HAIM

Maybe "chops" isn't quite the right word. It's just that, there's a certain command, a certain gravitas (not as seriousness but just as presense/charisma) in something like "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" that HAIM just blatantly (to me at least) does not have. Not a bit.

do any other contemporary acts have that, iyo? which ones?

Man this thread got boring

vee dubs

"do any other contemporary acts have that, iyo? which ones?"

Indie acts? Or anything?

haim

not metal ones xp

someday a real rain will come

it's more reminiscent of indie singersongwriter stuff vocally than indie rock but indie all the same. there are a million women who put out quirky/poppy albums on tiny labels and that's kinda what they remind me of. they just have the indie-rock 80's synth/pop/rock thing going on that is all the rage. or has been the rage for years now. so they are kind of a hybrid of different indie genres. to me.

x-post

Neko Case is the first singer who came to mind, but I'll think of someone less obviously "chops"-y.

Why you bored, whiney?

as someone who listens to a lot of quirky/poppy albums from tiny labels this doesn't remind me of that at all. I think more of people like Sheryl Crow or Jennifer Paige (especially "If I Could Change Your Mind") or yes, Fleetwood Mac at times. honestly this should have come out 15 years ago, there'd be much less hand-wringing.

i think they're okay though. like i have said. would be fine to hear on the radio, i guess. not really my thing though. i tend to prefer dance /r&b pop on the radio. the radio sucks SO bad here. ugh. impossible sometimes to hear anything worth hearing. there are, like, three country stations here. for some reason.

xp yeah katherine otm

i meant non-indie rock tiny labels. or small labels. i used to get all those promos from vanguard and they put out stuff like jesca hoop and the living sisters and the watson twins and none of that stuff would be described as indie rock but it wasn't folk and it wasn't any one thing. and there are lots of local performers who make music like that. sorta npr-ish with a kate bush twist.

Katherine: yeah, but this band 15 years ago would have been Reel Big Fish or something.

Maybe "chops" isn't quite the right word. It's just that, there's a certain command, a certain gravitas (not as seriousness but just as presense/charisma) in something like "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" that HAIM just blatantly (to me at least) does not have. Not a bit.

How strange that a woman in her early 20s wouldn't have the gravitas of experience behind her vocal delivery of a woman in her early 30s.

(and i ended up liking that stuff too. i loved that watson twins album and the one jesca hoop album.) i just want a new nina nastasia album.

brenda lee had a friggin' ton of gravitas when she was 12. some people are born with gravitas. stevie wonder had it. people were older in the old days though.

sorta npr-ish with a kate bush twist.

That's harsh. I know I was just making Kate Bush comparisons as a positive, but still. . .

Nina Nastasia is great. DJP, huh? Plenty of singers have displayed those characteristics when in their early '20s. I only brought up Cyndi because she was brought up earlier in the thread (and that song was recorded when she was barely 30, maybe even 29).

Agreed with Scott re: gravitas as well--some have it, some don't. It's just just "gravitas of experience"

I'm sorry, I meant it's NOT just "gravitas of experience"

I have to admit I'm disappointed that this is probably my favorite album of the year, because I don't think it's good enough to deserve that spot. Also, I don't generally like what I've heard of their vocals in live clips, but I think the vocals sound better than typical indie in the studio recordings.

(Still says more about the extent of my listening, my budget, etc. than anything else.)

Although this is ILM and I fully expect to be nailed to the cross for making allusion to some sort of "x-factor" or talent that can't be proven by science or labored argumentation.

i just find it curious that suddenly they are an indie band with all the attendant cliche'd dismissals of indie bands. this thread was started 10 months ago and the first post referring to them as "indie" was a quote from the dero review.

oh man I've waited all my life for a band doing Jennifer Paige's "Crush" with programmed tribal drums.

How are you using the term "gravitas", because both Brenda Lee and Little Stevie Wonder sound like children which is the exact opposite of what I think of when I think of "gravitas"

gravitas is rockist obv

I just wiki-ed it to make sure I was using it properly... "Gravitas was one of the Roman virtues, along with pietas, dignitas and virtus. It may be translated variously as weight, seriousness and dignity, also importance, and connotes a certain substance or depth of personality."

That pretty much works for me, especially the "connotes a certain substance or depth of personality"

I'm kind of a rockist. Sorry.

I wiki-ed "Chollopitas," one of the Roman virtues. It may be translated variously.

lol

brenda lee was 15 when she cut "i'm sorry". and she didn't sound like a child. stevie wonder was what 22 when he made talking book? not to mention everything else he did before his 20th birthday? just two examples.

It is kind of a moot argument anyway, considering the song it's not measuring up against in the gravitas stakes is "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", possibly the least serious song in Cyndi Lauper's entire repertoire

hahaha haven't been keping up but the argument is seriously that 'girls just wanna have fun' is loaded with gravitas??

The people demand gravitas.

flopson (and Alfred I supppose): when you come at me for using "gravitas" in a rockist way, are you asserting that gravitas doesn't exist? That it's a useless term? I'm being serious!

x-post -- that is pretty hilarious, actually. Fine, "Time After Time" if you must.

gravitas are nice on a hot day. along with pita chips.

"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", possibly the least serious song in Cyndi Lauper's entire repertoire

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d1/Single85.jpg

I'm actually surprised you didn't go with "Hole In My Heart"

well, it goes all the way to China.

Goones theme = great, great song. To me, there's a sense of joy and abandon in her delivery that, if we're continuing this HAIM comparison, underlines the flatness and lack of conviction in their singing and playing. Cyndi comes across both more vulnerable and more confident/authoritative. She's just a far better vocalist.

I can't believe that's potentially controversial

gravitas as you used it ("connotes a certain substance or depth of personality") is an essentialist (& therefore rockist) and arbitrary quality. not saying presence & charisma don't exist but i don't think the difference you're trying to point out is stark enough to make the point

i can't believe we've set up cyndi lauper as a strawperson for all female vocals in pop

clarke, i guess the question to ask is, for you, is it possible for a band to be good, maybe even excellent, if their singer didn't have gravitas / vocal chops / w/e quality you're attributing to cyndi lauper?

ya i was gonna say... do u think neko case is a good a vocalist as cyndi lauper?

if you're not as good as cyndi lauper, it's back to the woodshed for you!

the hilarious thing is that most singers aren't as good as Cyndi Lauper, full stop; she's fucking incredible