Inspiration post: Emilie Autumn

Today's vid: Rose Red by Emilie Autumn.



Why this band? Well, I've mentioned Lady Emilie on this blog before. (In a post full of fangirlish squealing. Shhh, pretend you didn't hear that.) Many of my favorite musical acts are ones that mix up genres, and Emilie's no exception. She's coined the term "violindustrial" to describe hers. She's a classically trained violinist and has a naturally pretty singing voice. So you might think she would produce lovely soft string-laden tunes, and sometimes she does... but more often than not she shreds on her customized e-violin and uses that pretty voice of hers to scream like a beast. She's a little bit crazy, and for that I love her all the more.

Why this performance? These days, she doesn't play her violin live quite so much anymore, which seems like such a waste of talent. She produced a whole album full of interesting e-violin pieces right after Opheliac, called Laced/Unlaced, but she rarely uses those songs in her set lists. So I like this performance because it's all instrumental. The song, Rose Red, is off her first album, Enchant. The album version had vocals and I like that one too, but this just flat-out rocks. It makes me want to jump up and down just like she does!

In which there is a rat on my head

Okay, time to take off my objective-and-sensible hat and squeal with glee like the mad girl I am. On Wednesday night after her show at Bourbon Street in Baltimore, I was finally able to meet the wonderful and talented Emilie Autumn, along with about twenty other fans who had bought VIP passes.

At the meet and greet, she showed us some illustrations from her upcoming book, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls, and we had a group singalong of My Fairweather Friend. But most of the time was taken up with signings and photos and hugs (lots of those). I was struck by how well she connects with her fans--she really takes the time to talk to each person, and she seems genuinely happy to see everyone. They say you should never meet your heroes, but Miss Emilie is truly a lovely person.

But, to take my fangirl hat off and put my objective-and-sensible hat back on, I was a tiny bit disappointed with the show. It wasn't so much a musical performance as a theatrical spectacle set to music. I find the Bloody Crumpets entertaining, but at times it seemed like their act took away from the music, which I think should be the heart of a performance and not the background. True, Emilie did sing everything, but I would have loved more violin and harpsichord. The constant use of prerecorded tracks killed it a little for me. However, to give her credit, she did tear through Unlaced and Face the Wall on her signature striped violin. And I did actually enjoy most of the show, particularly the antics of Captain Maggot, who manages to be cute and creepy at the same time. She has the facial expressions of a mime and moves like a demented marionette. Also, how can you not like a show where they throw cupcakes at you?

The audience was pretty good as well. EA shows always draw a colorful crowd, attired in a combination of corsets, bustles, artfully ripped and torn garments, and stripey stockings. I met lots of interesting and friendly people in the queue, two of whom were kind enough to walk me back to my hotel after the show was over. I never got your names, guys, but I owe you. I wouldn't have wanted to encounter that one creepy dude on my own.

Lastly, the sillier photo to which the title refers can be found on my Flickr. Now, off to have some tea.

And the battle continues

I'm making progress on What If.

Kind of.

Well, okay, slow progress.

I've been plucking away for about two hours and have succeeded in nailing down a few more chords. The reason those chords are taking so long is that I have to flip a lever right at the transition between the chorus and the next verse. Yay key changes. Trying to work them in is kind of playing Simon on the highest difficulty level but harder.

My musical nemesis

Repetition. When I'm learning a new song, it's unavoidable. As I mentioned some time ago, I pretty much fail at reading sheet music, so the only way I can really learn is by ear. And the only way to really learn something by ear is to listen to it. Many, many times. And then when I can figure out the fingering, to divvy it up into little sections and play each phrase. Many, many times. When I'm learning a new song, my life becomes the musical equivalent of Groundhog Day.

At the moment I am about halfway through What If by Emilie Autumn, a pretty, flowy kind of tune. I'm veering between the version by this harpist on YouTube (although she's playing pedal, which somewhat screws things up), and the recorded version, twisting my face into bizarre expressions as I struggle to hear the exact notes the piano is playing underneath the layers of strings and vocals. I tell myself that it will be worth it when I can play the full song smoothly. This is what I tell myself as my (bleeding, broken) fingers clamber up that stupid broken A chord for the umpteenth time.

I have already stated that repetition is the best way for me to learn. Unfortunately, the idea of anything repeating endlessly drives me crazy. Stairs. Wallpaper patterns. Carousels. Songs...

So, even though it's in the name of learning a song well, the sound of my own fingers playing the same chords over and over gives me the feeling of being in a recurring nightmare. I must be a masochist, though, because if I'm impatient to learn the song I keep at it, and at it, convinced that just one more repetition will make it perfect.

This must be how people go crazy...

Sometimes there just aren't any words.

I just snagged a VIP ticket to an Emilie Autumn show in October.

Which means I get to meet her before the show.

I have no idea how I did this. Normally I'm always too late for these things.

Holy crap.

A miscellaneous little mix tape

I always love reading or hearing about what my favorite musicians are listening to, because they often have some really interesting things to say about why they like it. Vienna Teng made a post a few years ago back when she had first started her blog (her scrapbook, she calls it) in which she listed tracks she might include on a mix tape for anyone reading. I think you see where this is leading... although, unlike Vienna, I can't claim to have played with all the people who recorded these songs. (Lucky her.)

1. Emilie Autumn, "Manic Depression": Emilie is one of my absolute favorite artists because it is so very tricky to pigeonhole her. Her lyrics are always sharp and witty, but she's always experimenting with her singing style. However, this song features neither her lyrics nor her voice, but rather her prowess on the electric violin: this girl can shred.

2. Snow Patrol, "If There's a Rocket Tie Me to It": Snow Patrol is one of those bands whose albums I have always meant to buy and never got around to it. However, I may now just have to give in and snag a copy of A Hundred Million Suns. I heard this one morning on XPN a few weeks ago during the drive to work. I love the energy and the rhythm of it, but it was the lyrics that caught my ear--they're unusually vivid and visual.

A fire, a fire/You can only take what you can carry/A pulse, your pulse/It's the only thing I can remember/I break, you don't/I was always set to self destruct though/The fire, the fire/It cracks and barks like primal music

3. Kaki King, "Doing the Wrong Thing": The word virtuoso always gets tossed around when people talk about Kaki because of her acoustic guitar skills, but she's definitely branched out since her first album. She creates soundscapes--I can't think of a better way to put it. Her songs may not always have words that stick in my head or a melody I can tap my foot to, but they take me somewhere else. The inside of her head must be an interesting place.

4. Gillian Grassie, "Tamlin": When I looked at who Gillian listed in her influences and saw the title of this song, I admit I leaped to conclusions and assumed it was going to be some kind of Loreena McKennitt imitation, but she takes the traditional folktale and twists it around into something entirely unexpected and original.

Do you ever get that feeling of being infinite and small?/Like you're everything and nothing at all?/My love has become a burning coal/And I'm not sure I can hold/My love, he's become a glowing coal/And he burns me/And I hold

5. The Fratellis, "Milk and Money": Ah yes, another one of my very favorite bands. This is the last song on their second album, Here We Stand, and I was lucky enough to hear it live when I saw them a few months ago. Some critics haven't been that kind to this album, but I think it shows how much they've grown since Costello Music. To me, it's songs like this that prove they're much more than "that band that plays Chelsea Dagger."

And the last chance girl in the first dance swirl/Lays her head down on the wooden floor/Won't be dancing anymore/And where do they go when the thrills have gone?/And the last song plays down at babylon/Five hundred kids shout what's the deal?/It's a very confusing way to feel

6. The Animators, "Good to Be Here": I wish I'd gotten the chance to see these guys before they broke up, but at least they left behind them two albums of good solid power pop available for free download on their web site. One of the things I really liked about them was that so many of their songs were little stories, like this one.

I woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling/Look who's back, I saw the doctor smile/Careful, we almost thought we'd lost you for a while/Cecilia was the last thing I remember/On the radio of the overturned car/How long have I been here?/I can't feel a thing/But I think I'm all right

7. Coldplay, "Cemeteries of London": I started listening to Coldplay much later than everybody else did. I got Viva La Vida three or four months after it was released, and enjoyed it much more than I expected. I really like the rhythm section in this tune and the lyrics, which seem like a departure for them in that they're not relationship-focused. Plus, I happened to be reading The Graveyard Book at the time, and this went very nicely as background music.

At night they would go walking 'til the breaking of the day/The morning is for sleeping/Through the dark streets they go searching to seek God in their own way/Save the nighttime for your weeping/Your weeping

8. Solas, "Vital Mental Medicine/The Pullet": With For Love and Laughter, the most recent addition to Solas's discography, Seamus Egan continues his tradition of doing scary things with a banjo, as well as his tradition of giving his original instrumentals puzzling and improbable titles. Personally, I still want to know what "Coconut Dog" is all about...

Some haunting music for you

Alas for my digital recorder. I cannot find the bloody thing and so cannot regale you with one of my favorite jigs, "I Buried My Wife And Danced On Top of Her," which I thought would be perfectly appropriate for Hallowe'en. So instead I'll leave you with a performance from Emilie Autumn, who is not a harp player (thank heavens, because she'd probably be brilliant and then I'd have to roll over and give up), but who is nevertheless a wonderfully gifted and experimental artist. She does some rather nifty things with electric violin, and this piece is an example of that. It's an instrumental entitled "Face the Wall" and is haunting in every sense of the word.



Have a lovely Samhain, everyone!