Is this just a cheesy dream sequence? Or do these events make sense on a metaphorical level, as an illustration of the woman's psychological state? Karen willed herself to die. The lyrics, however, are new and strange: "Karen died, she died, she lay down and died / then she stood up and walked into the next room." At first I feel tricked by the surrealism. The song opens with a mellow piano intro, a few rolling bars that sound familiar, maybe from a coffeehouse somewhere or lite FM. While the comma in the title makes the Kletters' CD an address, an open letter from the sisters to other people or even to each other, I wouldn't presume to read any part of this music biographically-not even with titles like "Father Song" and "Sister Song," and not even when "Sister Song" contains lines like "She's never embraced me and I've never kissed her / affection seems bland when you hate your sister." Because then what to make of the song "Maria Marie," about "the Virgin and the Physicist ," or "Anna O.," about one of Freud's patients, or "Blue Glass," about a "blue glass bottle rising up to the surface"? As the opening song, "We Died in August," makes clear, the Kletters play with metaphors. In the intervening years, Dana had led Dish, a four-member band from Raleigh, North Carolina, and sung back-up vocals on Hole's Live Through This (1994) Karen had been doing graduate work in medieval history at the University of North Carolina.Ī few months after Dear Enemy, was released, the Kletters performed at an intimate room in the basement of New York's Knitting Factory (to an audience of mainly friends and family), and I came away from the show very impressed but not knowing any more about them than those few facts, most of which I culled from the Rykodisk Web site and the All-music Guide. Blackgirls' two releases, Procedure (1989) and Happy (1991), foreshadowed the Kletters' sound, wrapping similar female harmonies in similarly sharp acoustic instrumentation, and seven years later Boyd coaxed Dana and Karen into recording as a duo. (on Fables of the Reconstruction), Billy Bragg ( Workers Playtime), 10,000 Maniacs ( Wishing Chair), and a very-little-known folk-punk trio from North Carolina called Blackgirls-three white women, one of them Dana Kletter. In the '80's, he'd worked with such "alternative" artists as R.E.M. From late '60's production work with Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, and the Incredible String Band, Boyd had gone on to produce major recordings by Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson (with Linda Thompson and solo), Nick Drake, and Maria Muldaur. Think of the Louvin Brothers, the Everly Brothers, the Roches, and especially Kate and Anna McGarrigle, whose recordings on Hannibal were produced by the label's owner and operator, Joe Boyd. In my home and in my head, it's a classic.ĭana and Karen Kletter are identical twins, and they harmonize in the entwined way only siblings can. The CD seems to have made virtually no impact on the world, but I'm always eager to hear it and pleased when I do. ![]() Sometimes I feel like the only person in the world (apart from the musicians' friends and family, I guess) who listens regularly to Dana and Karen Kletter's Dear Enemy, (1998, Rykodisk). Album DescriptionDear Enemies? By Kurt Wildermuth (November 2001) See More Your browser does not support the audio element. It's a blues record from the Midwest and an undeniable diamond in the rough, an unheard indie rock classic. The closest touchstones with Velvet Hammer have to be American Music Club's Everclear and Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, two other records that bleed with despair and grim reality. New drummer Dana Marshall adds a creative instrumental spark, and it seems to have re-fueled his bandmates' creative juices. Though still sounding ragged and a little out of place in the studio, Steve Albini's raw engineering style is tailor-made for the band, especially for this stark material. Marcy Mays is a mediator between mother and child on "Your Mother Wants to Know": "She wants you to like her so try to forget it/ And she's sorry for all the years and what happened to you when you were a kid." In "Take a Swing," she confronts an angered lover: "If you get me started, there's no telling what I'll do." She's stuck in an un-trusting rut in "Prize": "I get flowers/ I get suspicious, too." Throughout Velvet Hammer, the protagonist is at the end of her rope, struggling to find peace of mind amidst inner and outer turmoil. Whether the songs of fractured relationships within are of romantic or familial nature, they sting with equally biting resonance. It's soaked in tears and alcohol, punctuated with bruises and frostbitten fingers. Velvet Hammer is one of the saddest, most heartbreaking records you will ever hear. ![]() Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.
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