A label showcase.

May 15, 2001 5:17 AM

A label showcase. Last night Ryan Adams and the band Dolly Varden played at a small club called Les Etoiles, near Chateau d'Eau, in Paris. Adams was good, simple, one-man-and-his-guitar-and-piano moody melancholy rock; he used to be the frontman for Whiskeytown. Adams was not as upbeat as I'd expected, but the opening act, Dolly Varden, though only two of the five members made it to France, played appealing countryish two-person songs with strong vocals and simple instrumentation.
posted by Mo Nickels (11 comments total)

I bought two compact discs at the show: Ryan Adam's new album Heartbreaker, rockish countryish ballady smokey music, and Alejandro Escovedo's A Man Under The Influence, which I haven't listened to all the way through, yet, but it sounds as promising as Bourbonitis Blues, an album I know well. A few people you might recognize play on the new record: two members of Superchunk, one member of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, and Ryan Adams. Escovedo has the distinction of being Sheila E's uncle.
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:24 AM on May 15, 2001

Is Ryan Adams involved in the project to pave France so that EuroDisney has enough parking?
posted by stbalbach at 5:25 AM on May 15, 2001

No, I think he's in just for the McDonalds distribution warehouse. I've heard Paris is pretty bad these days, hardly anything French left.
posted by tiaka at 5:38 AM on May 15, 2001

Excuse me: Did someone say "French left"?

I'd better give that Escovedo album a listen. Something I read recently played up his use of VU-style strings on its songs.
posted by allaboutgeorge at 6:00 AM on May 15, 2001

Does Ryan Adams sing about French Attack Monkeys? "Monkeys are very dirty and must be diapered most of the time. They tend to bite, and spend a lot of time fondling themselves." Wait.. is this about Monkeys or the French?
posted by stbalbach at 6:10 AM on May 15, 2001

There are a ZILLION labels pimpin their crap - I sure don't wanna be subjected to band fliers on MeFi. This is my escape yo!
posted by roboto at 7:04 AM on May 15, 2001

Escovedo's (intermittently) great. He used to be in the Nuns/Rank and File, old favorites of mine, and has had an interesting solo career. If you like rootsy rock, I recommend his "With These Hands."

Dolly Varden, however, is a fish.
posted by rodii at 8:09 AM on May 15, 2001

bravo roboto, "I saw this band in France we-we" so what,about these attack monkeys, i might have an interested investor.lol
posted by clavdivs at 8:49 AM on May 15, 2001

It must be awful to be an artist with a name sounding so similar to Bryan Adams. My condolences.
posted by aki at 9:11 AM on May 15, 2001

Paris is very French. If you think it isn't, then you're going the same places as the kind of scumbag tourists I successfully avoid. At least two-thirds of the audience last night was French. The record label is French. The club was French, the cigarette smoke was French, the beer was, umm, Belgian, but that's close.

I know people who've lived here for years without really learning French, but then, they all have dead-end jobs (bartenders, prostitutes--no, I mean "escorts", ESL teachers) and a pretty pathetic lives. I manage to avoid them, too.

Disneyland is seen by most French as a successful effort to funnel off big-haired, loud-mouthed, white-shoed tourists and keep them from completely ruining the city.

Stbalbach: the Pave-the-Earth movement was old when I got on the Internet nine years ago. Boring. The French attack monkeys are old hat, too. Lame.
posted by Mo Nickels at 9:19 AM on May 15, 2001

Mo Nickels: France is Lame.
posted by stbalbach at 10:45 AM on May 15, 2001