A new song by Baltimore’s mighty Wye Oak is a highlight of the CD in the new issue of Esopus, the fabulous art magazine put out by Carroll County native Tod Lippy. All the songs were inspired by advice columns, and the Wye Oak tune, “In Defense of Fetish,” takes its cue from Savage Love (which runs weekly in City Paper). If you’re not already familiar with Esopus, you should be. There’s a glowing review of the new issue in the January issue of Baltimore.
What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?
I guess it’s too cliché to say Rent, so I won’t. What I will say is when Les Miserables came to Baltimore, I saw it at the Mechanic. I was probably around 12… I had never been moved to tears by anything before in my life. I never understood how it worked. We used to watch West Side Story all the time, and my mom would cry EVERY time - even though she not only knew what was going to happen, but also knew that it was make-believe. It always confused me. Until I saw Les Miz. Now, I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I’d been going to plays all my life, and was already taking acting classes and had done a few plays myself. I knew it was all make pretend, and had so much fun doing it… I even knew what it was to rehearse and put on a play. But what happened to me in that theatre had never happened before. I had never been…overwhelmed in that way by anything. And that’s when I first understood the power of theatre. That’s when I knew I wanted to do it for the rest of my life. Sure, I doubted myself plenty of times after that and even tried to do other, more stable things with my life and keep theatre as a hobby, but it kept pulling me back in But that moment was when it first happened. When I first fell hopelessly and irreversibly in love with the theatre.
A graduate of Baltimore School for the Arts, Tracie Thoms starred in the Broadway and film versions of Rent. She appears at Germano’s Cabaret on January 2nd.
A few days ago, I talked about the best music of 2008 on Dan Rodricks’ radio show . Here’s a link to the segment and my list of personal faves (plus a few extras). Happy listening.
Al Green: Lay It Down (Blue Note)
Paul Weller: 22 Dreams (Yep Roc)
Beach House: Devotion (Carpark)
Manuel Barrueco: Tango Sensations (Tonar)
Felice Brothers: Felice Brothers (Team Love)
Thievery Corporation: Radio Retaliation (ESL)
TV On the Radio: Dear Science (Interscope)
Lafayette Gilchrist: Soul Progressin’ (Hyena)
Portishead: Third (Mercury)
Philip Glass: Glass Box (Nonesuch)* best reissue
And a few more…
Ani DiFranco: Red Letter Year (Righteous Babe)
Various Artists: The Wire—And All the Pieces Matter (Nonesuch)
What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?
When I was five years old, my Dad took me to see a movie with Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye. It was called The Five Pennies. I saw Louis play trumpet and sing in the movie and told my Dad to get me a trumpet for Christmas.
He got me a plastic toy trumpet. I told him I didn’t want a toy—I wanted a real one. So for my birthday, right after Christmas, he got me a real one, and it started my love affair with music, with jazz, and with Louis Armstrong.
Slim Man (Tim Camponeschi) plays Rams Head Onstage on January 11. His new disc is called Christmas Eve.
Last Thur-Fri’s Baltimore Round Robin shows at Sonar were a blast—well run and adventurously programmed. Beach House, Santa Dads, Double Dagger, Smartgrowth, and Dan Deacon were among the many highlights. Deacon’s trademark glo-skull is pictured above.
What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?
When I was fifteen, my high school on Long Island put on a production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. Prior to that, I had not been exposed to anything artistic—theater, classical music, dance, visual arts, what have you—but from experiencing that show, and seeing the depth of vision and human emotion presented on a stage through very simple means, I was hooked. I knew what I wanted to do with my life.
Irene Lewis is artistic director CenterStage, where her production of Tony Kushner’s Caroline or Change runs through January 18.
After playing various major cities around the country, the Baltimore Round Robin Tour (finally) comes to Baltimore the next two nights. With an impressive line-up of local indie acts—Beach House, Dan Deacon, Double Dagger, and many others—and an intriguing concept—the bands set up around the perimeter of the room and take turns playing—it figures to be great fun at Sonar. Check out the Round Robin blog for details and you can even download a Round Robin compilation CD.
What piece of art/music changed your life? How did it affect you?
When I saw Pinetop Perkins, he was with Sonny Boy Williamson. We were comin’ home from school, and we heard this music. Ernest Lane’s father lived on Yazoo Street in Clarksdale, right behind Centennial Baptist Church, in them shotgun houses there. We were on our way home, and we would pass Ernest’s daddy’s house on our way to Fourth Street.
As we were walkin’, I heard this f**kin’ music. I had seen a piano in church, but I had never really noticed no piano before. I heard this music, and me and Ernest ran across the street to his daddy’s house. His daddy had a piano in the living room. We looked in the window, and I saw Pinetop playin’ that piano. I never saw nothin’ like that in my life. You could hardly see his fingers, man. And big ol’ Sonny Boy Williamson was singin’, `Don’t start me to talkin’/I’ll tell everything I know,’ or some kinda s**t like that.
I went home and told momma, `Momma, I want me a piano.’
But that moment was when it first happened. When I first fell hopelessly and irreversibly in love with the theatre.
