Secrets!
Lloyd Cole – Period Piece
We’ve all got those artists that feel like our secret. The coulda-shoulda-woulda-been-huge-guys. The ones where you buy every record, even though none of your friends know who the hell they are.
Lloyd Cole is one of those for me. Despite a long career making melodic and literate pop/folk/rock (he’s been compared to Cohen, Morrissey and Dylan), he’s seemingly virtually-unknown in the US at this point.
The song up top is taken from one of two records he put out in 2013, Standards; the record has yet to be released in the US on physical media (though you can download it from his website).
I wasn’t crazy about “Period Piece” on first run-through but it grew on me, particularly after I realized “who” the song’s narrator is (I won’t spoil it for you).
I was perhaps inordinately-overjoyed to see Lloyd (we’re on a first-name basis, you see) get a name-check a few years ago from Scottish indie-poppers Camera Obscura:
Camera Obscura – Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken
The song they are referring to is one of his early greats, not least for working a recommendation to “read Norman Mailer, or get a new tailor” into the lyrics:
Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?
This came up on shuffle the other day – a warning to be cautious about emblazoning tributes to eternal love in ink on your skin:
Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Jennifer She Said
The Boy likes this next one; it’s easy to see why, it’s got a snappy beat and a great rhythmic vocal performance (that motor-mouthed “I don’t need an alibi, I need a fire escape and an open window” is one of my favorite tongue-twisting lyrics to sing, ever. You only need to explain yourself if they catch you! Other fun lyrics: “meet me in the john, John” and “I’m your yes man, yes ma’am, I’m your yes man“)
But there’s no way to explain to a four-year-old that it’s essentially a “Just Say No to Cocaine” cautionary PSA:
Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – My Bag
Lloyd also made a collaborative ambient electronic record(!) with Cluster luminary Hans-Joachim Roedelius in 2013, who had heard and liked Cole’s electronic experiment Plastic Wood a few years back.
I think it’s quite soothing and lovely:
Lloyd Cole / Hans-Joachim Roedelius – Pastoral
Post your secret artists in comments!
Good ol Lloyd Cole, I was a solid fan of his and played him a lot in my college radio days in the 80’s. Good stuff however haven’t kept track of him since then.
A secret band….hmmmm…..maybe Steve Wynn, he was the leader of the seminal 80’s band The Dream Syndicate but has put out many records as a solo artist since the 90’s. Really great rockin stuff with a lot of heart, a few hooks and plenty of raucous guitars. He is one of those rock lifers who puts out a record every year or so for 20 years and tours and tours without ever getting a ton of notice. He just keeps playing and working and creating without any fame.Report
I have Days of Wine & Roses, but nothing else.
Me and a friend drove from Hoboken to the Hamptons to see Lloyd play at some bar there sometime in the mid-to-late 90’s. She got WASTED on gin and grabbed Lloyd’s ass after the show; I got pulled over for speeding on the way back to Hoboken, and had to take a field sobriety test (the car smelled like gin, because my friend did, which is why sober me was driving).
Fun night, if a little nerve-wracking and expensive. He did a cover of Kraftwerk’s “Pocket Calculator”.
This is maybe my fav song of his – Robert Quine on (lovely, lovely) guitar, Matthew Sweet (first place I heard him) on bass:
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Hoboken…..you were proboboly at Maxwell’s. That was the club that got the name acts there. Nice place.
DWR is the essential Dream Synd album. Their live performances usually sizzle but their other albums are a bit uneven.Report
No, my friend lived in Hoboken, the bar (it was sort of a supper club or something?) where Cole played was in the Hamptons.
Maxwell’s closed đReport
Maxwells recently closed. I saw the Cults there for my brother’s birthday.
That is the extent of my hipness vis a vis music.Report
But I thought the Cult was before your time… đ
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Just kidding, I know you meant these guys:
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Yeah i heard Maxwell’s closed….thats a shame but its amazing clubs like that actually survive as long as they do.
Kazzy probably means Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam. He is just that hip and with it.Report
I don’t know who any of those people are. But I did see Sleigh Bells at the 9:30 Club in DC. I think someone wrote a post on them a while ago. And when I say “saw”, I mean, “I was piss drunk and kept sneaking off to the gay sports bar around the corner to watch playoff basketball.” I was wearing a seersucker coat and bow tie, as we were having a Kentucky Derby party earlier that day. This outfit was a questionable choice for both venues. But that is a story for another day.Report
Lemme get this straight – you were up close to Alexis Krauss, but kept sneaking around the corner to the gay sports bar?
Dude, you are so totally gay.
For sports, I mean.Report
Here’s a funny story from that night:
I had zero qualms going to a gay sports bar⌠or any sports bar⌠or any gay bar⌠so long as it had the game on. My friend’s roommate tagged along.
I told him, “We’re going to a gay sports bar.”
His response: “If anything happens⌠you’re my boyfriend.”
My response: “I struggle to imagine what might happen that my being your boyfriend would solve.”
His response: “Hey! I’m just saying!”
I don’t think he had any idea what he was saying.Report
Thanks for sharing. Tis a pretty awesome secretReport
Thanks!
Admit it, you were lured in by the Camera Obscura…(but I think you’d dig Cole anyway).Report
I really enjoyed them as well, but I just came because I thought I was going to learn someone’s secrets.Report
Well, there was one, kinda…did anyone catch the POV “Period Piece” is sung from? (no Googling!)Report