My computers have all been down for the past couple of weeks, so my ability to keep the Jukebox Heart motor spinning has been limited. But I’ve been busy coming up with ideas and arranging some special reports for upcoming updates.
I’ve also been combing through the used bins at my favorite stores, because they’ve all been dramatically clearing out their inventories. Such bargains! Couple this with a challenge I’ve been given in another forum (one of sveral where this blog gets cross-posted) to write about a CD (among other items) that I believe no one else who reads my entries on that forum owns. Considering that I believe a rather significant portion of my personal collection falls into this category, it was hard to pick just one.
Until I sat through a listen of this recent find in a cut-out bin at Newbury Comics.
Lady and Bird “Lady and Bird”
(Yellow Tangerine Records CD, 2006)
This side project is from the duo of internationally famous singer/songwriter Keren Ann Zeidel and Bardi Johannson (lead singer of Iceland’s Bang Gang). This incredibly charming CD was first released in France in 2003, but was not picked up in the US until 2006 when the tiny US indie Yellow Tangerine released it. The US version contains an exclusive live acoustic track of “Do What I Do”. Keren Ann is Israeli born, currently living in France by way of Holland and Belgium. Bardi Johanssen is “a tall Icelandic Man” releasing music under thename Bang Gang as well as his own name, since 1996. This CD is a stylistic departure for both artists. Lady & Bird’s liner notes confirm what everyone always wants to know about their favorite rock stars, “Yes! We always have sex all the time!”. And honestly, given the beauty and tenderness of the music on this CD, there should never have been any doubt.
There are so many breathtaking moments on this CD that it is hard to know where to begin. The influences are many and certainly diverse. In the avant pop realm, if one were to draw a square with His Name Is Alive, Stereolab, The Magnetic Fields and Goldfrapp posted prominently at each corner, Lady and Bird occupy the space bound by those with a determined sensibility that might land them with a future release on Audio Dregs, Tomlab, Fat Cat or some such similarly minded imprint. The instrumentation, arrangements and especially the magical vocals and harmonies here will cast this as one of the greatest unknown independents ever.
This is not to say that this virgin effort is without its flaws. Two of the tracks, Shepard’s Song and La Ballade of Lady & Bird employ some questionable vocal stylizations and effects. Ballade is a spoken radioplay of sorts whose musical background is as impeccable as the rest of the tracks here, but their voices have been electronically raised to make them sound like they are speaking behind lungs full of helium. In Shepard’s Song, an artificially deep-voiced beast is enough to make me squint and scratch my head – and almost caused me to drop the CD back into the cut-out bin, which would have been my own tragic loss.
The band, however, more than adequately overcomes these flaws, not in the least with their selections of included cover songs, both included here. The Velvet Underground’s “Stephanie Says” is just *owned* by Lady and Bird, and their lyrically complete version of “Suicide is Painless”, aka The Theme from M*A*S*H, is simply devastating.
Here are some tracks from the album. The individual tracks are all wonderful, but their sequencing on the CD is of equal importance as well. I’ve listed them here in order of appearance on the album.
Stephanie Says
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/ladynbird/track3.mp3]
Walk Real Slow
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/ladynbird/track4.mp3]
Suicide Is Painless
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/ladynbird/track5.mp3]
Run in the Morning Sun
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/ladynbird/track7.mp3]
Blue Skies
[audio:http:////www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/ladynbird/track9.mp3]