31 f A Flower By Name
But perhaps not by nature. Sarah Coxson checks out Petunia & The Vipers, but never gets around to asking where the name came from…
C
ult film maker Jim Jarmusch once said of his craft: “Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination.
Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architec- ture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul… always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: ‘It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.’”
It was this kind of cultural kleptoma- nia that struck me on first exposure to Petunia & The Vipers: their evocation of
brooding film noir, surrealist juxtaposi- tions, punk sensibilities and vintage post- war style. There’s certainly a cinematic lens trained on the performance, a striking vignette with myriad magpied reference points creating something new and unique. It’s all in the melting pot: mariachi inflections, storming old-skool hillbilly/ rockabilly, Western swing, sultry tropical samba, high and lonesome yodelling, sub- lime swooning lapsteel, lip-curling sneers, haunting Twin Peaks otherworldliness, 1930s muted jazz trumpets, silent film gothic melodrama, Hank Williams-style balladry and bar-room country crooning.
“Oh, there’s a lot in there. It’s like spring-boarding from many different roots from the past, drawing from many
different areas of American music. But I’m also a present guy from the present era with all my modern influences at the same time.”
Akin to many of the characters in Jar- musch films, Petunia, centre stage, is a lone wolf, a charismatic hero living on his wits, an enigmatic musical troubadour. We’re held in his thrall – as is the dream team of seasoned rockabilly veterans who create the lush soundstage alongside him: Stephen Nikleva on electric guitar, Jimmy Roy on lapsteel, Marc L’Esperance on drums and Sam Shoichet on upright bass. Stephen and Jimmy were previously the “twin guitar heart of the late Ray Condo’s band” – an iconic Vancouver rockabilly institution.
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