Jill Sobule — Dottie's Charms [2014]

 

            Jill Sobule — Dottie's Charms
··   “Jill Sobule can claim her place among the stellar New York singer-songwriters of the last decade. Topical, funny and more than a little poignant… grown-up music for an adolescent age.” — Jon Pareles

Genre: Genreless
Born: January 16, 1965, Denver, Colorado United States
Location: New York ~ Los Angeles, CA
Album release: April 19, 2014
Record Label: Pinko Records
Duration:     36:42
Tracks:
01. My Chair (Office-Chair Charm)      4:00
02. Flight (Jet Plane Charm)      3:39
03. Statue Of Liberty (Statue of Liberty Charm)      3:23
04. I Swear I Saw Christopher Reeve (Mackinac Island Charm)      2:44
05. Women Of Industry (ABWA Logo Charm)      2:16
06. O Canada (Canadian Penny Charm)      2:59
07. Old Kentucky (Kentucky Map Charm)      2:07
08, Wedding Ring (Wedding Ring Charm)      3:39
09. The Mezuzah (Mezuzah Charm)      4:05
10. I Hate Horses (Stirrup Charm)      4:09
11. Lonely Eighty Eight (Piano Charm)      3:41
Notes:
♠   A collection of songs inspired by a woman and her charm. In collaboration with some of America's finest authors. Including David Hajdu, Jonathan Lethem, Sam Lipsyte, James Marcus, Sara Marcus, Nina Mehta, Rick Moody, Mary Jo Salter, Luc Sante, and Vendela Vida. Produced by Mike Viola and Dave Way.
♠   James Marcus is an essayist, editor, and translator, and the author of Amazonia and an upcoming book about Ralph Waldo Emerson. He is also the executive editor of Harper’s Magazine and a skilled musician.
REVIEW
··   A couple of years ago, Jill Sobule was given a vintage charm bracelet as a gift. When she examined the bracelet, she found it unexpectedly compelling. It wasn’t simply a funky piece of costume jewelry: it was instead an archive of events in a person’s life, memorialized by twenty-two tiny, cheap, pewter mementos. But whose life? All Sobule knew for sure about the original owner of the bracelet was the name etched in one of the charms: Dorothy.
··   Sobule soon saw inand the lyrics for each song would be written by a different writer. She contacted ten authors whom she had long admired: David Hajdu, Jonathan Lethem, Sam Lipsyte, James Marcus, Sara Marcus, Nina Mehta, Rick Moody, Mary Jo Salter, Luc Sante, and Vendela Vida. ··   Every one signed on. The lyrics were written across more than a year’s time, and Sobule matched each set with suitably  that charm bracelet the architecture for a musical project, which she set out to realize in an unusual and ambitious way: each of the charms would be the inspiration for a song, and the lyrics for each song would be written by a different writer. She contacted ten authors whom she had long admired: David Hajdu, Jonathan Lethem, Sam Lipsyte, James Marcus, Sara Marcus, Nina Mehta, Rick Moody, Mary Jo Salter, Luc Sante, and Vendela Vida. Every one signed on. ··   The lyrics were written across more than a year’s time, and Sobule matched each set with suitably variegated music: wistful, tender, comic, dark. The result, Dottie’s Charms, is rich in the kind of storytelling energy and buoyant humor that has always been Jill Sobule’s signature.
The only thing missing from this cinematic enterprise was a visual element. And that too was eventually addressed, first by the illustrator and painter Molly Crabapple (who did all the graphics here as well as the CD and vinyl jacket), then by three gifted filmmakers: Bette Gordon, Tom Kalin, and Sara Zandieh. They have made Dottie’s Charms a treat for the eye as well as the ear.
TRACKLIST  (charm, lyricist)
♠   MY CHAIR  (office chair, James Marcus)
♠   FLIGHT  (jet plane, Vendela Vida)
♠   STATUE OF LIBERTY  (Statue of Liberty, Jonathan Lethem)
♠   I SWEAR I SAW CHRISTOPHER REEVE  (Mackinac Island, David Hajdu)
♠   WOMEN OF INDUSTRY  (ABWA logo, David Hajdu)
♠   O CANADA  (Canadian penny, Sara Marcus)
♠   OLD KENTUCKY  (Kentucky map, Luc Sante)
♠   WEDDING RING  (wedding ring, Mary Jo Salter)
♠   THE MEZUZAH  (mezuzah, Nina Mehta)
♠   I HATE HORSES  (stirrup, Sam Lipsyte)
♠   LONELY EIGHTY EIGHT  (piano, Rick Moody)
··   Jill Sobule’s pungent lyrics and graceful, gliding melodies have placed her (as Jon Pareles of the New York Times observed) “among the stellar New York singer-songwriters of the last decade.” She is perhaps best known for her 1995 single “I Kissed a Girl,” as well as her performance of  “Supermodel” on the Clueless soundtrack. ··   But Sobule has released seven studio albums of original songs, three EPs, and a variety of collaborations, with the comedian Julia Sweeney, Lloyd Cole, John Doe, and Don Was. Her recent projects include musical versions of “Yentl” (adapted from the original Isaac Bashevis Singer story, not the Barbra Streisand abomination) and Allan Moyle’s 1980 punk-rock film Times Square. Dottie’s Charms is her first full-scale release in five years.
··   Cover art and illustrations by Molly Crabapple. Crabapple is an artist and writer living in New York City. A columnist for Vice, she has also contributed to the New York Times, Newsweek, The Paris Review, CNN, Jacobin, and Der Spiegel. Her illustrated memoir, Drawing Blood, will be published in 2015. (http://harpers.org/blog/)
Biography:
··   Jill Sobule belongs to a rare breed of artists. Her work is at once deeply personal and socially conscious, seriously funny and derisively tragic. Over five albums and a decade of recording, the Denver-born songwriter/ guitarist/singer has tackled such topics as the death penalty, anorexia, shoplifting, reproduction, the French resistance movement, adolescence, and the Christian right. Did we mention love? Love found, love lost, love wished for and love taken away.
··   While her songs cover a huge amount of ground, they all have benefit greatly from Jill’s subtle intelligence and skillful light-handedness. No sloganeering flag-and-fist waving here, but rather story songs about human beings, real and imagined, which allow us to step back from the issue, be it personal or social, and relate to it as we would a close friend.
··   To see Jill live and in concert is a rare treat. It is on stage that she is most comfortable, most powerful, and where the delicacy and range of her work can be best appreciated. She entertains, amuses, provokes, and more often then not, takes her audiences on an emotional roller coaster, from comedy to pathos in a few bars of music.
··   Jill began playing guitar when she joined the Junior High School band. She never learned to read music, though, and faked her way through rehearsals and performances by playing by ear. As she began writing songs, it was very clear to Jill this was becoming more than a teenage hobby. Music was serious stuff. She played in a variety of funk and rock bands in Colorado, and eventually made her first, Todd Rundgren-produced, album for MCA, Things Here Are Different.
··   But success did not knock on her door until three years later, when Atlantic Records released her MTV staple and national top 20 hit, I Kissed A Girl. “That song was a double-edged sword for me,” Jill Says. “It was perceived as a novelty hit, but on the other hand it was the first song with an overtly gay topic to be aired on Top 40 radio. I am quite proud of that.” The self-titled album also yielded another hit song, Supermodel, included in the Clueless soundtrack.
··   The song also jump-started her live music career in a big way, and since then she’s had the honor to induct Neil Diamond in the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, to share the stage with the likes of Neil Young (at his yearly Bridge School benefit concerts), fellow activists Billy Bragg & Steve Earle, and Waren Zevon. Quite the serious guitar player, she even toured the world as lead guitarist in Lloyd Cole’s band a few years back.
··   Since then, she has made four more critically acclaimed albums, Happy Town, Pink Pearl, Underdog Victorious, and 2009′s California Years, which Jill released on her own record label, Pinko Records, after collecting over $85,000 from fans who funded the project.
··   A veritable gypsy, Jill divides her time between a busy touring schedule and a variety of other projects. She has played the role of political troubadour for NPR stations across the country and for Air America Radio. She also served as songwriter/composer for the hit Nickelodeon network show Unfabulous during that show’s three-season run. She composed the music for the off-Broadway show Prozak and the Platypus and co-starred in the Eric Schaeffer film Mind the Gap.
··   In the words of New York Times pop music critic Jon Pareles, “Jill Sobule can claim her place among the stellar New York singer-songwriters of the last decade. Topical, funny and more than a little poignant… grown-up music for an adolescent age.”
Discography:
··   Dottie's Charms (2014) ·
··   A Day at the Pass (2011) (Live Album) ·
··   California Years (2009) ·
··   Prozak and the Platypus (2008) ·
··   Jill Sobule Sings Prozak and the Platypus (2008) ·
··   Underdog Victorious (2004) ·
··   The Folk Years 2003–2003 (2004) (Independent Release) ·
··   I Never Learned to Swim (2001) ·
··   Pink Pearl (2000) ·
··   Happy Town (1997) ·
··   Jill Sobule (1995) ·
··   Things Here Are Different (1990) ·
Website: http://jillsobule.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JillSobule
Other: http://www.reddit.com/u/JillSobule(Other Service)
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jillsobule(Twitter)
Press: AJ at GoldVE 212-741-2400
Agent: Seth Rappaport at The Agency 212-581-3100
LYRICS:
MY CHAIR
(office-chair charm)
Lyric by James Marcus
Music by Jill Sobule
What do I see to the right of me?
The man in A-473
He’s got a rash where his sleeve’s rolled up
And a swizzle stick in his pencil cup
What do I see to the left of me?
It’s Ginger from Parsippany
Her hair is brown and her face is red
Her Labrador sleeps on the bed
And what do I see in front of me?
A hint of domesticity
The supervisor’s little boys
Their smiling faces, smiling toys
My chair is twenty stories high
I see you when you tell a lie
Where you ate and where you slept
The promises you never kept
You never kept
What do I see to the right of me?
A woman I would rather be
Taller, thinner, better skin
A dimple in her perfect chin
And what do I see to the left of me?
A man that I would rather be
The deeper voice and the dapper clothes
The leather shoes his girlfriend chose
Oh tell me what is left of me
At Great Republic Guaranty
The little kingdom that I rule
As empress of the invoice pool
My chair is twenty stories high
I see you when you tell a lie
Where you ate and where you slept
The promises you never kept
You never kept
My chair is twenty stories high
Another solitary night
I see there is no guarantee
Oh tell me what is left of me
What’s left of me
O Canada
I have this old charm bracelet that my pal Marykate bought for me on Ebay about 10 years ago. For some reason, she thought I would like this piece of kitschy costume jewelry. I have yet to actually wear it, not really my style, but what she didn’t know was that the bracelet would become a minor obsession
Who was the original owner? What did she do? I do know her name was Dottie, as there is a round engraved Dottie charm. The bracelet looks like it could be from the 1950s to early 1960s. She was not from a wealthy family — the 22 charms are pewter as opposed to silver or gold. She traveled domestically gathering mementos from Florida to Mackinac Island to New York City. She played piano. She liked big sculpted poodles. She liked cowboys. She was a working girl; there is an ABWA union (American Woman Business Association) charm and an office chair. She was Jewish — a mezuzah. I keep saying “was”. Maybe Dottie is still alive. Who knows?
I also thought Dottie could inspire some kind of musical piece. By the way, all I have been hearing lately from music industry futurist is that albums are out, and singles are in. That just makes me want to do… a concept record.
So… I had this grand idea that I would ask some of my favorite authors if they would take one of the charms and write a lyric about Dottie. So far, I have the words from 12 amazing fancy pants writers, including ones from Jonathan Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn), Luc Sante (Low Life), Rick Moody (The Ice Storm), and my partner in crime — the one who helped me put it all together — David Hajdu (Positively 4th Street). Most everyone that I approached was game. Most had never written a song before, I think.
The interesting thing is that every one of the writers so far has imagined Dottie as a sweet, but unlucky girl in the love department. Poor, poor Dottie.
Here is the Canada Charm with lyrics by badass Sara Marcos (Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution). I did the music with that really talented fellow named Mike Viola. We are going to collaborate on a bunch more, I hope.
O CANADA
(Lyrics by Sara Marcos)
O Canada, you took me in
Just beneath your native skin
To the land we both belonged to years ago
O pal of mine, how young it was —
Mountie you and your Yankee cuz
Dog days of adolescent fuzz
And distortion, gain, delay
O Canada, you took me in, you took me in
You took me in, O Canada
A summer long, a lakefront green
The profile of a departed queen
Sat sweating by mosquito screens
In doors upon the wild
You gave your heart, I deigned a glance
It seemed so plain, but you thought fancier.
I knew it, saw through it.
You were still a child.
O Canada, you took me in, you took me in
You took me in, O Canada
O Canada, your penny buys
Not much more than a pair of eyes
Red and cold like a dragonfly’s
As it trolls the lake at dawn
That’s how much our stories earn
Worthless as a mountain fern
Summer glows for fall to burn
In my pocket, getting warm
Like August in November
A value-vacant ember
Oh Canada, you took me in, you took me in
You took me in, Oh Canada
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Jill Sobule — Dottie's Charms [2014]

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