duf davis + the book club
"Murdertainment"(OE044)
(click on song titles to hear MP3's!)
1. Abraham Lincoln
2. Crazy Rhythm
3. A Place Where The Kids Are Cool
4. 44.1
5. This 'N That
6. When Hollywood Came And Burned It All Down
7. The Best Of All Possible Worlds
8. Silly Symphony
9. Tired Eyes
10. Singing Bird Of Prey
11. Not To Care
12. The Lonely Tarantula
13. Where Is Fear Passing
14. So Here It Is
15. Mirror As My Witness
16. Scare Quotes
17. Fool For Love
the players:
duf davis - guitars, voices
chris breetveld - drums, organ, bass, sounds everywhere
tim korzun - bass, organ, harp, sounds in more places than you can imagine
ben - drums on #14
featuring Julia and Sophia on #8
now how about some reviews!
Home recorded mostly silly stuff that ranges wildly. Bits of
the album sound almost straightforward enough to be taken
seriously, but that probably just puts this in the company
of high camp all the more. Duf and the crew play with
everything from movie theme scores to kids reciting broken
texts, often with diva-like bravado. It's all assembled in
a proudly haphazard fashion that is extremely fast-paces
and completely unexpected. These guys are having fun.
Reviewed by Bryan Baker, GAJOOB 4/3/2001.
Another set of deceptively menacing songs from Duf Davis and
friends. The vaguely-tuned acoustic guitar is still strummed
to strange effect. I still get a little creeped out by the
whole thing. That's good, because I think that's what
Davis wants. He's not trying to make happy, cheery music
here. He's trying to express a number of different ideas,
and his hyperkinetic strumming helps to get those thoughts
across. Really, though, the star here is writing. Davis
has a warped way of penning lyrics, and he and his pals
then paint some of the more intriguing musical pictures
you'll ever hear. Some folks might find Davis'
idiosyncrasies a bit off-putting. Annoying or aggravating,
even. Life goes on. I really like the way Davis and friends
express themselves. Period.
Jon Worley, Aiding & Abetting
Duf Davis is weird. But more importantly, Murdertainment is
weird and I honestly don’t know how to describe it. Sometimes
it’s brooding instrumentals, other times it’s sardonic
singer/songwriter pop tunes, and still other times it’s
black-hearted piano bar music. There’s even a passage at
the beginning of "Silly Symphony" in which an eight
year-old repeats the lines "I don’t feel other people’s
pain. You can hurt me, but I won’t feel it." Not quite
sure how appropriate that is...but it’s entertaining
nonetheless. -- az, Splendid
A great album, this latest project from Duf Davis & The Book Club,
running some different styles along the tracklisting, but certainly
gaining some great mileage from the largely acoustic guitar based
tunes on this album, producing a couple of real gems.
There's a lot of interesting work here, from the slightly jazz
infused "When Hollywood Came & Burned It All Down", through to
some wonderful acoustic moments such as "Where Is Fear Passing",
but the absolute highlight for me is the remarkable opener
"Abraham Lincoln", which grabs a wonderful acoustic riff &
runs with it. Great production for the most part, really
assists in setting the excellent tone you'll feel here.
--Terry Allen, hEARD
Duf Davis & The Book Club - MURDERTAINMENT: Our friends at
Orange Entropy Records have assembled another interesting group
of D.I.Y. recordings for yer' aural pleasure(s). Despite the
title of this CD, it's not (in the least) dark! Some very
energetic guitar chord movements with strings very noticeable
(arranged by Tim). I'm assuming that the vox (on several of
the trax) were done by Duf Davis, but unfortunately, the
liners on the CD jacket didn't make that totally clear.
The players (far too many to list here) are definitely
IN to what they're doing, & are able to communicate that
clearly... OTOH, there were a few cuts where the vocals
made it come across without all the strength they could
have had. One of my favorite tracks is "When Hollywood
Came and Burned It All Down", nice convoluted rhythm
with a truly jazzy feel. High production values on the
recording, all in all a pleasant listen. Gets a HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED from us! --Rotcod Zzaj
Duf Davis And The Book Club - Murdertainment CD
Here he comes again, all the way from Princeton NJ, with much
more of "the very worst in electronic entertainment" (as the
man himself sez). Despite some wonderful contributions from
Book Clubbers Tim Korzun and Chris "The Breetle" Breetveld,
this pretty much is Duf's baby ...and quite some babe it is,
too! "Abraham Lincoln" opens the proceedings in a majestic,
wholly-Moodiesque way, "This 'N That" sounds like the "Smiley
Smile" that got away, no less than Thelonious Monk appears to
guest upon "When Hollywood Came And Burned It All Down."
"The Lonely Tarantuala" once again proves Duf to be every
bit Jandek's equal at the guitar, and "Silly Symphony,"
quite naturally, is. Not everyone's cup of meat, of course,
but why this man isn't making a very fine living scoring
Internet movies is ANYBODY's guess!---Gary 'Pig' Gold
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