February 15, 2005 - 10:05 AM

Tangos and Tantrums and Arrogant Bastards.

I've gushed about Sylvie Lewis (hey, look, new website design!) here since day one. Y'all are probably sick of my oohing and aaahing over how great I think she is. Can I add to the praise by saying I think her new album, Tangos and Tantrums, is brill? She's fully embraced the torchy-jazzy side of her songwriting, but it's not all Marlene Dietrich and Cole Porter...the 70's songwriting styles that are apparent on her first disc are also evident on this one, but in a sort of different manner. Instead of Carole King or Joni Mitchell, she carries the jazzy pop styles of Randy Newman and, dare I say it, the Muppets. The Muppets?

You of course remember the Muppet movies, right? The songs were a little honky-tonk, a little movie musical, a little jazz, and a lot of fun. Cute without being saccharine, touching without being sappy, and often deftly humorous. Sylvie's songs would fit right in to a Muppet movie, and that's a good thing.

All this gushing aside, her CD release show this past Saturday was actually kind of disappointing. Why? Well, I think Sylvie's wonderful live, but I still haven't cottoned to her playing with a full band. They tend to overwhelm her delicate and intimate performance. She isn't a belter, so when the drummer and bassist really kick it in on a couple of numbers, she gets drowned out. And her finger-picking on her guitar is barely perceptible, which is a shame. I don't mind her with just the pianist or the harmonica player accompanying her- I think those guys and those instruments are the perfect compliments for her. But either tone down, or get rid of, the rhythm section so that we can appreciate Sylvie in all her glory.

The venue was packed for her show, which was a welcome surprise. I'm hoping that the press and airplay that she's been receiving for the album spur her on to great heights of fame and fortune. She's hitting the east coast in the coming weeks, so please, go support her. Matt, my friend Mike from Berklee, and my friend Flori from Amherst were all gracious enough to meet me at the show. A fellow music fan named Paul who I know from email lists made it down from San Francisco to attend, too. If they can do it, so can you.

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Speaking of Flori, we had another Amherst Young Alum dobippy last Thursday, this time at the Library Alehouse in Santa Monica. I had the turkey meatloaf dinner and a beer called the "Arrogant Bastard Ale". How could I not? It was a mouthful of a beer, very strong (%7) and dark. Arrogant? Maybe a little. Bastard? Magnificently so, yes.

It's interesting, the more removed I am from my youth and the schools I went to, the more I get over my petty social prejudices from those eras. People I wouldn't talk to then because I turned my nose up or my eyes down at them, I now enjoy conversing with. Of course, in my current day-to-day activities, I still build up those biases with people I meet or with whom I work; it's only in dealing with my past, and seeing how stupid I was back then and how insignificant the jealousies and pickinesses were, that I just accept these people as people.

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I replaced all four tires on my car. 36,000 miles of wear on the streets and highways of Los Angeles and made them dangerous to drive on. Anytime the roads were wet (and lately, that's been every week), I'd find myself fishtailing when accelerating from a standstill, even when applying minimal pressure to the gas. My mechanic checked the tires at my 35,000 oil/filter change, and he recommended I go to Costco for new tires. Tony and Margaret also made that recommendation when I had brunch with them on Sunday (homemade pancakes and bacon with them and Margaret's sister Sandra and their cousin Jean [not Joan]). It cost close to $350. Blah. I'm trying to save up money to buy the stupid car once my lease is up in June, and here I am, wasting it on the car. Silly silly silly.

Now Listening To : Massive Attack- Mezzanine (how could you not like this entire album, Soph?)
Random Thought : I have a tiger to ride in my game. It's very fast. It cost a lot of money to buy. But it's cute and worth it.

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