An Evening with Jon Brion at Le Poisson Rouge 10.2.2011

It was extremely fitting that Jon Brion's first night of his Le Poisson Rouge run started off with the multi-instrumentalist/producer/song writer/musical genius idly playing chords from The Wizard Oz soundtrack. A veritable one man band, Brion seamlessly moves from keys to guitars to drums to the harmonica, all the while layering and looping each component (with the help of a MicroKorg), building the songs right before the audiences' eyes and ears. It's kind of like peeking behind the velvet curtain, and watching the Great and Powerful Oz himself.

There were some technical difficulties on the venue's end, resulting in several "live sound checks" from Brion (who jokingly commented, "when I showed up today, the owner was like 'man, you have a lot of stuff'"), but that was just further proof of Brion's consummate musicianship. To see him perform is to see him create, on the spot, off the top of his head and completely organically: that fluidity that comes so naturally (or seemingly naturally, anyway) makes watching Brion even more exciting than listening to him. His musical red herrings (like teasing the chords to the “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” theme song) are very rarely indications of what will actually come next.

Duplicating the same atmosphere of his long running weekly residency at Largo in L.A., Brion wove originals like “Ruin My Day” and “She’s At It Again” into Duke Ellington standards. He re-worked The Zombies' "This Will Be Our Year" via xylophone, covered Roxy Music's "More Than This," and, in what was the highlight of my week, unexpectedly turned an audience suggestion ("Born in the U.S.A.") into a Prince medley. For an artist who is known for his collaborations (he also did a great version of “Looks Like You,” a song he co-wrote with Evan Dando of the Lemonheads) and the roster of talented associates he usually plays with, sometimes it's better when the cameos don't show up. While waiting outside before the show, everyone, myself included, was throwing around names like Aimee Mann, Rufus Wainwright, and of course, Fiona Apple, as potential rumored guests. And while I would've loved to see Brion and Apple do "You Belong to Me” (or anything really, for that matter), I was just as excited to watch him lead the room in "When Doves Cry," at top volume.

Hack/Genius/Both: Kanye's Breakthrough

Kanye's album 808's and Heartbreak is out this week, and I for one never thought I'd be writing this post. The album does not suck. Kanye West's career trajectory has been anything but promising. After producing almost all the tracks on Jay Z's The Blueprint, one of the greatest hip hop records of all time, and one of the most timeless, his 2004 debut College Dropout was a fun if all-over-the-place collection, lacking focus but bursting at the seams with five-star jamz. Following that up was 2005's Late Registration, co-produced by studio genius Jon Brion. This record, while more cohesive, was nowhere near as strong. That being said, the songs were more fleshed out and at the time I thought they pointed to a more cohesive direction for Kanye. Boy, was I wrong: Graduation dropped in 2007 and had a few excellent tracks (I think "Good Morning" could go on a list for my favorite of all time), but the album as a whole sounded tired and phoned in.

So when it came to light that Kanye's next album, 808's and Heartbreak, would be an Autotune -heavy breakup album, my hopes were not high. Sure, it sounded interesting, but I thought Kanye was gonna blow it. Hard. I held out a miniscule amount of hope that Kanye's take on Autotune would take the tool beyond gimmick to valid studio tool. Someone's got to take this fad and make it worthwhile, right? Well there is good news and bad news about 808's and Heartbreak. Bad news: Kanye's use of Autotune doesn't look like it's broken any ground. Good news: it stands up as a cohesive concept album and a break with the style that seemed so damned tired on Graduation.

The sad state of hip hop is something I've posted about before. Good things happening in the genre seem to get buried in the underground, while sub par performers are hailed as saviors of the form. I think it's great that Lil' Wayne appeared on something like 1,674 songs over the last two years, but if those songs range from boring to grating are they really worth the words that so many critics write about them?

It is the responsibility of artists already in the canon to branch out and try new things. Not all of these experiments are going to work. Some of them are going to be outright failures. But anything is better than more albums that don't stand up to the hype. Kanye's album is not one of my favorites, but here's hoping other producers and emcees of his caliber take his cue and start pushing more boundaries.

808's and Heartbreak stream [kanyeuniversecity.com; you have to dig around but it's there]

Photo courtesy The New York Times