Dot Dot Dot

The folks at Wordless Music announced this season's schedule a few weeks ago and there's interesting, quality stuff in there.  A couple obvious curiosities - What's John Darnielle going to do when forced to button yap for an entire set?  How is MONO going to squeeze all that sound and a small orchestra into (Le) Poisson Rouge?  A couple pleasantries - Charles (DMST/BSS) Spearin's "Happiness Project," and Juana Molina, whose loopy stuff I always like better live.  Also, fuck me, Terry Riley.  Will the Dan Deacon kids turn that one into a dance party?  If not why not?

Two particular dates caught my eye, both at (L)PR, and since the music they feature is exactly what I wanted to hear right now I thought I'd take this chance to not-talk about them.

March 4th:  At his best, Brit guitarist James Blackshaw uses twelve strings and what sounds like fifty fingers to create dense, shimmery compositions that'll pull you under if you give them so much as a single toe.  He airs things out - you can stream a few of his records whole, using the different playlists on his myspace page - with drone, noise, or spare caustic stretches (and last year's Litany of Echoes is bookended by solo piano), but always returns to rich, lovely stuff.  The title track off his 2007 record was one of my favorite things from that year:

James Blackshaw - The Cloud of Unknowing (mp3)(buy)

I foolishly missed him when he swung through in early 2008, will try to not be so foolish this time.  Tickets are here, and reasonable.

He's not the only draw on the program.  In a fantastic coincidence, a piece I mentioned in the write-up for the last Wordless show I saw is getting a go at this one.  Ives' Second Piano Sonata is a gorgeous piece of work, one of the few solo piano pieces I'd keep clutched to my chest in a fire.  I'll do you a favor and trot out its shortest (and most accessible) movement again:

Gilbert Kalish - Ives Piano Sonata No. 2 (‘Concord Mass 1840-1860'), Movement III ("The Alcotts")(mp3)(buy)

Really worth your while to get yourself a copy of that complete Kalish recording.

Heather O'Donnell (myspace) will be the pianist.  She's written about the work... and for once, someone has a good excuse to use the word "transcendent" when describing a piece of music.

*

April 18th:  The kora has such a physically imposing presence that it's wrong to satisfy yourself with recordings.  Even if it's just sitting there like a harp (as opposed to being swung around like a rock instrument), and though it sounds bright and peaceful, the instrument always struck me as something that needed to be tamed. 

Malian Toumani Diabaté (myspace) is its acknowledged master, his Mandé Variations one of the most acclaimed original African albums from last year.  He pulls some amazing stuff off those strings, hurts thinking about how he does it.

Toumani Diabaté - Kaounding Cissoko (mp3)(buy)

As counterpoint, pianist Jenny Lin will be rolling with some Nancarrow.

Tickets are here, a bit pricey what with the two-drink minimum.

*

Was there a particular song or artist who inspired you?
It wasn't so much that I wanted to be in a band at the beginning, I just wanted to hang out with bands!

And I actually met a band - The Get Up Kids - who, to me, were really, really famous. And they were like: 'If you want to hang out with us, dude, you've got to start a band.'

So I went and did it, and then they split up.

That's probably the best piece of advice you ever got.
Well, no! Because I could be making a reasonable living now doing something worthwhile.

The BBC talks to Emmy (whose record is available and quite good).

*

...and in a fantastic coincidence, Emmy talks to Shilpa (whose record can be purchased in person at her Southpaw show tomorrow):

Emmy: I first saw you four years ago at the Sidewalk Cafe, and it was just you, your songs and harmonium, what's been going on since then?

Shilpa: CRASH!CRASH!BANG! BANG! I HATE YOU! I LOVE YOU! GET OF MY FACE! LAUGH CRY SMOKE SNORT DRINK EAT SWALLOW. ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz

Shilpa Ray, "Filthy and Free"

*

‘I dropped out in the spring of '97 with one year left. And I had a full scholarship, so it made no sense to people. The people who cared about me weren't trying to discourage me, they were just confused. They said, "It's already paid for, you have one year to go, why not get the degree so you have something to fall back on?" And I said, "I don't want anything to fall back on. That's the whole point... There was one day when we were in New York in a cab together, and she goes, "God, could you picture yourself as a lawyer? Could you imagine yourself as a lawyer?" And I just started laughing. It was such a nice thing to hear, that even she couldn't imagine me as a lawyer anymore."'

Awwwww.  Demitri Martin, whose new show has some quality laughs, some painful stand-up, an awful amount of canned reaction.

*

Saw Coraline last week, it's a real nice piece of work.  Dakota Fanning can be distracting, and the quest portion of the plot feels a bit videogamey, but the animation is lovely and the storytelling is smart.  Avoids overexplaning things, bless it.  Has been a while since I read the book, but remember that as undersatisfying; maybe it's because he's been largely doing kid stuff, lately, but it's been a long while since Neil Gaiman's work has been more for me than the source of tiny pleasures.

Not that you should udnerstimate tiny pleasures.  (Also, obviously the Newberry folk disagree.)

We'll always have Brief Lives.

Anyway, you should see Coraline, and you should see it in 3-D - used here as a device, not a gimmick - and that means you should see it soon.  Gaiman notes that the upcoming Jonas Brothers flick will steal away all the 3-D screens.

*

Selick's stop-motion work doesn't resemble The Quays' (or my other personal touchstone, Rankin Bass), but the opening moments of Coraline couldn't help make me think of their masterpiece.  Almost any creepy doll animation would.  The twenty minutes below are best not watched on YouTube - rent or buy it - but for a low-res sampling, beggars/choosers.

“The Brothers Quay, Street of Crocodiles Part 1”

“The Brothers Quay, Street of Crocodiles Part 2”

And just to go out with a tune, the Quays also made the video for my favorite Michael Penn song:

Michael Penn, "Long Way Down (Look What the Cat Drug In)" (buy)

links: digg this    del.icio.us    reddit