Lisa Germano: C/D

Is it the Shagg's documentary??

Yes yes yes, worth the price just for "It's a Rainbow," my favorite LG track. That part where she goes up an octave to sing "Blame me, blame me" - mmmm mmmm. "Alcoholic, alcoholic, that's a word my friends call it"...just beautiful.

My Germano collection is incomplete, but of what I have, Geek the Girl is my favorite.

I keep daydreaming about billowy shoegaze renditions of "Baby On the Plane".

http://www.younggodrecords.com/images/artists/LisaGermano/sund_663_european.jpg

It is. Three quarters of the way through ("Red Thread") on my third listen, everything clicked.

"Magic Neighbor" out September 22.

http://younggodrecords.com/Releases/detail.asp?C=2246

Yes.

http://www.indie-eye.it/recensore/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/magin_neighbor.jpg

sry

http://www.indie-eye.it/recensore/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/magin_neighbor.jpg

Good album, that new one. Been back in a phase -- listening to the two versions of Happiness is weirdly fascinating, as both are so clearly of their time/particular aesthetic. But the original has an advantage in that it starts out as almost far too mannered of-its-time 'adult album alternative' (you can sense the 'okay we're gently shifting from Suzanne Vega to Sheryl Crow on our playlists' dynamic) but gets increasingly unsettled. Especially by the time it hits "Sycophant," which pretty much predicts she was going to end up on a label run by a Swans member at some point! In comparison the remixed version, while lovely, is a little too much of a piece that she presumably hadn't intentionally wanted that way, where the following albums aimed for that directly.

"Magic Neighbour" is the best things she's ever done. "Snow" completely slays me, and I think she was aiming for (and achieved) the same sort of tension and build as in Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work". If you play the two songs back-to-back then I think the similarities are obvious.

that should read: "Magic Neighbor" is the best thing she's ever done

(also corrected for American spelling)

happiness, it's like TV
on or off, it's up to me

amazing how such chicken-soup-for-somebody's-soul drivel can be so affecting in a Lisa Germano song...

New Lisa Germano streaming at the Pitchfork:

http://pitchfork.com/advance/24-no-elephants/

I wonder why the review kept holding aloft Fiona Apple as some sort of "you can do it, too!" example? I have a feeling one reason Germano got sick of all this shit is because she's just about a full two decades older than Apple. Hell, she's a decade older than Liz Phair. Also, Apple had a bunch of hits (which is to say, money) that provided more than enough "fuck you" fuel; she could afford to be flighty and independent and still have that constitute a high profile career. I think Germano probably found the record/tour grind a much less lucrative hustle, especially since she frequently goes so much darker than even Apple generally dares.

I remembered that Chris Ott had written a really positive and well-written review of "Lullaby for Liquid Pig" on the Pitchfork, and I clicked through this morning to read it again, cause that record rules, but it seems that the site has revised their opinion and assigned a new writer and rating four years later, ah well. This woman is all-time classic full-stop, kick rocks if you disagree

I thought the PF review was fair, but I don't think Germano really cares about evolving her music anymore, or striving for a Fiona Apple-like revival, she's happy to keep putting out nearly the exact same album every three or four years and her extremely devoted fans are perfectly happy with that too.

Like I said, kick rocks

I'm with NTBT on this. I loved Happiness and Geek the Girl, played them to death back in the day. But none of the later ones came close to emulating their appeal.

Love that mobile phone interference on 'Dance Of The Bees'!

Revisiting 'Lullaby For Liquid Pig' these last few days, Pearls is unbearably sad and beautiful, there's a little afterthought of a melody that comes in right before the end that breaks my heart it's so amazing.

Several years since I've listened to 'Happiness' (the 4AD version, far longer since I've heard the original version). Damn, so good.

she's happy to keep putting out nearly the exact same album every three or four years and her extremely devoted fans are perfectly happy with that too.

it would have been nice if this happened

she appears to have stopped playing music. we were connected on FB for a while and she was very busy taking care of her parents, one of whom passed away from what I remember (probably both by this point). If there were any justice in the world she would still be performing and recording (if she wants to).

Wasn't she back in Mellencamp's band this/last year?

oh hey, 4AD put out the 30th anniversary edition of Geek the Girl earlier this year, includes the Inconsiderate Bitch EP as a bonus disc...

xpost As of a couple of years ago, yeah

https://kslx.com/john-mellencamp-tour-to-include-fiddler-lisa-germano-for-the-first-time-in-29-years/

I remember buying the Energy single as Mark Radcliffe played it all the time. But that was it. Where’s good to start after that?

Geek the Girl is her best album and, as stated, newly reissued. I think all of her 4ad albums are exceptional, and Lullabye for Liquid Pig is of the same calibre. The two after that were not quite as memorable, but I don't recall them being bad in any way.

I always liked Excerpts from a Love Circus best. This song is so pretty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta1J0ULVtSE

I've got to admit I haven't thought of this song or album in a really long time, but playing it now is really taking me back.

i loved No Elephants so much, and it came out right when i was really getting into her music again. have been looking forward to a follow up since then.