Seriously, people. You’ll love NDFY forever if you heed this piece of advice: Go see Jim Bianco tomorrow night at the Living Room. Yeah, I mentioned him once before, but this time you’ve got a great opportunity to catch him live at CMJ: Tomorrow (Thursday) night at the Living Room.

There’s a little sense of pride in having a friend stop cold in the middle of a sentence, point to our car stereo, and ask “Holy shit, who is this? ” Never have I had that happen more often than when playing Bianco’s most recent release, Handsome Devil. Recorded with a 19-piece big band, including members of the LA Philharmonic Orchestra, it’s a brainy, wildly creepy concept album about the disturbing power of the male libido. Weird, right? But it works, and if Elvis Costello and Serge Gainsbourg had a “what-happens-in-Vegas-stays-in-Vegas” kind of weekend with Tom Waits, Handsome Devil would undoubtedly be the soundtrack. It’s full of boozy, New Orleans-jazz tinged ballads and rollicking ragtime pop numbers, each one dripping with a sexually charged, come-hither sarcasm that makes you feel like Bianco’s either going to throw you over the nearest bed or cut you into little pieces and feed you to a swamp gator.

I’ve had the good fortune to have seen Jim play in dives and halls from Chicago to Austin and New York to LA, with a band and without, on sizable collaborative tours and on lonesome one-sedan jaunts across the country, and I’ve yet to be disappointed. Besides a knack for high-level eclectic songwriting, this is a guy who knows how to work a room. I dragged a couple of skeptical pals out to see him last fall, and they couldn’t stop talking about how he had the entire music room at Schubas in Chicago chanting “The devil made me do it…” in one collective seductive whisper as he prowled through the rows of chairs, telling song-stories in his trademark ashtray growl. For reals, y’all. I’m serious - you’ll thank me.
MP3: Handsome Devil (Reprise)

MP3: Sorry

Share This