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MGD Gets Chatty with Aimee Mann

Under normal circumstances, mix a little Aimee Mann with a littlebeer and the outcome is a one-way ticket to drunken depression. Butlast night’s (Oct. 23) installment of MGD’s the Craft series featuringthe former ‘Til Tuesday frontlady proved that sometimes Aimee Mann andbeer blends for a good time. Playing four tracks from her forthcoming2008 release Smilers, including “Freeway,” a bouncy ditty withmismatched lyrics, and “Little Tornado,” a more stripped down soundthan heard before, Mann admitted she doesn’t really do happy songs,saying “the thing that makes any plot interesting is the conflict.””Save Me,” Mann’s copasetic Academy Award-nominated song made famous inthe 1999 drama Magnolia, rounded out Mann’s characteristically touching melancholy.

Butthe seemingly quiet yet oddly funny songwriter did earn a few laughsand smiles from the Park West crowd — the last time she was reallyglum, Mann listened to Coldplay’s “The Scientist,” she divulged. Thesongsmith also stated that she is “lazy,” possesses a terrible memory,and explained that just because she writes and sings in the firstperson doesn’t mean the songs are from her perspective. But really,Mann isn’t completely downhearted — she’s just a regular somebody wholoves Law & Order reruns, so don’t get too carried away in psychoanalyzing why she compared her likeness to a giraffe.

We asked: Aimee Mann’s second solo album is called I’m With Stupid. When was the last time you were hanging out with someone and thought, “Man, I really am with stupid!”