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Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Nothing Rotten About Levy
Levy is a New York band that has somehow stayed well outside my scope. Candidly I'd never heard of them until yesterday when I received an email from a promoter. Only a few moments into their elegiac "Rotten Love", I was smacked upside my head by this great tune. Checking out the press section on their site, I noticed a couple of my favorite MP3 blogs, Sixeyes and Mystery and Misery featured Levy many months ago. Where have I been?

Levy work on a similar epic scale as Coldplay, but their emotional kick hits and holds effortlessly and without the subplot of world domination. Walls of guitars surge and pound while singer/guitarist James Levy's elegant voice drifts along coolly and calmly. The droll yet bitter lyrics on "Rotten Love" remind me of a young Morrissey. Apparently the song was written for Regina Spektor. With a classic Coldplay strum, "On the Dance Floor", starts to rise, but rather than attempting transcendence, it remains in the dark of the club, grounded in the fear and ultimate rejection from the girl who takes another boy home instead.

Levy was recently signed to One Little Indian Records and will re-release their debut LP Rotten Love sometime this summer. The band performs at the Pussycat Lounge in New York on August 4.

- Download "Rotten Love" (MP3)
- Download "On the Dance Floor" (MP3)
posted by jason @ 12:01 AM  LINK |
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Dinosaur L
Dinosaur L
"#5 (Go Bang)"
"#7 (Recorded Live at the Kitchen, 1979)"
Not that it takes much, but the trailer for the upcoming Arthur Russell documentary got me onto an AR kick the other day, and I headed for Dinosaur L's 24-24 Music. 24-24 is thought by some to be the gem of Russell's dancier material, and it'll hopefully be reissued soon. The Francois K remix of its masterstroke "#5 (Go Bang)" kicks off 2004's The World of Arthur Russell compilation, but I actually prefer the 24-24 original (MP3). When I first heard 24-24, though, the standout for me was far more fleeting. The two-minute "#7 (Recorded Live at the Kitchen, 1979)" (MP3) is a tantalizingly short slice of a session I hope is sitting in full in a vault somewhere. Russell's cello anchors a percussive horn-guitar groove that quickly recalls (or, I should say, previews) !!! and others. And, like much of Russell's music, I love it not only for its sound but also for the era of NYC it instantly evokes.

- rajeev, 12.14.06
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