Marika Marika MamaMtLion2@aol.com Labor Of Love Tour Thursday December 26th 2002 Kimya Dawson & Friends @ Sidewalk Cafe, NYC "What goes around doesn't come around. Not in this town" Blue knit hat with bleached burned blonde dread locky looking type things sprouting out of convenient holes at the antennae points of the top of the head. Humble, squat and apologetic; an acoustic troll doll, life size. Singing of a small town or the town she came from or that town she knows that we all know. Yes, even if you are from the great city. "I'll be insignificant..." "Seven walls go up for every one wall that comes down" Penitent and simultaneously brazen, Kimya speaks/sings her mind, "I wrote this song after I saw the pictures of Michael Jackson dangle his baby over the railing." Lulling into a nursery simple-type strum, unabashedly stating what's painfully obvious, "the old are supposed to protect the young..." "Having been fucked up is no excuse for being fucked up." Her presence onstage seems almost uncomfortable, but the stage provides forum for her poignant, beatific, blunt insights; she holds no illusions of her life, where she stands according to class, her strata (it's what you make of it). What, with all our knowledge what we are capable of-- if we look deeper, harder, harsher, longer, stronger. In our own faces. And then there are times when we react out of the lack of anything reactionary around us. Kimya barely looks at the audience. They seem not to care about her elusiveness and instead adore her for it. For her, this adoration appears to be a comfort as much as a bother. Crawl into the hole of your acoustic guitar and play it from the inside out, sing your heart out into the pickup louder than you are wont to do in public. "She said I don't want to be dead anymore" "She'd never know if she stayed in a hole" "Sinking infinitely into the ground while -everyone she knows is clapping -everyone she knows is happy." "I wish my brother could always be happy but because he isn't , he is strong just like me." Playing her cut ( "I'd Rather Go with Friends Than Go Alone") off the "This Is Antifolk" compilation, brings a subdued cheer, and I cheer rather loudly (that's just the way I am, and we are what we are). When she comes to that lyric in this particular song about delineating where she stands on the subject of being "cool" (and whether it's something she cares about or not), the "city children" that share my table ever-so-conspicuously (they want you to know that they are here) are presented with a conundrum, "-but isn't she really cool?!" They love her and protest this to one another. Sadly, they just don't entirely get the club-footed irony of the "cool" game. "You screamed 'bottoms up!' just as I blacked out." Kimya smiles when she flubs her own song and a corner of the audience finishes it up for her. She never looks up. Toby Goodshank joins her onstage, 'you cannot hear me because I'm wearing my bottomless feet.' Pushing the play button to an electronic greeting card into the microphone lends the perfect amount of audible confusion, and her hand is singing like a cell phone. "Your reflection reflects on everything you do and everything you do reflects on you." I hear someone extol, "She should be on Sesame Street." Brilliant. The Bundles Anders Griffin- drums/vocals Kimya Dawson- vocals/keyboard Jeff Lewis- vocals/acoustic Jack Lewis- vocals/bass (everybody's singin') Reminiscent of Velvet Underground, being completely avant garde in their musical interpretations of art and music, I am struck with the thought that even those persons in High School who no one gave a chance to, are somewhere doing something and some of them are right here, singing in harmony. Jeff Lewis, playing parts of the guitar that ordinarily aren't played or are usually a nuisance (i.e. the tails of metal strings.)turns his acoustic stickered guitar easily into an electric with the step of a peddle. "Something for everyone" "Don't forget about your friends" A 'Row, Row Your Boat' song, sung in rounds, and The Bundles weave circles around your head, while Jack keeps his bass warm on the floor. Throw the capo on and let's rock. Together they create a loose network of ideology and musical philosophy that is improvisation ally tight. I don't know if this was their intention, but the listener often takes what he/she hears to another level all on their own. Through it all, the music remains intentional, fuck ups and all that might befall in the performance. This is the fulcrum I believe to be the magick behind Antifolk. Kimya is celebrating four years of self dedication and her friends and acquaintances are here to celebrate her accomplishment. Thankfully she is sharing this beautiful energy and awareness, calling them up to add their input in song. "Wearing clothes with a hole that fits me." -Jeff Lewis "HeyI got some acidyou want some acid?" (x25) -Jeff and Jack Lewis "I want to write a protest song but I can't figure out what's wrong, All I know, is I don't want to get out of my bed." "There's beauty within disease, I've seen it in a dead oak tree." - Cockroach Bernstein "There's fear in the streets and it looks like you and me." -Joie Dead Blonde Girlfriend "A boy that built a snowman out of himself" -Adam Greene "My friends and their songs saved my life." -Simple May this New Year be all that last year might have lacked. I'm not sure if that's optimism, but it's an attempt. Peace. Copyright Labor Of Love 2003 |
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Marika Marika MamaMtLion2@aol.com Labor Of Love Tour Thursday December 26th 2002 Kimya Dawson & Friends @ Sidewalk Cafe, NYC "What goes around doesn't come around. Not in this town" Blue knit hat with bleached burned blonde dread locky looking type things sprouting out of convenient holes at the antennae points of the top of the head. Humble, squat and apologetic; an acoustic troll doll, life size. Singing of a small town or the town she came from or that town she knows that we all know. Yes, even if you are from the great city. "I'll be insignificant..." "Seven walls go up for every one wall that comes down" Penitent and simultaneously brazen, Kimya speaks/sings her mind, "I wrote this song after I saw the pictures of Michael Jackson dangle his baby over the railing." Lulling into a nursery simple-type strum, unabashedly stating what's painfully obvious, "the old are supposed to protect the young..." "Having been fucked up is no excuse for being fucked up." Her presence onstage seems almost uncomfortable, but the stage provides forum for her poignant, beatific, blunt insights; she holds no illusions of her life, where she stands according to class, her strata (it's what you make of it). What, with all our knowledge what we are capable of-- if we look deeper, harder, harsher, longer, stronger. In our own faces. And then there are times when we react out of the lack of anything reactionary around us. Kimya barely looks at the audience. They seem not to care about her elusiveness and instead adore her for it. For her, this adoration appears to be a comfort as much as a bother. Crawl into the hole of your acoustic guitar and play it from the inside out, sing your heart out into the pickup louder than you are wont to do in public. "She said I don't want to be dead anymore" "She'd never know if she stayed in a hole" "Sinking infinitely into the ground while -everyone she knows is clapping -everyone she knows is happy." "I wish my brother could always be happy but because he isn't , he is strong just like me." Playing her cut ( "I'd Rather Go with Friends Than Go Alone") off the "This Is Antifolk" compilation, brings a subdued cheer, and I cheer rather loudly (that's just the way I am, and we are what we are). When she comes to that lyric in this particular song about delineating where she stands on the subject of being "cool" (and whether it's something she cares about or not), the "city children" that share my table ever-so-conspicuously (they want you to know that they are here) are presented with a conundrum, "-but isn't she really cool?!" They love her and protest this to one another. Sadly, they just don't entirely get the club-footed irony of the "cool" game. "You screamed 'bottoms up!' just as I blacked out." Kimya smiles when she flubs her own song and a corner of the audience finishes it up for her. She never looks up. Toby Goodshank joins her onstage, 'you cannot hear me because I'm wearing my bottomless feet.' Pushing the play button to an electronic greeting card into the microphone lends the perfect amount of audible confusion, and her hand is singing like a cell phone. "Your reflection reflects on everything you do and everything you do reflects on you." I hear someone extol, "She should be on Sesame Street." Brilliant. The Bundles Anders Griffin- drums/vocals Kimya Dawson- vocals/keyboard Jeff Lewis- vocals/acoustic Jack Lewis- vocals/bass (everybody's singin') Reminiscent of Velvet Underground, being completely avant garde in their musical interpretations of art and music, I am struck with the thought that even those persons in High School who no one gave a chance to, are somewhere doing something and some of them are right here, singing in harmony. Jeff Lewis, playing parts of the guitar that ordinarily aren't played or are usually a nuisance (i.e. the tails of metal strings.)turns his acoustic stickered guitar easily into an electric with the step of a peddle. "Something for everyone" "Don't forget about your friends" A 'Row, Row Your Boat' song, sung in rounds, and The Bundles weave circles around your head, while Jack keeps his bass warm on the floor. Throw the capo on and let's rock. Together they create a loose network of ideology and musical philosophy that is improvisation ally tight. I don't know if this was their intention, but the listener often takes what he/she hears to another level all on their own. Through it all, the music remains intentional, fuck ups and all that might befall in the performance. This is the fulcrum I believe to be the magick behind Antifolk. Kimya is celebrating four years of self dedication and her friends and acquaintances are here to celebrate her accomplishment. Thankfully she is sharing this beautiful energy and awareness, calling them up to add their input in song. "Wearing clothes with a hole that fits me." -Jeff Lewis "HeyI got some acidyou want some acid?" (x25) -Jeff and Jack Lewis "I want to write a protest song but I can't figure out what's wrong, All I know, is I don't want to get out of my bed." "There's beauty within disease, I've seen it in a dead oak tree." - Cockroach Bernstein "There's fear in the streets and it looks like you and me." -Joie Dead Blonde Girlfriend "A boy that built a snowman out of himself" -Adam Greene "My friends and their songs saved my life." -Simple May this New Year be all that last year might have lacked. I'm not sure if that's optimism, but it's an attempt. Peace. Copyright Labor Of Love 2003 |
