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Beat Circus; Larkin Grimm; Envie @ Eyedrum 2/12/08 |
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Written by Tim Shea
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Envie solidifies their enchanting presence in the Atlanta music
scene, playing what will be their last show for a few months, as
they're taking a sabbatical to write new material. Renee Nelson's voice
and songwriting acumen are reminiscent of Siouxie and the Banshees'
circa Juju - a mesmerizing series of arrangements that evokes
music at once from all times and places, suspending the listener in a
vortex of enraptured displacement. The band consists of newly added
bassist Rich Hudson from BOB fame, Sean Moore on drums (who also is a
master of electronic composition as evidenced from his own ongoing solo
enterprise called Lid Emba), and Keith Lee, an Atlanta scene veteran
from King Kill/33 and Liars Club. Their set was flawless, which for
them is a predictable given considering the meticulousness of their
formidable aspirations to form.
Larkin Grimm is a native of Dahlonega, GA ...a nightmarish place where
not-so-long-ago I worked as an child adolescent mental health counselor
and experienced the Southern-American Gothic creepiness of the place
firsthand. At the time I considered myself trapped in Nick Cave's
songbook; what this place's influence had on a young Larkin one doesn't
have to speculate too hard. She favored the crowd with a performance
that was at once spiritual and earthy. Her songs each seemed to convey
a different persona, as though she was momentarily possessed by each of
them. Her startling songs carried the perspective of these various
characters without devolving into mere confessional or autobiographical
narrative. The stylistic approach was singular to each song, an
impressive achievement in songwriting skill. Michael Gira's Young God
Records will be releasing Grimm's upcoming CD, which with any justice
will catapult her to the recognition she all so obviously deserves -
she is a songwriter and performer of immense power and versatility.
Headlining was Beat Circus, a seven-piece outfit (drums, trombone,
guitar/banjo, vocalist/harmonium/harmonica, violin, violin, upright
bass/guitar *whew*) from NYC. They've studiously arrived at a music of
much their own invention, which draws from the ethnic milieu of the
Lower East Side of the early 20th century. One could almost experience
a feeling of going back in time, being drawn into the fevered world of
a neighborhood's recent immigrants' arrival, and experience the
culture/future shock of the promise and dystopia of industrial America
in its foul ripeness. Elements of Jewish Klezmer, Romanian Doina,
Waltz, and Appalachian folk blended seamlessly to give the literary
narratives drawn from historical happenstance of this place and time
full force - pure inventive genius.
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