Farewell, Broadcast's Trish Keenan: One Fan Remembers
Trish Keenan was a presence. The earliest New York shows by her British psychedelic pop band, Broadcast, were unforgettable: I remember her onstage at Bowery Ballroom -- where no group has sounded better -- up front, a statuesque reincarnation of Grace Slick, nearly motionless within a maelstrom of light and melody as her four bandmates unfurled ribbons of perfect, prismatic pop. "Perfect" is a terrible descriptor but it's a word that was used by more than a few to describe Broadcast circa 2000. They were so good it seemed like they'd sprung out of someone's imagination. The songs compiled on 1997's Work and Non Work (released in the states by Drag City) and Broadcast's first album proper, 2000's The Noise Made by People (Tommy Boy) were and remain pulsatingly evocative, drawing on influences that were more obscure at the dawn of the Internet Age. In an interview in 2000, the bandmembers spoke passionately to me about the music of the United States of America (a '60s act I barely knew), as they did in every interview around then, but also about the British library music of the '60s and '70s, names like Delia Derbyshire and Basil Kirchin, music with a very particularly English sort of retro-futuristic vibe (think of the atmosphere of Space: 1999 -- it never could've come from the U.S.). I pressed them for details, knowing full well I was gathering info that would never appear in the article; they were fans and they cited their influences proudly.
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