| Luminous Animal | |||||||||||
| A Review of the CD from Anne MacNaughton, Peter Rabbit & Mexican Bob | |||||||||||
Ur-communards, unreconstructed hippies, hipness personified, Anne MacNaughton and Peter Rabbit and Mexican Bob are best known as the purveyors of the annual Taos Poetry Circus, which is a circus, and a poem, too, and culminates with the gots-to-see-to-believe World Heavyweight Championship Poetry Bout, the most actualized piece of surrealist theater since Tzara called the cops on Breton. Now Annie and Peter (who have been married and divorced so many times they literally can’t remember which part of the cycle they are currently riding in) have, with their trine, Mexican Bob, created a Last Living Beat Jazz Poetry CD that is retro-future, porno, improv-laden, mean, charged, political. It is the opposite of nice, and the only way you can get it is to write to them: Luminous Animal, 5215 NDCBU, Taos, NM 87571.
Their band, a deft bebop quartet that unleashes some deadly vibes (that is the instrument) and swinging sax over a potent rhythm section, backs this three-some way past Past. “So old it’s new, so new you can’t believe you’re hearing it, the theme of tonight’s reading, Kiddies, is S-E-X.” Luminous Animal test drives all borders, overstepping them -- sexy, open, gross, anarchic, politically incorrect, off key, crass, at one with a God whose name is Random:
Mexican Bob, who often sounds strikingly like Kerouac himself, and Annie M, feminine, marvelous, and tough, open with some kind of New Math:
The entrance of Rabbit, held back through the Math opening, his raspy snarl, what a voice:
Annie’s “Meditation on Balls” and “Breasts” are at once free love and deep philosophy. It gets to the point on the CD where even putting the gas nozzle into the gas tank becomes sexual. Annie’s heroine replies to the man who tells her she should wear a bra,
Rabbit on performance art:
Mex Bob and sax do a swinging duet, where “ass” somehow becomes a metaphysician’s remedy, a swinging everything. This section points to what an excellent live recording this is -- sometimes levels are a little off, but in general it’s astonishing, production too a warts’n’all aesthetic, the room itself a constant now. The first piece, an extended jam containing at least a dozen poems and as many changes from the band, is over half an hour. Some ID markers would help to figure out what’s going on.
Towards the end, Rabbit dons the mien of preacher to sermonize on the joys of fellatio. He even dives into the briar patch at one point. Mex Bob surreals, “poetry as extraordinary as tortillas in the kitchen.” Annie starts in to scat and the band cooks away.
Luminous Animal is a breed apart, an endangered species captured live and wiggly on this CD. They are definitely not for everyone. But then, they don’t try to be. That’s the only way to Go Universal. Go, Animal, Go!
Bob Holman  By Date | By Topic | |||||||||||
Explore Poetry
Must Reads
About.com Special Features
A Smarter Future
Tips that will help finance your education, excel in the classroom, and advance your career. More >
How to Ace the GRE
Being well prepared is the first step; here are more essential suggestions. More >
©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.
All rights reserved.