Exhaustion would be understandable as a reason for her relative absence, because god knows the impulse to hibernate in some Star Wars-esque healing chamber was strong following a mere listen of Have One on Me (TMT Review). Three years have passed since the release of that rather arduous undertaking, contracted literary experts have entered depressive states following fruitless attempts to interpret her lyrics, and unless you caught a now-rare performance courtesy of Pitchfork last month, the association with Andy Samberg probably comes just as easily now as her and her plucking. Extended intervals between albums shouldn’t be confused as unusual, but so commences the wondering of just what Joanna Newsom is up to these days, whether a new album is at least mentally in the works, or whether she’s taking an indirect cue from Marky Mark, et al. by becoming a musician turned actor, sans the baggage of embarrassing music videos from the early 90s.
As it happened, Boogie Nights arguably coincided with Mark Wahlberg’s “big break” into the film world, and now, Paul Thomas Anderson is serving as director/theoretical acting mentor once again for Newsom, who’ll be appearing in his next film Inherent Vice, set for release some time in 2014. Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, Reese Witherspoon, and Joaquin Phoenix will presumably take on bigger roles in this 1970s-era detective story, but who’s to say that the murder investigation won’t ultimately lead to a psychopathic harpist? Those things are huge. Could definitely do some human damage.
I leave you with a Portlandia attestation to Newsom’s acting chops:
• Joanna Newsom: http://www.dragcity.com/artists/joanna-newsom
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