Caught in the Carousel

Clare Means

By Alex Green

Clare Means

From Britney Spears' overblown Circus tour, replete with its jugglers, acrobats and embarrassingly deficient lip-synching, to Beyoncé's hyperproduced studio syncopations that scientifically split beats like atoms with such craven knob-turning wizardry, the effect is beyond robotic and veers more towards the sound of a billion heartbeats of science fiction weaponry, it's easy to forget that music is supposed to be all about simplicity. In fact, Woody Guthrie once said that if you're playing more than two chords, you're just showing off.

Pop music seems to only be about showing off these days, but beneath all of the onstage pyrotechnics, sophomoric stabs at sexuality and fake emotional posturing when a note is not so much hit, but approached, grabbed by the neck and throttled, there lurks in the songs themselves, not even the slightest hint of truth. Spears sings of bar bastard lotharios, punk paparazzi and how hard it is to be a celebrity, while Beyoncé, inexplicably chaste in her blazing and suggestive one piece, sends an open letter to men that tauntingly promises they can have all they want of a woman as long as they "put a ring on it." I've said nothing of Fergie's "lovely lady lumps" or her aspirations for ultimate Fergieliciousness because, to be honest, it makes me positively weak with hopelessness and I really have no idea what she's talking about.

Clare Means?

I know exactly what she's talking about.

Clare Means

In fact, she reminds us that all it takes is a girl and a guitar to get the job done right.

Raised in New Jersey, this singer/songwriter is armed with the kind of folky precision and roots rock poeticism that you either get at birth or you don't. Springsteen got it. Dylan got it. Carole King got it. And Means got it, too. The twentysomething's debut White Bamboo is a stunning collection of raw, emotional intensity and crushing romanticism, all delivered by a voice that is at once smoky, strong and assured. An open wound of a singer, Means inhabits every number here with grace and aplomb, steadily crooning her way through a host of devastating subjects. The tearjerking "Everybody's Room But Mine" tells the tale of a toxicology-positive baby with the same finesse and brilliance of Suzanne Vega's "Luka"; the bluesy folk of "Haunt You" rails against an absent father and "Asbury Park" uses the backdrop of a carnival to accentuate the tragedy of the life of a serial killer. "Asbury Park misses you," she sings mournfully in what is a haunting and deeply moving portrait of a murderer as a young man. The slow motion memory of him taking the roller coaster for the first time—an innocent boy in love with speed but who somehow twists away into darkness—is one of the most resonant images in a song in recent memory.

Elsewhere, the lovely "Snow Angels" shrugs off warmer activities for a romantic rendezvous in the snow ("They can have their sun, their heat/When you're with me/There is no need"), "White Bamboo" is a metaphorically triumphant love song and the delicate "Notions Of Love" is just gorgeous.

Clare Means

A fixture on the Santa Monica promenade and the Universal City Walk, Means has, in a few short years, asserted herself as an artist and a performer by filling her CV with some pretty impressive achievements. From snaring a slot on UCLA Radio's compilation of best unsigned artists, to being a finalist in the American Songwriter Magazine's lyric contest, and a semi-finalist in NPR's "Talented Twentysomething's Contest" featured on Prairie Home Companion in 2008, Means is on a bit of a tear lately.

In other words, the world is catching on. Whether it's the urban serenade of "New York Night" or the Springsteen-flavored folk of "Angels Of The Freeway," which finds the her declaring, "My only friend is this red car," Means is a rare and special talent.

Without further ado, CITC is proud to introduce you to the Priestess of the Promenade: This is Clare Means.

Clare Means

YOUR FULL NAME: Clare Means

NICKNAME: Clare Bear

BAND NAME: Clare Means

YOUR ROLE IN THE BAND: Singer/guitar player

BAND MEMBERS: Usually just me; sometimes I perform with Michael Starr (electric guitar, fiddle), Jason Pipkin (drums) and Tom Filicetta (bass)

HOMETOWN: New Jersey/Pennsylvania

WEBSITE: www.claremeans.com

RECORD LABEL: Unsigned

DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND IN ONE SENTENCE: A slightly overcast Sunday afternoon with breaks of sunshine and a small chance of showers with late night thunderstorms guaranteed.

PROUDEST PROFESSIONAL MOMENT: The first time I came to understand the power of playing music and how it can reach others. I was busking, playing my song "Everybody's Room But Mine" on the Santa Monica promenade, and a stranger came up to me in tears and told me how deeply the song had touched him.

ODDEST PROFESSIONAL MOMENT: There have been a lot of odd moments. A couple of times people have done some very strange interpretive dances while I was playing on the street in Santa Monica. I wish I could have videotaped them! Oh, another strange moment would be the time this guy told me that he had cameras built into his eyes and that he had just filmed my performance with them and it had been broadcast live over the internet and that millions of people had just seen it. (He said that the CIA had planted the cameras in his eyes.)

THE SONG THAT YOU WISH YOU'D WRITTEN: There are a lot of these; one would be "Suzanne" by Leonard Cohen

FIVE BEST BANDS TO EVER ROAM THE EARTH: It is hard to pick five, and my answer would probably change depending on my mood. But here are some: The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Marvin Gaye, Neil Young.

DESCRIBE YOURSELF AS A KID: Hyper, funny, disorganized, tomboy, chronic doodler.

THREE THINGS THAT KEEP YOU UP AT NIGHT: Things I shouldn't have said, things I should have done, and caffeine.

LAST TWO BOOKS YOU'VE READ: Dance, Dance, Dance and South of the Border, West of the Sun both by Haruki Murakami.

THINGS WE'D FIND IN THE TRUNK OF YOUR CAR: Stinky shinguards and cleats, CDs, and a mike stand.

HARDEST PART ABOUT BEING A MUSICIAN: Answering these sorts of questions

FAVORITE LATE NIGHT TV SHOW: Cheesy murder mysteries.

IDEAL BREAKFAST: Fried eggs with avocados, salsa, onions, lots of coffee, and maybe a chocolate chip pancake, too.

DRINK OF CHOICE: Margarita or a mojito if I'm going to go all out, but usually I just drink corona or red wine.

BEST ALBUM TO PLAY AFTER A BREAK-UP AND YOU'RE HOLDING A BOTTLE OF VODKA AND SOMETHING SHARP: Blue by Joni Mitchell

INDULGENCE YOU REFUSE TO GIVE UP: Chocolate

WORDS TO LIVE BY: BUY MY CD!

Internet:
www.myspace.com/claremeans
www.claremeans.com

White Bamboo is out now. We agree with Ms. Means. Buy it. Seriously.