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July 18, 2005
Sang a Song about 5 minutes ago
No offense to any of the women who bear it, but I have always disliked the name Judy. It feels frumpy, cumbersome, and broken. Judith is better only by merit of that silky interdental 'th' at the end. Judy is a name that is bent on unhappiness. But this song by Avey Tare has gone a long way toward making me actually sort of enjoy the sound of it.
'Judy Biworker' is from the great Esopus Magazine #4 compilation, which, if you remember from when I wrote about the Vetiver track, was constructed from readers' descriptions of their childhood imaginary friends. The musicians then took the vignettes and wrote songs based on these figments. Here's Judy Biworker's origin:
I had an imaginary friend-two, actually, but one was my best friend. Judy Biworker. We only spoke on the phone; it was a red plastic dial-up phone. She lived in Buffalo, New York, and that was due to all of the candy manufacturers being located there.Mary Ellen Carroll - New York, NY
'Judy Biworker' is soft, meowing ambience. It sounds like a guitar being slowly massaged and tapped, with the resulting notes distended into something sweet and ropy, like brightly colored saltwater taffy. And this melody is one of Avey Tare's absolute most heartbreaking (next to maybe 'Winter's Love', and the forthcoming 'Banshee Beat' and 'Turn into Something'), especially when he's singing lines that are naturally (because of the subject matter) wrought in hard nostalgia, like "Judy, Judy/I call to you today/I hope that Buffalo's not gray", and "and I hope/and I pray/that I can meet you there someday". The few parts of this song when Avey Tare harmonizes with himself are just jawdropping- I think after hearing this, it's not really fair to refer to Noah (Panda Bear) as 'the pop one'. 'Judy Biworker' is easy on the ears.
You can find this, as I mentioned above, on Esopus #4, which is available right here (and is absolutely worth it, since the magazine itself is extremely well-written and designed).
Posted by Kevin at July 18, 2005 07:33 AM
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