en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal The Last.fm journal for talking_animal. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2009/01/06/2dmiiz_ins_and_outs Tue, 6 Jan 2009 17:56:29 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2009/01/06/2dmiiz_ins_and_outs I like them all, but I think I've listened to the "Out" list a little too much in the last couple years. They don't seem so fresh anymore.

In:
Kékélé, Ponton La Belle ft Loko Massengo
Kanda Bongo Man, Assali
Nine Horses, Wonderful World
Mory Kanté, Courougnegne
Jimmy Rushing, Take Me Back, Baby
Bugotak, Maadai-Kara (Mission Impossible)

Out:
Bonga, Monta Ki Ngi Xica
Patty Griffin, Rowing Song
Pretty Girls Make Graves, All Medicated Geniuses
Rilo Kiley, It Just Is
Norah Jones, Don't Know Why
Reis ensemble, Bô Dame Canja
Brenda Holloway, Trapped In A Love Affair
Abbey Lincoln & Hank Jones, Close Your Eyes]]> http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2008/11/20/2agcaq_eleven_good_ones_%28fall_of_2008_selections%29 Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:41:35 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2008/11/20/2agcaq_eleven_good_ones_%28fall_of_2008_selections%29

1. Mademoiselle: This is a hard one to find, but it’s worth it; Berry has a sweet, strong voice, and the songs are well put together, with nice melodic hooks and interesting instrumentation. Best of my latest slice of the French CD market.
2. Un Día: This one is a doozy. Juana Molina hasn’t really changed her style over the past four releases, but it’s gotten deeper and more intense. Instead of drifting back into a kind of folksy, droney sound, Srta. Molina has started to get the hang of the tape loop and delay, creating gauzy palettes of sound that continue to reverberate into your brain long after hearing them. Don’t miss this one.
3. Set Luna: A great Senegalese flamenco record by Julia Sarr & Patrice Larose. Sarr sings in Wolof, I guess, although it doesn’t sound like the guttural Wolof I’m familiar with, and Larose plays pretty nifty guitar lines around her vocals. This one is good, and I’m kicking myself for coming to it a little late, like three years late. The duo avoid the easy-listening trap of making the arrangements too lush, but still hit the sweet spot for late-night reading or quiet evenings at home.
4. Nests: This one falls somewhere between Sleater-Kinney and Joan As Police Woman. It’s got the confessional vibe, plus the angry guitars, and the female singer of She Keeps Bees has a pretty good voice and sense of phrasing.
5. Mediocre: The arrangements aren’t as good as they are on the Berry album, but Ximena Sariñana has an amazing set of pipes and really puts her songs out there. This is more pop than Julieta Venegas’s work, but more straight-ahead singer-songwriter stuff than Shakira. I’ve always liked her voice, and I’m glad to see that it’s held up for an entire first album.
6. Changing of the Seasons: This is not functionally different from the first Ane Brun record, but it’s a welcome function that it performs. It’s a little hard to evaluate this one evenhandedly because the first record she made, A Temporary Dive is a stone classic, in which great confessional songs brimful of emotion follow one another to make a coherent suite that will have an effect on you after only one or two listens. Compared to that one, Changing of the Seasons doesn’t have the coherence but still has great songs. It’s a good scandi-pop record, especially for sitting down quietly (second one on this list, I see).
7. Gibraltar: One of the reviews on the store site compared Abd Al Malik’s work on this to the songs of Jacques Brel. I’ve never really been able to get into Brel, but this Gibraltar record might force me to reexamine his work. Although Abd Al Malik is known as a slammer, or French-language rapper, the best songs on here aren’t really rap, but spoken word. The man has fantastic flow and phrasing, for sure, and his lyrics just kind of hit you and root you to the spot without being tremendously overbearing and rhythmic. It’s as if he’s telling you a story . I bought it on a whim and am really glad I did.
8. Liquid Liquid: I have been waiting for this one for a while, as I’ve been carefully collecting postpunk stars like Lydia Lunch, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, and Defunkt for years. I used to know one of the Liquid Liquid alumni and he was a fantastic person as well as a gifted musician, so when the opportunity to pick this one up, I didn’t waste it. It’s a great set of songs, full of rubbery grooves and strange percussion all put together into really tight songs.
9. Midnight Boom: One that takes all those post-punk lessons and applies it in a fresh and new way suitable for 2008. Each song is full of charisma and groove, the kind of record you want to bring to all your friends’ parties and introduce to them. There’s not a bad one on the entire disc.
10. Futurismo: This includes the new-generation Veloso, Caetano’s son Moreno, and is the record for everyone who is tired of MPB, or current Brazilian pop music. Moreno sounds a lot like his dad, but the arrangements are fantastic and intriguing and different, every one of them. It’s like these guys sat down and said, what can we do to make really interesting music, then they took some notes and did it.
11. Tableau de Chasse: The second album from Claire Diterzi is just as good as the first one, which is saying something. The first record was a durable electropop disc. Diterzi doesn’t have the most fantastic well-rounded voice, like Berry above does, but she knows how to use it against a chilly texture to bring warmth to her lyrics.

]]> http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2008/10/10/27psf1_lagniappe Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:40:56 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2008/10/10/27psf1_lagniappe I finally got around to ordering a copy of The Great Escape. There’s nothing else to spend money on out here at the secret city, so I finally broke down and bought one through a large online retailer, hang the expense. (I got the “Soul Sisters: Sights and Sounds” album, too, in the same shipment; more on that one later.)

It shows up in a package with another CD, this one by a band called Strange Talking Animals. Close examination determines that it’s been recorded by the guy whose name is on the customs form. He cites JUDY AND MARY, Radiohead and Arc en Ciel as influences.

Talk about small world, theriolalistic world. Of all the people to get some random CD by a random band named “Strange Talking Animals,” it should be me. Of course, this brings up the next question: since the disc isn’t really up my alley, should I bother to scrobble a track? The group’s name seems to imply that I should.

(I have had better luck in the past with throw-ins at purchase time. One day during an scheduled airline stopover in Minneapolis, I went record shopping and ended up with a free Hokey disc. That one I actually liked.)]]> http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2007/09/18/2kbo_music_at_weddings%3F Tue, 18 Sep 2007 00:42:03 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2007/09/18/2kbo_music_at_weddings%3F In the interests of students everywhere of North American ethnography, I would like to draw your attention to the list on this page of wedding music. Now while some people might legitimately wonder why Miss You ("We gonna come round the square with some Puerto Rican girls who're just dyin' to meet you") or Jumpin' Jack Flash ("I was crowned/with a spike right through my head") are included as selections to play on that "very special" day, what gets me more is the absence of any music from the 90s.

No Ray of Light? No Breathe? No Girls & Boys? No Raspberry Beret? No Making Flippy Floppy? No Dos Gardenias, even? Is there some kind of sour spot that covers that entire 10-year period in people's minds?

And no, I got married once and have no interest in doing it again, OK? My interest in this topic is solely for research purposes.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2007/09/10/2kbn_elza%21_elza%21_elza%21_now_on-demand_streamable Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:04:36 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2007/09/10/2kbn_elza%21_elza%21_elza%21_now_on-demand_streamable Last year I was in Delft, at Plexus, the really good record store there, and the proprietor pulled out a copy of Vivo Feliz from some pile on some table, puts it on the PA system, and floors me.

Everyone knows Elza Soares, right? For the US listener, if she or he knows Elza at all, she is one of those 1970s Brazilian singers who made a number of funky samba records then sort of disappeared from view as musical tastes changed. You can find her work on a couple of sampler discs, as well as greatest hits collections. If you read her bio here on last-fm you can find more about her sad life story.

Back to the story, I'm in Delft, and Elza comes over the PA, and it's just the most monster dance record possible. Rio De Janeiro features a bouncy bassline that sounds like Victor Wooten kidnapped by tropical booty activists, has this rap that sounds like it was run through the same vintage vocoder/compressor that turned Sheila E's rap from It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night into something so over-the-top and ruthlessly erotic, a nutty saxophone solo, and in between, Elza chanting "I loff you," in a particularly villainous accent, as if she was about to whisk you home from an Ipanema nightclub, share with you a night of mind-altering passion, then saw you up into pieces with her giant ruby industrial laser. You could see it from the start, yet you loved it anyway.

If you like that song, maybe you'll like the French-language rap on the next song, or the Celia Cruz imitation on the one after that. ¡Azucar!

I bought "Vivo Feliz" immediately and took it home and loved it and cherished it. And now the entire album is available on last.fm's on-demand streamable service. Go and listen.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2007/07/24/2kbm_big_yum_yum%3A_secret_gary_cooper_side_project%3F Tue, 24 Jul 2007 22:42:41 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2007/07/24/2kbm_big_yum_yum%3A_secret_gary_cooper_side_project%3F In the 1957 movie Love in the Afternoon, Gary Cooper has this four-piece Gypsy orchestra (I would say Band of Gypsys, but that is a reference that leads in a different, yet equally fulfilling, direction from the one in which I'm going) that he keeps on retainer to play live music while he woos an interchangeable sweetheart in his Paris hotel suite. (Maurice Chevalier plays a detective who blames Cooper for seducing about 99 44/100ths of the respectable-wife population of Paris; turnabout is fair play when his daughter Audrey Hepburn gets involved with Cooper.)

The band, with a hammer-dulcimer, a guitar, an accordion, and a violinist, plays the same repertory every night for Gary Cooper; neither the music nor the seductive approach ever changes. That repertory consists of these Gypsy-sounding arrangements of standard pop tunes.

The idea that I could banter flirtatiously with girls like Audrey Hepburn in a deluxe hotel to the romantic soundtrack of a real live Gypsy four-piece combo was definitely one of the reasons I went to Paris last year, but unfortunately I couldn't track those guys down. As I've mentioned before, I found plenty of other music to entertain me. One I couldn't find, however, was Big Yum Yum, who came highly recommended by raw_u:Later I found an obscure cd at Boulinier, with familiar-looking graphics on the cover. Big Yum Yum is a project Fabio Viscogliosi had in the 90's with some students of a music school. Instrumental remakes of their cinema-tune favourites. Really excellent, downtempo chill out lo-fi music.. (I tried the same pawing through the used-CD bins at Boulinier and wound up instead with the indomitable jazz vocalist Marjolaine Reymond.)

BYY's Clic clac did surface on emusic, recently, however, and I finally had the opportunity to catch up with it. What I found is a record of the kind of music that I would expect those gypsies to make on their time off. The arrangements are sparse, tight, and romantic not in an overblown Léo Marjane (or even Feist) way, but in their directness and simplicity. Some of them are simple enough to make excellent ringtones (disclaimer: Three Girl Rhumba is to me the most perfect ringtone: instantly identifiable, slashing, and direct, it says "Jonathan, pick up the phone" better than any other song I can think of.) Since the BYY heads are mostly taken from soundtracks of Nouvelle Vague movies, BYY is probably an excellent corrective to all that overblown floor-show-orchestra music you've seen in CD bins lately, like Pink Martini and Nouvelle Vague. In fact, the music's simplicity approaches the bitpop esthetic that we're familiar with from BEREP-recommended artists such as Tanguy Ukulele Orchestra and Aleksi Eeben, but not from the humorous direction, from the opposite, dub-serious one, as if melodica-playing Augustus Pablo and Lee "Scratch" Perry had collaborated on a version of Miles Davis's soundtrack to L'ascenseur à l'echafaud.

The outstanding track on Clic Clac in my opinion is their version of the Jeanne Moreau classic from Jules et Jim, Le tourbillon. They do it up in the aforementioned dub style so that what in Jeanne's definitive version is a kind of lullaby sounds better suited for a lap dance or striptease. It reminds me of the ghostly and beautiful Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy version of I Only Have Eyes for You, but earthy, not ethereal.

This is lounge music for people who are not lounging idly, but who have a purpose, like Gary Cooper's relentless, sharklike efforts at seducing Audrey Hepburn. En tant que ça, BYY's music accompanies perfectly my more manic and directed moments, whether seducing my girlfriend or making dinner for Mom. In fact, as Love in the Afternoon draws to its conclusion, the gypsies and their theme music (the old chestnut "Fascination") become even more incongruous; at Gary Cooper's most hectic and overwrought moment, they are playing as he takes Audrey Hepburn for a boat trip, shades of Xochimilco. It's the same kind of old-wine-in-new-bottles vibe that animates the entire Clic Clac record.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2006/11/08/2kbl_zaterdag_saturday_mix Wed, 8 Nov 2006 06:18:56 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2006/11/08/2kbl_zaterdag_saturday_mix Well gang, I'll be in Europe this Zaterdag, so I thought I'd share this little Saturday-themed mix with you. It comes on three sides, like many classic records: side A, side B, and side C.

Side A is the revved-up side, side B is a little more chilled-out. You know many of these songs, In fact, I left "Combat Baby" off the mix because I'm sure you already have a copy, or you heard it in the carpool this morning.

Side C is my little attempt at a coda: something that builds on the rest of the song but goes in a different direction. It's hard to think of two more different songs than Saturday Night and Friday Night Saturday Morning. Well, I guess they're both about crazy parties, so maybe they're not so different.

Here's your CD-booklet insert.

Side A
Duke Robillard: Don't Treat Me Like That
Louis Jordan: Saturday Night Fish Fry
The Rolling Stones: Where The Boys Go
Metric: Combat Baby
Cafe Tacuba: Rarotonga
The Toasters: Mr. Trouble
The Specials: Nite Klub
The Selecter: Red Reflections
Serge Gainsbourg: Intoxicated Man
Susanna and the Magical Orchestra: Crazy, Crazy Nights

Side B
Serge Gainsbourg: La Fille Au Rasoir
Sonny Stitt: Count Every Star
Tom Waits: The Ghosts of Saturday Night
Cabruêra: Forró esferográfico
Kahimi Karie: Serieux Comme Le Plaisir
El Perro del Mar: It's All Good
Gal Costa: Barato Total
Gilberto Gil: Guerra Santa
Bembeya Jazz Orchestra: Petit Sékou
Ozomatli: Saturday Night

Side C
Schoolly-D: Saturday Night
Nouvelle Vague: Friday Night Saturday Morning


]]> http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2006/10/19/2kbk_can_you_hear_this_streamable_music%3F_you_may_suffer_from_theriolalia%21 Thu, 19 Oct 2006 03:19:32 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2006/10/19/2kbk_can_you_hear_this_streamable_music%3F_you_may_suffer_from_theriolalia%21 Let me present Theriolalia, the Internet’s most debilitating musical syndrome. Are you yapping like a fox, roaring like a moose, barking like a kittycat? Listen to these ten streamable artists for temporary relief.

Ranked in order of popularity on last.fm.

1. Brazilian Girls (15,994 listeners). Enough with the “no Brazilians, one girl” crap. What matters is their new album feeds you the same kinds of beats, but grungier than the last record. Yum, and Sabine Sciubba keeps bleating in ten different languages. Don’t wait till she breaks out in Bamanakan or Dutch to buy a record of theirs; the 21st century Nana Mouskouri is singing now in a venue near you.
2. Lyrics Born (12,110 listeners). From the Bay Area, Lyrics Born is some kind of drug for me. His Later That Day, from 2004, just changed my views on rap (not really, but it’s a nice thing to say). Big props to the nice lady at Music Emporium 286 Flatbush Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11217 718-638-0550, for turning me onto LB. The proof is in the pudding: I can’t make a mix tape sound good without having a LB jam on it.
3. Johnny Winter (9,710 listeners). My guitar teacher hipped me to Second Winter way back in the vinyl age; it was one of those original three-sided records. I had never heard anything as good in its vein of funked-up electric blues, and thanks to digital remastering and last.fm, you may never either.
4. Ben Webster (5,330 listeners). There is something so gorgeous about the way he plays tenor saxophone. I love me my Joe Lovano and David Murray, but it’s hard to beat those recorded sides with Ben Webster for sheer beauty of sound. Dive in yourself; I’m a big fan of That’s All.
5. King Britt (4,114 listeners). Another great reco from Music Emporium. The album Adventures in Lo-Fi is one of those amazing secret hiphop treasures; I listen to it and wonder still, how come this isn’t being blasted from the rooftops?
6. Susanna and the Magical Orchestra (4,010 listeners). Thank you, superhelga, for sharing the S&MO goodness with me this summer, right before the duo’s new album came out. The new record, Melody Mountain, is in the same vein as List of Lights and Buoys, maybe not as good, but it’s so worth it for the quiet, quiet cover versions that compose the entire album. "It’s A Long Way To The Top," anyone? Fellow theriolalia sufferer Cloudtrapeze and I are waiting for her to cover I Will SurviveQuoth cloudtrapeze: Slow it right down, get rid of most of the chords and change the remaining ones to minor, and there you go.
   I can even hear it in my head - well, I would be able to if I wasn't blasting Cocteau Twins.
7. DJ Logic (2,505 listeners). This guy made a record back in 2003, The Anomaly that I picked up at J&R the other day. I had one song from it in MP3 format downloaded from some long-forgotten server, Michelle, which I liked, and when I saw the friendly orange slipcover, I decided to buy my own copy of the CD. Of course, it would turn out to be completely off the hook, a Vernon Reid collaboration, with tons of other special guests Miri Ben-Ari, anyone?, and in its own way, a completely idiosyncratic take on where hiphop is and is going. We will be listening to this record for years to come, I promise you.
8. Erroll Garner (2,372 listeners). One of the great jazz pianists, and the composer of “Misty,” one of the last jazz standards written. Garner sadly doesn’t get the appreciation he deserves today; as WKCR’s Phil Schaap said the other day, it’s astonishing that someone who 50 years ago was recognized as one of the leading lights of the music is today barely known. He’s streamable on last, luckily, so he makes my list and should make yours.
9. Konk (1,332 listeners). I will confess, this is more of that post-punk that makes my heart sing, but in this case, it’s heavily leavened with helpings of disco and funk; I would have to go back to the informative booklet that comes with the greatest-hits CD for sure, but I would have to wager that the Konk players were all in regular dance orchestras playing on disco sides or in uptown salsa orchestras as well as cranking the hell out of their amplifiers and making this beautiful, motivating record. I first heard Love Attack on WNYU’s late-night dance-music show in 1987 and went down to Vinylmania to buy my own copy on 12-inch vinyl. Imagine my delight to find the record newly remastered on CD two years ago, and try to comprehend my happiness at finding it streamable so I can recommend it to you through last.
10. Mala Rodríguez (793 listeners under her streamable name; a couple hundred more without the accent mark). I first heard Mala R. on the PA in the Concerto record store in Amsterdam; she was appearing in Holland a week after my departure. I liked Tengo Un Trato enough to buy it then and there. When I got back to my island chain, I found that Alevosía was available in this country. I wasn’t impressed until I heard the title cut, which could have knocked me over with a feather; lightly sung Spanish vocals, a claves rhythm, loping bass, and a windy, patient guitar solo. It was the last thing I expected on an Iberian hiphop record and has turned me (again) into a big fan of Mala.

Honorable mention:

• Bush Tetras (2,551 listeners). More of that lovely, lovely post-punk sound that I so love. I bought the compilation disc a couple of weeks ago and would have ranked it on the big list above except that there’s only one streamable track available, from another compilation, the monstrously good You Can’t Be Funky.
• Marlui Miranda (129 listeners). Marlui made an ambitious and beautiful record with a choir of indigenous folks from Brazil. They sing and chant and the music (it’s a mass), just gets wilder and more elaborate: it’s absolutely riveting. Look for it at your local library: for some reason, audiovisual librarians go rightfully gaga for records like this one. Is it because it’s “world music”?
• Hamid Drake - Joe McPhee (16 listeners). This is one in a series of poorly labeled last.fm streamable albums. I heard a daylong interview program with Joe last Sunday on WKCR; based on that and the little I’ve heard from him I have absolutely no qualms about recommending this title to you and your friends and anyone who’s read this far already. Classic out jazz music by two masters, Hamid Drake and Joe McPhee.

]]> http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2006/10/04/2kbj_be_there_or_be_square%2C_brooklyn_sugar_10-20-06_and_10-28-06 Wed, 4 Oct 2006 17:58:07 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2006/10/04/2kbj_be_there_or_be_square%2C_brooklyn_sugar_10-20-06_and_10-28-06 Just got this email today, friends; take a look at this and tell me with a straight face you have somewhere better to be.

LINEUPS \ LIVE WIRED AT BK SUGAR \

OCTOBER 20

Burnt Sugar
Burnt Sugar: The Arkestra Chamber \ http://www.burntsugarindex.com/ \
Vernon Reid: ARTIFICAL AFRIKA \ THE GATES \ http://myspace.com/vernonreid\
Melvin Gibbs & David Pleasant: GEECHEE SEMINOLES \
http://myspace.com/melvingibbs \ http://harriettubmanmusic.com/melvin.html \
http://www.downtownmusic.net/pictures/picturesrhtml/Melvin_Gibbs/default.htm
\
On Davis: CARTOON SATELLITE EXTENSION \
http://djukemusic.com/ \ http://djukemusic.com/on.html \
http://djukemusic.com/interview1.html \
http://djukemusic.com/interview2.html \
Snehasish Mozumder & DIBYARKA CHATTERJEE \ www.tabla.org \
Second Species \ http://2ndspecies.com/ \
Paula Jeanine: AMERICAN GHAZAL \ http://paulajeanine.com/ \
Colin Stetson \ www.colinstetson.com \
Golden Eagle \ STANDING WOLF \ http://sageworkz.com/ \
Mia Rebel: THE REWIRE \ http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/miarebel1
Patrick Pfeiffer: GROOVES FOR PEACE \ http://www.groovesforpeace.org/ \
DJ Reset \ http://www.resetmusic.com \
DJ LOVOLUTION: SUPER CINEMATIC
\ Viz \ Green Dragon

OCTOBER 28

THE Sun Ra Arkestra UNDER THE DIRECTION OF MARSHALL ALLEN \
http://thesunraarkestra.com/ \
Gary Lucas: GODS AND MONSTERS FEATURING Jerry Harrison \ MONSTERS FROM THE ID \ \
http://garylucas.com/ \ http://www.myspace.com/garylucas
Tomchess: THE LOVEDOGS
Zemog, El Gallo Bueno \ http://zemogelgallobueno.com/ \
Mossa Bildner: COLOURS OF RITUAL \ MEUMORIA \
http://www.myspace.com/mossabildnermusic \
BUSHMEAT: DISCIPLINE 99 \ THE RAMIX PROJECT \
http://soundzimpossible.com/ \
PAUL CARUSO: RADIO EXP \ BLOOD ROSE \
RAQUEL FELIU TORRES: ES SOLEDAD \
VAL-INC \ http://val-inc.com/ \ http://www.myspace.com/val-inc
ANGEI WORKMAN \ http://myspace.com/angelaworkman \
SECOND SPECIES \ http://2ndspecies.com/ \


%(*%(*%(*%(*%(*%


LINEUPS \ SUGAR PUNK AT BK SUGAR \


OCTOBER 20

BRYAN ZENTZ \ USA, Disruptor \
STRYKE & SANTOS \ www.substancerecordings.com \
DAVID HOLLANDS: co-producer of SugarPunk and local DJ mack-daddy \
www.minimalwage.com \

DANIEL VATSKY \ www.skyvat.net \
SEEj \ www.seej.net \
DISNEY \ www.tc43.com \

Fashion by MAGDALENA MARCENARO www.magdelenamarcenaro.com \


OCTOBER 28

PHONO HALLOWEEN

BASTEROID (Live) \ Areal/Sender (Frankfurt)
PLASTIQUE DE REVE - Turbo/Gigolo (Geneva)
FRANK MARTINIQ - Boxer/Sender/Areal (Cologne)
ADULTNAPPER - Superfreq/Halcyon (Brooklyn)
COWBOY MARK & FUNCTION

DANIEL VATSKY \ www.skyvat.net \
SEEj \ www.seej.net \
DISNEY \ www.tc43.com \

Fashion by LAURA DAWSON www.lauradawson.com \

www.areal-records.com
www.boxer-recordings.com
www.turborecordings.com
www.halcyonline.com
www.enablernetwork.org

BROOKLYN SUGAR
289 Kent Ave. at S. 2nd St.
Williamsburg, Brooklyn 11211 USA
LIVE WIRED AND SUGAR PUNK 718-670-3710]]> http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2006/09/27/2kbi_our_seats_were_inches_from_the_sea%3A_pyeng_threadgill_at_spiegeltent%2C_9-27-2006 Wed, 27 Sep 2006 06:18:51 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/talking_animal/journal/2006/09/27/2kbi_our_seats_were_inches_from_the_sea%3A_pyeng_threadgill_at_spiegeltent%2C_9-27-2006 Pyeng Threadgill
At Spiegeltent, New York City, 9-26-2006

Wishing Well / Before Day / My Left Foot / Igloo / It's Late / Power Trip / It's A Dream / Inner Lining / Phonograph Blues / Dead Shrimp Blues / Ambrosia /Jitterbug Waltz / An Orbit of Skirts / Safe & Found / Yes, Yes, I Need You

I was hoping that someone else from last.fm was at last night's Pyeng Threadgill show, but I'm nearly certain I was the only one; there were only about 40 of us in the audience. So I'll just give everyone the brief rundown on singer and songwriter Pyeng Threadgill. The daughter of reed player and composer Henry Threadgill, Pyeng in 2004 made a fantastic album of Robert Johnson covers, Sweet Home: The Music Of Robert Johnson, and followed that up in 2006 with Of The Air, which had original compositions, as well as versions of Jitterbug Waltz and [track artist=The Cure[Close To Me[/track].

The latter tune's mix of blasé observation and startling imagery fits in very well with Pyeng's repertoire of originals. The last time I saw her, in January of this year, she played only material from her two CDs; I believe in an attempt to market herself to the audience of music-industry professionals. This time she added a half-dozen new tunes that were not on records, and which shed light on her personal style.

It's as if we came to Pyeng the composer a little late. Starting out with a covers record is a technique that you might expect from someone with so-so writing chops, a way to get your voice out there singing songs people already know. But her voice was so clear, and the arrangements of the old classic blues chestnuts she was performing were so deliciously innovative, it seemed as if we had all the evidence we needed to judge her as an up-and-comer, without having heard her play one song of her own.

It's clear to me now: Pyeng writes image-heavy songs that sound like they are heavily influenced by Rickie Lee Jones and Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan. Verses like, "You're the winter / I'm the bear who sleeps" or "mermaids and men / gather their kin / to harmonize / an exquisite hymn" are picturesque and stick in your head. She sang not one, but two songs about butterflies, and drew the attention of the audience to the fact. Maybe a little too picturesque; as that clear bell of her voice utters these words, it's apparent that she's boxed herself in metrically. There just isn't room in the measure to recite those kinds of meaty lyrics in more than one way. The first verse hits hardest and best, and the followup verses just seem to trail in the same exact metrical footsteps, because there's only one way to sing them.

Part of this formality probably has to do with her not having played with this band for most of this year, a fact which she mentioned. When the band started up with one of the numbers from Sweet Home, "Phonograph Blues," the entire ensemble sounded fresh and lively and much more fluid.

Now, this is only noticeable because of Pyeng's exceptionally clear diction. If she adopted the singing style of Jolie Holland, for instance, those slurred words and swallowed consonants would help settle the lyrics into the measure in a less formal way, but Pyeng doesn't. Like Willie Nelson, she makes great music for people learning English as a second language.

The four closing songs, all new to me except for "Jitterbug Waltz," were the high point of the show; she stretched out on "An Orbit of Skirts," returning again and again to the kind of images that song's title evokes, and then "Safe & Found" opened up into a long instrumental jam. "Jitterbug" itself was the highlight of the show; the arrangement seemed smaller and more intimate, and her voice was able to move around the lyrics with real authority. She ended with a song that I imagine is called "Yes, Yes, I Need You"; it opened with a three-minute drum solo and the band kept up that manic rhythmic energy until they hit the final notes and left the stage.]]>