Filed under: Inspirational Anthems, sing like no one is listening, Songs of Triumph | Tags: Blacklisted, Middle Cyclone, Neko Case, This Tornado Loves you
So I started another band. We’re calling ourselves LaVista. I’ll leave it up to you as to why that is our name, and trust that your imagination will be much more colorful than our true reasoning. We’re about a month into the project and things are coming along rather smoothly. We’ve got a solid song under our belt, and four on the way, which is not shabby for a fledgling band. We’ve agreed to wait to play shows until we have a solid set under our belt. Tyler and I want to do this right.
Tyler insists that I do the most of the singing, which is fine I guess, as long as eventually I figure out how to rock out standing with an autoharp. But that leaves me with a lot to think about. In the past I had a wurlitzer to sit and hide behind, and Gavin took the singing reigns predominantly. So, I spent weeks of idle time in the previous weeks scanning through live videos of my favorite female lead singers trying to figure out what kind of performances really inspired me.
Then I made this list: (keep in mind, these are my favorite musicians, I’m trying to think of what kind of image I could harness, this is in no way derogatory).
St. Vincent: too bird-like.
My Brightest Diamond: too spooky.
CatPower: too smoker-voice.
Camera Obscura: too child-like
Heart: too epic
Amy Winehouse: a bit too much overall
Asobi Seksu: too inaudible
Bat for Lashes: too dreary
Postmarks: too whimsical
She and Him: too sixties pop
Rainer Maria: too cool
Yeah Yeah Yeah’s: too female David Bowie.
Duke Spirit: hmm…getting there.
And then I came across Neko Case on Austin City limits. With her fiery hair and huge voice, she never fails to blow me away. Lyrically she is also brilliant. Simultaneously barbaric and feminine:
“My love I am the speed of sound, I left them motherless, fatherless. Their souls dangling inside-out from their mouths, but it’s never enough…I want you. Carved your name across three counties, ground it in with bloody hides, their broken necks will line the ditch until you stop it, stop this madness. I want you.”
And that dark, rustic, americana sound is something that not only lends itself to the autoharp, but is something that vocally, I am totally capable of. That’s what I’m going to go for, but in my own way. Let’s see how it goes.
Watch Neko Case rock your socks off here.
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Songs For Your Day 
“Amy Winehouse: a bit too much overall”
i laughed. hard.
Comment by cenewgent November 3, 2009 @ 9:50 am