The year 2009 truly belongs to two poetry recordings, by MC Paul Barman and Ellyn Maybe! Yes, you gotta listen to ’em (the bane of poetry CDs)—but if you don’t you can dance anyway, because these two CDs are so super-produced they’ll penetrate your cilia with groovy grooves and laden beats before you know what hits, which is: the rush of Pure Poetry!
Thought Balloon Mushroom Cloud, by MC Paul Barman
MC Paul Barman (cover image used with permission)
(Househusband Records, 2009) I’m a long-time fan of MC Paul Barman (disclosure: his Bowery Poetry Club gig showed up on one of his earlier mixtapes) and his Thought Balloon Mushroom Cloud makes me cry with joy. Sure he’s a Jew Dork—get over it! If you like your rap full up with dizzying invention and a moral stance, an imbalanced antihappenstance, if you prefer your 48 Rules of Power to rhyme and shimmy, if you want new forms created out of thick air, stop, listen and buy this guy. A Nonbeliever would simply hie to his acrostic shenanigans genius. Washington City Paper calls him “James Joyce for Rap Nerds.” I know Barman might not be for everyone—he’s much too smart, funny and busy going his own way. I’m just content to claim him as Poet.
Rodeo for the Sheepish, by Ellyn Maybe
Hen House Studios (cover image used with permission, cover art by Tommy Jordan)
(Hen House Studios, 2009) Ellyn Maybe got her moniker because she was too shy to commit when she signed up for the open mic list—“Ellyn,” she’d write, “maybe.” She’s an LA phenomenon, published by Henry Rollins, the lovechild of Gertrude Stein and Allen Ginsberg, a lyrical poet in hippie couture, a one-of-a-kind. Now, with Rodeo for the Sheepish, she shows she’s ready for Las Vegas. Brilliant settings by producer Harlan Steinberger, superlative vocal backtracks by Tommy Jordan—all of a sudden, she’s gone Motown and you can hear the sheer force of Poetry vs. Pop music in an arena the size of Radio City Poetry Hall. Humor, poignancy, universality, individuality—like all great artists, how she does it is a mystery, but Ellyn Maybe is for real.
