The Vanity Set - The Vanity Set (2000)

What with Grinderman becoming popular (well, as "popular" as good music gets these days) I thought it would be nice to post the self-titled debut from Jim Sclavunos' band, The Vanity Set. Jim Sclavunos is a NYC drummer and producer with a long varied career. In the early to mid-eighties, he was a member of 8-Eyed Spy with Lydia Lunch, who he's also worked with on her solo material. He's also worked with Sonic Youth and Tav Falco's Panther Burns. In the early nineties he was briefly a member of The Cramps. By the mid-nineties he was a member of Alice Texas' band and started working with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. His membership in The Bad Seeds continues to this day and led directly to his current collaboration with Nick Cave in Grinderman.

While The Vanity Set seemed to settle into a proper band with fixed membership for their second (and only other) album, 2003's Little Stabs at Happiness, their first self-titled album is truly an ensemble project that features many different players on each of the different tracks. If you're a fan of Congo Norvell, you'll appreciate Sally Norvell's vocal appearances on "I'm in You" and "Jump in the Grave" and Kid Congo Powers' guitar work on "Don't Be Afraid" and "Flame." Bad Seeds cohort Thomas Wydler shows up for tambourine on "I'm in You" and vocals on "Slim the Cook." Alice Texas sings on "End of the Line." There many other collaborators here whose name (and fame) I don't recognize. This collection of players is interesting in that it makes this album sound more like a compilation than an album from a "band." Some of the songs are dark and melancholy, some are a bit funny and some are just plain weird, but overall the album is quite intriguing and enjoyable. But it's hard to beat how the band describe themselves on their official web page: "...The Vanity Set blend low art, high sass and raw bluster. No other band leaps from the sublime to depraved, filth to elegance, camp to heartfelt urgency like these black-fisted Post-Romanticists. Sclavunos is the exquisitely tailored, six-foot-seven, howling/crooning front man with a vocal style somewhere between Adam West, Jarvis Cocker and Kermit." You just gotta love it. And, yes, that final hidden bonus track is indeed a cover of the Burt Bacharach classic!

The Vanity Set - The Vanity Set (2000)
1. I'm in You (4:54)
2. Nightstick (3:13)
3. Tomorrow's Another Day (4:58)
4. Personal Hell (4:24)
5. Jump in the Grave (4:00)
6. Don't Be Afraid (2:28)
7. The World Keeps Turning (2:42)
8. Slim the Cook (3:43)
9. End of the Line (3:19)
10. The Heavenly Host Are Gathered (6:02)
11. Flame (3:47)
12. Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head (2:58)

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