Autumn is upon us, so I’m busting out all of my favorite fall records. First up: anything and everything Jill Tracy has ever touched with her long, thin, alabaster hands.
As can be plainly seen from this gorgeous music video for “Haunted by the Thought of You”, Madame Tracy is one classy dame. Cool as a cucumber. Who else do I know who could maintain such an unflappable air of poise and elegance as reanimated hearts, levitating chairs, creepy humanoid automata, and even the arse of Satan himself loom directly behind her? No one!
Jill Tracy performing live in NYC. Photo by Don Spiro.
I’ve been swooning over the Victorian parlor pianist/netherworld chanteuse ever since a video for her seminal song “The Fine Art of Poisoning” was released a few years back, but she’s been casting her Ghostly Gloom Glam Queen spell for well over a decade (since long before this latest incarnation of the “dark cabaret” movement picked up speed), always with unparalleled grace and sincerity.
The songs collected on her latest album The Bittersweet Constrain (two in particular: “Sell My Soul” and “Torture”) do indeed invoke a delicious sort of pleasure/pain, not unlike the burn of real wormwood absinthe trickling down the gullet; unsettling and exhilarating as receiving a languorous tongue bath from a black cat at midnight on some foggy, windswept moor. Highly recommended.
Also see:
- Kurt Weill: September Songs
- Jacques Brel: “Ne Me Quitte Pas”
- Nico: “No One is There”
- Edith Piaf: “No, je ne regrette rien”
- Tiger Lillies: “Bully Boys”
- Dresden Dolls: “Sing” (alternate cut)
- Reverend Glasseye: “Seventeen Lashes”
- Nicki Jaine: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”
- 2007 Edwardian Ball (Rosin Coven, Vau de Vire)
- Vermillion Lies: “No Good” live
- The Ditty Bops: “Wishful Thinking”
- World Inferno Friendship Society: “Tattoos Fade” live
- HUMANWINE: “Wake Up” live
- Sepiachord Magazine: “Music of a Past that Never Was”
September 5th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
You might also want to check out an Italian act called Roma Amor. They do “folksy” cabaret…their album sounds exactly like walking by talented musicians plying their trade on some dusty side street in Old Europa. And they do a brilliant cover of Jacques Brel’s “Next.”
September 5th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Jack, sounds lovely. I’ll check them out, thank you.
September 5th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
I adore Jill Tracy — we’ll have to rely on music to create an illusion of Autumn! September in California means drawn blinds and sizzling sidewalks.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
You see? This is why I have musical inadequacy issues. I hadn’t heard Jill Tracy in maybe eight years, and when you bring it up I immediately think of related artists, then a mix tape starting with Jill Tracy and descending into the Tiger Lillies doing “Harriet and the Matches”, only to discover that you’ve beat me to the punch.
Well played, Yoyanos. A burrow owl indeed.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
How beautiful…will add it to my list of music to buy.
Nice to see The Ditty Bops get a mention! I’ve such a crush on those girls…always enjoy seeing them live both for their solid performances and the general coolness of the crowd.
May want to check out Jesca Hoop…very haunting voice and a solid live performer.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Jesca’s great! She just came to FF’s last LA gig, actually…she’s an old friend of Dawn and Kirana. Never thought of her as cabaret,really, although i can see why you’d mention her…
Jennifer, I miss autumn in NYC desperately.
“Yoyanos”? Heee.Jon, you just made my very silly name even sillier. Didn’t know that was even possible!
September 6th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Oh Jill. Her voice is burning velvet. Perfect autumn music, yes!
September 6th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Wow, we’ve been looking for that video, my partner Stella Maris did costuming for it. :) Thanks for posting.
September 6th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Hail the queen of the underworld!
September 6th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Normally I like my music to be faster, grindier, and a third as long. This is very good, though. Thanks.
September 6th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
@Mer…How cool. Have not had the pleasure to meet her yet but I try to see her play any time she’s in town. True she’s not of the cabaret style but that voice! I’m sure she could pull off the style if she was to embrace it…what a show that would be too.
“Yoyanos”…hahahah. Gotta admit it has a great ring to it. How about a “Make Mer’s last name sound as silly as possible” contest? I like your last name though…has that Mythical God & Supervillain/Supervillian quality to it.
September 7th, 2008 at 9:23 am
“Yoyoonos” would be a nice addition to your contest, Tequila. Combining “Yayanos” and our photo-agent Andrew’s last name “Yoon”.
September 7th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Entirely lovely. I needed to see this and I didn’t even know it. Thanks, Mer!
September 7th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Jill Tracy is love. Jill Tracy and Paul Mercer is even more love (they performed together at the Vampire Ball in Portland OR last year).
September 7th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Yes! Jill Tracy is sweet autumn listening as well as several of the others (yet to check on some I’m not entirely familiar with but I’m sure are worth the peek ;])
Thanks for this! :D
September 9th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Mer-
It was totally on purpose and not at all the result of furtively typing under my boss’s nose.