I had a revelation yesterday while I was writing an artist blurb for the Noise Pop program guide. I pulled up the MySpace page for the woman, Laura Gibson, and clicked on her music. And I sat, stunned. It was so beautiful. Time stopped. The pain in my wrists fled. The air smelt of fresh baked cookies. I heard birds sing and frogs burp (or whatever they do), even though my windows were shut tight and I live in urban Oakland.
I listened to all four songs on the site. Then I listened to them again. And then I went to her regular site and read all about her, about how her dad was a forest ranger and her mom was a kindergarten teacher, how her first shows had been in nursery homes and her nephew's classroom. How the members of Norfolk & Western, a Portland band which is good buddies with M. Ward, had loved her music so much that they'd asked to adorn it with singing saws and violas and trumpets.
But what exactly had struck such a chord in me? Sure, she sounded a bit like Jolie Holland and Cat Power, and a lot like Karen Dalton (a '70s New York folk singer who had a stunning, Billie Holliday-ish warble, and whose first album, It's So Hard to Tell You Who's Going to Love You the Best, is a must own). She had a voice that seemed tentative and uncertain, but also brutally honest and sincere. And the playing was so intimate that you felt like you were eavesdropping on a woman playing in her bedroom late at night.
But really what it came down to was this: Gibson's songs were sad and pretty. And I like songs that were sad and pretty. Or fun and goofy. Or smart and witty. Sure, every once in a while I like something else, but those are the three types I'm most drawn to. Put all of them together -- see early Belle & Sebastian -- and I'm in ecstasy.
And what does that say about me? Well, I've got a new theory. It's that the type of music that you like is also the type of person you're attracted to. Now, you may laugh, but I tried this theory out at a book swap party last week, and it proved highly informative. Of course, now it'll be harder for you to think about what you truly like musically and how it matches up with what you like romantically. (One person, who wasn't at the party but was later informed of the theory, joked, "I like my music with nice breasts.") But you should try anyway. If for no reason than it's interesting to try to categorize what you generally like about music.
And then you should buy tickets to see Laura Gibson on February 28 at the Swedish American Hall.
5 comments:
I thought you said you liked your music either smart or dumb and fun? I've never known you to date anyone dumb. And now it's sad and pretty?
Yes, I am my own fly in the oinment. I said, in that earlier post, that I liked music that was either really smart or really dumb. Now I've amended that thought. But it's true that I am attracted to ladies who are hottt in a rather basic instinctive cavewoman way even if I don't think I could date them for very long. Or they me.
Another thing: When I was walking home from BART, I was listening to Laura Gibson and almost crying from the prettiness, when I looked up and saw a sign in a window that I'd never seen before. It said "You are beautiful." It doesn't get much more perfect -- or sappier -- than that.
I heard she is a bitch.
what noise pop shows are you excited for? we will be gone for most of it, but still curious....
Well, besides Laura Gibson, I think I'm going to see the Sebadoh reunion, Jolie Holland, and of course the two Rickshaw shows, the Spinto Band (looooove them) on 3/3 and Langhorne Slim (supposed to be fun live) on 3/1.
I'm embarrassed to say, but I also like some of that Alexi Murdoch's songs, even if he's a majorly blatant Nick Drake ripoff. At least he's British/Greek/French.
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