beatnikside

Last night Jo Jo and I went to Chop Suey to see a bunch of local bands covering Disney songs. The event has apparently happened annually since 2004, but this was the first time I'd seen it. Some of the bands were very good - The Catch made the wistful "Part of Your World" into a right and proper grrrrl anthem - and some of the were, ah, unenthusiastic (if I wanted karaoke, Mr. Terry, I'd have gone to a fucking karaoke night). But for all the radical re-interpretations (The Pale Pacific grafted "I'm Wishing" onto the rhythm skeleton of MGMT's "Time to Pretend") and earnest, singer-songwriterly takes on the material, my favorite act of the evening was Noula Johnston of People Eating People, who performed two songs with accordionist Erin Rubin. Johnston was unsure of the words to "Poor Unfortunate Souls" and "Feed The Birds," and read them from a black Moleskine notebook even as she sang them.

I never heard of People Eating People before last night, but Johnston won me over from the first notes of "Feed The Birds." Her instrument, soulful and quavering, is the voice of a superstar. She reminded me of how affecting "Feed The Birds" is, and its part in making the end of "Mary Poppins" so uplifting. (The flying nanny came not to help the kids, who were simply bored and acting out, but to save the father, who was in real danger of losing his family and himself.) Over an arrangement of the song that strongly echoed Garth Hudson's lovely accordion arrangement (from Hal Willner's "Stay Awake" LP), Johnston sang "Birds" as if she didn't know it was from a Disney movie. She treated it the way it was written, as a hymn to the act of charity.

This morning I listened to People Eating People's originals on her MySpace page and yeah, Johnston's just that good. I'll buy the hell out of her record when it comes out.