SOUNDTRACK: NELLIE McKAY-Tiny Desk Concert #117 (April 4, 2011).
Nellie McKay is a singer I’d never heard of. She is a blonde woman in a kind of yellow kimono and looks like she might be a funny folk singer as she plays a ukulele which is cut to look like an electric guitar. But rather unexpectedly, she and her band burst into a reggae song.
McKay is, according to the blurb, an audacious artist who once devoted an entire album to Doris Day songs. And now she writes a pretty authentic sounding Caribbean jam. “Caribbean Time” has all the trappings of an island song–reggae guitars, bongos, and heavily wah-wahed guitars.
Between the songs, she makes some unexpected comments. Like she says that she decided that a good sketch would be people sitting around a table asking for things and confessing at the same time, “Pass the syrup my father beat e as a child.”
When they start “Beneath the Underdog” the guitarist doesn’t start on time. He says “Sorry, I forgot where we were for a second.” She replies, “We’re in Washington D.C. fighting the man.”
“Beneath the Underdog” is a little less reggae influenced but still has a very tropical, light sound. And her lyrics are wry and amusing, “beneath the underdog, that’s where I’m comfortable.” It’s poppy and fun. She even plays a keyboard solo with notes that sound kind of like steel drums.
“The Portal” is a ballad. It’s much more traditional sounding, although with the same inflections that McKay has used on the other songs. Her voice is quite distinctive without being unusual. This is a somber song, but even while singing it she looks like she’s about to laugh.
And she caps off the set with an other weird moment where she introduces her band and mispronounces her guitarists last name and seems to have a really hard time saying it. She apologizes, “I was stoned when I met him.” As the camera dims she says, “Thank you for fighting the good fight. We are the silent majority but not so silent, we’re just quiet and tasteful.”
I found her to be quite engaging and charming. I wonder if she’s still making music.
[READ: January 17, 2016] The Glorkian Warrior Delivers a Pizza
I have enjoyed everything I’ve read from John Kochalka. His drawings are deceptively simple and his books are stupid but ultimately clever (and funny, either way). His adult books are pretty over the top vulgar (don’t let your kids see them), but his kids books are very funny and perfectly juvenile.
This is his first book for First Second, and the first in a trilogy about the Glorkian Warrior.
Our copy also has an autograph for C.–our Vermont cousins sent it for his birthday (Kochalka is the artist laureate of Vermont, you know).
The premise of this book is painfully simple. We meet the Glorkian Warrior who is, well, dumb. His backpack talks to him and tries to get him to be less dumb. And to be more heroic. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: NEVEREST SONGS-“Calculator” (2010).
Opening with a simple, discordant piano, this song quickly morphs into a fast chaotic piano run, all the while the vocal stay slow and calm. Once the bass kicks in, the song feels less like a solo track and more like a band effort. And it’s amazing that this simple bass can add so much to this swelling track.