― Zwan (miccio), Saturday, 7 January 2006 06:20 (eighteen years ago) link
Smashmouth always sucked. I am filled with hate.
I admit I am dulled by the thematics/presentation of most mainstream pop as such these days, beyond what musical weirdness can be used to spike the punch. At the same time nothing could be duller than the NPR/KCRW/Pitchfork 'quality' cloud of horrors -- I will always hate the Arcade Fire more than 50 Cent (or for that matter Dylan, though not Springsteen). I don't need a recreation of a twenty-year-old 'entryism' in the charts because that would be mere nostalgic frippery designed to assuage my soul instead of intrigue it but I'll be damned if I can sense a flashpoint that works for me at present.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 7 January 2006 06:26 (eighteen years ago) link
I had to review both a Duff film (sheer horror, and Christian too) and Herbie. They sent writers to a test screenings. Median age: 10.
My GF's niece is 14. She likes new goth stuff. And that's all I know of (literal) kids today and their listening habits.
― Ian in Brooklyn, Saturday, 7 January 2006 07:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tom (Groke), Saturday, 7 January 2006 13:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Saturday, 7 January 2006 13:20 (eighteen years ago) link
I like the *idea* of Evanescence, enjoyed seeing them at Webster Hall in '04 or so, but I will probably never get over them sounding to me like a thinner, clunkier, less beautiful, and therefore compromised version of my fave Dutch new age goth-metallers The Gathering. (For thin, clunky, less beautiful, and therefore compromised versions of The Gathering, I prefer Lacuna Coil. Or Lana Lane. Or Lullacry. The last couple of whom kind of suck, so I am obviously a sucker for the sound somewhat. Wish I liked the Top 40 version more.)
― xhuxk, Saturday, 7 January 2006 16:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Saturday, 7 January 2006 16:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Vintner's Lipogram (OleM), Saturday, 7 January 2006 16:34 (eighteen years ago) link
I don't think there are any Blink-182 songs I like more than "1985" or "Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo" except maybe "Dammit" and "Always," but if so its by a small degree.
― Zwan (miccio), Saturday, 7 January 2006 18:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 7 January 2006 18:46 (eighteen years ago) link
Also Bonnie Pink, who i got from Edward's blog I think and I seem to remember is Japanese. Perhaps others can provide more info but I'm liking her at the moment.
― Nick H (Nick H), Saturday, 7 January 2006 21:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 7 January 2006 21:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Saturday, 7 January 2006 21:08 (eighteen years ago) link
I want to like our new power-pop overlords in the UK, but the majority of them are in hock to complete shit (Son of Dork and Simple Plan, Rooster and Aerosmith, Freefaller and whatever the fuck it is they're listening to in order to sound that bad). I was hoping that The Faders would have songs as good as "No Sleep Tonight" in their repoirtoire, but it looks like we're never going to hear them now considering how little that and "Jump" sold. Love Bites aren't gonna happen either.
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 7 January 2006 21:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 7 January 2006 21:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 7 January 2006 21:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― Haikunym (Haikunym), Saturday, 7 January 2006 23:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Sunday, 8 January 2006 00:40 (eighteen years ago) link
vs.
Country less snappy than teenpop?
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Sunday, 8 January 2006 03:10 (eighteen years ago) link
Writer: Linda Perry, Stuck in the Throat/Famous Music Corp. (ASCAP)Produced and Engineered by: Linda Perry at Royaltone, North Hollywood, CAAssisted by: Chris Wonzer and Andrew ChavezPro Tools Engineer: David GuerreroAll Instruments and Programming: Linda PerryFrench Spoken Female Voice: Alephonsine de ChambureMixed by: Bernd Burgdorff for Empire7Assisted by: Shawn Parker
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Sunday, 8 January 2006 03:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Sunday, 8 January 2006 06:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 8 January 2006 07:50 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 8 January 2006 08:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Sunday, 8 January 2006 16:23 (eighteen years ago) link
Agreed "Jump" was nowhere near "No Sleep Tonight" in quality terms.
― Nick H (Nick H), Sunday, 8 January 2006 17:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Sunday, 8 January 2006 17:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Sunday, 8 January 2006 18:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Sunday, 8 January 2006 21:09 (eighteen years ago) link
What about the rest of the album? (Proving tough to find on s1sk this morning.)
― Mitya (mitya), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 15:33 (eighteen years ago) link
Anyway, xhuxk, get 'em to send me a copy! What's this sound like?!
― George the Animal Steele, Sunday, 15 January 2006 21:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― edward o (edwardo), Sunday, 15 January 2006 21:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 15 January 2006 21:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eppy (Eppy), Sunday, 15 January 2006 21:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 15 January 2006 22:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 15 January 2006 22:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 15 January 2006 22:09 (eighteen years ago) link
Anyway, are we actually saying they're teenpop? They seem more like a 90s nostalgia act to me. (Although a nice one.)
― Eppy (Eppy), Sunday, 15 January 2006 22:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 15 January 2006 22:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eppy (Eppy), Sunday, 15 January 2006 22:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 15 January 2006 22:13 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 15 January 2006 22:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eppy (Eppy), Sunday, 15 January 2006 22:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 15 January 2006 22:16 (eighteen years ago) link
"Morningwood are an energetic and impressive bunch that have certainly speant lots of time with their Buffalo Daughter, Le Tigre and Breeders records, but not so much as to let in infringe on their own innovative sound and style."Village Voice
But the Morningwood album also includes more than a few songs that are unnecessarily, even perversely, awful. The next record executive to complain about slumping CD sales should be forced to spend the day playing "Babysitter" on repeat, listening to Ms. Claret moan, "Your mama, mama, mama shouldn't let me baby-sit." At the Bowery Ballroom, she worked overtime to entertain: she brandished a baton; she climbed up to the balcony; during "Take Off Your Clothes," she invited a suspiciously well-prepared woman from the audience to strip onstage. When Ms. Claret sang she often rolled her eyes, and she wasn't the only one.
-- The New York Times, yestiddy
This energetic combination of glam, garage, and new wave has been cooked up by something approximating an all-star lineup of musicians. Morningwood bassist Pedro Yanowitz used to rock it with (Jake) Dylan in the Wallflowers, and guitarist Richard Steel was in Spacehog. The ringmistress of this motley crew is singer/frontwoman Chantal Claret, who has a sexy voice that can go from raspy and husky to over-the-top cooing, and an alluring look, if the album's cover is to be believed. All the assembled players seem to be giving it their all on every track here, and their unbridled enthusiasm is contagious.
What's more impressive, however, is the way Morningwood trips from style to style over the course of the eleven assembled tracks. "Nu Rock" kicks things off with a totally thrashing garage rock sound that wouldn't have sounded out of place coming out of Sweden a couple of years ago. Two tracks later, "To the Nth Degree" borders on disco, or at least dance-pop, ratcheting up the glam factor...um, to the nth degree, I guess. "Jetsetter," meanwhile, is reminiscent of Weezer's "Hash Pipe"-era stuff, and "Everybody Rules" has a jazzy swing that makes me, honestly, think of Gary Glitter.
-- ugo.com
New York Magazine called them "one of the hottest bands changing the New York soundscape," while the Village Voice and Entertainment Weekly offer similar praise.
-- Some college wrapper, seeing New York Mag praise something vaguely rock and roll would generally be a warning to steer clear, much like being recommended through, say, NPR. Maybe worse.
Morningwood, "Morningwood" (Capitol) You can't stop the unflinching rock 'n' roll of Morningwood. You can't even hope to contain it. It's bursting with sexual energy and so much testosterone that you have to hand it to singer Chantal Claret, who can rock out under the moniker Morningwood with the unbridled enthusiasm of Andrew W.K. and unhinged eroticism of Peaches
-- Denver Post
It's amusing that the reviews, including stuff I didn't excerpt from Lex-Nex are all over the place. Business-wise that tells me the label is spending a lot of money on promotion and artificial priming that's not even close to being recoupable.
In any case, that the NY Times basically hates Morningwood is like Rolling Stone "red book" rating. Quite possibly I'd like it.Impossible to tell really from most of the press which is standard garishly-painted boilerplace.
xpost
And that album cover definitely screamed "teenpop."
― George the Animal Steele, Sunday, 15 January 2006 22:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 15 January 2006 22:21 (eighteen years ago) link
He Phoned It In Yeah, Gary G. was the most jazzy of cats when it came to laying down the pitter-patterin' beat. But he's really really really the apotheosis of teenpop (with two meaning of "pop") now.
If Pylon tried to be Scandal.
This does not sound good. That would ruin Scandal. "Goodbye to You" to a G04 beat. Ouch, I'd hurt myself.
― George the Animal Steele, Sunday, 15 January 2006 22:23 (eighteen years ago) link
Two facts I like: The performers in the group all look the same, and they co-wrote t.A.T.u.'s "All About Us" (maybe the sixth best song on Dangerous and Moving, which is not a problem with the song but rather due to the excellence of the t.A.T.u. album, which Stephen Thomas Erlewine at allmusic described in this way: "As Dangerous and Moving wears on — hell, by the second track — the icy digital sheen of the production starts to grate nearly as bad as the flat, bored vocals of the girls." (I like Erlewine a lot, actually, since his descriptions of why he hates something often give me insight into why I like it; not that I always disagree with his judgments.)
None of the other songs excerpted in the Veronicas' electronic press kit sounded nearly as good (on brief listen) as "4Ever," though there was one that was pleasingly similar to Kelly Clarkson's "Behind These Hazel Eyes."
I did enjoy the Verry sisses' electronic-press-kit clowning, especially Lisa-unless-it's-Jess saying that what she likes about a guy is when he's in bed.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 16 January 2006 00:34 (eighteen years ago) link
It was in a promo blurb for the Voice's Siren Music Festival 2005, so it's from promo copy, not from a piece of criticism. (This isn't to say that promo copy can't ever be right, or good analysis, for that matter.)
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 16 January 2006 00:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― reo, Monday, 16 January 2006 01:31 (eighteen years ago) link