Taking Sides: Indigo Girls "Closer to Fine" vs Edie Brickells "What I Am"

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (147 of them)

Brand Nubian sampled 'What I Am' on 'Slow Down'

― JaXoN (JasonD), Friday, 17 September 2004 17:54 (nineteen years ago) link

I really wish that Edie and the Indigos would team up and build a gigantic rocket that would then be used to shoot Natalie Merchant into the sun.

― Dan Perry '08 (Dan Perry), Friday, 17 September 2004 17:55 (nineteen years ago) link

waiting in line at the coffee shop vs waiting in line at the art supply store

― kephm, Friday, 17 September 2004 17:57 (nineteen years ago) link

Indigo Girls can write the shit out of a song. If we're going to go the peace-love-hippie route, give me them over Simon and Garfunkle any damn day. And when did the fact that an artist is "humorless" become a reason for not giving them props? You people baffle me.

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Friday, 17 September 2004 18:23 (nineteen years ago) link

Jeanne, how do you feel re: Natalie Merchant and possibly introducing her to a celestial hydrogen furnace?

― Dan Perry '08 (Dan Perry), Friday, 17 September 2004 18:26 (nineteen years ago) link

how do you feel re: Natalie Merchant

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 17 September 2004 18:26 (nineteen years ago) link

Was that a reference to The Evil One? I thought it was more Indoge Girls defence.

― Dan Perry '08 (Dan Perry), Friday, 17 September 2004 18:28 (nineteen years ago) link

Natalie Merchant had her moments. I think there were three in total.

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Friday, 17 September 2004 18:30 (nineteen years ago) link

Was that a reference to The Evil One?

It was a Dan Perry kind of post

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 17 September 2004 18:31 (nineteen years ago) link

Haha, so yes then!

― The Evil One (Dan Perry), Friday, 17 September 2004 18:32 (nineteen years ago) link

(I know what you meant, I am recontextualizing for fun and profit)

― Dan Perry '08 (Dan Perry), Friday, 17 September 2004 18:33 (nineteen years ago) link

Brand Nubian sampled 'What I Am' on 'Slow Down'

That's the one - thank you!

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 17 September 2004 18:35 (nineteen years ago) link

aww man - simon and garfunkel kick the shit out of all three of the others. paul simon wrote better songs in his sleep than anything by 10K maniacs, IG, or edie brickell. not a gender thing, either - i put joni mitchell and sandy denny and linda thompson above s&g...

― peter smith (plsmith), Friday, 17 September 2004 18:37 (nineteen years ago) link

I remember having to work the Indigo Girls show at Marquette my sophomore year. That "I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind / got my paper and I was FREE" mentioned above got this HUGE resounding ROAR and I was like, this sucks.

― frankE (frankE), Friday, 17 September 2004 18:54 (nineteen years ago) link

I saw Natalie Merchant sing in NYC at St. John the Divine Cathedral at a memorial service for Allen Ginsberg and it was lovely. So there.

― shookout (shookout), Friday, 17 September 2004 18:56 (nineteen years ago) link

ok, this makes me hate them

― amateur!!st, Friday, 17 September 2004 18:57 (nineteen years ago) link

Hahaahhaah! Ooh! You're such a bad ass for graduating from college! Hahah.

― shookout (shookout), Friday, 17 September 2004 19:20 (nineteen years ago) link

yes, they're so anti-intellectual

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 17 September 2004 19:24 (nineteen years ago) link

and so much more dismissive of their privilege than more privileged indie-rockers

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 17 September 2004 19:24 (nineteen years ago) link

if i'm totally wrong here, it's because i'm one of the high-schoolers amateurist hates

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 17 September 2004 19:26 (nineteen years ago) link

what? where does that come from? why are you being an asshole?

― amateur!!st, Friday, 17 September 2004 19:30 (nineteen years ago) link

glory days well they'll pass you by glory days a.k.a. the pathos and humor of high school nostalgia

― amateur!!st, Friday, 17 September 2004 19:31 (nineteen years ago) link

seriously, i'm not sure what caricature you're struggling to apply to other posters on this thread, but i don't think it fits.

― amateur!!st, Friday, 17 September 2004 19:32 (nineteen years ago) link

give me [the indigo girls] over Simon and Garfunkel any damn day

there's logic to this. I'd totally listen to an Indigo Girls CD-R comp made by somebody who I knew had taste and access to their rather huge discography).

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 17 September 2004 19:33 (nineteen years ago) link

and Jeanne you qualify taste-wise, but I don't know if you have that much of their stuff or any interest in making one of these

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 17 September 2004 19:36 (nineteen years ago) link

where does that come from?

I was referring to this...

now that i'm about a decade removed from those AWFUL AWFUL GIRLS at my highs chool who loved the indigo girls so much

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 17 September 2004 19:39 (nineteen years ago) link

and while I balk at the idea that Merchant/Indigo Girls/Brickell are getting ripped on solely cuz they and their fanbase are women (the word "mook" gets thrown around far too much for me to assume that ILM es muy macho in every sense), but S&G and Ted Leo have similar lyrical pretension as the Indigo Girls and don't get nearly as much crap (in part cuz S&G are probably catchier and you dance to the best Ted Leo).

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 17 September 2004 19:40 (nineteen years ago) link

ack! are predominantly women. sorry.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 17 September 2004 19:41 (nineteen years ago) link

Anthony, just get their best of (Retrospective). The only albums of theirs that I have is that one, their self-titled and Rites of Passage. (I'm just not so huge into them that it would warrant any more albums of theirs.)

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Friday, 17 September 2004 19:43 (nineteen years ago) link

Or scratch that and just get Amy Ray's solo album, Stag.

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Friday, 17 September 2004 19:45 (nineteen years ago) link

gabbneb is a woman?!

haha true story: I only know "Closer to Fine" because K@hleen Edwards, who was then in my chemistry and world issues classes, used to play it all the time at high school coffeehouses. An early stepping-stone on her route to fame!

I still hear "What I Am" in pubs sometimes. I really don't like the lyrics, which do strike me as pretty blatantly anti-intellectual and in a gratingly smug and corny way, and I don't find the music at all interesting or appealing enough to overcome this. I can tune out lyrics but the music doesn't do much for me.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Friday, 17 September 2004 19:49 (nineteen years ago) link

who is k@hleen edwards?

― amateur!!st, Friday, 17 September 2004 19:52 (nineteen years ago) link

the only people who call others out on their "privilege" are usually quite privileged themselves. Guilty white rich liberal.

― shookout (shookout), Friday, 17 September 2004 19:59 (nineteen years ago) link

Sort of a folk-rocky singer/songwriter. I believe Failer was the title of her album and it seemed to get some good reviews and radio play. I think it placed on Pazz & Jop but I could be wrong. Chuck rates it IIRC. I haven't listened to it.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:00 (nineteen years ago) link

btw gabbneb is it ok to dislike anyone?

― amateur!!st, Friday, 17 September 2004 20:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Or scratch that and just get Amy Ray's solo album, Stag.

I think we have that one at the radio station! I'll check it out.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:12 (nineteen years ago) link

for some reason, I always thought the Indigo Girls lyric was "the closer I am to God". Don't ask me why. Always thought their schtick was grating and ran screaming in the other direction...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 17 September 2004 20:15 (nineteen years ago) link

The answer is: Slayer

― 57 7th (calstars), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:24 (nineteen years ago) link

Kathleen Edwards is awesome. "Six O'Clock News" is one of my favourite songs of the last year-and-a-half. She supposedly has a new record out soon.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:32 (nineteen years ago) link

gabbneb is a woman?!

No, duh. I may have misinterpreted amst - I thought he was saying these people were awful because of how they were fans, rather than awful independent of their fandom.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:37 (nineteen years ago) link

"What I Am"

I prefer the remix that some Italian DJ did in 1989. Andrew Weatherall must have really liked it too, 'cause he sampled it for "Loaded"!

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 17 September 2004 21:57 (nineteen years ago) link

gabbneb is a woman?!

No, duh. I may have misinterpreted amst - I thought he was saying these people were awful because of how they were fans, rather than awful independent of their fandom.

-- gabbneb (gabbne...) (webmail), September 17th, 2004 4:37 PM. (gabbneb) (later) (link)

def. the latter

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 17 September 2004 22:27 (nineteen years ago) link

ok. sorry to misinterpret and to be an asshole.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 18 September 2004 00:06 (nineteen years ago) link

Can't comment on the whole scope of this thread but Green Day's version of "Closer to Fine" pales.

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Saturday, 18 September 2004 00:13 (nineteen years ago) link

Beavis, watching "What I Am": "Hey, she's married to that tiny South African dude who used to be in the Beatles."

Indigo Girls' "Virginia Wolff" has the Worst Lyric Ever: "You weathered the storm of cruel mortality." If that means what I think it's supposed to mean, no, she didn't. She's dead. (By drowning suicide, which makes the line even worse, as my friend Becca once pointed out.)

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Saturday, 18 September 2004 01:12 (nineteen years ago) link

morrissey should lick natalie merchant.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 18 September 2004 01:18 (nineteen years ago) link

gabbneb, you would be gentleman, if you were a man. since you're not, you'll have to settle for being a gentlewoman.

anyway, thanks to the virginia wolff story, i now take back even the most tentative reassessment of the indigo girls i ventured on this thread.

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Saturday, 18 September 2004 01:40 (nineteen years ago) link

Hmmm...I don't think I properly conveyed the fact that I in fact actually OWN that first Indigo Girls CD with "Closer To Fine" on it. But I do; and even tho I haven't played it in like five years, I still fondly recall "Closer To Fine" and a couple of others, esp. that one with the "Calling you, calling you/From 10,000 miles away" refrain. (Hey, that's one mile per Maniac!)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Saturday, 18 September 2004 03:39 (nineteen years ago) link

"You weathered the storm of cruel mortality."

maybe they mean she lived through a lot of other people's deaths? like those movies that just keep coming out these days

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Saturday, 18 September 2004 05:38 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm not aware of too many things

No shit.

I have to agree that it's the vomitous guitar solo that well and truly kills "What I Am."

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Saturday, 18 September 2004 06:15 (nineteen years ago) link

Skipping 47 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.