Whenever Jeff Kelly takes a break from piloting Seattle’s Green Pajamas on their world tour of uncharted psych/pop waters, he likes to collaborate vocally with a woman. Until now that person has been GPJ alternate lead singer Laura Weller in a partnership called Goblin Market. Kelly didn’t have to venture far from the home fires for his most recent female vocal foil. With his wife Susanne as an equal partner, the pair has come up with By Reckless Moonlight (Green Monkey), a little gem that visits places no Jeff Kelly LP has been before. Susanne may insist she’s not really a singer, but her voice knows just the right moves to counterbalance Jeff’s ethereal sound from a previous lifetime. The Kellys will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our recent feature on them.
Susanne: Thinking about paint, I just read a great profile in The New Yorker on contemporary painter Chris Ofili. Being a figurative painter myself, I’m always on the lookout for painters of the same ilk. While Ofili has long been on my radar, I particularly like his new work. What struck me most was how he manages paintings that seem to have a mind of their own. I am familiar with the “panic and despair” he feels until he is able to resolve a particular canvas. He states, “I think it’s more interesting when you can corral your subjects, instead of just going right to them.” In visual or musical expression, not going right to a preconceived image elevates craft to art. Struggling past the point where you can’t really reconstitute the formula or know how you got there is a mind-expanding experience. That is the drug that keeps an artist hooked.
Video after the jump.
