When Glyn Styler played the CMJ convention in October, he had the chance to meet one of his longtime fans, Ray Davies. The legendary Kink, the greatest songwriter of all time, was first introduced to the cabaret singer’s music in 1997 by his girlfriend, Space Chicken (sic), who saw Styler perform at the South By Southwest conference in Austin. The two songwriters corresponded and Davies made a point of attending Styler’s CMJ performance at New York’s Lakeside Lounge.
“It was amazing,” says Styler. “He was 10 feet in front of me at the first table in front of the stage. I just sat down on an amplifier and sang to him the whole time.”
According to Styler, Davies told him that he’s currently working on two songs written expressly for Styler, and he invited Styler to perform at the Jazz Cafe in London. “He said, ‘Once you play there, you’ll become European history.’ I just melted,” Styler says.
What more validation do I need?” Styler asks. “I can now go to my grave knowing I wasn’t a failure, even though the industry treated me like one.”
In June, Styler heads to North Carolina to begin recording a new CD for N.C. indie Mood Food Records
Singer/songwriter Drew Young was lead guitarist with Atlanta’s Ruben Kincaid for eight years and three albums. Two years ago, Young quit the band, packed his bags and moved to New Orleans to handle music licensing for the television series; The Big Easy. In the last two years, he also began to write and record his own material and the result of those efforts has finally been unveiled.
Hide Out With Me (CS Music), Young’s solo debut, combines Young’s gruff vocals and soulful guitar pop songs with programmed drums and sound samples: Young was aiming to differentiate himself from Ruben Kincaid’s straightforward approach and that he did. On Jan. 14 at the Howlin’ Wolf,.Young, with a band featuring members of Permagrin and Acoustic Swiftness, plays his first headlining gig in New Orleans. Strawberry Presents also appears.
If it hasn’t already aired by the time this issue hits the newsstands, keep an eye out for an appearance by 9th Ward organist Mr. Quintron, whose latest platter will be formally released on Skin Graft in February, on The Fenny Fones Show.
Before I list my annual Top 10, I once again have to say that there are stacks of CDs that I didn’t get a chance to hear this year, so if you can’t believe I left something out, maybe I just didn’t hear it. Or maybe I didn’t like it.
1) Stereo Total (Bobsled Records) – Germany’s Stereo Total apply that Japanese referential pop culture mix’n’match sensibility to Europop and other trashy delights on their U.S. debut, creating a minimalist mish mash of garage rock, Casio-beat disco, Italian soundtrack music and French ye ye pop. The most inventively retro-kitsch pop record of the year.
2) Neutral Milk Hotel – On the Aeroplane Over the Sea (Merge) – After making a debut splash
with On Avery Island, I was initially a little hesitant about this follow up. It’s awfully droney and there aren’t many laughs. to be had. But after listening harder, the wildly poetic imagery, the sheer unconventionality of the orchestrations and Jeff Mangum’s strangely emotional vocals took root and won me over.
3) Saint Etienne – Good Humor (Sub Pop) – St. Etienne has been around since 1991, but all this time I thought they were one of those mopey 4AD bands. Turns out they’re not; they’re the most beautiful pop band on the planet, either a) the Carpenters gone disko, b) trip hoppy Dusty Springfield, or c) Stereolab for romantics.
4) Elvis Costello – With Burt Bacharach Painted From Memory (Mercury) – The richness of Bacharach’s melodies and arrangements and the emotion of Costello’s lyrics and vocal performance are leagues beyond what passes for pop music these days. While Elvis’ voice isn’t in the category of an at-her-prime Dionne Warwick, he delivers the vocal performance of his life on Bacharach’s notoriously complex melodies. A subtle, sophisticated masterpiece.
5) Tortoise – TNT (Thrill Jockey) – Tortoise’s synthetic production of music-compiling sounds on computer disk and then sequencing those fragments into songs-sounds like about as much fun as a hard drive crash, but on TNT those sounds are so rich that the record takes on a majesty unto its own. It’s not ambient, but it still makes nice background music.
6) Belle and Sebastian – The Boy with the Arab Strap (Matador) – If last year’s If You’re Feeling Sinister hadn’t been so mind blowing, my reaction to Arab Strap would likely have been a lot stronger. Not as inspiring as Sinister, but another excellent release by last year’s next big thing.
7) Clementine – Heure d’Ete (Sony Import) – I have no idea what to make of this ostensibly French chanteuse who is, as they say, big in Japan. She sings like a cross between Astrud Gilberto and Claudine Longet, and the music is a smooth, sweet mix of bossa nova and slightly clubby pop. Pizzicato Five’s Konishi wrote and produced one track, which is probably the best indication of what she’s all about.
8) The Divine Comedy – Fin De Siecle (Setanta Import) – Neil Hannon, the prime mover behind Irish lounge pop heroes the Divine Comedy, writes biting, ironyladen songs dressed in some of the most stunning string and horn arrangements around, and he sings in a voice eerily reminiscent of Scott Walker. As you might expect, he’s huge in the U.K. and unheard of here. Beautiful South fans should snap this up immediately.
9) Fatboy Slim – You’ve Come A Long Way Baby (Virgin) – Speaking of the Beautiful South, erstwhile Southerner Norman Cook whips up some monster grooves with absurdly catchy hooks and some of the wildest, most clever sampling you’re likely to hear. Starting with the hit “The Rockefeller Skank,” You’ve Come a Long Way never lets up and sounds almost as good off the dance floor.
10) Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (Polygram) – It had been six years since her last record, but Williams proved why she’s been such a cult star for so long with this extraordinary comeback of sorts. It’s high time she’s received the praise that Car Wheels is finally earning her.
Best Reissues/Box Sets
Tropicalia: 30 Anos (Polygram) – A collection of five landmark CDs of Brazil’s late-’60s Tropicalia movement, the politically conscious philosophic/artistic movement that combined the traditional music of Brazil with Sgt. Pepper inspired psychedelia and orchestrations. Tropicalia features seminal records by Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, Os Mutantes and a collaboration record that gave the movement its name.
Bob Dylan – The Bootleg Series Vol 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966: The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert (Columbia/Legacy) – This classic bootleg has been rightly hailed as classic. Disc one, Dylan’s solo acoustic set, is absolutely spellbinding, capturing the artist and performer at the height of his powers. On the “electric” disc, Dylan battles an increasingly hostile crowd of Mr. and Mrs. Joneses. The 26-year-old Dylan isn’t fazed. When a scandalized audience member cries out, “Judas!” before Dylan launches into “Like A Rolling Stone,'” you can here the former folksinger lean back and tell his band, “Play fucking loud.”
Various Artists – The Look of Love: The Burt Bacharach Collection (Rhino) – This is the first serious retrospective on the career of one of contemporary music’s few living geniuses. Beginning with 1958’s hokey “Magic Moments” and ending with 19%’s collaboration ‘with Elvis Costello on “God Give Me Strength,” The Look of Love surveys Bacharach’s career and combines all the big hits (and here are a lot of them) with obscurities and novelties. As recording the latest Bacharach hit was de rigeur in the ’60s, the modus operandi here is to choose the recordings that Bacharach was most involved with, showcasing not only his gift for composition but his skill in orchestrating, arranging and producing pop music. Both neophytes and aficionados will probably find The Look of Love more than worth its price.
Quincy Jones – Big Band Bossa Nova (Verve)- If you enjoyed Jones’ “Soul Bossa Nova” on the Austin Powers soundtrack, you’ll likely enjoy this collection of Jones early ’60s big band compositions, all in a similar Jobim-by-way-of-Esquivel mode.
