In the Closet

The label "alt-folk" makes me throw up, but recently that's all I've been listening to. I put the blame squarely on Suzanne Vega's "Beauty & Crime" disc. I had ignored Suzanne Vega after her 1987 "Solitude Standing," but I picked up her new disc because it is a paean to New York City post 9/11. I got hooked big time. I'm the type of person who likes to burn things out fast; that is, I listen to the same album five times a day for two weeks straight. I started to snuff the life out of the poor CD, so I went searching for more. At my library, I found "99.9 F. degrees" and "Songs in Red and Gray." Those CDs are now on continuous rotation. But, soon, I'll need more. It's hard to admit that I'm a Suzanne Vega fan. I guess I'm in denial. Perhaps it's all because of that cringe-worthy "alt-folk" label.

Chicks with Matchsticks

The Saatchi Gallery's featured photograph for its current survey of post 9/11 American artists reminded me of another similar striking image. In Josephine Meckseper's 2003 "Pyromaniac 2," a model holds a lighted match in her mouth as though it were a cigarette and delivers us a "dare me" look. Meckseper's work combines anti-capitalism with humor, and the gallery describes this photo as "an emblem of commodified desire transformed to an impending powder keg explosion." That description could partially describe Fiona Apple in her 1999 video "Fast As You Can." Apple also plays with fire, but she goes one step further and extinguishes the flame inside her mouth. While Meckseper makes art about the forces outside, Apple's focus is doggedly about the fires inside. (Image via Saatchi Gallery and Amazon.com)

Serge's Child

My summer album is Charlotte Gainsbourg's "5:55." I've listened to it repeatedly for the past few months, sometimes three times in a row in one day. With music by Air, Gainsbourg sings in a breathy, talky voice. Perhaps the disc's beguiling quality comes from Air's hypnotic groove, or perhaps it is Gainsbourg's French aura and pedigree that ensnare me. I wonder if Charlotte, who must be one of the best known French actresses in America, felt compelled to make a record as a nod to her father. Serge Gainsbourg also "sang" in the same talky manner. In any case, this is an album that gets under your skin. (Image via Cherrycoloured.com)

Cat Power

The former Cat Stevens is going to be performing at this year's Nobel Peace Prize concert. How I wish he were performing at a concert for the Nobel Prize for Literature winner. I'd love to see Yusef Islam, who is of Greek descent, honor Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk. This Nobel Peace Prize concert isn't as prestigious as it sounds: Lionel Richie, not someone like Bono, will also be performing. I recently got hooked on "Teaser and the Firecat," and C.S./Y.I. will be releasing an album on Nov. 14. But do you really think there will be a song as good as "Father and Son" on it?

Induced Insanity

I like insanity au naturel. Whenever I learn that some of my crazy heroes' behavior is caused by booze or drugs, I always feel let down. In a New York Times profile on Cat Power, the singer admits that she used to drink a fifth of Scotch a day. So that means all those meltdowns and breakdowns on stage were alcohol-induced. I had assumed that Cat Power was this idiosyncratic artist who was too much of a creative maverick and outsider to fit into this world. Now I find out that the reason is much more prosaic: she was a drunk. I haven't listened to her new album yet. Let's hope her new sobriety hasn't hurt her talent. (Image via Slap Magazine)

Trane Jump

Get a jump on celebrating John Coltrane's birthday, which is the 23rd, by tuning into WBGO today. On Sept. 19, this NY jazz station will broadcast two radio documentaries, "The Making of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme" at 10 a.m. and "The House That Trane Built" at 6:30 p.m. In between those documentaries, the station will be playing a lot of Coltrane music through the day. Trane would have turned 80 this Saturday.

Intellectual Cats

Can't figure out this one: why a full-page ad in the New Yorker for Cat Power's recent album? I can't believe that a lot of New Yorker readers are fans of Cat Power, an idiosyncratic and indie folkie who is known to have breakdowns on stage. The answer may lie in an October 2004 NYer issue. Accompanying an article on the singer was a Richard Avedon photo in which Cat Power posed with her pants half unzipped and a Dylan T-shirt strategically placed over her top. Perhaps that's how she garnered a hoity-toity following. (Images via New Yorker)

Brian Sounds

WFUV has posted Pete Fornatale's interview with Brian Wilson, and, yes, its original airdate was in 2005. Most interesting part: Brian cracks jokes and laughs. Most disappointing part: B.W.'s shaky, out-of-tune live singing voice. Here's the interview.

Re-Make/Re-Model

Who was the genius who thought up this ad? In a recent Burberry ad, Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music's lead singer, poses with the most sexless-looking woman in the world. Ferry, whose persona is Frank Sinatra meets David Bowie, has always been about glam, glam, glam. This is a man who not only wore eye shadow on stage but romanced Jerry Hall. This is a man who not only said that he'd wear "the sluttiest stiletto heels" if he were a woman but also issued out the image for the "Country Life" album cover. I can't believe B.F. would OK this. (I love how his head is turned away from the model, as though he is about to tell a P.A. to call his manager pronto.) Who knows, though. Maybe the model is his son in drag. Now, that I could dig. (Image via W magazine, Amazon)

Crisp and Dull

The Dave Douglas Quintet's show at the Village Vanguard sounded clean, crisp, and tight. And boring. Perhaps trumpeter Douglas and his band and the venue weren't a good mix. The quintet's sound is like that of a jazz festival ensemble: everybody and every note in unison, blasting out to the crowd way up on the lawn. The Vanguard is an intimate setting, which works best with subtle musicians playing intensely, whether it be standards or fusion. So perhaps I would've enjoyed it more if I were lolling about on a blanket, drinking wine, talking, and barely paying attention to what's going on up on stage. (Image via Jazz.hr)

Everybody Say Yeah

Yeah Yeah Yeahs recently played at the Roseland Ballroom, which the Times gave an A+ review. The show sounds like a ball. Here's how Jon Pareles describes lead singer Karen O:

During the set, she pogoed, stood stock-still with a pointing finger, rubbed her tummy (while singing about honey), flicked a towel like a whip, knelt and bent her head back to the floor, and hopped across the stage on one foot while kicking high with the other. She was so stylized she looked like a natural.

This reminded me that I must download or buy or somehow get my hands on some new music. Here's the link to the NY Times' article. If you need to sign in to access, click on the icon below to read the review. (Image via New York Times)


Yeahs Review

In the Flesh

This sounds like fun. Deborah Harry is playing Athena in Richard Move's danced play "The Show (Achilles Heels)." She'll sing and dance and look amazing (she's 60!) for a limited run engagement at The Kitchen. (Image via The New Yorker)

In Their Rooms

There is a subculture of musicians who worship the Studio Brian Wilson, the guy who pushed, bent, and manipulated studio recording. These musicians pray to the iconic image of the "In My Room" Brian--the lonely genius creating music to an audience of patch bays and sequencers. One of these musicians has recently gotten under my skin, or into my ears: Keigo Oyamada, who records under the name "Cornelius." His 1998 album "Fantasma" has been cemented into my CD player for the past week. Although the album sounds more along the lines of The Jam meets My Bloody Valentine, the specter of B.W. is strong. He pays homage to B.W. by composing modular music chunks within songs, recreating a few well-known B.W. images and naming a song "God Only Knows." In addition, this tech wiz is perfectly happy to be alone with his ProTools software.

Bang the Cymbal Slowly

The bandleader is the drummer. And one of the most influential modern drummers on top of that. The Paul Motian Quartet just wrapped up six nights at the Village Vanguard, and I caught one of their shows. At age 75, Motian really knows how to tap and bang that cymbal just right, after all he's played with some of the best, such as Bill Evans and Bill Frisell. What was interesting was that each band member's instrument (sax, piano, and bass) sounded like the drum-playing: staccato bursts, free-form abstraction, and zen-like repetition. However, this wasn't just a noisy commotion of notes. The music was layered, rich and deep.

Yea for Yeahs

It's a sad day when I get my music news from the New Yorker. Last week, the mag published a preview of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' upcoming album to be released in March. Like everyone else on this side of the Hudson River, I was wildly addicted to the Yeahs's last album, "Fever to Tell." (I recently listened to it, and I hate to say that it hasn't held up as well as I would have thought.) The new disc, called "Show Your Bones," receives a pretty ecstatic review from the NYer. Dear God, please don't let them end up like the White Stripes. The nerdy brainiacs jumped on them, and Jack White bought into it and started bloody intellectualizing three-chord riffs.

To the Nth Power

Cat Power is releasing a new album on January 24th. Yesterday, the New York Times published a profile of Chan Marshall who performs as "Cat Power." Fans, like me, have been waiting with baited breath for this new disc, called "The Greatest." I was highly hooked on her last album "You Are Free," which came out a long three years ago. (I have to admit that her album titles are surprisingly unimaginative and dull-sounding, but don't let that deter you from checking her out. Cat Power is raw, ingenuous, and fresh, someone who follows her own private muse, like Kate Bush or Flannery O'Connor, and everyone else be damned if ya don't dig it.) Here's an MP3 of the title track from the new LP.

Roach's Birthday

Today is the birthday of jazz drummer/percussionist extraordinare Max Roach. Max, who turns 82 today, has played with all the greats. WKRC is airing a special Roach birthday broadcast: all Max, all day long. Check it out. (Image via encarta.msn.com)

This Is Pop*

XTC's Andy Partridge

I have been listening obsessively to two XTC albums this past week: Skylarking and English Settlement. Occasionally, I slip in Black Sea as well. I have no new pop albums, and I have burned out everything else, so I've been rumaging through boxes of these contraptions called "Cassette Tapes." I don't know why I'm going through this '80s nostaglia; maybe it was seeing Luc Tuymans' show. In any case, I feel that XTC's albums have held up exceptionally well over the past 20 years.
*This is a title of one of XTC's songs from the White Music album, which actually sounds very dated.
(Image via Chalkhills)

Late to "Funeral"

Although I downloaded Arcade Fire's album "Funeral" eight months ago, I have finally given it a good listening. [I got sidetracked by "Smile," my jazz CDs (I had four-month listening marathon), and Interpol's "Turn on the Bright Lights" (again, late, released in 2002).] I'm happy to report that the hype about Arcade Fire is true. This Canadian band's debut is one of those albums (like Interpol's "...Bright Lights") where you end up playing it at least once a day because a song gets wedged in your head, and you must simply listen to it only one more time. (Only once, but then you hit Play again when noone's looking.) Most addictive song: cut #9 "Rebellion (Lies)." I would warn that it took a good solid three times of listening to the disc before the music finally clicked with me. On my CD, I accidentally added a Brian Jonestown Massacre song, "The Devil May Care," which is a real bonus and closes out my version of "Funeral."

Trane & Monk

Oh, I'm really excited about this. I read in the New York Sun that a new recording by John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk is being issued at the end of September. Recorded in 1957, "Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall" has supposedly left jazz aficionados salivating. How in the world can you go wrong when it comes to Trane and Monk? I'm already standing in line. If you're interested, please check out the NY Sun article about this soon-to-be, best-of-the-year release. And, if you're really interested, check out this John Coltrane site and Monk site.