ROBYN HITCHCOCK @ SPACELAND

lar_import — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:59:14 +0000

Eros was much on Robyn’s mind and thighs this evening as he frooged and prophesied with his folk-rock supergroup the Venus 3: Peter Buck of R.E.M. on 6- and 12-string Rickenbacker, furry-hatted Scott McCaughey (pronounced like “McCoy”) of Young Fresh Fellows on bass and vocals and William “fucking” Rieflin of Ministry on drums—who also play together in the Minus 5 and in R.E.M.’s touring band. The opening mind-raid of “I Often Dream of Trains,” “Kingdom of Love,” and “Brenda’s Iron Sledge” ate each individual member of the Incredible String Band for late supper before feasting on the audience’s hopes and dreams and burglarizing their emotions in a venereal insect frenzy. I mean it was good. The lucky customers were treated to “Television” with Robyn’s comrades Gillian Welch and David Rawlings sitting in and Rieflin joining the others (except Buck, who does not sing) on harmony—which I mention because I did not know Rieflin sang; and then the happy patrons delighted in the gorgeous tonalities of hits old and new: “Airscape,” “I’m Falling,” “Up To Our Nex,” “Madonna of the Wasps,” though I was too busy enjoying myself to keep track of the set list. Hitchcock’s singing voice is in top form and his distinctive instrumental voice cooks food; there are echoes of Robby Krieger and Richard Thompson in his guitar style, but it would be hard to mistake a Robyn Hitchcock guitar part for anyone else’s if you ever got to hear him on the radio. During one song I did not recognize, Hitchcock took a wild fuzztone solo while still singing the lead melody, which is not a thing people can just do. Rieflin delivered a brief studious lecture about how to make a proper studio recording as human hands grew from spectators’ eyeballs and undid the Gordian knot that binds commerce and music in our post-industrial society. Welch and Rawlings returned for the encores, “Queen Elvis” from Hitchcock’s masterpiece Eye, and the Soft Boys’ “I Wanna Destroy You.” One of the great rock performances of all time. Adroitly opened by Parson Red Heads, who remind me favorably of Teenage Fanclub and have sweet vocal harmonies and a steel guitarist. This seems like a good opportunity to say that Hitchcock’s Groovy Decay, which I once derided in print as “unlistenable,” now strikes me as a really good album that ought to be reissued in an expensive sleeve.

—Oliver Hall

HARPER SIMON @ THE LITTLE ROOM

lar_import — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:42:20 +0000

Shortly after the Largo jam session featuring Harper Simon and his circle of Silver Lake superstar friends, I got a text: “Was he at least as good as Jakob Dylan?” my friend asked waggishly.

Well, sure! Maybe! Sort of! No! But I did get to come home and listen to Hearts and Bones and Graceland and remember warmly the time I taught my son about metaphors using “Bridge Over Troubled Water” as our text. Good times!

If I were Harper Simon, I would be very annoyed by this.

Simon, a cute fellow of 36, looked more like Harland Williams or David Arquette than like his father, though there was a strong similarity in the voice, if mostly in the phrasing. (He sounded most like him in the lower registers, and strained for his high notes.) His originals were charmingly written, especially “The Audit” (which I thought was a Neil Young song, and I was wrong) and “Berkeley Girl,” a pretty bit about roses and amethysts which any girl would like to have written for her own self. It was very “Only Living Boy in New York,” and there is nothing not to like about that.

But Simon, whether from humility or generosity, gave the show to his friends: he started with a Nick Drake cover and only played a few songs before inviting his friends up to sing their songs instead. The beautiful Inara George and Petra Haden were there, Haden both playing violin and singing two old standards, while Charlie Wadhams, David Rawlings, and Jon Brion offered up two songs each. The really charming part of the show, though, was Simon’s accompanists, Benmont Tench on piano and Sebastian Steinberg on upright bass. Every time Simon stopped to shyly retune his guitar—or one of his friends sitting in began to retune each other’s guitars to their own likings—Tench stepped in with entr’acte music from a classical take on “Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead” to some Marx Brothers twinkles, punctuated with Steinberg’s thumps and Haden’s virtuosic bowing finishing his musical thought.

The show itself ended with a group sing-along of Jimmy Cliff’s thought: You can get it if you really want. It would have been nice if Simon had a little less humility and made us listen to his own thoughts instead.

Simon’s self-titled solo album comes out Oct. 13 on Tulsi Records.

—Rebecca Schoenkopf

L.A. RECORD » david rawlings

ROBYN HITCHCOCK @ SPACELAND

HARPER SIMON @ THE LITTLE ROOM