~JOEL THIBODEAU & MELANIE LAING
JOEL THIBODEAU and MELANIE LAING at the pre-concert cocktail party for
ANTONY & the ‘Secret Show’ – a benefit concert in support of PARTICIPANT,
Presented by FOUNDATION 20 21, at the Paris Bar, National Arts Club, Feb 4, 2007
Photo: Nancy Smith
MELANIE LAING is a founder of MIGHTY ROBOT the a/v hub that spawned SECRET PROJECT ROBOT. in Brooklyn.
JOEL THIBODEAU is DEATH VESSEL a Brooklyn based one-man band.
DEATH VESSEL received a very interesting write-up in the NY TIMES/Ben Sisario ‘PLAYLIST’ (of last April) by guest contributor JOEY BURNS, the lead singer of the ‘Tex Mex’ band CALEXICO, out of Tucson, Arizona.
that’s the THE NEW YORK TIMES PLAYLIST in the SUNDAY LEISURE SECTION of APRIL 23, 2006.
here it is pretty much in its entirety:
“DEATH VESSEL is basically one guy, JOEL THIBODEAU, who is living in Brooklyn right now. He has this high-lonesome thing going on, and it’s heavenly. His voice is very high – I’d call him a definite alto – and when you first listen to it you’re not sure if it’s male or female. As a songwriter, he’s close to Bill Callahan of SMOG or Richard Buckner, but he sounds completely different. On ‘Stay Close’ (North East Indie), his songs are based on bluegrass and country music and have a nightmarish take on contemporary life: on ‘Deep in the Horchata’, he sings: “losing our voices, and guts we had to spill/Now that you’ve dropped the A-bomb/You’ve put a mute on cicadadas’s song.” The name Death Vessel sounds full of metal and leather, but it’s kind of beautiful, too. In Mexico, they celebrate the Day of the Dead, but it’s really a celebration of life, cloaked in remembrance of people who have passed away. It’s just in the way you interpret it. ”
more Antony ‘Secret Show’ photos