Brenda Kahn Reviews

05/05/00 REVIEW: Hunger

I'm not saying this album is monotonous by any means. Most usually are. Brenda is an excellent songwriter who's getting more and more first rate with each album. She's also a master with mood, all with the tone of her voice, and skillful guitar playing. One minute, she's whispering and singing softly and erotically in your ear.

Next, she becomes a singer of purpose, with a tuneful style and she can evoke rage, but not much on this record. It's all melodic and atmospheric. This record is ample proof of the range you can generate with just a guitar and upright bass. In fact, you don't miss the drums, and when they do come at the end, it sounds intrusive at first!! Lyrically, Brenda, is really creative here, especially on songs like "Dictaphone", the title track, "Messiah", and "Queen Of Distance". All in all, Brenda Kahn is at the top of her game, and coming into her own as one of NYC's most gratifying, original singer/songwriter/guitarists today.

Article Source: Larry Davis, Rant n Rave, 01/01/99

04/26/00 REVIEW: Hunger

Musically, Brenda makes Ian McNabb's six-day recording schedule look sluggish, slamming through this set in only two. Their core instrumental palettes are almost identical, Brenda relying on her acoustic guitar, Ernest Adzentoivich's acoustic bass (often bowed, to nice effect) and sparing extra-guitar assistance from producer Tim Bright, but Brenda seems to understand that making rock songs out of these elements requires some energy on her part, and so she compensates for the absent drums and amplifiers with her own intensity. Her guitar snaps and churns, fret buzz and the rasp of her arms against the body substituting for feedback and overdrive, and her voice slips from wispy sighs into an unguarded howl without warning, reminding me even more vividly of the Slingbacks than it did on her electric records. She still lets some of these songs stay reserved and quiet ("Messiah", "Hunger" and "Queen of Distance" are all droning and ominous), and the shuffling "Christopher Says" sounds like the soundtrack for a sinister Gorey animation, but I reach the end feeling that while these songs could have had other, noisier lives, if Brenda had wanted them to, and some day still might, they are also complete the way they are, not blueprints for something larger you have to close your eyes and hope you can imagine, looming over the real walls and roofs of your town.

12/25/98 REVIEW: Outside the Beauty Salon

Some nights, though, when I prefer my depressing vignettes laced with more nihilism than fatalism, and don't insist that they harbor the explicit potential for redemption, the mood suits itself better to a more bracing and directly cathartic approach than Cowboy Junkies' emotional ambiguities. On Brenda Kahn's David Kahne-produced major-label debut, 1992's Epiphany in Brooklyn, her bitter, destructive lyrics and angular, gnashing voice were set to jangly folk-rock, sort of like a cross between Mary Lou Lord, Billy Bragg, Black Sheets of Rain-era Bob Mould and Sylvia Plath, a combination that I found intriguingly unnerving, but not in a way I had much desire to re-experience. By the time 1996's Destination Anywhere came out, though, which as far as I can tell was her next album, she'd switched labels to the more folk-friendly Shanachie, but discarded the folk aspects of her style almost completely, which left her sounding more like a cross between Magnapop, an angrier Belly and the electric side of Sebadoh, a style that was much better suited to the tenor of the experience I wanted from listening to her songs, which was not entirely unlike flogging myself for penance. Outside the Beauty Salon, which came out last year but I'm behind, continues the process of reducing her sound to its base elements, most of these songs built on just drums, bass, Brenda's frayed rhythm guitar, and an occasional lead hook or slide-guitar moan. My favorite parts are very much in keeping with the louder songs on Juliana Hatfield's Bed, perhaps with a little of Bob Mould's rock drone substituted for Juliana's lingering affinity for impish pop, and are probably the closest I've come, in a year of looking, to finding a worthy successor to the Slingbacks' All Pop, No Star, although Brenda tends to replace the summery pop smile that shone through the Slingbacks' power-trio arrangements with a withering snarl. "Matador" is becalmed and scary, creaky guitar noises fluttering around Brenda's clipped narration. With a slightly throatier vocal delivery, the plaintive "Wedding Ring" could be the Geraldine Fibbers. "Lincoln Hotel" is like a country band covering the Sex Pistols, "Hey Romeo" has traces of Penetration and Debbie Harry, and the jagged "The Bridge" reminds me in places of Elastica. "Smoking in the Jane Room" is straight-ahead punk thrash, the anthemic "Alice" could be Sleeper with a little added cello, and "Destination Anywhere", showing up an album too late to be the title track, comes the closest, for me, to the Slingbacks' "No Way Down". The lingering experimental urges are less satisfying for me; the three waltzes, in particular, the jittery "Heather", the chirpy "I Believe in You (Song for Thomas)", and the sultry "Guillotine", all have the gangly earnestness of blues parody, although this may be more a function of the precedents I want this album to adhere to than anything it brings upon itself.

If you plan to pay attention to Brenda's lyrics, though, and they're literate enough to warrant the effort, you have to be prepared for a rather relentless gloom. "Matador" is a confused sprawl of abuse-dependency and frightened isolation, although it seems like the narrator is as frightened of herself as she is of anybody else, which makes hiding harder. In "Smoking in the Jane Room" the narrator is so bled dry of hope that a fortune teller refuses to tell her fortune. "Heather" is like Thelma and Louise crossed with Waiting for Godot, so they don't actually go anywhere. The chorus of "Wedding Ring", "I took my wedding ring back / To the diamond store. / I didn't want it. Anymore.", sounds even bleaker than it reads, as if she has so little remaining energy that she's hoping turning the ring back in will spin the planet in reverse so the marriage never happened. "Door Locks" is a three-sentence morning-after conversation without a single human spark. "Alice" is like "Pretty in Pink" after several years on the street. "Guillotine" is like the room where the women come and go, from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", converted into a heroin gallery. "Hey Romeo" is a lover's promise that manages to make both people seem broken and helpless. Addictions, physical and psychological, tear these characters' lives like they're woven out of moth wings, like the idea of using a more durable fabric hasn't occurred to them, and isn't likely to. The photographs in the booklet, of Brenda sitting in an enormous tub, fully clothed, washing her dog, are the album's closest thing to levity. If I look at them while I listen, the songs hurt a little bit less. I haven't decided yet whether that's good or not.

It was odd to find a mini-review of Brenda Kahn's "Outside the Beauty Salon" amidst the hard music likes of Black Sabbath and Metallica, but there she was. In the latest issue of Ballbuster (#4, p 63), Paul Autry submits the following review:

A thirteen-song CD that has emotion ("Wedding Ring", "Door Locks"), rock ("Smokin' In The Jane Room", "Hey, Romeo") and even hints of country and blues ("Heather"). Brenda Kahn is a woman with obvious talents. With the proper exposure, she has the potential to dominate the music charts and Top 10 lists worldwide. I'm not quite sure of her history. But, going by this album, I'm pretty sure what her future is gonna be like. A mature singer/songwriter with an excellent CD that's not to be missed. There's a lot of stars in the sky, but this one shines the brightest. (--- Paul Autry, for Ballbuster)

Notes: [1] EIB was released in 1992, not 1994. [2] It was "Epiphany in Brooklyn", not "Epiphanies in Brooklyn".

About four years ago, a remarkable singer-songwriter named Brenda Kahn brought raw sincerity to intelligent new heights with the album "Epiphany in Brooklyn." Less political than her earlier work but still arranged primarily around the acoustic guitar, "Epiphany" struck a delicate balance between punk, folk, and pop. Revelling in biting social observations and the tawdry murk of doomed relationships, Kahn's cleverness complimented her stark emotional delivery rather than overwhelming it. I wish the same could be said of her long-awaited new album, "Destination Anywhere."

The disappointment kicks off with "Reconcile," a bombastic parody of Kahn's gritty sincerity and uncluttered edginess. On this and the other uptempo tunes, her sloppy band provides little more than a backdrop for self-indulgent shouting and punk pretensions. While "Reconcile" and "Yellow Sun" might sound nice sandwiched between X tracks on an early-'80s compilation CD, or played loudly by drunken friends in your basement, here they come off like excuses for a sensitive girl to live out her wannabe-rock-star fantasies. In moodier songs like "Night" and "Omaha," Kahn seems to recycle her own lyrical cliches; instead of reworking them, she drapes them in distracting instrumentation.

If Kahn's songwriting formula was beginning to bore her, she could've tried to move beyond her usual subculture commentaries and disturbing takes on love and alienation. Or maybe she coulda picked up a thesaurus to find new words for expressing her perennial angst? Opera lessons, to extend the range of vocal possibilities? Sitar sessions with the Maharishi? A year off? Detox? Considering all the possibilities, why she opted for a predictable bar band is beyond me.

Maybe Kahn is just letting off steam while she saves up insight and originality for her next album. She still shows signs of life on a few tracks, particularly "Lie." If you're a fan, wait 'til Brenda experiences another epiphany before you shell out for a new CD.

(--- reviewed by Magdalen for Taz Musique)

Brenda Kahn - Outside the Beauty Salon (Shanachie 5721 CD) On Outside the Beauty Salon, her first new recording since 1994, edgy, rocking singer-songwriter Brenda Kahn returns to a more acoustic sound like that of her first two critically-acclaimed albums but maintains the semi-encrypted lyrical content which makes her such a unique artist. "Brenda Kahn is one of these New Yorkers who inhabit a world of losers, junkies, and social terrorists, who write savage and savagely funny tales of their desperation and delusions" - Alternative Press "Her strident vocals, harsh guitar, and sometimes discordant delivery make every song edgy and often menacing...Beautiful, intriguing images and juxtaposed with sucker-punch phrases about humanity" - The Boston Phoenix Koch 03-22-97 (--- Reviewed by www.gopher-sounds.com)

I just picked up my copy of Destination Anywhere. For those who are expecting a continuation of Epiphany in Brooklyn, you'll either be impressed by Brenda's versatility or disappointed by the change. This album is more of a rocker, in the Hey, Romeo vein. The "band" influence is there. Spoon could even be classified as a punk song. What distracts me the most is the BACKGROUND VOCALS on some of the songs ... it just kills some of songs.

The two songs that impressed me the most are Faith Salons and She's A Yellow Sun. In Faith Salons, Brenda seems to tell a story. You hardly notice the musical accompaniment. She's A Yellow Sun is a catchy rocker, but the background vocals at the end ruin a wonderful song for me. For these two songs alone, it should be worth the purchase of the CD. Still, I would rank this album number three of her three albums released to date, with Epiphany in Brooklyn being number one and Goldfish being number two.

The lyrics, as always, were spectacular. Here are some examples:

1. "She's a walking hit and run." (--- She's A Yellow Sun)
   
2. "Momma's home and she is mad. You are not the child she wanted." (--- Too Far Gone)
   
3. "Peace is a distant mirage where the only truth is the path and chance the only landmark in the desert." (--- Faith Salons)

I hope Brenda does more acoustic solo stuff and catchy rockers in future albums. Please lose the background vocals.

And a word to Shanachie Records ... number the songs on the insert and place the times besides the song titles. Some people require that information.

In closing, I would like to say that Brenda's an angel!!! (--- Gordon)

Seen her twice in Tallahassee, the second time just this past Friday. She puts on a hell of a show, and has a fair-sized fan following here. The first time she had a band, consisting of backup guitar and basist (I don't recall whether there was a drummer or not); this time around it was just Brenda and her guitar, which was more than adequate. And she played three of my absolute favorite songs: Mint Juleps and Needles, Eulogy for my Next Lover, and my all-time favorite, which was saved for the very last number in her act, Winchester Chimes.

In a previous article zureick@ucunix.san.uc.edu (John H. Zureick) wrote:

> I don't know about the rest of you but I seem to be in the middle of a
> female renaissance in music.  Nancy Griffith, Iris Dement, the revisited
> Joan Baez, Abbey Lincoln, Jane Sibery, Victoria Williams.  I never used to 
> listen to female singers at all.  Lately they've been taking up most of
> my listening time.

Try listening to Brenda Kahn -- Epiphany in Brooklyn (you can find in the stores her debut, Eggs on Drugs, you probably can't find) -- a wonderful song-writer and singer that has somehow missed the success she deserves. Her lyrics are passionately specific and resonant.

I bought this tape last week. I highly recommend it to those who like a fast folk-pop style. It's a rav-up album on acoustic guitar.

The instrumentation consists of acoustic guitar, bass, and drums. Some songs include mandolin and other 'folky' instruments. The guitar work is reminiscent of a speeded up early Dylan, --simple but effective. Michelle Shocked's first album comes to mind, although I like this a lot more. The songs here are more in the rock&roll tradition than Shocked. It would be good driving music, if I didn't live in the city.

The lyrics are the real point here. Song titles like, "I Don't Sleep, I Drink Coffee Instead" hit the spot with me (I'm an astronomer, I've done it more than once). Most of the songs hit me as coming from real experience, which is a plus.

Return to Brenda Kahn Home Page