Apr 042011
With all our recent discussion/posts about changes in music today, it was interesting to hear about this “band.” Dirty Beaches seems to epitomize nostalgia for the rock and roll of an America that no longer exists. In a recent interview with Urban Outfitters (!), Alex Hungtai, a Taiwanese-born Canadian, talks about his inspiration being primarily movies, rather than music, and that he “carves out” a song as if he were a casting director. Like the directors he admires, Hungtai sees himself as an exile, and his amped-up rockabilly evokes that search for a home he never had.
Maybe the best current rock and roll is made by outsiders?
Damn, that sounds like Alan Vega’s “Jukebox Baby,” as weird, old single (circa 1981???) I’ve always dug.
Yeah, this is a total rip of what Alan Vega was doing on the “Collison Drive” & “Saturn Strip” postmodern rockabilly albums he put out in the early 80’s – The completely stripped-down (to a single riff) instrumentation and, especially, the vocals – Vega should be getting royalties from this, it’s so close to his work….from 30 years ago.
Here’s “Jukebox Baby” by Alan Vega: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPNO5f4yO_g
Mr. Royale also pointed out the Alan Vega connection. But having a Taiwanese Canadian resurrect it (a la Wong Kar-Wai resurrecting the films of the French New Wave or American Noir) makes it even more interesting to me.
Sounds like Chris Isaak meets the Bad Seeds. And nowadays, a lot of the music I dig seems to come from Canada — and I consider them outsiders (even though I’m married to one 🙂
Bitchin’ head band, Alan.
If I could ask Alan Vega one question it would be, “Do you know how funny you are?”
Oh, he knows.
Yeah, but Wong Kar-Wai managed to add something of his own to the mix, and I’m not hearing that here. He could be a Yanomamö living in Minsk and I’d say the same thing. I’m only hearing a reiteration of what Vega already did 30 years ago.