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Brenda and bass player, Ernest Adzentoivich, played at the Uptown Bar in Minneapolis. Although I'd been a huge fan of her recordings, I didn't know what to expect from a live performance. I couldn't have been happier - Brenda definitely does not disappoint! Seeing her live has made me even a bigger fan of her amazing musical talent. Although she said she had picked up the flu at an earlier gig in Detroit, her voice was beautiful, and her guitar playing impressive. I loved the upright bass and acoustic guitar; the perfect compliment to her vocals. She played mostly songs from the new album, Hunger, but also threw in a few off of Epiphany. It was a great set, and I had the pleasure of telling her so afterwards. She was selling the new CD at the show, and I picked up a copy. There's 3 (spoken word) poems on the album, which we undoubtedly remind us all why we truly love Brenda Kahn...her brilliant poetic-lyric writing.
#55: I'm 41 years old. I listen to all types of music. I walked into music shop in 1994. When I heard Ms. Kahn voice I needed to look no farther. I said I want that CD he looked at me and said a guy your age likes her music ? I smiled and said what does age have to do with it. So he called the manager over for he had no idea who on the sound system. The manager walked me over to the rack where I see "Epiphany in Brooklyn". The first 6 or 7 times I listen to it I had a hell of a time understanding. Now for the past 4 month every day wile I sit at my desk doing paper work I have to hear Ms. Kahn voice.
The music store were I bought her CD is closed, so I go to Blockbuster Music. I ask if Brenda Kahn has any more CD's out they tell me just the one I have is all. So today I went looking for here on the net. I thought I would have a hard time finding anything about her. Well was I surprized. Now I have a list of CD's I can order.
If you can pass this on to Mr. Kahn "I can't get enough of your voice. It's like a magnet over me. Thank you". (--- Jesse Vann III, USA, 11/15/96)
#23: There's no word to tell the pleasure I have to listen Brenda : it becones rare nowadays to hear such a pure female voice with just a simple guitar ; and lyrics are so sensitive... Well, my admiration is - how can I say ? - without any limits ! Some of Brenda's songs recall me Dylan or Neil Young. (well I talk like an old man, but I'm just 25 years old !)
But, you know it's really difficult in France to find any Brenda's Lp. It's only a chance if I've bought on a (sunny) day "Epiphany in Brooklin". And for 2 long years no news about her, nowhere (except on the Net today !) Where can I find her other albums ? Will I have the pleasure to meet her on a concer!t someday ?
Well, I'm expecting to find soon the new album but today I can only gratulate her for "Epiphany" and the single "So what if I did" (one of my favourite song, very nice to play it on my guitar !) (--- Gerald Sedrati, France, 06/11/96)
#17: It's annoying the way she can't remember any of the songs she did in the '80s, but at least she's stopped covering Husker-Du.
She's much better Acoustic Solo, because the sound men always seem to mix her vocals out of existence when there's a band behind her.
She once took up smoking because she hated how pretty her voice was. Before then a lot of her songs had really beautiful descants & such. Also used to be more p!olitical in her lyrics. I get the impression she still feels that way, but Sony pretty much beat that out of her. Perhaps it will come back. (--- David Brand, 06/01/96)
And yet another recent acquisition, just because I saw it and remembered hearing her on the radio, is Brenda Kahn's "Epiphany in Brooklyn", on Columbia Record / Sony Entertainment's (trademarked!?!?!) "Chaos" label (what would Eris think?!)... anyway, yet another haunting slice of someone's world... I like the mandolin, acoustic guitar, and cello too. If I could describe the topics of the songs briefly, it would be about "lost souls"; human beings struggling with the lack of humanity in present-day society (but perhaps humans, by their nature, are "inhuman" until they actually evolve to the point that as a group they can manage their societies in such a way as to realize their dreams of a loving and accepting culture? another discussion...) Cuts which stood out in my mind were "Mojave Winters", "She's In Love", heck, all of them... It is very different in a lot of ways to what I usually listen to (which doesn't say much, because most of what I listen to is quite different with respect to one another... people at work can never figure out what type of music I'll like, bikini kill, rap, or early Happy Rhodes...) Does anyone else know what else she's done (I saw the one with a woman swallowing a goldfish on it, but haven't gotten it yet). Her songs all seem like such reflections of the chaos and disharmony which is manifest in this world, even in their effects on me, because I really identify with the alienation and frustration *I perceive* in the songs, but when I go read the words, I find they're really about different topics than I first *felt*, but the feeling is still valid -- so I guess what I'm trying to say is that the songs speak on many levels, because one can "understand" them without logically understanding them.... so I guess we can be thankful that some people are able to transform the discord around us into art; so is chaos the source of poetry? You be the judge... "She's in love with the man that she always wanted to be ... There were some rehab bikers and their metal-chick babes... Smashing into brick walls in a purple haze... Years seem to drop like flies in that mud... You wake up younger, dumber and not in love... It's so hard, it makes me sigh... He's been lying on that couch since the 4th of July... It's sad, it's sorry, and I'm starting to think... I could down this damn world in one good drink... She's in love..." -BK
>Digressing, does anyone know anything about a new album by
>Brenda Kahn? I heard on the radio that it was coming out soon,
>but I've yet to see mention of it anywhere else (including my
>local record store)
As Irvin explained, Brenda got dicked over by her record label and the album is now in limbo. woj and I saw her play at the Sidewaulk Cafe in Soho on the 17th (Feb, 1995), in a performance that Brenda said was one of the first on her "Fuck Sony Tour". :) She explained the story of what had happened, and spent the rest of the evening referring to Sony as "sssssony". The biggest problem she now faces is the fact that since she is no longer with the record company, she has to pay back the $50,000 Sony gave her to tour with Jeff Buckley last fall. This is a Not Good Situation for her, since she has no means of easily doing this. The Sidewaulk Cafe pays their musical acts courtesy of a passed hat at the end of the set, and I put in considerably more than the $1 I saw most other people giving.
She was also "giving away" promo cassettes of her album, which is called _Destination Anywhere_ for a "suggested donation" of $10 -- she said she "just happened" to come across a few boxes of the tapes the last time she was in Sony's offices, and was going to "give them away" to her fans on this little tour. ;> We bought one, and I must say, it's different! It's nothing like her first two albums: for one thing, she has a band, and they're all plugged in. I've only listened to it once, but I detected a distinct Liz Phair sensibility permeating it. I hope it manages to get officially released someday, because the college rock world is going to eat it up and beg for more.
Later, Woj adds the following comments:hmmm. i was skeptical of meth's liz phair comment but after putting the tape in to listen a third time, i think she's pretty on-target. i'll qualify it to say that the similarity is sonic; brenda and liz have totally different lyrically styles. but you knew that. i'd also add that the album reminds me somewhat of casey scott, whose _creep city_ made me smile a whole lot though no one else in the whole wide world seemed to care about it - tough, new york, gritty rock.
i wonder if the band was brenda's idea or sony's. hmmm.
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