Some thoughts on Neko Case

The last few days, I’ve run into Neko Case everywhere I’ve gone. Not literally, of course – her music.

Tuesday, this ongoing unintentional soundtrack all seemed to reach its apex as the coffee shop from which I occasionally do my morning business even turned all their Neko on random play. Yesterday, she was singing in the grocery store, then at the bar, then I got an email about a photography show she’s giving in Washington, DC.

Seemed a timely enough stretch, given the sudden resurgence of her music in my life, and this week’s election (the DC angle).

So, a moment for this photography show…I’ll share that full press release below, for any of you who happen to be in the DC area. It’s one of a four-part series, the other installments of which include the photography of Danny Clinch, Ben Folds, and Andy Summers. Neko gets a whole night to herself, though, to talk about her photos with moderator Juliet Blake, the SVP of Production at the National Geographic Channel.

I’m not a visual artist, but I’ve dated a couple. For whatever that’s worth, these photos are interesting, creative, and very film-like. Very Neko Case-ish.

There’s one which shows the shadow of a plane moving, sharklike, over what looks like a tiny town of miniatures. Considering her last album was about a tornado having a love affair with a woman, an ominous flying shark casting shadows over tiny model towns seems about right. We’re talking about an artist whose music doesn’t always follow the verse-chorus-verse format, whose lyrics artfully describe worlds surrounding whatever it is the song is actually about, who follows an image to its natural completion, before bringing back the motif phrase (for “Polar Nettles,” which was just on, this phrase is “Someday soon”…you get it because she keeps at it).

Indeed, most of Case’s songs play out more like visual art than aural, and could each be expanded into a full-length art film. That’s what we’ve seen from most of the videos she’s made, anyway, and none of them seem like a stretch.

So, I’m going to just give into this Neko Case streak which seems to have presented itself to me, and spend this morning listening to Blacklisted. Seemed like a decent excuse to share this press release from Anti- Records:

On Dec 1st Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter Neko Case will participate in National Geographic Live’s four part series “Music On…Photography.” Case will spend an evening presenting her personal photographs and revealing the intriguing stories behind the images. Case has a degree in fine arts and says she takes photographs to “remember the places I was traveling through that I never really got to know.” Moderating the evening will be Juliet Blake of the National Geographic Channel.. Also participating in the series are Danny Clinch (Nov. 10), Ben Folds (Dec. 3) and Andy Summers (Dec. 4).

Neko Case Photo Discussion
December 1st, 7:30 PM
Grosvenor Auditorium
1600 M Street, NW, Washington DC