LD BEGHTOL: voice, baritone and soprano ukuleles, Hammond organ, synths, piano, 4- and 12-string guitars, glockenspiel, finger cymbals, tambourine and assorted other percussion instruments + JONATHAN 'CHUCK' PLUMMER: voice, mandolin, voice + GEOFF OTIS: bass, electric guitars, percussion + 'HANDSOME JIM' BENTLEY: noise, electric guitars, snare + NOEL ROSE: drums + special guests DANA KLETTER, KENDALL JANE MEADE, JON NATCHEZ, RYAN GRIFFIN and...
Influences
Wire, the Mamas & the Papas, the Carter Family, "Society and its Discontents," Francis Bacon, Unwound, George Jones, HH Holmes, Harry Partch, Psychedelic Furs, Hank Williams, Crash, Sacred Harp, Kraft-Ebbing, Dolly & Porter, Gussie L Davis, Sarah Beghtol Mellinger, Chris Xefos, the Byrds, Ruth Rendell...
Sounds Like
One listen into this ‘autodidactic toe-tapper’ (their words, not mine) EP, and it’s clear: This is how music should sound. With a mesmeric mixture of eclecticism, glorious pop harmonies and the all important ukulele, the glowing carnival spirit of Amoral Certitudes confirms that the magnificent LD & The New Criticism are unable to offer anything less than excellence. NEON BUZZ
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AMORAL CERTITUDES(Acuarela), the follow-up to 2005’s TRAGIC REALISM is the new EP by LD & the New Criticism. Over the course of six irresistible and accessible tracks, Beghtol and company deliver, dare it be said, some downright radio- and iPod-friendly tunes that encourage singing along and unselfconscious dancing. Cases in point—“AKA Paradise” and “What You Will,” featuring Dana Kletter. —Gregg Shapiro, CHICAGO FREE PRESS
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MENSA MELODIES A New York-based art director and writer, this colleague of the Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt doesn’t dumb down his baroque pop confections. “Yes, I know the syntax is torturous,” he confesses on “AKA Paradise.” Fortunately his lyrical brainteasers hurt so good; coupled with its oddball arrangements, the lyrics of LD & the New Criticism’s latest, AMORAL CERTITUDES, make this 16-minute EP more rewarding than many full-length albums. Musically, the band is the antithesis of Ex-Boyfriends’ rock combo. Xylophones commingle with fuzz-laden guitars, and droning organs give way to violin and ukulele, while the loopy cadences of “Sex Surrogate” suggest a medieval dance. On “What You Will,” the lovey-dovey tenor even relinquishes singing to indie-rock cult-figures Kendall Jane Meade (of Mascott) and Dana Kletter (who provided vocal assistance on Hole’s LIVE THROUGH THIS). There is no shortage of ingenious twists to these six ditties, but Beghtol’s witty ideas function in service of, rather than at the expense of, his pop smarts. (Kurt B Reighley in THE ADVOCATE, December 2007)
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'BURN BURN BURN just killed me. It is great. Absolutely great. You motherfucking country killer you.' DIAMANDA GALAS
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'The lyric sheet of the excellent first disc from Beghtol's latest project (see also: Flare, Moth Wranglers) includes icons indicating which songs address "murder," "attempted murder," "mania," "voyeurism," "revenge" -- and more. The baroque country-cabaret -- assisted by Kiki & Herb pianist Kenny Mellmann, violinist Pinky Weitzman, and others --
is similarly Old Testament, timeless and warped.' THE VILLAGE VOICE
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'A dark carnival of lust and recriminations...' INSTINCT
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'Kind of like the Pogues meet John Dowland...' ESOPUS
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'It's to Beghtol and friends' credit that TRAGIC REALISM manages at once to offer such charming and cheeky fun while also being so full of genuine sadness, so marked by the cold hard facts of life. They turn the deepest sadness into a lark, a dance, a game, a celebration even, while singing boldly and beautifully about the darkest of matters.' ERASINGCLOUDS.COM
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'Lyrically, Mr. Beghtol has never been more quick-witted, violent, and entertaining.'
BABYSUE
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'If you buy just one death-obsessed record of classic pop this year, make it this one, okay?' PONYBOY
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"[AMORAL CERTITUDES"] starts with a brief new-criticism theme song of sorts (a “Love Theme”), before a series of catchy pop songs that also carry with them ideas. They’re pop songs about love, but also in love with words and what meaning they do or don’t contain. “What You Will”, a duet with Miss Dana Kletter, carries questions of definition and essence (“how do the good hearts beat / can you separate them from the bad?”), while also seeming like fodder for a Dear Abbey advice letter. The lovely “If I Think of Love”, a Lisa Germano cover, plays as a list of words, as Beghtol notes on the back cover, but also a story of heartbreak. Similarly, “Sex Surrogate (the E-stim version)” is partly a litany of rhyming words, but also a tale of someone seeking to buy the secrets of love, to be formed into an “unbesmirchable, certifiable… do-able, very pliable” lover. Its cover dresses AMORAL CERTITUDES as a book, and it is one.... Yet it’s also a collection of pop songs, ready to be heard and sung. --ERASINGCLOUDS.COM
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"Anyone who toys in such a shameless manner with religious subjects should be nominated for the Pulitzer. And if you do not buy this record, the terrorists have won. GAESTELISTE.DE (Christian Spiess)
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"With lyrical allusions to Aldous Huxley, Cheap Trick, Barbie and Ken, Joe Orton, the pre-Raphaelites, Howdy Doody, and yes, Merritt, TRAGIC REALISM is smart and smug, wry and ridiculous." MAGNET
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"Crunchy pop-punk + Sondheimian wordplay = angsty breakup songs for grad students and other book owners." THE ADVOCATE
LD & the New Criticism's Friend Space (Randomized)
Hi there! We've got a new EP that we're especially proud of called Summer which is the second in our series of seasonal EPs this year. We'd love for you to listen to the EP online, and to do so, just click on the graphic below. If you like what you hear, we'd be very grateful if you'd support our efforts by buying the EP for €2.50 (around $3.20).
Hope all is going great for you. Thanks for being our friend!
Wow LD, Your music sounds great. Well done. I'm gonna pick a song for my page as soon as I'm done typing this. It'll be a nice break from listening to Free Design and The Peppermint Rainbow all the time.
Thanks for your support for WPS1.org. Unfortunately, the project has been discontinued, but if you liked WPS1, there’s a new internet radio station run by many of the same people called Art International Radio (ArtonAir.org) that has access to most of WPS1’s archived content. It’s all free, it’s all on demand; take a look.
Cheers for the add ! Delighted to get to see & hear some more of you !
Dont forget - wednesday nights at midnight-2am (uk time) old DJ Grumpy is polluting the airwaves with punked up rotten relics & psychotic rock..n..stuffs...at http://www. musicworldradio. com
Drop by or lemme know if you got something interesting that deserves some airplay !
Today, Tuesday 22, at 7 o..clock , Evripidis and his Tragedies is playing an acustic set at the Living Room. Expect cabaret decadence, indie piano pop , kithcen-sink dramas , lilliputian soap operas and lo-fi doo wop! Arrive early!It..s free. The Living Room, 54 Ludlow, NYC 10002, between Stanton and Rivington , Lower East Side xo
Oh,LD. You came up at the Thanksgiving table last night. We started talking about Rob Bateman's uncle, then Pauline started going on and on about LD and Pollyanna--and how we talked about bizarre things and disassembled her Sarah Coventry costume jewelry. The horror! The horror! hee hee hee.
