5/14 - Juliette and the New Romantiques

For a while, those slides that you see before you see a movie in the theater included these bits about entertainers who had two jobs. Something like Queen Latifah who was a rapper! AND an actress! Or Rebecca Romijn who is a model! AND an actress! I always thought, "big fucking deal. I wanna see someone who is an actress AND a physicist, or an actor AND a garbageman." Or something equal to that. Because more often than not, even when someone acts and models, or acts and sings, it's pretty groan-worthy anyway. But, whatever, this isn't news. Actors want to sing, and singers want to act, and for the most part, it would be really great if they'd just stick to their day job and not torture us (I'm looking at you Lindsay Lohan). So, when Juliette Lewis formed The Licks all those years ago, I pretty much thought what most people might - Oh, Jesus, why?

Surprisingly, they actually rocked. I wouldn't say that I loved everything they did, but at the same time, it was MUCH better than it should have been. She seemed to fall into a narrow category of actors who were also legitimately singers. She wasn't so much acting like a rock singer, but she really believed and thus she was. And, reluctantly, I felt myself beginning a conversion.

Last summer, I fell into working on a movie with her and teaching her how to rollerskate. After getting to know her fairly well, I realized that whatever she's doing on stage really is very much who she is, so when she scrapped The Licks this year (which may or may not have occurred amidst some rumored drama), and formed Juliette and the New Romantiques, I was interested.

I saw a couple of shows that they did, and while the music itself is definitely good, and probably a cut above what The Licks were doing, the live show was absolutely off the charts. Her voice has honed itself to an almost Janis Joplin-like bluesy rasp, and she works the crowd like Tina Turner. At one show, she thanked the audience for coming out: "especially you - boy in the bra, and you - my lesbians in the front, and you - tall guy, and you - guy with the crooked teeth, never fix those, they are sexy!" I completed my conversion. I thought they were great.

An album is forthcoming, but until then, you can hear some songs here:

http://www.myspace.com/juliettelewis