The Nomi Song
If Klaus Nomi and Sun Ra ever met and had a conversation, I wonder what they would talk about? Both were the ultimate outsiders, both claimed to be from outer space and both appeared in the 20th Century with a unique presence and touched the lives of those who found them. But both had completely different backgrounds.
The Nomi Song is a lovingly compiled documentary on the gay new wave opera singer, Klaus Nomi, and it's playing locally at The Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, MA. Plugging into the new wave and punk era where the talentless reigned supreme, Klaus Nomi, who was in fact a talented and trained singer from Germany, came to NYC in the 70s and created a hybrid mix of new wave music and operatic singing dressed as an alien from outer space.
The Nomi Song does an incredible job using archival footage comprised of rare live performances, including Nomi's stunning appearance with David Bowie singing The Man Who Sold the World and TVC15 on Saturday Night Live in December of 1979, along with interviews with Klaus and the people who knew him including Ann Magnuson, Gabriele Lafari, David McDermott, Page Wood, Tony Frere, Man Parrish, Kristian Hoffman, Ron Johnsen, Kenny Scharf, Anthony Scibelli, and Alan Platt (absent for unknown reasons is fellow Nomi, Joey Arias).
The Nomi Song does wonders of showing how brutal the music industry could be on the creative talents it eats up and spits out, as Klaus had to travel to France (where he was hailed as a cross between Maria Callas and Elvis Presley), in order to even get a record deal. Nomi had a way of combining covers of Elvis Presley's Can't Help Falling in Love, Lou Christie's Lightning Strikes, Lesley Gore's You Don't Own Me and the Wizard of Oz's Ding Dong (the Witch is Dead) with opera, cabaret, and some futuristic new wave songs of his own to become one of the most unique performers in his day. Couple that with a stark fashion sense, then it makes sense that France would be the first to latch onto him (think Plastic Bertrand mixed with Kraftwerk and SNL's Sprockets). The film also shows the loneliness attributed to the ultimate creativity of Klaus Nomi and his early death from AIDS in 1983, when not much was yet known about the disease.
The Nomi Song is still playing in its area debut at the Brattle Theatre ( http://www.brattlefilm.org/ ) until Thursday, March 10th.
-Patrick
The Nomi Song is a lovingly compiled documentary on the gay new wave opera singer, Klaus Nomi, and it's playing locally at The Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, MA. Plugging into the new wave and punk era where the talentless reigned supreme, Klaus Nomi, who was in fact a talented and trained singer from Germany, came to NYC in the 70s and created a hybrid mix of new wave music and operatic singing dressed as an alien from outer space.
The Nomi Song does an incredible job using archival footage comprised of rare live performances, including Nomi's stunning appearance with David Bowie singing The Man Who Sold the World and TVC15 on Saturday Night Live in December of 1979, along with interviews with Klaus and the people who knew him including Ann Magnuson, Gabriele Lafari, David McDermott, Page Wood, Tony Frere, Man Parrish, Kristian Hoffman, Ron Johnsen, Kenny Scharf, Anthony Scibelli, and Alan Platt (absent for unknown reasons is fellow Nomi, Joey Arias).
The Nomi Song does wonders of showing how brutal the music industry could be on the creative talents it eats up and spits out, as Klaus had to travel to France (where he was hailed as a cross between Maria Callas and Elvis Presley), in order to even get a record deal. Nomi had a way of combining covers of Elvis Presley's Can't Help Falling in Love, Lou Christie's Lightning Strikes, Lesley Gore's You Don't Own Me and the Wizard of Oz's Ding Dong (the Witch is Dead) with opera, cabaret, and some futuristic new wave songs of his own to become one of the most unique performers in his day. Couple that with a stark fashion sense, then it makes sense that France would be the first to latch onto him (think Plastic Bertrand mixed with Kraftwerk and SNL's Sprockets). The film also shows the loneliness attributed to the ultimate creativity of Klaus Nomi and his early death from AIDS in 1983, when not much was yet known about the disease.
The Nomi Song is still playing in its area debut at the Brattle Theatre ( http://www.brattlefilm.org/ ) until Thursday, March 10th.
-Patrick
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home