Here's the first release from the new album by Jules Shear and Pal Shazar. You may know Shear as the talented singer/composer, who wrote the hits "All Through the Night" (Cyndi Lauper), "If She Knew What She Wants" (Bangles) and "Whispering Your Name" (Alison Moyet), while his life partner, Shazar, is best known for the brainy New Wave band Slow Children ("President Am I?"), as well as a half dozen solo LPs, T-shirt designs and paintings. For updates, click HERE. Buy the album HERE.
P.S. SHEAR SHAZAR will be performing January 12th at the terrific venue CLUB HELSINKI HUDSON. They will be opening the show for legendary band BEAUSOLIEL ("That's my kind of music!"-Bob Dylan). Club info: Club Helsinki Hudson / 405 Columbia Street, Hudson, New York / 518-828-4800 / or click HERE.
If the brainy New Wave synth duo Slow Children -- best known for their MTV video hit "President Am I?" -- weren't on your radar back in the early '80s, then you really missed out. Singer Pal Shazar and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Chinich released two incredible and critically acclaimed albums produced by Jules Shear and Stephen Hague -- "Slow Children" (1981) and "Mad About Town" (1982) -- before parting ways in a huff when their label wanted their third release to be an EP. Shazar went on to an interesting career as a painter and solo performer, while Chinich has had a successful career in marketing and advertising. Shazar performs regularly at the Living Room on the Lower East Side, and from what I hear Chinich attended one of her shows earlier this year and the spark was lit for a reunion -- which is taking place at 7 p.m. tomorrow night (Wednesday, April 14) at the Living Room. For those who are unfamiliar with the band, you can cram tonight by downloading my vinyl transfers of their works HERE.
Pal tells me they've already come up with 10 new songs, but I am PRAYING they will do MANY of the classics. Some of us weren't old enough to attend a Slow Children show back in the day -- I don't think there were that many, either; Bangles bassist Michael "Micki" Steele used to play with them, too -- so this might be the one chance I finally have to fill that void in my concert resume!
The Living Room
154 Ludlow Street
New York, NY 10002-2211
(646) 602-9404
This video for Pal Shazar's "Sleepyhead" -- off her fab "Shazar No. 5" album -- is for all of you fellow pet lovers. It's simple, but perfectly captures the song's spirit.
The talented singer/songwriter Pal Shazar will be performing songs from her latest album, "The Morning After," and more tonight at The Living Room, 154 Ludlow St., in Lower Manhattan. The show starts at 8 p.m. and admission is free. As always, she will be backed by Rick Norman on guitar and hubby Jules Shear on emotional support. For more information about Pal, click here. For a photo gallery of my last trip to see Pal at The Living Room, click here.
To purchase a copy of Pal's new album, click here.
Don't forget to stop by The Living Room tonight at 8 p.m. to see singer/songwriter Pal Shazar perform a showcase of her terrific new album, "The Morning After," as well as some new works in progress. (Guitarist Rick Norman and hubby Jules Shear will back her up.)
The release of Shazar's sixth solo record and first for Funzalo Records is a watershed point in the fascinating and creative journey of an artist who's truly come into her own. Her musical career was born, schooled, and fueled in NYC during the late '70s. Patti Smith, Television, and Iggy Pop were her inspirations. By the early '80s she was back in LA where she co-created the seminal new wave band Slow Children with musical partner Andrew Chinich, with whom she is still close pals. Best known for their video hit "President Am I" (watch video here), the duo put out two records and garnered a cult following that continues to keep tabs on Pal's musical output. After many relocations and releases, "The Morning After" came to fruition. Pal's constant drive to create makes her the rare artist who seems equally likely to win an award for Best New Artist or Lifetime Achievement on any given day.
Directions and information about the Living Room, 154 Ludlow St., between Stanton and Rivington, are available here. And as always, there is no cover charge.
You can sample the goods with this live video clip of "People Talk," one of the standout tracks from the new CD:
When I asked my cyberbuddy John over at Lost in the '80s if he was a fan of Slow Children (known back in '82 for their MTV video hit "President Am I") and he responded: "Hmmm, you stumped me with Slow Children!" my first thought was it was kinda cool that I'd "stumped" an '80s expert like him. But my feeling quickly changed to thinking that if even he hadn't heard of this wonderful little duo, then fewer people than I'd thought ever appreciated them, which is a shame. To this day, Slow Children's two early '80s albums remain two of my all-time favorites. Never reissued on CD, I had a DJ friend transfer mine to digital files and my pal Greg designed killer artwork for the collection.
Jump ahead 25 years, the group's former singer Pal Shazar will be playing at the Living Room here in NYC on Thursday at 8 p.m., in support of her wonderful new album, "The Morning After." The new CD, like her six previous solo efforts, picks up where the old duo left off: catchy pop tunes with decidedly quirky/cerebral lyrics. If you like female singer/songwriter types (think of a cross between a Mensa-member version of Cyndi Lauper and a new wave Carole King), you should check Pal Shazar out. I know I'll be there (maybe she'll even sign my homemade Slow Children CD!).
Watch Sherry Wallace's video for "Talk About Horses" here:
And her video for "People Talk" from the new album, here:
Here's a short and bittersweet one off Pal Shazar's wonderfully titled new album, "Blondes Prefer Gentlemen." Regular readers will remember that Pal was the lead singer of the brainy new wave duo Slow Children, whose song "President Am I?" recently made my list of Forgotten Classics by Women-Led New Wave Bands.
There have been some surprising comebacks in the history of music. But the re-teaming of Slow Children -- aka Pal Shazar and Andrew Chinich -- has to be the most unlikely of all. The band never toured, never had a hit single, and released just two albums. ("Slow Children "(1981) and "Mad About Town" (1982) were never even issued on CD, so I did it myself.) Yet those of us who were fortunate enough to discover them back in the day -- many thanks to MTV's early days playing the sublime "President Am I?" video -- have long considered them one of the best acts of the New Wave. I've gotten to know Pal over and years and have enjoyed her solo albums and performances. But this recent announcement about a new album has me feeling like a boy waiting for Christmas morning. Now get a load of this previously unreleased track -- "Who's Gonna Kiss Me Goodnight?" -- from the early '80s ...
As Kit Watson said in an email to the band's fans, this is gonna be GOOD!!!
Kit writes:
Schrödinger's cat has been untangled, and it's emerging from the box, very much alive! I am now free to talk to about that secret music project in which I am currently deeply immersed. I have joined up with 80s New Wave sensation Slow Children ("President Am I", "Spring In Fialta", "Vanessa Vacillating") to put out a third album of new material—33 years after "Mad About Town". A few years back, Pal Shazar and Andrew Chinich had a joyful and productive reunion, where a pair of live shows were staged, and several new songs written (or renewed from past songwriting spates) and smartly demoed in a multi-track studio. I am taking the stems from those recordings and carefully constructing finished tracks, adding drums, percussion, and sundry synths appropriate to each song. Two tracks are already in the can, and they're sounding pretty damn amazing. If all continues to go as well as it is now, the new CD should be out sometime in the first half of 2016. Slow Children fans, rejoice! This is gonna be GOOD!!!
If the great Cyndi Lauper had spent her time reading Nabakov instead of the pages of a Blueboy magazine, or watching Bergman instead of Big Time Wrestling, she might have become Pal Shazar.
Come see the Woodstock-based singer/songwriter in an hourlong showcase at 8 p.m. tonight at The Living Room, 154 Ludlow St., Manhattan (map), promoting her new album, "The Morning After."
With the release of "War Child presents Heroes," a new album of cover songs to benefit children affected by war that features Duffy doing the Wings classic "Live and Let Die," it got me thinking of some of my all-time favorite gender-bending covers. While I understand why some people think covers are an cop out, I've always felt there's something magical about a transgender cover, the way the new point of view always makes me hear the song as if it were completely new. (How often do you get to fall in a love with the same thing twice?) Occasionally, I will know the "new" version first -- as in the case of Blondie's "Tide Is High" -- and will enjoy discovering it in reverse (an equally thrilling proposition).
Off the top of my head, I came up with this list of winning gender-reassigned cover tunes. While I prefer female vocalists, there are a few FTM songs that might surprise you. Now tell me some of yours.
"Crimson and Clover" (Tommy James and the Shondells)
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Arguably the greatest cover song of all time.
"Tougher Than the Rest" (Bruce Springsteen)
Everything But the Girl
My favorite song from my favorite Bruce album, "Tunnel of Love."
"All I Want" (Lightning Seeds)
Susanna Hoffs
"The Tide Is High" (The Paragons)
Blondie
This clip uses the original 1965 Paragons version and sets it to the 1980 video of Debbie Harry & Co.
"(They Long to Be) Close to You" (Carpenters)
Paul Weller
"Don't Worry Baby" (Beach Boys)
Ronnie Spector
Brian Wilson apparently wrote this song for Ronnie, but Phil Spector wouldn't allow her to record it (so the Beach Boys did). She finally got to do it as a solo artist many years later.
"If Not for You" (Bob Dylan)
Olivia Newton-John
Hard core Dylan fans make fun of this, but I still say it's the definitive version of this masterpiece.
"You've Got a Friend" (Carole King)
James Taylor
"When You Were Mine" (Prince)
Cyndi Lauper
"Baby, I Love You" (Ronettes)
Andy Kim
Thought of as a one-hit wonder for the 1974 No. 1 smash "Rock Me Gently," the Montreal-born Andy Kim actually had a Top 10 hit with this rollicking cover of the Ronettes' "Baby, I Love You," making the song all his.
"Stormtrooper in Drag" (Gary Numan)
Saint Etienne
"I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" (Beatles)
Rosanne Cash
"September Gurls" (Big Star)
Bangles
How the girls could let Michael Steele sing lead on this pop gem but REMOVE the line "I was your butch"(!) is one of the great mysteries of pop music.
"You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby" (Smiths)
Kirsty MacColl
"(Don't Go Back to) Rockville" (REM)
Natalie Merchant
"I Want You" (Marvin Gaye)
Madonna
Working with the incredible Massive Attack, Madonna was never more sensual.
"The Scientist" (Coldplay)
Aimee Mann
"Out of Control" (Rolling Stones)
Pal Shazar (download HERE)
"Hazy Shade of Winter" (Simon and Garfunkel)
The Bangles
"For What It's Worth" (Buffalo Springfield)
Holly Beth Vincent
"The First Cut Is the Deepest" (Cat Stevens)
Sheryl Crow
"My Guy" (Madness)
Tracey Ullman
Turning a girl into a guy, Tracey Ullman rode this Madness favorite to No. 23 on the U.K. charts back in 1984.
"Femme Fatale" (Velvet Underground)
Tracey Thorn
"I'll Keep It With Mine" (Bob Dylan)
Susanna Hoffs
"These Days" (Jackson Browne)
Nico
"Long Train Running" (Doobie Brothers)
Bananarama
I was never a fan of Doobie Brothers music, but after hearing this Youth-produced track by the Nanas, I sure was.
The latest from my most obscure 1980s fave: Pal Shazar and Andrew Chinich, aka Slow Children. I can guarantee that you won't hear Reader's Digest as a song lyric anywhere else!
I'm excited about this upcoming New York City appearance by the gifted singer/songwriter and artist best known for her work with the seminal '80s duo Slow Children -- May 1 is a Sunday so I can go!. Follow Pal on Facebook HERE.
Two new Blondie/Debbie Harry books came out, plus rare footage of Debbie Harry and Chris Stein on "The Merv Griffin Show" back in 1980 appeared on YouTube. See HERE.
Husker Du, Michael Van London, Shear Shazar, Stephanie Mills and Phyllis Hyman provided the Songs of the Day. Watch 'em all HERE.
Pal Shazar, the lovely and talented singer, songwriter and painter, has recently started a interesting film blog with a serious crush on Richard Burton. Check it out HERE.
Visit the former Slow Children singer's personal site HERE.
Come see (212) fave Pal Shazar perform live tonight at 9 p.m. at The Living Room, 154 Ludlow St. (between Stanton and Rivington). No cover charge. Find out what all the fuss is about by visiting Pal here.
By now you've likely heard that Madonna took the stage at Coachella over the weekend to tease her sequel to "Confessions on a Dance...
Fake Jan Alert
My blog is featured in Susan Olsen's tell-all about the ill-fated "Brady Bunch Variety Hour"!
Little Kenny
Growing up in Madison Heights, Mich.
Back to the Old House
The Web leads to an unexpected return to a house I grew up in.
Oceans 11
Carlsbad, Calif. (2008)
1983
Go Behind the Music of my high-school band, A La Plage
A Death in the Family
Little Larry left us too soon.
Once I Had a Love
With Debbie Harry
'Jungle' Fever
With Robert Buckley
Roger & Me
With Roger Federer
Step Brother McMullen
With Ed Burns
Headline News
With Thomas Roberts
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