Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Posted at
04:47
by
Shaula Clark
Scratch as his normal fashionable self (left) and as Bücher, the charming proprietor of The Wrathskellar (right)"The soundtrack for a typical Boston Babydolls show
are largely songs from the 1930s and '40s, or ones that sound like they
could have been written then. They tend to be bouncy and upbeat, and
the acts that accompany them are glamorous and slightly silly. That all
goes to Hell for our new show,
The Wrathskellar. After all the bullshit we went through with the City of Quincy [
Phoenix article:
"Quincy Council plays with dolls"],
I have to admit we were good and pissed ... and a lot of that crept
into this show. The Wrathskellar is one of those places no one intends
to go; people just find themselves there. A dark and dreary tavern a
few steps below street level, we chose music that evoked a place where
Jack the Ripper might down a glass of bathtub gin at a table with Mack
the Knife. There’s a lot of good music in a minor key, and we only get
to use some of it. These are the songs that we wanted to use, but
couldn’t quite fit into the show. Want to know what we did use? Come
and visit us at The Wrathskellar. We won’t bite ... hard."
1) "Clap Hands," Tom Waits (Rain Dogs) [
YouTube]
I
knew from the minute I conceived of The Wrathskellar that Tom Waits
would be in attendance. His growling, smoky, whiskey-soaked voice and
air of depression perfectly captured the tone we were looking for. I
bought Rain Dogs when it first came out (yes, I’m old) and played the
cassette to death. There are a bunch of songs on this album that would
have fit right in, but this one is my favorite. 2) "Candy Shop," Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire (Oh! The Grandeur) [
Last.fm]
The
opening invocation, “Well, piece by piece and nail by nail it'll all
come down some day before the fires of Hell,” particularly resonated
with me and reflected how I felt about the zoning board of a
certain city south of Boston. Plus it’s got a great beat. We didn’t end
up using it, but we do use songs from Andrew Bird’s old band, the
Squirrel Nut Zippers.
3) "The Tower," What Time Is It, Mr. Fox? (And Other Stories) [
CD Baby]
We like to use local bands in our shows whenever possible, whether
that means dancing to recorded music or working with live musicians.
This lyrically complex waltz, with its haunting combination of violin
and harpsichord, had just the right sound for The Wrathskellar but
didn’t quite inspire a story that worked in this show. We are using
local favorites the Dresden Dolls and Cirkestra, and would love to work
with WTIIMF some day ...
4) "Jezebel," Edith Piaf (Divas Exotica) [
YouTube]
The
biggest reason we didn’t use this song is that there are about 20 very
good versions, and we couldn’t pick a favorite. The tale of a woman who
is “a devil born/without a pair of horns” fit right in with our themes
of betrayal and revenge, and Piaf’s own life story echoed many of the
elements of The Wrathskellar ... hunh. Maybe we should have used it.
5) "Sex Spider," Gogol Bordello (Voi-la Intruder) [
YouTube]
Gogol
Bordello is often billed as “Gypsy-punk,” and most of their songs are
more punk than gypsy, so we can’t use them in our shows ... but we love
this song. We love it so much that Betty Blaize and Honey Do did a
number to it back in our second Out for Blood show. You won’t see this
number at The Wrathskellar (why mess with a good thing?), but you can see it on-line.
The Boston Babydolls Burlesque Troupe present The Wrathskellar, July 13-18, at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown.
Playlist 7-10-09
