RePOEsessed and the Trigger Happy Jacks

For those who have been around the mid-to-late 1990s, you might have heard the stage name "POE" maybe once or twice in your living rooms.

Anne Danielewski, a New York native, made her breakthrough with such hits as "Trigger Happy Jack (Drive By A Go-Go)" and "Hello." With heavy rotation from MTV, she shot her career to the top of the charts. The mad mixture of rock, folk, jazz, and electronica (which could easily be narrowed into the sub-genre trip-hop or nu-jazz) with smooth poetry that almost bites at you with subjects of intimacy and loss. Her first album Hello (released in 1995 under the label Atlantic Records) wowed audiences and critics alike with its catchy sensibility and surrealist lyricism that isn't hard to grasp as far as subject matter is concerned. As culture would have it, she would also be named one of the best female alternative rock artists.

"You can't talk to a psycho like a normal human being."

[This is one of the first songs I've heard from her and immediately fell head over heels!]

Poe would go on to successfully tour this album between 1996 to about 1998 while Hello was certified gold in 1997.

Poe's next effort was that of a companion piece. It was loosely based on the wildly innovative, postmodern novel House of Leaves written by her brother, Mark Z. Danielewski, whose penning style is not that of a typical author.

'House of Leaves'

'House of Leaves' Typeset Example

His use of footnotes and abstract typeset paints the picture of several narrators where their encounters are in some way intertwined. This book was the collaborative effort between Poe and Mark. Poe, of course, handling the musical aspect but also handing the manuscript over to a college friend for publishing. Out of these efforts came a best-selling novel and the album Haunted (released in 2000), being a massive step forward for her career.

'Haunted' (2000)

Haunted is an album that truly lives up to its name. The dark and unsettling beauty flows flawlessly. From the first track, "Exploration B" has Poe trying to get in contact with her mother only to receive an answering machine. Poe informs, in song, her mother that her father (filmmaker Tad Danielewski) has passed away. Soon after she stops singing, the dialog sinks into the title track and by the first few chords, it tells of a harrowing pit of guilt and confusion. Other themes of this album include empowerment, death, regret, and of course, love. Another interesting aspect of this album is the use of samples of her father's dialog that usually is a philosophical teaching up until the end of the album where is not tied to any philosophy but a speech of endearment to Poe when she was younger.

"This can't be all there is to life, because in our confrontation within an enormous and cold universe, there is something comical to the idea that we can really enforce our will on humanity-- power corrupts." - Tad Danielewski

This album was a major success, but there were problems on the horizon.

While Haunted continued to its streak, Atlantic Records agreed to renew her contract for another three albums. However, in 2001, it was announced that AOL had initiated a merge with Atlantic Records, which resulted in Poe being removed from their roster and her masters being locked in process.

Between 2002 to 2011, she had slipped quickly out of the public consciousness due to the lengthy court battle to get possession of her master recordings.

However, while this battle ensued, Poe had taken up other projects to occupy her time and creativity, such as working with Rhys Fulber (of Delerium and Front Line Assembly fame) on his electronica project Conjure One. She is given the chance to address the issues that plagued her over the years with the legal battles. Pushing that she still hasn't given up due to the people who believe in her. She had recorded her parts under the name Jane possibly of a legal formality but was able to perform under the Poe moniker for live events.

In 2012, she was able to side-step the merger debacle and was able to pick up where she left off some ten years earlier. Later that year she had posted a video on YouTube called "September 30, 1955."

The subsequent years were peppered with public appearances and some shows under her belt. It's clear that the progress of her career is slow moving, possibly because of the exhaustion from dealing with the problems that come with two bigger businesses, talk about rock in a hard place.

But, there is no doubt that at some point, Poe will step from the shadows, light up amphitheaters and yell "...AND I'M HAUNTED!"

It's only a matter of time.