The Perlich Post

Sunday, July 25, 2021

Kat Von D enlists Linda Perry, Peter Murphy & Charo for debut album

With Peter Murphy, Charo and a contortionist involved, Kat Von D's synth-heavy music venture is readymade for Vegas.

Here's the scoop...

Long before the history-making tattoos, ubiquitous television shows, best-selling books, and influential beauty empire, Kat Von D sat down at a piano for nearly two hours a day and played. In essence, music became her first creative language and most trusted outlet. Classical training and a deep appreciation for music of all genres essentially underscored her life. She studied voice under Ken Tamplin six days per week, strengthening her vocals. In 2012, she began writing with Grammy-winning tunesmith Linda Perry.

Following this experience, Kat continued to write on her own, sitting at the piano and summoning songs from raw emotion. During 2014, she retreated to London to record the original mix of what would become her full-length debut album Love Made Me Do It (KVD/Kartel Music Group) before cementing it with her band—Gregg Foreman (Cat Power, Delta 72) [synth 1], Sammi Doll [synth 2], drummer Dave Parley and contortionist Brynn Route. They moved into a bungalow cottage on her property, lived together, and finished the record.

A pastiche of shapeshifting analog synths, post-punk dreamscapes, gothic hues, and shy pop magnetism, these eleven songs echo the eternal will of the perennially brokenhearted to love until death. It’s highlighted by standouts such as the first single “Exorcism,” “Protected” featuring Peter Murphy of Bauhaus and produced and co-written with Danny Lohner (Nine Inch Nails, A Perfect Circle) and “The Calling” capped off by never-before-heard recordings from original scream queen Vampira. Along with the aforementioned Linda Perry, the album also includes contributions from Dave Grohl, Ladyhawke, TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek and Charo – yes, that Charo.

“With anything I’ve ever created, I always hope audiences enjoy the final product,” she leaves off. “The music should speak for itself. I’ve spent years tattooing lyrics, album covers, band logos, and song titles on people. I hope this music translates on the same level to listeners.”

The release of the album's third single, "Enough" will be accompanied by a video written and directed by visual artist/photographer Franz Szony. Known for his surrealist portraits of Orville Peck, Vanessa Hudgens, Dita Von Teese, Violet Chatchki and Gigi Goode, Szony's video for "Enough" (watch it below) depicts a darkly humorous gothic tale inspired by Kat and Franz 'love for old movies. “Kat is an incredible artist first and foremost, and applies her artistry to everything she does... the way she lives, dresses. I greatly admire people who live their fantasy with everything they do… her music is another avenue for her to bring people into her art and storytelling. Her song lended itself perfectly to something cinematic and camp. ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ and Fellini were two inspirations we both loved,” says Franz Szony.

Franz is also the mastermind behind creating the dreamlike settings bursting with detail and illustrating the imaginary of the fantastic world Kat lives in. Taking us from a candle lit bathtub scene of Kat bathing in black water, through a Fellini inspired boat ride across rough waters where she sails by mythical siren - played by aforementioned contortionist Brynn Route, Franz Szony creates a fever dream which give us a glimpse into the theatre of his and Kat’s imagination.

Talking about working with Franz Szony, Kat says; “To me, Franz’s work marries the world of beauty and the macabre and it was a dream come true to create something epic with him. After a few DMs, we met up at my house and brainstormed ideas. Franz hand drew some rough sketches and came up with this surrealist approach to the video. So many details went into creating his vision, from the set design, to the props, and to the outrageous costuming that was completely handmade.”

Kat Von D's Love Made Me Do It album is out August 27th but you can pre-order a copy right here. Tickets are on sale for her upcoming US west coast tour dates on her site: https://katvond.com. Watch Kat introduce her band followed by videos for "Exorcism," "Enough," "I Am Nothing," and "Fear You" below.

Saturday, July 24, 2021

Happy Birthday Garry Shider

Remembering P-Funk singer/guitarist Garry "Starchild" Shider with a performance of "Cosmic Slop" and three U.S. Music gems.

R.I.P. drummer, educator Jerry Granelli, 1940-2021

Sadly, Halifax drummer Jerry Granelli – who earned $68 for playing on the Charlie Brown Christmas recording – has passed away.

LINKS

Halifax Today Halifax jazz drummer Jerry Granelli dies at 80
WBGO Jerry Granelli, searching drummer who gave 'Peanuts' its groove, has died at 80

That Time Sir Douglas Quintet played Playboy After Dark

Michael Caine happened to be at Hugh Hefner's party in January 1969 when Doug Sahm & crew played "Mendocino"

Friday, July 23, 2021

Wesley Stace turns up the smooth for Late Style

You could say Wesley Stace is wearing the inspiration for the new Late Style album on his sleeve. Great work Tony Stella!

Here's the scoop from Omnivore Recordings...

With Late Style, Wesley Stace, the artist formerly known as John Wesley Harding, has done things differently. Having begun to put some new lyrics to music, in his usual way, singing to an acoustic guitar, he realized he was coming up with old solutions, reinventing a wheel he had already made, with chord progressions and melodies that worked as folk and pop songs but were not satisfying his desire for something fresh, something he’d be excited to listen to in 2021. So, he turned to David Nagler, the musical director of his portable variety show, the Cabinet of Wonders, to be the Rodgers to his Hart, the Elton to his Bernie, the Bachrach to his David.

Late Style is influenced by artists like Mose Allison, Carla Bley, Nina Simone, Bob Dorough, Steely Dan, Harry Nilsson, Gil Scott-Heron, The Bee Gees, Tom Lehrer, The Carpenters, and even The Partridge Family, without imitating them, so the songs feel modern and “modern” all at once. You can call them uneasy easy listening—smooth, but oddly shaped, with surprising harmonic changes and rhythmic angles. They have the paradoxical flavor of having been written to be hits without any thought of having hits at all.

Though Wesley had originally imagined a record that “a phenomenally well-rehearsed combo might record in a club, perhaps even in front of an audience,” COVID had other plans. But through the mysterious magic of modern technology, the recording came together out of Philadelphia, where Wesley lives; New York, where David built tracks from keyboards, acoustic guitars and virtual instruments; San Francisco, where Wes’s longtime friend and collaborator Chris von Sneidern (a solo artist and sometime member of the Flamin’ Groovies) added electric guitar, vocals, horns and the drums of Prairie Prince (The Tubes, Todd Rundgren, Jefferson Starship); and Chicago, where Kelly Hogan and Nora O’Connor of the Flat Five added harmonies.

Here's Ilya Mirman's portrait photo of Wesley which Tony Stella turned into the Late Style cover.

Graphic artist Tony Stella – who recently did the book jacket for Quentin Tarantino's novelization of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – provided the stylish sleeve art for Late Style. Wesley explains how it all came together...

"Many of you have expressed your enthusiasm for, and asked about, the cover painting for LATE STYLE. Here goes! It's by the genius Tony Stella, whose work can be found here: https://www.tony-stella.com. You should definitely take a look around.

"As we were making the album, I realised I needed something effortlessly authentic for the cover, perhaps a painting like those old records we all love. I'd been following Mr Stella on Twitter for some time, and one morning I was lying in bed, checking out my "feed" (as one does before one fully commits to getting out of bed) and I suddenly realised: "Oh My God! This is fully perfect! It can't even go wrong!" And so I tweeted him, and made an inquiry, and guess what: he said yes. Then I had to work out what the image should be, beyond being a portrait of yours truly.

"So, I got in touch with Ilya Mirman, a brilliant photographer who also happens to be the brother of Eugene Mirman, to a) take some nice promo pics but also b) to get the image that we could send to Tony and he'd paint. I therefore went up to the Boston City Winery (who, due to the kind offices of Michael Bishop and Caitlyn Cooke, let us have the run of the place for a morning), met Ilya there, not to mention David Nagler, and took some pics, quite a few of which you'll see on the inside sleeve of the CD and LP.

"I sent Tony four images, and he apparently chose the one I attach here, perhaps combining it with one of the others (and making sure my collar wasn't askew) to get the actual image for the cover as you see it now. I was blown away. It was actually what I'd imagined, without having quite imagined anything at all, except that I loved all of his work without exception. And thanks to Ilya, of course.

"Do yourself a favour and check out his stellar Stella work. And then why not head over here and buy one of the astonishing bundles: https://world-wide-wes.myshopify.com/collections/the-late-style-collection"

You can pre-order Wesley Stace's Late Style right here. Check the track list following the clip of "All The Yous" below.