Laurie Anderson created an unforgettable four minutes of late-night television when she performed "Only an Expert," from her album Homeland, on Late Night with David Letterman last night, adding new references to the BP oil disaster. At the song's end, Letterman exclaims: "Exactly. That's exactly what I was thinking." The performance is featured on The Daily Beast's Video Cheat Sheet. BlogCritics says: "If there's one CD so far this year that's a must buy—Homeland is it."
Laurie Anderson created an unforgettable four minutes of late-night television when she performed a revised version of "Only an Expert," from her recently released Nonesuch album, Homeland, on Late Night with David Letterman last night on CBS. As she has in this week's live performances of songs from Homeland in Philadelphia and New York, and will tomorrow night at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, Anderson added references to the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico ("Sometimes, when the oil dill breaks, and the oil spills out into the ocean ...") to the song's sardonic chorus, "Only an expert can deal with the problem."
At the song's end, Letterman, on his way to greet the performers, says emphatically: "Exactly. That's exactly what I was thinking."
The complete performance of "Only an Expert" soon made its way onto Gawker ("What the Hell Just Happened on Letterman?") and is featured today on The Daily Beast's Video Cheat Sheet. You can watch the latter at the end of this Nonesuch Journal post.
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BlogCritics, in its review of Homeland, describes Anderson as "everything an artist should be in times like these." Reviewer Richard Marcus concludes:
In an era of mass-produced entertainment, which appears to discourage independent thought, where the antics of those involved in its creation is more important than whatever is actually produced, the fact that Laurie Anderson's work is being made available at all, let alone for mass consumption, is a gift you don't want to take for granted. There is very little this intelligent, beautiful, accessible, and enjoyable being offered these days and you would be doing yourself a great disservice if you don't at least give it a listen. If there's one CD so far this year that's a must buy—Homeland is it.
Read the complete review at blogcritics.org.
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Anderson is the subject of a feature profile in The Awl by Seth Colter Walls titled "Difficult Listening Hour: An Introduction to Laurie Anderson," after a piece from Anderson's seminal piece United States I-IV. Colter Walls discusses his life-long admiration for Anderson's work and the evolution of her career, through her new album, Homeland, which he calls his "third favorite album of 2010 (behind Erykah Badu and Big Boi)." Read the article at theawl.com.
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In the lead-up to Friday's concert at the Birchmere, Anderson will appear on The Kojo Nnamdi Show on member-supported Washington, DC, radio station WAMU this afternoon at 1 PM ET. Listen online here.
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To pick up a copy of Homeland and the 12" vinyl single of "Only an Expert," head to the Nonesuch Store.
Watch The Daily Beast's Video Cheat Sheet clip of Anderson's Late Show appearance here:
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