Justin Moyer is an entertaining smart-ass. 
Moyer’s been releasing music as Edie Sedgwick (I assume we’re all familiar with the Warholian supermodel/superstar originally of this name) since 2001. True to Warholian philosophy, Moyer has been examining the various aspects of fame and celebrity in the music he makes under the Sedgwick moniker. On Things Are Getting Sinister And Sinisterer, the songs he writes are often as entertaining as they are intelligent. Often they’re more the former than the latter, but don’t hold that against him.
It’s easy to listen to TAGSAS and not pick-up on anything that Moyer’s saying just because the music holds it’s own so well. Moyer creates killer dance beats that he layers beautifully with sharp bass lines, synths and his always-spot-on vocal delivery. Every track, other than the chill closer “Edie Sedgwick IIâ€, bristles with a dance-rock energy of LCD Soundsystem quality.
When one does actually repress the desire to dance enough to listen to what Moyer’s saying, his insight in regards to his subject matter is interesting, such as in “Angelina Jolie†where he sings “condescend to say when…the line between good works and publicity,†about her adoption of children from Cambodia, Ethiopia and Vietnam. At other times Moyer can be hilariously bitter, like when he sings about Mary-Kate Olsen’s anorexia in (you guessed it) “Mary-Kate Olsenâ€, musing, “good g-ddamn, the cocaine is the culprit / great g-ddamn, the cocaine is the culprit / good g-ddamn, the tweenies are a culprit / great g-ddamn, the meanies are a culprit / good g-ddam, Jared Leto is a culprit…†And then sometimes he’ll just have fun, like when he sings about the cheeseball 80’s anti-communist movie Red Dawn, in a song of the same name.
It’s interesting that Moyer chose to perform under the Sedgwick moniker. Sedgwick is a tragic and peculiar figure in modern pop culture; seemingly destroyed by fame, she spent much of the last years of her life recovering from drug abuse and in psychiatric care. Moyer, however, deals more in comedy than he does in tragedy, though there is an admittedly dark side in some songs such as the aforementioned “Mary-Kate Olsonâ€. At times the argument could be made that the two overlap, perhaps due to the irony of how fame – something many people would (literally) die for – often destroys, both mentally and physically, those who achieve it.
While an artist with a philosophy is always cool, it only goes so far unless the work itself is quality. Luckily, Edie Sedgwick’s TAGSAS is a kick-ass dance album that satisfies the head while keeping the ass in shake.
Things Are Getting Sinister and Sinisterer will be released by Dischord Records on November 11, 2008.
Tracklisting:
01. Sissy Spacek
02. Mary-Kate Olsen
03. Angelina Jolie
04. Anthony Perkins
05. March Of The Penguins
06. Bambi/G. W. Bush
07. O.D.B.
08. Red Dawn
09. Rob Lowe
10. Edie Sedgwick II
Edie Sedgwick: website | myspace
Written by Marc Z. Grub
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