Kleenex Girl Wonder: Classic or Dud?

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I really like the songs (not the skits) on the underrated "Smith" album. I like Aftermathmatics as well. While he seems to have lost some indie cred (check the horrible reviews the last alum recieved)I tend to think he's getting better, more interesting. His merging of b-boy posturing with indie pop sensibility coincided with my growing love of timbaland, Neptunes, and Jay-Z after having indie pop for so long. He seems to have deathroned Stephen Merrit in the seemingly effortless pop craft/wordplay department. On the MOC records web site there is a rap mp3 called "Hit By a Car" recorded by Graham Smtih under the name Matt Cutter. It would still fall under the catagory of ironic thuggism, or parody but it's Graham Smith's first shockingly credible stab at the genre yet.

theodore fogelsanger, Sunday, 9 February 2003 01:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

classic. The only album I love totally (that I've heard) is "Ponyoak", which is like GBV with great lyrics therefore some of the best music ever made. "Smith" and "After Mathematics" were a lot less tight, but I'm totally impressed by his willingness to experiment. I hope he loses some of his tee-hee ironicism (and drops the damn instrumentals!), but this guy is too talented to ever be counted out. And young enough that his best work may still be ahead of him. Definitely makes my top 10 Artists Of My Generation.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 9 February 2003 23:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

one year passes...
Kleenex Girl Wonder covers "The Thong Song" - novelty, schmovelty...I just played it three times in a row and it made me smile/laugh every time.

Ernest P. (ernestp), Sunday, 15 February 2004 05:59 (twenty years ago) link

They used to do a pretty sharp cover of "No Scrubs" - way before HH started to creep into Graham's music, he was obviously influenced by it.

If he can ever fully reconcile the pop and the rap (he was a third of the way there on Aftermathmatics) he would be on to something really great I think.

Slumberlord (Imbroglio), Sunday, 15 February 2004 06:11 (twenty years ago) link

Ponyoak wasn't quite so glorious as I imply upthread the last time I listened to it. I still like KGW though.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 15 February 2004 18:03 (twenty years ago) link

twelve years pass...

'The Comedy Album' out today, 13 songs on iTunes etc. but a 23-track double album version is available direct from http://kgw.me/album/the-comedy-album

I think he's been on a roll with the last few albums, though they seem to slip by without being noticed too much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gtfp_zzu6A

PaulTMA, Friday, 18 March 2016 13:08 (eight years ago) link

Hey wow, I didn't know anyone else here was still into KGW! Totally agree about the last few albums -- I recently realized that Let it Buffer is probably my favorite thing he's done. It's hard to rank anything above Ponyoak, but I definitely listen to the recent stuff a lot more often.

I've had the double album version of The Comedy Album for a few months and I'm not really surprised to see it trimmed down for official release, but I am surprised at some of the cuts, like the Max Tundra-produced track, etc.

Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Friday, 18 March 2016 21:20 (eight years ago) link

He seems to have cut most of the odder tracks, although 'Fuck The New Yorker' survived. 'Like Lena Dunham' is an especially bizarre song. Overall it's easily the weirdest album he's managed since 'Smith', though the abridged version definitely seems more easy to take in.

I only really discovered KGW a couple of months ago but have become familiar with just about everything Graham Smith has done, musically-speaking. It seems very odd that major labels didn't come knocking after Ponyoak, which I'm pretty sure would have been the album that Weezer fans would have wanted Rivers & Co. to put out a studio version of in 1999, in some kind of alternate universe. Easily one of the best albums I've ever heard and kind of shocking he wrote it while still in his teens.

PaulTMA, Sunday, 20 March 2016 21:27 (eight years ago) link

two years pass...

Another great KGW album. He never stops. http://kgw.me/

PaulTMA, Thursday, 10 May 2018 23:25 (five years ago) link

two years pass...

'May Be Icy' has, over the years, slowly evolved in my esteem from just another good song on a real good album to one of my favorite songs of all time.

Looks like I'm gonna be the filling in a missile sandwich! (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 13 January 2021 13:17 (three years ago) link

Coincidentally was listening to that for the first time in years yesterday. A lot to be said for the teenage KGW era

PaulTMA, Wednesday, 13 January 2021 13:24 (three years ago) link

one year passes...

Ponyoak is incredible, surprised i never knew about it earlier as a lifelong superfan of 90s GBV which is obviously the closest reference point

ciderpress, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 13:58 (one year ago) link

Weird timing, I got in the mood for Smith’s solo “Final Battle” earlier this week and have been randomly dipping into it (it was my album of the year in 2004)

Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 27 April 2022 18:22 (one year ago) link

(I don’t know why I never sought out his other stuff. Maybe this one just hit it too well.)

Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 27 April 2022 19:03 (one year ago) link

Ponyoak is all-time. Though it doesn't really hit at all like GBV for me. Probability two left feet!

Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 28 April 2022 02:42 (one year ago) link

"the mohican antler-yard alphabet" and "mayflower looks at asia" are basically robert pollard songs and "power bird" is basically a tobin sprout song which is enough for me to draw the lines but yeah the rest of the album is more diverse

ciderpress, Thursday, 28 April 2022 23:27 (one year ago) link

Yeah I’d say the GBV influence is more noticeable in his pre-Ponyoak stuff. “What Is Your Posture?”doesn’t just sound like GBV, it sounds like an absolutely classic GBV song that they’d probably still be playing at every show if Bob had written it.

https://kleenexgirlwonder.bandcamp.com/track/what-is-your-posture

Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Friday, 29 April 2022 05:18 (one year ago) link


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