Longboat’s Igor Keller is, of course, a genius. This became clear last May when I beheld Beyond the Moon, a nifty song, video and nostalgia trinket of the 1960s space race. Keller’s talents also shine through his blog, Hideous Belltown, a first person blog of cosmpolitan stories and button-cute squirrel photos wherein he invites readers to “join me on this odyssey of unsightliness as we try to figure out why poor Belltown looks so bad.”
As that quote suggests, civic lament is familiar territory for Keller. To that end Longboat has just released, Greater Seattle, a snarky 17 song seriocomic squawk cycle which surveys Seattle scene by neighborhood scene. According to Keller, the work is not a tribute to Rain City, rather it’s a “running commentary on the area’s components, past, present and (perhaps) future.”
Indeed it is.
Keller selects dozens of juicy Jet City vanities, then skewers them like fat cutlets of marinated shish-ka-salmon grilling in a Wedgwood Weber. Hilarity simmers and sizzles. Keller’s comic menu is always fresh, never opting for the stale joke or warmed-over Seattle weakness, always roasting new comic courses and enriching the quality of the humor with a Ballard Smorgasbord of meaty musical performances and tasteful, savory arrangements.
While Keller sings and plays many of the instruments, he incorporates a revolving crew of extremely talented backing vocalists and session players including many of your Seattle fave musicians: Johnny Sangster, Alicia Dara, Fiia McGann, Thomas Marriott, Matt Gervais, Mia Boyle, and many more.
The fun kicks off with “Bellevue,” a stream of comic hipster bile directed toward Washington’s second largest city center (according to the Wik). “I’d walk in snow without any shoes or mud-wrestle elderly jews,” the song’s protagonist sings, before moving from Seattle to Bellevue, reinforcing the intercity cross-lake rivalry which probably predates even the 520 bridge. Some crisp organ makes the tune fun, so get ready kids, this is a foretaste of the feast to come.
Tune 2, “Queen Anne” is a grand yawp of approval for that high-end neighborhood. “I’m talking about Queen Anne, please note that I’m a big fan,” Keller sings in his only song of unconditional praise on the disc. Keller celebrates the opera, killer views and entertainment options in that area and adds a delightfully tasty and big, really big, rock guitar solo for the win. Fun stuff.
“South Park” bounces in next, 80s synth pop style. This tune, and most of Keller’s tunes, are written from the viewpoint of a perceptive everymensch, seeing fault, singing humor, and never getting lost in the mishegas. “You’re right on top of the best toxic bloom, don’t worry folks: work, sleep, consume,” the jaded protagonist sings.
Keller has been living 20 years in Belltown and blogging extensively about the negatives there, thus tune four comes across as an especially woebegone, vey ist mir, tour de force about all things meshugge found just north of downtown. “You might NOT get shot in Belltown, downtown’s afterthought,” he sings, his expressive voice reminiscent of They Might Be Giants. This minor key, klezmer-flavored number lifts off with kvetsch upon querulous kvetsch accompanied by accordion from Steve Rice and trombone from David Marriott, Jr., then, blissfully, the tune reaches for and attains celestial heights when Alicia Dara chimes in, nailing a backing track reminiscent of Evanescence or the soprano parts of Gorecki’s Third Symphony.
“Mercer Island” has clever comic poetry about bad architecture. “Ballard” takes the tune of “PER SPELMANN,” a Norwegian folk tune about a musician who trades his only cow to get back his violin, to express the sadness of a Scandinavian fisherman’s ghost who returns to Ballard only to find it unrecognizable.
And so on… The disc works its’ way through 16 Seattle neighborhoods, having fun at every stop on the way.
The capstone of the work is the last tune, a cover of “Seattle,” the theme song to television’s “Here Come the Brides,” with the familiar, but patently untrue, lyric, “the bluest skies you’ve ever seen are in Seattle…” Keller manages to pay homage to the song while having jazzy and rhythmic fun with the tune’s framework. It makes for a memorable end to a jocular work which laughs with, rather than at, its’ subject. Anyone who knows and loves Seattle will get a kick out of this album.
Greater Seattle may be purchased or downloaded here, and sound samples may be heard there as well.
