Everybody
needs a singer that makes their blood race, and their heart pound, and
this is mine. The unbridled power and raw passion of Neko Case is the
antidote to the poison the world is offering me one sip at a time.
I've
been going back and forth this morning between studio and live cuts, and
it's shockingly consistent. The studio cuts are so charged and the live
cuts are so well sung and played, the biggest difference comes down to
the sound of the room sometimes! (And the clapping, of course.) This new
and glorious record, The Tigers Have Spoken, was cut live with
the amazing Sadies (!) as the backup band. It's more upbeat than some
of her records (I like the darker ones every bit as well), and it's already
swelling the crowd that's coming to their feet. Sisters in arms Kelly
Hogan and Carolyn Mark are slaying as the backup singers, unreal. I hope
I don't have to fly all the way from China to catch this band, but I will
see a couple of shows by hook or by crook. Jon Rauhouse is also kicking
musical ass on pedal steel and banjo on this live record. (If you don’t
know by now how much we dig The Sadies, you might circle back to our interview
with them a couple of months ago.)
Neko
has worked with The Sadies a lot of her career, which now spans five records:
The Virginian (1997), Furnace Room Lullaby
(2000), Canadian Amp (2001), Blacklisted
(2002), and The Tigers Have Spoken (2004). She also tours and records
with a Juno-awarded pop band called The
New Pornographers, and has recorded old time country with Carolyn
Mark as The Corn Sisters. She's a sexpot and a wild child, but first she's
an artist, art school trained (she did the cover for the new record),
a songwriter and a musical interpreter with a high IQ and a deep integrity.
She doesn't have to be concerned with putting herself across, because
you can't take your eyes and ears off her. She's all about the song, and
the players--she digs deep, and you can hear it on every tune.
Neko
is often and rightly associated with the Canadian music scene, but is
American. She lived a number of places in her youth, but Tacoma was the
closest thing to home. She left there at 15, drifted to Vancouver, punk
bands (she first sang and played drums in Maow, a trio) and art school,
B.A. from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1998. There's still
plenty of edge in her traditional Country debut and fans of the punk side
of Country need to have The Virginian. By the sophomore release,
she had all the glossies behind her, like Esquire, GQ, and Time,
not to mention The New York Times, Interview, and People.
And that's how her press has been ever since.
Progressively,
the radio exposure has grown with each record. On the new CD, she went
to #1 on the CMJ's Top 200, Core, and AAA charts. Now she's on Anti Records
in L.A., one of the homes of the ultracool (Tom Waits, Joe Henry, Jolie
Holland, Marianne Faithfull, etc.), with a big L.A lawyer, she has definitely
gone downtown. But if anyone is unspoilable, if any woman singer is uncompromisable,
it may well be Neko. Anti's slogan is "real artists creating great recordings
on their own terms." The Tigers Have Spoken certainly fits the
bill, it's one of the best live records we've ever heard. (God Bless the
Sadies--and Kelly Hogan, Carolyn Mark, and Jon Rauhouse, too.) And it
bodes well likewise for the next studio record, due most likely in the
Fall.
This
record's originals and covers, including an outstanding Buffy Sainte Marie
song, "Soulful Shade of Blue," rendered with true verve here. (We'd love
to talk with her, if anybody out there runs into her...) We consider Neko
Case to be as soulful, musical, and otherwise crucial a singer as can
be found today. New Yorkers, don't miss those two dates at The
Bowery Ballroom on February 13 and 14. We may see you there, with
a little luck.
We caught
the artist for a conversation en route to a gig in Ohio, with the girls,
mid-afternoon to them and 5 a.m. Shanghai time on a Sunday morning. continue
to interview
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