The Skunkeye Consumer Guide

It has been beautiful out the last two days, so much for the crap weather in the weekend forecast every one was talking about all week. My usual drill on nice Sundays is walking usually through Georgetown at some point, visiting the flea market, getting some coffee at Dean & Delucca and enjoying the jazz music. If I’m in the city, I’ll cut through the park off P Street or go through the trail across from the mosque on Mass Ave; if I’m coming from Virginia, from my grandmother’s house,I either get off at Arlington Cemetary and cross the memorial Bridge or go through Rosslyn and cross the Key Bridge. Lately, however, I’ve been exploring the Shaw area. I’m entirely too obsessed by the crazy gentrification that has been taking over this city. Maybe its because I’ve lived in and out of DC all my life – actually I’m a fourth generation Washingtonian were I to chose to label myself as such - and its just fascinating, actually in kind of a sick way, to see these changes. Maybe its because I’m now completely terrified at the rate things are going I’ll never, ever be able to afford a home of my own in the city. I’ve got very mixed feeelings about gentrification and it will be interesting to see how this phenomena ultimately plays out in DC. One of my long-favorite DC blogs, In Shaw, does a yeoman’s job of documenting these transitions, and I guess it’s a testimony to the power of the blog, because given the rapid changes, the author’s work has already taken significance as a historical record.

Yesterday’s aftenoon show at Iota was quite a scene. There was a huge turn-out for Keren Ann, who after all these years of European popularity is really making a dent in the US market. I was there namely in anticipation of A Girl Called Eddy’s opening performance; her voice and songwriting, since her EP in 2000 and through the long-awaied release of her debut album earlier this year, have really made quite an impact on me and brought me great solace and joy.

A Girl Called Eddy did not disappoint and delivered a a heartfelt, smoldering, and emotionally charged set, despite having to perform while the sun was still shining through the unshielded portions of the window and the ever jarring brightness of the front door swinging open every few minutes. Erin Moran apologized for the absence of a real live drummer – due to fiscal constraints, this being her first tour in the US - and use of a drum machine on some of the more driving numbers. She quippied, "Well, if Be-yon-ce can do it..."Regardless, her two band members more than stepped up to the plate with their multi-instumental skills – guitars, banjo, lap steel, inspired backing vocal harmonies and more – while Ms. Moran played lead guitar and incredible keyboards. Her voice is a force of nature – wam, urgent, tough, world-weary, and captures the nuances of life’s joys and disappointments in a very real way - all and more than what we get from her amazing recordings.

I got such a kick watching this amazing woman, clearly and refreshingly not in her twenties, who has spent years working in the less glamorous sectors of the music industry. Now she is doing her own spectacular thing and showing all the young poseurs how it should and can be done with integrity. Jersey Girl making good in London and Paris. And that age and experience is a virtue. Playing with two young hot, talented guys who clearly adore and respect her. In between songs she was perfectly dead-pan and witty, especially given the emotional weight of her material, and charmed us all.

Ms. Moran performed a song she had composed for the film Love, Actually which didn’t make it onto the final product. Audiences have truly missed out, because she captured the essence of the film – which as banal and contrived it is, the film does seem to strike a chord regarding the complexities of love - in such a beautiful and real way. I hope the song isn’t caught up in too much legal mumbo-jumbo, because A Girl Called Eddy’s “Love, Actually” is an instant classic, ranking up there with Aimee Mann’s Magnolia work and the very best of Randy Newman, and I would love to be able to enjoy it at home.

It was getting hot, stuffy, and uncomfortably crowded in the club, and frankly I knew Keren Ann was going to be like an appletini after A Girl Called Eddy’s whiskey whallop, and we were tired. So we listened to Keren Ann’s set sitting down in the café section of Iota. We were grateful. She has always veered on the too-precious side for me, and my friend agreed. We would have just drooped and been scraping at the floor in driven to madness by all the Suzanne Vega-inspired plaintive whimsey. So we got kinda drifty and found intermittant bemusemt at the some the scene’s dynamics. A lot of scarf-wearing "junior-year abroad in Europe" chicks and some unsual couplings…

I did get to chat with Ms. Moran a bit in the café and managed not to be too fanboy even though I am head over in heals in love with her! She promised to come back. This time with a real drummer.

My Asia Society membership has been wasting away, so this week I got proactive and today I attended Vishaka Desai’s luncheon lecture, The “Asian Century”: Implications for the US & Asia, at the St. Regis. It was fantastic and I caught up with some old fiends and made some new ones too. Dr. Desai is a highly regarded art historian, known for the incredible, groundbreaking exhibits she has curated for the Asia Society in New York, most of which have travelled throughout the world. She’s one of those rare individuals possesing of a razor-sharp and all-encompassing intellect which could be seen as intimidating to the dimmer folk like me, but she nonetheless delivers a thoroughly engaging, charming, generous, and informing talk. We all walked away wiser – um, look out smug US, here comes China and India! Better believe it… if this were a different kind of blog I’d get into it in detail. And I took copius notes.

A couple of years ago in the Philippines I was lucky to spend some personal time with Vishaka getting away from Manila with a few curator friends, visiting Tagaytay Highlands and hanging out at friend’s ancestral home in Taal. We just shot the shit about everything and hung out all day and evening but I tell you I learned so much that day and am so grateful. I hold her in the highest regard.

So-o, in my world of pop music, I’ve been on this bizarro David Sylvian kick all week – maybe its my half-assed attempt at being all searching and zen-like. Also I’ve been listening to the Bee Gees too much – dunno what that indicates other than the Gibb Brothers aree some brilliant song writers.

But what I’ve really been digging today is the second solo effort from Morr Music chanteuse and Contriva guitarist and bassist, Mina keyboardist, and NMFarner co-founder, Masha Qrella!

Maybe it’s the strange, wistful weather - intermittent sun, then sudden showers. Maybe its cos I’m feeling listless, lazy, and a little bit sad in this city. Whatever, I’m glad to have spent some time together this weird March afternoon and evening with Masha Qrella - Unsolved Remained is choice company.

In the tradition of all good music, Masha Qrella’s overall vibe is difficult to categorize and label. The artist is a respected veteran of the German electronica scene – the album is peppered with Berlin’s glitchy, dubby, broken, click house affectations. But in a throughly organic way, merging seamlessly with Qrella’s obvious folk-pop leanings. She has a fine, emotive voice, but it tends to veer in that detached , decidely Indie manner. Her guitar skills, alternately jangley and swampy/bluesy in an idiosyncratic way, tend to take center stage. I’m reminded a bit of Linda Perhacs, substitute the psychedelia with electronica; an appealing and sincere vocal presence that tends to get swallowed by the production. Overall, the album has a gentle, European, introspective feel. The first few cuts feel a bit meandering and floating at first; much like Air, it takes a couple of listens to let it sink in and take hold. And then the whole project starts to get under your skin. The last couple of tracks, which are grindier and more pulsating, really kick it right away though – “Everything Shows” has a sure-fire infecting hook - total instant gratification. Like a mellower Dani Siciliano, same genre-hopping vibe. Lovely album. Highly recommended.

Life has been kind of heady lately and I’m having to navigate some grown-up stuff and difficult matters. Highlight of the weekend was a nice brunch and hike in honor of one of my dearest friends, who was in town for a pre-wedding girls’ weekend in DC (I was excluded from most of the festivities, being a boy, and I was quite grateful, to be honest). I am thoroughly looking forward to the wedding weekend later this Spring in upstate New York however!

I do feel it is my duty to give “heads-up” to an extremely rare A Girl Called Eddy engagement at Iota in Arlington this coming Saturday, March 12, at 3 PM (I know, wtf… ???). I’ve extolled the heartfelt, timeless beauty and brilliance of Ms. Moran’s songwriting and vocal talent extensively on this site; she really has struck a chord, and gives true meaning to “bringing it all home to me.”

This is not a gig to be missed, and, given the deserved critic and music-loving following the artists has been developing since her recent full-length debut, produced by the amazing Richard Hawley, on the awesome Anti label (um, home of Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Marianne Faithful, Daniel Lanois, Neko Case, Elliot Smith, The Frames, etc.), now is probably the only opportunity we’re gonna get in the DC area to enjoy a performance at such an intimate venue. Because A Girl Called Eddy is well on her way to the big time! Burt Bacharach, Rufus Wainwright, Shirley Manson, Robert Smith, among other high profile and diverse musicians, have all been very vocal in their love for A Girl Called Eddy, and the Europeans have embraced her…. This is the kind of music is that sorta saves one’s life.

Oh, and I did I forget to mention she is playing with The Keren Ann!!! (Nolita, her latest, out in the US next week)

Yikes!, I don’t think this is a show to skip….

Article here.

Another there.

Well, it’s a nice start to the weekend when I finally get my hands on an affordable copy of the Barbarella original soundtrack! I’ve been coveting this classic for years but was unable, unwilling, and probably would have felt more than a bit foolish forking over for pricey Japanese and European editions. Thanks to the folks at the mysterious "Soundtrack Classics" (no web info provided). I can now enjoy this fantastic score at home without having to channel the DVD through my stereo.

It goes without saying that I am a certain kind of geek. And Barbarella, the 1968 Franco-Italian production based on the comic series by Jean-Claude Forest, might be kind of a crappy film…

… Ummm, if one weren’t into provacateur-auteur Roger Vadim, his then-wife, the now-iconic young Jane Fonda (she turned down Bonnie & Clyde and Rosemary’s Baby to make this classic), my idols John Philip Law as the angelic Pygar and and David Hemmings as the sympathetic rebel-leader Dildano, and Anita Pallenberg (!!!) as The Black Queen… and imagery such as the ever revealing and visionary Jacques Fonteray costume design (he also did Moonraker!), the not-so-veiled innuendo, those scary sadistic SoGo children and the flesh-eating razor-toothed dolls which had a way of leaving an indelible imprint on Young Skunkeye’s psyche!

But I’m often inclined to think the music composed by “Bob Crew & Charles Fox, performed by the Bob Crewe Generation Orchestra featuring songs sung by The Glitterhouse and Bob Crewe” is the true star of the Barbarella masterpiece of a production! The opening theme is infectious… that warm, thumping bass line, those woodwinds and horns, the sighing and soaring chorus - its all so wildly wonderful… “Barbarella psychedella…,” ah, poetry! Oh, and it is pure melting delight to enjoy the closing anthem, the soaring “An Angel is Love,” in its entirety, while I do Friday night house cleaning.

Seriously, wacky lyrics aside (which are actually a big part of the charm even though the bulk of score is instrumental), the soundtrack really holds up magnificently as a triumph in cinematic orchestration. The themes and instrumentation are amazingly textured, expressive, driving and diverse; jazz, classical music, swinging-spirited sixties pop, psychedelia, Moog, harmonica, organ, and horn swim together seamlessly and bring the outlandish Barbarella narrative to life more effectively than the actual film does. Odyssey, adventure, morality, romance, tragedy, humor, pathos, double-entendres, etc… the classical elements of theater are all there – Shakespeare, who was no stranger to bizarro and fanciful plot twists - would have certainly approved. When watching the movie, one can’t help but notice how Crew’s score propels the otherwise dullish production along; once removed from the visuals, one can truly enjoy the genius of the music. Essential and joyous listening!

Whatever happened to Drew Barrymore’s project? Who cares?... I’m thinking Barbarella: the Opera!

Via L’Allemagne, dans l'Etats Unis record shops right now and, specifically, in "Le Distirct," arrives Le Pop Musik’s third compilation of la Nouvelle Chanson, le pop en duo. The series is handsomely produced and packaged and the cuts are inspired and smartly chosen. The liner notes are quite good as well – the compilation highlights some of the contemporary artists who are expanding on the colorful legacy of the duet in 20th siecle French popular song. Points of reference: Gainsbourg/Birkin, Hardy/Dutronc, Hallyday/Vartan, Fonatine/Areski, etc…

The "New Chanson" movement has been quite lively since the late nineties when a new generation of young and talented French artists – Philippe Katerine, Dominque A, Betrand Burgalat, and others - found inspiration in the popular music of the sixties and early seventies and gave it a contemporary spin. The whole Tricatel scene was so exciting for me at the time because it validated the music that had been etched into my psyche and gave me joy and escape as a child in Europe.

I highly recommend this collection, which includes many dynamic and talented artists whose work is unlikely to get any exposure in the US otherwise. Many the tracks, the Benjamin Biolay and Jane Birkin selections pop immediately to mind, I already own and enjoy, but the inclusion of some “rarities” is what really excited me. Included on le pop en duo is an early European recording of Leslie Feist, singing in French (phonetically according to the notes – which disappoints me somewhat - aren’t all Canadians supposed to be bilingual?) with Albin de Simone, a version of “Parlez-Vous Anglais, Mr. Katerine” with the future Girl Called Eddy, Erin Moran, and the über-hip Nouvelle Vague chanteuse Camille harmonizing with Sebastien Martel. Oh, and finally I get to hear the famous “Veruca Salt et Frank Black,” a Keren Ann, Dominique A, and Vincent Delerm collaborative which I see as an attempt to capture my generation in the sensibility of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin’s “Ex Fan des Sixties”! The compelling Françoiz Breut also makes an appearance on the disc- her troisième album is out now, Une Saison Volée … its about time!