A lot of Homestyle is about trying to satisfy hunger—for food, drink, sex, and bittersweet vice. The culinary tone is set with the boozy, deathbed-ravings-of-Humbert Humbert version of Lerner & Lowe’s “Thank Heaven For Little Girls” via Tom Waits (I think I’ll have the veal, that’s how I feel/May I use your skull for a bowl?”); the second course is a “Twilight Zone”-inflected cover of the Butthole Surfers’ “Pepper.”
The first original offering—the jaunty “LumpyCraddyPoPo”—overflows with mischievous glee.
The versatile fivesome of accordion, double bass, violin, saxophone, and Kay’s acoustic guitar and medicine show bark-meets-seductive croon sets an alluring table with a bawdy blues (“Spring”), a gypsy romp (Django Reinhardt’s “Nuages”), and a thumping hymn to modern-day demigoddesses (“Uta Hagen”).
Steeped in old-world cosmopolitanism but modern enough to employ vocal processors and references to Uma Thurman’s sexiness, this Homestyle meal will satisfy more than one kind of craving. www.unclemoon.com
This article appears in March 2007.
