Destroying Classics for Fun and Profit.

Okay, not profit. But maybe to cover expenses.

I've been putting off this review of Puttin' On The Ritz's new project, a full scale re-arrangement and performance of the Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat for several reasons. One reason was due to family obligations, but the rest have been musical. Here's a link to singer BJ Rubin's blog post about the album, with a link to a free download of the whole thing, and a youtube clip of the recording of "Sister Ray:"

http://feelfreefeelfree.blogspot.com/2010/06/puttin-on-ritz.html

To put my personal connections out of the way first: Kevin Shea, the drummer (and for a long time, the other half) of Puttin' On The Ritz has been a friend of mine for 15 or 20 years. We go way back, and have played together a lot. I also once sat in for BJ during a POTR gig at a loft party in Brooklyn and had a grand old time.

Kevin is brilliant. No one plays drums like he does, and in the right context he is a powerfully engaging, fun, and almost shocking performer. In the wrong contexts he can be overpowering, but he has the wisdom to keep those situations to a minimum. BJ is an engaging and charismatic performer, too, and one of the worst singers you'll ever applaud at a show. That's the schtick - POTR was originally a duo that stuck to the Great American Songbook, with no reference to pitch and only occasional attempts at keeping the rhythm together. If it sounds awful, well, it was awful, and hilarious, and pretty refreshing a few years ago.

Eventually, all projects mature, even the deliberately immature ones. White Light/White Heat sees the group expanded with bass and a horn line, and the deliberately amateurish sloppiness is mostly gone from the band, save for Rubin's highly stylized, mostly pitchless vocal delivery. For this project, that's really too bad. I think it's a little easy to do what POTR did a before with older material that's pretty removed from our generation. With the decision to recast the Velvet Underground, though, the band commited a kind of cultural suicide. Folks my age and Kevin and BJ's age still worship White Light/White Heat and Velvet Underground and Nico, and the attachment to the "classic" label is real for us. While it's still possible to have a respect for Rodgers and Hart, it's difficult in 2010 to feel the kind of cultural resonance for Old Broadway that we feel for a group that really started punk rock and indie rock and the whole nihilistic slacker thing that white people in their 30s happily accept as the label we got stuck with.

I think the mistake that POTR made in their deconstruction of the Velvet Underground is that they didn't get their own joke, or maybe they got it but they blew the delivery by overcommitting, like a nervous guy on a first date who tries too hard. There's some very, very nice playing from some of my favorite New York weird jazz musicians on this record, but it's wasted on the wrong context. If the intent of this record is to kill idols, then there needs to be violence, but the arrangements are too polished and too committed, and they barely make reference to the songs they're recasting. If the intent was to show respect with a new voice, well, songs like "Sister Ray," as grand as it is, are too simple re-envision, and rely on the performance for success - and that's precisely what's missing from the POTR version. And if it's a parody, then it's just too high-concept. These guys love the Velvet Underground and they're only able to parody their own fondness for the record. BJ's bad singing, when applied to songs we're used to hearing sung by Mel Torme or Nat King Cole or someone, is hilarious because BJ's commitment to his singing is obvious, and the contrast with what we expect to hear from a lounge singer works. But Lou Reed is a bad singer, with a weak voice, and a committed but poor delivery. So what's added by doing that again, but louder? I really wanted to have an answer to that question besides "nothing," but instead I just couldn't get through the record. It's a shame.