Nashville’s the kind of town where infamous events are kinda’ commonplace. Stuff of legend happens on the regular and it’s often pretty bizarre. Ryan Adams throws out a drunken heckler for demanding he play “Summer of ’69” (not cool, bro), John Mayer makes a tearful apology to his bandmates at Bridgestone Arena for his racist(?) remarks in an ill-advised Playboy interview (really not cool, bro), Shaun White trashes a hotel room (wait, you’re not a rockstar). And in 2007, sweet Regina Spektor collapsed from vertigo resulting from the mother of all ear infections and was forced to reschedule twice before finally taking the Ryman stage in February of 2008. Now she’s slated to return to town again, touring in support of her new(ish) record, “What We Saw From The Cheap Seats,” and here’s hoping nothing too eventful happens this time around besides the music.
If you think you know Regina from your girlfriend’s “Chicks With Pianos” Pandora station or have dismissed her due to comparisons with the infinitely-more-esoteric Tori Amos, you ought to give her another listen. Rising out of the anti-folk scene with an avant-garde leaning to even her more pop-ish compositions, she uses her unbelievable vocal range to create both melodic and percussive stylings with humor and grace as she schools us on the consequence of sound. Oh yeah, and as she’s also multilingual, sometimes she serenades us in French. Bonus Nashville connection: back in 2003-2004, she opened for the Strokes with Kings Of Leon and later joined them on their European Tour.
Check out her track “All The Rowboats” off her newest release where an unexpected jolt of the beat machine makes her humanity all the more compelling. Catch her in the flesh with Only Son when she hits the Ryman on November 11. Tickets available via the Ticketmonster.
[youtube_sc=http://youtu.be/2CZ8ossU4pc]
And give opener, Only Son, a sneak peak via this video featuring Macaulay Culkin. Yep, totally serious. Regina makes an incognito appearance as well.
[youtube_sc=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4fQOte_6S0&feature=share&list=PL61B841E59E42F0CB]
Incidentally, their video for “It’s a Boy” stars Alleksa Palladino, my favorite bi-curious bohemian, from Boardwalk Empire. Jump on it here.
