New Joanna Newsom Album "Ys" Due Nov 14

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RS IN CONTINUING EMPRESS HAS NO CLOTHES SHOCKAH

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2006/12/18/pitchork-fall-on-newsom-sword/

RS upbraiding Pitchfork by saying "This list could've been edgy and subversive if it weren't for Newsom...."

The mind boggles.

Edward III (edward iii), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

"lacks melody, tonality" - wtf

Tim Ellison = NUMBER ONE ADVOCATE OF YOU-KNOW-WHAT ON NU-ILX!!! (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

The reader comments on the RS blog are unusually funny and right-on for teh interweb, tho.

Edward III (edward iii), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 20:55 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.mezzomedia.no/images/schonberg.jpg

Tim Ellison = NUMBER ONE ADVOCATE OF YOU-KNOW-WHAT ON NU-ILX!!! (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 20:59 (nineteen years ago)

Am I the only one who thinks the vocal on "Emily" sometimes sounds like Springsteen singing "Spirits In The Night"?

The Redd And The Blecch (Ken L), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 21:02 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.nndb.com/people/905/000087644/toneloc02.jpg
(xpost)

The Redd And The Blecch (Ken L), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 21:04 (nineteen years ago)

I've been having the same reaction for a couple weeks now: of all the things to potentially dislike about the Newsom record, lack of melody? (I'm also a little lost as to how giving a high ranking to an allegedly atonal record would make a list less subversive, but that leads into a whole weird web of logic that's far less satisfying than "not melodic??? WTF???")

nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 21:08 (nineteen years ago)

The orignal link on the RS homepage read "Why Joanna Sux" before they changed it to "Judging Joanna". Apparently RS can't commit to a flamewar.

Edward III (edward iii), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 21:14 (nineteen years ago)

I totally don't get it. I wonder if her fans are just trying to make up for all the geeky-loser beatdowns they administered when they were in middle school.

Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 21:20 (nineteen years ago)

Joanna Newsom: Fomenting Irrational Hatred Since 2004

Edward III (edward iii), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 21:21 (nineteen years ago)

Let's all pull her cafeteria chair out from under her. in effigy.

Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 21:26 (nineteen years ago)

Dawn Wiener is probably a huge Newsom fan.

Edward III (edward iii), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 21:37 (nineteen years ago)

Yes. As big a fan as her dad is of Cat Power.

The Redd And The Blecch (Ken L), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 21:43 (nineteen years ago)

That's crazy, Mr. Wiener is all about Clipse.

Edward III (edward iii), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 21:46 (nineteen years ago)

I still can't get over how absolutely DIRE this record sounds compared to the live (w/rearranged VDP not-for-strings accompaniment) version.

What a bloody fuck up.

RS probably expressing themselves badly but I have sympathy for the haters. :|

worst handle ever (fandango), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 22:00 (nineteen years ago)

i can't believe this album has inspired so much ... nonsense.

i quite like it. that's all so far.

grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 22:11 (nineteen years ago)

Rolling Stone slagging off Joanna Newsom?

Excuse me....... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA MUTHA****IN' ROFLMAO HAHAHAHAHAHA *deep breath* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA LOL LOL LOL HAHAHAHA..... (OK, you get it).

Seriously. Rolling Stone must be astonishingly stupid to think that they have the necessary credibility to bash JN anywhere. Their cred / mojo / steez / whatever you want to call it left them a *LONG* time ago. Now, all they are is a bunch of has-been corporate whores. (Any RS writers on ILM are exempted, because ILM has sufficient cred to override RS's lack thereof).

I don't mind people bashing JN, as long as they aren't people whose magazine's questionable taste in music is legendary.

GLC (ZakAce), Thursday, 11 January 2007 00:53 (nineteen years ago)

Is it Newsom's harp that brings out the rockist in some of her fans?

jimn (jimnaseum), Thursday, 11 January 2007 00:55 (nineteen years ago)

Where harp=guitar?

Perhaps.

Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Thursday, 11 January 2007 01:03 (nineteen years ago)

Eh, I'll stick with guitar. Takes less time to tune.

Andi Headphones (Andi Headphones), Thursday, 11 January 2007 01:18 (nineteen years ago)

AC fucking DC
AC fucking DC
AC fucking DC

Tape Store (Tape Store), Thursday, 11 January 2007 01:30 (nineteen years ago)

Arguing with Rolling Stone about music is like arguing with your grandma about sex.

M. V. (M.V.), Thursday, 11 January 2007 21:41 (nineteen years ago)

Distasteful and pointless?

Edward III (edward iii), Thursday, 11 January 2007 21:47 (nineteen years ago)

On the other hand, unlike grandma, a rolling stone gathers no moss.

M. V. (M.V.), Thursday, 11 January 2007 22:21 (nineteen years ago)

Did anyone else see her tour with the LSO? I thought it was amazing, but I've come round to the opinion that it would sound better without the strings, so I hope she plays some more UK dates without them at some point.

Also, live-in-studio EP coming soon, presumably featuring the great new song she's been playing.

toby (tsg20), Sunday, 21 January 2007 09:40 (nineteen years ago)

Where did you hear about the EP? Is there a release date?

Matt Olken (Moodles), Sunday, 21 January 2007 17:23 (nineteen years ago)

on the tadpoles board - apparently she talked about it at the glasgow gig. out in april, i think.

toby (tsg20), Sunday, 21 January 2007 19:02 (nineteen years ago)

Yup, she did. After the Northern Sinfonia (she only played with the LSO in London) went off, she played a couple of new songs with just her bandmates.
They were quite nice. Not quite as focused as The Milk-Eyed Mender's tracks... somewhere in-between those and the (comparatively) rambling wash of Ys.

Anyway, yes. EP. April. That's about it.

Magnakai (Magnakai), Monday, 22 January 2007 14:49 (nineteen years ago)

New song ("Colleen"?) reminds me of Kate Bush.

Edward III (edward iii), Monday, 22 January 2007 20:36 (nineteen years ago)

I hate that my roommates (well, one roommate and the other roommate's girlfriend) won't let me listen to this when they're in the house.

How many people hated Newsom's voice the first time they heard it, and grew to like/love/tolerate it, and how long did it take? I remember liking it a lot from the start, but the first time I heard it I was pretty stoned and it sounded like a ghost or something.

max (maxreax), Sunday, 4 February 2007 22:31 (nineteen years ago)

HATED IT at first. wouldn't give that first record a chance at all. then I heard Ys, liked it, saw her live, was blown away, went back to the early stuff and found it not only tolerable but enjoyable.

sleeve (sleeve), Sunday, 4 February 2007 22:50 (nineteen years ago)

I heard some West African praise singing/kora playing a couple of weeks ago and just had "Sawdust and Diamonds" and I can totally hear it! Appreciate you guys pointing it out.

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 10 February 2007 19:17 (nineteen years ago)

I actually liked her voice from the start...but I'm pretty weird.

Tape Store (Tape Store), Saturday, 10 February 2007 20:13 (nineteen years ago)

Upcoming ep on Drag City, credited to "Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band," apparently

Shannon Whirry and the Bad Brains, Thursday, 22 February 2007 12:40 (nineteen years ago)

somebody mistook her for Bjork when I played Ys on my radio show today

I just listened to Ys now I must listen to all of Bjork's Discography to get that folksyness out of me...

MaGoGo, Thursday, 22 February 2007 17:57 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I loved it at first. I was transfixed. I know the comparison is superficial, but I told someone after the show that it was "a little Bjork, a little Billie Holliday."

jaymc, Thursday, 22 February 2007 18:17 (nineteen years ago)

Upcoming Royal Albert Hall show, too. Well, in September.

toby, Thursday, 22 February 2007 18:51 (nineteen years ago)

I was just reading the Arthur Mag (RIP) article on Newsom and saw this:

A week before I met Newsom, when I was trawling Joanna fansites for bootlegs, I sampled some of the chatter about Ys and discovered that the most controversial aspect of the album by far was the cover portrait of Newsom. Some bitched about the “Ren Faire costume,” and others compared the image to the cover of a fantasy novel.

Hmmm, wonder where that could've been!

Edward III, Friday, 23 February 2007 21:36 (nineteen years ago)

I loved Milk-Eyed Meander, really loved it. But WTF is Ys.... overproduced, messy, grating. The songwriting is there but I can't sit and digest it except in print because of all the overdone florishes. Just her and her harp with some finishing touches would have been enough. Inviting the whole orchestra was a bad idea. Less is more. Hope to see her live and have my opinion changed on this.

idle_matilda, Saturday, 24 February 2007 10:25 (nineteen years ago)

I'm hoping to see her at ATP, but the queues might be too daunting. I just don't like this album. I listened to it several times because most people here whose opinions I'd listen to seemed to like it, but the songs are too long and they just go on and on and on and on and it feels like you're listening to an over-excited five year-old telling you about the caterpillar they found, for hours.

She reminds me of the kid on Lucky Louie now.

accentmonkey, Saturday, 24 February 2007 10:52 (nineteen years ago)

Are there really still no bootlegs from the orchestral shows, btw?

toby, Saturday, 24 February 2007 14:15 (nineteen years ago)

There's at least one good-quality bootleg, Toby, but I don't have any good identifying information to help you out with. The arrangements sound way better (or at least less arch) with that reduced 4/5-person backing -- you should definitely keep looking.

(Or wait, by "orchestral" do you mean she's done shows with the full arrangements?)

nabisco, Saturday, 24 February 2007 21:59 (nineteen years ago)

"way better" is a understatement. it's what the album should have sounded like, instead of y'know, fucking unlistenable.

fandango, Sunday, 25 February 2007 19:12 (nineteen years ago)

(Or wait, by "orchestral" do you mean she's done shows with the full arrangements?)
Yep, she has. In the UK, I think.

I still haven't heard the band versions of the songs, but I keep hearing good things about those, esp. from people who didn't like the album. Something about them sounding Eastern-y, with bouzouki and all.

Turangalila, Sunday, 25 February 2007 19:19 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, that's what I mean - I have a couple of the "reduced" ones, and they're great, but having been to one of the orchestral shows I'd kinda like to hear that again, too.

toby, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:53 (nineteen years ago)

I dig it. I just wanted to answer because the thread always seems to be in the most recent. I think that's fun.

Saxby D. Elder, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 06:43 (nineteen years ago)

the songs are too long and they just go on and on and on and on and it feels like you're listening to an over-excited five year-old telling you about the caterpillar they found, for hours

I think this is perhaps the most OTM criticism of "Ys" that I've yet seen.

o. nate, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 16:24 (nineteen years ago)

this chick is not as good as tone loc.

M@tt He1ges0n, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 16:30 (nineteen years ago)

tone loc? young mc pwns her totes.

Edward III, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:00 (nineteen years ago)

Listened to the bootleg. I quite like Ys arranged for the band, but I much prefer the album version of the songs. I still hate "Sawdust & Diamonds." Telling, eh?

Turangalila, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 18:56 (nineteen years ago)


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