January 17, 2003 J « f 1 |3 3
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REVIEWS
T he N ew Y ear EP
Dear Nora • Magic
Marker
f you expected Dear
Nora’s follow-up to
200l ’s spectacular
dehut We’ll Have a
Time to he filled with
the same whirlwind of
yummy pop gixxiness
that made the first
record such a success,
you’re in for a hit of a
surprise.
For one, The New
Year EP is really more
of a solo project by
queer cutie Katy Davidson. The band’s front-
woman, who, in the name of love, packed up
and moved to San Francisco a couple of years
hack, recorded the EP without fellow Portland
bandmates Ryan Wise and Marianna Ritchey.
The result is a quiet album, reminiscent of a
gray and rainy Portland morning. Sometimes
dreary, sometimes calming, reflective and gen
erally moody.
Perhaps characteristic of Davidson’s own
style, the most noticeable change in sound is
more instrumentals and experimentations
Showing off her talent for the piano, she’s
crafted three soft and dreamlike “codas,” or
instrumental pieces, to go along with pre
existing Dear Nora songs "The New Year,”
“Deaming Out Loud" and “A Lullaby,” giving
them a slower and more nostalgic feel.
This isn’t to say, though, that Dear Nora
doesn't deliver. Once again, Davidson offers up
the same simple yet thoughtful lyrical bril
liance that made the first album so charming.
And while the stings may seem a little more
melancholy as she contemplates both changes
in seasons and changes in life, the harmonies
are still catchy and poppy enough to find your
self humping along to.
If you’re a fan who was a-wish in’ and
a-hopin’ for more of that first sound, you may
he a little disappointed. But if you’re devoted
enough to explore with them, Dear Nora may
just win your heart one more time.
— Courtney Perkins
B etter D ays
Ijjoi • Hamlet
Recordings
E
rnest Lijoi
takes full
control on
his third full-
length album,
Better Days.
Having
reworked the
Sondheim-influenced, thematic production of
tracks like the dusty disc opener “Holding On,"
he is poised for stardom.
With a country-tinged immediacy and
romanticism, the lyrics swirl through the psy
che. Transplanting himself from New Eng
land to New York City, the singer/songwriter
has upgraded production values, gamering
critical attention and moving his show
"uptown."
It’s obvious that touring his cabaret show
Being Ernest has had purposeful impact on
the overall picture here. There are several
interesting inferences from diverse genres:
swing, jazz and plain ol’ pop— a bit Counting
Crows here, a tinge of Hedwig there. This
clearly is heard in the upbeat “Dancing in
the Rain” when Lijoi
sings, “I stopped by
for coffee, but she
tt-o new y*** e P
poured me some
champagne, then she
took me dancing in
the rain.”
Breakout track
“Dance with the
Devil” has matter-of-
fact sexual innuen
does encrusted
throughout, “setting
the floor on fire” and
finding common
ground with latter-day
Brian Setzer’s neo-
rockabilly.
Better Days includes its fair share of ground
ed, slower-moving tracks, but Lijoi is at his best
when he belts and boogies. Certainly the
(cocktail) club favorite here would be “The
Only One,” a quirky parody professing undying
love while seeking self-adulation.
These are indeed better days for Lijoi,
whose lyrical content is brilliantly marked by
storytelling, as heard in the disc closer, “Alibi,"
where “I’ll be your diversion and you can be
my alibi” has quite a real, honest ring to it.
There is an importance in being Ernest. Join
the club at www.lijoi.com.
— TJ Norris
Artful
Specialties
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8 om to 3 pm everyday
Breakfast anytime
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Lunch from 10am
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1728 SE 7th Ave.
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A tmosphere
The Quails •
Inconvenient
Recordings
Gay Owned & Operated ▼
+ Delicious homemade soups
& bold salads. +
+ Local hormone
free beef burgers +
Many specialty &
breakfast items too! +
a
wo girls,
one guy.
Part pop,
part politics.
Saturated and
overdriven
fuzzy guitars.
Screeching vocals reminiscent of Sleater-
Kinney. Righteous, purposeful lyrics. It’s the
raging San Francisco trio The Quails—hold
onto your hats.
If you’ve ever heard the soundtrack to the
documentary Athens. Ga: Inside/Out, you might
recall the lo-fi art-rock sound that was pouring
out of that sleepy Southern town in the early
to mid-1980s. Listening to The Quails makes
you feel as if you’re back in time, lurking in
Clympia or Athens, obsessively collecting
every Pylon single or every title from the Kill
Rock Stars label.
But no, it’s 2003—and The Quails are on a
mission, trends be damned.
Their second release, Atmosphere, is a raw
explosion— 13 tracks expressed sparingly and
with little deviation. Yeah, their sonic palette
is bland; most tracks are more alike than diver
gent. There are a few exceptions: Track 8
resembles Throwing Muses circa Real Ramona,
and Track 9 throws in some atonal keyboard
weirdness to shake things up.
The beauty of this trio is that they choose
minimalism and sing their guts out. And for
the most part it works. In our crazed world of
overconsumption, where the virus of gluttony
and excess makes no exception for art + music,
The Quails’ gloriously simple approach is
subversive.
Your best bet? Take these guys at face value.
They’re blasting a message of empowerment
and justice with a punk-rock megaphone. Now
all we have to do is open our minds, stand up
and heed the call.
— Con Tarcuoot in
T
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4
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Breakfast - Sat & Sun 8-3
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SdA fU ftA
Our revolving steak sign has become a landmark in Portland.
A sign o f quality. Where you know you can get a great steak
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mr
OLD CÛUMTR7 QTCHEI
home o f the 72 oz steak
I05th & SE Stark • 503-252-417! - Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy at Griffith Dr - 503-644-1492