Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

I floated in from the Yahoo! e-Prog news group. Over there, I guess
women are rare too. Only maybe ten in a crowd of over 600! I don't
know what it is about gender and proggies, but it IS strangely a male
dominated classification. I'd go to concerts by Emerson Lake & Palmer
and King Crimson, and the only girls who attended seemed to be in tow
with their boyfriends. You try to strike up a conversation with them
about progressive keyboard-based music, and they'd be totally
clueless. Sure, more women would be at shows like Sky Cries Mary and
Ozric Tentacles, but those attendees are more connected with the
Grateful Dead/Phish set. It's weird how gender-imbalanced record
collectors' circles are also. When I attend these events and
concerts, I'll dress more amascule...no make-up, no styled hair,
nothing prim and proper...so I'll fit right in with the social
circles and talk biz without feeling "special".

When I first went to e-Prog, someone thought I was the Mellotronist
for Beggar's Opera. Again, I'm not a musician...just one who always
appreciated the sounds of Mellotrons...enough that I would want one
for my own. I went to high school in Germany in 1970-1971 and I think
some of those Dieter Dierks/Connie Plank bands dialed me in on what
Mellotrons were all about, since I was just a short stone's throw auf
der Autobahn from Neunkirchen where a lot of bands over there
recorded. Then again...maybe it was prog bands that showed up in The
Pit at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida where I went after high
school. I know early Genesis LP's really drove it home for me early
on. I think my femme side is a little more prevalent with obscure
psychedelia bands from the late 60s/early 70s...like Mr. Floods
Party, Quill, Leigh Stephens, Piblokto!/Battered Ornaments, Bugsy,
Woody's Truck Stop, Autosalvage, July, Kak, Mad River, Frost, High
Tide, Fugs, Twink, Organ Grinders, Steamhammer, Ancient Grease,
Jeronimo, Elizabeth, John Kongos and that sort of stuff. Anything
that CW Vrtacek, Steve Fisk, Kramer and Eric Lindgren touch on is
fair game too...they've been at least floating members of every other
band working in your neighborhood, and are currently in at least a
dozen of them. That and maybe tripno and kitsch like Tipsy, Lowbelly,
Amon Tobin, Capitol K, 1.8.7, DJ Tiesto, Jack Dangers, Mad Professor,
Optiganally Yours, We, Seefeel and all the dub reggae on labels like
On-U Sound and BSI are what I'm entrenched in these days.