Gee muses

Who would have believed that out of the ruins of US indie psych popsters, Tripping Daisy, a band born of a different time and place and respirited in the ‘90s, would come the all singing, all dancing, quite remarkable entity that is the currently 23-strong The Polyphonic Spree?

And who would have thought a stage full of, initially, people in robes looking a bit like a mass breakout from some nearby cathedral or church, now dressed in black army fatigues and looking like they mean business, would be both viable in the economically challenged early 21st century and last longer than it took for the initial novelty to wear off?

Well, brothers and sisters, happily there have been us believers around the place since the beginning. Now, we could get all religious here but let’s not. There are no Tom Cruises in this story. Eight years after the Spree first formed and five since its first album, The Beginning Stages Of, it is now established as one of the world’s finest live acts and is buoyed by a cult following that is strong enough to keep this massive ark afloat.

Founder, lead singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Tim DeLaughter, is baking in hometown Dallas, Texas, where the temperature is well over the old 100F (38C). “We’re frying, like little hot tomatoes. It’s a cliché but you really could fry an egg on the concrete out there,” he says.

DeLaughter is one of the smarter people I’ve come across in this business. A veteran of nearly two decades as a musician, he’s nudging into his mid-40s but his enthusiasm isn’t diminishing with age. With Tim, it’s matter of how much conversation you can fit in the time limit rather than trying to find enough conversation to get to the finishing line.
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Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust

EMI

**** (4 stars)

It’s perhaps fitting that Sigur Ros appear naked on the album cover because this, the great Icelandic band’s fifth album, is largely its most stripped back and bare. That’s not to say those epic signature atmospheres are entirely absent. Festival builds magnificently over its 9 minutes-plus to a huge ending while Ara Batur, which is only marginally shorter, is one of the most moving pieces the band has ever recorded. Opening on gentle, intimate, solo piano, it gradually swells until the London Oratory Boy’s Choir and the London Sinfonietta break over the last few minutes. Elsewhere Gobblediggok and Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur are pure upbeat three-minute pop gems that open the album with unexpected simplicity and lightness. Acoustic guitars and solo piano fill much of the rest record as it moves from those jaunty beginnings to that afore-mentioned vast middleground before easing to a gentle finish over the final three tracks. The last, All Alright, is set around simple piano notes and has lyrics sung in English for the first time in Sigur Ros’ recorded history, not that you would necessarily know it. It is utterly haunting and heart-rending. In a way you are left wanting more, but at the same time know that more would be less. The evolution of Sigur Ros continues unaffected by anything but the band’s own imagination. This time it has examined and reacted to its own grandiose beauty, sought to bare a little more soul and discover what would happen if it was to destructure and restructure. It is still Sigur Ros, it is still breathtakingly beautiful but it is another shade on a palette that seems to have unlimited colours.

Image via WikipediaJoan Wasser, aka Joan As Police Woman, is at home in her Brooklyn apartment. She says it’s a mild 21C outside and pleasant in the borough that claims to be “Home to Everyone From Everywhere!”. It’s then that it hits me: Joan sounds like Fran Drescher in The Nanny. Fran comes from Queens - the borough down the road (sort of). That accent. It’s frightening. It’s distracting but it shouldn’t be. Joan has more claims-to-fame than most people have undies. Apart from releasing two stunning solo albums, the latter of which - To Survive - has just been released, this nearly 38-year-old has worked with Lou Reed, Sheryl Cow, Sparklehorse, Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode), Elton John, the Scissor Sisters, Joseph Arthur and recorded an album with Tanya Donelly.

She also played in the Hot Trix with noted singer/songwriter Mary Timony (formerly of Helium), was a key member of the mid-1990s alt rock outfit, The Dam Builders, and at the same time played with the excellent Those Bastard Souls which featured Dave Shouse of The Grifters. “He’s a genius, absolutely incredible; I’m glad some people know how great he is,” she gushes. If you can find it, check out The Souls criminally overlooked Debt And Departure album. In 1999, she joined Antony And The Johnsons and contributed to his Mercury Award-winning album, I Am A Bird Now. She formed the trio, Joan As Police Woman (JAPW), in 2002, but its critically-acclaimed debut was still four years hence. In 2004 she got side-tracked again. In February, Rufus Wainwright asked her to join his band and open the shows with JAPW while in August, that year, she recorded with Donelly.

Finally, Joan Wasser was the girlfriend of the legendary late musical genius, Jeff Buckley, at the time of his death in May 1997. Hell, Jeff has been gone 11 years now. Time does fly.
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‘heima’ is icelandic for ‘at home’ or ‘homeland’ and this film follows the band as they embarked on a series of free concerts in Iceland.

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova have won the Oscar for Best Original Song for Falling Slowly from the brilliant low-budget independent hit film, Once. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer pair of people. We, at geemuses, are stoked, and congratulate Glen - the lead singer and songwriter from the mighty Irish band, the Frames - and Marketa. Now go buy their music people. Hansard and Marketa’s CD, Frames CDs, soundtrack, the lot. Even better if you can find any of the music on vinyl!
Get to it then. You won’t regret it, it’s some of the most outstanding music in the modern world.

Hollywood beckons the Frames‘ singer/songwriter Glen Hansard. In one of the more fitting Oscar nominations in recent years, Hansard and Marketa Irglova, his co-star in the wonderful low-budget, big hit, musical will perform on the 80th Annual Academy Awards telecast on February 24.

Hansard and Irglova will perform Falling Slowly, their signature duet from the film, which is nominated for an Oscar in the Best Original Song category. How good is that!

Though this is the first Oscar nomination for Hansard and Irglova, the soundtrack album has garnered several accolades. In January, Falling Slowly was named Best Song at the Critics’ Choice Awards, and in December the soundtrack (Canvasback/Columbia Records/Sony Music Soundtrax) was voted Best Music from a Film by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

The album also received two Grammy nominations this year. In 2007, the film won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

Incidentally, Dylanophiles like Geemuses will have picked up on Hansard and Irglova’s version of the great man’s You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere, one of the highlights of the I’m Not There soundtrack album.

Anyway, everybody - all two of us - at Geemuses think this is the best Oscar nomination in years.

Leslie Feist is remarkably down to earth for a woman who recently attended the 50th Grammy Awards as a four-time nominee, and in the past year has seen 1234, the song she co-wrote with Sally Seltmann of New Buffalo, become the soundtrack for Apple’s iPod Nano ad.

On paper, her world changed: When the ad was first screened, Feist - the name she goes under when playing solo, as distinct from the other part of her career as a member of the brilliant Canadian indie supergroup and musical collective, Broken Social Scene, had just released her fourth solo album, The Reminder - a lovely, eclectic, smart collection of songs that combines sheer simplicity with sublime atmospheres, rich melodies and, at times, unusual rhythms. Drawing on chamber pop, post-modern folk and classic 1960s singer/songwriters, her work is cool and refreshing. 1234 is a perfect example.

Prior to the advertisment screening, The Reminder was selling about 6000 copies a week and 1234 about 2000 downloads a week. Following the commercial’s debut, the album jumped from No. 36 to No. 28 on the Billboard 200. 1234 reached No. 7 on the Hot Digital Songs chart and No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the UK it originally charted at 102; post-ad it also soared to No. 8. Time magazine, as venerable a publication as you can get, slotted 1234 in at No. 2 on its The 10 Best Songs of 2007 list. More was to follow. Feist was photographed by the legendary Annie Liebowitz for the November 2007 issue of Vanity Fair for a photo essay on folk music that also included Joni Mitchell, The Guthrie Family and Peter, Paul and Mary. To cap things off she was then nominated in four Grammy Award categories: Best Female Pop Vocal, Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album (for the reminder), and Best Short Form Music Video (for 1234). Feist also performed 1234 on the Awards’ show.
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