Caught in the Carousel

Jesse Malin

By Alex Green

Jesse Malin's really excited.

The first thing the singer/songwriter tells me when I phone him in New York is that he's just seen Chrissie Hynde sitting in a café. Sounding animated and energetic, Malin can't hide his enthusiasm about catching a glimpse of the legendary Pretenders singer. But when I ask him if he introduced himself, Malin sounds suddenly shy.

"Nah," he says. "I've been running around and I'm all sweaty."

"I can't believe she was just sitting there," I say.

"That's the way it is in New York," he says.

He should know.

Born and raised in Queens, Malin knows New York the way Roger Federer knows a tennis court. Geographically, he knows its back alleys and its sidestreet shortcuts, but he also knows the city in a deep and emotional way—how it feels, how it sounds and how it aches. Ever since he started his first band at twelve-the frenetic hardcore outfit Heart Attack-Malin's work has always been rife with hints that he would later be New York City's punk rock poet laureate. Even amidst searing numbers like "Hatred" and "Rise And Fall" from his days in the hard rocking D Generation, Malin's lyrical dispatches confronted the anxiety, the danger, the beauty and the romance of New York.

But it was Malin's 2003 debut The Fine Art Of Self Destruction, that found the musician really flexing his songwriting power. Although his body of work was admirable to that point, numbers like "Queen Of The Underworld" and "Brooklyn" demonstrated that they were just sketches of what was to come. Filled with subterranean royalty, needles breaking against the arms of pretty girls and pop culture references that spanned from Travolta to Billy Jack, The Fine Art Of Self Destruction was an album of ragged and weary beauty. Piloted by a man who can bend vowels and crush consonants like Steve Earle and Shane MacGowan, it was the moment when Jesse Malin emerged as the beat poet of the five boroughs who could also write some of the catchiest songs in the world.

Now with three excellent solo albums under his belt, Malin's new effort On Your Sleeve is a 14-song homage to his heroes. Covering the likes of everyone from The Hold Steady to Jim Croce, On Your Sleeve not only shows the range of Malin's eclectic tastes—he's just as happy to listen to Bad Brains as he is Louis Prima—it demonstrates that he's a master interpreter, crawling respectfully inside his favorite songs and surfacing from them with new ways of presenting them. Some are straightforward, like his spirited take on Paul Simon's "Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard" or Springsteen's "Hungry Heart," but his cerebral and meditative reading of Bad Brains' "Leaving Babylon" or his brilliant take on The Lords Of The New Church's "Russian Roulette" are riveting work. Tim Hardin's "Lady From Baltimore" pines sadly away and The Rolling Stones' "Sway" has a mighty tug. But what steals the show here is Malin's duet with Bree Sharp on The Pogues' classic "Fairytale Of New York." A now legendary number that pitted MacGowan opposite the much-missed Kirsty MacColl, it's admittedly hallowed territory, but Malin and Sharp bring a new kind of magic to the composition. They bring a new ending, too. While MacGowan and MacColl close the number with an elliptical romantic impasse, Malin and Sharp (thanks to a tagged on spoken word bit) make it clear that they're still together and getting blitzed side by side in a bar.

Ah, love.

Getting ready for his upcoming tour, CITC caught Malin running all over New York, ducking helicopters, spotting Pretenders and speaking excitedly about his new album:

CITC: I was reading that Hunter S. Thompson used to type The Great Gatsby in its entirety to see what it felt like to write such great sentences. What insights did you get when you were working on these covers?

JM: I think whenever you do covers and play other people's songs, you learn how other people can think and how other people can write. So, it can definitely affect you. When you're a kid listening to a lot of records, you take it in and it can influence you. But, to learn them you find the weird tricks or secrets people have; You say, wow this weird verse is here, or, that weird chord is there, which lets you understand how other people come up with songs. Then, it becomes a whole different animal. You to try and change the songs to make them yours and deconstruct them so you're not a karaoke machine. And that's the next challenge.

CITC: How do you tackle that?

JM: It comes from passion. When you're touring and only have one album out you want to make the set longer. So, you might open with a cover. It's also a good tip of the hat or a shock to your fans when you do a Bad Brains song as a ballad or a Replacements song that's real loud, but you do it on piano. My influences are really wide; the album is a schizophrenic mix tape from Elton John to the Hold Steady to Bad Brains to the Pogues. I just like good songs, all kinds of music, I don't think it really matters. There's good blues and bad blues, good punk and bad punk, labels shouldn't mean much.

CITC: Has this project been germinating for a long time?

JM: When I was with my fans I'd joke around and say it was going to be a covers album, thinking it would be a funny project. And then I didn't do it, so people would ask about it and I had a little time off and I've done three studio records, so I thought it would be something to do over the holidays. I went in with my friends for little over a week and it was just a fun project. I'm excited they let me put it out.

CITC: How did you end up on One Little Indian? I thought you were with Adeline.

JM: Oh, well I'm still with Adeline. One Little Indian did my European stuff before and Adeline was working on a live album, so I thought it would be good for them to put their effort into that while I made this album with One Little Indian.

CITC: How do you like Adeline?

JM: They're really cool.

CITC: So out of all the songs you covered, which one blew you away when you sat down and studied it?

JM: "Fairytale Of New York." I know people make fun of Shane MacGowan for being a drunk and drinking booze out of a Pringles can, but he's got a great sense of humor, very eloquent, very poetic. He's a romantic. Whether I'm watching Bogart or a Scorsese film, I'm a sentimental sap and I like things that deal with the darker side of life with some kind of light at the end of it.

CITC: Were some tough to figure out?

JM: Figuring out Elton John's chord changes made me realize that while people are sitting in dentist's chairs they probably think it's just a happy pop song, but they don't see the darker villainy that's very different from what you think of pop songs. The Hold Steady was interesting because they'd have three chords and then reverse them, which is an interesting trick. I think there's a thread with all the music I like. There's a happiness and a sadness in the same melody and that bittersweet thing is what I look for. The light at the end of a dark tunnel.

CITC: Your song choices seem decidedly urban—was this conscious?

JM: Well, I was born and bred in the city and I'm standing in the middle of the street right now doing this interview. So you kind of go for things you can relate to. I can still listen to "Take Me Home Country Road" by John Denver or some song about Jamaica by a reggae band, but when the Bad Brains were talking about leaving Babylon, they're talking about Metropolis. I didn't put a whole bunch of songs together and go, Well, I'm going to have this theme. I'm going to make a whole record about dogs and cars. Or, it's going to be a Bob Seger tribute. It really was that I wanted to get a bunch of songs that I really like, as if I were making a mix tape for some chick or a friend, and these would be the songs. We had a much bigger list, but the ones that didn't make the cut are out there as bonuses. Ones like an LCD Soundsystem cover called "New York, I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down" or the Flaming Lips "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots"; things that are a little more wacky.

CITC: Whether it's a ska or hardcore band, or a folk singer, what do you admire the most in a songwriter?

JM: To be able to tell a story and put you in a time and a place. Like opening up a chapter of a book or watching a movie. Make you feel something. Like I said, if it's happy, sad or both. Make you feel like you're with a character that takes you out of your place. But also give you something you can totally relate to on a human level. And mix that with a song that has a great melody that makes you turn your head and want to hear it again. Something that's addictive, but sticks with who you are and where you stand as well. A slice of life.

CITC: Was it hard to choose a Bad Brains song? I know you're a big fan.

JM: Yeah, it was kinda hard. There was this club two years ago in New York called The Continental that was going out of business and H.R. from Bad Brains came out to play with me at this show. And, my roadie said I should do that song I played with H.R. that night, which was "Leaving Babylon." So I got the original, which is this slow reggae and I wanted to speed it up. The song still made a lot of sense, especially since how the world is, with all the greed, power and war. Bad Brains is one of my favorite bands, the best live band I've ever seen—so it seemed to make sense.

CITC: When you were in D Generation, did you tell the guys you liked Jim Croce or did you keep it to yourself?

JM: You know, Jim Croce might have been okay, but Billy Joel, they didn't like that one, but there's no Joel covers on this. If you liked Billy Joel or Bruce Springsteen or Counting Crows it wasn't that cool. But, I grew up listening to oldies radio stations, my first love from my babysitter was Elton John and he's not the coolest thing to be into, especially when you went into punk where you sold all your records that were classic rock because it was embarrassing. Years later I realized that was just closed-minded and I had to re-buy a lot of records. Right now people have a mix of music on their itunes; they can listen to hip-hop and punk rock as opposed to years ago when people would call you a goth or a death metal dude. There's less of those boundaries and that's good. I think that's what bands like The Clash set out to do with records like Sandinista! or the Rolling Stones who have mixed and experimented with all different kinds of music.

CITC: You used to be able to look at a girl and tell what kind of music she listened to. Now it's like she could have a tattoo and a piercing and she could like Britney Spears.

JM: Yeah, well tattoos used to be for anti-social reasons. Mike Ness from Social Distortion used to say he got tattoos to piss people off, but now it's a very acceptable kind of thing.

CITC: How have you changed since the first solo album? How do you think you've evolved as a songwriter?

J: With the first solo album I just needed to say what I had to say, whether I was going to have a record deal or not. I had to do them for myself in a sort of personal exorcism. The band broke up and I had a pretty bad break up with a girlfriend, so I had a lot to say and it was very personal. The second record was about characters and things I've seen on the road, looking at my country from a distance and not knowing how it felt to be an American. I was going all over the world while we were at war and America was so hated by other countries. After that I felt there was just so much fear and depression; with Y2K and global warming, people were afraid to leave their houses and nobody was connecting. It just seemed like everything was being watched and cameras following what you do, so I wanted a record that was positive and fighting but true to life. So, I went through a lot of Bob Marley and Clash, so that's how Glitter In The Gutter came about. Now, I want to make something that's more stripped down and dig deeper. Covering other people's songs gave me a break, but now I want to experiment with different sounds and lyrically make each record similar but different. I'm amped up about getting back in the studio for this record.

CITC: What's your take on what's going on with record companies right now?

JM: Record companies are going through a strange thing right now and no one can figure out what's going to happen in the music business. Physical records are less and less and stores are closing, which breaks my heart. This covers album is a love letter to vinyl.

CITC: There's that picture of you on the back of On Your Sleeve standing in a record store holding a stack of vinyl.

JM: Yeah, that record store went out of business a week later.

CITC: In your opinion who is the new Paul Simon? Who are the new songwriters that will endure in thirty years' time?

JM: Pete Yorn and Ryan Adams, for sure. Jeff Tweedy even has that Paul Simon voice that's comfortable and warm. I like some of Jack Johnson's stuff now—I didn't think I did at first, but lyrically it's really strong. There's a lot of good songwriters coming up...Jim James from My Morning Jacket.

CITC: Let's try a drillѿI'll name a band and you tell me what cover you'd like to do of their songs.

JM: Okay.

CITC: Gram Parsons

JM: "Streets of Baltimore"

CITC: New York Dolls

JM: "Lonely Planet Boy"

CITC: Ramones

JM: Oh boy..."Questionably" I covered. "I Just Want Something To Do," "Rock & Roll Radio," "She's The One," "Danny Says"...

CITC: Whiskeytown

JM: "16 Days" or "Jacksonville Skyline"

CITC: The Jam

JM: The Jam, wow..."Burning Sky"

CITC: Rancid

JM: "Lady Liberty"

CITC: The Byrds.

JM: "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better"

CITC: Otis Redding

JM: "Sad Song"

CITC: Black Flag

JM: "Rise Above"- or no, you know what? "American Waste".

CITC: Thanks for taking the time to CITC and best of luck with the album.

JM: My Pleasure, man.

Solo
169 - EP - (2000)
The Fine Art of Self Destruction - (2002)
Queen of the Underworld - Single - (2003)
Wendy - Single - (2003)
The Wendy EP - EP - (2003)
Happy Holidays 2003 - Single - (2003)
Messed Up Here Tonight - Live - (2003)
Mona Lisa - Single - (2004)
The Heat - (2004)
Glitter in the Gutter - (2007)
On Your Sleeve - (2008)

With D Generation:
No Way Out - Single - (1993) Re-released in 1994 and 1996.
Wasted Years - Single (1993)
No God / Degenerated - Single (1994)
D Generation (1994)
No Lunch (1996)
She Stands There - Single (1996)
Capital Offender - Single {1997)
Prohibition - EP (1998)
Helpless - Single (1998)
Through The Darkness - (1999)

With Bellvue:
To Be Somebody (2001)

With Heart Attack:
Toxic Lullabies: 1980-1984 - Compilation - (2002)

With The Finger:
We Are Fuck You - (2002)