Looking Back at Keren Ann

In my post about Keren Ann's upcoming record, I referenced Tablet, so here are the CD reviews in question. Both are from 2005, Tablet's final year.

Keren Ann, Nolita, Metro Blue/Blue Note (B+)

One year after her stunning English-language debut, Not Going Anywhere, French singer/songwriter Keren Ann returns with a quieter, more intimate affair. Recorded in Paris and New York—"Nolita" is North of Little Italy—the lyrics are in French and English. Keren Ann’s approach is, as ever, subtle and sophisticated, but never stuffy. Once upon a time, Nick Drake traveled to France to record with François Hardy, to whom Keren Ann has often been compared, but Drake was lost in one of his famous funks and nothing came of it. Nolita sounds like what could've resulted from that should've-been-historical meeting.

Lady & Bird, Lady & Bird, Capitol-EMI [France] (A-)

Keren Ann's latest album, Nolita, is among her best. That said, I like Lady & Bird, a concept collaboration with Iceland's Bardi Johannson, even better. It has the lovely vocals one would expect from Ms. Zeidel blended with some appealing weirdness, like a cross between Alice in Wonderland and Night of the Hunter—both musically and thematically. That said, I don't quite "get" the concept; something about two lost children named Lady and Bird, but the tunes are great and the covers, "Stephanie Says" and "Suicide is Painless" (the theme from M*A*S*H), seal the deal.

Endnote: From time to time I'll continue to excavate my Tablet reviews and Wire interviews, since they're either not on-line or hard-to-find. Click the Lady & Bird link above to sample a track from the album (via YouTube). Keren Ann image from Le Plan.

Three Is (Not) the Magic Number: The Locust, Weatherbox, and Wooden Stars

The Locust, New Erections, Anti-

C'mon stiffs, we must demolish and level together...in the dead of everything...in the cold-sweat
of the night, heat of the freon freedom fight, New Erections
is exactly what we wanted. -- The Locust press statement

*****

If a band's gonna name their record New Erections, they must not want me to like it. Okay, I'm only half joking. I felt the same way about Smog's Dongs of Sevotion, but it won me over anyway.

Phallic allusions aside, the
two acts have little in common, but I'd opt for Bill Callahan's soft-spoken folk-pop over the Locust's "sci-fi-art-noise-spazz-core" anyday.

I gave the Locust's third effort a chance (I'm not familiar with albums one and two), and I
realize this San Diego combo has a devoted following, but
their grinding nihilism ain't for me. It's Nitzer Ebb without
the hooks, Bad Brains without the beats. Thumbs down.

Weatherbox, American Art, Doghouse Records

These fellow San Diego dwellers offer professionally deployed math-rock with an emo twist. Or something like that...it's always been easier for me to describe music I like than music I don't.

Sometimes, for professional reasons, I have to fake the funk, like writing about teen faves Dashboard Confessional or Fall Out Boy. Maybe Weatherbox should also hook up with Babyface, as I kinda like Infinity on High—better than American Art, at any rate.

Wooden Stars, People Are Different,
Sonic Unyon Recording Co.

As Jim Morrison once noted, "People are strange" (when you're a stranger). But Depeche Mode said it best: "People are people."

I like some of the acts on Sonic Unyon—see the Nein and A Northern Chorus—but this Canadian quartet is almost as dull as Weatherbox. They formed in 1993, so they pre-date emo, but they share a math-rock approach to rhythm. In other words, the bass player does a lot of the heavy lifting. In funk, that's a necessity. Outside of funk, I prefer bass you can feel rather than hear.

That said, People Are Different, their fifth full-length, may appeal to fans of Adrian Belew or late-period King Crimson. And, of course, it keeps the venerable "people are..." tradition alive.

Endnote: Images from the AMG. The Locust deserves props for their unique image. Those outfits don't look comfortable, but they're certainly striking. Also, they put just as much effort into their song titles, i.e. "Who Wants a Dose of the Clap?" and "The Half-Eaten Sausage Would Like to See You in His Office" (2003's Plague Soundscapes). Still, I prefer Clinic's scrubs—their music, too.

April 2007 Reviews

These are the reviews
and other assignments
I'm working on this month.

Amazon DVDs: Siouxsie - Dreamshow: Live at the Royal Festival Hall With the Millenia Ensemble (bring on the black eyeliner...and the dancing horses!), Full House - The Complete Sixth Season [four-disc set] (click here for my reviews of the first five seasons), The 4400 - The Third Season [four-disc set] (click here for one and two), Melrose Place - The Second Season [eight-disc set] (click here for one), Pink - Live from Wembley Arena (click here for Live in Europe), Al Franken - God Spoke (documentary from the makers of The War Room), John and Mary (Peter Yates directs Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow), and S*P*Y*S (spook spoof with Donald Sutherland
and Elliot Gould post-M*A*S*H...hence all the asterisks).

Amazon Theatricals: Disturbia (thriller with Shia LaBoeuf), Hot Fuzz (buddy cop spoof from the makers of Shaun of the Dead), Diggers (small-town drama with Paul Rudd, Maura Tierney, etc.), Fay Grim (Hal Hartley's sequel to Henry Fool), The Hip Hop Proj-
ect (doc about music program for at-risk youth), and Once
(Irish award winner with Glen Hansard from the Frames).

Resonance: Expansion of the following DVD review.

RADIO ON (Christopher Petit / Plexifilm)
As the Modern Lovers once exclaimed, "I'm in love with the radio on."
In "Roadrunner," Jonathan Richman had 1950s America on his mind.
In Radio On, critic-turned-filmmaker Christopher Petit transfers the
phenomenon to 1970s England, exchanging exultation for something
more enigmatic. Shot by Wim Wenders regular Martin Schäfer, the
first-timer's monochromatic road movie captures a time of Bowie in
Berlin, Kraftwerk on cassette and Wreckless Eric on the jukebox. It's
Get Carter gone punk. Instead of Michael Caine, star of Mike Hodge's
crime classic, David Beames plays DJ Robert B. Like Carter, he's try-
ing to unravel the mystery of his brother's demise. Radio On makes
for the ideal double bill with Border Radio, the restless debut from
fellow Wenders acolyte Alison Anders. Petit's project may be chil-
lier, but the patina of time only makes it seem cooler than ever.

Seattle International Film Festival:
I'm continuing to write notes—or "blurbs"—
for this year's program guide.

Seattle Film Blog: Two or Three Things I Know About Her (Godard on the Americanization of Paris), Glastonbury (Julien Temple on the 37-year-old music festival), and Oscar nominee After the Wedding (Mads Mikkelsen alert!).

And I received the following from Doug Block:

catching up with old emails that fell between the cracks when
i starting getting overwhelmed with distribution matters.
meant to tell you at the time how much i appreciated your
review, and particularly the writing. the film has gotten a lot of
reviews, and they've virtually all been very positive, but yours
was among the most perceptive and well written. wish we had
more of that quality of criticism here in good ol' new yawk city.

That made my day! (Please click here for my review.)

Endnote: I made the cover of the current issue of Resonance—twice. This is a first (and a second). See issue #53 for interviews with David Lynch and the Brothers Quay. For more information about Araki, please click here for the lively transcript of a San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) round table with Araki, Jon Moritsugu, and Marcus Hu. Araki image from The Evening Class, Mikkelsen from the archives.

The Madcap Laughs: Greg Ashley's Painted Garden

Greg Ashley,
Painted Garden,
Birdman Records



"This kid's a star..."
--Greg Dulli, the Afghan Whigs (2003)

*****

On his second solo album, Greg Ashley (the Mirrors, the Gris Gris) pursues a soothing, psychedelic muse. His follow-up to Medicine Fuck Dream (2003) combines Ashley's gentle voice
with acoustic and electric instruments, including the occasional burst of brass, shake of the tambourine, and toot of the kazoo. Other voices also join in occasion, like Ali Rose, who sings lead
on the twisted girl group psych-pop of "Sailing With Bobby."

The way I see it, there's good-trip psychedelia and bad-trip psychedelia. As a solo artist, Ashley, who recorded Painted Garden in his native Kosse, TX and adopted Oakland, CA, falls firmly in the former camp. There's nothing mean or menacing going on here, with the possible exception of "Pretty Belladonna," which evokes Her Satanic Majesties Request-era 'Stones.

Download "Fisher King" (mp3)
from "Painted Garden"
by Greg Ashley
Birdman Records

Buy at iTunes Music Store

Stream from RealNetworks / Rhapsody

For fans of bad-trip/blues-based psychedelia, this record may be too um, "airy fairy," but I find Ashley's good vibes just as appealing as the Black Angels' bad ones. Then again, I have a high tolerance for the folk-oriented stuff, having grown up on Syd Barrett, the Incredible String Band, Robyn Hitchcock, and Love & Rockets.

Ashley isn't imitating any of those artists, but I do hear echoes of Leonard Cohen. In its natural register, his voice resembles Daniel Ash, but the boy does like
to fool with Mother Nature (hey, that's not nice!). The results remind me of Cohen's "Suzanne."

On "Medication #5," for instance, Ashley takes on a darker, more conversational tone,
alternating with a prettier, more conventional approach.
(The previous song title, "Caroline and the Orange Tree,"
also brings to mind the famous line, "And she feeds you
tea and oranges / That come all the way from China").

Considering that I'm not familiar with his previous work, I can't predict how much attention Painted Garden will attract, but those who dig Cohen, the Pretty Things, Animal Collective, the Skygreen Leopards, and Brightback Morning Light—as well as
the other artists I've mentioned—will find much to savor on
this album. Here's hoping it finds the audience it deserves.

Endnote: "Medication #3" appears on the Gris Gris' self-titled debut (2004), while "#4" appears on For the Season (2005). Birdman Records is the brainchild of Dave Katznelson, who signed the Flaming Lips to Warner Bros. Click here to sample Medicine Fuck Dream and Painted Garden. Greg Ashley plays Seattle's Sunset Tavern on 4/27. Images from Birdman.

After Hours with Keren Ann's Self-Titled Album

Keren Ann, Keren Ann,
Metro Blue/Blue Note [5/8/07]

A moodier, more enigmatic enterprise than Nolita (2004),
her first self-titled effort witnesses Keren Ann branching out. As accomplished as her last album may have been, it was remarkably similar to Not Going Anywhere (2003). The artist now takes a leap into the unknown.

This isn't to suggest that Keren Ann is unfocused, but rather that she's moving away from jazz, folk, and chanson-oriented forms into less predictable territory. Her remarkable voice remains essentially unchanged, but there are some neat sonic surprises, like buzzing drums and echo effects. That said, she does give the impression of an amplified Billie Holiday on "It Ain't No Crime," which sounds like the theme to a future David Lynch film.

The record, as a whole, isn't as strange as my description suggests, just louder and less tradition-minded than before. I don't think old fans will be disappointed, since it's more of a stylistic shift than a radical departure. If anything, I predict it'll increase her fan base.

For those who aren't familiar, Keren Ann Ziedel hails from France. The singer/songwriter released two French-language recordings, La Biographie de Luka Philipsen (2000) and La Disparition (2002), before she began attracting attention Stateside, resulting in a domestic record contract. Like Not Going Anywhere, Keren Ann is in English (Nolita features four numbers in French).

For the sake of comparison, I revisited her French recordings. In the aftermath, she's really learned to maximize her vocal potential. Too often on La Disparition ("The Disappearance"), Keren Ann sings at the top of her range. She never loses pitch, but there's a sense she's trying to be something she's not...or hiding from who she is. The effect is vulnerable and naïve—not necessarily negative qualities, but it feels like she's selling herself short. She's since down-shifted an octave, resulting in a smoother, more solid sound, while remaining as understated as ever.

On the new record, Keren
Ann projects a greater
degree of confidence in herself, not just as a musician, but as a person. Her first
three were collaborations
with arranger/composer Benjamin Biolay, but she's been on her own since Nolita.

Biolay, who has since settled down with actress Chiara Mastroianni, continues to live and work in France (he and Keren Ann were once an item), but she has moved on. Biolay's music remains resolutely French—and I'm not complaining—while
Keren Ann's is neither wholly French nor American. Similarly,
her cultural roots are Dutch, Russian, Israeli, and Indonesian.
She isn't obviously drawing from those cultures, but I suspect they've helped to make what she does so hard to classify.

Not Going Anywhere, which features some of her most adventurous songwriting, remains my favorite, but Keren Ann represents her strongest vocal work, while successfully shaking up a formula that might otherwise have started to grow stale. I've played it three times now, and the more I listen, the more I like it—always a good sign. It's easily one of the best of the year.

Endnote: Keren Ann has made no secret of her affection for the Velvet Underground and Tom Waits, and album number five is where those influences really come into play. The quasi-instrumental "Caspian" is co-written by Iceland's Bardi Johannsson (Bang Gang), with whom she collaborated as Lady & Bird. The links above lead to my AMG and Amazon reviews. I've also written about her for Tablet. Keren Ann plays Seattle's Triple Door on June 13. For more information, please see her official site. Images from her MySpace Page.

A Master of the Mixed Message

Here's a review I wrote for Resonance, before finding out that another writer beat me to it. Suffice to say, I liked the film, he didn't. 

MUTUAL APPRECIATION (Image Entertainment) 

At first glance, Andrew Bujalski's post-collegiate comedy looks like prime Cassavetes or Godard. Like his esteemed predecessors, the Harvard grad shoots on film and edits by hand. But his black and white follow-up to Funny Ha Ha (2003) isn't a tribute to the art house cinema of the 1960s. Bujalski's got his

own thing going on. 

The loose-limbed story revolves around Alan (Bishop Allen's Justin Rice), an indie rocker who moves from Boston to New York, in the process falling for his best friend's girl (Rachel Clift). What's a stoop-shouldered, fuzzy-haired hipster to do? 

In Bujalski's world, the dialogue's the thing. Alan and his pals drink and dance around their feelings. They aren't as political as Godard's people or as crazed as Cassavetes', but their shambling digressions and fumblings at intimacy make them just as funny as Woody Allen's New Yorkers—but more heartbreakingly real.

Endnote: The title of this post comes from Dennis Lim's New York Times review. After writing about Mutual Appreciation for Seattle Film Blog, I tracked down Funny Ha Ha, which I like almost as much. The two films look different, but feel similar. Bujalski next appears in Joe Swanberg's Hannah Takes the Stairs, which premiered at SXSW earlier this year. Images from the archives.

Sketches of the Southwest: Tuatara's East of the Sun

Tuatara, East of
the Sun, Fast Horse
Recordings [6/12/07]

"Musically, the Sun songs are more masculine, with a kind
of High Plains Drifter/Spanish troubadour quality. The Moon songs are more groovy and feminine, but definitely just as powerful..."
--Barrett Martin (Tuatara)

*****

Tuatara's fifth full-length feels a lot like a compilation.
And I don't mean that as criticism. It's simply a more
fitting description than the misleading “supergroup.”

The compilation designation comes about because the ever-changing line-up was all-instrumental before they added vocals to their arsenal. This time around, duties are shared between Scott McCaughey (the Minus Five), Gary Louris and Mark Olson (the Jayhawks, below), Jessy Greene (the Geraldine Fibbers), Dean Wareham (Luna), Mark Eitzel (American Music Club), Gina Sala, Coleman Barks, Victoria Williams, and John Wesley Harding.

If I wanted to get completist about it, I could add that McCaughey is also from the Young Fresh Fellows and REM and that Wareham is also from Galaxie 500 and Dean and Britta. And that's just to start. Altogether these players have been in dozens of bands.

I'm not familiar with Sala or Barks (Sufi Poet), who reminds me of Billy Bob Thornton—he speaks rather than sings—but
I am acquainted with Harding and Williams (Olson's wife) through their solo work.

Other guests include Ottmar Liebert on guitar ("The Spaniard"
and "Bones, Blood and Skin") and Iraq's Rahim Alhaj on oud
("A Spark in the Wind"), while Tuatara's core members—this
time around—include drummer Martin (Skinyard, the Screaming Trees, Mad Season), guitarists McCaughey and Peter Buck (REM), bass player Kevin Hudson, and trumpet player Dave Carter.

A lot of these artists have ties to the Northwest, but this album has more of a contemplative Southwestern feel, akin to Giant Sand or Calexico. Before checking the credits, I actually confused Louris for Calexico's John Convertino (Louris sings on "The Spaniard," "Madrigal," and "Love Is"). The impressionistic gold and orange cover art only serves to reinforce the impression. Then again, Martin, the driving force behind Tuatara/Fast Horse Recordings, transferred his operations from Seattle to Taos some time ago.

If you're interested in any of these musicians, especially
the Jayhawks or Calexico [right], East of the Sun is worth a listen. To sample the entire album, please click here. Companion recording West of the Moon is set to
be released later this year.



Endnote: To sample tracks from previous efforts, along with solo albums from Martin and Alhaj, click here. Images from Fast Horse Recordings and the AMG. Note that the Tuatara portrait isn't a current one, since Justin Harwood and Steve Berlin aren't part of the latest incarnation (that's Martin on the far left). Incidentally, I once met the Jayhawks backstage before a Seattle show with Soul Asylum. They seemed like really nice guys—Soul Asylum, too.