CD Reviews: AM & Shawn Lee, Strong Killings, and Tasseomancy

AM & Shawn Lee, Celestial
Electric, Eighteenth Street
Lounge/Fontana [8/30/11]

Los Angeles-based vocalist AM and
London producer/beat-maker Shawn
Lee offer bossa nova-infused dance-
pop with bleeps, bloops, and airy synths. On the aptly titled Celestial Electric, man meets machine on the dance floor, like Eric Carmen (the Raspberries) fronting Kraftwerk in São Paulo.

At first, I wasn't feeling it, but the more I listened, the more I
found myself falling for this dexterous duo. Collectively, they've
worked and/or toured with Air, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Caeta-
no Veloso, St. Etienne, Money Mark, Phoenix, and Sigur Ros.



If you always wished that Melbourne's Cut Copy would funk
things up more, AM & Shawn Lee have fulfilled your desire.

Made with "cheapo Casio and Yamaha synthesizers," their de-
but includes a tribute to Dirty Harry ("Callahan") and a fuzz bass-
driven cover of 1974's "Jackie Blue," while Finders Keepers hon-
cho Andy Votel provided the liner notes and cover design.

 AM & Shawn Lee - Jackie Blue by AMSOUNDS

AM & Shawn Lee play live on KEXP at 9:30am on 9/13 prior to
their gig at the Sunset Tavern. Click here for my Line-Out review.

Strong Killings, self-titled, Don't Stop Believin' Records

Well, I'm all messed up, and I'm losing my shit,
Got a pounding in my head, and it just won't quit.
--Strong Killings, "Licked, Nicked"

Like a collaboration between Frank Zappa and Suicidal Ten-
dencies, Seattle trio Strong Killings offer smart-ass hard
rock with fast-paced instrumental passages punctuated by ad-
enoidal vocals and hip-hop touches. I like some of those styles
separately, but I'm less enthusiastic when they come together.

So, their first record may not be to my taste, but I admire the
striking packaging--detailed illustrations and hand-written lyr-
ics--plus it also features a guest vocal from Pearl "Dragon"
Nelson (Champagne Champagne) on "The Basement."

Tasseomancy, Ulalume, Out of this Spark [8/30/11]

I'm not normally into dramatic, drone-oriented folk, but
Tasseomancy are adept at what they do, and what might
not be for me, could be for you. I certainly respect their craft,
which revolves around close harmonies from sisters Sari (man-
dolin) and Romi Lightman (guitar) that dance atop delicate lay-
ers of organ, lap steel, autoharp, harpsichord, and french horn.

 Soft Feet (Heidi Mortenson's Gentle Dane Remüx)

Formerly known as Ghost Bees, Tasseomancy's second rec-
ord comes on like a cross between the Incredible String Band
(or latter-period Nurse with Wound) and Joanna Newsom--
but without the sharp edges (the press notes also cite Popol
Vuh and Julee Cruise). Bonus points for the abalone imagery
on the cover along with a foldout poster of a floral collage.

Click here for "Healthy Hands."

Endnote: For more information about AM & Shawn
Lee, please click here; for Strong Killings, here; and
for Tasseomancy, here. AM image from Austin2011.

Clear Some Space Out: Shabazz Palaces' Black Up

Clear Some
Space Out



Shabazz
Palaces,
Black Up,
Sub Pop



Clear some space out, so we can space out.
-- "Recollections of the Wraith"

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

After two well received EPs, Seattle duo Shabazz Palaces re-
lease their first full-length on Sub Pop. It was worth the wait: a
coup for the label, city, band, and genre. After all, the Northwest
wasn't really known for hip-hop until Sir Mix-a-Lot came along.

Then later: Common Market, Blue Scholars, They Live, and Mash
Hall (among others), but none of them has broken out like NYC's
De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, or Digable Planets (Ishmael
Butler's previous act). Shabazz has the means to do just that.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

I'm dressing like I was at the Ali-Frazier fight.
-- "Recollections of the Wraith"

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

And by break out, I'm not referring to commercial success, but
cultural impact. Shabazz deserve to make a living at their craft,
but they push the envelope too far to conquer Top 40, where
Mix-a-Lot made his mark, yet I can see them winning over new
audiences if a forward-thinking crew like Outkast were to take
them on tour, so I hope André and Big Boi make that happen.



I'm not suggesting that Shabazz are sui generis; they didn't spring
from out of nowhere. They have roots and influences. And they're
part of a community that includes Champagne Champagne and
THEESatisfaction, the duo who lend their voices to a few cuts.

But Black Up is spacier and more experimental than most
hip-hop albums--most albums, period. The Other Music de-
scription, which references sax player Albert Ayler and rap-
per Divine Styler (Marc Richardson) isn't off the mark (and
maybe they'll inspire more people to rediscover the latter).



Further, they don't hesitate to use the "n" word, though they
don't use it often. Does that make them less progressive than
many critics have claimed? Well, they're certainly musically
adventurous, but if they spent much time listening to 1970s
Miles Davis in their younger days, and I suspect they did,
then they're probably more comfortable with the word than
their white fans--and Shabazz listeners appear to span the
spectrum in terms of race, age, gender, and sexual orien-
tation (the ladies in THEESatisfaction are openly gay).



So, I choose not to take them to task when I'd rather see them be
true to themselves than anything else. And it's their refusal to off-
er any easy hooks, choruses, or lyrical concepts that makes Black
Up work as well as it does. And yet it isn't a schizophrenic mess.

That's a hard trick to pull off, and I'm not exactly the biggest fan
of avant garde music, but their pop instincts emerge from time to
time, which serves as a sort of anchoring device. This record does-
n't float off into the air; it has some weight, some ballast. I love it.



Endnote: Ishmael Butler / Palaceer Lazaro image from Analog Giant.

New Music: Visqueen, Brilliant Colors, and More

Visqueen, Message to Garcia, Local 638 Records

"Three parts punk attitude, two parts pop hookiness, and one part '70s rock swagger."
--Mark Deming, All Music Guide

I was a big fan of the first Visqueen album, 2003's King Me, and
remain convinced that guitarist/front woman Rachel Flotard,
who runs Local 638 Records, is Robin Zander's long-lost cousin
(I wasn't as crazy about 2004 successor Sunset on Dateland).

Like Cheap Trick's Zander, she has the definitive power-
pop voice. Flotard can scream, shout, and work it on out, but
there's a certain non-saccharine sweetness she just can't lose.

She's the yang to friend Neko Case's yin, and even sounds a lit-
tle like her redheaded doppelgänger on the country-oriented
"Beautiful Amnesia" (Case adds vocals to five of the 11 songs).

Message to Garcia isn't just a fine showcase for the skills
of Flotard and drummer Ben Hooker, but offers the kind of
wide-ranging pop-rock--a little bit country, a little bit rock
and roll--I wish Cheap Trick was still making. If you're just
as nostalgic for the halcyon days of "Surrender" and "I Want
You to Want Me," Visqueen's third has your name all over it.

Click here for my AMG bio.

Brilliant Colors, Again and Again, Slumberland Records

On their follow-up to 2009's Introducing, Brilliant Colors con-
jure up a familiar brand of jangle-pop, which does little for me, but
your mileage may vary, especially if you're into Seattle's Seapony
or Brooklyn-based label mates Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

As Margaret Reges has written, "At their weakest, they are oddly
forgettable; there really isn't one memorable track on Introduc-
ing, and it's puzzling." I feel the same about Again and Again.

When it comes to Slumberland, I prefer Belfast's Girls Names, who
pursue a darker muse than their other acts. That said, I give this
Bay Area trio credit for playing engagements with the inimitable
Swiftumz, who has a forthcoming full-length on Holy Mountain.

Star Anna & the Laughing Dogs, Alone in
This Together, Local 638 Records [7/12/11]

Click here for "Alone
in This Together."

Seattle's Star Anna of-
fers full-throated, heart-
on-sleeve alt-country.

Her third record is in
the torchy vein of Ne-
ko Case, but without
the noir overtones.

Pearl Jam guitarist
Mike McCready plays
on "Time," "Wolves in
Disguises," and the an-
themic title track.

9/1/11 update: Star Anna plays Summer Concert at Hia-
wath in West Seattle on 9/1 and the Triple Door on 9/8.



Street Eaters, Rusty Eyes and Hydro-
carbons, Bakery Outlet Records [8/2/11]

Click here for "Nation Builder."

I listened to Rusty Eyes once, and couldn't think of anything to
say, so I listened several times more. There's nothing particular-
ly off-putting or incompetent about Bay Area duo Megan March
(drums, vocals) and John No (bass vocals). I just can't connect
with some acts no matter how hard I try. All originals, except
for a punk-pop take on Jefferson Airplane's "Two Heads."

Rusty Willoughby, Cobirds Unite, Local 638 Records

Former Pure Joy and Flop leader Rusty Willoughby takes a
gentler tack on Cobirds Unite, a baroque-folk enterprise. The
Seattle singer/songwriter's warm, conversational tone hasn't
changed over the years, and remains his strongest suit (in the
credits, he also assumes authorship of "presumptousness").

"Find a Way Home," which combines reverb, hand claps, and
harmony vocals from Visqueen's Rachel Flotard, represents
the highlight of this solid 12-song set, which includes tasteful
covers of Dan Penn and Chips Moman's "Do Right Woman
(Do Right Man)" and Bobby Bare's "Streets of Baltimore."

For more information about Visqueen, please click here. 

Flotard and Hooker image from Land's End Canvas.

July 2011 Reviews

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



Amazon DVDs: Burn Notice - Season Four [4-disc set], Who Took the Bomp? Le Tigre on Tour,  
and Gregg Araki's Kaboom.

Amazon Theatricals: Sarah's Key (with Kristin Scott Thomas), Winnie the Pooh (featuring the voices of Craig Ferguson and John Cleese), and Michael Rapaport's Beats, Rhymes & Life - The Travels 
of a Tribe Called Quest, which opens at Pacific Place on 7/29.

Still playing (or yet to open): Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Jane Eyre, Miral, Water for Elephants, Weekend, X-Men: FC, and The Yellow Sea.
 
The Stranger: Line-Out reviews of Ty Segall at the Crocodile and Blank City (featuring John and Evan Lurie). Also, check this shout
-out from editor Grant Brissey.

[Blank City review didn't actually appear until August.]

Seattle Film Blog (still playing): Beginners and Page One - Inside NY Times.

Video Librarian: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Forks Over Knives, Bordertown: The Complete Series [three-disc set], Land Girls [two-disc set], Lebanon, PA, Orgasm, Inc., The Sentiment of the Flesh, Spectacle - Elvis Costello with... Season 2 [two-disc set], Victorious - Season One, Volume One [two-disc set], Bride Flight, Brave New Voices 2010, Gods, Hey, Boo - Harper Lee and To Kill a
Mockingbird, and Viva Riva!
 
Endnote: Click here for an update on Lurie by Rick Moody. Lounge Lizards image from DIA (photo by Marcia Resnick).

Movie of the Month, Part 29: Little Red Riding Hood and Other Stories with Cristina Ricci

I recently
reviewed
the follow-
ing DVD
for Video Librarian, and thought the results were worth sharing.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD AND OTHER STORIES [***]
(David Kaplan, 1992-1997, US, 12+ minutes)

Bettelheim suggested that traditional fairy tales, with the darkness of
abandonment, death, witches, and injuries, allowed children to grapple
with their fears in remote, symbolic terms. If they could read and inter-
pret these fairy tales in their own way, he believed, they would get a
greater sense of meaning and purpose. Bettelheim thought that by en-
gaging with these socially-evolved stories, children would go through
emotional growth that would better prepare them for their own futures.
--Wikipedia entry on Bruno Bettelheim

This unique release offers three short literary adaptations from
1992-1997. Christina Ricci stars in the first as a less-than-
innocent Little Red Riding Hood. In adapting "Conte de la Mére
Grande," director David Kaplan (Year of the Fish) eschews
dialogue and shoots in Expressionist B&W. As in the famous
fairy tale, Red meets Wolf (Timour Bourtasenkov), an androg-
ynous dancer in stylized garb, en route to Granny's house.

Once she arrives, Red finds meat and wine on the table, and digs
in, even though the talking cat (a puppet) explains their grim
provenance. After that, Wolf asks her to disrobe and climb into
bed, which she does before taking a break (for "pee-pee" as nar-
rator Quentin Crisp puts it). It isn't clear if Wolf means to
seduce or to kill her, but her final act clarifies the matter.

Billed as a "cautionary tale," Heinrich Hoffman's Little Suck-a-
Thumb revolves around a boy (an adult Cork Hubbert) with poor
impulse control. This time, Kaplan films with color and sound. Af-
ter tucking him into bed, his mother (Evelyn Solann) warns that
he'll lose his thumbs if he sucks them, but he can't resist, and a
pale tailor (Jim Hilbert) with scissors pays a late-night visit.

Kaplan returns to silent-film mode with the Brothers Grimm's The
Frog King, which relays the tale of a girl (Eden Riegel) and a par-
ticularly grotesque frog (another puppet) who retrieves her lost
doll from a well in hopes that she'll sleep with him. (Their conver-
sation plays out though a series of title cards in which the words
"in your bed" get bigger and bigger.) When the girl reneges, the
frog follows her home to ensure that she honors her promise.

This set includes commentary on all three films from folklore
scholar Jack Zipes and Kaplan, who cites artist/filmmaker Jean
Cocteau (La Belle et la Bête, Orphée) and author/child psycho-
logist Bruno Bettelheim (The Uses of Enchantment) as influen-
ces. Fans of Terry Gilliam, the Brothers Quay, and Guy Maddin,
and will surely find this collection of interest. Recommended.

Click here for Movie of the Month, Part 28: Carancho

Endnote: Click here for my review of Penelope, a post-mil-
lennial fairy tale with Christina Ricci and James McAvoy.
Slightly revised from the original text. Image from MUBI.

Sassy Sings: On the Lola's Throughout the Years

I named my tiny cat Lola after the
gender-bending Kinks classic, but if I
had to do it all over again, I'd credit
"Whatever Lola Wants, " the slinky
number from 1955's Damn Yankees
(Richard Adler and Jerry Ross), be-
cause I find her as "irresistible" as the
lady in question, the devil's assistant.

Whatever the sleek, grey Lola wants--food, water, a rub on the tummy--she gets. It doesn't matter what I'm doing at the time. She looks up at me with those pleading eyes, and I'm a goner.

Vaughan and Ray Davies offer but two examples; Lola appears in
various guises throughout entertainment history, like the cabaret
entertainer Marlene Dietrich plays in von Sternberg's The Blue An-
gel (Der Blaue Engel) or the central figure in Barry Manilow's 19-
78 hit "Copacabana" ("Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl...").

As a rule, she's a femme fatale; lovely to look at, but hardly trust-
worthy, i.e. "You can't win" against one. Sounds like a cat to me!



And here's another one of my favorite performances from the Div-
ine One (1924-1990), who was at her best in noir mode. Plenty of
other ladies have tackled this 1948 Sonny Burke and Paul Francis
Webster composition, but Vaughan trumps them all (dig the way
the burst of brass at the end adds a caffeine-like kick). According
to Wikipedia, she "charted with this song in 1949 on Columbia."
I also enjoy the smokey renditions by Peggy Lee and k.d. lang.



Endnote: Image from the PBS site for Jazz: A Film
by Ken Burns (courtesy of Frank Driggs Collection).

June 2011 Reviews

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

Amazon DVDs: Shadow
& Lies (with James Franco), Hawthorne - The Complete Second Season [three-disc set], Leverage - The Third Season [four-disc set], and Lifetime's Taken from Me - The Tiffany Rubin Story.

Amazon Theatricals: X-Men: First Class (with James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence),
Andrew Haigh's Weekend, and Na Hong-Jin's The Yellow Sea.

Armchair Commentary: Peter Falk obituary.

Still playing (or yet to open): Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Cir-
cumstance, The Conspirator, Forks over Knives, The Greatest Mo-
vie Ever Sold, I Am, Jane Eyre, Water for Elephants, and Win Win.

Seattle Film Blog: SIFF Dispatch #4, SIFF Dispatch #5, and 

Cracks (Jordan Scott's debut with Eva Green and Juno Temple).

Video Librarian: Fest Selects: Best Lesbian Shorts, Vol.
1, Black Death, Broken Hill, Hobo with a Shotgun, Under the
Hammer [2-disc set], The Other Woman, Brain Freeze, Brok-
en Doors, Life Without - Youth with Incarcerated Parents Tell
Their Own Stories, Little Red Riding Hood and Other Stories
(with Christina Ricci and Quentin Crisp), Minds on the Edge -
Facing Mental Illness, Sex in an Epidemic, The Storytel-
ling Class, These Are Our Children, Trust - Second Ac-
ts in Young Lives, Women of Faith - Women of the
Catholic Church Speak, Born Innocent (with Lin-
da Blair), Night After Night (1979 Catherine
Breillat film with Joe Dallesandro), Sis-
ters of War, Summer Eleven, and
Vanishing on 7th Street.

Image of X-Men: First Class's Magneto (Michael 

Fassbender) from © Twentieth Century Fox.