Duets

One day I’d like to pick up an instru­ment with a big­ger range (than a ukulele1), and start writ­ing my own mate­r­i­al. It’d be even bet­ter if I could form a duo with a per­son I was roman­ti­cal­ly involved with, like The Dresden Dolls or Wild Strawberries2.

Sometimes The Dresden Dolls play extend­ed ver­sions of their songs at con­certs3. The way they inter­act reveals such inti­ma­cy. In each face, you can see how they’re com­plete­ly lost to the music in those moments of dis­so­nant bliss, but they’re lost togeth­er. From body lan­guage alone, they read each oth­er for tim­ing, vol­ume, and inten­si­ty, until they feel where the oth­er is going by instinct. That kind of chem­istry is rare, and it’d be amaz­ing to be able to share that with some­one.

  1. The high‑g reen­trant is what gives the ukulele it’s dis­tinct sound, but it feels so lim­it­ing some­times. []
  2. Hellllllllllooooooooo Roberta Carter-Harrison cir­ca Quiver. []
  3. Okay, admit­ted­ly, Amanda’s singing isn’t any­where as good in the video as on the stu­dio ver­sion, but the near­ly five-minute extend­ed intro with Brian’s bril­liant drum solo would be worth the price of admis­sion by itself. []

3 comments

  1. i ove the dres­den dolls.

    coin oper­at­ed boy was the first song that i had ever heard by them.

  2. Dresden Dolls is one of my fav bands — I saw them this time last year — in Boston … and said hi to Amanda … at a con­cert they put on for a yoga con­ven­tion — they show was awe­some and I was right up front!

  3. Hey Jeff — if you are free Sat night I would like to invite you to friends bon­fire out in the ‘coun­try’ Metcalf area. Will be a casu­al thing and I will prob make some food. BYOB and lost of place to crash if drink­ing too much. Dog friend­ly — I think prob about 20–30 peo­ple will come out — lots of pho­to ops for sure — and you’d HAVE to bring your ukie!!!

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