Laurie Anderson

[7/4]

March 28, 2008

Music Review | Laurie Anderson

The State of the United States, in a Chamber-Rock Stew

By ALLAN KOZINN, NYTimes

From the beginning of her career Laurie Anderson has cast an analytical eye over American culture and politics and turned her observations into cutting musical works that straddle the line between art song and stand-up comedy. Her most durable essay on the subject is the 1983 multimedia work “United States I-IV,” a work that came to mind often during her performance of her newest piece, “Homeland,” at Zankel Hall on Wednesday evening.

“Homeland” is essentially a 100-minute update, a new volume to put alongside “United States” (as will be physically possible when Nonesuch releases the work on CD.) Ms. Anderson performs in her signature style: alternately singing and speaking, sometimes with electronic processing on her voice (making her sound like a man, for example, or giving her voice a choral halo), and playing the electric violin and keyboards. Her spare ensemble is a hybrid chamber group and rock band, with Peter Scherer, a keyboardist; Skuli Sverrisson, a bass guitarist; and Okkyung Lee, a cellist.

“Homeland” deals partly with the loss of freedom in a security state and partly with the Iraq war and contemporary war in general. Ms. Anderson evokes images of a young woman with a “baby face” enlisting in the United States Army as a way to pay for her education, and young Palestinians wearing suicide vests, observing that war today is “a kid’s war,” another “children’s crusade,” with no restrictions: “anyone can join.”

A song with echoes of a 1950s ballad style, updated by way of early, parodistic Frank Zappa and a dash of electronica, examines a sort of Rumsfeldian cynicism, represented by the assertion that our problems are so complex that only experts can deal with them. Ms. Anderson transforms that idea into a close relative: that problems are only problems when experts say they are. Torture? No problem. Invading a country and causing chaos and civil war? No problem. Experts, she tells us, are people who carry malpractice insurance because their solutions often become the problem.

But the work isn’t all war protest. Ms. Anderson also looks at the vacuity of the consumer culture, skewered here in a song that describes billboards with underwear advertisements, with “huge people in their underwear, their heads two stories high.” They are, she intones, “The Underwear Gods.” Another song tackles empty relationships: “I pretend that you love me, you pretend that you care.”

Musically “Homeland” explores few places Ms. Anderson hasn’t visited before. All the songs are slow, and although a few offer arresting electronic drum patterns, most roll out an ambient haze on which Ms. Anderson projects her verbal snapshots.

The occasional neo-Romantic violin and cello duets between Ms. Anderson and Ms. Lee were highlights, moments when Ms. Anderson set aside comment and turned, however briefly, to pure composition. But pure composition isn’t really what she does, or what her audience wants from her. Here it was an attractive bonus.

[Larry Kart]

That is an amazing piece of writing. Working backwards from it alone, you could reconstruct an entire ruined civilization. I particularly like "cutting musical works that straddle the line between art song and stand-up comedy." Makes your knees spontaneously lock together. Also, wasn't it Rose Marie who straddled that line most effectively?

[7/4]

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You guys crack me up...

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Edited March 29, 2008 by 7/4

[Rooster_Ties]

Saw her perform live here in Kansas City early in 1995, barely 4 or 5 months after I first moved here.

Was like nothing I've ever seen/heard before, or since. Enjoyed it quite a lot.

[7/4]

• I've never seen her perform.
  
• William S. Burroughs and Adrian Belew were on one of her albums. That's was pretty cool. It made the albums musically interesting.
  
• I saw her once on the sidewalk of her building on Canal Street. I was in traffic waiting to get into the Holland Tunnel.
  
• Another time I saw her and Lou Reed at a screening of Almost Famous. Reed had a song in the soundtrack and a mention in the film.
  
• Okkyung Lee worked at Downtown Music Gallery when she first came to NYC.
  

[rostasi]

I saw her once in the 70's and 3 times in the 80's -

the last two times were with girls with the intention of getting laid.

Her shows became old and "samey" real quick

and I really dislike "nudge-nudge" humor - I think Eric Idle skewered that expertly:

(know what I mean...know what I mean, eh, eh?)

I wasn't sure what Allen was going on about in the Beefheart thread

until this thread came up and maybe I understand the doin'-it-to-death syndrome

that exists here as a parallel to his earlier comment

(tho I definitely don't agree when it comes to the Capt.).

I managed a band that played for David Byrne's wedding reception

and a very drunk Anderson was trying to pick up the band's leader

who'd already been happily married for at least a decade.

[7/4]

I wasn't sure what Allen was going on about in the Beefheart thread

until this thread came up and maybe I understand the doin'-it-to-death syndrome

that exists here as a parallel to his earlier comment

(tho I definitely don't agree when it comes to the Capt.).

His last album came out in 1982. How the fuck could he be doin' it to death, if he hasn't released any new material in 26 years?

Someone remind Allan the 80's are over.

[rostasi]

His last album came out in 1982. How the fuck could he be doin' it to death, if he hasn't released any new material in 26 years? Someone remind Allan the 80's are over.

Wait! Wait! These were my words!

I'm reading Allen's comments as ones that are coming from a person who dislikes performers who've gotten in a rut stylistically.

I don't agree that was the case with Beefheart, but Anderson's work, to me, reflects this.

Again, I may be reading Allen's comments incorrectly, so don't blame him for something I'm saying.

R~~

Edited March 31, 2008 by rostasi

[7/4]

His last album came out in 1982. How the fuck could he be doin' it to death, if he hasn't released any new material in 26 years? Someone remind Allan the 80's are over.

Wait! Wait! These were my words!

I'm reading Allen's comments as ones that are coming from a person who dislikes performers who've gotten in a rut stylistically.

I don't agree that was the case with Beefheart, but Anderson's work, to me, reflects this.

Again, I may be reading Allen's comments incorrectly, so don't blame him for something I'm saying.

R~~

I know they're not your words. Your name isn't Allen.

[seeline]

I saw Anderson once, in the mid-80s, and was very disappointed (and bored) - it just seemed like she was trying so hard to be hip and cutting-edge and... She was very earnest, but there wasn't anything terribly exciting or "new" about the show.

I have this feeling that if the NYT critics (at the time) had written about her as a pop singer rather than as an avant-garde performance artist, my expectations would have been different, and I might actually have enjoyed her show.

Edited to add: A lot of the things she did (in terms of altering the sound of her voice and of various instruments) struck me as being gimmicky and very show-biz - not at all like Kozinn describes them. Again, if I'd seen this as something lighthearted and fun, I'd probably have enjoyed it, but I took it over-seriously, as Kozinn and his predecessors have done, and...

In a lot of ways, her onstage demeanor reminded me of Borscht Belt comedians, which was (I think) deliberate.

Edited March 31, 2008 by seeline

[rostasi]

I know they're not your words. Your name isn't Allen.

David, they are my words.

[7/4]

I know they're not your words. Your name isn't Allen.

David, they are my words.

If you wrote the same thing I wrote somewhere else, great minds think alike.

Otherwise, I'm confused.

[rostasi]

The "doin' it to death" phrase that you got so worked up about

was my phrase. Allen didn't say that Beefheart was "doin' it to death".

It was a phrase that I was using to illustrate my attitude toward Anderson -

that there could be a quality of "sameness" perceived in her work over the years.

Maybe Allen feels that there's a "sameness" in Beefheart - I don't know,

but he never said that Beefheart was "doin' it to death", so I'm saying that there's no reason to

get on him about it. That's all.

Edited March 31, 2008 by rostasi

[seeline]

Back to the mid-80s, etc. - this number was at the end of the show; people went wild for it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FeyGTmw0I0...feature=related

[AllenLowe]

I have to admit to having not listened to much Laurie Anderson - especially after reading a few years back how she decided she needed to get in touch with the working class and so went to work for MacDonald's for a time (sound of puking and dry heaving) -

Edited March 31, 2008 by AllenLowe

[AllenLowe]

HEY LAURIE WOULDYA HOLD MY PICKLE?

[AllenLowe]

WANNA COME TO MY HOUSE AND WATCH ME SUPERSIZE?

[rostasi]

I have to admit to having not listened to much Laurie Anderson - especially after reading a few years back how she decided she needed to get in touch with the working class and so went to work for MacDonald's for a time (sound of puking and dry heaving) -

I see nothing wrong with this idea.

"I wrote Happiness out of frustration with my expectations really. I was finding that I was just experiencing what I expected. And that bothered me. For one thing, I think of myself as an experimental artist. So I thought maybe I'd better start experimenting. So I put myself in a lot of, let's say, odd and inappropriate situations in which I didn't know what to say or how to act. I couldn't fall back on any patterns. One of these "situations" was a job I took at McDonald's. I went into it with the usual cliches and opinions about the nastiness of mass fast food production, exploitation of workers, and so on. After working there for a while I realised I was having a wonderful time. I loved the team work, I thought the whole operation was extremely well run. We were proud of what we did. Obviously it's not the greatest food, but it is quite cheap. Most of the people I know go to Starbucks. We pay $6 for a grande mocchacino, and we sit around in the overstuffed armchairs and go on-line. Not terribly subtly we get the message that McDonald's is for poor people. And I think that's one of the reasons we're snobbish about it." - Laurie Anderson

[seeline]

I honestly believe she takes herself too seriously. There's material on her site about the reissue of her album Big Science - includes something about "the political context."

Kinda sums up why I didn't like her live show, back when. (And I really wanted to enjoy it, but...)

[7/4]

HEY LAURIE WOULDYA HOLD MY PICKLE?

WANNA COME TO MY HOUSE AND WATCH ME SUPERSIZE?

I get the impression that Allen's Speedos are a few sizes too small.

[B. Clugston]

I have this feeling that if the NYT critics (at the time) had written about her as a pop singer rather than as an avant-garde performance artist, my expectations would have been different, and I might actually have enjoyed her show.

That was the best way to approach her in the 1980s.

I found her a breath of fresh air back in the 1980s compared to most of the synth-drenched dreck of the time. She was either good at getting attention or the attention just followed her—whatever the case, it's the kind of trait that holds her in high esteem by New York Times music critics and deep suspicion by Organissimo board members in roughly the same measure.

For an avant-garde musician, a lot of her stuff has date horribly.

[seeline]

I honestly don't think she's "avant-garde," except in the eyes of some critics, and - maybe - her own. She does seem to be a good pop performer (though not, I think, a very good songwriter), and I have a feeling that she doesn't necessarily seek to attract attention.

I also think (just my opinion, like the rest of my posts!) that the NYT writers have consistently made her out to be something that she's not - a "performance artist." When I went to see her, she was cracking silly jokes (really silly) in between songs - essentially, doing mini-stand up sets - and having hats lowered from the ceiling and... very show-biz, kinda vaudevilleish. (I mean that in a good way, BTW.) If she'd done that kind of thing on her albums, she might just have become popular.

One other thing (not exactly an original thought): her show reminded me of David Byrne, right down to the white suit and soul singers doing backup. Maybe there was something in the water in Manhattan at the time?!

Edited March 31, 2008 by seeline

[AllenLowe]

well, I think the Mac's think is b.s. to the point of absurdity - and my speedos are much better since I bought the special swimmer's nut-re-tensioner in order to increase my lap time (see other thread) -

[Guest Bill Barton]

I don't think of her as an avant-garde performance artist but simply as a performance artist. The two times I saw her live (both in the mid 1980s) the shows were thoroughly enjoyable. They were indeed full-bore productions with some pretty sophisticated effects and staging.

[Chuck Nessa]

She's a bit better than tv.