Aimee Mann
GNP welcomes the return of Aimee Mann to Somerville Theatre on Thursday, January 19th at 8PM with special guest Ivan & Alyosha.
“There are few artists who have the panache to pull off an evening of ‘the melancholy’, yet leave the audience smiling and laughing along with her from start to finish. Then again, there are few artists like Aimee Mann. From her work in the 80’s with MTV favorite Til Tuesday through her acclaimed solo discs “Whatever” and “I’m With Stupid” in the 90s, Aimee Mann has always been at the forefront of contemporary songwriters. The close of the millennium brought her great success, with the simultaneous releases of Bachelor No. 2 and the soundtrack to the film Magnolia, which garnered nominations for an Oscar, a Golden Globe and three Grammys. After a decade in which her music often took a backseat to corporate mergers and contractual obligations, the message was clear: Aimee Mann is here to stay.
From “Voices Carry” to the Oscar-nominated “Save Me,” Mann has always been known for her clever, literate, and dryly witty takes on emotional sabotage and self-destruction. Though happily married to Michael Penn (with whom she has toured extensively in a double-billed “Acoustic Vaudeville”), her fascination continues with “the freaks who could never love anyone.” With a song craft often compared with the Beatles and Badfinger, Mann frequently pairs the bleakest of poetry with soaring, infectious melodies.
“I’ve always been fascinated with eccentric personalities,” says the Los Angeles based singer songwriter. On Smilers, her seventh solo CD, Mann presented thirteen exquisitely-crafted songs about the inner life of people living far from the bright lights of success or fame. Some of them are wanderers searching for meaning on the road, others look for it in a shot glass or by losing themselves in the blue trance of a TVset, and still others believe their deliverance will come through money. From the punch-drunk characters haunting the twilight world of a dusty downtown boxing gym, to a onetime financial big-shot who’s returned home after taking a tumble, Mann paints spare, vivid portraits of people who seem to always wind up with the smallest slice of American pie. The songs are soulful, empathetic and somehow ultimately hopeful and optimistic. Says Mann, “When I write about them — the narcissists, performers, eccentrics, know-it-alls – it helps me recognize some truths about the world and about myself.”
Aimee Mann is currently in the studio recording her next, as yet untitled CD scheduled for release in the Spring of 2012. Simultaneously, she is writing a musical. Expect new songs from both to be premiered on January 19th.
— —
Ivan & Aloysha
There’s a scene in Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov where the main characters Ivan and Alyosha discuss the existence of God. Ivan, in particular, questions the idea of God. Alyosha, on the other hand, is a monk, a believer, some may say, a holy fool.
Talk of faith and exalted things is rare in indie rock today. Enter Seattle band Ivan & Alyosha. Throughout their second release, the five song Fathers Be Kind EP, the band chart their own course between divinity and disbelief.
Ivan & Alyosha began as the solo outlet for Tim Wilson but in spring 2007 the band formed after Tim met Ryan Carbary through a former band mate and mutual friend. Ryan and Tim began playing and recording together and a trip to Los Angeles to work with Eli Thompson (Richard Swift, Delta Spirit) spawned the name Ivan & Alyosha. According to Tim, Thompson is a huge Dostoevsky fan and the name stuck. With that, Wilson and Carbary released The Verse, The Chorus, their debut EP on Cheap Lullaby Records (Joan as Police Woman, The Silver Seas, Teitur). The stand out track “Easy To Love” earned NPR Song of the Day honors as “a propulsive, sweetly booming ode to love as a feat of endurance.”
The name Ivan & Alyosha is apt for a band cutting its teeth. As Ivan in Brothers Karamazov moves through the novel with doubts, Ivan & Alyosha navigate the indie rock world contemplating their path as a band. Tim says he writes songs about what’s current in his life. Despite the uncertainty, Ivan & Alyosha’s soulful folk tunes suggest a band inspired, hopeful and longing; a band unafraid to probe their collective faith and doubts.
Tim and Ryan are joined by two others – Tim Kim and Pete Wilson, Tim’s brother. Seattle’s Ivan & Alyosha are not nihilist indie rockers but a new brand of tender dreamers. And non-believers be damned! God, or no God – these guys are no holy fools. They have their music to prove it.
Links: Aimeemann.com – Ivan & Alyosha – Tickets – Somerville Theatre – Directions