BAY AREA ACCORDION BABES 2009 [coll] [Renee De La Prade]

cujo   8/20/2012   A Library, CD

Renee De La Prade masterminds this promotional self-release (with accompanying pin-up calendar) from this collection of smokin’ Stomach Steinway-stroking stunners.

Names familiar to the library are Big Lou the Accordion Princess (Polka Casserole), Kitten on the Keys, Marie Abe (who appears on Japonize Elephants and maybe Cicala Mvta), Luz Gaxiola (as part of Dead Western), and Sansa Asylum (who appears briefly on Cochon’s Nostalgia Del Buio collection).

1. Big Lou the Accordion Princess, “Is Anything Better Than Beer?” – Another entry into the underpopulated drug-polka sub-genre.
2. Renee de la Prade, “Try and Try” – Zydeco
3. Joan Wilson Rueter, “New Men in my Life” – Country
4. Diana Strong, “Only Now” – solo accordion cafe rhapsody
5. Amber Lee Baker, “Only the Girls” – nice song about hipsters, features some toy piano
6. Nada Lewis, “Rustemul” – An instrumental Elizabalkan courtly dance.
7. Tara Linda, “Mirabel” – haunting circus waltz
8. Maggie Martin, “Street Dog” – another Cajun entry.?? Possibly not really about dogs.
9. Isabel Douglass, “Sultango” – instrumental nuevo tango, pure Astor, including the quintet orchestration.
10. Skyler Fell, “The Siren’s Song” – sea shanty sung from siren’s perspective
11. Luz Gaxiola, “La Rondalla” – “organ”-ic instrumental clockworks
12. Salane c. Schultz, “Over and Over Melody” – quasi-moto perpetuo song with overdubbing effects so that lyrical phrases don’t match melodic phrases.
13. Kitten on the Keys, “Nurses” – The album’s 2^nd entry into the drug-polka sub-genre.
14. Marie Abe, “17 Fat Chefs” – the intro Taps into jazz with muted trumpet and snare drum, and is predictably interrupted by a minor ensemble freakout with alternating uneven meters.
15. Sansa Asylum, “Swept Across the Sea” – muddy recording of a raucous live event.

-Cujo, KFJC, Aug 2012