Irony sells, and Adam Green has unwittingly combined it with various other selling points of today’s scenester culture-old school rock ‘n’ roll, faux naïveté, and camp-to hit what may prove to be a lucrative sweet spot.
Beginning his career as half the NYC duo The Moldy Peaches, Green is now a solo act. He is an awkward conversationalist with little formal education but has been writing songs since age 12 and is confident of his ability. Green’s two albums, Friends Of Mine (2003) and Garfield (2002) are carried by Rough Trade.
Green’s recent gig at ICA came as a shock to fans accustomed to the lo-fi bedroom recordings of Garfield, when all he needed to rock was an acoustic guitar. While Green aspired to be a crooning hunka hunka indie love, taking up a full band so that he could concentrate on vocals, he sadly lacked confidence. Such could be considered his charm-it won over the ICA crowd by positioning Green as just one of them. After all, he did name-drop Dostoyevsky and thrift store in the same breath.
Green combines a Lou Reed-esque laissez faire attitude with child-like lyrics that share in the spirit of ’80s art rock duo They Might Be Giants. Yet, instead of singing about science and famous painters, we hear There’s no wrong way to fuck a girl with no legs
. Green’s encore, a lovely solo rendition of My Shadow Tags on Behind from Garfield, showed that, despite enthusiastic efforts to fake stardom à la Har Mar Superstar, Green belongs with guitar in hand. N.Harren
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