Tommy & the Tall Girls

Monday's I'd Like to Dedicate This Song to All the Ladies Out There was "Friends Only." It was a really fun show because I got to play things that you probably wouldn't ever get to hear otherwise. I try hard to support my friends in their musical endeavors, and I've really enjoyed watching their different styles change and mature over the past few years.
I'm sad to say that before the show I hadn't checked out Tommy & the Tall Girls, my cousin Tom's band. Had I gone to their MySpace page when Tom put the word out a while back, I might have played some of their stuff on my show.
So Tom (who I am fully capable of beating up, just to set the record straight) is in this band, Tommy & the Tall Girls, in Toronto. I don't want to give Tom a big head, but I really respect him for his musical efforts, and I really love most every song of his I've heard. He's got a good sense of humor and an appreciation for very classic-sounding love ballads with quirky pop elements. Maybe I am just a sucker for songwriters who do that [this is where I admit that I should probably expand my musical horizons beyond the Magnetic Fields, but the truth of the matter is that I just don't feel like it].
Back when I was at Pratt (worst art school ever) I had to make a music video for my film class. Tom was coming to visit me around that time, so I used one of his songs, "Antarctica," and filmed him lip syncing to it. I think the aforementioned humor in Tom's lyrics can be exemplified in my favorite line, "And the bars don't close, 'cause they don't exist, won't have to stumble home drunk and delirious."
Anyway, Tommy and the Tall Girls has Tom on lead vocals, guitar and mandolin. I probably should have left this for later, when I could hear more than the recordings on their Myspace page, but I felt it was an appropriate posting following the "Friends Only" show. "Sad Drunk Broken Heart" was probably my favorite, as a charming song from the intoxicated and lonely heart (with some really pretty trumpet and saxophone). "Brass Tacks" and "Come Out" also offer really great brass backings and both appeal to me in the same way that so many of Tom's other songs have in the past. Hopefully at some point I'll be able to see a live performance and listen to more recordings. But seriously, check these guys out, I endorse them fully.



much love,

Ali

Dan Deacon Dan Deacon Dan Deacon

WCWM sponsored one of Baltimore's biggest acts, Dan Deacon, on April 5th. Deacon made it to Pitchfork's 25 best records of 2007 with Spiderman of the Rings and his newest album Bromst has already made it to their Best New Music, ranking in at 8.5 pitchforks. He also made it to Rolling Stone's top 100 hits of 2007 with his single "Crystal Cat."

To be honest, I wasn't entirely impressed with Bromst when I first heard it. I don't want to completely shut it down, it's really just not my kind of thing. But, as a good DJ would, I promoted it. It was amazing that WCWM was able to book Deacon (usually UCAB books all the cool artists). Also, I had heard amazing things about Deacon's concerts. So I bit my tongue, played the ads that Stephen Reader and I made on both of my shows, and waited it out to see how it really was.

And seriously, all promotion and loyalty aside, it was pretty awesome.

Deacon's show was all about lights and crazy dancing. He starts with a warm up activity reminiscent of preschool teachers and crunchy yoga instructors, asking the audience to raise their arms and then crouch to the floor and wiggle their fingers. At one point during the performance, he had everyone in the audience line up and create a bridge, with each person running through and starting another link until the bridge had extended outside and then come back in.

Another bonus? His band had awesome matching white jumpsuits. Dan Deacon wore a WCWM shirt given to him by the station earlier that evening. The music was pretty great. Having been to the concert, sweating, dancing and taking photos, I appreciate what Deacon is doing, and how much work and coordination really goes into his music. I think his is the kind of music that requires extraordinarily loud volume and the ability to shut your eyes and just let loose and rock out. Otherwise it's just kind of "eh." At some point, amidst all the chaos of people flailing their arms and trying to be as close to Deacon (who was on the floor with the crowd) as possible, I realized that every good thing I had heard about the Dan Deacon concert experience had come true... like a magical fairytale.

And after the party it's the after party. I got to meet everyone but Mr. Deacon himself. Not being what you would call a "groupie" this was a fairly new experience for me. (I regret not going to the after-party Jens Lekman attended just about every day of my life) Despite the requests for unpasteurized cheese and sufite-free wine on the rider, everyone seemed pretty chill. And I'd say they seem pretty normal too, except that they were touring the US on a modified school bus for the next couple of months.

However, I was awoken the next morning by the band playing Limp Biskit on the loud speakers in my boyfriend's living room at 7:30. Suddenly the magical experience of the concert the night before turned into mild distaste for the 14 or so person band who slept on the couches, floor and coffee tables of Alice Street and then drove away in a school bus on a rainy Monday morning. Limp Biskit? Really?

Check out my photos from the show on flickr:



Also, I really like this video

<3 Ali

P.S. check out Omar's review of the show

Why you shouldn't mess with Frankie Lymon

Yesterday's I'd Like to Dedicate This Song to All the Ladies Out There... took a pretty strong cue from my other show, No More Rock&Roll for You!, on which I try to play early pop, heavily influenced by the genius of Phil Spector (the self-proclaimed Da Vinci of our time), Motown, Rockabilly and pretty much anything you'd hear in an old-fashioned diner. There's just something about the bubbly days of drinking milkshakes, getting your boyfriend's class ring and telling all your girlfriends about it that just sort of tickles me.

One of my favorite artists in this late-fifties/early sixties era is Frankie Lymon (and the Teenagers). You may know him from such songs as "ABCs of Love," "Rockin' Robin," "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" and "I Put the Bomp (in the Bomp Bomp Bomp)." Frankie Lymon was what we call a child star. And if you thought Britney getting married, anulled, married, showing her lady-parts while getting out of a limo, having children, divorcing, shaving her head, getting really fat and joining the circus has been wonderfully fun to follow, you should probably consider a history lesson in Frankie Lymon's childhood...

This adorable teenager started his career at age 13- but just because Britney got to the Mouseketeers before that, and the Olson twins were on Full House in diapers, doesn't mean you shouldn't give Lymon credit where credit was deserved. I think Beyonce would refer to him as the male version of a diva... Lymon grew up in Harlem, was known for hanging out with women twice his age and hustlin' (when he was ten). Despite this tough childhood, his first hit made it to #6 on the pop single Billboards when he was 14. The boy knew how to do it right. He inspired many of the girl groups of the 1960s (listen to him sing, you'll understand why) and as one of the first black teen idols, the Jackson 5 as well.

The kid married about fifty different women when he was in his twenties. He was also heroin addict. Sources disagree as to whether Lymon joined the US Army to escape drug charges or whether he was drafted, though I'm not sure there's much of a difference... regardless he wasn't the army's most outstanding recruit.

Unfortunately, like many people who peak in their early twenties, Lymon overdosed at the age of 25. Twenty years later, Lymon's three wives (he apparently didn't bother with divorce before moving from one to the next...) were all fighting over his estate. In my mind this qualifies Frankie Lymon as the original O.G.

Recommended listening: ABC's of Love, Melinda, Goody Goody, Why Do Fools Fall In Love?, Little Bitty Pretty One, Short Fat Fanny, Waitin' In School, Rockin' Robin


kisses,

Ali