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Preview Sat Aug 08 2015
Ezra Furman + J Fernandez + Lala Lala Perform at Lincoln Hall on 8/11
The gender-bending Ezra Furman released Perpetual Motion People a month ago on Bella Union, garnering attention from Pitchfork and Rolling Stone. Before embarking on a European tour this fall, see him perform his new songs at Lincoln Hall on Tuesday, August 11 for $14 with the psych-tinged J Fernandez and the punk outfit Lala Lala.
Furman, a Chicago-native, recorded the album with his band, The Boyfriends. In just 42 minutes they cycled through the sounds of the past 60 years. Some may know him of his former group, Ezra Furman and the Harpoons, and others may know his younger brother, Jonah, in the anxious-rock outfit Krill.
According to the Guardian, he's one of the most compelling live acts you can see right now. And the talented psychonauts of J Fernandez recently released their experimental-pop album Many Levels of Laughter and they recently returned from touring with Unknown Mortal Orchestra earlier this summer. Lala Lala released their EP HAVE A GOOD DAY earlier this year.
Some horns on Perpetual Motion People beckon back to Stones à la Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St, and the vocals sound reminiscent of Bradford Cox from Atlas Sound and Deerhunter. Organs, acoustic guitars, and big sounds culminate much in the same way Bowie weaved together glam in his songs during his Diamond Dogs years.
There are doo-wop harmonies in the song "Lousy Connection," a bit of sunshine borrowed from the '60s, and a punk attitude with a rock beat. But it's not mere imitation music. Having released six full-length albums in the past nine years, Furman's prolific, and he seems to write in order to release his own anxieties and problems.
It's like he plays happy music for sad people.
With reveling lyrics such as "the human mind gets sick real easy/the human mind gets way fucking sick of beauty" in the song "Ordinary Life," Furman seems to write to survive. On this record writes about uncertainty and mortality--and he explores what it means to be alive.