A rotating cast of social outcasts and deviants. Face Of Love e.p. features Lily Marlene, guitar and vocals, Pauline Lay on violin, and Jeremy Jay on drums, synth and bass. Other recordings feature Don Bolles on drums and bass.
Influences
MUSIC:Howling Wolf, Bo Diddley, Wanda Jackson, Phil Spector, Rolling Stones, Marianne Faithfull, Gun Club, The Stooges, Shangri-La's, Tom Waits, Joe Meek, Son House, Velvet Underground, Johnny Cash, Link Wray, Dead Moon, Marc Bolan, Serge Gainsbourg, Bowie, The Who, Marlene Dietrich, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Dusty Springfield, Patti Smith, Nick Cave, Michel Polnereff.
AUTHORS: Gogol, Pushkin, Bukowski, Fante, Herman Hesse, Baudelaire, Dylan Thomas, Jim Thompson, Raymond Chandler, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, Brothers Grimm.
FILM: Fritz Lang, Bunuel, Murnau, Kenneth Anger, Mario Bava, Hitchcock, Argento, Claude Chabrol, Pabst, Jules Dassin.
LILY MARLENE LIVE @ BORDELLO, AUG 2007!!! Video: MICHAEL MANGIA
"LILY MARLENE HAS BECOME RENOWNED FOR HER RAW POWERFUL SWAMP BLUES AND GLAMMY ROCK N ROLL SETS. EITHER SOLO OR WITH A BAND SHE EXUDES AN INTENSE STAR QUALITY THAT IS THOUGHT PROVOKING AND UNIQUE. HER NATURAL CAMP AESTHETIC IS STRIKING AND TIMELESS, IT IS AS IF SHE CAME FROM ANOTHER TIME TO TEACH THE KIDS WHAT LIVING IS ALL ABOUT."
Review by Gib Strange:
If you were sipping whiskey with Lily Marlene at one of her favorite trashy Hollywood drag bars you might never suspect that the petite, soft spoken, glam rocker in black with the English accent could unleash such a fierce inner spirit when on stage. Her swamp momma ghost blues seems to come from nowhere in search of our filthy hearts and bringing with it a sickly sweet deathrock kiss. One only needs to watch Lily sitting alone with her guitar performing a wild, twisted version of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love?” to know she’s as genuine as they come.
Lily’s attitude and approach is completely dauntless. You know how Marc Bolan could take any simple bubblegum lyric and endow it with some special hidden value? Lily does that quite well quite often. Of course it helps having a siren’s voice like hers—capable of force and precision but also quavering like a sudden chill and stretching itself through the air in a beautiful flux. And I don’t mean to belittle the lyrics either, her songs are full of the kind of sharp word play that makes pop music dangerous, in more ways than one. When she sings lines like, “Your look is straight out of a book/Well I don’t want to be part of your strategy/You’ve got nothing but mechanical love for me” I’m very glad I’m not on the receiving end of such scathing verses.
This is not in praise of Lily’s breasts, which are great, but I sometimes like to pretend I’m watching a Russ Meyer flick when I see her play, maybe the one he wanted to make with The Sex Pistols. But in addition to that almost camp aesthetic, there’s also this Satanic quality about her stage presence that reminds me of some sort of irresistible Kenneth Anger muse. She’s always well dressed too! She arrives proudly displaying the forgotten riches of what I imagine must be expert searches of the best second-hand stores in town. That’s how the lady is—she has a great eye. She could draw you a treasure map of her home neighborhood, downtown Los Angeles. I took a tour myself and she showed me a completely different LA than the one I knew, opening my eyes to all the hidden little sights that make the city interesting. I suspect that’s how she approaches art as well, tracing all the forbidden genealogies of music and movie history and weaving the best elements into her own personal musical language.
So if you find yourself in some seedy dive deep in the dark heart of Los Angeles, and you see a pale face with doe eyes smiling to herself, beware, you just may be drinking with the infamous vampire dolly rocker Lily Marlene.
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A PRICELESS MOMENT; from The Tenant by Roman Polanski...
Truly turning the other cheek... I shall write, am lifting to where it is possible, again... always appreciate you, forever...H.
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