People of the music thread: I am hear to report that I saw Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! last night (and I have a brand spanking new t-shirt to prove it) and they were very very good. (And young! And nice guys it seemed - later at the bar they didn't seem to mind at all that I interrupted their pool game to drunkenly tell them that their new stuff sounded really good and that could the NCAA tournament final be more boring this year? But that's OK because Florida winning meant that I won my office pool and lots of money and can I buy them a beer? OK.)
But what I am really here to report is that the band that opened for them were really really really good: the Brunettes a band from New Zealand that plays lots of odd instruments (like one of those tiny keyboards you blow into through a long hose) and sings songs about Mary Kate and Ashley Olson with actual MK/Ashley masks on. They were a lot better than that sounds, and I actually haven't seen a band I liked so much so quickly since the first time I saw Andrew Bird live. This morning I bought their last album and an EP off of the Sub Pop site (their American label apparently) but you can hear them I think off that link above if you desire.
That's my news.
Thanks for the recs, Tina!
But if their US label is from Austin, that makes more sense.
The label only relocated here recently from Brooklyn, but the Misra bands (some of the others are Centro-Matic, Summer Hymns, and Jenny Toomey) play down here all the time now.
like one of those tiny keyboards you blow into through a long hose
A Melodica. I'll have to check if the radio station has any Brunettes. If they've released stuff on Sub Pop then we should.
the new Bats album
Speaking of New Zealand... They played in Boston a few weeks back and were wonderful. It was old-timer's night at TT's. It was probably the same people who came to see them play 18 years earlier. The next week, th' Faith Healers played at another small club in Somerville. It was another old timer's night, but about five years younger.
The guy who runs Misra Records lives right around the block from my house. My wife and his wife hang out sometimes.
Very cool! Can you tell him how great a DJ I am and that I should be on their promo list? ;^)
(Just don't tell him that I wanted to see Centro-Matic last night but was simply too tired to leave the house. I've seen them so many times before, though, that I'm not too sorry about my lameness)
Can you tell him how great a DJ I am and that I should be on their promo list? ;^)
I ought to see him at some point in the next month or so, so I'll talk you up.
What was the thereminist's name?
Chris Conway. He's British.
So did we know there was a band called The Tony Head Experience that was recording in 1991?
I don't think ASH was in it though.
He has to have been older than 65!
He has to have been older than 65!
He was a bit of a teen prodigy.
I'm ripping a collection of Jack Blanchard and Misty Morgan, described on the CD sticker as "Like Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood on acid." Which is ridiculous because anything Lee Hazelwood did sounds like he did it on acid.
Anyway, Misty and Jack had a big country/pop novelty hit around 1970 called "Tennessee Bird Walk" with loopy lyrics and slick, groovy production.
Jack shares the advice from a veteran show biz producer that changed their careers, when they were struggling as country lounge singers.
*****
I asked [Dick Gillespie] one night why we weren't getting anywhere.
We were good musicians, I said, we sang well, looked okay, and made nice records.
Why didn't he see that and help us?
His answer hurt our feelings and saved our life.
He said: You have nothing to sell.
Nobody is interested in the things you mentioned.
People won't walk across the street to see a good-looking musician, but they'll stop for an auto accident.
More importantly, he said:
go home and develop an unusual style, costume yourselves to attract attention, change your name if necessary.
Try singing different ways until the style is pronounced. Style is more important than good singing. Good singers back up artists with style.
Change your attitude.
Go for stage presence.
Be whoever you want to be, but be unique.
Then he added, but, you can't do this here in the town where they know you.
They won't accept it.
Go to a new place and walk in the door in your new way, no matter how self-consicous you feel, and they will think you were born that way.
Misty changed her name from Mary Blanchard, and we dressed pretty wild, worked up a lot of new material and attitude, went to Key West and tried it out.
We thought we'd be laughed at, but they not only accepted us, they packed the place to see and hear us. We had a recording contract within two weeks, and a Billboard Pick within a couple of months.
We found out that the roles we were playing were more real than grinding out dinner music in a suit and gown.
******
Heh. I kind of love Dick Gillespie's hardcore, cynical, show biz insider advice.
