Easy, but not cheap

Okay, I’m totally getting my weepy drama queen on over Antony and the Johnsons, particularly Antony’s moaning of, “Ooh, I’m on fire,” on Blue Angel and, “It’s true I always wanted love to be/hurtful/And it’s true I always wanted love to be/filled with pain,” on Cripple and Starfish,. He’s an expat Brit who plays piano and sings like a relative of Tim or Jeff Buckley. Or Nina Simone or Boy George or Tiny Tim. And he’s sadder than Robert Smith. You have to hear him wail and trill The Lake (My infant spirit would awake/to the terror of the lone lake) and you’ll either be hooked or repelled. His lyrics have the trippy, lugubrious, and melodramatic verbosity of Tim Buckley, but he arranges his band like a cross between jazz cabaret and string quartet. Totally New York Art School kinda stuff, but if you can find his covers of Candy Says or ESPECIALLY Mysteries of Love, you can hear that he’s smart, soulful, scary-talented. Freddy Mercury wishes he was still alive so he could sing along with this boy on Hitler in My Heart. I’m looking forward to some amazing music from this guy in the years to come, if he doesn’t kill himself first!
Antony and the Johnsons

RE other bands, I’m trying my best to like Super Furry Animals and Animal Collective, but so far I’m having trouble finding my way in. They’ve both got great sounds going on and interesting rhythms, but nothing has sunk it’s teeth in me yet. Iron and Wine has me totally hooked though, cuz he sings and plays really purty, and it’s REALLY accessible stuff.

Speaking of really accessible stuff, I was reintroduced to Paul Simon’s AMAZING album from the early 80’s, Hearts and Bones iTunes Link. You may already have heard Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War, but if you haven’t heard When Numbers Get Serious, Train In the Distance, or The Late Great Johnny Ace, his song about John Lennon’s murder (Happy 25th Anniversary of the world officially going to hell, BTW!), they are among the best work from an among-the-best-of-his-generation songwriter. This New York Art School-ish album was a flop when it came out, and he followed it with the world-music-ish mega-hit, Graceland. He never looked back. Too bad - I’d love to hear more of this kind of material from him. Oh well… as long as he’s having fun!

Oh, and I can’t stop playing I Am Sound by The Dandy Warhols. Help! Send me the chords, if you know them!

I’ve been practicing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, and it’s coming together pretty well. Jeff Buckley’s cover version may be the best, cuz Leonard’s own is a bit… perhaps stodgy is the best word. The lyric is fan-tastic, and his biblical references are fascinating. I performed Leonard’s Everybody Knows last weekend, and the Reverend Bigelow took notice of the Catholic imagery in the song. And there’s all that “Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water” stuff in Suzanne. He may be Jewish, but he makes better use of Christian imagery than anybody else I can think of. Anyway, you can tell Hallelujah is a great song, cuz Rufus Wainwright, K.D. Lang and even Bob Dylan took a shot at it, to diminishing returns, unfortunately. Ironic, cuz a friend told me his Mom met Leonard in a Greenwich Villiage bar in the early 60’s and he said he wanted to write songs like Dylan. So there’s one barroom loudmouth who actually turned out to be a great artist — hard to believe, but I guess sometimes it can happen.

Speaking of Dylan, I finally heard his song Things Have Changed, and it’s his last great recording (as far as I know). “I used to care, but things have changed.” An anthem for our times, I’ll tell ya!

The new Paul McCartney stuff is okay — I guess. Whatever. I’d still rather listen to early Beatles than this stuff.

As far as new music, the band I’m digging at the moment is Stellastarr*. I’m loving their late, late New Wave feel, and Love and Longing sound a bit like a lost early Cure tune. Sweet Troubled Soul sounds like Sisters Of Mercy (remember them?) -lite, but I’m digging the whoah-oh-oh’s. Similar to the Bravery in some ways, but this guy can actually sing — ooh, burn! And Coldplay should listen to On My Own and learn how a band with testicles sings their kind of material — ooh, burn! No One Is Safe rocks too.

I don’t know why this kind of retro appeals to me and The Raveonettes’ and Bloc Party’s pastiche of influences doesn’t, but I suspect I’m waiting for the new Cars to come along. Please hurry next Cars, I can’t hardly wait!

Okay, two new Franco-faves.

First, this young American(?) who became a street musician in Paris: Madeleine Peyroux. NPR did something on her, and — OH MY GA-HOD — she has Bilie Holiday’s voice. She really does. Really. It’s smooth, smoky and the tiniest bit creaky. It was almost creepy at first, like that Fred Astaire commercial where he danced with the vacuum cleaner, or perhaps more like creepy in the way that K.D. Lang has Wayne Newton’s old voice (you know it’s true!), but she’s got a great voice, great style, and she’s not a karaoke-ist, but the real deal — an actual musician. You have to hear the way she makes Bob Dylan’s You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go absolutely hers. http://www.madeleinepeyroux.com

The other find is a French act called Nouvelle Vague, specifically, a song called In a Manner of Speaking.They’re almost a novelty act, doing lounge-ish arrangements of pop/punk covers, but this track is uber-tasty. I think, again, it’s the vocalist, Camille (one name - hmm… I think I’ll refer to myself as The Don from here forward) who slays me. The song is a great, hooky old mamma jamma from Tuxedomoon, but it’s the underplayed longing she’s selling — inspired by Bjork or This Mortal Coil or somesuch — that keeps me playing it over and over all day long. And if you’ve read any of my earlier posts, you may be interested to know Camille also sings a cute little cover of The Guns of Brixton by The Clash, that (of course) it’s not as good as the original. Maybe someday I’ll tell my Brixton story! http://www.nouvellesvagues.com/

Oh, BTW — Nina Simone, Nina Simone, Nina Simone!

Yesterday’s fave song: No One Will Ever Love You (Honestly) by Magnetic Fields, but now that I learned it on guitar, I have a new fave. Love Me Like a Song is an achingly beautiful bit of poesics by Kimmie Rhodes. I stumbled across a duet she did with Willie Nelson and it floored me. Seems like such an obvious metaphor — right? — but the lyrics kill me:

put your arms around me
listen to my heartbeat now
if you want to love me
baby, i can show you how

love me like a song
sweet as a melody
learn all the words to me
and sing along
find the harmony
the rhythm and the rhyme to me
on and on
all night long
love me like song

i want to be the melody
you can’t get out of your head
think of me as words of love
a poet might have said

Simple and razor sharp, huh? I’m figuring out the chords now. Dig it up - it’s on iTunes. If I hadn’t found it, I might be raving about MF’s "Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits" or something.

Seems she’s from Lubbock, like Willie, Waylon, Buddy Holly and freaking Roy Orbison. I gotta get me some bottled water from there and see if it helps me write!

Today’s song: No One Will Ever Love You Honestly by Magnetic FIelds.

Been working so much lately, I haven’t had time to post anything. Party season is still in effect, but I’m so run down from burning the candle at both ends, I completely missed a free throw - a hottie in this TINY red skirt - at a party last weekend. oh well, gotta keep moving!!!

Favorite new songs: Got no reason now for goin’ home by Gene Watson and Give it up by LCD Soundsystem.

Lots of activity this weekend:

Digital Bootcamp is having an equipment sale, so I picked up and orange iMac for a buddy ofr $150. Hope it doesn’t die shortly, or I’ll never hear the end of it. Speaking of obsolete equipment, MacCrackHelpline Yahoo group is buzzing about the impending Apple switch to Intel chips. It seems that many Mac-heads will delay purchasing new computers until a 2nd generation Intel Mac is out - maybe 2 years down the road! Apple will have to sell a ton of iPods to stay profitable while we all wait through the transition period.

What do you do when you’ve got 3 parties to go to all at the same time? My buddy Dan is doing a live painting event as part of a HipHop show at Subterraneans, Bridget is having a moving party, and Ebru’s band is playing a Jeffrey’s gallery. Oy - I’ll be running around tonight!

Sunday is the first Windy City Rollers event at the Congress theater - 10 bucks if u buy tickets online. Then Eric G is VJing at Rodan after 10. Hope I’m up in time for work on Monday!

Today’s songs are Club Foot by Kasabian and The Guns of Brixton by The Clash. Beer recommendation is Pere Jaques by Goose Island - sweet and fruity if u like that kind of stuff. BBQs all over town today, and by the time I get out of rehearsal, all the food will be gone - OY!

Finally saw Kung-Fu Hustle yesterday - really good. Shaolin Soccer (the director’s previous flick) is better, but this is definitely one to see on the big screen. We all hit Lincoln Square afterwards and it was packed with Cub fans and hangers-on from German fest. CROWDED! Wound up at Hopleaf for a nightcap, which has gotten even cooler lately. I’m not much for beer in general, so when I asked the bartender what their crappiest beer was, she made a face and everyone started apologising for my ignorance. What. Ever.

Hey all - Here’s my third try at keeping up a blog. I usually get bored with all the typing, but let’s see what happens…

Been partying WAY too much lately, drowinging my sorrows cuz baby plays around, IYKWIM. I’ve been singing so much karaoke, I’m hoarse as Lucille Ball! I’ve got a major head start on summer going on, so I better find me a sponsor to pay for all this or I’s gonna go broke!

Fave new song is this nice jangly little Who-ish thing called Walking with a ghost by Tegan and Sara. I’m hearing a little Sinead O’Connor kinda inflections in their voices, and I’ve been hearing that kinda vocal thing more lately (check out Amy’s vox at echosend.com). Is it just me? Boy, do I miss the way she could spew out an angry lyric at an ex!

Oh, and if you’re a Mac user, check out Aquisition for p2p. I was avaoiding it for a long time, but when I finally checked it out, I got hooked and even sent in the $16 to register it! I’ve been grabbing South Park episodes and tons of Mercury Rev and Nina Simone tracks.

Later!