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| All Killa.....Filla, fair to negligible. |
Not long ago I had no idea who they were, but there was a rave revue in the BT for Sunset on Dateland, the 2nd album. Based on said advice I purchased said album & was completely blown away by everything, the kinetic drive of the songs, the passion, catchy riffs, strong vocals. I got everthing I could, the equally great 1st album King Me, the Young Fresh Fellows tribute album which they have one track, & some children's record where they do a nice version of John Fogerty's Center Field. I bought the damn t-shirt! and would occasionally use myself as a human billboard in downtown White Plains. It had been a long time since I had an album make such an impression on me. The band is just great, & Rachel Flotard, the guitarist/singer/songwriter, is just so disgustingly talented. I can't understand how this music hasn't garnered more attention. Maybe its just sort of the history of the music business--market failure, where money that in theory should be utilized for the greatest return either qualitatively or renumeratively is getting flushed down the toilet so cookie cutter teenage soap opera stars can storm the charts & the distinction between songwriters & performers is underlined & bland is the new Grunge. I mean Rachel is originally a Jerseyite, and Jersey is the new flavor for the terminally bored. I'm still waiting for SNL to do a parody, Real Vampires of New Jersey. Maybe in Seattle maintaining a tan is just economically unfeasible. Or she doesn't call herself "the preposition". The reality is, she probably is Jersey's best export since Bill Bradley.
The new album Message to Garcia is terrific, very diverse tunes with thoughtful lyrics. I've been reading up on the internet on her and she has been through some tough times recently, nothing scandalous, but a subject I don't really want to broach here. It's out there already.What I will say is that she has come back with a vengeance, and the new incarnation of the band is really great, as I can attest from the Bell House. Ben Hooker is an excellent drummer and Cristina Bautista was an energetic performer on bass. Rachel was completely riveting on stage totally dynamic and in fine voice. (also a good sense of humor on stage, a rarer thing than one would think.) A great performance leaving me no more stupified than if she started the set rising up on stage playing guitar standing in a clam shell a la boticelli. Sorry about my overactive imagination.
Here is an idiosyncratic opinion of mine. Some people might think its a little sexist but I feel its a high compliment. Sometimes I wonder about women in rock and there are great ones, but imagine sometimes that at least up until recently that young women who want to pick up a guitar and start a band, maybe their role models might be Pete Townsend, the Stones, The Clash, music to emulate all well and good. I know there are amazingly talented women out there, Sleater-Kinney, Joan Jett, Bjork, Penelope Houston, Blondie, Chrissie Hynde,Siouxsie, Exene, Kim Gorndon, Joni Mitchell, Sleeper, Lush,etc. But I think that if my godchildren or niece were starting a band, I would send them a Visqueen cd, and I would say this is a good place to start. You can hear the Buzzcocks, Cheap Trick, Nirvana etc, but she really has her own thing going, she writes her own lyrics, plays ferocious guitar,sings with passion, and clearly when you hear the new album she has set her own course. Also records on her own label! Just like a painter, you ground yourself in the field before you before you find your unique way, like a process. And I think she is at least as good as the female artists I mentioned, (well maybe not Joni).
If you are fortunate enough to have this band playing near you, by all means get out and see them. You will not be disappointed. After the Avengers walked off the stage, I rushed out since I had a bit of a drive. And there was Ms Flotard out in the street chatting with somebody next to a Pt Cruiserish vehicle. I thought about saying great show, or you rock!!, or maybe even Girl Power!!, but..awkward, you know 1:30 a.m., Brooklyn, quiet street, itchy drunk guy with hair starting to resemble Oglethorpe from Slapshot, I Rabidded out as in post one. I did the same thing with Robyn Hitchcock at Maxwell's, so there is a pattern of behavior developing here. I guess then in the words of the great Robert Pollard, I wasn't "that drunk". But all three of those sentiments were at least conveyed on a psychic level. Hey, in a parallel universe that band is filling arenas, entourages, hordes of dancers on stage. Of course they are so good that they don't need those last two distractions. That's the other music biz.
ps Flipflops: Hey I'm not a foot fetishist, but I accidently looked down during the set to see flipflops. For some inexplicable reason that seemed really cool and down to earth. And not it that old Huey Lewis "hip to be square" or George Bush someone I could have a beer with thing. Its not something I generally think about--a random observation. But it reminded me of an anecdote--a favorite album of mine Odyssey by James"blood" Ulmer came out in the 80's, (I actually found out about this in music review in Newsweek magazine) and maybe 15 years later they had a reunion concert at the Knitting Factory. Unique power trio, harmelodic guitar, drums & fiddle. Ulmer was there in harmelodic snakeskin cowboy glory, and I really enjoyed the live renditions of that excellent bluesy laid back spacy swagger of an album, which makes me think about life growing up in a rural southern town for some reason, which is pretty far from where I was raised. But something was nagging at my consciousness--it was the fiddler, Charles Burnham, there was something about that guy. I think he has some jaunty little hat on, okay, not a big deal. Is it the goatee? Plenty of people wear goats, though his was a little longer & seemed to come to a point. So what if he had a little vest on? But I suddenly looked down to the stage, and lo and behold! The man was wearing a pair of Ali Baba pointy slippers!!! He was actually dressed up like one of Santa's elves & I broke into uncontrollable laughter. And it took me about an hour to figure it out. But it was still all very cool. If Cecil Taylor can play piano in Jane Fonda leg warmers, why not this?? You just can't make this stuff up.
Anyway go support this band so we can all go see them again in New York. Soon. More bands to blab about soon.
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