Poetic Memory: Jail Weddings (List)
Photo credit: Sarah Morrison Photography
Jail Weddings‘ 2009 EP, Inconvenient Dreams, has spent the last few months in constant rotation at the Owl and Bear offices, waiting defiantly for a new record to oust it from its spot at the top of our playlist. Picking up where Phil Spector and his wall of sound left off, Jail Weddings fuse doo wop, rockabilly, and soul into catchy, theatrical pop. It’s a disarming and seductive combination, which is why their EP has been getting such frequent play.
But now, at long last, an album has toppled Inconvenient Dreams from its throne, and wouldn’t you know — it’s another Jail Weddings record.
Set for release on October 12, Love Is Lawless is the Los Angeles band’s debut full-length, and it contains all the ballroom waltzes and barroom brawls we’ve come to expect. From the sublime “I Thought You Were Someone I Knew” to the cathartic “Somebody Lonely,” Love Is Lawless is not only a passionate tour de force, but a rollicking good time.
Lead singer Gabriel Hart was kind of enough to share his top influences with us (in no particular order). We’ve done a lot of Poetic Memory features here at Owl and Bear, but this has to be one of the most fascinating and revealing ones to date. Check it out, along with the video for “I Thought You Were Someone I Knew,” below. Continue reading…
Ellie Greenwich: 1940-2009 (Video)
As if living in a world without Ted Kennedy weren’t bad enough, today also saw the passing of Ellie Greenwich. Through her collaborations with Jeff Barry and Phil Spector, Greenwich’s songwriting had a profound influence on American pop music in the 60’s, with masterpieces like “Be My Baby”, “Then He Kissed Me”, “Going to the Chapel”, “Hanky Panky”, and “Leader of the Pack” being just a handful of the songs to her credit.
She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1991, and her songs continue to be revered as pop classics. Aspiring songwriters can check out her charmingly antiquated tips for writing a hit song here. Greenwich died earlier today of a heart attack while undergoing treatment for pneumonia at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. She was 68.
In her honor, we’ve got a video (well, actually it’s just audio with a still image) of We Are Scientists performing Greenwich’s greatest song, “Be My Baby”, after the jump, as well as the famous long take from Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, set to “Then He Kissed Me”. (more…)
Watch Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel Live at Jittery Joe’s (Links)
Watch Jeff Mangum Live at Jittery Joe’s One week only at PitchforkTV. Where Hiphop is “Going” And where it never was. Eight Druggiest Rock Star Stories Some of the twisted highlights or low-lights of rock star behavior. Phil Spector Gets 19 to Life The only wall of sound Phil Spector will be hearing is the night howls of a state penitentiary. Will Shakespeare’s Come and Gone One writer beautifully captures the mood of most audiences at Shakespeare performances as “reverently unreceptive,” “gratified that they have come, and gratified that they now may go.” Madame Bovary Goes Interactive Thanks to an unprecedented international collaboration between scholars and volunteers, we can now trace the development of Flaubert’s masterpiece online, draft by draft.
