If you’ve ever wanted to see David Byrne perform interpretive dance, below is the video for you. In 2009 he took it on the road, performing material from Everything That Happens… his most recent Brian Eno collaboration. That included a scad of white shirted dancers undulating their skinny arms to Eno’s beats. The frolicking might barely be skirting complete ridiculousness, but you can’t fault Byrne for his fearless edginess. Not for him, settling into I’m-a-rich-old-guy-with-lots-of-hits complacency. This year he’s touring another unexpected collaboration, this time with Annie Clark aka St Vincent. Honestly, St Vincent never really sparkled with me, but that’s not to say they’ve made a bad record. David Byrne has never made a bad record. And as always, there’s the waiting to see what direction he plunges off in next, and who’s coming along for the ride. How about Kimbra?
Speaking of David Byrne and his many collaborators, here is Nellie McKay’s contribution to Here Lies Love. Nellie McKay is exactly the kind of brainy, New Yorky eccentric that Byrne might consider a kindred spirit. And of course she’s the right kind of kook to jump into an oddball project like Here Lies Love. Not everyone who sang on that record is a weirdo, and though there really weren’t any weak moments, not everyone was able to distinguish themselves. Some of the performances kind of ran together and the singers didn’t bring enough of their own style to it. For instance, Every Drop of Rain, although a great song, didn’t quite work as a duet because Candie Payne and St. Vincent’s voices are nearly indistinguishable. It would have worked just as well to let just one singer handle it. Cyndi Lauper and Tori Amos, though they are very different artists on their own, fell into the same trap on Why Don’t You Love Me? Not to mention I can’t tell the voices of Martha Wainwright, Allison Moorer and Camille apart to save my life. All of those singers do have their own style and come from a wide range of genres, but either inadvertently or on purpose they all gave very similar performances for Byrne. Maybe that’s what he wanted, or maybe they were just intimidated and tried to give him what they thought he would want. That’s not a terrible critique – overall it gave the album a sense of unity. Still, only a few of the singers sang in distinctly their own style. Sharon Jones was Sharon Jones all over and her track is one of the most memorable. Kate Pierson was her usual dog-whistle pitched self, though I though her number was one of the weaker points. I would say that Nellie McKay was very much in her Nellie element here, and she sings what should have been a duet all by herself. Which is definitely something Nellie would do on her own record. In the end, though, I’m just nitpicking. Here Lies Love is one of the relatively rare albums that comes along which not only holds up to its creators’ previous best work, but also becomes an important and fully integrated part of my own musical landscape. What I would call the arrival of a new classic, if that weren’t a pretentious thing to say.
Funky nerd-rock rules. As evidenced, Talking Heads were an amazingly good live band. That might surprise you if you associate being cerebral with not being funky, but we’ve covered all that before and decided it was racist. So there’s no arguing Talking Heads were supremely funky, and if only they all got on a little better, we’d still be having the chance to see them. But no, apparently the other three got jealous David Byrne was spending too much time with Brian Eno. And I think there was something about David Byrne not having the best social skills. In short, Talking Heads are among the least likely bands to ever reconvene, so don’t be holding your breath. Byrne meanwhile keeps himself extremely busy and tours all the time, currently showcasing a collaboration with St. Vincent. I thought than particular endeavor was less impressive than the one with Fatboy Slim or all the ones with Brian Eno, but still pretty good, and worth seeing, if I had the dinero. With all these collaborations and activism and art projects, you begin to think maybe Byrne’s social skills aren’t so bad after all. St. Vincent’s not one of my favorites, but there’s always the next project, and who knows who will appear on it.
Here’s to David Byrne’s friendship with Brian Eno. May it never end and produce many more great works of music! Eno has the magic power to make anyone sound better. He made Coldplay sound legit, for god’s sake. But earning the big bucks for making mediocre bands suck a little less aside, he’s at his best among equals. Of course. Eno and Byrne had a great run of collaboration in the 80′s with a series of classic Talking Heads albums and the trailblazing My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. So it was great to see them getting back together on Everything That Happens… That wasn’t exactly Bush of Ghosts level work, but still pretty great. It had Eno’s impeccable sense of atmosphere and Byrne’s dry wit – a classic combination. Some people found it snoozy, but I think it’s a worthy addition to the canon.
“The story I am interested in is about asking what drives a powerful person—what makes them tick? How do they make and then remake themselves? I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great if—as this piece would be principally composed of clubby dance music—one could experience it in a club setting? Could one bring a ‘story’ and a kind of theater to the disco? Was that possible? If so, wouldn’t that be amazing!” – David Byrne on Here Lies Love
Unlikely but brilliant. Only David Byrne could imagine that the world was in need of a musical biography of Imelda Marcos. Once he brought Here Lies Love to the table, we realize that that’s exactly what the world was in need of. Now, can we have the movie, please? Or at least a stage musical? It would be stunning. Of course there would be one problem that the record didn’t trouble itself with. None of the singers who took part even remotely resemble their subject. Which is fine for the record – it doesn’t matter, they’re just there to sing. But you couldn’t exactly cast the big stage opening number with Florence Welch. Or maybe you could. If Todd Haynes can cast Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan, there’s no reason Flo can’t play Imelda Marcos in an equally fast and loose biopic.
David Byrne and Brian Eno’s album My Life In the Bush of Ghosts is so much fun that at first you don’t notice how some of the found sounds they used are actually kind of disturbing. In that regard the audible whipping in The Jezebel Spirit takes the cake, but this one is pretty scary too. I’m not sure if the insistent percussion makes the preacher’s voice creepier or if he’d be more scary alone, but it’s definitely eerie. And genius to take something no one in their right mind would want to listen to, and make it worth listening to. Eno and Byrne used snippets of obscure records, old radio broadcasts and whatever else they liked the sound of, mixed with a trailblazing combination of new instrumentation and electronic sound effects. It was absolutely unique in its time and stands as one of the cornerstones of basically the entire genre of electronic music. Many, many careers have been built on duplicating its principles of sound collage, but no one has ever done it better.
It’s hard to tell sometimes if David Byrne is being sincere or facetious. Deadpan wit can be hard to judge. There’s some contrasting opinions on whether heaven’s being a place where nothing ever happens is supposed to be a good thing or not. Is it Byrne’s honest idea of what heaven would be or a sarcastic deploration of the very idea of heaven? Is he subtly making fun of people who are perfectly contented with their boring repetitive little lives? Or are those people really on the right track? I don’t know, you’ll have to ask David Byrne those questions, next time you see him. As for my opinion, I always took it at face value. The ironic interpretation didn’t even occur to me until I read about it fairly recently. Maybe it’s because I myself feel satisfying within the confines of a small boring life, but I think that heaven is a place where nothing ever happens. I think maybe it means that nothing bad ever happens and happy memories are relived ad infinitum. That sounds good to me. I always heard a beautiful message about appreciating the things that have made you happy. After all, if you’re not capable of finding heaven at your neighborhood bar, you’ll probably never be happy no matter how far you go in life.
Rei Momo is pretty brilliant. David Byrne managed to cram in fifteen different musical styles, none of which were rock’n'roll or even a conventional ingredient of rock’n'roll. It was like he was saying “welcome to the rest of the world”. And yet, even with the rumbas and salsas, it was still somehow a rock’n'roll album. Maybe because though Byrne brought in new and exotic style of drumming, he never let go of his familiar clever rock star persona. It would have been weird if he’d tried to sing different, or in Spanish, or – god forbid! – affected a culturally insensitive accent. But it was the same David Byrne with his deadpan humor and nerdy stage presence. It helped American audiences accept rumba as not something inexplicable and foreign, but a vivid musical style that could be about anything and enjoyed by anybody. Because American audiences inevitably need an introduction from a nerdy white guy before they’ll accept anything non-English-language originated.
Since I’ve been feeling philosophical here lately, here’s another nice way of looking at things. David Byrne doesn’t strike one as the happy-go-lucky optimistic type. He seems more like a sarcastic realist. (That’s a personality type.) He’s no hihilist, though. For his good deeds he’s taken up the humble cause of cycling, which is not so humble when you see it in context of a larger environmental movement towards promoting sustainable locomotion and building urban green spaces. Yet he could still be making a dry joke at the expense of the happy-go-luckies when he sings “I’m glad when the sex is not so great…I’m glad when I get my girlfriends’ names confused”. If he’s being sarcastic or not, I’m still taking it as a screed of going with the flow. I like the philosophy of taking whatever happens and being glad about it – within reason, obviously. Having a becalmed attitude towards life goes miles in decreasing stress. Take it as a another guide.
Ever since My Life In the Bush of Ghosts the world has held its breath and waited for the next collaboration of Byrne and Eno. I did, didn’t you? Everything That Happens finally happened in 2008. It wasn’t as crazy earthshaking as its predecessor, but it has its own, mellower charms. It sounds precisely like one part Eno album + one part Byrne album.
EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS
I ride on a perfect freeway
Many people on that road
I heard the sound of someone laughing
I saw my neighbors car explode
Just up ahead
Against the sky
Quicker than you blink your eye
Oh my brother, I still wonder, are you alright?
And among the living, we are giving,
all through the night
From the milk of human kindness
From the breast we all partake
Hungry for a social contract
She welcomes you with dark embrace
(puts)
socks and shoes
Upon our feet
Little fishes swim upstream
Oh my brother, I still wonder, are you alright?
In the deepest silence, gold and diamonds,
all through the night
Everything that happens will happen today
& nothing has changed, but nothing’s the same
and ev’ry tomorrow could be yesterday
& and ev’rything that happens will happen today
ev’rything that happens will happen today
and nothing has changed but nothing’s the same
& ev’ry tomorrow could be yesterday
and ev’rything that happens could happen today
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