April 4–11, 1996

critic pick|rock/pop

Jonathan Richman

The last time Jonathan Richman played the TLA he coerced the entire audience to give up their reserved seats and stack them neatly in the corner so they could dance.

"I said, you know, it's buggin me. Something's wrong, it's those chairs. So I said to them, 'I'm just askin' ya. Would anybody be bugged if I asked anybody to move the chairs? Look, I'll even help you.'"

Calling from a pay phone at a recording studio in Boston where he's helping out former background vocalist Ellie Marshall record some new material, Richman is very succinct with his answers. He's a notoriously strange interviewee.

He hates to describe his music, won't tell me how the album he just finished, Surrender to Jonathan, got signed to Neil Young's new label Vapor, or why he left his former label, Rounder.

The whimsical, minimalist songwriter, affectionately called Jojo by his fans, is more willing to tell me about the kind of snacks he munches on while driving with his drummer to all their shows.

"Sometimes I'm a corn chips fella," says Jojo in his stuffy-nosed voice. "Corn nuts — they're good. Lemme see. Blueberry pie is always good. It's also good for the interior of the car. Apple pie, um, nuts and raisins. They're good. Oats are good. Mediterranean food. Pita bread. Potato chips, of course, the old standby...."

Richman does tell me a few things about his forthcoming album, Surrender to Jonathan — that he's added a big ol' horn section and it's filled with love songs. Of course it is. But like Jojo standards —"The Beach,""Give Paris One More Chance" or "The Baltimores," a love song about an a capella group — these love songs could very well be dedicated to corn nuts.

In the 20-some years since his debut with the Velvets-inspired band The Modern Lovers back in the mid -'70s in Boston, Richman has attracted a cult following who are more than willing to do whatever he asks.

Since boogieing became such a big part of the show last time, the promoter Electric Factory Concerts has decided to open Richman's show this time with the witty and inventive Headlong Dance Theater.

No chairs for this show?

"Yeah. Might as well start without the chairs," giggles Jojo. "It'll save a lot of effort in the middle of the show."

Jonathan Richman at the TLA, 4th and South Sts., April 9 at 8 p.m. 922-1011

— Margit Detweiler