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LISA DEWEY – Weather
Changer Girl CD-LP © 2000 |
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REVIEWS: DJ Modern Mark (KSCU) July 2002 LISA DEWEY Weather Changer Girl With a personal image more righteous than any babe and a style to fit any mood, you will find yourself talking about Lisa to all your friends and lovers. Her voice will grab your attention "weather" or not she's moody with etherialism ("Watching Her Fingers") or shunning out someone who thinks they are her lover ("I'm Not Your Lover"). On Weather Changer Girl, her second CD, you will find everything from ethereal landscapes ("Stormy Colored Clouds") to I-have-something-to-say dedications ("Takin' Out the trash"). Slightly more serious and darker that her cute fancy-dancy debut Lola CUKI, Lisa has taken the time to impress the listener with an album that has an edge like no other. The Hope Sandoval and Cocteau Twins influences are evident, but this rising local artist could easily make any listener perk their ears toward her mysterious, yet attractive spellbinding direction. -DJ Modern Mark Calendar Pick from Santa Cruz Metro July 24 -31, 2002 July 25, 2002 Lisa Dewey and Bethany Curve Friday July 26, 2002 Cayuga Vault; 1100 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz, CA. Both of these acts have been favorably compared to the Cocteau Twins, and both have been described as dreamy, multilayered, atmospheric pop. San Jose's pinup-girl gothling, Lisa Dewey, along with her excellent backing band The Lotus Life, also recalls early Everything But the Girl, with her part-folk, part-jazz, all-gorgeous pop. -Hiya Swanhuyser Metro Santa Cruz collectedsounds.com August 11, 2001 Lisa Dewey's ethereal sound is very pleasant to listen to. Her album has plenty of gently circling guitars and is crowned by Lisa's cool voice. Her stylistic resemblance to the Cocteau Twins is underlined by Simon Raymonde's assistance on some tracks. The softness of most of the songs is neatly balanced by the more abrasive songs like "Takin' Out the Trash". Still, this can't prepare the listener for the primal wail of the closing "I'm Not Your Lover". Arriving at the end of such a quiet record, it's a totally unexpected thing that makes this album even more special. -Anna Maria Stjarnell (www.collectedsounds.com) KZFR, Chico 'From the land of dot coms and um, Smashmouth, it's a refreshing thing to put in the new disc by San Jose's own Lisa Dewey and experience something completely different. "Weather Changer Girl" evokes a sound pleasantly melodic and hypnotic, yet at the same time with a strong delivery and sometime growl that holds the pace. Opening track "Watching Her Fingers" launches the album with a dreamy soundscape that would make any Cocteau Twin proud. As a matter of fact, this record does feature a Twin, Simon Raymonde, on two tracks with his mixes on four of the tracks. While Raymonde's presence is felt especially on "Heathens" (sounding almost like a lost track from the Cocteau Twins', Heaven or Las Vegas), Lisa's delivery is all her own with lyrics like "I wanted to take you on the bar...So... Belly ache goes far...One down." Pick up this record and hear a talented, new songwriter at work and at play; doing what she does best.' -Scott Garfield & Ingrid Metro San Jose Local folk/pop/alternative musician, Lisa Dewey's new CD, "Weather Changer Girl", is true to it's name: It roils with unpredictable emotional weather, from misty dreamscapes of love and infatuation to some rumblings of romantic thunder. Four of the album's tracks were mixed by Simon Raymonde of the Cocteau Twins, and throughout the album there are appealing hints of that group's floaty, ethereal quality, but always nicely grounded by Dewey's clear, ringing vocals, solid guitar work and curtly poetic lyrics. The San Jose-based musician has also founded her own label, Kitchen Whore Records, and currently has a book of poetry and short stories titled "spank." available at, among other places, her website, www.lisadewey.com. -Elmann Washington Calendar Pick from Portland Willamette Week April 2001 Lisa Dewey's delicate yelp not only conjures the Cocteau Twins' wispy witch, Liz Fraser, she even got some sonic aid from the Twins' Simon Raymonde on her latest album 'Weather Changer Girl'. -John Graham Calendar Pick from Portland Mercury April 2001 Lisa Dewey is a bit of a car crash of ethereal cool. Her voice is deep and heavy, the guitars sound like tumbling stars, and when I hear the music, it makes methink of flowers growing on Neptune's surface. -Jamie S. Rich Calendar Pick from Metro Santa Cruz April 4, 2001 '...Speaking of neo-goth, San Jose singer/songwriter, LISA DEWEY played a marvelous show at the Jury room Saturday, March 31st alongside Sin in Space. Backed by a mellow three-piece band with 12-string guitars and plenty of effects pedals, Dewey gracefully sang simple but pretty tunes full of Cocteau Twins sensibilities. -David Espinoza KFJC LISA DEWEY Weather Changer Girl (Kitchen Whore Records)(CD) This talented San Jose chanteuse/poetess has had quite a life so far!! She played shows with Love andRockets, Sleater Kinney, and Petra Haden (to name just a few), published a book, and created her own record label. *She is also a guest singer on Andalusia's newest release.* On this third album, her band welcomes Simon Raymonde (Cocteau Twins), who engineers, plays bass and keyboards on #5, lead guitars on #8. Lisa wrote all songs, sings with a unique and fervent style, plays acoustic guitar & more. It's a vessel of doom, gloom and mad demons, but also soft dreaminess. Experiments ensue with sitar, various types of robust percussion, dripping electric guitar, ethereal ballads, spacey sound effects, humble confessions, and fierce prowess. Yeah, she's a little angry... but aren't we all?? -Angel D. Monique THE LAIR OF LISA DEWEY By Jose Posadas Downtown Magazine One does not listen to the music of San Jose singer, songwriter and recording label founder, Lisa Dewey, rather, one is seized by its haunting rhythms and compelled to surrender to a voice that calls to mind the Sirens of Greek lore. Lisa lures the listener not to destruction along jagged rocks surrounding an island but into one's emotional lair where ghosts, their love tempered, seek shelter from their mortal wounds. It is said that great art comes from great pain. Central to everything creative, from paintings to fiction, to sculpture and to songs, has been the search for love and the all too familiar journey between hope and despair. Where we are at any one time along this continuum is what a great song can capture. Lisa's songs invite the listener to immerse oneself on an introspective journey to places we otherwise try very hard to avoid. Lisa Dewey first picked up a guitar at 15 and has been writing songs since the mid '80's. She performed live for the first time at what was then Marsugi's downtown and where Agenda now sits. A graduate of SJSU in 1994, she obtained her degree in Music, specifically Improvised Music Studies - Voice. She recalls how downtown in the early 1990's had promise for young performing artists with places like Cactus Club and Metro Cafe catering to a young audience that wanted live music. She laments, however, the period from the mid '90's to the end of that decade when venues downtown for live alternative music grew scarcer and scarcer. "With the closing of Fuel (a nightclub that featured an eclectic mix of live music) there is nowhere to go but Plant 51 now," Lisa adds. Like a migrant farmer who travels the agricultural circuit in search of work Lisa has toured Seattle, Portland, Texas, and New York as well as Los Angeles and local areas like San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Chico in search of venues in which to perform. Though performances downtown are rare she has played recently at various Populus sponsored events such as the SoFA Bazaar on Friday nights. In the past she has also performed at WORKS, the art gallery on North Third Street, Camera Cafe and Plant 51. Complicating the dearth of places downtown that cater to live music she also cites concerns, shared by some local music promoters, about the lack of media coverage for local performers and the sophistication of the audience in the South Bay. For example, a band can perform to a packed house on an off night in a club in San Francisco but the same group will only draw a small crowd on a Friday or Saturday night performing downtown. In a move to help increase the audience for her music and to help promote the music of other artists she started her own record label in 1997 called Kitchen Whore Records. Its name, a term of affection in actuality, originates from her days working in a kitchen at a health food store. When not producing her own full length CD's or singles she is in her recording studio assisting the likes of Kelsi Arnold, with her second full length CD or Bethany Curve of Santa Cruz with a 4-song CD EP. In addition to a music career Lisa has written a book titled "spank" which contains poetry, prose, short stories, one-liners and a recipe. She has also had parts in independent films but it is her music, which has been featured in some, that defines the artist. Asked what the difference is in the creative process between her poetry and lyrics in her songs she replies, "The stories are about my life and more abstract. The lyrics are more straightforward. The lyrics for my songs come out of the music as I am in the process of playing it". Lisa's first full length CD, Lola CUKI, evokes images of dreams caught in a proverbial feedback loop. Selections such as "Close to My Honeypot" and "I Caught a Canary" are marked by a pattern of lyrical repetitiveness that works in large part to the strength and quality of her voice. Her song "I'll Write", consisting of a mere two-words, is the songwriting equivalent of minimal art. This stylistic convention is taken to the extreme in the song "In Search of Terra" that comes in at over 11 minutes. By the end of the CD one feels as if they have ferried through dire straits with Lisa serving as the Siren. Her latest album, Weather Changer Girl, by comparison, offers richer songwriting and musical accompaniment that is even stronger than what was found in Lola CUKI. Notable selections are "Watching Her Fingers" and "I Want To Be Your Matador, Your Bullfighter" that reach a crescendo of lustful abandon. "Taking Out the Trash" is delivered with such conviction that it plays like an anthem for all those who have ever felt slighted by a lover and were compelled to reassert command of their life. In contrast is the softly sentimental "Stormy Colored Clouds" that speaks to adoration and submissive longing in lines like, "I like to listen to the sound of your voice" and "You can stay as long as you want". With a new full-length album due to come out in June 2003 under her band's full name, Lisa Dewey & The Lotus Life, one can only imagine the musical treats in store from this local talent. If the past is any indication it will be marked by her strong voice, hypnotic music and alluring sensuality. Her CD's, book and upcoming shows can be found on her websites: www.lisadewey.com and www.kitchenwhore.com.
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