To Boys Who Say No

fufkin.com, May 2001
Highly recommended musical entertainment for fans of cerebral, jangling, alt.country who have a penchant for rootsy indie rock...

Product Description
Band? Solo Venture? Melodic Jigsaw Puzzle? Is Girls Say Yes an actual band? Sort of. Is it a free-floating, high caliber artistic collective? Sure. Is it the bold brainchild of drummer/songwriter/singer/engineer Jim Huie? Definitely.

It's closest relative would be Anton Fier’s Golden Palominos—a revolving door of superlative guest artists each applying a special coat of colorful paint to an impressive musical structure being built from the ground up. Speaking of guest stars, Huie’s band of gunslingers include the likes of Mitch Easter (Let’s Active, REM producer), Russ Tolman and Richard McGrath (True West), Bobby Sutliff (The Windbreakers), Steve Almaas (Comsat Angels, Beat Rodeo), Adam Marsland (Cockeyed Ghost), Jeff Hatcher (Blue Shadows) and Ben Drucker (Swirlees).

As for the man himself, Jim Huie has made his bones with Russ Tolman’s band, touring Europe as well as playing on Tolman’s albums City Lights and New Quadraphonic Highway. Huie has also drummed with The Windbreakers. The album itself is a testament to Huie’s perseverance and exacting artistic nature. Recorded over the span of several years at many different studios (four in Portland, Oregon alone, not to mention New York, San Francisco, Vancouver B.C. and Kernersville, South Carolina) the album was mastered in Portland by Tony Lash (Eric Matthews, Elliott Smith, Sunset Valley) and was largely mixed by American Music Club veteran Tom Mallon with some assistance from Mitch Easter in North Carolina. Enough résumé material! What about the darned music? Have no fear, intrepid seeker of hooks, melodies and insanely catchy choruses; it’s all here. Turning back a few pages to the glory days of what was once known as "college" radio, Huie effortlessly fuses graceful guitar jangles, supple organ tickles, sassy female harmonies and dead-on love/loss lyrics into a rock solid whole that belies the fragmented nature of the overall project.

To Boys Who Say No

To Boys Who Say No,Girls Say Yes,Innerstate,Alternative Pop/Rock,Jangle Pop,Pop,Pop Underground,Rock,Rock/Pop,joyous and accomplished pop music that is rich in diversity and executed with flair and imagination. -- geraint jones cwas #9 - winter 2002

Average customer rating: English is an asset and a drawback You Will Love Opera After Hearing Carmen In English A wholly credible "Carmen" -- finally! I love Carmen!

Carmen (Sung in English) Bizet , Bardon , Gavin , Plazas , Magee , and Parry Manufacturer: Chandos ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music Operettas | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music Similar Items: Mozart: The Magic Flute The Barber of Seville / B. Ford, D. Jones, A. Opie; G. Bellini [in English] Verdi: La Traviata Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro Mozart - Don Giovanni / Garry Magee · Cullagh · Banks · Plazas · Shore · Tierny · PO · David Parry ASIN: B00007JGRN Release Date: 2003-03-11

Tracks:

1. Prelude
2. In The Plaza
3. Just Look At That Delicious Morsel
4. Here Come Our New Soldier Boys
5. Jose! There Was A Girl Here Looking For You Just Now
6. Off With You Old Soldier Boys
7. Corporal! Sir!
8. We Have Heard The Bell Summon Us To Meet Here
9. Ah, Just Look!
10. But Why Hasn't She Come, Our Carmencita?
11. Love's A Bird Wild As Any Rebel
12. Carmen! We Will Follow You High And Low!
13. The Cheek Of It!
14. Give Me News Of My Mother!
15. Your Dear Mother And I Were Leaving Church This Morning
16. I See My Mother's Face!
17. Wait A Moment - I'm Going To Read The Letter
18. Come And Help
19. So, Corporal: Tell Me What Happened
20. Well, Carmencita: What Do You Have To Say For Yourself?
21. Where Are You Taking Me?
22. There's An Old Bar In The City
23. Careful - It's Lieutenant!
24. Entr'acte
25. From Far Away Mysterious Sounds
26. Bravo, Bravo! More! Keep Dancing!
27. Hurrah! Hurrah! The Torero!
28. Who's That? It's Escamillo, The Bullfighter From Granada
29. Hurrah! Hurrah! The Torero!
30. You're Most Kind
31. We'll Come With You, Senor Torero
32. Toreador, Be Ready!
33. At Last! We Got Rid Of Them As Quickly As We Could
34. There's A Little Job That We're Starting!
35. Being In Love Is Not A Reason

Tracks:

1. To Bid You Welcome To Our Bar
2. La La La La La La La La...
3. Back To Camp!... Go At Once!
4. That Flow'r You Threw To Me I Treasured
5. No, It's Not Love At All!
6. Hello! Carmen!
7. Lieutenant Fair, It's True
8. The Sky Above The Open Road
9. Entr'acte
10. Keep Going, Dear Old Friend, Kep Going!
11. Right! Let's Stop For A While
12. Shuffle! Cut Them!
13. In Vain You Would Avoid The Bitter Things They're Saying
14. You're Back!
15. As For That Man, It Should Be Easy!
16. Is This The Place?
17. I Say That There's Nothing To Fear
18. It's Him! I'm Sure It's Him Over There!
19. Escamillo Is My Name, And I Come From Granada
20. She Had A Lover Here
21. Hola! Hola! Jose!
22. You Should Take Care, Carmen
23. Alas! Jose, Your Mother Is Ill
24. Entr'acte
25. A Few Cuartos! A Few Cuartos!
26. Here They Come! Here They Come!
27. If You Love Me, Carmen
28. It's You! It's Me!
29. Viva! Viva! What A Corrida!

Customer Reviews:

English is an asset and a drawback.......2004-07-20

The best thing about this recording of Carmen is the libretto. Conductor David Parry penned this facile and dramatic English translation. He avoids the pitfalls of literal translation to achieve an idiomatic flow that matches the rhythm of the original lyrics. I use this as a reference libretto for any of the French Carmens.

Unfortunately, the performance suffers from being sung in English. The singers declaim their parts with such proper British diction that Carmen comes across as a school marm. The spoken dialog is delivered beat for deliberate beat and is dripping with reverb. It makes the plaza, tavern and mountain pass all sound like a sewer pipe.

This is a good first Carmen for someone trying to understand the work. The libretto itself is a good investment for further listening. For an enjoyable performance with an emphasis on character and action, I recommend Regina Resnik on the London Double Decker set.

You Will Love Opera After Hearing Carmen In English.......2004-02-09

What a perfect introduction to opera. This newly released recording will surely get you hooked into opera. Carmen, a French opera by Georges Bizet, is the most recognizable and most popular in the opera world. It's famous melodies- the overture, the Habanera, The Toreador Song have all been featured in everything from cellular phone ring tones to Superbowl Commercial (last year's Superbowl with The "Opera In English" label has been making Italian operas into English for a number of years now. Also on the market are Verdi's La Traviata in English (with soprano Valerie Masterson as Violetta) Handel's Julius Caesar with Janet Baker and even Wagner's epic Ring Of The Nibeling sung in English. This is a terrific recording and I highly recommend it if you want to get into opera. Listen to this version first and then try the real, original French version Bizet had written. Patricia Bardon is sensational, sexy and dramatic as Carmen.

The real strength of this version is the dynamic drama. With the advantage of being sung in English, we get better insight on characters' emotions and motives, and we understand the drama a lot better. Carmen is all about great drama. Bizet drew the plot from the French writer Prosper Merimee's dark short story. Carmen is the ultimate femme fatale- a devil-may-care, sexy Gypsy living in Spain, seduces the conservatively raised soldier Don Jose, stealing him away from his fiancee, the passive Micaela, living a life of underground smuggling and rowdy taverns. "Habanera" and "The Gypsy Song and Dance" are very expressive of Carmen's extraordinarily liberal lifestyle. Don Jose, however, has fallen deeply in love- as he shows us in his song/aria "The Flower Song". But Carmen soon becomes tired of his constancy. Don Jose wants a committed, monogamous relationship with Carmen. But Carmen will not submit to love, since she is first and foremost a carnal creature. Eventually, she falls for the handsome Toreador Escamillo. Don Jose, consumed by jealousy, stabs Carmen at a bullfight after Carmen declares her love for Escamillo and rejects Don Jose's love. Don Jose's crazed, obscessive personality shines through in the English version as well. This tragedy has been done in English before so don't think this is the first time. Back in the 50's, there was a film, starring black actors "Carmen Jones" which was treated the same way as this opera- more like an English Broadway musical and with the dubbed singing voice of Marilyn Horne as Carmen. All in all, this recording is excellent.

A wholly credible "Carmen" -- finally!.......2003-09-17

This recording really sells "Carmen" as a drama. Although I have two other recordings of this opera and have seen it performed several times, it never quite worked for me dramatically. But thanks to the fine performances, conducting, and translation here, I've become a "Carmen" convert. Producing a good English-language performance of a foreign opera, especially a warhorse like "Carmen," is much more difficult than it might appear. You need performers who not only can sing the parts (of course) but also can sing *English* and make it halfway intelligible and make it sound like English and make it dramatically convincing to English-speakers. The singers on this recording do an excellent job all around. Don't be put off if you don't recognize their names -- they are up to the task musically and (especially) in their acting. Admittedly, as with *all* English-language recordings, some passages are very hard to understand without reading along, but most of the time the words are clear and effective. I would recommend this recording to any opera beginner or opera lover, even those who normally turn up their noses at performances in translation.

I love Carmen!.......2003-08-15

I do. I can think of no other opera with more melodic inventiveness, and few others with so sure a dramatic pulse. Carmen is popular and it thrills me to say that it is also a very good opera - not always true of popular things.

And what of this recording? Carmen sits well in English, so it is good to hear in translation, although some of the detais in the text jar. Escamillo refers to Jose as "my dear", which sounds rather peculiar, and the guide's line to Micaela: "it's not exactly inviting, is it?" sounds distinctly Middle England rather than Rural Spain. Some of the performers, not least Carmen herself, make the words work, although there are long tracts, especially with the chorus, where the language is distinctly indistinct.

The soloists are, by and large, strong. Patricia Bardon's deep, Handel-friendly voice adapts well to Carmen and she colours the music with phenomenal detail, sounding sexy and provocative from the start with an edge of pride and anger that emerges as the show goes on. She is out of her depth above the stave, though, and some extra top notes in the second act don't show her off to her best advantage. I have previously said that Julian Gavin is poorly served by recordings, though here he sounds much more even and gives a thrilling and musical performance (but his wooden spoken lines let him down). Mary Plazas is a lovely Micaela, rich-voiced and sincere (and word-perfect), but Garry Magee sounds miscast as Escamillo, lacking the ballast at the bottom of the voice to do justice to this tricky role.

The supporting cast is good (Mary Hegarty seems to do nothing but Frasquita these days!) but the really treasurable thing is the conducting. Stepping out of Italian Ottocento, David Parry turns his hand to this French Comedie with an appropriate lightness of touch. His pacing and handling of the set pieces is exemplary and the enrtractes go with a real swing.

A pleasure, then, for the Carmen naive or a novelty for the Carmen-acquainted. I nearly wrote Carmen-weary - but I don't think it's possible.

Average customer rating: Great pop music!! impressive indie pop with its own voice An Outstanding Solo Debut from a Paisley Pop Veteran It's All About Musical Chemistry Yes, it's fantastic

To Boys Who Say No Girls Say Yes Manufacturer: Innerstate ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music Jangle Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music ASIN: B00005AU7R Release Date: 2001-04-24

Tracks:

1. Another Life
2. Don't Call Me
3. She Married A Loser
4. Monkey In The Middle
5. Prelude
6. Beckon
7. Burning Inside Out
8. You & The Devil
9. Love Is Not Linnear
10. Wonder Guy
11. Sylvia
12. You're Coming Down
13. All I Want To Do Is Sleep
14. How To Do Everything Right
15. Bonus Track

Album Description

Band? Solo Venture? Melodic Jigsaw Puzzle? Is Girls Say Yes an actual band? Sort of. Is it a free-floating, high caliber artistic collective? Sure. Is it the bold brainchild of drummer/songwriter/singer/engineer Jim Huie? Definitely.

It's closest relative would be Anton Fier's Golden Palominos—a revolving door of superlative guest artists each applying a special coat of colorful paint to an impressive musical structure being built from the ground up. Speaking of guest stars, Huie's band of gunslingers include the likes of Mitch Easter (Let's Active, REM producer), Russ Tolman and Richard McGrath (True West), Bobby Sutliff (The Windbreakers), Steve Almaas (Comsat Angels, Beat Rodeo), Adam Marsland (Cockeyed Ghost), Jeff Hatcher (Blue Shadows) and Ben Drucker (Swirlees).

As for the man himself, Jim Huie has made his bones with Russ Tolman's band, touring Europe as well as playing on Tolman's albums City Lights and New Quadraphonic Highway. Huie has also drummed with The Windbreakers. The album itself is a testament to Huie's perseverance and exacting artistic nature. Recorded over the span of several years at many different studios (four in Portland, Oregon alone, not to mention New York, San Francisco, Vancouver B.C. and Kernersville, South Carolina) the album was mastered in Portland by Tony Lash (Eric Matthews, Elliott Smith, Sunset Valley) and was largely mixed by American Music Club veteran Tom Mallon with some assistance from Mitch Easter in North Carolina. Enough résumé material! What about the darned music? Have no fear, intrepid seeker of hooks, melodies and insanely catchy choruses; it's all here. Turning back a few pages to the glory days of what was once known as "college" radio, Huie effortlessly fuses graceful guitar jangles, supple organ tickles, sassy female harmonies and dead-on love/loss lyrics into a rock solid whole that belies the fragmented nature of the overall project.

Customer Reviews:

Great pop music!!.......2002-04-21

Jim Huie is not only a great musician but he is one of those very crucial people who helps put it all together for the rest of the world. He writes beautiful jangly pop music and brings excellent guest stars into the loop like Steve Almaas and Mitch Easter. With titles like "She Married a Loser", "Love is Not Linear", and "How to do Everything RIght", Jim reveals a great deal of thoughtfulness and a sense of humor in addition to the great music.

impressive indie pop with its own voice.......2001-06-14

The main artist, Jim Huie is usually associated with various projects which have fallen in the categories of garage or even "paisley pop." However with this release he flexes his own vision and "voice" with some intriguing and ironic songs. There's a lot of "production" going on here, but it's of the do it yourself type, not formulaic "what everybody else is doing" kind of production. So this should age well. Cool contributions from some hip special guests. hooray for indie artists like this.

An Outstanding Solo Debut from a Paisley Pop Veteran.......2001-05-25

With a backing cast that includes such indie godfathers as Steve Almaas, Bobby Sutliff and Mitch Easter, singer-songwriter Jim Huie has put together a strong collection of that evokes the memory and spirit of 1980s college radio while still managing to sound refreshingly modern. "To Boys Who Say No," contain songs that fit the true meaning of the word: well-sculpted gems that grab you on the first listen and keep you coming back.

It's All About Musical Chemistry.......2001-05-08

If early REM had gotten together with The Ronnettes to record The Who's "Sell Out"...a pastiche of 60's and 70's AM radio filtered thru 80's college radio...featuring a bevy of indie-pop heroes from the Paisley Underground and Southern Pop scenes including Steve Almaas (Beat Rodeo),Bobby Sutliff (The Windbreakers), Mitch Easter (Let's Active), Adam Marsland (Cockeyed Ghost), Jeff Hatcher (Blue Shadows), Russ Tolman and Richard McGrath (True West). As Shona Winfrey said in her review in fufkin.com, it's "on the plane to first-rate, top-notch indie heaven."

Yes, it's fantastic.......2001-04-25

I found this CD by accident, here on Amazon.com, and it was quite a surprise.

"To boys who say no" is a fantastic album. I rarely find a CD where I like every song, but this one's done it! I've gotten lost in the soulfoul heartfelt songs with their melodic rhthyms--especially "Beckon and Love is Not Linear." "She Married a Loser" still has me laughing as I contemplate my own past.

Anyone who likes old REM (or even the Beatles) should try this!

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