and now I’ve found you again…
Life has been stressful recently and, today, has left me in a slightly old-fashioned gothic mood. I’m hungry for Edgar Allen Poe, musty perfumes, a railway journey to Paris and strange liqueurs from dust covered bottles. Oddly, the eMusic Europe office lacks all of these things. But I did find Blanche.
I actually found Blanche around seven years ago, flicking through the NME. I was grabbed by a photo of a beautiful redhead and a gang of dark-haired men. The writing promised me alt-country, with twisted, dark lyrics. I fell slightly in love – in a world where I could choose how to look, I would look like singer Tracee Mae Miller and Blanche as a whole came across as an American take on the Hammer Horror aesthetic. Then I managed to loose the magazine and forget the name of the band. Nice work, Anna.
I still thought about them, believe it or not, but it’s hard to Google search with so little information. Then today I picked up a copy of Nylon… and they were there. And we have a track on eMusic, appropriately titled ‘Red Head’ for me and Tracee Mae. My initial love wasn’t misplaced. I feel like I’ve been given a present.
Anna,
I consider you one of the 17dots crew even if mean old new yorkers don’t think so (in reference to baby shower) and often enjoy reading your stories of how you discover music (even if some of it isn’t on eMusic). I discovered Blanche via the daily free download and their song “What This Town Needs” Oh wow I was Blown away. This is a song that takes the stuff I like about “alt country” and magnifies it. I’ve been meaning to grab more and even had a plan to on this month’s downloads; this article confirms that plan. Really anyone with varying musical tastes should at least give “What This Town Needs” a serious listen (i.e. download it not just the 30 second eMusic sample).
Thanks MiDoJo - I really appreciate your comments! I did a brief search at the weekend for physical copies of Blanche’s two albums, but no joy so far. That said, I was rushing and didn’t look very hard. I tend to fall head over heels for anything (books, films, music) with that sort of elegant nastiness to it, so I’m looking forward to finally, after all these years, visiting the dark side of Blanche.