Two Dishes But To One Table

Show Review: The Bad Plus played Tuesday at the Bowery Ballroom

Very amazing seeing tB+ record release party on Tuesday.

Main thought prior to the show was: will it suck, adding a vocalist?

All around relief from us in the audience as the band went for an initial 50 minute stretch, playing as God-made-em:  (not nude, silly) an accomplished, telepathic instrumental trio.

Still, a persistent worrying thought was: how can they allow a girl into the clubhouse?   Will this upset the testosterone-apple-cart?

All concerns vanished at 10:09 pm when a deferential but assertive Wendy Lewis popped up in the band's midst, managing to take a Kurt Cobain vocal "Lithium" and make it her own.

I don't have enough reference points to make a closer triangulation but I would describe the vocal style as Patty Smiths range but with post-Boomer sense of irony.  Closer to PJ Harvey than to Kim Deal, though less grand and scarey than PJ Harvey, more approachable and healthy.  I'd like to see her sit in on vocals for either The Descendents or Deerhoof. 

I'm sure we all appreciated the added visual appeal of having a girl crash the male clubhouse. 
The crowd was wildly endorsing of her presence and wouldn't stop clapping.    I'm not sure if the band can go backwards again after this to an instrumental format.   It's like the vibrating bed at a motel:  initially you didn't see a need for it but when the last quarter runs out, you miss the vibrating presence.  

The boys may have a hard time putting this genie back in the bottle.

Conclusion: TBP with WL are a worthwhile further iteration on the Nouvelle Vague concept, with both vocalist and band being superior in every way to NV.

The new Bad Plus album includes many covers from the show:  Pink Floyd's 'Comfortably Numb', Yes' 'Long Distance Runaround', and Nirvana's 'Lithium' all worked great live.  Some enjoyable tension occurred when lyrics written for a 4/4 time were played in the odd time-signatures of the Bad Plus.

Follow Up: Do The Math makes numerous interesting observations in their blog  account of what the band did the following day:  live accompaniment to the New York Fashion Week tent show of Isaac Mizharhai in Bryant Park .

Caught Between Being not-Dylan and (I think) Suing Don McLean

Poor Phil Ochs.
For starters, consider that my entire generation from the 70's, even avid students like me of the Rolling Stone Record Guide (et al, et al) has no idea who he was.  I only learned about him in 2001, from Stephen King's novel Hearts in Atlantis, where Ochs is repeatedly namechecked as a humble but broadly important figure of the counterculture.  The proto-protesters of King's 60's aren't listening to Dylan's "Masters of War" but rather Ochs' "Fogey From Muskogee".

Ochs seems to have been slighted from multiple potential fan bases. Consider:
1) Dylan, a peer, abandoned sincerity for crazy imagery, facile chameleonism, and cynicism to, finally, great aclaim.  Ochs, appearing to be a step behind, evolved with less sureity and mixed reviews, slipping in stature.
2) In a Robert Bork/ Michael Phelps moment, Ochs had what could have been a pretty cool, rambling epic radio hit, "Tape From California" become censored because one character in it, a burned out Nam vet is described as "passing his pipe" to the song's narrator, Ochs.   It's funny to think of the hypocrisy of bands in the 60s not being allowed to admit that they got high.
3) Ochs had a lesser-known rival zoom past him, aping his style a bit, I think.  Sitting here today in a coffee shop on 34th Street, I heard "American Pie" for the millionth royalty-generating time in my life and realized that Don McLean's voice (his voice itself!) and song both derive from Ochs just as much as, say, Sum 41 derives from Green Day nowadays. To me, "American Pie" seems all-Ochs, both the rambling narrative and lingering pre-occupation with pre-Boomer culture (i.e. fifties rock and roll-- see Ochs gold-lame-suit appearance in his late 60s "Gunfight at Carnegie Hall").

    ---------------------------------------

In 1976, after Ochs hanged himself at his sisters home in Rockaway, Queens, Bella Abzug had the following entered into the Congressional record:
Mr. Speaker, a few weeks ago, a young folksinger whose music personified the protest mood of the 1960s took his own life. Phil Ochs — whose original compositions were compelling moral statements against war in Southeast Asia — apparently felt that he had run out of words.

While his tragic action was undoubtedly motivated by terrible personal despair, his death is a political as well as an artistic tragedy. I believe it is indicative of the despair many of the activists of the 1960s are experiencing as they perceive a government which continues the distortion of national priorities that is exemplified in the military budget we have before us.

Old Kids

Hey there is still time to pre-order this. 

Unfortunately there is not time to submit a wittier title.

• "(Had Seven Years of ) Writers' Block, Girl"
• "Still New, Honest."
• "You're Not So Young Yourself"
• "(My Prostate Is) Gonna Work It Out"

Too bad they couldn't get Ben Folds to make something beautiful like he did for Captain Kirk in 2005.

Semi-Interesting comments over at MetaFilter.