[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: January 12 (Ezra Furman, Madeline, Shayfer James)

From: Jeremy Schlosberg <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:18:37 -0500

*THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com>
January 12*

[image: Ezra
Furman]<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/furman.jpg>
“DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE” – EZRA
FURMAN<https://files.me.com/mitchmarlow/kih9yw.mp3>

Quirky and intense, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” has the core of something
weathered and true—an old Dylan song, perhaps, or maybe even Woody Guthrie.
(Or maybe simply the Indigo Girls; cf., “Three Hits.”) In any case, if the
melody is tried and true, it is offered with such an unrelenting
edge—Furman is let us say an unhinged singer—as to blossom into something
as yet unheard, not to mention powerful and inexplicably moving.

The arrangement provides an able assist, as an elusive array of instruments
deliver commentary and motifs in and around the acoustic-guitar backbone. I
hear at the very least a variety of woodwinds, each playing careful,
intriguing parts. Often when the “chamber pop” begins, indie-rockers veer
towards kitchen-sink arrangements. Here we get the unusual combination of
complex and restrained; Furman, in his first foray as a solo artist, has
figured out a way to welcome his unorthodox background players without
giving them the run of the store. If anything, he has unexpectedly expanded
the sonic palette of the impassioned folk singer.

Furman has fronted his band the Harpoons since they were students at Tufts
University in 2006; with three albums under their belts, they remain a
going concern, even with this upcoming solo record, entitled *The Year of
No Returning*. Previously based in Chicago, post-Boston, Furman has
recently moved to San Francisco. His album will be self-released next
month. It was funded via Kickstarter. Thanks to Largehearted
Boy<http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/> for
the head’s up.

[image:
Madeline]<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/madeline.jpg>
“30 DAYS” – MADELINE <http://www.riotactmedia.com/mp3/03-30-Days.mp3>

We go from a song <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/?p=9924> marked by
unexpected instrumentation to a song all but devoid of instrumentation. And
yet it still registers as unexpected, because all we have here is electric
guitar, bass, and voice. In my experience, it’s very difficult to pull off
a song in which electric guitar and voice are the primary elements, way
more difficult than if the guitar is acoustic. (I will resist sidetracking
onto why this is so but trust me on this one, it’s so. That’s why you don’t
hear a lot of people even trying to do this.)

But wow, it works to extraordinary effect here. Madeline (last name Adams,
but she doesn’t use it) exploits the electric guitar’s ringing quality, and
gives it to us in a manner we don’t often hear it—slow and deliberate, as
the guitar is used mostly to describe a series of minor-key arpeggios. I
like that this is very clearly designed for electric guitar, not simply a
refried acoustic pattern. The bass, meanwhile, after its solo in the
unhurried introduction, offers a simple, repeated, five-note line; you
barely know it’s there but its punctuation anchors this slow and willful
song. Lyrically, “30 Days” simmers with the drama of an unreliable
narrator, a woman who seems only partially aware of her troubles, whose sad
and seductive declarations sometimes lack connective tissue: “I had a good
man who loved me all the same/And lord knows waking is the saddest thing of
all.”

Madeline is from Athens, Georgia, although she left there as a teenager,
landing in Bloomington, Indiana to record for the punk-oriented Plan-It-X
label. She recorded her first album at 17, in 2002. By 2005 she was back in
Athens, recording multi-faceted albums for Orange Twin Records and working
with the Elephant 6 Collective. “30 Days” is from the album B-Sides, which
gathers a number of unreleased tracks from her previous albums into one
package. B-Sides was released digitally this month by the Athens-based This
Will Be Our Summer Records, which was founded just last year.

[image: Shayfer
James]<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/shayferjames.jpg>
“WEIGHT OF THE WORLD” – SHAYFER
JAMES<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/Shayfer_James-Weight_of_the_World.mp3>

Like a soundtrack to a malevolent carnival, “Weight of the World” is part
bounce, part menace. Shayfer James has a theatrical baritone—rich and
emotive, with a flair for phrasing; to enjoy this one you’ll have to be
okay with a singer you can hear breathe and just about can see spit. But
what the song may lack in subtlety it makes up for, I think, in exuberant
catchiness. The swinging, syncopated chorus is all but irresistible, with
its cavorting melody, inexorable chord progression, and those ghostly moans
in the background.

Underneath it all James blends the cabaret and the barrelhouse with his
vampy piano work. Even after all these years, tinkling authentic ivories
remains a rare skill in rock’n'roll, and almost always lends a bit of show
biz to the proceedings. Which I mean as a compliment, just to be clear.

James is a New Jersey-based singer/songwriter who actively cultivates the
charismatic/mysterious rogue image—a kind of Tom Waits for the new
millennium, complete with fedora. (His online bio labels him “the portrait
of vagabond royalty.”) It’s a tricky posture for a youngster from the
suburbs but he does have both unconventional family history (his oldest
sibling is six years younger than his mother; long story) and impressive
stage presence; there’s a good chance that if he sticks with it, he’ll grow
into the part.

“Weight of the World” is the lead track on *Counterfeit Arcade*, an album
James self-released at the end of November, his second full-length release.
You can both listen to it and buy it
viaBandcamp<http://shayferjames.bandcamp.com/>
.

* * * * * * *

"White flags of winter chimneys
Wave true against the moon
In the mirrors of a modern bank
From the window of a hotel room....."

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[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: January 12 (Ezra Furman, Madeline, Shayfer James)

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