Emily XYZ SongBook

Emily XYZ

ISBN: 1-892494-64-7 (paperback)--$13.00 (US) / $15.00 (CAN).
LCCN: 2004094405.

Emily XYZ's Atta Poem (mp3)

Download Market Sheet on Emily XYZ Songbook (PDF)

Emily XYZ is a writer, performer and vocalist best known for her rhythmic poems for two voices. The January 2005 release of The Emily XYZ Songbook (Rattapallax Press) marks the first-ever publication of these works and includes a CD of live and studio performances, produced and with electronic soundscapes by Virgil Moorefield.

Although she first gained notice at New York's Nuyorican Poets Cafe in the 1990s, XYZ was a spoken word artist long before the genre had a name. Her first recording, 1982's "Who Shot Sadat?" (vinyl 45) was named one of two "Indie Singles of the Year" by Robert Christgau in The Village Voice (the other was Grandmaster Flash's "The Message"). In the 1980s, XYZ wrote and staged experimental works for as many as 8 voices before settling on the 2-voice format.

In 1992, as the poetry slam scene was taking off, XYZ began working with actress Myers Bartlett. The pair went on to join the seminal NYC performance-poetry groups Nuyorican Poets Cafe Live! and Real Live Poetry, touring arts centers, nightclubs and colleges in the U.S. and internationally. In 1994, they recorded "Jimmy Page Loves Lori Maddox" b/w "Sinatra Walks Out," for Kill Rock Stars' Wordcore label. In 1996, their performance of XYZ's "Slot Machine" was featured in the PBS Television series The United States of Poetry. XYZ also appeared solo in a Nike ad honoring female Olympic athletes.

In 1998, XYZ recorded a CD for Mouth Almighty records, a sub-label of Polygram. Just days short of completion, the project was cancelled by a giant corporate takeover, but a successful fundraising effort followed which allowed XYZ to buy her record masters back herself. These tracks, along with good-quality live performances, appear on the CD to The Emily XYZ Songbook.

Publisher's Weekly (1/26/2005) writes: "XYZ's...performance style, vocal delivery and musical accompaniment contribute as much to her work as the words themselves. This breakthrough volume collects 13 of XYZ's texts, each scored for two simultaneous speakers, along with notes on their composition and performance. ... XYZ's own readings along with Virgil Moorefield's compulsively catchy electronic musical settings demonstrate her real powers for all to hear."

Comments on Emily XYZ SongBook

Praise for Emily XYZ Songbook:

Present at the creation of performance poetry, Emily XYZ acquired a cult following with her live gigs, punk stylings and recordings for indie-rock labels through the '80s and '90s, lighting up the stage at the now-famed Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Despite her relative prominence (including appearances on television and in high-profile anthologies), XYZ has produced no previous book: she may have felt, and her fans might have agreed, that her performance style, vocal delivery and musical accompaniment contribute as much to her work as the words themselves. This breakthrough volume collects 13 of XYZ's texts, each scored for two simultaneous speakers, along with notes on their composition and performance. "I think of them more as something to be heard than read," XYZ writes in her introduction, and indeed the texts can fall flat on the page; they are saved, though, by the wonderful accompanying CD, in which XYZ's own readings-along with Virgil Moorefield's compulsively catchy electronic musical settings-demonstrate her real powers for all to hear. Several works rely on insistently repeated phrases, reducing the voice almost to a percussion instrument; others imply a traumatic early life or promulgate an inspiring, sometimes sarcastic feminist politics. -- Publisher's Weekly, Jan. 2005

"So, ya wanna know what a perf-poem might look like if it, say, came up and bitcha? You talking: the emily xyz songbook: poems for 2 voices by emily xyz (Rattapallax), which is a CD with a book attached. Yes, Ms. Emily’s first (and billed also as her “only,” as if she might forsake print, which, of course she has and does), is a pure score, demanding that you unhinge your jaw and your Other’s jaw and you two go at it. Need pointers? The CD is impeccable even if Em’s Other, Myers Bartlett, loses to multitracking. Bravura poetry in a bravura production, with speed-veined hard’n’tight drum’n’bass electronica by Virgil Moorefield. This is the BOOK (CD) OF THE YEAR! " -- poetry.about.com

"Herein, the bravura is the every day, political economics and mystic mathematics dance with Frank Sinatra and Jimmy Page, and as long as you got two ears you might as well listen to two voices, each tearing its own tangent. This is the World According to Emily XYZ, and it's as close to the Unknown as you can get and still garden, make love, and write poetry. She's the world's firing squad. Ace art terrorist. I once got what I thought was a sunburn from one of her poems. But it was radiation poisoning. The only antidote is more of her truth. Now the poems are in a cradle, we're at the Nihilists' Hootenanny, and at last we can all singalong. Look, up in the sky! It's an A-Bomb Anarchist! It's a Vocal Volcano! It's Emily XYZ!" -- Bob Holman

"This stuff is good! It wears a broad grin while it cuts to the bone. Emily's words and Virgil's music form a perfect pair that will make your ears ring and jaw drop." -- Paul Lansky

"Emily XYZ takes us places where few dare to go. Her language carresses/attacks/makes us/laugh/makes us uncomfortable because we recognize ourselves and not only does it dance on the page -- it kicks butt on stage as well. I've been lucky enough to be on tour w/ her and just can't get enough of her. I've bobbed my head many atime to her words and hidden in bathroom stalls in between sets because I was close to tears/If Robert Wyatt, Rimbaud and Keith Richards had a baby -- she'd be it/she is literary rock n roll!" -- Dael Orlandersmith s