Russia!

Rodney Anonymous vs. The World

by Rodney Anonymous

	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: Nov 23, 2009

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

This month's Aid or Invade is dedicated to Lori Mehler of Philadelphia's Germantown section, who recently submitted a letter to the editor asking, "Why does the City Paper have such a zealous penchant for using excrement in both its column titles and its pieces? I am wondering if this is printed intentionally for humor, or if your writers simply lack the intellectual wherewithal to produce linguistically heavy work."

Ms. Mehler, I, too, feel a flush of anger with the sort of yellow journalism that's been swirling around this publication, staining its formerly porcelain reputation. I assure you that the following review will be 100 percent free of scatological references. And now, here's the poop on the latest release from Ersatzmusika:

Songs Unrecantable, the sophomore effort (or The Ol' Number Two, as it's known in the music industry) from Ersatzmusika, is a truly mesmerizing piece of work. While the CD could ostensibly be described as "cabaret music" — dark, accordion-driven tangos backing a woman who sounds remarkably like Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel — there's so much raw strangeness, in the form of original song concepts like the oddly engaging "Oy, Pterodactyl!" (imagine Nico fronting the B-52s) and the creepy, droning duet "Letter from Baltimore," lurking about this recording to make it a genuinely intriguing listen.

Verdict:

With its curious combination of cabaret cool and Eastern European weirdness, Ersatzmusika's Unrecantable is the perfect music to listen to whether you find yourself cheering on the Browns in the Super Bowl, dropping the kids off at the pool, or just seeing a man about a horse.

(r_anonymous@citypaper.net)

More good shit at rodneyanonymous.com.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Sam & Ruby
Ellery Eskelin-Erik Deutsch-Allison Miller Trio
The Mountain Goats
Jay Reatard
Free Energy
Mike Doughty