LA Weekly

 PRINCE ALERT: As recently mentioned in this column, our operatives in the Secret Shadow Government of Prince obsessives believe his Purple Loveliness may perform a summer residency here in L.A. In fact, they are so hopeful, local authorities have raised the Prince Alert over the past two weeks from Code Mauve to Code Fuchsia, indicating a moderately good to good chance of an appearance.

The latest rumor has it that Prince is negotiating a deal with the Roosevelt Hotel, which would possibly involve weekend shows followed by late-night jazzy jam sessions, something Prince apparently attempted to do at the Rio in Vegas. (He does love his after-hours jams.) Some sort of dinner situation is also rumored to be involved.

Of course, our operatives also inform us Prince may spend the summer reading the Bible.

We’ll keep you posted as time and security clearances allow.


HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL: Case in point: I recently got a CD in the mail of dance-club remixes of Partridge Family music, David Cassidy Part II: The Remix, co-produced by David Cassidy. (I guess they’re aiming at the burgeoning gay/bubblegum/TV-music market.) It seemed to me a concept so unnecessary, it might actually be a revelation, and I swiftly ripped open the plastic wrapper. As it turns out, though, dance-club remixes of the Partridge Family is actually an idea so bad, it’s no good. The Partridge Family had some fine pop songs, to be sure, and David Cassidy can sing, as we all know. But these renditions do nothing for the songs, and aren’t even funny. (I know. Making an unfunny techno Partridge Family record sounds like making an unfunny monkey-drinking-a-Coke video. Should be impossible, right?)

Compare this effort, for example, to 1979’s The Ethel Merman Disco Album, an astonishing work that changed my life from the moment my best friend, Debbie Urlik, revealed it in her family’s record collection. (It features unforgettable dance versions of Merman classics such as “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.”) That album is something so grandiosely fucked up, it feels huge and impressive, and somehow inevitable. A world without The Ethel Merman Disco Album just wouldn’t be any fun at all.



MARCH OF THE FALSETTOS: Speaking of gay bubblegum, lately I’ve been tremendously enjoying Mika — the colorful piano man from England/Beirut/France who sings in a falsetto to die for. But it occurs to me: Mika may be my favorite, but he’s certainly not the only ambiguous young man dressing cool and writing pop hooks these days. In fact, there’s a handful of ’em right now — gender-flexible dudes wearing exceptionally awesome clothes and singing with all their hearts in gnarly-ass falsetto. And it’s not genre-specific: Besides Mika, there’s Danish glam-disco heroes the Ark; Yankee psych-pop outfit Of Montreal; Toledo glam rockers We Are the Fury; and U.K. troubadour Patrick Wolf. (See our recent review of Mr. Wolf’s new record at laweekly.com/music.)

Now, I certainly don’t adore all these guys’ music, and I don’t really care how they swing in their private lives. But I do find it interesting that there are more young men these days who are at least comfortable playing the stylish-androgyny card. And what’s different about this new generation’s ambiguity is that it doesn’t feel survival-based, or greed-based, or fashion-based (or maybe, in young Elton John’s case, confusion-based!). It feels like playing around with mystique and, most of all, demanding a kind of spiritual freedom for all.

It’s weird. So much is so very, very wrong with our culture — and yet so much is better than it was even 10 years ago. When I look at Mika, who is cagey about his love life (as is his right!), I also see that he probably owes Rufus Wainwright a thank-you card. I suspect Wainwright’s courage — the kind it took to be an openly gay cabaret singer in the indie-rock world 10 years ago — has made Mika’s road a bit more smooth. Elton John’s Donald Duck costume didn’t hurt, either.


Mika plays the Avalon June 8.We Are the Fury perform on the Warped Tour June 29 at Pomona Fairgrounds and June 30 at Seaside Park in Ventura.