Lach the Man Up

Sometimes, a person's bio alone makes me want to listen to his songs. I'd have to say Lach, acknowledged founder of the Anti-Folk movement, is just such an individual.

Case(s) in point: His stage name was adopted from a Danish porn magazine in the seventies. Once, when Bob Dylan came by to see Lach, he was too hung-over to let him in. Lach was thrown out of The Lone Star in NYC for yelling "You're in America now pal!" and hitting Billy Bragg with a pack of Marlboros during a Bragg pro-communist speech. Lach discovered and managed the artist Nellie McKay, getting her signed to her ill-fated deal with Columbia Records. He and Townes Van Zandt once plowed through a Gordon Lightfoot crowd in a golf cart they commandeered for the occasion.

Hell, if that isn't enough to make you the slightest bit curious as to what this guy puts on wax, well, then, don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out of this blog.

Fortunately, his latest LP, The Calm Before (buy), is worthy of such a seemingly bizarre cat. With nasal vocals somewhere between Dylan and Michael Stipe, Lach writes quirky songs with intelligent lyrics. Lead-off single, "Egg," equates the trepidations of life to leaving the shell and longing for a return to yolk-ier days. Damn, that's tasty stuff. As the guy puts out albums as often as Indiana Jones sequels, do yourself a favor and pick this one up.

Regionally, you can check him out next month in Philly:

5/16: Tin Angel, Philadelphia, PA

Egg