers, computer geeks, techies and many others. We began our evening with a pre-show gathering at the Cambridge Indian restaurant Haveli, where Chicago Ectophile Vickie Mapes, the reigning queen of all things Happy since 1988, greeted attendees with glowsticks and pre-made nametags, then proceeded to hijack the restaurant’s sound system to spin Happy’s hot-off-the-presses new album, Find Me. Our community was also vital during one of the concert’s standout moments, when Happy led the audience in a sing-along version of her song The Wretches Gone Awry. This collective heart collectively chortled as Happy tossed out a difficult, pitch-hopping vocal part as casually as if she were jotting a reminder on a Post-it note, then glared at the audience in mock disbelief when we were unable to reproduce it as easily.

For those of us seeing Happy for the very first time, the concert was thrilling. “For so many years I have dreamt – literally -- of being in that situation, having her there in front of me,” said Ectophile Andrew McMichael, who traveled across the pond from Scotland to hear Happy play. “The reality of it is all very surreal.” The performance was Happy’s first in two and a half years, and only her second in nearly five years. One unfortunate reality of loving an under-resourced artist is, never knowing whether a concert will be the first of many, or their last. Fans traveled great distances out of a genuine hunger to witness and support their favorite musician. The set list included old favorites as well as new songs from Find Me, which has been pressed and should be available shortly on CDBaby and iTunes. Although Find Me is Happy’s eleventh full-length recording, it is her first in nine years. Unsigned since 1998, Happy has had difficulty making her music. Although much of the new record was recorded as early as 2001, the financial requirements of self-releasing have led to delays.

Happy’s challenges are familiar to most female artists who dare to create art on their own terms. As festival performer Noe Venable noted, unsigned artists basically go into debt to record an album. Purchasing these albums, preferably without a middleman, directly benefits the artist. One of the festival’s most moving moments came when Noe told the audience about her own discovery of Happy, and dragging her friend Reba Hasko (a fantastic musician in her own right) across the country to hear Happy play at a house concert in the home of Ectofest founder Meredith Tarr. Noe spoke of the unique privilege of being part of a handful of fans around the world that are privy to the “beautiful, complex music” of Happy and similar artists, continually repeating, “I’m so excited.”

Noe’s words once again underscored the need for collectivity and community to counteract the narrow-minded mainstream music biz. Female singer-songwriters, especially those who embrace feminine-ascribed characteristics like beauty and vulnerability, swim upstream against a powerful current of negative stereotypes. From the bootylicious diva to the granola folkie to the strident chick rocker, American popular culture prefers its women in one dimension. But Ecto women come in at least three. As Happy sings at the start of her forthcoming album Find Me, “That I am one and many is at the heart of my disease.” But the disease isn’t Happy’s. It’s American culture’s, and Ectophiles are a part of the cure. In an era of ever-increasing homogenization, most people sit back passively receiving mass culture. Ectophiles, by contrast, are active in creating viable alternatives. We’re all about building community – a community that appreciates the underappreciated and creates space for its expression. It’s a Herculean task that after sixteen years we’ve still only just begun, but which I can safely describe as truly progressive.