With her raspy, gravelly voice, Holly Miranda of The Jealous Girlfriends announces, "My microphone smells like ass" to which her fellow bandmate Josh Abbott replies, "My microphone smells like a urinal."

Together they launch into song. This is the random, silly stage banter that occurs in a Jealous Girlfriends' show. But more important than these inane conversations onstage, is the fact that, The Jealous Girlfriends know how to put on one rockin'
show.

Between the beer and the-just-barely-audible-because-I'm-losing-my-voice sound quality of Miranda's voice, it's a surprise that the lady can belt it out. But she does, well, and amazingly in songs like Organs On The Kitchen Floor, partnering up with Alex Lipsen on the keys, and on Something In the Water.

Their heavily guitar-based sound, plus the fact that I was standing by the speakers, makes for one loud show but a fun one and one that made me develop a girl-crush on Holly Miranda.




Something In the Water
Organs On the Kitchen Floor


Part II: Sea Wolf


If I could think of a non-cheesy metaphor of ideal pairings like wine and cheese, or whatever, I'd think of one now but I can't. Simply put, Sea Wolf was a great complement to The Jealous Girlfriends, just because, well, they were more chill.

From the beatific, bhudda-like peaceful-look on Alex Church's face, I knew the set was going to be solid. And it was. From the keys, to the cello, to the twelve-year-old looking bassist, the pieces of Sea Wolf were a combination of random parts that made for beautiful sound.

The highlight of the set was a semi-newish song called Song of the Magpie - part of Augusten Burroughs' new audiobook, A Wolf At The Table: A Memoir of My Father. There's something stultifyingly beautiful about this song. It's the lilting violin intro, the plucked bits, the melancholic strains of the violin scattered here and there that really convey the deep, emotional damage, perhaps turned to beauty, that Burroughs endured with his abusive, alcoholic father that Alex Church may have imagined while penning this song.

I don't know why, but this song gets me every time, especially the refrain of "I forgive you." It gets into my bones, it gets into my hair. Pun intended. The live version was a thousand times better and more emotionally impacting as you would imagine, than the produced recording we have here. But that experience can of course, only be captured by going to a live show.
Song of the Magpie
Black Dirt


Show date: May 28th, 2008

Labels: indie, Shows