Playlist: Neko Case Recommends Music, Minutemen and a Magazine
Interview by WINTER MILLER
Published: August 13, 2006
NEKO CASE is hard to pin down. Figuratively she??s somewhere between country and folk; she says country-noir is apt. She??s itinerant, touring or recording with her bands (the New Pornographers is one of several) or friends (Rachel Flotard is one of many). Neko Case is her real name. Sure, she was teased, but she said the real loss was no rainbow pens or mini license plates at rest stops. Now 35, she??s beyond missing such trinkets. Taking a break from touring (she resumes Aug. 24 at McCarren Pool in Brooklyn), Ms. Case was in Tucson, cuddling indoors with her new dogs, Travis and Liza With a Z, and her new cat, Ira. She taught herself a little guitar and learned some more on tour. Ms. Case also writes short stories (no one is allowed to read them), and her deft storytelling is evident on her fourth album, ??Fox Confessor Brings the Flood? (Anti-Records). She spoke with Winter Miller about what she??s listening to, and watching, now.
The Minutemen
??We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen? (two DVD??s, Rocket Fuel Films) is an oral history as told by the band members Mike Watt and George Hurley. It??s old footage and interviews with friends. They played an important role in my early music development. When I was a teenager, I was really into punk rock, but it was getting old and becoming overly macho and saying the same things. The Minutemen were not a man??s band and not a woman??s band, they were a smart band. I remember when D. Boon, their guitar player, died in ??85. I don??t remember the death of any figure being talked about more. I like how they didn??t press Mike Watt to talk about his friend??s death, they just let him talk about how much he loved the guy. One disc is all footage, which is totally incredible. The other has 62 songs or something ridiculous. These discs stuck to the music and the friendship and didn??t take tabloid angles, which is so common in music biography. I wanted the music, and that??s what you get: great music.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/arts/13play.html
