Green Monkey Records is most pleased to release a new digital single from Fur For Fairies – “I Breath You In” b/w “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” I Breath You In” was recorded as part of the original FFF album but held back due to its very personal nature; it was now deemed time to let it stand on its own. The song was written by Susanne and Jeff as a tribute/remembrance to her late father, Northwest artist and long-time University of Washington faculty member Michael Dailey.
Susanne Kelly: “I Breathe You In” is a love song to my father. He painted sky, sea and landscapes. In the art world he was renowned for his use of color. In our family he was color. After he died at home, the family honored his wishes to be cremated and scattered in the sea. I stood on a rock near shore, sky all around, and threw out handfuls. Instead of gray, the ashes were a sandy rose, and when airborne turned golden. No one could ever burn the color out of Michael Dailey. He colors my world still and always.”
The single is available direct from Green Monkey Records Friday and will be available on iTunes, etc. shortly.
press quote Fur For Fairies in MAGNET MAGAZINE
FUR FOR FAIRIES: DEVIL DOWN Green Pajamas offshoot Fur For Fairies keeps it gothic, poetic and dramatic Even though the artist is listed here as Fur For Fairies, make no mistake about it: This is the debut LP of Susanne Kelly, longtime wife of Jeff Kelly, lead singer/songwriter for Seattle indie-rock stalwarts the Green Pajamas. Needless to say, the music here bears no resemblance to the Pajamas. The Green Monkey Records press release refers to Susanne’s album as “11 lucky slices of infinity and grace.” WTF? What kind of drugs was that guy using? This isn’t a Jackie Kennedy album we’re talking about. As a misguided, ultra-twee way to describe the artist, Fur For Fairies doesn’t give you much, either. For some reason, Susanne Kelly’s name appears nowhere on the release—odd considering how she totally owns the music. One voyage through these gritty, sometimes blood-soaked and hell-bound songs, and you get the full picture. Susanne, who considers herself as much an actor as a singer, takes on the appearance of a midnight wraith, a ghoul, maybe even a well-hidden cannibal. In short, much of this is pretty creepy stuff, especially for a beautiful girl with a background as a well-respected Seattle artist whose paintings hang in important places. “I looked upon each track as a short story, a perfect little art piece dipped in melancholy,” says Susanne. “I almost feel like I’m playing each part in costume. That way, I don’t get stuck in a rut.” The inspiration to create this oddball mini-masterpiece comes from what she labels “a rebellion from soulsucking day jobs” both Kellys were working in the health-care industry for far too long. As for the scary cover photo of Susanne with matted hair and crimson-stained lips— something even her mother might not recognize—Susanne confirms, “I’m not making this record to be eye candy.” The lyrics, written by Jeff with help from Susanne, have more than a few H.P. Lovecraft moments. “Gone With Summer” states, “It’s raining cold drops of you.” Or as “The End Of The World” illustrates, “You walk like a boy, you feel like a girl/I bet you would taste like the end of the world.” Jeff has wrought backing tracks that resemble nothing he’s ever attempted with the GPJs. Haunted church organ settles under cobwebbed oboe, tinkling celeste and slashing, Hendrix-like guitar accompanied by an occasional seismic bass pattern that sucks all the air out of the room. This is a man who took something away with him when he visited Bram Stoker’s grave in London’s Highgate Cemetery at millennium’s end. When it comes to Susanne’s work ethic, Jeff likes to inject a little Keats into the discussion. “She puts songs across that realize her limits and become great within,” he says. “Each song is a fully finished piece without peaks and valleys.” As for that drywall-peeling bass sound, he credits it to something he once heard on a track by London punk legends Siouxsie & The Banshees. If Siouxsie gets the chance to hear Susanne, she should feel that the torch may have finally been passed to a dramatically worthy successor. —Jud Cost
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“Another distinctive project from the Kelly mind-meld.” Michael Toland
Oct 24, 2015
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FUR FOR FAIRIES – FOUR STAR REVIEW!
From New Underground Music (translation): Fur For Fairies is the project of Susanne Kelly from Seattle, Washington, USA and is, like it made in 2014 released album “By Reckless Moonlight”, in collaboration with her husband Jeff, who is also in the bands The Green Pajamas and The Goblin Market plays. Under the name Fur For Fairies is Susanne, who also paints and carvings makes, with the eponymous CD, which appeared in August 2015 through the Green Monkey Records label, its official debut. The CD contains 11 songs and begins with “My Stolen Kiss “, where I heard a fairly obscure-sounding pop song war and the voice of Susanne sounds pretty sensual, and” Like The End Of The World “follows and let herein hear me again a wonderful peaceful slightly progressive pop song, which equipped with an obscure text. Then I hear “If I Kissed An Angel” and in this song I hear a great danceable pop song, which is followed by “Gone With The Summer”, a catchy sounding calm doll song, in which Susanne me again treats us to a sultry vocals. Then comes “Toward The Dawn” and in it she let me enjoy a swinging danceable pop song containing light funk, and I “Sea Of Cortez (A Bourbon Lament)” to put war and in this song I hear a fine electro pop song, followed by “Things I Never Did”, which I heard a sultry sung pop song get, which is played in a not too rapidly. In “She Says No “Susanne is serving me a very quiet dark pop song, in which the voice somewhat resembles that of Crystal Jacqueline (listen to it using the youtube link below the review) and” Long Way Down “I hear her a delicious light hypnotic pop song be playing, which put me in motion. Then I get “The Singer Of Another Song,” a brilliant pop song, in which an amazing piece of Hammond organ sits and has a wonderfully catchy danceable rhythm, but contains an obscure text in the last song, entitled “The Lost Weekend (Autumn 1992)” I now hear again a quiet pop song that has a sad undertone and therefore sounds pretty grim. Fur For Fairies is full of nice quiet, sometimes obscure-sounding pop songs, listening more than worth it and I can therefore recommend this CD to those who love the better pop music.
Sep 27, 2015
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“The romantic dreamscape of ‘Gone With The Summer’ reminds me of a slinky Nina Simone cooing in a smoky nightclub in Paris” Jeff Penczak – Terrascope
FUR FOR FAIRIES (Green Monkey) Well, this is weird, even by Green Monkey standards! For the uninitiated, the only clue to the music within are the credits proclaiming the whole thing was written and produced by one Jeff Kelly. Terrascopers know the name like their own – surely a new solo album from that man behind the mixing desk in the green pajamas [sic]? But who’s that sultry vixen wrapped in Chrissie Hynde’s least favourite Winter-wear? Hell, she even looks like Chrissie Hynde. Could it be…? Nah. This is Green Monkey we’re talking about here, remember! Well, the cat’s been skinned (along with, perhaps, a few rabbits, beavers, and a fox or three) and I can let you in on the secret – it’s none other than Mrs. Kelly: painter, printmaker, wife, and mom, Susanne. You may recognize her from various Green Pajamas and Kelly solo songs and album covers (both as the cover model and/or creator of the original artwork). You may even have her earlier collaboration with Jeff, last year’s By Reckless Moonlight, also on Green Monkey and reviewed by us here. Her solo turn on ‘I’d Rather Be Filming In Vanda’s Room’ convinced the loonie running Green Monkey (a certain Tom Dyer) that she deserved her shot at the big time, her very own solo album. Except her husband would write and play everything and make it sound releasable. (Mr. Dyer may be, um, adventurous and is clearly delusional, but this is a business and you don’t release nearly 80 albums over 30+ years without having some clue about what you’re doing. Well, maybe he does, but he’s an exception! I think he’s released more Green Pajamas – and related – releases than anyone else, and for that alone he’s my hero. But I digress….) So what the heck is Fur For Fairies anyway? The Kellys may know, but they’re not talking. And Jeff’s lyrics, always an opportunity for psychoanalysis and obstreperous discussions over hidden clues that all seem to lead us into Meagan’s bed are here silent. He’s probably written more songs than he’s recorded, so perhaps there’s a ‘Fur For Fairies’ hidden away in a sock drawer somewhere to be unleashed long after the taste of his wife’s solo debut has dissipated into our subconscious memories, from which we extracted the following report: Opener ‘My Stolen Kiss’ is a funky calypso shuffle with some menacing guitar shrieks from Jeff – imagine Marianne Faithfull’s ‘Why D’ya Do It?’ with all the naughty bits excised. Jeff still can pull off a bleeding solo with the best of them as evidenced on the hauntingly apocalyptic ‘Just Like The End Of The World’ and the weirdly autobiographical ‘If I Kissed An Angel’, wherein Susanne sings “If I kissed an angel/Would she be my wife/Lost in her forever/Would it end my life?” Surely Jeff originally intended to sing those words himself? Which raises an interesting sidebar – are these songs written specifically for Susanne, or are they refugees from the 15-volume collection of unrecorded/unreleased Jeff Kelly tunes that best suited her demeanor, voice, and sentiment? Susanne is probably the first person (after Jeff) to hear his songs as he works them out in his studio…perhaps these stuck in her head just waiting for this opportunity to unleash them? There’s an interview waiting for the Kellys right here at Terrascope Towers to answer this and other perplexing mysteries. The romantic dreamscape of ‘Gone With The Summer’ reminds me of a slinky Nina Simone cooing in a smoky nightclub in Paris, and while ‘Toward The Dawn’ takes a little too long to see the sunlight, it does deliver another frightfully funky jam from Jeff that transported me right back to some ‘70s album from the likes of Parliament. I also liked the hesitating tease of ‘Sea of Cortez (A Bourbon Lament)’ that excitingly revisits Jeff’s Leonard Cohen fascination (perhaps shaken not stirred with a splash of Lee Hazelwood). ‘Long Way Down’ treads into bluesy territory with more Cohenesque lyrics (“I have broken all ten commandments/And I broke them ten times”) delivered in a snarly Patti Smith tongue by an equally seductive Susanne, while ‘The Singer of Another Song’ sashays around the room like Booker T speeding his MG around the Amalfi Coast. And the rear is brought up by the most Pajama-like song in the set, the lilting waltz ‘The Lost Weekend (Autumn 1992)’. Could this date back to the Portugal period? Ultimately, the album may be judged as just another Jeff Kelly side project, which would be a tragic misappropriation of the credit due Susanne for bravely tackling another art form. Green Monkey have eased her into the music profession by placing her behind a pseudonym, and while there is no escaping Jeff’s musical imprint, props to the Mrs. for an engaging, courageous work that, despite a few warts, left a satisfactory impression on these ears. (Jeff Penczak)
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“Susanne is not a conventional singer, so some listeners might be put off by her delivery, but between the strong lyrics and the creative backing parts, it’s a rewarding listen for those who give it a chance.”
(Green Monkey GM1032, 2015, CD) by Jon Davis, Published 2015-09-02 Fur for Fairies Cover art Looking back to the early days of Patti Smith’s career, her collaboration as a performing poet with multi-instrumentalist Lenny Kaye can be seen as a template for a way to combine words with music which is a little different from the standard singer-songwriter mold. Susanne Kelly’s collaboration with her husband Jeff Kelly is similar in some respects, with Jeff constructing musical settings for Susanne’s vocals – and Susanne’s voice shares some qualities with Smith’s as well, being expressive but not conventional or resembling the kind of powerhouse singer that is most often heard. She also shares flavors of dark intensity with P.J.Harvey, often using whispering tones. The instrumental setting for Susanne’s words are very different from Jeff’s work with The Green Pajamas – no trace of jangly psychedelia here, but slinky grooves, sometimes minimal, sometimes more aggressive, and with a wide variety of sounds from bass, guitars, drums, percussion, keyboards, and percussion. Each tune has a distinct identity, from the distorted wah-wah guitar and bongo drums of “My Stolen Kiss” to the slow blues grind of “Like the End of the World” with its organ fills to the serene (almost Satie-like) piano of “Gone with the Summer.” One constant in the arrangements is the careful way parts are layered together – each instrument has its own part, and there are never times when they’re all just playing the chord progression. The sonic space is populated expertly, never cluttered or overdone or with parts added just because they can be. As I mentioned, Susanne is not a conventional singer, so some listeners might be put off by her delivery, but between the strong lyrics and the creative backing parts, it’s a rewarding listen for those who give it a chance.
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“It sounds like the perfect music that is meant for times like this, where you just want to listen and phase out the rest of the world, just to be able to bathe in the textures and surroundings of these compositions.”
Susanne Kelly is the founder of Fur For Fariries and if the name sounds familiar, you may know her husband, Green Pajamas member Jeff Kelly. While Jeff Kelly is credited as producer and author of all of the songs, Susanne makes it hers and creates a world that is unique in itself but free to listen to it with the perspective of what Jeff Kelly is known for. On their self-titled debut, Susanne sings these songs that is not unlike the devotion one normally expects in works by Polly Jean Harvey, Karen O., and Kim Shattuck. Musically, Jeff Kelly goes everywhere from blunt rock to bluesy dirges, with some of the Seattle influences being somewhat obvious if you know what you’re listening to/for. In fact, as someone who has lived in the Pacific Northwest for a long time, Fur For Fairies very much sounds like a Seattle album, even though there isn’t a stereotypical Seattle sound. It just sounds like the kind of music that may have been written in the fall, made specifically during the winter, then mixed and mastered during the spring. When Susanne reaches deep into lyrics like “I feel like a boy, you feel like a girl/I bet you would taste just like the end of the end”, it is almost as if Jeff was writing directly for his wife, or you could say Susanne was saying “okay Jeff, I dare you to write what you think I’m thinking”. This is the end result. It sounds like the perfect music that is meant for times like this, where you just want to listen and phase out the rest of the world, just to be able to bathe in the textures and surroundings of these compositions. At least that’s what I think. John Book – This Is Books Music