― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 13 October 2006 20:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 13 October 2006 20:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― Greg Fanoe (JustFanoe), Friday, 13 October 2006 22:16 (seventeen years ago) link
F-Kog brought up Kim-Lian, Dutch TV personality whose old 2003 single "Teenage Superstar" reminds me a little of Nikki Cleary and on new single "In Vain" goes teengoth in the chorus.
― nameom (nameom), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 13:58 (seventeen years ago) link
― nameom (nameom), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 14:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 15:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 15:42 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 18:58 (seventeen years ago) link
Then I went to the men's section and it was Phil Collins or something. Are they actually getting US radio play?
― Eppy (Eppy), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 19:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― Eppy (Eppy), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 19:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― Eppy (Eppy), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 19:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― Grey, Ian (IanBrooklyn), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 20:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― nameom (nameom), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 20:53 (seventeen years ago) link
(Can't tell if the "you" in the lyrics is a friend, the listener, or whom. In verse one I thought it might be Jesus, and that still might be right, but "you're the star you're on tonight" seems to be something you'd tell a friend, not a deity. "Like a neighborhood on a city street/I know the path, it knows my feet" is a good couplet - the second half, anyway, the path knowing the feet [not sure how a neighborhood can be on a street, however].)
(Btw, the one track on the original release that Armato and James helped write was "Sticks and Stones.")
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 22:35 (seventeen years ago) link
As to Acoustic Hearts of Winter, I have to say I was disappointed. Granted, the two originals are great but couldn't they have:1) Included more originals2) Tried to do SOMETHING with the well-known carols they covered3) At least made some effort to pick lesser known carols that haven't been done a thousand times before?
That said, "Greatest Time of Year" and "Not This Year" are both on the shortlist for top 10 Christmas pop songs of all time. ("All I Want for Christmas Is You" is number one naturally).
― Greg Fanoe (JustFanoe), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 00:00 (seventeen years ago) link
Lots of clips from Cow Belles, which was awful.
― Greg Fanoe (JustFanoe), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 00:04 (seventeen years ago) link
JoJoToTo: Kelefa Sanneh mentions in his generally favorable review of the new JoJo album that she samples Toto's "Africa."
Platinum Weird does live session on mp3.com. This version of "Crying at the Disco" definitely better than the one on the album. More fuzz-tone, more Yardbirds, more pound pound pound.
Also, as far as I can tell, the Platinum Weird album I reviewed for the New Times NY sub-affiliate didn't actually come out in mid September, as its publicist said it would, but has been postponed until early next year. Don't know this for certain, and am too lazy to find out.
But, in the meantime, Make Believe, the faux 1974 Platinum Weird album, did get released for reals eight days ago, and is available in, like, stores and stuff. Haven't heard it, other than the three tracks that are streamed on their MySpace page, two of which ("Happiness" and "Will You Be Around") are overlaps from the other alb, but in folkier, goopier, deader versions, unfortunately. Another two songs on Make Believe ("Love Can Kill the Blues" and "I Pray") are also on Platinum Weird and from the 30-second Allmusic clips seem to be sung in the same deep, dull round tones, which are supposed to be the fictitious Erin Grace's voice, I guess.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 04:11 (seventeen years ago) link
Hollywood's SECRET NEW DIET PILLS! They Melt Pounds FAST - Who's TAKING THEM & Who's Not. (Ashlee one of four women on this cover, think it was Life & Style)
ASHLEE'S HAD MORE SURGERY! Now She's Got New Eyes and a Softer Chin. Friends Worry: "Her Addiction Is Out Of Control" (In Touch, the full cover for her, not counting the sideboxes)
Is Jess jealous? She wants ASHLEE'S NOSE! (sidebox in Life & Style)
Interesting that in the short interview Jeff linked above, Ashlee calls herself "boring." I hope that she doesn't mean boring, actually, but "normal," i.e., not newsworthy. I believe her in "Autobiography" and "Shadow," where she says she has a million subtleties and that there's so much more to her we haven't seen. But these I presume would be human-being normal subtleties, ways of being, the flavor and character of a particular person, rather than celeb-sized melodrama.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 04:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― Grey, Ian (IanBrooklyn), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 04:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― Grey, Ian (IanBrooklyn), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 04:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 05:03 (seventeen years ago) link
Could you say more about "I Live For the Day"? I assume by "structural shapes" you mean chord shifts and harmonic mood changes and the like. The basic song pattern is standard enough: verse, second part of verse, chorus; verse, second part of verse, chorus; break, chorus, finale. Of course, as Lex says, it's MAGNIFICENT (streamed on what seems to be her actual MySpace page), and her "Oh-oh, wanna see you CRAWLin'" at the end is right up there with Jagger's "Black as night, black as coal, I wanna see the sun, blotted out from the sky" in the fadeout of "Paint It, Black" as one of the all-time great song cappers. There are interesting ways that the song throws her from the first part of the verse into the second, or after the first chorus throws her right back into the verse (as opposed to having clear demarcations). And what I call "break" above is actually these extraordinary wails that foreshadow the rocketworks of the finale.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 05:58 (seventeen years ago) link
The Veronicas are all business--killer intro; catchy verse; maybe a fake-out feedback thing; reapeat-o girl chorus--back to work.
Lohan demands a certain amount of attention paid. "Live for the..." sets a mood, the verse a situation, Lohan's voice fills with her sense of betrayal, and then the chorus comes not so much as catchy, sing-in-shower pay-off, but as an escalation and first indication of how she feels about what was set up in the verse. (And yes--the chorus repeats the signature line, but each sentence complicates it.)
the first time I heard it, my reaction was, What the fuck was that?
― Grey, Ian (IanBrooklyn), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 13:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― nameom (nameom), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 14:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― nameom (nameom), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 14:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― nameom (nameom), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 14:32 (seventeen years ago) link
Still searching for Platinum Weird? Best Buy has 'Make Believe' (the '74-style album) packaged along with a disc that is identical to the advance of the '06-style album. Could probably help you locate a copy.
― nameom (nameom), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 14:50 (seventeen years ago) link
― nameom (nameom), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 17:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 18:17 (seventeen years ago) link
There's a new trend that I don't really understand these days, albums being given limited releases initially and then broader releases later - though I doubt that that's what's happening with Platinum Weird. The Teddybears got a release through indie retailers in late September, but are due to get the release through major retailers in early '07.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 19:05 (seventeen years ago) link
The rhythm is pretty much in clave throughout. And the way the vocals are low pitch at the start and given talk-like emphasis (rather than wails and melismas and such) seems very r&b.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 19:33 (seventeen years ago) link
The lyric sites have this as "on a city street," but now I think I'm hearing "on a certain street," which makes a little more sense, since you can interpret the line as "Like [being in] a neighborhood, [like being] on a certain street..."
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 19:37 (seventeen years ago) link
But Jesus isn't just their Savior, he's their Bestest Friend!
― nameom (nameom), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 20:03 (seventeen years ago) link
The rhythm is pretty much in clave throughout. That is:
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/8482/clavesongc4.png
(Bo Diddley does a lot of variants on this, too, even though he's not Cuban.)
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 20:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― Grey, Ian (IanBrooklyn), Thursday, 19 October 2006 03:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 19 October 2006 20:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― nameom (nameom), Thursday, 19 October 2006 21:26 (seventeen years ago) link
I like it, but not as much as "Outside Looking In"
― Greg Fanoe (JustFanoe), Thursday, 19 October 2006 23:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Thursday, 19 October 2006 23:59 (seventeen years ago) link
Babelfish translation:
Composition: (Edson Carvalho [which according to Babelfish means "Oak"])
Crying the ice that you gave to me Finding that you already it forgot me I do not know if she was you or if I, girl, girl Were I you being with a sensation That I was the track and you, the airplane You it train and I it station, girl, girl I remember kisses, blues and poetry. The salt in the skin, you licked me and I said: "Oh baby, I love you" I remember the face that you made Will be that I remember what I did not exist? You he said: "Oh baby, I love you" Tô in the Bahia and tô feeling cold Beach tá full; in me all emptiness I tô for a wire, girl, girl Broke the rope, I look for to you until not being able more In the InterNet, bars, in periodicals. Trombar you is what I want more, girl, girl I remember kisses, blues and poetry the salt in the skin you licked me and I said: "Oh baby, I love you" I remember the face that you made, I I remember day and night, night and day You said: "Oh baby, I love you... Baby, I love you... Baby, I love you... I love you "
So...this is like conceptually halfway between M2M and tATu? With some Wreckers thrown in?
― nameom (nameom), Friday, 20 October 2006 00:51 (seventeen years ago) link
"Tem Dias (Que A Noite É Foda)" (more rockabilly, less fetching)
"Experimento". The new wave. Good tune.
The lipsynch.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 20 October 2006 02:58 (seventeen years ago) link
OK. Question. If I'm writing a review for readers who don't know anything about ninths and subdominant chords and relative minors, is there any way to give them this information without boring them and getting in the way of everything else I want to say? Or even if the reader does know what those technical terms mean, does using them really communicated anything that's essential to what the song does? I made this the Song Of The Day over in the left column of my MySpace profile, and I left out the technicalities and just wrote this: "gentle and pensive, uses complex jazz chords, which don't turn this into 'smooth jazz' but rather keep the flow just unsettled enough so that it is flow, a quiet push in the music. This is the one soft song in a hundred that maintains its emotion throughout." Still might not mean a whole lot to people. I don't know.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 20 October 2006 22:03 (seventeen years ago) link
I meant to write: "G (do), which is the ninth note in the F-minor chord."
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 20 October 2006 22:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― Grey, Ian (IanBrooklyn), Saturday, 21 October 2006 03:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― Grey, Ian (IanBrooklyn), Saturday, 21 October 2006 03:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Saturday, 21 October 2006 12:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 21 October 2006 12:54 (seventeen years ago) link
Also, I really really really really really need to tell someone how awesome '1980' by Pascal Obispo & Melissa Mars is. It's in the French charts too - again, not exactly teenagers, but she looks about half his age, so, y'know.
Soddit, while I'm at it - Najoua Belyzel's 'Je Ferme Les Yeux' is still bloody amazing. And she's possibly teenaged too. I bet she bloody isn't, but she's got better odds than Pascal Obispo.
So yeah, in summary - French chart-pop: not half bad, sometimes.
― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Saturday, 21 October 2006 20:47 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Sunday, 22 October 2006 10:53 (seventeen years ago) link