{"id":725,"date":"2014-12-20T15:57:57","date_gmt":"2014-12-20T23:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lauragrey.com\/?p=725"},"modified":"2014-12-20T15:57:57","modified_gmt":"2014-12-20T23:57:57","slug":"sly-and-sardonic-lounge-noir-jazz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/?p=725","title":{"rendered":"Sly and Sardonic Lounge-Noir Jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"474\" height=\"356\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K8EORyGIFio?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>While going through my old CDs this week I came across a fun album from 1998 by New York-based jazz group <a href=\"http:\/\/www.davestruestory.com\/\">Dave&#8217;s True Story <\/a>called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.davestruestory.com\/music\/sex-without-bodies.html\"><em>Sex Without Bodies<\/em><\/a>. The group, which described itself as a &#8220;lounge-noir band,&#8221; morphed a bit over time but was always anchored by writer\/composer\/guitarist David Cantor and singer Kelly Flint. They played jazz with a cool Greenwich Village underground jazz-club vibe: spare, dry and witty. Flint&#8217;s jaded vocals and Cantor&#8217;s sardonic lyrics bring a smoky edge to their songs.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sex Without Bodies<\/em> starts with the cynical anti-love song &#8220;Spasm,&#8221; which was featured in an episode of <em>Breaking Bad<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p><em>Look at my lips<\/em><br \/>\n<em>They&#8217;re just dying to taste you<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Look at my teeth <\/em><br \/>\n<em>They&#8217;re just aching to bite<\/em><br \/>\n<em>But as for my heart<\/em><br \/>\n<em>It&#8217;s a big empty chasm<\/em><br \/>\n<em>&#8216;Cause this ain&#8217;t the real thing<\/em><br \/>\n<em>It&#8217;s just a spasm<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The characters Kelly Flint inhabits are droll and blas\u00e9, but they&#8217;re relaxed enough that the group&#8217;s music isn&#8217;t so much dark as overcast. An hour spent with Dave&#8217;s True Story is like an hour\u00a0 in an underground bar quaffing excellent cocktails with a good-smelling man who sports precise facial hair and offers to show you his etchings.<\/p>\n<p>Four songs into the album is my favorite of their tunes, &#8220;I&#8217;ll Never Read Trollope Again,&#8221; the story of an avid reader of fiction whose favorite author is Victorian writer <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Anthony_Trollope\">Anthony Trollope<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><em>I was sitting in a quaint cafe<\/em><br \/>\n<em>With a favorite tome and some cafe au lait<\/em><br \/>\n<em>But my luck ran out when you came my way<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Now I&#8217;ll never read Trollope again<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>You spied the cover as you slithered near<\/em><br \/>\n<em>And said &#8220;The 1800s\u2014that&#8217;s my favorite year.&#8221;<\/em><br \/>\n<em>And then you sat right down and now I fear<\/em><br \/>\n<em>That I&#8217;ll never read Trollope again<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Near the end of their album is a cover version of Lou Reed&#8217;s &#8220;Walk on the Wild Side,&#8221; a song which perfectly matches their louche, ironic yet somehow upbeat manner. Despite its cynical heart, the album is not a downer. Turn down the lights, pour yourself an artisanal something-or-other and see what you think of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While going through my old CDs this week I came across a fun album from 1998 by New York-based jazz group Dave&#8217;s True Story called Sex Without Bodies. The group, which described itself as a &#8220;lounge-noir band,&#8221; morphed a bit over time but was always anchored by writer\/composer\/guitarist David Cantor and singer Kelly Flint. They &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/?p=725\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sly and Sardonic Lounge-Noir Jazz<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[451,448,453,452,48,800,454,447,450,449],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":726,"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions\/726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}