In this brave new world of instant info, I got to read Amy Klein’s own assessment of the band she plays in with her pal Cathy Tung, Hilly Eye.
And you can do so too thereby making my position a redundancy
here:
Actually, all this self opinion works against em. It leaves me in the position of spoiler. Of saying yes but…
So yes but.
We got it, Sleater Kinney. I loved Sleater Kinney as well. But, certainly on Call the Doctor and their masterpiece Dig Me Out it wasn’t about Corin’s vocals, it was about really good songs. Even first runners up Bikini Kill only happened when it happened: “Rebel Girl” mattered not because it was a dyke ode, but because it was a great song.
At their riot grrl best, “Grand Canyon”, the song needs a tweak somewhere and I think it is the tune itself: the playing is fine, Klein’s vocals, her Corin screams first rate, the guitar a searing punker of great power. But the melody needs something.
Better is “Double Dutch” -the entire lyric goes: “I can see what you are” and Catherine sounds quirky, weird, Bjork-y and the song has a child song like chiming charm as the instruments build up steam and morph away. Sorta Real Estate with a chick (I use that word with the fear of being lynched well in mind) vibe.
The other two songs are an indie ballad, “Jersey City”, the best written of the bunch, and “Loopy” with the best lyric, “If I’m alive then you’re alive, if I’m in love then you’re in love, we go around, we go around.” it loops.
A coupla more thoughts and I will leave you alone:
1. I’ve seen Amy live on stage three times now but only noticed her after she joined Free Energy for a song. There is a sorta funning, goofy, intensity: pompousness and self importance cut rock off at its legs: the fun in funning is fun for the fans.
2.Both musicians are Harvard graduates. Turning money into rebellion, these lefty feminists (sorta like supporting the repeal of the Jim Crow laws, n’est pas?) seem to be working their way from the inside out. Incidentally, the second Ivy League band I’ve written about today! What gives?
3. Homosexuality is irrelevant when it comes to music: if your lyric can’t leap frog through gender identities in the year 2010, find another medium.
4. If you go to Amy’s blog amyandronicus, you can hear her bedroom recordings. There is a rule of thumb in songwriting. If the song you are writing doesn’t make sense strummed on an acoustic guitar, dump it. Because no amount of arranging will save the sucker. “What good is a secret that you never tell? So I’m telling you” goes one song. Absolutely lovely. The kid is on to something.