Friday night, I went down to the Pub to catch my cohort Clare Muldaur and her crazy batch of misfits, The Reasons. I've seen the band twice before, but never all the way through because they play beyond midnight on a work night. Finally, I got through the whole show.
On the other hand, I got seriously lit afterwords and I am struggling to remember details from the show. There was a band, they all wore red, they were tripping over each other on stage and something about Obama was said. In the end, I highly endorse the Shaggys at the Great Jones Cafe -- the joint where Mark Ibold from Pavement tends bar. It's a spicy, gingery alcoholic concoction. After three of those, I ended up passed out of my bus to Jersey, having to be poked awake by an angry bus driver. Thus, forcing me to walk a mile and some change home in a dazed state at 1:30am. Welcome to my life, children. Don't try this at home.
Anyway, this is about Clare and her people, who are a welcome addition to my listening habits and gig watching. Live, they are a loose and humorous gang who play around with their classic, melodic pop tunes. For the night, they dressed up in all red, causing them to joke that their outfits will send them to disco jail. Their stage banter break ups their sumptuous, old timey tunes inspired by old movies as filtered through modern musicians.
They debuted a new tune called "Can Your Car Do That? I Don't Think So" which is about crappy cars. That was a damn fine, funny song, where Clare sings fast while her group singers romantically over her. The other goofball tune was a rendition of "Over the Rainbow" using only the name Obama as the lyrics. As the finale, they did a sweet cover of Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule The World."
The band will head out on an extensive U.K. tour in August and Sept., include an appearance on BBC2's The Culture Show, to play song from their album, The Movie.
As a side note, to entice you to see my show at Joe's Pub with Soundpool and Bell on July 25th, might I bring up that they serve free Wasabi nuts and Pepperidge Farms goldfish. Goldfish, people!
I really love Clare and the Reasons! Hey, did you know all the tracks are on Deezer? Check this out! http://www.deezer.com/en/clare-the-reasons.html
Posted by: Matt | September 02, 2008 at 05:00 AM