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Fans buy into singer’s way with words
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On his first full-length album, New York-based singer-songwriter Jay Brannan takes humorous aim at a certain omnipresent TV show that on Thursday was nominated for multiple Emmys.
“Am I suicidal or am I hungry?” Brannan wistfully wonders on the track. ” ‘American Idol’ get the hell off my TV.”
“It’s more a song about being frustrated in my life by a job that I was sick of and a general feeling of being lost,” Brannan told Buzz prior to his gig Friday night at Vinyl in Midtown. “When I got to the chorus, ‘American Idol’ was just something annoying me. It’s a karaoke contest. There’s no artistry attached to it at all. It makes me sad.”
Brannan, who first got noticed as an actor in director John Cameron Mitchell’s 2006 comic drama “Short Bus,” might actually be the anti- “American Idol.” Using just his MySpace page, his Blogspot account and YouTube, Brannan has built a loyal, even fanatical international following (total strangers offer to cook for him on MySpace) with zero assistance from the corporate music biz.
The emotionally charged, wry, quirky works on his new lo-fi album (which, alas, can’t be referred to in a family newspaper) has critics calling him a male Joni Mitchell.
Not unexpectedly, Brannan has another comparison: ” ‘The Little Mermaid’ on crack.”
For his first full-length international tour, Brannan has taken a leave from a proofreading job and is existing largely on gig money and
T-shirt and CD sales.
“And I have a very high credit limit!” he cracked.
But the 20-something singer is finding fame a bit weird when it comes to dating.
On his new song “At First Sight,” he writes: “You like the guy on your iPod, not the guy in your bed. After the fan mail, came anthrax. Now you wish I were dead.”
“Yeah, I kinda write out of anger and frustration and pain,” Brannan said with a laugh. “My problem is that they just disappear. What’s wrong with saying, ‘I’m just not interested?’ But those experiences are good to have in the middle of the night in my apartment when I’m writing or making my videos. It’s an intimacy that everyone can relate to.”
Brannan will perform at 9 Friday night at Vinyl in Midtown. Tickets: $12.
NAKED AT THE NET
Solely in the interest of Buzz readers, we spent our lunch hour Thursday doing some, er, research with a certain men’s magazine. Or as our more sedate newsroom neighbor, the Social Butterfly, said with a shudder: “Please tell me you’re not flipping through a Playboy over there!”
More specifically, the August issue, featuring “Love, Ashley,” the nude pictorial of tennis pro and Rossville native Ashley Harkleroad. The 61st-ranked player in the world first set the sexy stage for her Playboy debut back in 2001 when a 16-year-old Harkleroad hit the U.S. Open in form-fitting, skin-baring, eyebrow-raising blue Lycra.
“People put expectations on me because of the way I look,” Harkleroad, 23, tells Playboy. “But you can’t think about what people say. You just have to do your thing.
Harkleroad’s “thing” includes two tattoos, lacy undergarments and potentially the skimpiest tennis skirt ever manufactured.
Of her bod, Harkleroad tells the mag: “I’m a little more muscular than some girls, but that’s who I am. You don’t have to be waif-thin and have huge boobs to be sexy.”
At deadline Thursday, Buzz, meanwhile, was experiencing multiple muscle spasms while trying to replicate Harkleroad’s gravity-defying upside-down chair pose on page 108 …
DISH FROM DWIGHT
Rainn Wilson, who plays Dwight Schrute on NBC’s “The Office,” was in Atlanta Thursday when the Emmy Award nominations were announced and he found that, once again, he was up for best supporting actor.
“My quote unquote response,” Wilson said, practically marinating in irony, “is that I’m thrilled to be nominated. I’m very excited to go back to the Emmys this year. The food was terrific.”
Wilson lost last year to Jeremy Piven of “Entourage.”
“His time will come!” Wilson hissed with mock menace.
Wilson was in Atlanta Wednesday night and Thursday doing promotions for his upcoming comedy “The Rocker,” in which he plays a washed-up heavy metal drummer who gets an unlikely second shot at fame thanks to a YouTube video. A sharp music buff with a thorough knowledge of indie rock, he swung by Criminal Records in Little Five Points, where he bought “The Watchmen” graphic novel and “Stay Positive,” the new CD by The Hold Steady.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Orchestras and choirs love it. They don’t often get to wear miners helmets and do doo-wop.”
Monty Python’s Eric Idle on his latest musical, “Not the Messiah” — based on the comedy troupe’s classic “Life of Brian” — which features a 104-piece orchestra and a leaf blower.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Director Paul Verhoeven (“Showgirls”) is 70. Singer Martha Reeves of Martha and the Vandellas is 67. Country singer Ricky Skaggs is 54. Keyboardist John Hermann of Widespread Panic is 46. Actor Vin Diesel is 41. Drummer Tony Fagenson of Eve 6 is 30. Actress Kristen Bell (“Veronica Mars”) is 28. Singer Ryan Cabrera is 26. Actor Chace Crawford (“Gossip Girl”) is 23.
Contributing: Phil Kloer and news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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