tea and revenge reviewed in the oregonian
Friday, September 22, 2006
MARTY HUGHLEY
Like any good cocktail, the band Dirty Martini is, in a sense, a kind of chemistry experiment. You want compelling flavors, ingredients that contrast but complement, a balance of smoothness and kick. Whether the formula is a variation on an old familiar or a novel approach, the concoction needs to strike your senses like something natural if not inevitable.
The musical mixology of Portland singer-songwriters Lara Michell, Stephanie Schneiderman and McKinley began with a casual quaff — during an especially fun songwriters “round” at the Bitter End Pub in February 2003 — but since then it has been blended and refined into one of the city’s most appealing pop ensembles.
Dirty Martini pours out more of its intoxicating sound with the release of its second album, “Tea and Revenge.”
Buy Tickets to the CD release shows.
But since February 2005, when the band’s self-titled debut came out, the ingredient list has changed. Lea Krueger, one of the original foursome, quit the band late last year in what by all reports was an amicable split. Krueger’s departure, perhaps more than any other of the four, looked like it could alter the balance of musical personalities. She’d been the resident rocker, with a taste for big, dramatic mood swings in her songs and a voice that, though at times soft and girlish, could rise into a muscular roar.
Though the band’s debut was a pleasant, promising compromise among their individual tendencies, the sold-out show the band played to mark that album’s release proved how potent the combo could be when it upped the energy level.
“Tea and Revenge,” by contrast, doesn’t spike the punch with power chords; it concentrates on blend and balance and finding a distinctly Dirty Martini sound.
Taking a more collaborative approach to songwriting — at least in the finished work — the three have arrived organically at common ground, without washing out any of the individual personalities.
“Strong Swimmer,” for instance, is a ballad with the kind of delicate narrative and melodic tension we might expect from McKinley, who sings lead. But the gauzy, wordless vocal harmonies that well up around the main melody bring a touch of goth mystery that would have been at home in Carmina Luna, the chamber-pop band Michell also plays in. Michell, in turn, picks up the rocker mantle (such as it is), leading the way on the most steely tracks here, “Blooming” and “Easy Kill.”
Produced by John Askew and Gang of Four bassist Dave Allen (who plays on two tracks here and, along with drummer Ned Failing, manages the band), “Tea and Revenge” has a darker tone than the debut, but the sound is more polished and finely detailed. Luscious vocal harmonies, atmospheric electric guitar and keyboard effects and even some vibraphone are airbrushed through the graceful architecture of acoustic guitar and piano.
Unlike the cover of the debut, which opted not to trade on the singers’ visual appeal, the new disc comes packaged with highly stylized shots of the trio by Alicia J. Rose, who (in addition to booking the Doug Fir Lounge and performing as the avant-garde accordionist Miss Murgatroid) has created similar photo fantasias for the Decemberists.
The cover photo is especially fitting: Within an antique frame, the three singers sit, in elegant quasi-Victorian dress, over cups of tea. It’s a set piece meant to convey beauty, allure and refinement. You might not even notice at first the big, menacing black birds that hover over their heads, like shadows of bitterness and turmoil.
And yet, for all the disquieting emotional undercurrents, the album has such a lovely, easy flow and appeal to it that you can sip away, so to speak, happy in the sensations of a flavorful chemistry.
