I'd kill a dragon for you and die: 4/27 show

Music notes:
I probably first heard Sinéad O'Connor on the radio (WBRU in Providence), but it was my friend Justin who first bought the album, raved about it, and made us all listen to his favorite song, "Troy", which I played this morning. I remember it well... we were in Nikkola's basement hanging out. I think I was cutting Nikkola's hair. Justin wanted us to hear this song, so he played it for us, and danced around while listening. In the basement rec room there was a metal pillar, and he danced by grabbing onto the pole and swinging himself around it, in a very impassioned performance. I think his hair was pretty long by then; I remember it flying around and he danced. The Lion and the Cobra was fairly edgy stuff — the sort of stuff O'Connor shied away from later, saying that was not the musician she'd ever wanted to be. (It's a little depressing to think that the sound of this album was not what she'd wanted herself, but was rather the product of handlers, telling her to be angry and to keen and wail.) Anyway, "Troy" is probably the most challenging song on the album, though perhaps the most rewarding. I confess that the combination of that song and Justin swinging on the pole, his hair swinging about, was a bit much for me. It was a couple of years before I finally bought the album.

The oddest thing that has happened to me in a while is that I was reading the New Yorker last Sunday, and, in an article about music, they mentioned a singer named Haale. I thought, I used to know someone by that name — 17 years ago when I spent a summer (5 weeks or so, really) at Yale after freshman year of college. Could it be her? How common could the name Haale be? It's hard to know. In any event, I looked it up on the internet, and in fact it is her, and not only that, she was coming through Chicago on tour, at performing at the Hot House on Wednesday. I thought about going, but was a little on the fence about it (it takes a lot to get me out of the house these days) until I listened to her songs via MySpace. So I was completely sold on it, and I went to the concert, and it really bowled me over. The music is great (a rich, dense fusion of American rock and Persian Sufi music), her stage presence is great (natural but compelling), and her backing band was amazing (a guitarist and a drummer; is it really possible that the three of them could fill the room with sound like that?) After the show I bought myself her two CDs (a matching pair of 5-song EPs), and got her manager to donate two signed copies to WLUW to sell on our eBay auction. I'm reviewing the CDs for inclusion in the station library, as well.

I spoke to Haale herself briefly after the show. I looked familiar to her, but she didn't really remember me, at least not at first. 17 years ago is half her lifetime ago, and nearly half mine. Would I have remembered her if she hadn't had such an unusual name? Hard to know. (I should have told her I was the guy who used to vogue; I was the only one, and I did kind of make a spectacle of myself. If you don't, you're not doing it right.) I did draw a picture of Haale maybe a year later. I had this idea of drawing the various people I'd met at Yale, accompanied by some commentary; I happened to start with her and never got around to drawing anyone else. I'll post that picture on this blog at some point.

The Playlist:
*: new stuff

artist	song	album	label
Sinéad O'Connor	Troy	The Lion and the Cobra	Chrysalis
Eve's Plum	If I Can't Have You	Spirit of '73: Rock for Choice	550 Music/Epic
*Amy Winehouse	Back to Black	Back to Black	Island
*The Ponys	Poser Psychotic	Turn the Lights Out	Matador
The Kitchens of Distinction	What Happens Now?	The Death of Cool	A&M
*Modest Mouse	Fire It Up	We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank	Epic
Office	If You Don't Know By Now	Q&A	self-released reachoffice.net
Nouvelle Vague	Melt with You	Nouvelle Vague	Luaka Bop
Blossom Dearie	I Won't Dance	Jazz Masters 51	Verve
*Mavis Staples	I'll Be Rested	We'll Never Turn Back	Anti-
Death from Above 1979	Sexy Results	You're a Woman, I'm a Machine	Vice
Grace Jones	Pull Up to the Bumper	Island Life	Island
*Dntel featuring Arthur and Yu	The Distance	Dumb Luck	SubPop
Laurie Anderson	White Lily	The Ugly One with the Jewels	Warner Brothers
Tom Waits	Eggs and Sausage	Nighthawks at the Diner	Asylum
Troubled Hubble	Nancy	Making Beds in a Burning House	Lookout Records
*Klaxons	Golden Skans	Myths of Near Future	DGC
Haale	Navayee	Morning	Darya Records haale.com
Dead Can Dance	Song of the Dispossessed	Spirit Chaser	4AD
*The Shaky Hands	I'm Alive	The Shaky Hands	Holocene
*Ted Leo and the Pharmacists	The Sons of Cain	Living with the Living	Touch and Go
Quasar Wut-Wut	Thankful Hank & the Guzzard	Taro Sound	Glorious Noise
Fazzini	Dell	Sulphur, Glue the Star	Locust
Lena Horne	Love Me or Leave Me	Some of the Best	Laserlight
*Feist	Sealion	The Reminder	Interscope
*The Rosebuds	Night of the Furies	Night of the Furies	Merge
The Smiths	William It Was Really Nothing	Hatful of Hollow	Sire

Labels: music, playlists

posted by Tony at 6:38 PM