Melancholy in the Tinsel and Lights

I've been conflicted about Christmas for a long time. Part of me enjoys all the external trappings: the tree, the lights, the wrapping paper, even the music.  I've made several Very Special K Holiday mixes over the years, constantly seeking unique musical takes on the holidays. (See the SWIK holiday classics post from December 2009.) The other part of me thinks, like Charlie Brown, that it's all a bunch of commercialism. I become cynical and annoyed but eventually sad. December finds me running from anticipation to apathy through a haze of holiday parties. I want to believe it's a magical time for reflection and gratitude, but as Charlie Brown said, "I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel." Religion is no longer a satisfactory answer. So what's a girl to do?  How to reconcile all those feelings and get through the holiday season? For now, I sit and stare at my tree listening to Tracey Thorn's new album Tinsel and Lights, attempting to draft messages for cards that I'm not sure I'll mail.

A tsunami of sound for Japan

At the end of March I attended a benefit concert for Japan hosted by Yoko Ono. It was the kind of last minute concert with big names that can only happen in a place like NYC. I’m on the email list for (Le) Poisson Rouge, a music venue in the West Village. The day after I received the email announcement for the benefit show, my new music pusher (a woman finally!), who I’ll call JD, sent me a message asking if I was planning to go to the show.  It was $100, but it was a benefit for Japan and in addition to Ono the bill included Cibo Matto and the legendary Patti Smith.  I had spent the weekend before out seeing a lot of live music. Yet, despite the lack of sleep, I bought the ticket and headed out to the show at 10:00 PM on a Tuesday. 

You Never Forget Your First

No, not your first love or first sexual encounter.  Your first album. The record you went and picked out yourself when you were old enough to have a choice.  My friend Slim, who owns Round Soap Records, providing all manner of musically inspired bath products, recently wrote a blog post of the same title.  His firsts were The Steve Miller Band’s Book of Dreams and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors.  Naturally, after reading his post, I thought about my first album.  The one that I made my mom take me to the mall to buy.  It was the B-52s.  Not Cosmic Thing, which had their hits “Love Shack” and “Roam,” but rather their first full-length album, from 1979 with the infamous tune “Rock Lobster.”

Well now, aren’t we all so special?

I’m not ashamed to admit to enjoying some pretty cheesy pop tunes. On some of these pop artists, I agree with many music critics who say that they are manufactured fluff, but others I believe are bringing a little more to the table.  Lately, I’ve had a workout/running mix that includes Lady Gaga, P!nk, Katy Perry, and Ke$ha. All of whom currently have songs out about being special or being yourself. NPR’s Soundcheck recently had a discussion about whether or not these women are the new gay icons or just pandering to a gay audience. The general consensus among guests and callers was that Gaga had earned her stripes, but Perry and Ke$ha, not so much. Pink was up for debate. I agreed and wondered, why was it that these white women felt the need to establish themselves with songs about being genuinely different, as in and P!nk’s “Raise Your Glass” or being special in Katy Perry’s “Firework” or just being yourself as in Lady Gaga’s  “Born This Way” or choosing your lifestyle as in “W R Who We R” from Ke$ha?   Were they special? And would any of them be around in ten years?

Adele’s "Lovesong”

How is it that one song can tip you back to feelings that you genuinely believed were long gone? This week it’s Adele’s cover of “Lovesong,” originally written and recorded by ‘80‘s indie icons, The Cure. The only cover tune on Adele’s latest album, “Lovesong” has struck a bit of a blow. I find myself thinking about a man, who I really should be over and done with. But those lyrics, “Whenever I’m alone with you, you make me feel like I am whole again. Whenever I’m alone with you, you make me feel like I am fun again,” are simple and telling. 

Teenage Torture?

I first read about Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers where I discover a lot of new music, Bust magazine. It’s a hip, art, crafts, and beauty magazine for those of us who still think feminism has value, but also like to wear lipstick and cute outfits. The last issue had a review of Ray’s new album Teenage and Torture which was released earlier this month.  When I went to check out their website and buy the album, I discovered that not only were they from Brooklyn, but also that they were playing that Friday at Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg.  But who could I drag to a concert on short notice to see a relatively obscure indie band?  And Shilpa Ray? She’s raw, edgy, and loud rock ‘n roll. I must admit, it’s not what most of my thirty and forty-something pals listen to these days.

Georgia Fireflies on my Mind

I’m not going to attempt any explanation for the silence of the last five months. I could blame work, a lot of travel, and moving SWIK Music to a new home (Blogger vs. WordPress). But life is rough, sometimes life gets in the way of doing the things we love. Sometimes we just get in the way of ourselves. Eventually we walk out of the haze with our priorities renewed. SWIK Music is back. Back with some good old-fashioned nepotism. Why have a blog if not to write about your family and friends? My brother is an amazing drummer and percussionist. He’s toured and recorded with many musicians. Recently he began performing with the Georgia Fireflies. Finally, a band with a critical frontwoman, making them a candidate for SWIK Music. It helps that I really like the music too.

A SWIK Connection

I had planned to post my SWIK Summer Tours list this week, but last Tuesday I went to see Imogen Heap at the Hammerstein Ballroom and decided she needed her own post. I wrote about Heap for the SWIKs I Missed post in December, but she deserves a bit more space here. Not only does Heap remind me of Annie Lennox, but she is probably the Annie Lennox of the 21st century. Or maybe the Kate Bush of the 21st century? Yet Heap is uniquely herself and her talent is only more evident in her live show. Dare I admit? She blew me away.

A SWIK Soldier of Love

It’s been a while since the the last SWIK post. My iMac finally has a new hard drive. This past week, I caught Olympic fever as well as a bad cold. Both kept me on the couch and unmotivated to write. I’ve also been struggling with ‘makin' it happen‘ (see related post). Figuring out what’s next, in my career as well as in my love life, has been a challenge. Luckily there’s a new album from Sade to help me through. Sade has been a staple in my music collection since I first saw “Smooth Operator” on Friday Night Videos circa 1984. Although Sade’s albums are released infrequently, the last one was 10 years ago, the music is always relevant and captures my mood. This time it’s the title track to her new album, Soldier of Love. The song evokes the feeling of marching through a battlefield, albeit with a slow, funky groove. The past few years of my life have felt like a bit of a battlefield. Not just in love, but also in finding a new direction and passion for my career. Yet, despite the struggles, I’m ready to jump back into the fray, getting out there, believing again. Leading me to feel like, yes, some sort of soldier of love.

“I’ve lost the use of my heart, but I’m still alive, still looking for the light...
I’m a soldier of love, every day and every night, I’m a soldier of love, all the days of my life.”

Twa Fey and Haitian SWIKs

2010 continued to be a rough start for me. Most recently, the hard drive in my relatively new iMac went down. After an hour or so on the phone with tech support last week, I was told to take my computer to an Apple store for repair. Living without a car in NYC, this means lugging a large 24” iMac on the subway or paying for a taxi. Hence, the delayed post. The iMac is still at the Apple store and nothing can be retrieved. The Apple Geniuses are installing a new hard drive. In reality, this and most of my personal problems or challenges are small and mere inconveniences. They, and even the heartbreak mentioned last week, can be overcome. In light of the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti, the trivialities of one’s daily life seem even less significant. I am reminded to be grateful. Losing everything on my computer is nothing compared to losing a home and family members. I feel compelled to do my part to raise awareness and funds for Haiti. SWIK Music provides the perfect outlet. Before writing this post, I knew little about Haitian musicians, other than the country’s most famous immigrant, Wyclef Jean of the hip-hop group, the Fugee’s. While I am only slightly more informed, I want to dedicate this post to the women of Haiti. The music and traditions of this island go much deeper than what I can cover here, but I hope that you’ll find something new and appreciate the widespread influence of Haitian music.

Makin’ It Happen in 2010

Times Square

SWIK Music took a much needed vacation. Over the past few weeks, 2010 settled in while I caught up on TV shows like Glee and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (via Hulu), began working out with a personal trainer, and spent far too much money on music. Overall, it was fun and relaxing. I spent a fabulous New Year’s Eve at a party Times Square. We watched all the madness in the streets from the warmth of a friend’s office, sipping champagne and dancing. It was a once in a lifetime experience, (definitely do NOT need to argue with cops at the street barricades for a party again). But what made the evening special was being around some of my closest friends as the over-priced disco ball dropped on 2010.

After a wonderful little “staycation,” as the kids call it, returning to work was brutal. Unfortunately, Monday Jan 4 arrived along with some sobering news about an ex who, apparently, I wasn’t entirely over. According to Facebook his relationship status is now “In A Relationship.” (Ok, I get it. We live in the 21st century. Everyone we’ve ever dated, unless you can’t remember their names, can be connected to you. Is this a good or a bad thing? I have no idea.) In addition to returning to work and seeing the relationship status update, I was terrified about the steps required for some major life changes in 2010. My friends and I have declared 2010 “the year of makin’ it happen,” in contrast to 2009 which was “the year of no regrets.” I’m eager to make things happen this year, but also scared - to the point of paralyzed - about taking the required first steps. As I paced around my (very tiny) apartment (one change will be a new home), Yaz’s classic 80’s dance song, “Situation” kept running through my head. Yet the album I spent most the week listening to was La Roux's self-titled debut album.

SWIKs I Missed in 2009

Podcast delayed due to technical difficulties.


As 2009 draws to a close and everyone compiles their best of lists, I’m taking the opportunity to cover a few new albums that I never got around to writing about this year. In the R&B category Mary J. Blidge and Alicia Keys released albums at the end of 2009. There were also some excellent greatest hits collections from Janet Jackson and Dolly Parton that I never reviewed. All of these women deserve their own SWIK posts. Unfortunately (or fortunately), there were so many great SWIK releases this year that there’s not enough time or space to cover everyone. In addition to some of my favorites mentioned in SWIK Music such as, Imelda May, The Raveonettes, Melody Gardot, Diane Birch, and Camera Obscura, following are a few new artists, at least new to me, that I discovered this year.

SWIK Holiday Classics

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Let’s face it, this time of year Christmas music is unavoidable. While a thousand different versions of “Silent Night” can be annoying, there is actually some good holiday music out there. I should know, as I seem to have made this an area of musical expertise. I created my first mix tape of holiday music in 1989 (ironic, considering last week’s post). I realized that many popular and alternative artists recorded holiday tunes. I began to compile them so I wouldn’t have to suffer through yet another year of Barry Manilow and Mannheim Steamroller. For example, one of my favorites is “Christmas Wrapping” by the Waitresses, which manages to turn Christmas into a humorous dating saga.

SWIK Music from 1989

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A few weeks ago the Economist ran a story on 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The cover had one of the iconic images from that year, a punk sitting a top the crumbling wall. For those of us who grew up during the cold war, the dismantling of the Berlin Wall was probably one of the most significant political events of our lives, at least until September 11, 2001. Looking back, 1989 was quite a year. The event in Germany prompted Eastern European countries like Czechoslovakia and Poland to undergo peaceful transitions out from under Soviet control. Earlier that year student demonstrators took over Tiananmen Square in Beijing in what led to, while not the political opening of China then by all accounts its economic opening. In 1989 the Exxon Valdez spilled 10 million gallons of crude oil on Prince WIlliam Sound, Alaska in what remains the worst environmental disaster to happen at sea. In other news, the U.S. invaded Panama and bailed out the Savings & Loan industry. An earthquake in San Francisco held up the World Series. At Hillsborough stadium in England, 96 people died at a football (soccer) match.

For me, one of the most significant events of 1989 took place on December 6th at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal. On that day, a 25 year old man killed 14 women and injured many others, before turning a gun on himself in what became known as the Montreal Massacre. He claimed that he was “fighting feminism.” His suicide note supposedly mentioned women who had succeeded in non-traditional female work such as firefighters, police officers, and journalists. On that date I was in college only an hour and a half from Montreal. Many of us spent a lot of time there, so the shock waves from the event rippled to the dorms of University of Vermont. This week, as I look back on 1989 and the female artists who were shaping the next decades of music, I dedicate this post to the women who died senselessly at the hands of a madman on December 6, 1989.

Waiting for Love and Gardot

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Comedienne and social commentator Sandra Bernhard once wrote, “love is the only shocking act left on the face of the earth.” In contrast to last week’s SWIK post and the sexually explicit music from Peaches and Amanda Blank, which in this day and age is really not all that shocking, Bernhard may have been onto something. Amid the eroticism, the commercialization of sex, and the horrors of the daily news (recession, war, terror, torture, starvation etc.) an act of love may, in fact, be truly shocking. This weekend, I was thinking about love. No, I haven’t met a new man. But autumn is the time that I most want to be in love. It’s my favorite season. I like the colors and the crisp, cool air that tells us winter is coming. I find the season romantic. Maybe it’s because many of my relationships began in the fall? Or it’s that When Harry Met Sally is one of my favorite romantic comedies? Whatever. As fall comes to a close and the weather gets a little colder, the season evokes the kind of love that warms you inside. Comfortable, but still sexy. My sentiments about love and the season are captured in Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald version of “Autumn in New York.” I’ve been waiting to find more songs like this and have finally found a slew of them in Melody Gardot. She captures what sounds like love, or at least a wonderful love affair, on her latest album, My One and Only Thrill. Perhaps this is the beginning of something shocking?

X-Rated SWIKs

After my bout with the flu, I finally returned to dance class last week for a workout and discovered a new song by Amanda Blank, “Something Bigger, Something Better.” A few months ago one of my music-pushers, Robbie (see Summer Tours), mentioned her debut album, I love You, which came out in August. But I never got around to listening to it. I was immediately hooked on “Something Bigger, Something Better” which sounded like it could have been produced by rapper Missy Elliott. I finally got around checking out Blank’s album. Of course, through my research it turns out that I missed her recent show in NYC with electroclash diva Peaches. I’m, once again, a step or two behind here. But I keep trying anyway. Even though I missed the live show it seems like a good time to say a few words about these X-rated singer-songwriters. (Yes, their lyrics are explicit, so you’ve been warned.)

New Music from North of the Border

The weekend before last life got in the way of the blog. I was in Montreal, but the trip led me to some interesting new artists. Unfortunately, over the past week, work and illness got in the way and I never found the time or energy to capture the weekend or the new sounds. So back to the weekend in Montreal. My friend Sadie was in town from San Francisco. She is a talented realist painter (see her website) and was on the East Coast to see some art. We headed to Montreal last Saturday to see the J.W. Waterhouse exhibit at its only stop scheduled in North America. Waterhouse is known for being part of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, which tended to combine nature with themes from Greek mythology and English literature. At the end of the exhibit there was a short film by Melissa Auf de Maur called Out Of Our Minds (OOOM). Auf de Maur is also a bassist and toured with alternative rock bands Hole and Smashing Pumpkins. These weren’t the only artists I discovered in Montreal. On Saturday night, we met up with Katheline, another member of the small group of hip co-workers at my day job, who lives in Montreal. She took us to some great bars and suggested some excellent music from north of the border.

Rave On with some more ‘ettes’

Yes, its another ‘ettes’ band. Even if they’re not using ‘ette’ in their name i.e. the Ting Tings, the 50’s and 60’s girl group sound seems to be everywhere. I’m not complaining, I love all the retro sounds permeating music these days. The Ting Tings combine their girl group sound with an 80’s pop sensibility, and the Noisettes with a soul inspired punk sound. The Raveonettes, on the other hand, have a late 80’s early 90’s alternative guitar band influence. It’s oddly dark and catchy. I had hoped to see them a few weeks ago when they were in town. But the show was during a completely hellish week at the day job and I didn’t even get to a SWIK post, let alone a concert. I hope to catch them the next time. Until then, I’m enjoying their latest album, In and Out of Control.

A SWIK Workout Mix

The past few weeks at work were so busy that I could barely breathe, let alone put some thoughts down about new music. Hence, no SWIK post last week. When I get this busy and feel like I’m just hanging on by a thread, the one thing that I try to do is get to the gym. Either take the dance class (see Trina and Madonna posts) or go for a run. Due to meetings that kept me at the office long after dance class and sunset, it was a hopeless week for working out. Dance class is the one place where I think about absolutely nothing else. I have to concentrate to learn the routine and keep up. We move fast so I get a good workout and the music motivates me to push myself. Running on the other hand, I don’t particularly like. I try to think of it as a chance to listen to new music, but it has to be music that keeps me motivated, to essentially imagine that I’m dancing. I tend to like fast and catchy pop tunes and hip-hop for running. Honestly, this is where my inner top 40 pop teenager comes out. Last week, I didn’t manage to get my sneakers on until Saturday. Here’s what was on my iPod as I attempted move my body after all the madness.

A List From Dad

A few weeks ago I read an article about a new album from Rosanne Cash, the daughter of country legend Johnny Cash. The album, simply titled The List, is a selection of cover tunes. They originate from a list of 100 essential country songs that her father created for her in 1973, when she was just out of high school. He was liberal with the term ‘country’ as the list includes many folk and other traditional American songs. I’ve never been a huge fan of country music, but am making an effort to expand my musical horizons. I like the album, it's full of emotion and depth. The songs are sad, but comforting. I discovered that she was performing in Brooklyn on Saturday so headed over to see the show.