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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 2007)
DECEMBER 21. 2007 )UStOUt¡43 music Legends of the Fall Ani and Joni return with mixed results Canon Ant DiFranco • Righteous Babe As a lover and collector of music, one of my biggest beefs is the premature best-of, a retrospective released after an insignificant number of records just to keep an artists’ brand alive in the marketplace until the next album drops. With 19 records in just 17 years, Ani DiFranco’s two-disc Canon feels long overdue and yet just a little underthought. Super-fans who might deem this collection unnecessary because they already own all the orig inal records need look no further than the five new reworkings of DiFranco classics, the most notable being “Both Hands.” While already represented thrice in her back catalog and lacking the earnest heartbreak of the earliest two takes or the grandiose orchestral sweep of the 10-year-old live version, “Both Hands” circa 2007 is buoyant and celebratory, sounding like the bona fide hit that DiFranco has nev er had and that should be issuing from stock speakers in ecologically sensible cars nationwide. It’s a pleasure to coast carefree through Disc One, singing along to every song, almost oblivious to all the obvious omissions (at least one- third of Out of Range, not to men tion original versions of anything from her first three records). Then Disc Two hits like the hellacious hangover after the senseless fun of the night before. First comes the bleary headache question: Didn’t DiFranco release a record in 1999 before To the Teeth! Answer: Yes, Up Up Up Up Up Up, which, while a definite disappointment compared to her 1998 career highlight, Little Plastic Castle, certainly doesn’t deserve a goose-egg dis on Canon. But these are the sorts of executive decisions you get to make when it’s your label and they’re your songs. Disc Two also makes you painfully aware that DiFranco’s second decade of music, while just as admirably prolific, is infinitely less enjoyable than her first. While 1 count 2001’s Revelling and Reckoning and 2OO5’s Knuckle Down among my favorites, too often DiFranco’s latter-era songs are just really jaw dropping poetry masquerading as middling music. That’s why Verses (Seven Stories Press, 2007; $18.95 hardcover), a career-spanning collec tion of DiFranco’s poetry (mostly lyrics from her songs interspersed with a smattering of artwork, released in conjunction with Canon), makes so much sense: Regard less of what you think of A PROGRAM FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV OR AT RISK WHO ARE INTERESTED IN TALKING ABOUT WAYS TO PROTECT THEMSELVES AND THEIR PARTNERS. X 32 her music, past and particularly present, DiFranco is a poet without peer. —Jim Thompson Shine Joni Mitchell • Hear Music Joni Mitchell might not have the mammoth queer following of Madonna or Cher, hut that doesn’t diminish her prestige as a gay icon. Over the course of her 40-year career, the singer/ songwriter from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, has burrowed her way into the souls of straight and gay listeners alike with her gorgeous melodies, her outspoken politics and her uncanny ability to articulate the highs and lows of romance. Mitchell—who is straight—is supportive of the queer community in interviews and in song. She crooned the haunting 1991 ballad “Two Grey Rcxims" from the perspective of a gay man pining for his former lover. David Sedaris devoted an essay to her 1976 classic Hejira in Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. New York City performance artist John Kelly portrays the Canadian diva in drag in his popular show Paved Paradise, earning rave reviews from critics and Ms. Mitchell herself. Mitchell announced her retirement in 2002. But now she’s sneaking back into the spotlight with Shine. With the exception of a cover of her own classic “Big Yellow Taxi," it’s her first album of new material since Turning the Tiger in 1998. For Shine she joined Paul McCartney on Starbucks’ Hear Music label. True to its name, Shine opens with a luminous instrumental piece called “One Day Last Summer.” The closing track—a slick adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If’—is equally impressive. Unfortunately, the eight songs in between are a mixed bag, marred at times by the preachy poli tics that made parts of Turbulent Indigo and Dog Eat Dog such a slog. The central theme of Shine is the demise of the environment, with additional com mentary on “cell phone zombies” and the misdeeds of the Catholic Church. Shine is at its brightest when Mitchell stops ranting and sticks to the lush Mexican rhythms of “Night of the Iguana” and the dreamy lap steel guitar accompaniment on “This Place." Mitchell’s unexpected return to the music busi ness has yielded an uneven and occasionally over bearing album. On rhe bright side her resurrection gives fans a chance to honor her tenacity—and to decide for themselves if they’d rather listen to her Starbucks brew or vintage recordings like Blue. —Stephen Blair © 3 SUPPORTING HEALTHY OPTIONS FOR PREVENTION WWW.OHSU EDU/PARTNERSHIP SUPPORTING HEALTHY OPTIONS FOR PREVENTION .You may know these faces, you may not. For a confidential intake, contact 503*230-1202 or 1-877-795-7700 (Toll Free) Services available statewide SERVICIOS DISPONIBLES EN ESPANOL It has been over 35 years of struggle tor the rights of LGBTQ Oregonians. For some of us. this is a lifetime of fighting. For others, this tireless work began before we were even bom. OREGON HEALTH &SCIENCE On January 1, the equal rights and domestic partnership laws go into efiect. Meet some of the people who have done this work, celebrate and thank them with a historical and UNIVERSITY homecoming weekend of events. Building equality: stories of the struggle for civil rights A weekend of history and reconnections at Q Center, January 11 and 12, 2008 Go to www.pdxqcenter.org for a full list of events CENTER Connecting the spectrum of Portland’s LGBTQ community Street address 69 SE Taylor (at Water Avenue), Portland Mailing address PO Box 2183, Portland, OR 97208-2183 Phono 503 234 7837 Web www.pdxqcenter.org Pictured above, left to right, top row Barbara Roberts former Oregon governor: John Adams, original owner of CC Slaughters and the Eagle; Lady Elaine Peacock, founder of Peacock in the Park; Donna Red Wing. ED of The Lesbian Community Protect (1989-1993) and named "Most Dangerous Woman in Oregon" by the OCA (1992). Kristan Knapp of lesbian music group Usra Minor. Gary Benoit, twice Imperial Sovereign Emperor: JerryWeller first ED of Portland Town Council (1976) and co-founding board member of Human Rights Campaign (1981) »
