I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: JULIA HOLTER-Tiny Desk Concert #524 (April 22, 2016).

Julia Holter also has a theatrical style although her touchstone would be someone more like Regina Spektor (I found a similar style in their delivery).

“Sea Calls me Home” has a cabaret style in her delivery and songs structure.  She plays piano with a small band of upright bass, violin and drum.  I really like the sound (and solo) of the violin later on in the song.

“In the Green Wild” has a very jazzy feel with the upright bass playing a jazz line and the drums playing a jazzy rushed sound.  The violin plays some random high almost dissonant notes that work very well.  For the beginning, Julia doesn’t play piano, she sing-speaks kind of like Laurie Anderson—including the unusual intonation and emphases.  The rest of the band sings backing vocals that are higher and ethereal.  About half way in, she begins playing piano and the song settles sown a bit. The way she sings is unusual and a little unsettling—she looks up at the ceiling more or less the whole time.  Her piano notes are simple and I like the way she plays without looking at the keys.

After that song she speaks briefly.  Her personality is pretty nonexistent–she doesn’t smile or even seem to look at anyone. She sounds rather bored as she says okay we’ll play another song.  Thanks for listening.  That turned me off of her music a bit.

The final song, “Betsy on the Roof,” is the longest, about six minutes long.  It sounds similar to the first one–theatrical and somewhat operatic.  There’s a story in the song, but my favorite part is the middle where she sings a scale up to the roof and then the band rocks out.  The end of the song is fascinating as she sings her nice melody and plays atonal tones on the piano.  I enjoyed t he theatricality of this music a lot, but I would have preferred not to see her performance.

[READ: June 10, 2016] “Waiting for the Miracle”

This is the story of Vadik and his arrival in New York from Moscow.  It was a snowy day as he landed at J.F.K.  Despite the snow blanketing the skyline, it was still exciting. as he descended.  He had just received his work Visa authorizing his stay in the U.S. for three years.  He was staring work in Avenel, NJ.

His friend Sergey, who lives in Staten Island, came to pick him up.  All that Vadik wanted to do was explore the city–walk aimlessly and see what happened, but Sergey wanted to take him to his house.  And Sergey’s wife Vica wanted to see him too–in their past Vadik and Vica had been an item although and Sergey stole her away.  Vica made dinner for him and so he agreed to go to the Island.

On the way to the house, the most improbable thing is that Sergey is listening to a Leonard Cohen CD and singing along.  (Vadik likes Sergey and admits that he is still handsome, but his voice is terrible and has always been terrible.  And it’s especially bad especially for Leonard Cohen.  I say this is improbable because Cohen’s music appears later in the story  too.

Vica is excited to see him and shows off that she finally fixed her teeth.  Vadik didn’t even know what she was talking about.  Then she reminds him about her crooked teeth–clearly something that bothered her as a child, but which Vadik actually found charming back then.

They show him around the house and he meets their son Eric who is absorbed in a video game and later proves to be less than charming.

Although Vadik appreciates the welcome, he just wants to go to the City and walk around.  So Sergey gives him some change and he heads off in a bus.

Vadik walks around Manhattan for hours and finally goes to a diner.  He sits down with his book and sees a girl across the way from him. She is also reading.  And after a few minutes he gets up the nerve and talks to her.  She invites him over to her booth.  The story began to feel more and more improbable) all felt more and more improbable.  Especially when a Leonard Cohen song comes on in the diner. {I’ve been to many many diners and I’ve never heard a Leonard Cohen song in one, in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Leonard Cohen song that i didn’t put on myself).

The girl, Rachel, hates Leonard Cohen because he is a misogynist.  This part is certainly believable–especially the vitriol she feels about it.  She tries to argue this point with Vadik, but he doesn’t get it–he says Cohen loves women, but her point is that he loves them but doesn’t respect them.

When it is time to leave, Vadik goes home with Rachel.

The story talks about how he thought about her for years afterwards and all of the things he could have done differently.

I enjoyed that it wasn’t until the end of the story that we learned exactly what happened that evening.

So this story felt like a fairy tale–all the snow, the continuous music, the setting–none of it seems realistic to me.   I can’t imagine that a young woman who hook up with a foreigner in a diner, but hey they say anything could happen in New York City, right?