The Skunkeye Consumer Guide

The hugely talented and prolific Jean-Louis Murat has a new album out, Mockba.  This is fresh off the heels of his wonderful collaboration with the bewitching and beguiling Jennifer Charles from the Elysian Fields and longtime associate, bassist Fred Jimenez, Bird on a Poire, which I still have in heavy rotation after posting about it some time months ago.

Mokba features vocals from Carla Bruni and past collaborator (Parfum D'Acacia au Jardin and Lilith)Camille, best known outside of France for her work with Nouvelle Vague.  Dickon Hinchliffe from the Tindersticks contributes piano, keyboards and string arrangements on several tracks. 

JL Murat covered the Tindersticks’ “Plus de Liaisons” (No More Affairs) some years ago.  In general, his music veers towards a brooding, darkly romantic, existentialist, late night, absinthe-soaked terrain – well, he is French. However, his catalog reflects a tremendous versatility in themes, influences, and musical idioms – gypsy music, Northern American country, folk, Leonard Cohen and chanson in the tradition of Georges Moustaki. I hesitate to use the clichée - Murat’s clever wordplay as well as musical range, thematic albums, not to mention productivity, can be likened to Gainsbourg.

As with the Tindersticks – who are among my favorite ensembles of the nineties - one needs to be in certain frame of mind to appreciate the worlds JL Murat creates.

Bird on a Poire, however, is a wonderful, multi-hued road trip through 60-70s romantic pop and it never fails to delight me.I haven’t sampled Mockba yet (it just came out a few days ago in France!) but if it is anything near as fantastic as its predecessor we’re in for a treat!  The participation of Carla Bruni and Camille on this project is certainly an encouraging sign... I’m curious about Murat’s latest direction; somehow “Moscow” doesn’t seem like the most light-hearted of locales to land in.

Kelly Osbourne’s new video inspired by Godard’s Alphaville. (via stereogum) Even with loads of slimming and beautifying CGI, Kelly ain’t no Anna Karina! There’s no substitute for her soul, style, spirit, and substance. I am curious though. Speaking of Godard and dark-haired beauties, this time, childhood crush Chantal Goya, AFI Silver is running Masculine-Feminine all week! I’d go but I recently revisited it on the bring screen and have a full week. Not to be missed! Dates/showtimes. In the immortal words of my heroine, critic Pauline Kael: "New Wave master Jean-Luc Godard captures "the children of Marx and Coca Cola" in this strikingly honest portrait of youth and sex in 1960s Paris. One of Godard's most innovative films, his camera takes to the streets, mixing documentary-style interviews about sex, love and politics with characters responding to actual events: suicides, homicides and a film-within-a-film. Gunshots announce the beginning of each of 15 "acts," as Truffaut regular Jean-Pierre Léaud chases budding pop star Chantal Goya. "Graceful, intuitive... Godard gets at the differences in the way girls are with each other and with boys."

Mon dieu! Opened up Sunday’s magazine and... Benjamin Biolay is the new darling at the Times. Being married to Chiara and her evocative and amazing lineage doesn't hurt either. Makes good copy. Last week Keren Ann felt the love, now this – Is this new French Revolution? Next week Carla Bruni. I smell it. Like ripe camembert. But all this at once - its too much! I've been a huge admirer of Biolay since the beginning, going back to the brilliant Rose Kennedy, have posted a lot about him here, and I'm glad to see him get recognition in the Times and find an audience in the US. His talent as a songwriter, arranger, and producer is astounding - and he is amazingly prolific! Lil' sis Coralie Clement just got her new album dropped in the US a few weeks ago which Biolay produced.

Preview tracks from the new Benjamin Biolay album, A L'origine, here.

Related press (LA Times), also text version of NYT feature, after the jump:

Things are busy with the house sorting and April will be overwhelming.
Yesterday I visited the Corcoran Biennial, "Closer to Home," which has an appropriately domestic current. Will provide report soon.
In the interim, I stumbled upon this brilliant investigative report - everything you need to know about Feist, courtesy of Tofu Hut. Very good work. Essential reading!

Yikes, I’m in collector’s hell right now!
Circumstance has forced me to find a place in my cramped quarters for my extensive and space-consuming LP, casette, and CD collection. I know how to deal with the few thousand compact discs – gonna have to go high tech and invest in a decent home computer system and an ipod, back em up – and put them in trunks that will also function as furniture.
Consolidation and making space is crucial.
I guess a lifetime of consuming music has put me into a real hole.
And I haven’t even started to think about the books yet
But with the dozens of LPs and hundreds of cassettes – all essential stuff and going back more than a few decades, we’re talking the history of punk, essential jazz recordings, the S.tones, Dylan, and The Doors, classic new wave 12 inches, historical Marion Anderson & Paul Robeson, rare Lotte Lenya/Kurt Weill 78s- the entirety of which is essential to me and I’m not selling anything - is there any way I can just find storage for the “hard” copies and put it all on a hard drive?
I’m clueless about transferring records and cassette to digital media? Is there such technology? Is it inexpensive?
I’m such a luddite when it comes to these things – any expertise is appreciated.
Anyways, the last couple of days as I’ve been cleaning and sorting out my grandmother’s house, my family home, my scratchy, dogged copy of Os Mutante’s 1968 debut has brought me a good deal of wonderful company.
“Baby” and “Le Premier Bonheur du Jour” are my current theme songs! And if I get to be too pondering I can always freak out to “Bat macumba”!
My LP edition has seen better days though…
Why the hell is classic Os Mutante material so hard to get on CD? Obviously there’s an interest and market and I’m not paying top dollar for that out-of-print Luaka Bop collection.
Anyways, if you haven’t already, check out Os Mutantes, and prepare to pay the price.

Related:
Os Mutantes resources. And some more.

This week's South Park was a blast! These new episodes are always so hilariously and ridiculously timely - the talent agency wars, The Contender… we have our own Chinese Mafia at work. And we have a few Wings, too - when the karaoke machine come out at the Lunar New Year parties, so does the talent. Check out the real-life Wing - we've been loving this site in our office for some time. Perfect on dreary Fridays like today. Happy Easter

Tom Waits yammers on about his 20 most cherished albums of all time with the Guardian. No surprises on his list - its actually a bit "mainstream" - but an interesting read nonetheless. His commentary is always colorful.

Received an advanced copy of the Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds three cd box set it, B-Sides & Rarities last week.
Magnificant.
I’ve actually got the bulk of it in my collection already being a long-time, die-hard Nick Cave acolyte. I used to buy all the singles religiously and the b-sides were often more pleasurable than the album material. A couple of years ago, however, I became somewhat disenchanted and stopped being such a completist. Disc three is golden to me; chronicling the band’s more recent output, it proves that indeed Mr. Cave is very much at the top of his game as a songwriter.
I would rave about this retrospective in detail but I’m spent. I’m glad it seems to be finally Spring. Just buy the damn thing when it comes out Tuesday, its excellent.
From the man himself:
"This is my favourite Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds albun" - Nick Cave

Popmatters has a nice review, putting the b-sides and rarities in context with each succesive album in the Bad Seed's canon- the reviewer missed the kinda meh Henry's Dream, but maybe thats for the better.

It just zapped into the fug of my clouded radar that this upcoming Tuesday the astonishing musical debut of Carla Bruni, quelqu’un m’a dit, is FINALLY getting US release and distribution.

Longtime readers know I’m a complete sucker for European model/actresses/ingénues who date rock legends and then embark on their on their own rock and roll journeys and make good (ummm… Marianne Faithfull, Nico, Jane Birkin, and even, well maybe not, Vanessa Paradis, for example). Dating multiple rock stars gets extra points and the previously mentioned are heavyweights.

Carla Bruni is a contender then. Not only has the stunning Italian famously liasoned with Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton (huge points) - her recording debut seriously kicks ass!

Undeniable classic.

Music consumers who are curious about this Nouveau Chanson scene which is finally being marketed in the US, of course, should definitely check out recent domestic offerings from Keren Ann and Coralie Clement, but my recommendation is to cut straight to the chase and invest in Bruni’s 100% satisfying effort. No filler, quelqu’un m’a dit nails it. And her world-weary, cigarette and whiskey stained and absolutely stunning voice, and twangy, engaging guitar picking kicks her contemporary’s precious, fey be-yotch asses out of the café.

Bruni composed all the songs (with the exception of an inspired cover of Gainsbourg’s obscure "La Noyeé") and plays her guitar on all of them. There’s not a one dud on this album. Never gets tedious. This one of those vital things to have around the house, for afternoon listening, dinner parties, drinking by the fire and such. The Dudes will dig it too – its where the blues and chanson meet and the chick is hot – her voice and songwriting, that is.

Believe me, you’ll get serious points for having this in your collection.

I’ve raved about this amazing album before on this site. (Hell, quelqu’un m’a dit has been out since 2002. Huge in Europe, we Americans really are fucktards.) This is the only reference I have the energy to search and link right now (scroll down after the movie stuff); my god, this site is getting old! I’m virtually a blogging veteran now….

This week I’ve actually been taking my lunch hour, rather than my usual eating at my desk, to try and catch up on some exhibits.

I saw the Isamu Noguchi exhibit at the Hirshhorn a couple of weeks ago with out of town friends, but the work didn’t do it for them (non-art people) and also I got a distressing phone call when I first entered the show (my grandmother died that night.) I was kinda distracted. So I’m going to have to go back. I’ve always enjoyed his work. Also, I’ve got the new Masayo Duus Noguchi biography by my bedside and haven’t cracked it yet.

Yesterday I went to the National Gallery to see the Ed Ruscha works on paper show, Cotton Puffs, Q-Tips®, Smoke and Mirrors, which I loved, loved, loved!

I’ll try to write something about it in a future post, because while at the museum I wandered into the André Kertész retrospective and without expecting to, experienced something very powerful and moving. I’m not a huge photography person, but there was something about his work that spoke to me and resonated, so much so that I had to go back today tp spend more time with it.

Admittedly, I’ve been in a moody state lately. So that might account for my unusual emotional response. Maybe my brain is having some sort of chemical reaction to Kertész’ composition techniques. I just find his work so sublime and compelling. And really connected with it.

The exhibit covers seventy years of his work, his whole life in photos essentially, and working my way through it was incredibly moving and engrossing for me. I was fascinated by his miniature photos of his youth in Budapest and Hungary, of his family and friends (in particular his brother) who he was clearly very fond of; it is also apparent from these early photos that he had a natural and amazingly sharp sense of composition. I really enjoyed Kertész’ documents of his Paris years, and I felt his joy of coming on to his own as photographer, thriving in a creative community, and making a name for himself. Moving to New York with his wife, Kertész was resigned to hack magazine jobs and faded into obscurity until he was rediscovered late in his life. There is an air of sadness about his US émigré work – the haunting images of tracks in a snow-covered Washington Square Park, the figures that seem to disappear – but he retains this wonderful playfulness and marvel at the world around him.

Unfortunately, I missed the performances in conjunction with this exhibit, including a Takács String Quartet recital. After seeing the Kertész show I have a hankering to drown myself some good ol' melancholic Hungarian music!

There’s so much to say and no time today so a Michael O’Sullivan WP review is after the jump: