dimanche 11 décembre 2005

For future reference -- out of time! That took me way back, digging through my own archives for the previous entry, while the Kid wanted to borrow some albums now she can't have any more DVDs. With the exception of our shared 'X-Files' addiction and the renowned 'Ray' movie, buying more DVDs is out of the question. It took a friend more than two months to cajole, convince, find all my weak spots and finally make an irresistible offer to have me crack for Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles. And there'll have to be DVD reviews of the girls. As it is, if there's a choice, I get the DVD bonus versions of albums by these voices of women. But Marianne has opened my mind so wide, if she'd had more time and room in her backpack, she'd have left less empty-handed than she did. She's borrowed two or three of the DVDs I stopped buying months back and for music, I lent her 'So Jealous' (Tegan and Sara), along with Camille's first album, 'Le Sac des filles', which I acquired on realising Marianne's right and I must make this French chick a priority. Her new one, 'Le Fil,' has had a mention, but Camille then became a phenomenon. I admire youngsters with small budgets and huge self-control, when they compile 'Music I NEED' wishlists at Amazon. A very salutary, in-depth report I read in bed last night was by a man, now a prize-winning journalist, who returned to one of those "riot-torn" French suburbs after the media had gone. He'd been born there. He wanted to know what had happened and one of the first things he found was how long it took local people even to begin to trust a journalist again after the worldwide media coverage they'd had. The anger had mostly gone, the wreckage hadn't, nor the sadness CNN and most others had got it so wrong. This log's no longer about such social and political matters as such, but a youngster's musical "needs" are just that. Needs. Looking along those shelves in a last-minute rush to give Marianne some soul-food I knew she'd love, I saw how much more of it there is. If she puts some tracks on her iPod, I'll be the last to shout "Pirate thief!" She learned to pay her way years ago for music as well and has a bright future. When real economic and social hardships come up in the songs now, I shall return to such themes with the singers. The first one pictured, in her mid-20s, is Emm Gryner, who's among the Canadians I mentioned. What a wow she was with 'Asianblue' (2003); but she's got some Irish blood, we'll explore that with her in 'Songs of Love and Death' (Emm Gryner's music page at her place (also at the iTMS). It was a bright idea to do lots of covers of "a diverse collection of songs by contemporary Irish artists." The other "babe" (who certainly isn't one) is another new acquaintance for me, Rachel Garlin. People call her music "new folk". Well, that's just a label, as usual, we'll hear more on the 'Big Blue Sky' album. You'd rightly be displeased with yet another long list of musicians I'm listening to but have yet to write up: it's indeed been "a week of Cindy's" -- I think Ms Alexander's so hot, not least with words, both her previous albums were part of my year-end splash, and that firms up precedents. To do this well, regardless of what "category" people like putting them in, the site's become one of those that spans careers. I've taken good note, you're here for the people who make the music, few readers know yet my first entry of the day is long since logged. It rambles to what's got to be my last prospect of any 'Best of 2005' list - however I might set about one -- and you'll have to go elsewhere for those. I've read some more since the disappointment I expressed yesterday at 'Les Inrocks'. They're OK really, I guess, as far as they go, but Rachel and Emm are just two of such a big bunch who constitute my "real-time" listening, I doubt I could write even an ordinary 'Best of VoWs in 2005' alone for another six months. There are too many "unknowns" in every sense, voices now familiar to me abut not nearly all my friends, supposed styles that prove to be misleading -- and strong recommendations. Take Kristen Hersh. I've not even written up 'The Grotto' (2003), let alone returned by a decade for the still immensely appreciated 'Hips and Makers', when she took time off from 'Throwing Muses' ('The Real Ramona', I'm into Tanya Donnelly too, and last night a woman who knows both said she can't do without Kristen's 'Sunny Border Blue' (2001), which I don't know at all! Well, that's it. I really feel that "for future reference", as titled, this log is taking a time shift -- right "out of time". The focus is the people, when you get what's new, as sometimes you will, let's just call that "good fortune" -- because when, exactly, do "new" and "contemporary" begin? No more names and illustrations, but there's still stuff from the '60s, the '80s, that could have been released yesterday. Not very much, I grant you. Born in 1955, I reckon that was a pretty good place to start! There have been others, but 2005 is a year I shall never forget. It's been a wonderful year, which is closing in a magical way, thanks mostly to women. I've written why in The Orchard, since I so agree that 'Joyfulness is accepting the given'. What I've been given back beggars belief. That being the case, I'll simply take it on faith. It's also music, for sure. However, I've many other things to do and will return, with more music, once some of those are done. 9:29:06 PM  link   your views? [] Fruitful ... exercise (Peaches and Feist) [Workplace warning: Peaches even drip in the office.] We'll be waiting until at least April, I read, for one deliciously dirty creature to unleash a new flood of horny hormones on to her public. The music press promises high-octane porn for undone minds of both sexes. She doesn't go so far, says it will just be exceptionally explicit and she fancies going more "hardcore". Doing promo photos in undies concealing enough -- if it is -- to pass still for "decent exposure", the princess of Peaches has bitched "it's not fair". Why should women, she asks as a cheerful subversive, be the sole sex objects of what's undoubtedly -- statistically speaking -- one primary male fantasy? We're greedy, she informs us, presumably feeling 'The Teaches of Peaches' and worse lacked variety, which in a way, they did. She may even be right, though I'm too mean for her "remedy", whether for poor innocent Walter Mitty to Austin Powers in some ludicrous pastiche and even a filthy-mouthed fellow into his fourth or fifth beer while I was simply supping my second breakfast-time coffees yesterday. As everybody in and behind the corner bar downstairs let their hair down for a Saturday night, the latter wanted both his girlfriend and her bosom buddy to round off his evening. Whether he got it, given his advanced condition by not even seven o'clock, is another matter. But what she said-- I can't correctly translate Peaches from a French music rag quoting an English one -- was "What about we women? "Why can't we have that too? I want a couple of men with the stamina to keep me going all night and if they can't bring themselves to fancy each other, they should fucking well learn!" Well, she succeeded in one thing. She had me laughing, not just with that but more of her provocative pearls. But when I read who else she's asked to join in that latest bit of fun -- and apparently they fancy the idea and have agreed -- my eyes almost fell out. I won't copy the full list, it would spoil the fun, but goodness, it wouldn't have come to me that my beloved Feist, who remains also I hope a resident of this "city of light", was not only a Peaches fan and contributor past and future but a good friend and gets on just great with such randy chicks. I stuck 'Fatherfucker' (2003) near the bottom of my wish lists, because if one "princess-prozac" -- there's a pseudo for the modern age -- could bung it in her Amazon "listmania" of 'Music I need in Order to Exist,' let's be fair, I can hear that stuff as the music of her "silent undoing". But the people who didn't go stupid with outrage about 'The Teaches' (that CD finally meant the other came off my list completely) were right. It was funny, tongue-in-cheek (and everywhere else), pretty upright obscene, healthy and a noisy celebration of a zeitgeist, not a full frontal assault on "decent family values and proper moral standards". 'Peaches' don't feed on frustration and anger and fuel it. They channel it, don't blame it on bad parents or teachers, but tell a part of their fanbase what'd I sum up as: "At least you've got sex and your fantasies left, if precious little else. Your job prospects may be near zero through no fault of your own, the telly's often pap and superficial, most of the leaders lie to you. You may seek other more harmful forms of escapism. Why bother? Sex is free if you're sensible and wild fun!" The picture -- I've had enough well-behaved ones -- is from an album by Hörður Sveinsson, who doesn't get cold in Iceland but takes very good shots. I'll spare you those knickers, though he doesn't, and if you think this is a "male thing", you might want to check out a few of the chicks in the Peaches audience. For my kind of person, with a little cash, a good education, a steady job, trustworthy friends and some family I like, the message is entertaining, in moderate doses. Put that way, I can see why a dreamer like Feist gets on so well with Peaches. I'd begun wondering where she'd gone! I forgot that for some reason, I found her and even use a quote from one of my favourite songs on 'Let It Die' as my intro to The Orchard, before most people made a fuss about Feist. Heavens, it's true. That album did only come out in early 2004. I'm so fond of it and of Leslie Feist I feel like it's been since forever. It's a masterpiece from a real romantic -- today I find her Peaches connection is in fact quite an old one as a certain "Bitch LapLap" (additional vocals) -- who comes across so disarmingly simply, she's been give half the labels in the book, from a rocker chick to an alternative country lass, full of her blues and a nice touch of jazz ... even on some "folk" shelves. She's a Canadian by origin. Some think her 'Mushaboom' is about Toronto, The Tofu Hut (now there's a blog to note, some very fine writing, straight off) makes them right, and hence the connection: "In 2000, Feist made a fateful move into what must have been THE happening house in Toronto; her roommates and occasional couch-crashers included Peaches, Mocky, Gonzales, Taylor Savvy and The World Provider. Feist befriended and performed with the lot of them, both then and now." [Edito: I've "lost" my own Feist write-up, being an idiot where the search engine found a piece where I mentioned having done it, and the permanent front page reference is suddenly a drag. That's my own fault. This week, I was going to overhaul those archives completely, there being scores of singers here well pre-dating just last May, but one, unnamed French writer who found 'Let It Die' a very suitable "springtime" album got that right too. It's almost to be expected that Peaches and with luck, even Feist, will unleash their latest CDs in when the northern hemisphere sap's rising both in nature and in people. If it's not all about sex, there's a whole lot of love in such singers. My own "problem", disclosed during the early hours of today, is that my body clock's gone all wonky! I didn't say it like that, but it certainly has. I did try to archive, but the other difficulty until winter's over is just lack of light! A brave but watery sun isn't enough, even halogen lamps won't cut it: my eyesight's pretty good but I just cannot see what I'm doing when it comes to time-consuming concentrated stuff, including annoyingly some bits of the iPod fixing in hand for others. Well, 10 days to go to the shortest one, that's all.] Solstices: Feist knows about those. She radiates light, it's even what she appears to wear, sometimes all white and wispy on stage, but I'll restrain myself to less "see-thru" aspects of the sexy beast's songs! 'Let It Die' is love songs and poems and one of the most beautiful is a "maybe" song with an unforgettable melody, 'Lonely, Lonely,' while others are mysterious and nice that way. The sense of solstice and natural time couldn't be clearer than in 'Gatekeeper': "Gatekeeper, seasons wait for your nod Gatekeeper, you held your breath and made winter go on." It's a sad but often only too true song about the warming and then the waning of summer season loves -- how they can freeze. But then, so do "fair-weather friendships", no good to anyone. As Feist, home alone, says, 'Let It Die' is very much "a voice album in close up", but what a voice! Some of her songs are covers, she's been touring with her French band, I'm so desperate for more that when 'One Evening' came out as a single on iTunes, I could have separately got her cover of 'Lover's Spit' by Broken Social Scene', but I didn't. A superb natural alto and fine guitarist, whose vocals manage to sound laid-back whatever she's doing, which can be very risky when she'll have slide around, soaring up and out and then down and melancholy, even those 7'32" of purest Feist and some novel electronic adventures are worth having and getting into. [Moreover, I have found what I wrote, thanks to a new picture search. It was a fuller review on March 14 last year, longer ago than I thought. No wonder I've been getting impatient ... but I didn't then know the album would take a year to get to the States.] Amusingly (well, I think so) she and BSS are among friends -- and lovers, the site says -- gathered in a Canadian Arts & Crafts initiative, where one of the BSS EP offers is called 'Canada vs. America'. Well, it isn't a war, but in two recent strokes of synchronicity my purchases include albums by many Canadian chicks. I know few things make a Canadian in Europe crosser than to be mistaken for an American. Even better, if Feist hadn't come to mind right now, when I know a lot of songs didn't make it on to 'Let it Die' and there have just got to be more written since, I wouldn't have known that tomorrow is about my last chance to actually get to see the chick live right back here in Paris this coming Wednesday. If anyone else is interested, she's doing a special for a TV show at La Villette that evening. I don't think about the farthest across town as it's almost possible to go from where I live is more than I can face after even a day in Africa to hear Fiest! So I'm glad I chose last night to chance on a brief piece about Peaches, because Wednesday means fresh cream. I do wish these singers would stop it, by the way. On Feist's site she generous, like they nearly all are. There's a video of another single, her classy rhythm and blues take on 'Inside and Out' by the Bee Gees, which opens: "Baby, I can't figure it out Your kisses taste like c..." Then my playback stopped for an instant (doing too much with my processor). It was "candy", not the word I thought she'd sung. Feist is too angelic for that... ...as no doubt we'll hear come some spring! 5:49:12 PM  link   your views? []

nick b. 2007 do share, don't steal, please credit under artistic licence terms; contributing friends (pix, other work) retain their rights.