I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #61:
Trespassers William - "Love You More"
(Sonik Wire Records, 2002 / Bella Union Records, 2003 / Nettwerk Records, 2004)
This song is from their 2002 debut album Different Stars, but I'm not sure which version: the original 2002 release on Sonik Wire Records (apparently the band's own vanity label) or the 2003 reissue on Bella Union Records, or the 2004 reissue on Nettwerk Records. Yes, lots of labels have fought tooth and nail for this band. Hilariously, I had this song for years under the name "Just Like This", but I found out just the other day when researching the lyrics that it's actually "Love You More." Both songs have the phrase "Just like" in their lyrics. (I'm not sure if they intentionally named this song after the famous Buzzcocks song of the same name.) So anyway, I thought about posting "JLT" instead, but decided "LYM" is just as good, if not better.
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| When underfed lumberjacks attack |
I don't think TW are still based on California, but they were when this album was recorded. The band's name is some clever reference to Winnie The Pooh, but it still annoys me after learning that, and will never propel them to superstardom. The singer, Anna-Lynne Williams, has the world's best cheekbones, but sounds like she's always on the verge of falling asleep in her cornflakes. I almost bought this CD once for $2.50 but passed, because I knew I'd rarely listen to it, due to how energy-sapping it is. I mean, this song even has the lyric "All of my songs are sad." O rly? The way she likes to stretch one-syllable words out into several syllables reminds me of Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star) and Denise Nouvion (Memoryhouse), and not coincidentally, those bands' tunes are in a similar vein as those of TW.
In order to escape constant scrutiny by paparazzi and to make sure her record sales don't balloon too high, Anna-Lynne has launched a solo career under the alias Lotte Kestner.
I went to see an Open Ears Music series concert by Rex Gregory last night, which was pretty amazing, maybe the most out-there experimental performance I've ever seen. Who would've guessed that the mild-mannered sax dude from Sasha Masakowski's band and Tarik Hassan's band had it in him? At 1:15 AM, at the end of 3 hours of mutated sounds, someone in the crowd (the show's organizer?) quipped "Okay, soundcheck's over... Time for the show to start," which made myself and many others LOL out loud. The whole show will probably be posted in mp3 form at the Open Ears site soon. They were also giving out "Occupy Your Ears" bumper stickers to anyone who tipped; I gave $5. (There's rarely any cover at the Blue Nile.) During the intermission at about 11:30, I strolled over to the book store on Frenchmen St. and bought Quartet by Jean Rhys, which I had seen there three weeks earlier. The owner pointed out to me that the famous local painter Michelopoulos lives just a few houses down, in the pink building next to Yuki Izakaya. I had brought up the topic of M. because the last time I was in there, I had overheard him telling a tourist couple that he used to see M. walking around the French Quarter selling his paintings for $100 in the '70s. Here is a typical Michelopoulos, with thick globby lines, oversaturated colors, and bendy buildings... not exactly subtle on the Van Gogh worship:
Planets with similar climates: Mazzy Star - "Into Dust" (1993), Memoryhouse - "Lately" (2009), Velour 100 - "Stare Into Light" (1997).
