Lucas W. Nathan’s lyrical/avant-polka project, Jerry Paper, is taking off for a European tour this summer following the release of his latest, brilliant, rather Eno-esque record, “Carousel”. You can catch him in Brooklyn at Aviv tonight (May 22) and at Rough Trade on June 12. After entertaining the experimental music lovers of Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris, he’ll come back to play a home show at Shea Stadium on 7/31. Don’t let the man’s upbeat quirky tunes confuse you—listen closely and many of these songs are stern critiques of society, police, and politics. They ask questions and point fingers. Despite his primarily cynical outlook, in the song “Doesn’t Matter/Take Me” the narrator experiences and analyzes beauty, determining that whether life came about by chance, mutation or invention, and despite its excess of problems, experience is meaningful: “if my inner life/ is just a silly mutation/ is it any less amazing, uh huh/ than if some dude in sky/ dreams us all from birth til’ we die/ all the love and the tears and the beauty/ all so a code can copy copy copy// i’m not saying i know shit/ about if the clown is real or all in my head/ all i am trying to say is life is beautiful either way/ from clown or DNA.” – Leora Mandel
