January 27, 2005 - 11:53 AM

Sobule Rules

Hey, you remember Jill Sobule, right? Blonde chick singer-songwriter from the mid 90's...had that song "I Kissed a Girl"....looked kinda like a mix of the mom from The O.C. and Glenn Close? Yeah, her. Did you know that she's still kicking it as a musician? Who knew?

Actually, she has a pretty devoted fan base and has been kicking it for a while now, just not on the big major label scene. Lately, she's been doing about a show a month at Largo- I guess she's joined the stable of regular artists there, along with Michael Penn, Grant Lee Phillips, Glen Phillips, Aimee Mann, and of course Jon Brion.

I have her first two albums, including the self-titled second one which contained "I Kissed a Girl" (and is one of my favorites from '95). I know that I saw her at a few Lilith Fairs in '97, and I have the feeling that I saw her at some club in Massachusetts, but I know that I haven't seen her in quite a long time. I do remember her being quite the talented guitar player in addition to being a gifted songwriter. She has this knack for writing songs that instantly sound familiar the first time you hear them, and she's one of the few songwriters whose lyrics I actually pay attention to because she crafts stories well and uses a healthy amount of wit in her songs.

Remembering how much I enjoyed her music and her shows, I jumped at the invitation from my friend Mike to see her last night at Largo. I'd been meaning to catch her previous appearances there the past few months, but I've been pretty flakey when it comes to concerts recently. I'm so glad that I got my butt out of the house and down to Hollywood for it, though. Jill had an upright bass player and a cellist who joined her for about half her songs, but she didn't really need the extra sweetening they added because she was so engaging and entertaining all by herself.

She joked about having Adult Attention Deficit Disorder, but this affliction in her was charming. She'd stop songs just as she was starting to interject some funny aside, or throw in a little impromptu ditty on some spur of the moment thought. There were a lot of jokes and big-fat-lies between songs which kept the audience's attention glued to her and made for no dead-air-time on stage. With all her energy and spunk, you'd hardly guess that she's in her mid 40's.

She'll be back at Largo around the 8th or 9th of February, so I think you all everybody should try to make it.

********
Nick leaves today for Hawaii. No, not forever, just for a week and a half. Vacation time should be good for the boy. I'm sure that he'll be laughing at all you east coasters with your 7 feet of snow and negative windchills as he's splashing in the waves.

Now Listening To : I Am Sam soundtrack
Random Thought : God save me, I've started playing World of Warcraft at work. At least I'm not taking days off from the office to play

What I Just Wrote Before - What I'm About to Write

The Five Most Recent Entries

Here's a hand-picked playlist of 40-plus songs for you to listen to: