WHERE ARE THE HARMONIES, sweet harmonies?
Turns out they're on "Under the Covers Vol. 2," the second collection of classic rock covers by the mock duo Sid 'n' Susie, aka power-pop maven Matthew Sweet and former/current Bangle Susanna Hoffs. While "Volume 1" mixed '60s pop staples with obscurities such as baroque-poppers the Left Banke, "Volume 2" "leans more toward the well-known," according to Sweet.
Indeed, the 16 songs on "Volume 2" almost make up a best-of-'70s-radio compendium, if that's not an oxymoron. Sweet does a nice Tom Petty cadence on "Here Comes My Girl" with some gorgeous harmonies from Hoffs on the line "She is all I need tonight." Hoffs' vocals have always been more suited to harmony/duets (check out Fleetwood Mac's "Second Hand News"), but she takes a suitably raspy gender-bending lead on Rod Stewart's "Maggie May."
"Plus, we've got the girl singing 'Go All the Way,' which is awesome because that's what the lyrics are doing," Sweet beams, noting that the Raspberries' Eric Carmen told Hoffs he'd always wanted to hear a girl sing that.
The only real misfire here is John Lennon's "Gimme Some Truth"; the sensitive Sid 'n' Susie just aren't cut out for angry anti-authority rants.
Continue Reading "A Harmonic Convergence: Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs Are Sid 'n' Susie" »
SINGER AND PIANIST Michael Feinstein has carved himself a unique place in American music. He was among the first artists of the current era to breathe life back into the "Great American Songbook" and re-popularize standards by tunesmiths like Cole Porter, Jule Styne and Irving Berlin. He's also an archivist and worked with the aging Ira Gershwin to organize the family's musical catalog.
Feinstein's newest CD, "The Sinatra Project," finds him in both of these roles, singing a dozen songs originally performed by Frank Sinatra and also unearthing some obscurities. Express caught up with him by telephone before a performance in London.
» EXPRESS: Was there an attempt on the new CD to avoid familiar chestnuts like "My Way" and "I've Got You Under My Skin"?
» FEINSTEIN: Yes. Well, I hate "My Way." Sinatra hated it, too. He quite frequently used four-letter words in his description of that song. "I've Got You Under My Skin" is such a definitive performance and recording that I saw no point in trying to copy that. So instead, I took another Cole Porter song, "Begin the Beguine," which he sang and recorded in the 1940s and interpreted it as if he had done it in the 1950s. People who hear it think that it's a vintage Nelson Riddle chart, but it's not. So, yes, I did want to avoid things that were so closely connected to him there was no leeway for a different interpretation.
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