Pitchfork Forkcast: New Music: Pepi Ginsberg: "The Waterline" [MP3/Stream]

New Music: Pepi Ginsberg: "The Waterline" [MP3/Stream]

Dr. Dog's Scott McMicken was so taken with Pepi Ginsberg that he not only collaborated with the New York singer/songwriter on her third album, Red, but he also got her signed to Philly label Park the Van. It's easy to see the musical attraction. On "The Waterline" Ginsberg sounds thoroughly self-possessed both lyrically and vocally, fitting a breezy, folky arrangement to dark lyrics about trying to keep your head above water. Although it is specifically city-set, the song doesn't sound necessarily urban, but neither does it sound like the freaky folk music emanating from Philadelphia lately. There are jazzier elements pushing the song along: In the high range, a choir of Pepis sing a wordless warble-- the song's most distinctive feature. In the low range, a piano plays the left-hand part of an old boogie rhythm, filling in for a bass guitar and giving the song its ambling lope. In the middle is Pepi herself, singing about how "life is poetry you can't read twice."