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SEBASTIAN MlYNARSKI
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sllSewf/mtiw
londe Redhead is now seven albums
into a career that spans a dozen years.
Despite having earned consistently
positive reviews for its albums and having done
its share of touring. Blonde Redhead remains well
out of the spotlight, coasting waves of popular
ity in the indie scene but never quite breaking
out. Even the band's connections to the highly
respected Sonic Youth, Fugazi's Guy Picciotto and
record labels Touch & Go and 4AD have failed to
generate the kind of buzz and critical cache one
might expect.
But don't look for Kazu Makino, the group's
hypnotic singer, to complain. "I feel very com
fortable being everybody's well-kept secret. I
think it suits us well," she says. "I have a kind
of a guilty pleasure about not being so huge. But
then, of course, I have moments when I want to
make money. I want to have a better life... But
those two things seem to be quite separated.
I'm not doing anything to make that much more
money. I'm not making the effort to put myself
out there more, because it suits us to be that se
cretive. I am a quite secretive person, so I'm sure
it has something to do with that."
Blonde Redhead has viewed self-promo
tion and popularity with reluctance, the
band's commitment to its music—and to a sense
of stylistic adventure—has never been in ques
tion. The band was formed in 1995 in New York
City by Makino (who also plays guitar and key
boards), Amadeo Pace (guitar, vocals), Simone
Pace (drums) and Maki Takahashi (bass). The
group soon came to the attention of Sonic Youth
drummer Steve Shelley, who produced the band's
1995 self-titled debut CD and signed the group
to his label. Smells Like Records. Takahashi left
the group shortly after the first album was fin
ished, but the group pressed on as a trio and lat
er in 1995 released a second album, La Mia Vila
Violenta. Two years later. Blonde Redhead moved
on to Touch & Go Records, and re-emerged with
1997's Fake Can Be Just As Good, followed a year
later by In An Expression Of The Inexpressible.
These four albums took their stylistic cue
from New York's No Wave scene. The band's
sound, with its angular guitar lines and eerie
synthesizer parts, could be both turbulent and
dissonant, but with a notable amount of melody
built into the songs.
The early CDs also established Blonde
Redhead as an inventive musical unit eager to
explore new directions in its music from album
to album. Just how adventurous the band could
be became especially apparent with the 2000
release of Melody Of Certain Damaged Lernons. On
this CD, the first produced by Picciotto, Blonde
Redhead pulled back on the noisier elements of
the earlier albums and began emphasizing more
melody and atmosphere in its music.
This firm basis clearly set the stylistic stage
for Misery Is A Butterfly and new album 23.
everal songs on the new disc, such as
"Silently," "Publisher" and "The Dress,"
weave together layers of synthesizers, pro
grammed rhythms and vocal lines that seem both
pretty and fragile. The resulting techno-ish sound
is a bit icy sonically, but melodically hypnotic
and addictive.
Meanwhile, the album gets a nice bit of va
riety—and a few welcome jolts of energy—from
songs like the chiming "Dr. Strangelove" and
the rocking "Spring And Summer By Fall"—two
songs with immediately enticing pop hooks. But
the jagged sounds of early Blonde Redhead are
almost entirely missing on 23.
The musical quality of the band-produced 23
took some effort, though. The ensemble arrived
at the studio only with loose ideas to develop
into full-fledged songs. It turned out to be a
challenge, and part way through the project, the
band recruited producer Mitchell Froom to work
on a pair of tracks and help get the project on
track. "We went into the studio thinking it was
not going to be that hard," says Makino. "It
turned out it wasn't all that simple."
But the effort was worth it and Makino says
the band is pleased with the music that emerged
on 23. "I do feel like we're getting closer to what
we've been looking for," she says. "I think we
were always a very explorative band, but I feel
like [with] each album we've been getting a little
bit closer and closer to that thing that we've
been looking for."
She's satisfied enough, in fact, to wonder if
the band will want to be as stylistically adven
turous as it was on earlier albums. "I'm a little
bit scared because I feel like we really like this
album, and that kind of keeps us staying in the
same spot," says Makino. "I hope we grow out of
this phase, too—but I'm quite fascinated by the
sound and the songs. We might just stick around
in this phase for a little while longer."
Alan Sculley
\
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