MUSIC PREVIEW: Berlin offers ‘barnburner’ of a CD release party
Rick Berlin will relase his new CD, "Me & Van Gogh," over two nights at the Lizard Lounge, tomorrow and Saturday.
By CHAD BERNDTSON
For The Patriot Ledger

Rick Berlin has an austere new album, ‘‘Me & Van Gogh,’’ and he’s throwing himself one hell of a CD release party. Actually, it’s not so much an individual CD feting as a full-on career retrospective: Not only will the 60-year-old Berlin himself be performing tomorrow night and Saturday at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, but no fewer than 35 artists will take the stage over the two nights to perform a Berlin song of their choosing. It’s an illustrious affair, and only the latest in a career that spans more than 30 years, handfuls of bands and countless other projects.
The guest lists for the two nights, which Berlin says are 99 percent confirmed, are a veritable who’s who of local musicians, befitting one of the scene’s most enduring characters.
Flamboyant glam rock in the Bowie and New York Dolls vein - his mid-’70s work with the pioneering Orchestra Luna - is perhaps what he’s best remembered for, but that would ignore his forays into punk, new wave and cabaret-rock, and everything in between. Influence-wise, Berlin must see a lot of himself in some of the younger acts that will appear over the next few nights.
Among other local staples, tomorrow night’s lineup is scheduled to include Laurie Sargent of Face to Face and the Twinemen, Ad Frank, Nigel Glover, Ted Drozdowski of the Scissormen, Mittens, and members of the Shelley Winters Project, Gato Malo, and Sand Machine. Three of Berlin’s coworkers from Doyle’s, the Jamaica Plain bar where he’s worked since 1989, also will perform.
Saturday night’s crop will offer Asa Brebner, Wide Iris’ Matt York, The Neighborhoods’ Dave Minehan, various members of the Garagedogs and Orchestra Luna II, a mime, a video artist, and Berlin’s sister, Lisa Dudley, and her nephew.
A late breaking addition to Saturday’s show is a real pair of heavy hitters: Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione, better known as the Dresden Dolls. Erstwhile Extreme and Van Halen frontman and man-about-town Gary Cherone is also a rumored addition.
‘‘They’re all friends of mine. I usually get in touch with them when I need something,’’ Berlin laughed in a recent interview. ‘‘In some cases, they owe me!’’
In terms of song selection, all of Berlin’s material, from mid-’70s Orchestra Luna classics straight through ‘‘Me & Van Gogh’’ is fair game, interpreted however the artist sees fit. That means the possibility of hearing select (and reinvented?) nuggets from Orchestra Luna, Orchestra Luna II, Luna, Berlin Airlift, Rome is Burning, the Shelley Winters Project and any number of obscurities. Berlin will play a solo set, vocals and piano, at the end of both nights ‘‘for whoever’s left.’’
‘‘It’s completely unpredictable. I have no parameters,’’ he said of the lineups and subsequent song selection. ‘‘Some I do know, but only about 15 percent of what will be played. Some folks might drop out, others’ll surprise me. I know someone’s going to show a film with music, and one guy’s going to do a puppet show type thing. My nephew’s friend actually wants to burp one song!’’
‘‘Me & Van Gogh’’ is stark and frank - controlled silences, scrupulous attention, skeletal arrangements uncluttered by orchestration and anything but Berlin’s piano and voice. He cut the 12-song album as his first release for Hi-N-Dry, one of whose pointmen, ex-Morphine and current Twinemen drummer Billy Conway, serves as producer. The project has another Morphine connection - the piano Berlin used is a low-end, acoustic one that formerly belonged to the late Mark Sandman.
‘‘I presented my ideas to Hi-N-Dry. I thought (Billy) would be frustrated with the (spareness), but it was exactly the opposite. He said, ‘Records have too much information these days. I like the silences,’’’ Berlin said. ‘‘So we kept it to one simple blueprint, cut about 35 songs in three days, and then chose songs that seemed to fit. I knew it’d be honest.
‘‘With one exception I’ve always had either rockin’, solid bands or an orchestral production core. But if a song can’t stand on its own, it’s less of a piece of work,’’ he continued. ‘‘I like being afraid by myself up there. I can take people on a private trip. I really like doing it if I can hold a private space.’’
Three decades since the signing of Orchestra Luna, Berlin keeps his plate full. He’d fancy touring as a guest pianist with a new band (‘‘just starting out’’), as well as returns to performing in New York. His ongoing film project - a documentary on Jamaica Plain for which he’s logged more than 50 interviews - will debut in 2007. He will also be recording both nights at the Lizard Lounge, and chopping the takes into a highlights reel for a future DVD release.
As for that two-night takeover, it promises to be a barnburner.
Rick Berlin & Friends. - At the Lizard Lounge, 1667 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 9 p.m. tomorrow night and Saturday. Tickets $10 at the door or through www.virtuous.com. Call 617-547-0759 for more information.
Copyright 2006 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Thursday, January 26, 2006