(Alternative, Blues) Thalia Zedek - Been Here And Gone - 2001, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Thalia Zedek (born 1961) is an American singer and guitarist. Active since the early 1980s, she has been a member of several notable alternative rock groups, including Live Skull and Come. Critic Heather Phares writes that Zedek's music can be defined by "the permanent, aching rasp in her voice, her guitar's bluesy bite, the startlingly clear-eyed lyrics about life and loss."
Zedek grew up in the metropolitan area of Washington, D.C. She attended Springbrook High School in Maryland, where she played clarinet in the marching band under band director Charles Sickafus. The early punk era of the late 1970s in which she came of age, and in particular Patti Smith, contributed deeply to the formation of her musical aesthetic. While still at high school, she would travel to New York with her brother, Dan Zedek (currently the editorial design director at the Boston Globe), to see Smith perform.
Zedek moved to Boston in 1979, attending Boston University for one semester before deciding to pursue a musical career instead. Her first band, the all-female White Women, broke up after a couple of years, and she formed the Dangerous Birds. This group had somewhat more success, including a single, "Smile on Your Face/Alpha Romeo", which achieved airplay on college and alternative-commercial radio; but Zedek wanted a more "violent" sound in contrast to the somewhat "girlie pop" tendencies of her Dangerous Birds bandmates. Her next project, Uzi, worked towards this aim, producing an EP, "Sleep Asylum". The EP was characterized by elusive yet subtly menacing lyrics superimposed upon lugubrious but driving instrumental tracks, featuring layers of dense, murky yet muscular guitar arrangements, blended with heady synthesizer and tape effects. However, despite the promise of "Sleep Asylum", Uzi dissolved, owing to tension between Zedek and the band's drummer, Danny Lee.
She next took the role of primary vocalist for New York City's Live Skull, a band already well established. While the album Dusted, the first product of this collaboration, reflected an intense synergy between Zedek's vocal style and the complexly histrionic instrumental work of Live Skull, the follow-up Positraction floundered, and Live Skull also disbanded, due to conflicts, in 1990. By that time, Zedek had also run into problems regarding heroin addiction. Motivated to quit, she returned to Boston and the support of her friends. She soon co-founded Come, with former Codeine drummer Chris Brokaw. It was with them that she had her biggest successes, releasing four albums before the group disbanded in 2001. In that same year, she also released Been Here and Gone, her first solo project. Since then she has released two other full-length albums and several EPs.
Zedek was also a participant in the 1998 Suffragette Sessions tour, organized by the Indigo Girls. In 2006, she performed at North East Sticks Together.
In spite of limited commercial success, Zedek has been highly acclaimed by music critics throughout her career, and has arguably been deeply influential within the indie-rock realm, particularly through her influence within the prolific Boston indie scene, which has spawned many noteworthy artists. She is an "out-and-proud lesbian".

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This record is New York. Not the same New York PJ Harvey wailed about on Stories from the City, or the one Sonic Youth addressed with NYC Ghosts & Flowers; one more akin to the lower east side after-hours retreats of Luna's Penthouse or Yo La Tengo's I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. It's both quiet and loud in a way that invokes flickering lights against the city sky at dusk.
Been Here and Gone isn't as much sad as it is tired. Maybe it was a long and busy day. The air might be getting colder. Maybe the seasons may have already changed. There's a light on in the kitchen and a window cracked in the bedroom. The Empire State Building rests on its side from the view on your pillow as you lay sleepless in the heat. Thalia Zedek's weathered voice reflects it all.
A long way from her days spent with Come, Uzi, and Live Skull, Been Here and Gone seems the mature and reminiscent record of an aged career, like Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now or Neil Young's Harvest Moon. Supposedly inspired by the cabaret-style shows Come played between their third and fourth records, this album grew as a result of popular response to her stripped-down solo shows. On record, guitars, drums, piano, and violin play along, but may as well evaporate into the smoggy breeze, as the focal point at all times is Zedek's lulling voice. Echoes of Patti Smith, the Geraldine Fibbers' Carla Bozulich, and Mecca Normal's Jean Smith curl from her throat, stark and patient, as if she were singing indie rock's torch song. And maybe she is.
Been Here and Gone sounds vintage but timeless, like an old photograph. And while neither groundbreaking nor post-whatever, Zedek captures moments like Kodak paper. Vaguely psychedelic instrumentation opens "Excommunications (Everybody Knows)," a Leonard Cohen-style dirge (its subtitle seems an homage to one of his best known songs) that trudges woefully along, until the effects fade, leaving the song to end stark and bare. "Desanctified (Full Circle)" works its charm with a see-sawing Dirty Three feel that's akin to green-faced sea-sickness. Here, though, this isn't a bad thing; the song shows its teeth where many of the album's other tracks hold but a solemn gaze.
The record also features three piano-led songs, all of them covers. Two of these, Gary Gogel's "1926" and Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me to the End of Love," work as a sort of center to the album, lightening the mood, and gradually bringing things closer until they're back in full view. The final track, Luiz Bonfa's "Manha de Carnaval" is consummate while simultaneously welcoming, bringing closure to the Been Here and Gone's long and insomnian New York night. It was best spent like this, anyway.
By Andi Rowlands
***
Thalia Zedek may claim this as her first solo disc, but her influential work in both Uzi and Come should let listeners know that her impressive talent is nothing new. Seamlessly jumping from sprawled-out torch songs to slightly folksy and rocking numbers, Zedek's powerfully deep voice blends all of the music into the same timeless genre. Her telltale cover of Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me to the End of Love" may wear its influences on its proverbial sleeve, but there is such sincerity in the singer's delivery that she pulls it off in a completely believable fashion. Backed by a solid band that features rock instrumentation along with strings and horns, the atmosphere is at times sinister but also spacious and constantly shifting. There aren't too many happy moments on Been Here and Gone, and such sentiments probably wouldn't work too well in light of what the record tends to sound like, but at the same time, Zedek is tough, and her music has as much pride as it does weakness. The 11 tracks tend to focus on love, both fleeting and lost, and the quality of sound on the record is top notch. Tracks like "Treacherous Thing" and "Strong" show the ability of her voice to accompany the band toward quiet yet monumental buildups, and for the most part, that characterizes the entire record. Thalia Zedek is a talented singer and musician who needs to be experienced, and though she isn't for the faint of heart or easily saddened, she is at the very least worth checking out when you're in fairly good mood that can stand to be brought down a bit.
by Peter J. D'Angelo
***
Thalia Zedek has charted a singular course through rock history virtually unnoticed by critics and listeners alike. Whereas each new Nick Cave release has the critics feverishly reaching for the Vaseline, Zedek's band through the '90s, Come, released a string of classic albums that were almost universally ignored. Her work in the '80s--with Dangerous Birds, Uzi, and later fronting Live Skull fared even worse. Been Here and Gone is Zedek's first solo effort, and it delivers. Her vision of what is the blues is perfectly presented on songs such as "Excommunications" and "Temporary Guest," but this is the blues like Leonard Cohen (whom Zedek covers here) and Bob Dylan are the blues--the feeling not the form. On "Strong," Zedek opens with "You're going to hell / you're gonna be living with yourself." Strong stuff indeed, but delivered in a tone more measured than maniacal and the effect is sharper for it. Zedek doesn't go in for posturing, this is the real deal and not for the weak of heart, yet those who make this journey with her are greatly rewarded by the music. Without a doubt, Been Here and Gone is among the best albums released in 2001.
by Mike Johnson
***
After years spent fronting a progressively more impressive series of Boston rock bands--Dangerous Birds, Uzi, Live Skull, and finally the grunge-blues onslaught Come--Thalia Zedek finally began her solo career with 2001's BEEN HERE AND GONE. Heavily influenced by the likes of Tom Waits, Marianne Faithfull, and Leonard Cohen, Zedek has a pack-a-day voice and a dispirited worldview, but these 11 songs are nonetheless powerful, evocative, and timeless.
Spin (9/01, p.168) - 8 out of 10 - "...Slows the tempo to a painful trickle, splits open her calloused heart, and lets the ichor drip all over the piano....a 3 a.m. album that appears to be about mercilessly bad breakup..."
Q (Summer/01, p.112) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...A kind of lo-fi cabaret, with a set of tortured torch songs that draw heavily on her Lithuanian heritage..."
The Wire (8/01, p.65) - "...Zedek's territory is the extremities of sadness....making everything she sings sound earnest....The most powerful aspect of [this] is its dignity."
CMJ (7/30/01, p.17) - "...Remarkably human..."
NME (Magazine) (8/4/01, p.33) - 8 out of 10 - "...The sound of an artist in full mastery of her art..."
***
As the co-leader of the highly acclaimed Come, Thalia Zedek developed a reputation in the 1990s for playing Sonic Youth style discordant rock with an abrasive edge. All four of Come's albums- 'Eleven : Eleven (1992), 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell (1994), 'Near Life Experience' (1996) and 'Gently Down the Stream' (1998)- each, however, had a strong undercurrent of melody. This ear for melody, and the lyrical intensity of her now disbanded former group, extend across to Zedek's recently released debut as a solo artist, 'Been Here and Gone'. Otherwise though the difference between Zedek's work with Come and of now could not be much more marked. The guttural vocals, the brawling guitars and the sudden violent explosions into anger that made Come such a forceful listening experience are all gone, and the ethereal sound of the equally powerful and compelling 'Been Here and Gone' is instead starker and more insular. Largely a collection of torch songs, its slow-burning, soft core tunes and feverish 3 a.m. feel are reminiscent of Mazzy Star and third album Velvet Underground, while Zedek's world weary, nicotine-worn vocals are like those of a female Nick Cave or a post 'Broken English' Marianne Faithfull.
Zedek, who moved from Washington DC to Boston in the late seventies, plays both acoustic and electric guitar on 'Been Here and Gone', and the album was recorded in the space of a month at Higher Power, a former church in the New York State that has been converted recently into a recording studio. It is owned by producer Bryan Goggin,a long term friend who had previously worked with Zedek on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and 'Near Life Experience'. 'Been Here and Gone' also features Zedek's former Come bandmates, Chris Brokaw on electric and slide guitar and Daniel Coughlin on drums and percussion ; the Willard Grant Conspiracy's David Michael Curry on viola and trumpet, and Magic 12's Beth Heinberg and Victory and Sea's Mel Lederman, both on piano.
"Everybody knows that you'll be leaving/Leaving me behind/"And everybody knows what is going to happen/I'm going to lose my mind" drawls Zedek with sad, calm-before-the-storm resignation on the opening track 'Excommunications (Everybody Knows'). Much of the rest of the material is equally matter of fact and similarly bleak. "You can tell me what you thought I was/And I'll destroy the rest" Zedek sings on 'Temporary Guest', knowing that she is destined only to have a short-term relationship with her current partner, while on 'Treacherous Thing' she comes to the forlorn conclusion that she "can't win" and uneasily takes back a persistant former lover, who has betrayed against her, half against her will. The album also features three covers. Leonard Cohen's 'Dance Me to the End of Love' is revitalized with a frantic, passionate viola solo at the end from Curry, while V's '1926' becomes a funereal paean to a lost time and a lost love. Luiz Bonfa's obscure former bossa nova song, 'Manha de Carnaval', is meanwhile revitalised as tender and evocative ballad about a love affair that has ended. 'Been Here and Gone' is the sound of a talented artist, reinventing herself, both through her own songs and those of others, and the effects of this are impressive and stunning.
By John Clarkson
***
Many acts make downbeat music about dark subject matter, but most throw in counterbalances, whether by submerging pop hooks or orchestrating arrangements that radiate accessible warmth and beauty. Consequently, a lot of depressing music isn't really depressing at all; just slow, or melancholy, or graceful. Not that all three adjectives don't apply to former Come, Live Skull, and Uzi singer Thalia Zedek's music, but there's little denying its almost oppressively depressive effect. Been Here And Gone, the Bostonian's solo debut, dresses her songs in abundant viola, piano, and slide guitar, but the accouterments are in service of meaty, bone-chilling dirges in the spirit of Nick Cave. The words "you are going to hell" open "Strong," and Been Here And Gone doesn't get much more upbeat than that. But the album, like Zedek's past work, is an intoxicating acquired taste, finding wracked beauty in Gothic misery and her ever-wearier croak of a voice. Zedek even out-bleaks Leonard Cohen on her cover of Cohen's "Dance Me To The End Of Love," though she smartly lets the seven-minute track build to a Dirty Three-esque cataclysm. Challenging and rewarding in equal measure, Been Here And Gone resonates with guts, passion, and some of Zedek's most powerful musical backing to date—particularly on the jaw-dropping instrumental "10th Lament." The result inspires an emotion somewhere between awe and fear.
by Stephen Thompson
***
The upper classes are chattering about a revival of cabaret and torch songs, as epitomised by pristine soprano singers or flamboyant new gay icons, but Thalia Zedek takes a considerably more uncomfortable route through dark alleyways and down a flight of stairs into a dingy club where the bar staff look like freak show rejects and the patrons are slightly cheerier than morticians, where Nick Cave, Edith Piaf and Marianne Faithfull rule the jukebox. This is where you'll find Zedek and her band, which, for the most part, contains only piano, guitar and a plywood violin. You used to find her down the street at the rock club with her band Come, but she's discovered a greater intensity at a lower volume, and when she sings "Your god hates me," in a cracked and androgynous voice, it's more bone-chilling than any feedback squall from her previous incarnations. She faithfully covers Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me to the End of Love" to give newcomers a signpost but the best part is that she doesn't even have to; her originals "Excommunications" and "Back to School" are just as strong. Not recommended for daylight listening.
By Michael Barclay
***
Been Here and Gone is a new work from Thalia Zedek, a veteran of the New York underground scene that spawned the likes of Sonic Youth. And Zedek, frontwoman for the highly respected Sub Pop rock-deconstructionists Come, has certainly paid her rock & roll dues. So is Been Here and Gone, her debut solo album, a desperate plea for recognition? After 20 years of performing behind a cacophony of feedback, Been Here and Gone finds Zedek stepping out of the shadow of her band and unleashing her voice--a grizzled, but seductive tar-soaked growl in the vein of Patti Smith --in a stark, unadorned musical environment. Her backing band might include old Come companion Chris Brokaw on guitar, but the likes of "Back to School" and the gorgeous piano lament of "1926" are bare-boned and unadorned where Come were rough-edged and intense. The most memorable arrangement is an elegant, Prussian-tinged cover of Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me to the End of Love", and that's a pretty fair signpost to this record's tone of doomed romanticism. But will "Been Here and Gone" find Zedek the respect she so evidently deserves? Doubtful. But it should win her a whole new audience of devoted fans that take their tales of pathos without the tortured scream of an electric guitar.
by Louis Pattison