Dresden Dolls meet an idol
April 23, 2013 8:22 AM Subscribe
Dresden Dolls meet Lene Lovich to sing Delilah. You might know Dresden Dolls from stuff, and their awesome kit-bashed band at last year's MOMA (playing the Violent Femmes and such with Brian Ritchie and Mick Harvey). But do you know Lili-Marlene Premilovich aka Lene Lovich?
Her output was largely limited to between 1978 and 1982, with blips 1989 and 2005.
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
I Think We're Alone Now
Lucky Number
Bird Song
Angels
What Will I Do Without You
New Toy
Don't Kill The Animals (w.Nina Hagen)
Her output was largely limited to between 1978 and 1982, with blips 1989 and 2005.
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
I Think We're Alone Now
Lucky Number
Bird Song
Angels
What Will I Do Without You
New Toy
Don't Kill The Animals (w.Nina Hagen)
I was really excited to hear this particular combination of people perform "Delilah," and then just before clicking I thought, "Yeah, but it's probably the one Tom Jones did," and then today I learned that the Dresden Dolls also have a song called Delilah (and I find that I like it, so thanks for posting this), so it was neither the one I was hoping for (but was fairly certain they would not be performing), or the one I did think they'd be performing.
So I will have to wait for another day, and hope that someday, through some bizarre confluence of events, Lene Lovich and the Dresden Dolls do, in fact, meet up to sing Delilah.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 8:42 AM on April 23, 2013
So I will have to wait for another day, and hope that someday, through some bizarre confluence of events, Lene Lovich and the Dresden Dolls do, in fact, meet up to sing Delilah.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 8:42 AM on April 23, 2013
Yes indeed I did remember Lucky Number, and, less distinctly, its follow-up Say When. I can't say I was a fan but she certainly was distinctive and memorable. I did not know she wrote the lyrics to Supernature...
posted by misteraitch at 8:44 AM on April 23, 2013
posted by misteraitch at 8:44 AM on April 23, 2013
Were Dresden Dolls paid to play with Lene, or did they do it strictly for hugs, gratitude, and free beer?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:46 AM on April 23, 2013 [24 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:46 AM on April 23, 2013 [24 favorites]
I am all nose-turny as the rest of creation, but I see that Amanda says she played with Edward Ka-Spel too.
She's pretty much awesome, and she does my head in. But I want to let her do what she wants. I think she has earned it.
Anyone who brings the Lovich or the Ka-Spel to the kids and does ninja gigs... I am behind.
posted by Mezentian at 9:02 AM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]
She's pretty much awesome, and she does my head in. But I want to let her do what she wants. I think she has earned it.
Anyone who brings the Lovich or the Ka-Spel to the kids and does ninja gigs... I am behind.
posted by Mezentian at 9:02 AM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]
I still have my Lene Lovich cassette tape from the previous century. It is my only cassette.
posted by sneebler at 9:03 AM on April 23, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by sneebler at 9:03 AM on April 23, 2013 [4 favorites]
Ridiculous comment, DOT. I hate it when shit gets taken out of context. Call AFP on her vogon poetry, sure, but the whole payment of musos thing has been thrashed out so much that it's just lame now. She has always paid her band and she offered fans who could play a chance to join her on stage for a few songs. Seriously, such a storm in a cliche-cup.
ANYWAY, I loved Lene Lovitch when I first heard 'Lucky Number' and always wished she'd had a more stellar career because she deserved it. She's excellent and she sounds good here too.
posted by h00py at 9:10 AM on April 23, 2013 [5 favorites]
ANYWAY, I loved Lene Lovitch when I first heard 'Lucky Number' and always wished she'd had a more stellar career because she deserved it. She's excellent and she sounds good here too.
posted by h00py at 9:10 AM on April 23, 2013 [5 favorites]
Not huge into this genre of music and was just amazed at the hair and wigs and costumes of the 80's save the animals music video I clicked on first, and in then when she appeared in the performance in 2010 her taste in headgear had very slightly improved, but, well it's on stage, but I would love to run into here at the market.
posted by sammyo at 9:11 AM on April 23, 2013
posted by sammyo at 9:11 AM on April 23, 2013
her vogon poetry
Oh god that is perfect. I love her somewhere between guiltily and enthusiastically, but yeah. Amanda stahp.
posted by emmtee at 9:18 AM on April 23, 2013 [3 favorites]
Oh god that is perfect. I love her somewhere between guiltily and enthusiastically, but yeah. Amanda stahp.
posted by emmtee at 9:18 AM on April 23, 2013 [3 favorites]
I love Dresden Dolls but find Amanda Palmer by turns irritating and cringe-inducing, but if she's played with Edward Ka-Spel, I'm afraid I'm going to have to reconsider.
posted by infinitywaltz at 9:34 AM on April 23, 2013
posted by infinitywaltz at 9:34 AM on April 23, 2013
Lucky Number is the jam.
posted by blue t-shirt at 9:36 AM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by blue t-shirt at 9:36 AM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
she has this knack at getting on stage with people she loves. if i remember the story correctly, in australia she ran into richard o'brien at the coffee shop, he asked if she was going to the dresden dolls show, found it he was talking to amanda palmer, and ended up jumping on stage with her that night (and then many other times since).
she offered fans who could play a chance to join her on stage for a few songs.
and, importantly to some, paid every single person who played on stage with her during that tour while still handing out beer, hugs, merch, and the ability to pass the hat around. she also made sure venues didn't harass any buskers out front who wanted to try to make a few bucks before the show started. jherek bischoff, the bass player (and amazing composer and arranger in his own right), had the best writeup about how all that went down if it's something people are interested in seeing.
her vogon poetry
omg yes. love her. bought the single when she left roadrunner, talk with her on twitter, threw into the kickstarter, a straight up big fan. but. oy vey could she use an edit button sometimes and this was absolutely one of those times.
posted by nadawi at 9:44 AM on April 23, 2013 [3 favorites]
she offered fans who could play a chance to join her on stage for a few songs.
and, importantly to some, paid every single person who played on stage with her during that tour while still handing out beer, hugs, merch, and the ability to pass the hat around. she also made sure venues didn't harass any buskers out front who wanted to try to make a few bucks before the show started. jherek bischoff, the bass player (and amazing composer and arranger in his own right), had the best writeup about how all that went down if it's something people are interested in seeing.
her vogon poetry
omg yes. love her. bought the single when she left roadrunner, talk with her on twitter, threw into the kickstarter, a straight up big fan. but. oy vey could she use an edit button sometimes and this was absolutely one of those times.
posted by nadawi at 9:44 AM on April 23, 2013 [3 favorites]
I don't know, I kind of like her poetry:
you don't know how it felt to be in the womb but it must have been at least a little warmer than this.posted by Atom Eyes at 10:00 AM on April 23, 2013 [5 favorites]
you don't know how intimately they're recording your every move on closed-circuit cameras until you see your face reflected back at you through through the pulp.
oh freddled gruntbuggly thy micturations are to me as plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee.
Ridiculous comment, DOT.
Indeed. It's as though I were making some sort of joke.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:01 AM on April 23, 2013 [5 favorites]
Indeed. It's as though I were making some sort of joke.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:01 AM on April 23, 2013 [5 favorites]
I vividly remember hearing Lene Lovich for the first time. I was listening to the BBC World Service on Shortwave, when amidst the shaky reception and phase shifting, I could hear "Lucky Number." I thought, yeah, this is why I go to so much trouble trying to hear music from the UK on this stupid, expensive SW receiver, and once in a rare while, it pays off, so now I gotta find more of that music.
I am pretty sure I have her first two albums, don't know about after that.
posted by charlie don't surf at 10:18 AM on April 23, 2013
I am pretty sure I have her first two albums, don't know about after that.
posted by charlie don't surf at 10:18 AM on April 23, 2013
if i remember the story correctly, in australia she ran into richard o'brien at the coffee shop
She does a pretty good Magenta.
posted by cazoo at 10:20 AM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
She does a pretty good Magenta.
posted by cazoo at 10:20 AM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
Saw her on the second Live Stiffs tour. Pretty good, as I recall.
posted by Decani at 10:46 AM on April 23, 2013
posted by Decani at 10:46 AM on April 23, 2013
Amanda Palmer has become such an outsized figure (with, IMO, not-great music) that sometimes I forget how powerful the Dresden Dolls were. Seeing them in 2004 in a tiny little bar in St. Louis was mind-blowing. They encored with Amanda standing on the bar and Brian playing an acoustic guitar while they covered "Two-Headed Boy."
Was their split-up acrimonious?
posted by Bookhouse at 10:48 AM on April 23, 2013
Was their split-up acrimonious?
posted by Bookhouse at 10:48 AM on April 23, 2013
"Introducing" me to Lene Lovich via Amanda Palmer is almost intolerable.
posted by humboldt32 at 10:54 AM on April 23, 2013 [5 favorites]
posted by humboldt32 at 10:54 AM on April 23, 2013 [5 favorites]
Lene Lovich's keyboard player was Thomas Dolby who wrote New Toy - here she is singing it with Dolby's band in the mid-1980s (and if you watch the version of Radio Silence that precedes it, you get to see here wandering alluringly across the stage).
posted by Grangousier at 11:06 AM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Grangousier at 11:06 AM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
i think there were some hurt feelings at their split up - but i've seen it described as more two people who were in some sort of relationship growing in different ways and needing to do different things - with all the complications of trying to get out of their contract with roadrunner. i've seen mutterings that she maybe did him dirty in the end, but i've never seen specifics on that. they were able to get back together and do a tour (where a lot of the DD material in this thread comes from) and that seemed to be successful both personally and professionally. i don't follow him much, but she speaks kindly of him and promotes his projects and encourages people to listen to (and steal) the DD albums.
(and, if you haven't tried it - the new album has some great stuff. the band is killer, the producer is awesome, and she wrote some really good songs. of course, i say this as someone who likes a little over half of WKAP and the live australia record)
posted by nadawi at 11:08 AM on April 23, 2013
(and, if you haven't tried it - the new album has some great stuff. the band is killer, the producer is awesome, and she wrote some really good songs. of course, i say this as someone who likes a little over half of WKAP and the live australia record)
posted by nadawi at 11:08 AM on April 23, 2013
I've been a Lene fan since I bought Stateless back in 1978. Here's a neat Lene trivia fact: She was in the audience in London the night Chuck Berry recorded his live version of "My Ding-a-Ling" that eventually became his only U.S. number one single.
posted by Oriole Adams at 11:13 AM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Oriole Adams at 11:13 AM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
Yes having grown up watching TV in the UK, I know who Lene Lovich is.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 11:13 AM on April 23, 2013
posted by GallonOfAlan at 11:13 AM on April 23, 2013
Yes, having grown up listening to KROQ in the US, I know who Lene Lovich is.
posted by Chuffy at 1:43 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Chuffy at 1:43 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]
Yes, having dropped acid in the 1980s, I know who Lene Lovich is.
posted by Brody's chum at 2:50 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Brody's chum at 2:50 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]
Always wanted to transliterate that Lucky Number cry...: ÖH-ÜH-AH-ÖH!?
posted by progosk at 2:52 PM on April 23, 2013
posted by progosk at 2:52 PM on April 23, 2013
Yes, having seen a Target commercial, I know who Lene Lovich is.
posted by drezdn at 3:17 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by drezdn at 3:17 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
Huh. I remember DJs comparing Lena Lovich to Kate Bush at the time
*laughs drily to self*
posted by glasseyes at 5:22 PM on April 23, 2013
*laughs drily to self*
posted by glasseyes at 5:22 PM on April 23, 2013
Lene Lovich? Yeah.
As a kid, I only knew her by name for one song of hers that WRKR in Racine played incessantly back in the day called It's You, Only You (Mein Schmerz), and incidentally, I saw the video for it on The Video Music Machine on Channel 4, WTMJ. For a while, it too seemed to be on every week for months.
I thought she was a freak, because she looked like an over-painted gypsy in a wedding gown (didn't know who Frida Kahlo was yet, either), and my 12-year-old self wanted her off my screen and dammit, put on the Adam Ant, Sting and Duran Duran already! Because hot dudes! Especially since I wasn't supposed to be watching anyway and wanted to see John Taylor at least once before I got busted!
Later on in life I heard several of her songs that I liked better on the alternative station at uni, but hadn't connected the dots between her and those songs and that single for years. As an adult, I see how cool she is and I like her now, but when I was a young teen? Nah, wasn't interested in her work at all. I thought she was a yelping idiot and was a bigger fan of Kate Bush.
posted by droplet at 8:15 PM on April 23, 2013
As a kid, I only knew her by name for one song of hers that WRKR in Racine played incessantly back in the day called It's You, Only You (Mein Schmerz), and incidentally, I saw the video for it on The Video Music Machine on Channel 4, WTMJ. For a while, it too seemed to be on every week for months.
I thought she was a freak, because she looked like an over-painted gypsy in a wedding gown (didn't know who Frida Kahlo was yet, either), and my 12-year-old self wanted her off my screen and dammit, put on the Adam Ant, Sting and Duran Duran already! Because hot dudes! Especially since I wasn't supposed to be watching anyway and wanted to see John Taylor at least once before I got busted!
Later on in life I heard several of her songs that I liked better on the alternative station at uni, but hadn't connected the dots between her and those songs and that single for years. As an adult, I see how cool she is and I like her now, but when I was a young teen? Nah, wasn't interested in her work at all. I thought she was a yelping idiot and was a bigger fan of Kate Bush.
posted by droplet at 8:15 PM on April 23, 2013
Amanda Palmer's new album (the first & only thing of hers I really liked) is so heavily influenced by early 1980s New Wave, and by Lene Lovich in particular, that at times it's practically pastiche. No surprise they're playing together.
I discovered that genre/era of music about 5 years ago -- so innovative yet catchy -- and I'm pleased that the indie rock scene seemed to have discovered it around the same time. I had kind of written the whole period off as "Adam Ant, Sting and Duran Duran" & so hearing Pylon, the Raincoats, the dB's and Lene Lovich was a revelation.
Of course I don't know if I'd love Theatre Is Evil as much if I weren't jonesing for more of that angular herky-jerky sound.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 8:56 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
I discovered that genre/era of music about 5 years ago -- so innovative yet catchy -- and I'm pleased that the indie rock scene seemed to have discovered it around the same time. I had kind of written the whole period off as "Adam Ant, Sting and Duran Duran" & so hearing Pylon, the Raincoats, the dB's and Lene Lovich was a revelation.
Of course I don't know if I'd love Theatre Is Evil as much if I weren't jonesing for more of that angular herky-jerky sound.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 8:56 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
What a lovely lullaby before sleep. Thanks, Mezentian.
posted by homunculus at 12:53 AM on April 24, 2013
posted by homunculus at 12:53 AM on April 24, 2013
Yes, having seen a Target commercial, I know who Lene Lovich is.
I'm still reeling from the Nana Hagen & Nina Mouskouri jam.
They used her in a commercial?
posted by Mezentian at 4:38 AM on April 24, 2013
I'm still reeling from the Nana Hagen & Nina Mouskouri jam.
They used her in a commercial?
posted by Mezentian at 4:38 AM on April 24, 2013
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This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
Lene is awesome. Seriously.
The Moma show never made it to the Blue? How?
I'm no fan of the Dresden Dolls, but that show won me.
D. Other.
posted by Mezentian at 8:30 AM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]