April March is actually Elinor Blake, who divides her time between attempting pop stardom and animation. As an animator, she's worked on Ren & Stimpy, Pee-Wee's Playhouse and even did the title sequence for Madonna's Who's That Girl.As a pop star, well, her most recent showing was a tune of hers from 1999 that appeared in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof. Soooo, she's still got some work to do.
Her style is primarily influenced by 60's French pop yé-yé singers, like France Gall, Françoise Hardy, Jane Birkin & Claudine Longet, and she's been known to cover a Serge Gainsbourg song or two.
"Voo Doo Doll" is off her first EP, which I've been looking for pretty much since it came out in 1993. One day last year, eBay phoned me up and said, "Pal, we finally found it. Come get it, ASAP!" So I did, and I think this might be the last "long-lost" CD in my pantheon. Oh, wait, no, I still need Queens of the Stone Age's first LP. Anyhow..."Voo Doo Doll" is about a voodoo doll the singer uses to punish her man, "to hurt you when with her". Somehow he manages to give him earaches, corns, chapped lips and all sorts of miscellaneous maladies. Musically, the song is relatively straightforward, a nice upbeat 4/4 with a small band plus organ and background singers, although it's slightly weirded due to the verses being 12 bars instead of the standard 16. So it's just a little wonky, which helps underscore the vague craziness of the protagonist.
The EP is great. It consists of five songs, all heavily influenced by the aforementioned 60's pop vibe, but also very much by the quirky stylings of Vic Mizzy (think: The Addams Family theme). The song "Kooky" is almost a dead rip-off. Also, she's wearing ice skates on the cover. A fantastic listen, but good luck finding it. I can't even find it on Amazon at this point.[You can listen to April March's "Voo Doo Doll" by navigating to the post "Song046" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]
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