feùruary !. 200! .' Jaat M 4 4 3
MUSIC
Bitching and bluffing
E te r n a lly H a rd e te r n a lly an n o y in g;
D o u g h er fie rc e a n d se n sitiv e ; B lack n eed s v o ice le sso n s
E ternally H ard
Bitch and Animal • Righteous Babe Records
ome art is, well, let’s just say it...had.
People have been up in arms about
the distinction between “good” art and
“had" art since the beginning of civiliza
tion, saying quality is merely relative. (“Some
people like had art!” they say.) O ne critic has
no place telling the public what is good and
what is had.
Well, I’m here to tell you: T his just hap
pens to he my place. My astronomically
minuscule place in the universe, my tiny
bulletin hoard of personal opinion. And in
this tiny place, I regretfully tell you: People,
quality is not relative. Som e art is had for a
reason.
Bitch and Anim al, a seemingly radical
duo, create music that is hard to listen to
without cringing. Now, ironically, this is the
kind of group that generally would take that
as a compliment. Howev
er, 1 don’t cringe at what
they perceive to he their
totally unprecedented
raunchiness (Om igod the
first song on the album is
called “ Best C ock on the
Block” ! Unprecedented!)
or their wannabe blunt
names (“ Bitch” ? Please!
Meredith Bnxiks already
reclaimed that one) or
their white-girl rapping
style or their drug refer
ences (see “G an ja” ).
W hat really hits my
inner-cringe core is the
utter lack of artistic subtlety in their lyrics
and music. If they lay it all out on the table
for us, do we really want to question what’s
underneath? For example, on “ Boy Girl
People ,
quality
is not
relative.
Some
art is
bad for
a reason.
W onder” the duo sing, “Why is it so
lonely/in between boy and a girl/they’re so
glued down in this world/and what it
m eans” and on the chorus, “ Pm trans-all-of-
that-gender/l’m a bender.”
What if Melissa Etheridge referred to herself
as a lesbian in the chorus of her songs a la
“Come to my window/I’m a les-all-of-that-
bian” ? We would tire of the blatancy, we’d beg
for the poetry. In my humble opinion, it’s much
hotter for k.d. lang to be a lesbian singing
country songs than a country singer singing
about being a lesbian.
Besides all that, Bitch and Animal’s second
C D sounds like the score to a bad 70s movie.
Oh yeah, and their
fashion reminds of the
movie Mystery Men
(not a good thing). Oh
yeah, and....
Did anyone men
tion something about
the artistic subtlety of
writing music reviews?
— Katy Davidson
T he B luff
Sarah Dougher •
Mr. Lady Records
t
" ; toe is the lowly
•! 1 i reporter/musi-
cian who’s
asked to review the
new album of a musical peer!
Just one month ago, I found myself in a
G M C Safari minivan, scuttling down the
coast of California with Sarah Dougher and
her bandmate Jon Nikki, on our way to a
joint gig in Santa Barbara. She was doing a
short tour in support of The Bluff; I was
along for the ride and the prospect of a good
show.
Usually if a fellow musician asks my opin
ion of her album, I’m happy to give honest
feedback, padded with a little mandatory
reassurance that “ it’s good!” and “I really like
it!" When asked to review for publication,
however, Pm faced with the new challenge
of presenting a moderately unbiased, accu
rate representation of the recording (see
Bitch and Animal above).
At times I wish I were a robot.
SHARE THE WEALTH
DOWNTOWN @ 9 2 7 SW OAK • 2 2 6 -8 1 4 1
R emembered F aces /P rivate P laces
Ben Black • Origin Records
T
he kind of jazz singers who grab me are
ones who really own the music they per
form— Patricia Barber and Dianne Reeves
come to mind.
Maybe Seattleite Ben Black’s voice is an
acquired taste, but for my ears, it’s just too
high and thin— nasal at times, hoarse at oth
ers. He sounds best on quiet ballads when
the lack of power in his voice is less evident.
The first cut, a Sondheim tune called “I
Remember,” fits that groove well.
Black is gay, and many of the album’s
r ' / '■
I
www.justout.com
or call 503-236-1252
K a t y D a v id s o n is a uniter, musician, dreamer
and bicyclist who splits her time between Portland
and San Francisco.
O RIANA G ree n is a really picky Portland
writer.
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Just Out subscriptions
make great gifts for
family and friends.
songs can be interpreted with a homo spin.
He has a talent for creating medleys that
convey an updated message, such as in
“Younger Than Springtim e” from South
Pacific: “Gayer than laughter are you/sweeter
than music are you” and then “Gayer than
laughter am I/angel and lover/heaven and
earth am 1 with you.”
It also includes “Dites-M oi” with the
almost poignant interpretation of the line
“ Dites moi pourquoi la vie est gaie” (Tell me
why life is gay). This set is rounded out with
“You’ve G ot to Be Carefully Taught,” origi
nally written about racism, but in this con
text, the meaning can be extended to a
request for tolerance of all people.
The backup musicians on Remembered Faces
are excellent and provide most of the jazz fla
vor. Although many of the songs are foreign
and obscure, it often feels more like a set of
standards.
The album is well mixed enough so the
stronger musicians don’t overwhelm Black’s
delicate voice. For a so-called jazz disc, howev
er, the players are given precious few chances
to solo, perhaps to emphasize Black’s only role
of singer.
Black sounds better on some of the foreign
tunes, and when he harmonizes with himself,
as he does on the haunting “Chinar Es," it
bulks up his voice nicely.
My hunch is he comes off better live; his
striking good looks and intense gaze might
enhance his repertoire, especially the torchy
love songs. If you find yourself in Seattle,
keep a lookout for him.
— Oriana Green JP1
, /
f
EVERY BOOK OF GAY EROTICA
ALWAYS IN STOCK!
( j ED A Night in the Barracks. Military homos.
Having sex. With straight GIs. Bastards! $13.
< ® > Formosa Favorites. Lush nude photos
of sexy-as-sin Asian boys. Special buy. $19.95.
CiU D Ride, Queer, Ride. Legendary filmmaker
Bruce la Bruce spills the beans. $27.95.
Fortunately, the truth is, The Bluff is good!
And I really like it!
The album— like her last record, The
Walls Ablaze — is jangley, melodic, lyrically
interesting, well recorded, fierce and sensi
tive. “Must Believe” is a skiffle-style ditty,
“Wide Eyed” is jumpy and melodically infec
tious, the title track features a beautiful
meandering guitar line. “My Kingdom” was
recorded using an acoustic guitar instead of
her usual electric, and it adds a welcome
diversity of sound to the record, as do the
drum machine beats on “System Works.”
Lyrically, Dougher writes primarily about
relationships: confusing relationships, strug
gling relationships,
overcoming
heartache. (One
woman in the audi
ence at her Santa
Barbara show said
that her friend just
was getting over a
relationship and that
The Bluff was helping
her cope.)
Even if I were a
robot, spitting out
sterile album reviews,
I hardly could over
look that Dougher’s
sound is constantly
improving. With
each new album, a
catchier melody, a new instrument added, a
more poignant lyric.
— KD
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