KRISTEENYOUNG
Music for Strippers, Hookers,
and the Odd On-Looker

What’s black and white and can crush you like a bug? A piano. These monsters weigh anywhere from 300 lbs for a small upright, to four or even five times that for a concert grand. So why do artists let them sound so wimpy? KRISTEENYOUNG wants the piano to kick your ass. Their new album, Music for Strippers, Hookers, and the Odd On-Looker, feels like it was born in the boxing ring, not some sun-dappled Laurel Canyon living room.

“I wanted to create a new sound for piano on this album, and for it to be just as powerful and creative as any guitar-based record. I wanted it to sound like a wall of pianos, but like the wall in the film, Caligula: a wall that moves and decapitates everyone,” says Kristeen Young. The singer and composer has played since her childhood in St. Louis, and she knows what the piano is capable of. She sought to recapture the fiery, dangerous noise early rockers like Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Domino wrought from the instrument’s eighty-eight keys, albeit in a wholly modern way.

Young’s foil in KRISTEENYOUNG is drummer “Baby” Jef White, whose energy and fills bring to mind the great British drummers, but whose groove is undeniably American. Together, the duo has forged a sound full of percussive impact and melodic grandeur.

You think the White Stripes make a big ruckus for a two-piece? Bah! “Stop Thinking” is anchored by low-end tone clusters that pummel like thunder. Yet Music for Strippers… has moments of startling simplicity, too, as on its closer, “Halfway Across the Atlantic Ocean.” “An album should be a spectrum of emotion,” says Young. “Far too often, people just deliver one thing. I try to run the gamut.”

That breadth is evident in Young’s singing, too; with her wide natural range, she can flip quickly into a gleaming upper register to tremendous affect. Yet she is ever mindful that her vocals, however dexterous, work in service of her lyrics. “I think a lot about how the words are going to sound, and where they sit in the voice. When I write a line, I almost immediately go and sing it, to see how it feels and what response it may evoke.”

Young’s fascination with the raw sound of words can result in emotional interjections that sting sharply, be it a rapid-fire blitz of fairy tale staples (“Son of Man”), or the slow downward pull of reiterating the word “gone” throughout “Halfway Across the Atlantic Ocean.” On “Protestant,” she evokes not only realms of sight and sound, but smell and touch as well. Young fashions her lyrics with surgical precision throughout Music For Strippers…, but this time out, sex and death share the spotlight with—gasp—love! Not hearts and flowers fare, mind you. Nobody expects to find lines like “Lashes from your tongue are a serenading song” (“You Must Love Me”) on a Valentine.

The bulk of Music For Strippers… was composed during the two year stretch KRISTEENYOUNG spent touring the world, first as the support act for Morrissey and later, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. As this traveling circus careened around the globe, cuts like “He’s Sickened By My Crude Emotion,” with its pointed, dissonant jabs and the proclamation “my keyboard shoots from the hip,” were conceived. Those many, many shows also inspired the album’s colorful title, a nod to those moments when the artist feels like “a performer” in only the coarsest sense.

On “That’s What It Takes, Dear,” Young is joined by singer Patrick Vaughn Stump of Fall Out Boy, their layered and multi-tracked vocals circling one another in a cat-and-mouse duet of contrapuntal grace. This represents the latest in a series of high-profile collaborations for KRISTEENYOUNG, who have also recorded with David Bowie, Brian Molko (of Placebo), and the aforementioned Morrissey. Music for Strippers… features contributions from Ted Leo, too. However, since there are no guitars on the album, Leo’s participation centered on playing percussion, brewing tea, and spreading good cheer.

Music for Strippers… was recorded with noted producer Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T. Rex, Morrissey), who also helmed the previous three KRISTEENYOUNG albums, including 2006 breakthrough The Orphans. “Tony is an excellent vocal coach, because he gives such specific feedback,” reveals Young. And he shares a drive to experiment. “With a lot of people, if you suggest doing something different, their first response is to complain: ‘Oh, that’s going to be hard,’ but not Tony. He’s very open trying new things.”

Other KRISTEENYOUNG releases include the debut Meet Miss Young and Her All Boy Band (1997), Enemy (1999), Breasticles (2003), and their concept album about the Ten Commandments, X (2004). Originally hailing from St. Louis—where Young was raised as an adopted, bi-racial child by strict Christian parents—the band is now based in New York City. In addition to making music, Young also designs her own eye-popping stage wear; which never seems to fail to conjure the past and the future simultaneously.

“I grew up listening to fm radio, and fm radio means guitars,guitars,guitars, and essentially, still does,” Young concludes. “I always wondered why I couldn’t get my piano to sound that mind-blowing.” On Music for Strippers…, she does. Like the humble upright and the mighty concert grand, KRISTEENYOUNG are heavy, and they will decapitate you.