Aimee Mann's "31 Today"
Aimee Mann is one of my all-time favorite musicians.
From her beginnings in the new wave band 'Til Tuesday, to her stirring soundtrack for Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, she has grown into an amazing performer. Her lyrics are dark, passionate and humorous... all at once. I never miss her when she tours and I've seen her more than 15 times live. If she plays multiple shows, I'm there.
Aimee has an amazing rapport with her audience. Aimee doesn't have some canned or pre-planned banter with the audience that is the same for each show... she's real. One would expect that based on her music. If she's had a bad day, she talks about it. If something happened recently worth talking about, she'll tell you. Aimee's vulnerable that way. If there's someone in the audience doing or wearing something funny, she'll comment.
I love her for more than her music. Aimee's well-documented battles with the record labels led her to self-publish her music under United Musicians. Through this group of artists, she makes music that pleases her creatively without having to support some dominant form of pop music with the dollars siphoning themselves back in support of some corporate entity. She's DIY like that and yet another reason to embrace her sound.
I've seen her at big shows (recently at the Hollywood Bowl where she joined Cheap Trick to cover the Beatles Sgt. Pepper's album), at the House of Blues, her Christmas show (which I plan to see again in LA in late November), at small shows at Largo, and even at Amoeba Records in Hollywood. It was there Aimee was doing a signing of her album The Forgotten Arm and I asked her to sign it: "Chris - Get your SHIT together!"
She wouldn't sign using any language, which is surprising since one of her most amazing songs, Long Shot, begins with the lyric: "You fucked it up..."
Anyway, Aimee ended up signing my CD: "Chris - Get it together man."
She's so cool in my book. And any Aimee Mann show is not all about her, she takes the time to introduce the audience to other musicians like her bass player Julian Coryell whose CD Rock Star is creepy funny.
Aimee has a new song out called "31 Today" and you can listen and see for yourself. I've already clicked replay about 50 times...
You might want to hear it again as well. If you happen to go to any of Aimee's shows, let me know. I'll be there.
Gore gone.
P.S. If you think I know anything about music and are curious about my taste, check out my profiles at iLike and LastFM.
Aimee Mann is one of my all-time favorite musicians.
From her beginnings in the new wave band 'Til Tuesday, to her stirring soundtrack for Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, she has grown into an amazing performer. Her lyrics are dark, passionate and humorous... all at once. I never miss her when she tours and I've seen her more than 15 times live. If she plays multiple shows, I'm there.
Aimee has an amazing rapport with her audience. Aimee doesn't have some canned or pre-planned banter with the audience that is the same for each show... she's real. One would expect that based on her music. If she's had a bad day, she talks about it. If something happened recently worth talking about, she'll tell you. Aimee's vulnerable that way. If there's someone in the audience doing or wearing something funny, she'll comment.
I love her for more than her music. Aimee's well-documented battles with the record labels led her to self-publish her music under United Musicians. Through this group of artists, she makes music that pleases her creatively without having to support some dominant form of pop music with the dollars siphoning themselves back in support of some corporate entity. She's DIY like that and yet another reason to embrace her sound.
I've seen her at big shows (recently at the Hollywood Bowl where she joined Cheap Trick to cover the Beatles Sgt. Pepper's album), at the House of Blues, her Christmas show (which I plan to see again in LA in late November), at small shows at Largo, and even at Amoeba Records in Hollywood. It was there Aimee was doing a signing of her album The Forgotten Arm and I asked her to sign it: "Chris - Get your SHIT together!"
She wouldn't sign using any language, which is surprising since one of her most amazing songs, Long Shot, begins with the lyric: "You fucked it up..."
Anyway, Aimee ended up signing my CD: "Chris - Get it together man."
She's so cool in my book. And any Aimee Mann show is not all about her, she takes the time to introduce the audience to other musicians like her bass player Julian Coryell whose CD Rock Star is creepy funny.
Aimee has a new song out called "31 Today" and you can listen and see for yourself. I've already clicked replay about 50 times...
You might want to hear it again as well. If you happen to go to any of Aimee's shows, let me know. I'll be there.
Gore gone.
P.S. If you think I know anything about music and are curious about my taste, check out my profiles at iLike and LastFM.
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
This made my day, thanks Chris
XOX
Kayte