Pete Yorn put all of his talents into 'Day I Forgot'

Friday, April 18, 2003

By GENE STOUT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER POP MUSIC CRITIC

New Jersey-bred singer-songwriter Pete Yorn is back on tour with a full band, but for the recording of his latest album, he played most of the instruments himself.

COMING UP

PETE YORN (with Grandaddy and Rooney)

WHEN: Thursday night at 8

WHERE: Paramount Theatre

TICKETS: $23 at Ticketmaster

Yorn managed to give his new CD, "Day I Forgot," a rich, full sound by approaching each instrument as an actor might approach a script.

"When you play the bass parts or the drum parts, you have to be each of those guys the whole time," he told New Yorks's Daily News. "Like acting, it's about figuring out how to be someone else."

But Yorn isn't faking anything on "Day I Forgot," a powerful, power-pop album of raw, heartfelt songs that defies genres and demographics.

"I was less concerned with trying to sound cool or mysterious on this record," he said in an interview with Ice magazine. "You can hear that I'm singing with a lot more emotion than I was on the first record. I'm belting it out more."

Yorn's tour, which opens Monday in San Francisco, includes a concert Thursday night at the Paramount Theatre with support acts Grandaddy and Rooney. His headlining gig shows that last year's buzz about him has finally paid off. What's remarkable is that his music appeals as much to baby boomers as it does to those in Yorn's own late-20s demographic.

Yorn counts Teenage Fanclub, as well as earlier groups Big Star and Badfinger, as major influences on his own brand of power-pop revivalism. He also loved the Smiths and particularly the Cure, whose influence can be heard in the guitar solo in the new song "Long Way Down."

Yorn paid his dues on the L.A. nightclub circuit, including his popular shows at Cafe Largo in West Hollywood, before landing a deal with Columbia Records after an acoustic audition.

Before his debut record was released, Yorn gained the admiration of the directors of the 2000 comedy "Me, Myself and Irene" for an original song he submitted for the soundtrack. The directors liked "Strange Condition" so much they asked him to write the entire score.

Critical praise of "Strange Condition" gave Yorn's debut 2000 album, "musicforthemorningafter," a hefty boost in a year when solo male acts were a rarity on the charts.

Among the great songs on "Day I Forgot" is "Man in Uniform," a tune about the "suits" who yearn to do something else, such as play in a rock band. But the message is aimed at anyone who has lost motivation in a chosen field.

"I see so many performers and people in bands get jaded," he says on his Web site, www.peteyorn.com. "They just can't find happiness because they get too caught up in the business end of things. I just want to keep it pure, make it about the music. And con- tinue to experience those pure, fleeting moments."

P-I pop music critic Gene Stout can be reached at 206-448-8383or genestout@seattlepi.com.

Webtowns
Read more about Downtown

Add P-I Music headlines to