Hickory Wind | Cute, Furry and Sleeps All Day

September 5, 2006

Cute, Furry and Sleeps All Day

Posted by Amanda Rose at September 5, 2006 4:04 PM

Koala Motel
Anne McCue
Messenger Records/Cooking Vinyl

Anne McCue is a US based Australian singer/songwriter/guitarist. She was in Girl Monstar a Melbourne band which Google says "topped the independent charts" here in the late 80s and early 90s. I was a young teenager then but not many indie grrrl rawk bands penetrated the playlist in my part of the rural rust belt so I can't tell you anything about them.

Since those crazy days, Anne has matured into a purveyor of affable roots-influenced rock. Let's get this out of the way: unless your name is "The Wiggles" you have no business calling an album Koala Motel. I get the marketing angle -- "get noticed by Americans" -- and I hope it works for her but every Australian I put it to responded with a stifled, or not, guffaw. It's just so damn cheesy. The antipodean version of David Lynch (I wish there was one) would make an off- kilter pseudo-noirish self-reflective tale of the dissolution lurking beneath the superficially attractive Australian suburban dream. In it would be a place called the Koala Motel. A fizzing neon light would be seen in the corner of the screen, outside a room where a dead blonde is posed as a suicide by a hopped-up dwarf in a cowboy hat.

There's nothing really bad I can say about the album but there is nothing too remarkable about it either. Some hummable hooks, for sure but they fade quickly. Her voice is pleasant enough though again nothing special, but she does make the most of it. The opening track "Driving Down Alvarado" features John Doe but you need to know that to know that. "From Bakersfield to Saigon" is my pick of the cuts, a singable travelogue. "Jesus' Blood" seems to strain for Leonard Cohen territory but I find it a bit too self-consciously so. I might not have listened to Girl Monstar in the late 80s but I sure swooned over Richard Marx and I'm afraid "Coming to You" just reminds me so powerfully of "Right Here Waiting." I feel pretty guilty for it, but there it is. The production is very high throughout and nothing makes me reach for the "next track" button halfway through but the Adult Contemporary sheen of blah means we can never really be best mates.

PS: In the interests of balance let me tell you alot of other people are raving about her. Like Lucinda Willilams and No Depression. You might choose to take their word over mine, I totally understand.

Comments

Hey, I read the No Depression article/review and agree with you 100%!
I remember reading the following CD rating guide in some freebie music rag: 1-Buy this disc, 2-Borrow this disc and burn a copy, 3-Take a burned copy if a friend gives it to you 4-If a friend gives you a copy throw it away.

I'd rate this disc a 4.

Posted by: Hal at September 5, 2006 6:18 PM

Harsh, Hal. I'd not throw it away. I'd put it on in the background of a party or something.

Posted by: Amanda at September 5, 2006 6:20 PM

Maybe I was too harsh....but then again I don't have any Sheryl Crow discs in my collection either.

Posted by: Hal at September 5, 2006 7:34 PM

I've got her live solo album, her and guitar, and reckon it's great. Was it recorded when she was opening for Lucinda a few years back? The follow-up studio album is pretty much as you describe this new one. Blando. But yeah, that live one is great.

Posted by: Tim Dunlop at September 7, 2006 2:41 AM

I haven't lsitened to her but teh live album seems like the go.

I hadn't heard of Girl Monstar, but that doesn't mean much as I was out of Melbourne during their time busy wiping kids noses and bums and watching Kenny Everett and The Goodies. Their web site is very informative and they can't have been too bad as they played The Tote, Punters Club, Espy and Price a few times and especially, they opened for the Ramones and played Broadford (the Bikies Festival)

I don't know why I thought this but when I looked at some of their photos I thought "mmh Shaun (from Rock'n'Roll Damnation blog) would go for these girls"

Posted by: Francis Xavier Holden at September 7, 2006 4:06 AM

I just wish to defend myself against the scurrilous rumours being paraded in the comments by Mr Francis Xavier Holden, childhood lino-cutter extraordinaire.

The fact remains that he is perfectly correct in his estimation.

So there.

Btw, nice review Amanda.

Posted by: Shaun at September 7, 2006 6:57 AM

as someone who listened and swooned to richard marx you are definitely not qualified in my opinion to review music. plus, i looked at your favorites in your profile and talk about a 'cheesy' display of range. yes- you are entitled to an opinion, as are we all, but i think you just like to hear your own witty voice a little too much. i can't believe that a pr company would send any artist's cd to a 'publication' like this for review. i will definitely take the words of No Depression and Lucinda William's over your self important views-that includes you 'hal'. that's an easy call. and i will buy the new cd based on the fact that i have heard a couple of the new songs on her myspace site and on the radio here in los angeles. i also enjoy her other cd's. her lead guitar playing is soulful as well as skilled. Hopefully the reviews in legitimate magazines that are actually printed on paper and paid for, will hold more credence to your contemporaries than the cheap opinions of you and your commentators (including mine). it's easy to go for the joke of her being in an 80's girl band. and extremely shallow like most of your reviews.

Posted by: lisa at September 9, 2006 4:22 PM

Lisa, I'm sorry you were unhappy with our review of the album as mediocre. I'm glad Anne McCue's music speaks to you.

Amanda, Hal, and the commenters above were not attacking Anne McCue nor you. They were just saying that the album did not speak to them as much as it did to No Depression.

Now, with all that being said, I don't take kindly to folks coming in to our site and calling us names. Instead you should have concentrated on articulating what it is about Anne McCue that you really liked and showed it to us through your eyes. That chance, however, now seems irretrievably lost.

Posted by: larry at September 9, 2006 5:06 PM

In response to a reader's complaint, I relistened to Anne MCue's "Koala Motel" this morning. I still hear mainstream adult rock/Sheryl Crow and that may well appeal to the masses. Perhaps if you saw Anne McCue in a small club she'd rock the joint, and maybe the producers were trying a little too hard for a radio hit (Tift Merritt's "Tambourine" comes to mind).
Enjoy the music "lisa". I'm sure there is plenty of music we agree on.

Posted by: Hal at September 10, 2006 11:03 AM

I like Richard Marx a LOT. Not as much as Donny Osmond, maybe, but then he lacks Donny's bad-boy edge...

Posted by: Jim Pipkin at September 10, 2006 12:54 PM

Aren't you confusing Richard Marx a lot with Sir Mix-a-lot?

Posted by: Hal at September 10, 2006 6:56 PM

Well, perhaps...wasn't Marx-a-Lot that rapper who did "Indelible" and "Waterproof"?

I know Mix-a-Lot likes big back, so maybe I was confusing Donny with Marie?

Posted by: Jim Pipkin at September 10, 2006 7:50 PM

Howdy. Simon from Sydney, Australia here.
I suppose I had the same reaction to Anne McCue's "Roll" CDLP (from 2004?); as Amanda Rose has had to Anne's "Koala Motel".
To fill Hickory Wind readers whom may not be aware of Girl Monstar (Anne's previous band) the other key member of Girl Monstar - Sherry Rich went on to a solo career and recorded several CDEPs and three CDLPs (one of which featured members of Wilco under their alias "Courtesy Move") and now lives in Nashville, with husband, guitarist Rick Plant.
Amanda's review of "Koala Motel" makes reference (as it seems is often the case, when Anne McCue is discussed) to Lucinda Williams. I recall seeing both Anne McCue and Sherry Rich playing the LW songs - "Sweet old world" and "Something about what happens we talk" at gigs of theirs in Melbourne, Australia in the late '90s; prior both of them having now relocated to the USA.

Posted by: Simon at September 11, 2006 11:58 PM

Thanks for the info Simon. I have no probs with Anne McCue -- Aussie guitar chick making good in US music scene, she is totally living my fantasy -- and I sincerely hope she sells bucket loads. Just not my cup o' meat.

Posted by: Amanda at September 12, 2006 3:59 AM

I'm not sure I've ever had a cup o' meat.

Posted by: Hal at September 12, 2006 11:02 PM

The Koala Motel is situated north of Port Fairy on the highway. It was burnt out in a fire some years back but the shell and the sign still remain.

Posted by: David at September 18, 2006 4:59 AM

Wow! I think this is a great album - great playing, writing. And as someone who has lived in America for the past fifteen years I think you'd be hard pressed to find many Americans who actually know what a koala is...

Posted by: roger at September 18, 2006 5:16 AM

Uh, Roger, a wombat or an echidna you might stump some of us Americans on, but I think we've all figured out the koala now.

Posted by: stacy at September 18, 2006 9:39 AM

Yeah, the Qantas Airline commercials educated us "back in the day". My uncle Levi couldn't get over those koala ads, said he had to go to Australia and "hunt them HUGE squirrels". Lucky for them - and Australia as a whole - he later became fascinated with bass fishing and gave up his big game ambitions.

Posted by: Jim Pipkin at September 18, 2006 11:25 AM

I know what a Koala is. It's the nut used to make Coca-Coala! Motel? Now that stumped me.

Posted by: Hal at September 19, 2006 7:54 AM

Cool site. Thank you!
http://urmala.forum24.se/ ambien online order cheapest

Posted by: ambien online order cheapest at August 27, 2007 5:34 PM

Cool site. Thanks!!!
http://kishka.forumup.us/ order ambien online

Posted by: order ambien online at August 27, 2007 9:15 PM

Cool site. Thanks!!!
http://kishka.forumup.us/ order ambien online

Posted by: order ambien online at August 27, 2007 9:15 PM

Good site. Thank you!
http://search.orange.co.uk/all?p=_searchbox&pt=resultgo&brand=ouk&tab=web&actualtabweb=web&q=site%3Aromka.greatnow.com+xanax&tabRadio=web order xanax online

Posted by: order xanax online at August 28, 2007 2:31 PM

Good site. Thank you!
http://search.orange.co.uk/all?p=_searchbox&pt=resultgo&brand=ouk&tab=web&actualtabweb=web&q=site%3Aromka.greatnow.com+xanax&tabRadio=web order xanax online