The Real Tuesday Weld
The London Book of the Dead (Six Degrees)
release: August 28, 2007
style: "antique beat"
similar: Pulp, Us3's "Cantaloop," classic big bands
rating: *** Originally on the late great Kindercore records (that first album had a release date of 9/11/01), the Real Tuesday Weld's song about loving the rain has been more recently heard in a Coke commercial. Main guy Stephen Coates' fourth album is another intriguing curiousity. One of the most unique artists you'll ever hear, Coates puts to use a variety of music culled from the 1920s-1940s, adding his Jarvis Cocker-like voice and tinny percussion. Some of this music is so old it's public domain now. It's romantically surreal, which can be expected when his initial inspiration came from a dream with actress Tuesday Weld. The London book of the Dead certainly has a sadness. Brief instrumental "Waltz for One" and "Last Words" for example, are both solemn. "I Believe" and at least a few other tracks are sunny. Coates knows you gotta take the bad with the good in this life. -Kenyon