Happy Rhodes/Ecto Update

[gatech!chinet.chi.il.us!katefans@eddie (Chris n Vickie)]

Vickie here.

I don't want to make anyone mad or start another flame war, but a few
people had expressed interest in keeping up with what was going on
with Happy Rhodes. This is for those who can't, for some reason, get
Ecto, the mailing list. I do hope those not interested will be patient
with this post. Thanks in advance.

Happy news:

Still no record contract. _Warpaint_ is doing fairly well in various
parts of the country. She's getting airplay in California (KCSS-Turlock,
KCRW-Santa Monica, KTWV-LA, KKSF-San Francisco, KUSP/KALX/KPFA-Berkeley),
Texas (KERA-Dallas is listing her in their CMJ Report, KOAI-Dallas,
KUT-Austin) and in Philadelphia the song "Feed The Fire" is now the #1
most requested song on WXPN--nice that it's that song, because it's
the one written for Kate, Peter Gabriel and Bach. A few other radio
stations here and there are playing cuts sporadically and some stations
are even starting to call AG now to request a copy of _Warpaint_. The adds
are slow but steady and increasing as word-of-mouth continues.

No distribution deal yet. Happy and Kevin are still working on it.
A few stores are carrying _Warpaint_ and some are doing very well
with it. The newest store to carry it is Tower Records in Philadelphia,
but it's the only Tower (so far) to do so.

She's working on her 6th album, writing songs. She's started auditioning
musicians for a tour but no details are set, and probably won't be
for quite a while.

There should be ads for _Warpaint_ in the October, November and December
issues of _CD Review_. It will hopefully be reviewed in one of those months.

Please, if anyone sees a review of _Warpaint_ and/or a mention of
Happy anywhere, in any publication or on the net, *please* take a 
couple of minutes to e-mail me or the mailing list and let us know.
We will be eternally greatful! Happy is (so far) so obscure that any
mention or review is a Very Big Deal :-) and of great interest to us.


Ecto news:

Inspired by the enormous volume of Happy Rhodes posts in Gaffa, Jessica
Dembski created a mailing list dedicated to Happy and her music.
Contrary to some expectations, the mailing list has been successful
beyond our wildest dreams. Jessica's creation has yeilded nearly 400
messages in less than 3 months of operation. They're not all mine either! :-)
The volume there has become so large that Jessica might create a digest
(along the lines of Love-Hounds) and there's even been talk of creating
an Alt. newsgroup. Topics in Ecto have of course mainly focused on Happy
(all aspects of her career and music) but other artists are also discussed
(Kate and Jane Siberry for example) and other topics are welcomed.

We have direct access to Happy in a way that no other mailing list has of
their artist, that I know about. Urgent questions can be answered and news
from/concerning Happy can be posted within hours. We're very proud of that.

The Homeground crew are extremely fond of Happy's music and Peter has asked
me to write an article about and interview with Happy. I've turned it into a
group project and the mailing list will be credited for the project.  

Ecto is in the process of starting a monthly print fan club/fanzine
called Ecto(zine). Jessica will be the editor-in-chief and has already
gotten a Post Office Box. The snail-mail address is: 

        Ecto
        PO Box 11291
        New Brunswick, NJ  08906

The first few issues will consist of items and ideas from people on the
mailing list. After that we hope we will have reached enough other
people (who have no net access) that they can also start contributing.
We will be putting ads in Goldmine and Option to let people know that
the zine exists. The cost is $5.00 a year. 

Ecto (the band) is now cooking. Tapes of backing tracks will be sent 
all over America and people are adding their parts to original songs and
Happy Rhodes covers. Greg Bossert is going to have the fun task of mixing
everything together and making a coherent whole out of it. Yikes+!!!
Instruments include synths, guitar, percussion, sheet metal, bells,
Sakamoto Shaker Thingy and who knows what all else by time it ends.

An Ecto project-in-thought is the creation of T-shirts. No details yet.

The mailing list address is:

To be added......ecto-request@athos.rutgers.edu
To contribute....ecto@athos.rutgers.edu

Please, unless you absolutely cannot e-mail, direct any inquiries
or comments to the mailing list or to me.

Vickie (one of Vickie'n'Chris)
katefans@chinet.chi.il.us