Search - Danny Cohen :: Museum of Dannys

Danny Boy!

Rufus Firefly | Pixley, KS | 07/18/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Each of the 20 cuts on Danny Cohen's spectacular Museum of Dannys maintain their own identity, a remarkable achievement and of itself when you consider that the highest degree of pop music integrity and inventive diversity are achieved at every twisting and surreal bend in the music. These songs, released on Tzadik in 1999 and just now receiving some deserved attention because of the audacious follow-up, Dannyworld, were executively produced by avant master John Zorn and recorded at a variety of places for a variety of producers over, I'm not exactly sure, over a period of time, truly represent what is both missing in commercial pop and what is needed for songwriters. These songs are breathtakingly intricate, scarily tender, and often burtsts of pure joy.
I used surreal earlier and I don't mean "Weird" or "man, what a nightmare series of circumstances, dude," but rather the true intent from the dada-influenced originals: the layering of realities, often randomly, to produce unusual juxtapositions of reality that both merge and don't merge. Within that tension of precarious balance Cohen's song structures, or even Cohen's remarkable voice, play off the eclectic roots of these witty edifices. He uses the studio for full effect, adding depth and weirdness; he uses, moreover, the considerable talents of his fellow mountebanks, true originals, and jazzy charlatans, Ralph Carney, Snake on bass, Dave Hurst on everything and the kitchen sink, and the beauty of John Lapado's lap steel.
But by surreal or unusual I should not be stressing that which is obvious: Danny Cohen, fearlessly, embraces American Pop Music and all its varieties and playfully conflates genre upon genre, like rodeo rhythms and art songs, like confessional Brill Building odes with synthesizers straight out of German expressionist cinema. The lyrics are hilarious, the musicianship startling, and the packaging, featuring one family photo at Christmas that reveals a torn edge, a black rectangle, where once the father, or grandpa sat, is amazing. Everything about this album reeks of intelligence, like Magnetic Fields, with a fresh way to look at the underbelly of Cohen's native California, like Tom Waits' middle period of genius, combined with a fierce devotion for the truth. These elements powerfully combined here take me to places where, surreal-like, I have never been before as an audience member: Brecht/Weil on mushrooms? Captain Beefheart as lounge act? Robert Wyatt as rapper? Lord knows,. But please Mr Record Executive, don't take my Danny Cohen away."