Yesterday at Joe's Pub we heard Scarlett Johansson's new album of Tom Waits covers produced by Dave Sitek. We aren't allowed to talk about it yet, so here's some stuff we witnessed people doing while listening to the album.
-A dude in the corner writing furiously with what looked like a cheap (or free) pen, pausing only to refill it with ink. It was really dark in there, but the reason we could see this is because he also had one of those little lights for writing in dark rooms. It sorta got us thinking that this guy might actually be the future and also that there is a guy walking around New York with a glass bottle of ink in his bag so if someone were to go up and kick it then ink would explode in his bag. Not that we would do that though, we are not music magazine bullies.
-There was free food—sandwiches cut up and placed at each table—but no one ate any of it. We looked at it for awhile and thought about eating it, but then we didn't because we thought it would be one of those things where we would take a bite and everyone would look at us because they would hear us chewing loudly, drowning out the music.
-Every drink, no matter what, was handed out in an incredibly large glass. We watched this one guy drink like 60 oz of orange juice before the album even started.
-David Bowie appears on two songs on the album. It's interesting that he is staying relevant by showing up on albums by bands that young people care about rather than flat out trying to make music that he thinks young people care about. Also, Nick Zinner plays on the album, as does much of Celebration.
-Whats the deal with people being all paranoid about celebrities making music? Jane Birkin made awesome stuff with Gainsbourg, and Shaquille O'Neil...uhhhh, he had maybe two jams. It keeps things exciting.
-Dave Sitek said the word "banana" like 13 times.
-On a nervousness scale during the Q+A, with 1 being the least nervous and 10 being the most nervous, Sitek was a 3 and Johansson was a 9.
