The New York Daily's Jim Farber Review | The Real Tuesday Weld | The London Book of the Dead
The New York Daily
The Real Tuesday Weld: Songs of The Last Werewolf
by Jim Farber
November 2007
Every song tells a story. But some are more literal about it than others.
Take, for example, the songs of Stephen Coates, who records under the cinematic name The Real Tuesday Weld. Coates' work features snatches of dialogue, intrusions of sound effects and at least the hint of a plot... "When I write, I need a narrative to work with," he says, "pop songs about romantic love may be great but you exhaust that at some point and want to look for something more."
To help him locate it, Coates turned to a boyhood friend, Glen Duncan, who just happens to be a celebrated novelist. Together, the pair have created companion pieces of fiction and sound in two works: 2004's "I, Lucifer" and the new "The Last Werewolf".
Each artist's work stands alone — Duncan's novel and Coates' album — but they're also meant to reflect one another. To stress the connection, Duncan and Coates will appear in a Frankensteinian stitch of concert and reading at The Strand in the Village Tuesday and at Greenlight Books, two blocks behind the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the next night.
At these free shows, Duncan will orate his prose, interspersed with songs performed by Coates.