Lissy Trullie
Self-Taught Learner
Downtown : 2009
By Sidik Fofana
Before Lissy Trullie came along with her blond emo comb-over, long runway legs, and new wave LP Self-Taught Learner, the rule was simple. Don’t trust a model-turned-singer because everybody knows models-turned-singers just like models-turned-dancers and models-turned-actors perform with their faces. But some rules--like the twig that represents Trullie’s skinny frame—are meant to be broken.
What’s more intriguing, however, is how Trullie breaks this semi-general truth. After all her style—a mishmash of Courtney Love’s spunk and the Deborah Harry’s punk—doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel. But it does, along with the New York City rock scene from which she derived underground fame, give her a stone hard legitimacy that can only be earned in the pre-gig piss of a CBGB’s grafitti-laden stall. Plus Lissy can twinkle on the guitar and, most importantly, she has own band.
It doesn’t matter that the 25-year-old’s most recognized song is a cover of Hot Chip’s “Ready For The Floor,” nor does it matter that the bands’ musical arrangements would be in the “easy” column in Rock Band for PS3. All that does matter is that her four man front, even with its foreseeable chord changes and poppy aloofness (especially in “Money”) releases ghosts of the Velvet Underground , a real band, making Trullie’s crew a real one by association.
The authenticity of Self-Taught Learner doesn’t necessarily mean this Agyness Deyn lookalike doesn’t have to rely on the “m” word anymore, but it does, at least, please the gatekeepers of garage-surf fiefdom into letting her lease for a little while. And maybe, if she keeps steamblowing they way she did in ’09, Courtney Love and Deborah Harry will be asking why their reincarnations came during their lifetime.
No comments:
Post a Comment