Cutting through the hyperbole often associated with popular unpopular music.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Video: Cat Power - "Metal Heart" (Live on "Late Show with David Letterman")
With the Dirty Delta Blues band ably backing her up, Cat Power performs the 2008 version of her old Moon Pix track called "Metal Heart". Yes, Ms. Marshall is covering herself (how meta), but who better than to cover a song written by you than you yourself? Chan looks mightly red in the face, but that's because she's trying to give it her all. And, judging by the enthuastic reply from Letterman, it's safe to say that she most certainly did. Listen for Cat Power's response when Dave grabs her hand. Pretty funny stuff.
Video Digest: The Bad Plus (Live on Conan), Cat Power's AOL Sessions, Modest Mouse, School of Language, Spoon
(The Bad Plus - "Thriftstore Jewelry" - Live on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (3/14/08))
With a tip of the hat toward one April Wright, whose idea this is, MFR has put together a video digest of noteworthy new vids. Here, you'll be able to indulge your jones for both the audio and the visual in one place.
First off, we have MPLS-based trio The Bad Plus performing "Thriftstore Jewelry", from their newest release, the wholly self-financed and released Prog, on the "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" show. To see behind-the-scenes photos from their taping, head on over to More Cowbell.
(Cat Power - "Ramblin' (Wo)Man (Hank Williams cover) - Live on "AOL Sessions)
The sultry sounds of Cat Power's latest record, the mostly covers album Jukebox (the second such album that she's done), seem like they would best translate in a small club with an intimate ambience, particularly the lounge-pop arrangement that Ms. Chan Marshall gave standard "New York", or the soulful countrypolitan stylings of "Ramblin' (Wo)Man". So it should be no surprise that Cat Power dropped by the "AOL Sessions" studio to record renditions of various Jukebox selections. Check out those videos, plus a Q&A here. But before you do so, take a gander at "Ramblin (Wo)man" from the sessions, which is posted above.
(Modest Mouse - "Fly Trapped In A Jar)
The latest video from Modest Mouse's effort from last year, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, "Fly Trapped In A Jar" makes an immediate impression on the viewer with its psychedelic visuals and surreal plotline. This video may be more Seussian that Horton Hears A Who!.
We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank is out now.
(Spoon - "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb")
Speaking of animation, this new clip from Spoon for "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" makes the most out of its "stop-motion animation of paper cutouts" which were then sequenced on the computer. Even though its the most obvious reference point, "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" does, at times, resemble the herky-jerky nature of Peter Gabriel's classic video for "Sledgehammer", which also made legendary use of stop-motion animation.
Rockism is a school of thought that suggests that some genres--usually rock music from whenever the person espousing this philosophy was 12 years old--are better than others. School of Language, an offshoot of Field Music and headed by that group's David Brewis, satirizes the concept of rockism in its new video for "Rockist Part One". If there's a part two, one cannot be entirely sure that it can be effective due to the fact that Brewis and company do a pretty good job mocking most of the rock music that's come out in the past few years. Check out the video posted above, as well as a MP3 of the song which has been made available by Chicago-based indie label Thrill Jockey (hometown love!).
Cat Power, touring behind MFR-FavoriteJukebox with her Dirty Delta Blues band play a show tonight at the legendary First Avenue. Her shows have been selling out across the country (her show a few nights ago in Chicago was sold-out), but, perhaps unbelievably, her show tonight is not sold out. Yet.
Tickets are still available for the show. Buy them here. Show is 18+ and doors open at 8.
Kid-tested, MFR-approvedJukebox, Cat Power's second album of covers, entered the Billboard charts at number 12. From the Billboard article:
Roaring in at No. 12, Cat Power's "Jukebox" moved 29,000 units, a career high chart-and sales-wise. The Matador set follows 2006's "The Greatest," which bowed at No. 34 with 23,000.
Kind of amazing that Ms. Marshall was able to jump up 22 places on the charts while only selling 6,000 more records, no? Cat Power MySpace Page
Update: "Aretha, Sing One For Me" taken down at the request of management.
Oh, Cat. You have some strange Power over me.
Okay, I won't make any more puns for the rest of the review, I pinky swear.
On Jukebox, Ms. Marshall leads listeners on a wild goose chase to try and find her identity. She starts us out in "New York," a cover of the Frank Sinatra classic. It's the perfect song to start off the album. In the lyrics, we're promised that her "vagabond shoes are longing to stray," which sets the tone for the whole album. From the stomp and bustle of her vision of "New York," we're promptly escorted into a smoky, cosmopolitan soul number reminiscent of Dusty Springfield. It's nearly impossible to recognize the song as a cover of Hank Williams' "Ramblin' Man."
On "Silver Stallion," Marshall sells listeners the typical Western myth. The song, which is a cover of a Highwayman song, couples twanging guitars with images of dusty trails and angry devils. It's a beautiful song that combines the steely reserve to not be bound in one place with the sorrow of knowing that the singer is running from something.
And then almost immediately, we're back into a 60's lounge with soul music pumping out of the speakers. "Aretha, Sing One For Me" (originally by George Jackson) plays with the sensuousness of the Rolling Stones' "Beast of Burden" and the whiskey-tinged femininity of mid-60's girl groups.
The rest of the album bounces around in similar fashion. One moment, Marshall is sitting on a fence in the middle of nowhere chewing on a bit of hay, the next you can imagine her transplanted to the heart of the big city. There's something delicious about her musical homelessness on Jukebox. Even when switching between country and pop, Marshall's distinctive, husky voice serves as a centerpiece, focusing your attention on her. It's not as if Marshall is jumping styles and you're watching, it's as is she's guiding you on a tour of different pieces of her identity.
The beauty about this album is that it isn't a chance for Marshall to make us a mixtape/CD/mp3 dump. As she displays on the original tracks on this album, she's feeding us a little sample of what's to come. You Are Free (which came out in 2004 – how old does that make you feel?) established Cat Power as someone who could blur the line between folk and blues, a somewhat expected move after her last covers record.
The new songs on the album send a little bit of a mixed message on what we can expect form Marshall in the next few years. "I Believe In You" straddles riff rock, soul and stompy folk. It's awkward. It's not a bad song, but it doesn't come together right. It's like the channa masala I made for dinner the other night: all the pieces were there, but the chickpeas weren't quite done. It's a little chunky and unpleasant, even if it tastes good. It still needs some smoothing. "Song To Bobby," on the other hand, is very cool. It's an ode to Bob Dylan that comes across sounding like a Dylan cover. It's a beautiful song that weds folk and emotional, wailing blues vocals. If this is where she's headed in her writing, then we can expect great things in the years ahead.
Cat Power has another covers record coming out and it is called Jukebox. Matador just posted the first single from that album, titled "Song To Bobby". The album will be released on January 22nd. You can listen to the track at the top of this post.
In addition, here is Jukebox's tracklist, also posted by Matador:
1. New York (Frank Sinatra) 2. Ramblin’ (Wo)man (Hank Williams) 3. Metal Heart (Cat Power *) 4. Silver Stallion (The Highwaymen) 5. Aretha, Sing One For Me (George Jackson) 6. Lost Someone (James Brown) 7. Lord, Help The Poor And Needy (Jessie Mae Hemphill) 8. I Believe In You (Bob Dylan) 9. Song To Bobby (Cat Power **) 10. Don’t Explain (Billie Holiday) 11. Woman Left Lonely (Janis Joplin) 12. Blue (Joni Mitchell)
* original version on the ‘Moon Pix’ album ** first appearance of this song
In addition, there will be a limited-edition silver foil deluxe package with a bonus disc containing the following 5 songs:
1. I Feel (Hot Boys) 2. Naked, If I Want To (Moby Grape) 3. Breathless (Nick Cave) 4. Angelitos Negros (Roberta Flack) 5. She’s Got You (Patsy Cline)
Pretty exciting news. What do you all think of the song?
