Sabotage Times, We can't Concentrate so Why Should You?Sabotage Times, We can't Concentrate so Why Should You?


The Many Faces Of Indie Screwball Adam Green

by Fiona Evans
8 December 2012 1 Comment

He's a renowned friend of the stars and has achieved near-hero status as a ket-scoffing blogger, but there's a lot more to the ex-Moldy Peaches frontman than meets the eye...

Adam Green, best known as one half of The Moldy Peaches, has been helping provide the soundtrack to girls accidentally getting up the duff since 2007. However, if you know him mainly for the award winning Juno soundtrack, it ignores the many charms of this outlandish character:

Solo Work

Although some might know his singles ‘Jessica Simpson’ or ‘Emily’, considering the man has released seven albums, much of his solo stuff is greatly overlooked. Clever little ditties in the style of a drunk Bonzo Dog Band, they are sometimes dangerously catchy, a fact testified by the number of times I have been caught accidentally singing along to ‘Choke on a Cock’. In that context, it might be possible that I have used the term ‘clever’ generously, but it is dark humour charmingly set over bright and happy melodies that  nearly make you forget the bleakness of the lyrics in tracks such as ‘Chubby Princess’ or ‘Crackhouse Blues’.

Artist

Adam Green has joined forces with Toby Goodshank and Macaulay Culkin to form the art collective entitled Three Men and a Baby. For those whom Culkin and paint cans means rudimentary home defences, the collection is an intriguing sight; like a drug addled beast crossed with a Gameboy colour slowly running out of battery. Adam Green’s solo stuff is even better with the exhibition Houseface, which was inspired by close ups of Elmo, Big Bird and Garfield, yet look more like a Mondrian painting after a sweaty night in Fabric.
Whether or not you like it, bear in mind that whilst you are at home waiting for your Tesco Direct delivery, this man is pissing around with Kermit, Ketamine and Kevin, and people are paying him money to do it.

More…
Gene’s Martin Rossiter Interviewd: “Pulp And Blur Can Fuck Off To Butlins”
Smokin’ To The Bone With New Slacker Hero Mac DeMarco

Duets

Adam Green has followed on from his success with Kimya Dawson in The Moldy Peaches, by bringing out a self-titled duet album with Little Joy’s Binki Shapiro, available in the new year. With a sound likened to Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, or Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell, these comparisons, although fair, are indicative of just how sparse the world of the duet is. In a world more used to feats where our pop princesses are pestered by the grunts of Will.i.am or Pitbull, this album revives that lost art of the musical twosome. Binki’s voice is charmingly sweet and its elegance is amplified next to the slightly clunkier vocals of Adam Green, but the combination together is simple but endearing. Their debut single ‘Here I am’ is all pretty guitars and sweetheart lyrics, reminiscent of the sentiments from Adam’s earlier anti-folk efforts; a snippet of the romantic spirit.

Style

He looks a little like Regina Spector if she was stuck in Battersea dogs home, calls himself the Jewish James Dean, and claims Mark Ronson has stolen his dress sense. Eclectic sartorial choices range from Lolita sunglasses to sailor hats to bellbottoms. Describing the reason behind the striped t-shirt look that he is so often seen in, he claims: “When I was in Budapest one time…I was getting kinda fat. So I bought all of these striped Eastern European sailor shirts – Because Picasso was fat and wore that shit (those kind of shirts). Now I got skinnier and whenever I go to bars and cabarets people think I’m a for-reals sailor.”

 Film-maker

Continuing a remarkable streak of being able to get away with whatever the hell he fancies, Adam Green can also legitimately call himself a film maker. He has claimed that after a year and a half long bender, and whilst still on Ketamine, Adam concocted the idea for the film ‘The Wrong Ferrari’ described as a screwball tragedy. Starring his pal Macaulay Caulkin, it also featured among others Devandra Banhart and the stunning Sky Ferreira. Shot entirely on an iphone, the plot is as surreal as it is barmy, and is dark humour at its most cartoony. This screenshot probably sums it up.

 Socialite

Adam Green’s blog ‘The Lake Room’ that was posted between 2008 and 2010 as a way of recording his bizarre hedonistic lifestyle, reads like a crack den Debretts. Pictures include Har Mar Superstar, Kirsten Dunst, Pete Doherty, Justin Long, Carl Barat and even a totally nude Peaches Geldof. The sort of man who you would love to befriend, with full awareness his companionship will destroy all your vital organs. This is an excerpt diarising a typical night with the gang: “We tried too film a porno in my kitchen. It waz supposed to bee kalled “The last temptation of Isabelle” but the script waz tooo eager to please, itt waz clumsily written withe too many “in-jokez.” And I’m not goode at acting, Itt seemed lyke a desparate social measure so wee decided against it.”

Adam has a new album, Adam Green And Binki Shapiro, being released by Decca on the 28th January.

If you like it, Pass it on

image descriptionCOMMENTS

outlet 7:54 pm, 15-Dec-2012

Youre not the common blog author, man. You surely have something powerful to contribute to the World Wide Web. Such a good blog. I will be back for more.

Leave a comment

Music image description SABOTAGE

1