Patches and Gretchen

Dang! I just received this review all the way from London this morning! So, I woke up got the kids off to school and then put on a nicotine patch and went out to the porch to have a cigarette, and was counting the many ways I suck in my head when I got bored with that and went to check my email and woooooooooo, I saw this big ol ship coming in…

Patches and Gretchen reviewed by David Wynn from London, England!!!

The best thing about the Internet is that, every now and then, it allows you to stumble across a fabulous pearl hidden in the sea of dross.

Discovering Gretchen Seichrist and her band Patches and Gretchen was exactly like that.

Gretchen is a fortysomething mother of two who releases songs and performances via webcams from the homes of herself and her friends in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA. This is Bob Dylan country,- ( keep tuned in and you’ll find out why you need to know that!) – and I imagine Ms Seichrist would like to feel Mr Dylan is somehow being channelled through her. Well, keep wishing Gretchen and who knows….

So, nothing too much different so far you might think.

However, these are songs of such jaw droppingly and shockingly breathtaking power, intensity, compulsion and integrity that you will be instantly compelled to stop the rest of your life and watch and listen.

The voice. That’s the first thing.

Deep, cracked, direct, hard ,soulful ,lived in and yet wonderfully vulnerable , wavering, warm and earthy. And sexy. Oh yes ,VERY sexy. Which is actually a very rare commodity in singers and not to be underestimated when it is around.

Then the songs.

Let’s start with the easy bit, the cover versions. Some are throwaway, just -for – fun childhood reminiscences but for all that are still very appealing and intiguing , not least for choice of material. Others ,though, are restyled and reworked until you forget, or cared, another version ever existed.

Running through many of these songs is a very important and heartwarming / heartmelting aspect present in a lot of Gretchen’s work and that is humour. There is a lovely, cheeky, self effacing, ego puncturing thread pulled through both the cover versions and some of her own songs, especially in the video performances. Don’t believe me ? Look at, say, that smile in Sweet Sticky Thing or the end of Troublemaker. Right? Right.

Ah, her own songs.

Where to begin? Remember, perhaps, the Leonard Cohen album Songs of Love and Hate? Or , maybe , William Blake’s poems Songs of Innocence and Experience? Or, possibly, Syd Barrett’s The Madcap Laughs? Well, welcome to the 21st Century version.

Brilliantly backed up by either individual guitarists like Devin Hill and David Loy or the band ( no, not The Band, Gretchen , but getting there!!) who generously keep themselves by her side and allow her to do her thing , the webcasts and the album Music From Little Big Pink — stop her and buy one, NOW — are a tour de force rush into the dark side of town.

I have my favourites, lots of them ,and I defy anybody with ears to listen to Who Do You Belong To?, 35th and 4th , ‘Cept You or Dumb In The Dark ,for instance, and not have their attitude seriously and thrillingly adjusted.

Rather than pigeonhole everything by making comparisons to other singers, bands and artists – but eat your heart out Lou Reed , Patti Smith et al — I recommend you dip your toe in if you’re a little scared ( jump right in and let it flow over you if you’re not) and let Patches and Gretchen take you where you didn’t know you wanted to go.

Trust me , it’ll be the coolest thing you did this century.

Oh , and the new album Sugar Head Pie should be out soon, so you just have time to catch up before you buy that one too!