Behind the curves

My little sister is a big awesome ADVERTISING executive for a big awesome arts and events magazine in a big awesome city. She has told me, numerous times, to let her know if there are any concerts I want to attend in the city because she could get me tickets and write them off as business expenses.

Since I am moving back to Kansas in a month I decided to take her up on her offer. I asked her to get me tickets for DeVotchKa and Cat Power who are playing a couple of weekends from now at separate venues.



When she was trying to pilfer free tickets from her "connections" one of them said, "DeVotchKa, that band was so two years ago. I don't handle them anymore." How a band could be two years ago without having disbanded or died, I'm not entirely sure, so I took the feedback in stride. I insisted that I was a fan of their new work, which is true seeing as how I just discovered them about a month ago.

Then my sister said, "Oh yeah, Cat Power, we cover them a lot in the magazine. Isn't that some kind of country music." No. Cat Power is Cat Power and I love it. There is no reason to put it into a category. It is transcendent, end of story.

But this sent me on a little bit of an unknown artist odyssey this week. I was embarrassed that I didn't have something more obscure or radical on my mind as an ideal concert going experience. So, for the past three days I have been downloading free music from little known bands on myspace. This has been a great way to pass time between writing chapters in my novel. Not only am I ahead of a musical curve, that admittedly may never crest, I can chat directly with the musicians who are, for the most part, queer women with guitars, accordions, cellos and so on and who are excited to have a fan from outside of their regular stomping grounds.

So here are some of the rocking musicians I have found on myspace this week:



Bluebook (pictured above)
This one-woman band consists of Julie Davis teasing her upright bass, vocals and other soft instruments into haunting and playful melodies. My favorite song is Invertebrate, which is free to download. The lyrics are smart and available from her myspace site.

The Jen Korte Band
This two-person group consists of Miss Jen Korte singing and strumming her acoustic guitar and the occasional percussion-al accompaniment of Morgan Coley. I like all of her songs, which again are free, but I am particularly fond of her version of Wonderwall because I have always felt it was a good song, but I don't enjoy the way OASIS sounds, so kudos Jen for reinvigorating a previously doomed song.



Main Squeeze Orchestra
Okay, so I am a little behind the curve on this one. But, if you are looking for something different. Really different. Check out this all-girl, NYC based, all-accordian group. Their free version of Love Will Tear Us Apart is so unbelievably post-modern it hurts.

Ud
Ud seems to defy definition. It is an odd, sometimes tonally off, Americana reassemblage. I like it. This is yet another one-woman show run by Brigid Mcauliffe, with guest appearances from instruments and friends. Arching Down is on my playlist.


Why do we like to see musicians before they are huge megalosupernovastars?

First, the combination of musical abilities and underbelly-rocker personalities make them sexy.

Second, it is blissful to see people of great musical talent up close.

I remember the first time I saw Neko Case with my good buddy, Nick. His sister called us from Indianapolis and said that we had to see her, that she was amazing. She just happened to be playing at the Bottleneck a few nights later. Holy cow. She WAS amazing. We were 5 feet from her. It was intimate. At the time she was this sorta shy, a wee-bit frumpy, knock-kneed gal. She looked like any other person on the street (at least in Lawrence) but she blew us all away when she opened her mouth. A far cry from the photos of a skinny, dare I say almost anorexic, knockout on her current publications. I don't say this to be judgmental, just to set the before she was famous scene. There were about 20 people total there that night. Some people were playing pool instead of watching the concert. I don't know Neko Case, I don't want to go through her trash or read her diary. I like her damn music. It is wonderful. We talked to her after the show while she hocked her own t-shirts.

When we left we felt as though we had been part of a small handful of people who had seen this amazing singer give a fantastic concert. We immediately tattooed our free Bloodshot Record stickers to Nick's car and my art-school supply tackle box. We were in awe of her (her band is pretty damn good as well). We listened to her cd for a year pining for the day we could listen to her sing again live because, as you can probably guess, the CD really didn't do her justice. And we did go to her concert again, three times at the Bottleneck before she outgrew it and moved on to be a headliner at Wakarusa Fest.

So, I can't wait to take some trips to catch these gals in person because it is worth a little digging to have a night when someone stuns you with what they can do. You know it isn't just singers. Actors, athletes, lovers, children with their amazing outlook on the world. These are the things that make life feel great.