Ramona the Pest
Little Knives
© 2000 Kingtone (634479020971)
CD IN STOCK. ORDER NOW. Will ship immediately.
The 12 (+1) songs on Little Knives comprise a desperately packed bouquet of heartbroken lullabies and diary-frank revelations, following in the no-holds-barred indie folk tradition set by their first CD, Cans of Worms.
tracks
- 1 Every Little Thing
- 2 Beeline
- 3 Comfort Song
- 4 Little Knives
- 5 Sugar Fix
- 6 Silent Treatment
- 7 Frostbite Lullabye #1
- 8 Apathy Lullabye
- 9 Sobering
- 10 Big Black Hole
- 11 Close to Far from Here/Crash
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notes
From the Urban View (Oakland, CA) 9/13/00:
"The 12 (+1) songs on Little Knives comprise a desperately packed bouquet of heartbroken lullabies and diary-frank revelations, following in the no-holds-barred indie folk tradition set by their first CD, Cans of Worms.
Just as on that disc, the two most immediately noticeable and striking features of Little Knives are Valerie Esway's voice and each song's intently thoughtful arrangements. Each song strives to make the most of the musicians' talents and the soaring, luminous qualities of Esway's vocal chords.
The arrangements this time around are more daring, featuring a cadre of musicians-including Esway's husband Lucio Menegon, Alex de Soria and Jon Curtis of Peachfish, Gunnar Madsen, Kathleen Fernald, and Ari Fellow-Mannion-who play everything from a vintage Hammond B-3 organ to violin and ukulele.
The song offerings on this new outing are dark and contemplative. Esway's lyrics explore the inevitable calamities of love in songs such as "Crash!" with wit and occasional rage that recall Ani DiFranco. (Relationship troubling ya? Try this line on for size: "Here we stand knee deep in each other's crap/I throw it at you and you hurl it back." Hoo-ha!)
There are also more complex and less explicit musings on loneliness, apathy, and disconnectedness, most notably on "Big Black Hole". The title track, though, belies the philosophical question at the album's heart: How do you know what's best when nothing or no one is telling you what to do? The answer: A line from "Close to Far From Here" borrowed from humanitarian Albert Schweitzer: "All work that is worth anything is done in faith". The faith, here, it seems, is in the music.
The album also takes advantage of a great benefit of the indie music paradigm: They've made a limited pressing of 1,000 Cds in elegant hand screenprinted packaging, as if the fine music weren't enough of a gift. Ramona the Pest is an example of independent music at it's finest: unique, compelling music that is entirely self-produced and distributed. While they'd certainly be commercially successful at a large label, RTP's music is too personal and too idiosyncratic to thrive in any corporate setting, and here's hoping they won't be trying that route any time soon."
reviews
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Boy, do I have a CRUSH on this record...
author: Jen ScaffidiThe encapsulation of Ramona the Pest called Little Knives offers a sharp resolution to the oft-times frustrating and noisy quest for original, interesting, and complex beauty. Val's smooth-like-nearly-broken-glass vocals tell stories she might have written from a tour of my own head, and I offer this as an example of how women everywhere might feel moved and comforted by her. Scorned and creative women sometimes turn their lessons into rants; Val's tantrums are full of raw talent and passion, not bitterness. Take a listen to "Silent Treatment" and you'll see what I mean… Yet Little Knives does not make the mistake of getting lost in a dreamy soundscape soundtrack-to-the-breakdown sort of vibe. There's plenty of smirking self-awareness, too. And to balance out the potential for narcissism (a pitfall every songwriter must be wary of), RTP toss in some of that mellow/honest social commentary for which long-time fans have come to recognize them. Now If Val's lyrical and vocal stylings are the chewy center of Ramona the Pest, then Lucio's wicked-outer-space-guitar-genius-ness must be the hard candy shell—-a sort of swirly sweet 'n' sour sonic safety net. If I could understand half the things he does enough to put them into real words… Summary: This band is not afraid. Bits and pieces of all the rock and roll and country blues pixified fairy tales that went before them--they layer everything they do and we could spend all day peeling things back, but I think that would spoil the fun for you. Get this album and unpeel it all by your lonesome. Double the pleasure with headphones, for production gems litter the soundscape of Little Knives. Go ahead and cut yourself.