I should have probably written about them much earlier as they performed last week in LA, opening for Superchunk at the Henry Fonda Music Box. The Vaselines are one of these bands which can disappear for a couple of decade (they did not release anything between 1990 and 2010!) and can make a come back fresh as ever, and more relevant than many other bands. I did not know much about the Scottish band which formed in 1986, but I guess dormancy is as good for seeds as for some bands, since I was instantaneously seduced by their wit and humor, mainly dues to Frances McKee’s quirky lines and her ex-boyfriend Eugene Kelly’s stoic reactions; and this is without talking about their punk melodious songs.
I have read that Kurt Cobain loved them so much he named his daughter after McKee, and he is certainly not the only one, since many people were at the Fonda for them last week, shouting ‘I love you’ many times, to which Frances McKee answered with her funny Scottish accent ‘OK, OK, I heard you the first time! See you later …Thank you for being so insistent!’
With his small hat and his black and red shirt, Eugene Kelly was dressed like Freddie Krueger (may be he thought we would be in an Halloween kind of mood, although I saw many pictures of him wearing this same outfit) whilst Frances McKee was wearing a feminine light dress and the two were exchanging jokes all night long. The chemistry is there and you can only imagine why they named their last album ‘Sex with an X’.
‘This song is about Baby Jesus’ said Eugene before playing ‘Jesus wants me for a sunbeam’, ‘One of yours?’ asked Frances with a malicious smile, ‘Among many!’ he answered with as much detachment as you could expect from a guy,… my God, it’s blasphemous and hilarious, just like the lyrics of the song ‘And don’t expect me to cry/For all the reasons you had to die/Don’t ever ask your love of me’.
As they put it, they played some ‘old shit’ (like ‘Monsterpussy’, ‘Molly’s lips’, ‘Jesus don’t want me for a ‘Sunbeam’) and ‘new shit’ (like ‘Sex with an X’, ‘The Devil’s inside me’), and their simple-sounding playful songs, all about 60s guitars, sunny vocal harmonies, and sexual-references-injected lyrics, just brought a smile on everybody’s face. But it is not about nostalgia, after all they wrote a song called ‘I hate the 80s’…’We had had our tongues in cheeks before most of you had cheeks. At least you 80s kids!’, said funny Frances.
With these mixes of folk-countrish-surf-punk riffs served by the contrasting sweet vocals of Frances and the straight delivery of Eugene, all their catchy tunes are a recipe for happiness. The songs work as a female-male dialogue between an all-smiling outspoken girl always ready to entertain and a bleak guy keeping a morose expression on his face.
Cynicism, wittiness and cool harmonies, the Vaselines are back and their show is as much as about their repartees than about their cool music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db80M7w81-U
I have read that Kurt Cobain loved them so much he named his daughter after McKee, and he is certainly not the only one, since many people were at the Fonda for them last week, shouting ‘I love you’ many times, to which Frances McKee answered with her funny Scottish accent ‘OK, OK, I heard you the first time! See you later …Thank you for being so insistent!’
With his small hat and his black and red shirt, Eugene Kelly was dressed like Freddie Krueger (may be he thought we would be in an Halloween kind of mood, although I saw many pictures of him wearing this same outfit) whilst Frances McKee was wearing a feminine light dress and the two were exchanging jokes all night long. The chemistry is there and you can only imagine why they named their last album ‘Sex with an X’.
‘This song is about Baby Jesus’ said Eugene before playing ‘Jesus wants me for a sunbeam’, ‘One of yours?’ asked Frances with a malicious smile, ‘Among many!’ he answered with as much detachment as you could expect from a guy,… my God, it’s blasphemous and hilarious, just like the lyrics of the song ‘And don’t expect me to cry/For all the reasons you had to die/Don’t ever ask your love of me’.
As they put it, they played some ‘old shit’ (like ‘Monsterpussy’, ‘Molly’s lips’, ‘Jesus don’t want me for a ‘Sunbeam’) and ‘new shit’ (like ‘Sex with an X’, ‘The Devil’s inside me’), and their simple-sounding playful songs, all about 60s guitars, sunny vocal harmonies, and sexual-references-injected lyrics, just brought a smile on everybody’s face. But it is not about nostalgia, after all they wrote a song called ‘I hate the 80s’…’We had had our tongues in cheeks before most of you had cheeks. At least you 80s kids!’, said funny Frances.
With these mixes of folk-countrish-surf-punk riffs served by the contrasting sweet vocals of Frances and the straight delivery of Eugene, all their catchy tunes are a recipe for happiness. The songs work as a female-male dialogue between an all-smiling outspoken girl always ready to entertain and a bleak guy keeping a morose expression on his face.
Cynicism, wittiness and cool harmonies, the Vaselines are back and their show is as much as about their repartees than about their cool music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db80M7w81-U