My Favorite New Band, Moriarty

…has been my favorite new band for the past year or so. Below I’ll embed some of their videos in the hope that I can make you like them, too.

This is the first Moriarty song that I heard: “Private Lily,” from their debut album, Gee Whiz But This Is a Lonesome Town (2007, Naïve Records):

And here’s the second one that I heard, “Jimmy”:

Moriarty is a French band. Supposedly they derived their name from Dean Moriarty, not Professor James. À la the Ramones, the band members all claim Moriarty as their surname—Rosemary Moriarty, Tom Moriarty, Arthur Moriarty, etc.

Oshkosh Bend (album version) + a live version:

“Motel”:

For some reason, their old-timey shtick doesn’t irritate me the way so much retro-hipness does. And why is that? I’d argue that in this case, it isn’t mere affectation. Moriarty plays great music well; the rest is part of their identity, sure—but it’s secondary.

[Over the past year in Chicago, I've noticed a resurgence in popularity in the singing saw. (I just saw someone playing one on a steet corner the other night.) With all due respect, this always raises my dander, because in each case the act seems 95% novelty: "How queer! A saw that makes musickal sounds!" It's been the Guy Maddin fan's instrument of choice ever since the theremin fad grew old.]

I haven’t seen Moriarty drag out a singing saw yet, but I imagine that even if they did, they’d play it well.

(I suppose it also doesn’t hurt that they’re French.)

More music! A cover of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence” (presented by La Blogotheque):

And another version of “Enjoy the Silence” (from France’s TV5Monde, with terrible editing—but it’s a spirited performance, and there’s a short interview at the end):

“Private Lily” on TVMonde5, also jarringly edited—but it’s a great performance:

“Cottonflower”:

“Fire Day”:

A cover of Tom Waits’s “Chocolate Jesus”:

“Animals Can’t Laugh”:

…And there’s more than that up at YouTube, if you’re interested.

Another pleasure: you’ll find there also dozens of covers of “Jimmy,” which I gather has become something of a hit in Europe (as it deserves to become elsewhere):

Happy listening!