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The Paddle Boat – The Paddle Boat (Review)

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2009, Single Screen Records

As a live band, San Diego’s The Paddle Boat have built a reputation not only as excellent performers, but as a rare alternative in an oftentimes homogenized music scene. Drawing from, among other things, early 20th century folk and jazz, the eccentric trio can’t help but stand out in a sea of rock and rollers. Now the group is bestowing their first release upon the public—a 7-inch single aptly titled The Paddle Boat—but does the record capture the many facets that make the band a diamond in the San Diego rough?

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music news

Review: Tom Waits; July 1, 2008; Jacksonville, FL

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Tom Waits - July 1, 2008
“I’m like a fucking race horse.”
–Tom Waits, Jacksonville

Tom Waits’ tours are fairly infrequent, so when I heard he was headed to Jacksonville two hours away from my house, I splurged. Jacksonville? Why Jacksonville? It’s not really the red dirt, bluesy part of the south Waits wanted to see. Jacksonville is South Beach’s conservative opposite, militarized vanilla beach Florida, which tolerates the small, local counterculture because it’s essentially irrelevant. Jacksonville is by some definitions lovely, but it’s not, well, cool. When, early in the concert, Waits mused about why he’d never been to this attractive city beside a sparkling river and the Atlantic Ocean, he said his friends had always told him, “You’re not old enough.” I don’t know whether he’s finally old enough now or if the prospect of hauling the tour bus and three semis ten hours south and back north was too much for his pocketbook or his carbon footprint, but he arrived with a copious supply of merchandise–including vinyls, a chapbook in which he interviews himself, and t-shirts with pictures of oil stains he thought were cool–as well as a sweet stage set that could evoke alley-cat twilight austerity, late-night honkytonk, or red-devil cartoon hell.

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reviews, san diego

The Silent Comedy – The Silent Comedy (Review)

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For a band whose live performances are marked by their theatricality and infectious intensity, The Silent Comedy’s recordings can be surprisingly intimate affairs. Their debut full-length, Sunset Stables, emphasized narrative and restraint over whiskey drinking and foot stomping, and now, on their self-titled EP, they pick up where that record left off.

From the opening moments of maudlin country ballad “Daisy”, The Silent Comedy draws you into a rich world of broken bottles and shattered hearts. The song nimbly swells, retreats, then swells again, a ribcage barely containing the heart within. J. John’s vocals intertwine in a tender duet with I. Forbes’ gorgeous violin, and when he begs, “Break me, Daisy”, it’s hard to believe that she hasn’t done so already.

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interviews

Interview: Tom Waits’ True Confessions – A Conversation With Himself

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Tom Waits - Photo by Michael O\'Brien

I must admit, before meeting Tom, I had heard so many rumors and so much gossip that I was afraid. Frankly, his gambling debts, his animal magnetism, coupled with his disregard for the feelings of others…His elaborate gun collection, his mad shopping sprees, the face lifts, the ski trips, the drug busts and the hundreds of rooms in his home. The tax shelters, the public urination…I was nervous to meet the real man himself. Baggage and all. But I found him to be gentle, intelligent, open, bright, helpful, humorous, brave, audacious, loquacious, clean, and reverent. A Boy Scout, really (and a giant of a man). Join me now for a rare glimpse into the heart of Tom Waits. Remove your shoes and no smoking, please.

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reviews

Album Review: Scarlett Johansson – Anywhere I Lay My Head

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I must admit that, like many, I approached the concept of a Scarlett Johansson album of Tom Waits covers as one might approach a dollar bill dangling from a shark’s mouth. I wanted to disregard it, pretend it didn’t exist, scoff at anyone so foolish as to go near it expecting anything but an unhappy ending.

But in the secret recesses of my mind, I quietly hoped that, despite the odds, the album could actually be good and not tarnish the name of Mr. Waits—my favorite musical artist and one of the most important contributors to the great sloshing pool of noise we call music. Having finally listened to the album in all its uneven glory, I can say that the actual product is more complicated than either of my divergent expectations could have anticipated.

It’s clear from the instrumental first track that ScarJo is not the one running this show. That credit belongs to David Sitek, the album’s producer (better known as the guitarist for TV On The Radio and producer for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs). Sitek infuses the album with that sleepy, sexy, post-modern urban ambiance that fans of TVOTR know quite well. But while TVOTR singer Tunde Adebimpe can turn a detached vocal delivery into a sharpened weapon, Johansson’s disembodied vocals sound more asleep-at-the-wheel than calm-and-cool, and it is this detachment that plagues the entire album, frequently dragging it through the mud just when it tries to soar.

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