The Boston Herald
October 20, 2000
The Odd Couple
Songcraft Brings Hitchcock And Phillips Together
by Sarah Rodman
On the surface, Robyn Hitchcock and Grant-Lee Phillips would appear to have little in common -- other than the fact they are singer-songwriters who once fronted bands.
Phillips, 36, was the namesake of beloved Los Angeles-based Modern Roots rockers Grant Lee Buffalo, which released a string of critically acclaimed albums in the mid- to late-'90s. The 47-year-old Hitchcock's surreal and decidedly English work with The Soft Boys and the Egyptians in the '70s and '80s drew a large cult following.
So to some, the idea of the liquidly imaginative Brit and the salt-of-the-earth American teaming up to play each other's songs seems odd indeed. The two bring their mutual admiration society to the Middle East for shows on Sunday and Monday.
"People see Grant as American and me as British," Hitchcock says. "And therefore Grant is seen as a repository of Americana: the wide-open spaces, the old fables, the backwoods, the railroad, the buffalo -- all things probably vanished in America now, because it is basically a strip-mall from Florida up to Cape Cod across to the Puget Sound down to San Diego.
"And I am seen as a repository of British things: butlers, castles, people scurrying through the fog lit by the eerie glow of the tram light, people in top hats sipping cups of tea while the working class people roll up their sleeves and go, 'Blimey, guv.'
"It's all mythical really," he adds. "The truth is we're both Beatles fans and Bob Dylan fans, we both like what would be now seen as quite traditional, almost Roots music. And I hate to use the word, but, we're both probably craftsmen -- lovingly assembling our songs rivet by rivet."
They also were both dropped-by/left the same label, Warner Brothers; have recorded new albums that they are selling via the Internet (Hitchcock's A Star For Bram and Phillips' Ladies' Love Oracle); and were regulars at L.A.'s bustling Largo nightclub, where hip popsters such as Aimee Mann and Elliott Smith have been convening to trade songs and stories.
Hitchcock, on the phone from London, calls Largo "the matrix" while Phillips, speaking a world away in his Burbank home, calls it "our lab". It was there that the pair -- who first met at a WFNX-FM (101.7) event -- hatched the idea to tour.
They tried it out on the West Coast in June for a weeklong stint, about which Phillips says, "Too much fun for our internal organs -- like one long weekend."
The show involves new songs, covers, and older material selected by the other; plus some impromptu comedy bits. Hitchcock calls it "metropolitan entertainment" and likens the duo to Martin and Sinatra and Hope and Crosby, "Bing, rather than David".
Phillips, who does a spot-on impression of Hitchcock -- hopes the pair's respective fans will be turned on by the other performer. "I suspect when people come to the show, they'll be surprised at how much sense it really makes," he says, before adding with a laugh, "Or not."
Following the tour, Hitchcock plans to finish up The Unbaby, a book he has been working on (in which, "By the end, the beginning couldn't have happened.") Phillips is already at work on a new album with Largo maestro Jon Brion and mulling a possible collaboration with Neil Finn.
Both seem exhilarated by the simplicity of this just-for-fun tour, which they are doing via Amtrak. Says Hitchcock, "We have a guitar each and a suitcase full of T-shirts and CDs." What more do they need?
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