There are many words that can be used when the subject is Neko Case -- words like "divine," "the greatest female rock singer since Chrissie Hynde," and "this woman must have my baby" most immediately spring to mind -- but in any case, they are all rendered superfluous in the face of this video of Neko and her chums in the New Pornographers performing "Your Daddy Don't Know," an obscure song by Famous-Only-In-Canada 80s hair band Toronto.
There's a little story about that song. A while back, my generous to a fault co-blogger NYMary happened to send me a CD she'd burned of the new album by the aforementioned New Pornographers. It sat on my desk for a week or so, and when I got around to listening to it I was enjoying it immensely as expected until the final track --track 15, if memory serves -- suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks. Not only was it totally unlike everything that had come before (this was decidely not a product of the band's low-fi aesthetic) but in fact it sounded like the greatest Rick Springfield song that Rick Springfield never recorded. Compounding the mystery, when I looked up the album's track listing on Amazon, it turned out the album did not in fact have a track 15.
A frantic e-mail to NYMary soon cleared things up: She'd forgotten that she'd appended the song as a bonus track (it was from a single she had somewhere else or something) and yes, it did sound a bit like Rick Springfield's "Jesse's Girl," but it was in fact Neko and the gang doing an obscure song by the aforementioned Famous-Only-In-Canada 80s hair band Toronto.
Have I mentioned that Neko and the rest of the New Pornographers are Canadian?
Anyway, last night (through a set of circumstances too bizarre to recount here) I found myself in attendance at an A Cappella Battle of the Bands concert at Symphony Space In Manhattan (apparently there is a thriving A Capella band subculture in this country that I had been blissfully unaware of). So one of the groups comes out and starts wailing on "Your Daddy Don't Know" and they weren't even Canadian. I was floored, but even more so when they segued out of it and into "Jesse's Girl."
Hey -- I said it was a little story. I didn't say that it was going to be interesting.
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2 comments:
Hey steve-o. Did I mention I got to spend *two* evenings with Ms. Neko this week? She revealed she is the secret president of the Heart fan club. Also did a lovely cover of Buckets of Rain. I'm still aswoon.
Actually, I love stories like this. I am able to understand a little better the delight and passion for music, the depth of knowledge behind the sounds, the joy.
It's vignettes like this which help me acknowledge and respect things I knew nothing about. My world got a little bit bigger.
Thanks.
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