French singer Julie Meckler took a risk when her visa expired during in her visit to the USA. She hung in there, playing bars and dives as well as properly established musical hang-outs. Her new album Queenshead is a bit uneven, but finally picks up steam during the fourth track All You Pretty Things, a song written by her band member Brett Bakshis. Listeners who have mad it past her lifeless jazzed up version of David Bowie's Soul Love are rewarded with a string of catchy pop songs, with an European sense for melody wrapped in American "don't fuck me with or else" music.
She has a sharp ear and comes up with soft spoken hard-boiled lyrics for songs like Bitch and Deportation Blues. If your focus is on the words it made perfect sense choosing to use only voices for The Cigarettes Song riding on top of the sounds of the city recorded in her adopted hometown Chicago.
Julie Meckler: voice, guitar
Brett Bakshis: bass, guitars, trumpet, bells, glockenspiel
Will Phalen: guitars, harmonica, sounds/textures, production
Shawn Rios: drumkit and percussion
James Davis: trumpet, pedals
Ryan Anderson: guitars
Queenshead is a self-released album. Buy it from her website.
Tracks:- Me And The Waves
- Soul Love
- Manhattan
- All You Pretty Things
- The Cigarettes Song
- Queenshead
- Motel
- Bitch
- Liassez-Moi
- Desire
- The Dresses Song
- Forest
- Deportation Blues
- 09/24 The Hideout, Chicago, IL
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