Little-known today, late glam-rock pioneer Jobriath released two albums for Elektra Records in the early 1970s, becoming rock's first openly gay major-label recording artist. Now a new album of unreleased music, "As the River Flows" (Eschatone), comes out 40 years later. On a track like "Inside," you can hear how utterly of his time and ahead of his time Jobriath was. The classically trained piano-playing, the nasal vocals, the confident ascent into falsetto: all would become standard glam-rock fare, and Jobriath was there at its very inception.
The shrink-wrap on Owen Pallett 's new album "In Conflict" (Domino) advises, "Please remove this sticker," and he had us at "please." The CD wears its heart on its sleeve, so to speak, as the lyric sheet begins on the cover and continues inside. It's Pallettesque lyrics like, "I'll never have children, I'd bear them and eat them, my children" that distinguish his songwriting. Jaunty melodies and chorales featuring pop elder Brian Eno dress up the essential seriousness of Pallett's work. Songs like "The Passions" are like short gay love stories. "My fingers lock behind your head, you hook your pinkies on my jeans, I'm 28 and you're 19, compassion, compassion." "As we try to get it on in bed, you've given me your home and head, you put on The Queen Is Dead, I just want to talk instead, compassion, compassion." Vintage analog synthesizers put the art in these art-songs.
Iggy Azalea's "The New Classic" (Virgin) begins with the disingenuous disclaimer, "We don't want to do anything that would scare your children, that's the last thing we want to do. We don't want to scare anybody." Then Azalea and company proceed to do just that, in modern rap pop.
Meshell Ndegeocello's new release "Comet, Come to Me (Na�ve)" is a winner, precise in both lyrics and music. It begins with a nice thought. "Friends, how many of us have them? Friends, ones we can depend on. Friends, before we go any further, let's be friends."
The new Pixies album "Indie Cindy" (Pixies Music) sounds like it was created from heirloom Pixies DNA cryogenically frozen from the 1990s. Pixies use metal-rock tropes and infectious riffs combined with pop-music genius to make their unmistakable sound. The new songs could have been B-sides to "Trompe le Monde," but that's good. And if you doubt what a consummate song-stylist Black Francis is, listen to how many ways he can phrase the epithet, "Bag boy!"
Speaking of singers who really put a song across, Out There was in the house at Feinstein's at the Nikko at the boite's one-year anniversary celebration last Thursday night. Cabaret stars Michael Feinstein and Paula West performed standards from Gershwin, Porter and other stalwarts of the American Songbook, and proved their mettle in a room full of industry types and pressies. Feinstein's tribute to the late Maya Angelou was touching; his name-dropping was self-serving but adorable, as when he introduced a number, "Liza Minnelli introduced me to Sammy Davis, Jr., because she thought I should know him."
And OT being OT, we set aside time for what we think of as "serious music." We're learning about the oeuvre of French composer Henri Dutilleux, inspired by an essay in the latest issue of International Piano magazine. You can find CDs of his compositions in the clearance bin at Amoeba Music for $2: crazy! IP also provides a nice profile of Luxembourgian pianist Jean Muller, and sheet music for Chopin 's Polonaise in A Flat Major, Op. 53. A cornucopia of riches!
Romance Language
Multiple-threat talent D'Arcy Drollinger, who wrote and is producing and choreographing his new musical "Mr. Irresistible" through June 8 at the Alcazar Theatre (with music by Christopher Winslow), neither stars in nor directs the show. But that did not stop him from getting onstage in a cameo tour de force.
According to the show's plot, the main character Eileen Morchinsky (Cindy Goldfield ) is obsessed with a romance novel and ends up ordering a robot based on the man in the book. She then has a makeover to become the book's female lead. The show opens with a video portrayal of the romance novel. Drollinger in full Lucille Ball -in-the-wine-vat glamour drag plays Portia, while Steven Shear (who also plays Mr. Irresistible on stage) plays Jake. The photo we reproduce here gives new meaning to the term, "getting into the act." Tix are available at mrirresistible.eventbrite.com.
And we're still high from the Meals on Wheels of San Francisco Chefs and Vintners Gala on Sunday night, at the Fort Mason Festival Pavilion. Luminaries from top restaurants and wineries offered amazing victuals, wine and cocktails under gala chair chef Nancy Oakes. It was a special feast; thank you, star chefs and vintners!