2005-04-03 New York Post

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MIND GAMES

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By STEVEN P. MARSH

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* * * _April 3, 2005_ -- Forgive Regina Spektor if she doesn't play your favorite song -- she may not remember how it goes.

The prolific singer-songwriter has written so many musical vignettes since she finished her latest CD, "Soviet Kitsch," that her head can't hold them all.

"I've written hundreds of songs, so there's a lot that I have forgotten," she says.

The charming Moscow-born, Bronx-raised Spektor isn't happy about this.

"It's terrible. I get absolutely devastated." Even so, the 25-year-old Spektor just can't seem to write a song down.

"I feel like I know it, and I'll work so hard and so much, playing it over and over and over again while I'm writing it, that I feel like it's there. How could I ever forget it?" she asks.

Even a lost tune leaves a memory.

"It feels as if you just woke up and you know you were having a really vivid dream and it's right there and now it's completely gone. It's a very sad feeling. With a dream, it's OK, but with this, it's not OK, because it's your work!"

She's trying hard to change, though, for the sake of her fans. She does work with a friend a couple of times a year to lay down rough recordings of each new batch of songs.

"I know what it feels like when you just want to hear _that_ song. Because of that, I have been working on myself to remember how to play songs.

"I know that I've written another ton of songs and it's really fun for me to play them, but I can also understand what it's like for that person" who wants to hear a particular song.

After graduating from the music program at SUNY Purchase, Spektor began playing at the Sidewalk Cafe and other "anti-folk" clubs on the Lower East Side.

She developed a style that tops classically inflected piano lines with vocals that range from sweet folk song to yelping punky riffs.

She got her first shot on the national stage by chance, when the Strokes tapped her as the opener for their "Room on Fire" tour last year. The band was turned on to her by their producer, Gordon Raphael, who was also working with Spektor. That led to a long tour, complete with talk of a romance with Strokes singer Julian Casablancas, something Spektor politely avoids discussing.

Spektor's first headlining national tour, which kicked off last Tuesday, brings her to the Bowery Ballroom Wednesday for a short stop back in the place she calls home.

"New York is home and The Bronx is like,_ extra_ home," she said wistfully. "Yeah, this is my city, in every sense."