Rolling Teenpop 2006 Thread

Obviously, Lee has a swell voice--so if even she gets that frequency-beating effect--like most folks--no, all folks--do, then Hilton's must be corrected for that silky rayon sound.

And the punch-ins--well, the songs' melodies are very punch-in-friendly, and while I'm guessing, I can't imagine Hilton would be able to do entire takes--and really, why bother trying. That's not a dis on her; it's just a way of making stuff.

According to Perez Hilton and Jessica P and Myspace, fan_3 is in a new band. They didn't write the track of the year. Shut Up Stella...listening to "Country Lemonade" now, kind of a nice silly c. 2000 teenpop throwback like Daphne and Celeste with...I dunno, B*Witched maybe in the chorus + some funny fan_3 verses ("I'm gonna get so Big and Rich -- shit -- and get high with the Dixie Chicks") OK, maybe this is the best thing ever.

"What sets the group apart from the status quo is their wide range of musical influences. The combination of Fan_3s hip hop background, Kristens SoCal punk rock and Jessies singer-songwriter world gives their music a refreshingly unique and surprisingly catchy edge, as if someone laced an Eve and Green Day sandwich with a healthy dose of Spice."

A very healthy dose of Spice, if by Spice they mean the first wave of post-Spice teenpop.

I'm not sure exactly what my problem is with Hilary because she seems in theory to be a great pop star but there's just this sense of trying too hard which I find kind of embarrassing. Like many US pop acts, she has good intentions with her pop-rock and electro-pop singles, but somewhere along the line something is going wrong because she's doing the kind of music I love and I am just not interested at all. I've nothing against Hilary herself, although she could do with being a bit more 'rough around the edges', but I just don't connect to her music at all. Some of her songs I don't mind listening to eg. Come Clean and Beat of My Heart, but I've never made any particular effort to listen to them. It could just be my personal taste doesn't match with her musical output, but it seems strange when I usually love electro-pop and rock-pop and I wouldn't consider myself particularly fussy. I just think for such a big star she really is not making as good music as she has the power to do. Her greatest hits was a US no.1 so it can't be difficult to get good producers on board, but for some reason she's never made a song that I've downloaded and played more than once immediately. I don't know if it's just me or if I'm right and she really isn't as good as she should be.

PHONECALLS ARE GREAT
here are some highlights from the one I just had with Sir Mimster.

G: I hate you.
B: I can't stand you.
G: No, I can't stand YOU.
B: Well, I'm sitting down.

or also.

B: Dude, there was 18,000 people there.
G: Shit.
B: I KNOW. I did a show once for 6,000 people and it was too much for me to handle.
G: Thats like, more than double.
B: Well, its closer to "less than triple"
G: Yeah.
B: Yeah.
G: Hey, ISN'T it triple?
B: No.
G: 6,000 times 3 is....
B: 18,000.
G: Right.
B: Oh uuuuhhhhh. Shut up.

In other news. I like:
1.) the sound of pennies falling.
2.) my armpit smells like dogfood.
3.) "pool's gone."
4.) friend request from The Morning Benders.
5.) the beast.
6.) diva eating dunkaroos.
7.) distance has no way of making love, understandable.
8.) blue.

[I didn't get a chance to read the piece, however. The headline was in a sidebox on the cover of I forget which tab, so one can predict that the article is approximately a paragraph and doesn't tell us a whole lot about Ashlee. Oh, and Us Weekly believes that Jessica has a new boyfriend.]

Singer John Mayer, who's currently on tour with Sheryl Crow. There's some tab headline about how "a friend says he makes her heart flutter" or something like that.

http://www.tommy2.net/2006newsgraphics/alilohanearly.jpg

Still haven't heard any Platinum Weird outside Myspace.

I've never heard any of Jewel's last two albums, so yeah, it was a pleasant surprise. Everybody was saying the last one was a "return to form" etc., I didn't know it was produced by Rob Carvello (sp?). It's interesting to hear other people's take on the Max/Matrix sound.

It's all making me think about the confessional element that Frank pegs to teenpop vs. the way other genres do it--in everything from hip-hop to indie to country it seems like the impulse is to "take things down for a second" whereas teenpop has somehow managed to round out punk's angsty sneer into a shout from the belly by crossing it with all that low-key stuff. Pandora's nice for trying to figure things out technically.

(Headline turns out to be fraudulent, however. There's nothing about her hair.)

And I'm now way off-topic, but here's a clip from a recent live show by Debbie Deb, who's darker, fatter, and happier than when I saw her 19 years ago.* Poor recording, not auto-tuned, but wonderful anyway. (*Someone once told me that the Debbie Deb who did "I'm Searchin'" wasn't the same Debbie Deb who'd done "When I Hear Music," in which case the person I saw - who definitely was the "I'm Searchin'" Deb, same timbre - was an impersonator trying to cash in on the name. I doubt this, but it would somehow prove something amazing if it were true, since I rank it as one of the Top 5 live performances of my life.) Here's a continuation of the clip from the Anaheim show, in which she's singing my favorite song EVER. They pipe in a sample at the start that someone on the comment thread identifies as from "Planet Rock," which demonstrates the connection between Bambaataa/Baker/Robie and freestyle (not to mention Miami bass, bounce, crunk, snap...). The deep beat on "When I Hear Music" is a slight variation on the deep beat from "Planet Rock." But you can hear something revving up in "When I Hear Music" - even though it's a very spare arrangement - the riffs and beats heading for delirium and the sweetness of the vocals (and desperation of the vocals in the New York equivalents) having its own potential delirium.

(two thots:
1) i have never had anyone tell me jessica was fuckable
2) she has stopped becoming interesting)

also apparently she fired her pr guy overthe john mayer rumours, and also john mayer is a beatty in the 70s sized pussy hound.

Lil Chris was on a reality show called Rock School where Gene Simmons taught classical music school kids to perform rock music. It was a rip-off of the movie School Of Rock really. Now he's got a deal with RCA to release his first single Checkin' Me Out and it's quite popular on Radio 1 so should at least be a small hit. I really don't think he has a big career ahead of him though.

Each member of the group is an honor roll student, as well as a star in his own mind. Each has an alias, the first of which is the singer, ten year old Austin, aka “Piper”. His vocal abilities are truly rock and roll. The bass player, nine year old Garrett, aka “Soul Man” holds down the bottom like he was born in Motown in the early sixties. Add to this mixture eight year old lead guitarist Kevin, aka “Shredder” who’s manic adventures onstage are truly a joy to watch. And last, but not least nine year old Rodney, aka ”Sticks” beats the skins like he’s mad at his bigger brothers, but with a little more rhythm. Put all this together and you get the smokin’ sounds of a truly remarkable “little man” band.

Here's what I know about Rock School:

Gene Simmons had this reality show on British TV where he takes a bunch of kids and turns them into a rock band and they get to open for someone big like Anthrax. First series he takes some classical musician types and gets them to go rock. Second series he goes to a poorer school and recruits a number of kids and initial lead singer goes on vacation so they choose another one but then first one comes back and they have a quarterback controversy and finally first one gets the nod and second one gets the boot, the concert airs, a week later first singer gets a call from a major label and they get to work on a single; meanwhile second singer forms a band with other members of the rock school crew and they go indie rock. First singer's name is Lil Chris, whom you know about (and he's not a classical musician; they were in the first series). Second singer is Ellie, and they call their band Upraw and here's their MySpace. Chris is better. He can't really keep in tune, so he's found a way to sing where this doesn't matter, basically swallowing his tongue. It works, though listening to it may get tiring over the course of 12 songs. Anyway, his style is his own invention, I'm sure. You can't teach someone to sing like that. His album's due in October sometime.

So, I disagree about no career for Chris.

Oh God! The poor kid!
I dunno, she's got like nine siblings to share insults.

I myself believe that the hoku-haiku dialectic can be transcended.

Friends fear LINDSAY'S ELOPED

(Also, Nicole and Lindsay gloat over Paris's arrest.) (What arrest? How come nobody tells me anything?)

(Got the link to "Don't Cry Your Heart Out" from the Teen Cultural Revolution blog.)

Of course, that's no match for the Coop at his finest.

(Of course on Radio Disney the "confessional" sound has mostly given way to HSM's and Cheetah Girls and Hannah Montana's rah-rah.)