I Want The World And I Want It Now – Can That Be Arranged For Me Somehow?

Kiiiii! “Brown Girl In The Ring” – This is a peculiar and mesmerizing adaptation of an old Jamaican folk song best known outside of folk circles for being covered by Boney M. Strangely, I did not notice that there were no other sounds aside from vocals and percussion in this song until at least the sixth time that I heard it. I know very little about Kiiiiii!, other than that they are two women from Japan who, according to their website, love Michael Jackson, Queen, Rage Against The Machine, Neu!, Rocko’s Modern Life, cosmetic products, spaghetti, and the Olsen twins. (Click here to visit the official Kiiiiii! website.)

Maxi Geil & Playcolt @ Joe’s Pub 11/29/2004

Here Comes Maxi…/ A Message To My Audience / Teenage Extreme / Strange Sensation / That’s How The Story… / Sunday Morning / Paying For Something New / The Love I Lose / Artist’s Lament / Please Remember Me // Saturday Night

Maxi Geil & Playcolt “Please Remember Me” – Maxi Geil and Playcolt should not be playing in small rooms to audiences made up mainly of friends and acquintances. It’s a great privilege to see them in that context, but it’s not at all appropriate. In a better world, they would be headlining one of those huge European festivals that seem to draw out one third of the population of whatever country is hosting the show. They should be in arenas. Or at least the Hammerstein Ballroom.

Guy Richards Smit is a natural performer, with a stage presence that falls somewhere on the rock star spectrum between David Byrne and Jarvis Cocker, with a bit of post-Monster Michael Stipe spazzy dancing thrown in for good measure. I never made the connection to David Byrne and the Talking Heads before seeing the band live, but they are an obvious antecedent in the sense that both Smit and Byrne are very successful in presenting art world ideas in the context of pop music rather than just being another inaccessable “arty” band.

This is a world-class pop band, and I find it endlessly frustrating that they end up consigned to the art world ghetto while far less engaging indie rock artists (have a guess) get all the attention and praise. I’m very bitter about this. Fuck you, emo world. You don’t know what you are missing. (Click here to buy it from the official Maxi Geil website. Click here for my interview with Guy Richards Smit aka Maxi Geil.)