Where are you today, Pink Martini?
July 18th, 2004 | Posted by Shannon
I am fairly sure I was one of the first people to discover Pink Martini. Pink Martini the band from Portland, Oregon. I’ve had my share of martinis colored with drops of blood, too. But that is another story.
Pink Martini are so unbelievably great. They’ve only got one record, Sympathique. But that record is played all over the world, and has been since it came out in 1998ish. Just last month, when I was in New York, it was being played in a trendy restaurant. “Hey!” I told my friends. “Pink Martini! Have I ever told you about my Pink Martini Where Have You Heard Them Played Around the World Website Idea?” Of course they looked at me like I was totally insane.
Seriously, I think this is an idea right up there with Bookcrossing.com. Because you are probably as likely to hear Pink Martini in a cafe in Budapest, Santa Monica, Rome or Copenhagen, as you are to find a book at a pre-destined location. It’s true! When I was in New York, I swear, we heard Pink Martini AGAIN at another place the very next day. And this is six years after the record came out!
The reason Pink Martini is still being played, and at cool and trendy places, not to mention at my house right now, is because they are a band of hot percussionists and horn players (well, you wouldn’t know they are hot, but I do because I have seen them five times and I am telling you, they are) and a beautiful, sensuous singer named China Forbes. Well actually these are not the reasons they are being played, but they are good reasons to go and see the band. The REAL reasons they are being played after all these years, is that the record is beautiful, and rhythmic, both familiar and foreign, and besides being easy on the mind, makes your ears perk up and your legs tense, because you might want to dance soon. Only heard Doris Day sing “Che Sera Sera?” Check Pink Martini’s and China’s “Sera” out. Do you get off on “Bolero?” Well, you have to get this record. And it doesn’t get much better than “Song of the Black Lizard,” where China’s voice seems to morph into a trumpet solo that can only be called one thing – killer. As in so beautiful it will kill you.
I’ve seen them in the Great American Music Hall, when I could lick China’s shoe. I’ve seen them at the Hollywood Bowl, where I had to look through binoculars. But I’ve heard them all over the place. Someday I will start that website, and I’ll get more hits than this thing does.
July 19th, 2004 at 2:00 pm
You can hear the whole album at their web site… http://www.pinkmartini.com/cd/pm_cd.html
Click on Listen and Purchase from Pink Martini Radio.
And thanks for calling the Pottery Barn.
July 19th, 2004 at 3:39 pm
I first heard Pink Martini at one of our company parties. They were the entertainment one year at I think it was a Christmas Party. Oh for the days of dot-com mania.
July 19th, 2004 at 5:35 pm
I love the Pink Martini CD! I’ve had my copy for so long I don’t even remember where I first heard of them … Do you think they’ll ever come out with another CD?
I have to tell you, when I saw that “Che Sera Sera” was on Sympathetique, I was pretty bummed. Doris Day sang that song about a thousand times in the movie “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” and totally killed it for me. Now, I don’t even think of the movie (or Doris Day!) when I hear the song …
August 18th, 2004 at 4:14 pm
I was wondering the very same thing recently. They appeared on NPR about a year ago to talk about their second album (which was in process at the time). Anyhow, there’s a track from the new album on the site:
http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1288282
December 6th, 2004 at 7:46 am
i first heard pink martini at rialto tacoma wash.
PINK MARTINI ARE SO UNBELIEVABLY GREAT…
MICHELINE
December 12th, 2004 at 10:29 am
I’ve been listening to and enjoying “Hang on Little Tomato” – thanks for letting us know the CD was finally released!
And I heard a Pink Martini song from Sympathetique in a movie recently … I think it was the erotic thriller, “In the Cut.”
(I’ve been watching all the Mark Ruffalo movies I can, but it was a shock to go from his sweet character in “13 going on 30” to the sleazy detective “In the Cut!”)