CocoRosie member goes to "Kill Whitey" Ironic dance parties and gets called out by brainwashed.com as racist

Nobody is accusing anybody of being misogynist

Listening to "Jesus Loves Me" for the first time was a deeply upsetting experience, particularly in the wake of the Kill Whitey thing.

Anyway, this isn't really my fight. See you over in the Scout Niblett thread.

not digging their aesthetic at all. broken old-timey folk with crappy loops/noise/digital effects = no thank you. sonic ugliness prevents me from caring about what any of their lyrics are actually about.

actively seeking out the one where they talk about how Jesus doesn't love their nigger friends or their nigger wives is a mistake, don't do it

Nobody is accusing anybody of being misogynist

No?

as women Cocorosie are dismissed because their visual presentation frustrates many male writers’ abilities to sexualize them ... don’t be Aryan muscle-boys...

I do apologise for tarring all the writers with a single brush. Rereading, there are many for whom my criticisms don't apply at all. I was blinded by the other bullshit.

don't really get where racism angle figures into this either - re: the original article is it really so surprising some pretentious twee indie folkie girl would feel out of place/threatened/uncomfortable in yr average hip hop club...?

actively seeking out the one where they talk about how Jesus doesn't love their nigger friends or their nigger wives is a mistake, don't do it

hahaha um oh okay NOW I get it

actively seeking out the one where they talk about how Jesus doesn't love their nigger friends or their nigger wives is a mistake, don't do it

o_O daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang

aside from the shitty music and racism this makes me sad because I love yoko ono

yeah i like a lot of the people giving approving quotes there! whaddyagonnado

this reminds me a little of the time I had to ignore the many awesome directors backing up Polanski (though obv the offenses are not in any way comparable)

lol nice caveat there

the full lyrics to that song:

Jesus loves me
But not my wife
Not my nigger friends
Or their nigger lives
But jesus loves me
Dat for sure
'Cause the bible tell me so

Read your bible good and well
Don't forget about that apple spell
Don't fall in the wishing well
Wishing for heaven and gettin' hell
Wash behind your ears don't smell
Cover them freckles don't ask don't tell
Kiss your papa but not too long
Hold his hand
Don't do no wrong

Jesus loves me
But not my wife
Not my nigger friends
Or their nigger lives
But jesus loves me
Dat for sure
'Cause the bible tell me so

Hush don't cry
Dry them tears
Time'll wash away all them years
Scar or a bruise
Pick and choose
When you're all grown up
You'll have the blues
Life'll give you that wedding ring
Fancy cars and diamond things
You best believe in Jesus' way
And never fall asleep forgetting to pray

Jesus loves me
But not my wife
Not my nigger friends
Or their nigger lives
But jesus loves me
Dat for sure
'Cause the bible tell me so

'Cause the bible tell me so

what it's supposed to be: A satirical take on the contradictory nature of religious values

why it fails: Because it uses the word "nigger" for no reason other than a hateful evocation of black people, yet uses much more restrained/sensitive verbiage to talk about issues surrounding the arbitrariness of some bible rules as well as the sexism and homophobia, it explicitly singles out black people for disdain and derision in a manner wholly out of keeping with the rest of the song, completely undercutting any meaningful message it's supposed to have with a very strong, palpable undercurrent of "btw if you are black, fuck off; we don't want you listening to our music".

This is the type of hamfisted, unthinking point-making you do when you are either a sheltered kid who has heard of racism but have never actually experienced it or a self-absorbed person who lacks the empathy necessary to translate your experience into terms that make the experience relatable rather than repellent and offensive to others who have gone through similar experiences. Had there been parity in language with references to "faggots" and "bitches", the point of view would have been better defined and the narrative less confused; as it stands, you have a song by some people who hate religion and black people but only realize that they hate religion.

holy shit @ lyrics

just reading it (not listening to it) the use of "nigger" reads like a poor trolling attempt. Like ho-hum here's a song about that wacky Jesus, oh by the way, RACISM!

*yawn*

it seems to me like this: like a bunch of kids at a nice college who are so moved and disgusted by the history of racial violence in this country, and outraged that the rest of the student body doesn't really think about it, that they do up one of them in blackface and stage a mock lynching in the quad. and then they don't even get why everyone would be mad at them for pulling a stunt like that, and can barely explain why they did it.

now, set it to music (no beats tho)

(For similar examples, see also: The The - "The Violence of Truth" and Christian Death - "Romeo's Distress")

I like their music a lot, generally (first two albums a lot less than the second two), am really bummed out by their "provocative" race stuff but I listen to a lot of heavy metal bands who hold noxious beliefs & express them (albeit in more heavily coded language) & have sorta been doing the disconnect-from-shit-that-offends-me dance with music all my life -- I'm a pretty easily offended guy, actually, but I mean...I listen to goregrind. I don't think goregrind is making any kind of critical commentary on the behavior it details. I think it's pretty offensive, if I really think about it, but I also enjoy it.

basically CR is a band I like but with some big reservations & I can 100% imagine myself hating them, if I didn't respond so heavily to the last two albums - if I were building a case for them, I'd say listen to "Rainbowarriors," "Raphael," "Werewolf," "Smokey Taboo," "Undertaker," and "The Moon Asked the Crow" -- but I wouldn't build a case for them, because the sounds they make & especially Bianca's vocal persona/delivery are either going to register with you or not.

xpost yeah ha basically the first time I had to go "hey, fuck you, band making music I like, what the fuck is wrong with your juvenile ass" was "Romeo's Distress"

I can't work out who's worse; CocoRosie, Two Gallants or Country Teasers :-(

While googling, the first song of theirs I encountered was "Rainbowarriors" and I was like "why are people objecting so heavily to these girls, this is kind of pretty if not entirely my thing"

Then I googled "cocorosie racism" and discovered "Jesus Loves Me" and really at this point I need to stop writing before I just lose it.

aero i have a hard time believing you hated joanna newsom so much, if you like CR! it's like the same thing only the songs are a third as long and have a quarter as much going on

country teasers are pretty awesome

Just to get a sense of where I'm coming from, if ever I encounter Robert Smith doing some shit like "Jesus Loves Me", I will be throwing away and deleting a lot of music I've built up over the past 23 years.

i can believe this thread has me digging up christian death youtubes

it's like the same thing only the songs are a third as long and have a quarter as much going on

yeah this is def of a piece with Newsom, no?

lol "can't", ah well the jig is up i guess

They "explained" Jesus Loves Me in this interview: http://www.splendidezine.com/features/cocorosie/

i really want to listen to this band but i lent someone my headphones so they could do online training :(

These are some good analyses, HI DERE, free wings.

Just to get a sense of where I'm coming from, if ever I encounter Robert Smith doing some shit like "Jesus Loves Me", I will be throwing away and deleting a lot of music I've built up over the past 23 years.

fortunately I don't think they'll get any worse than lol tolhurst in blackface

aero i have a hard time believing you hated joanna newsom so much, if you like CR! it's like the same thing only the songs are a third as long and have a quarter as much going on

"a third as long and have a quarter as much going on" is a big plus in my book - I do not want to hear any singer-songwriter's 10-minute indulgence

I liked JN's first album a lot but nobody pays attention when I say that, I cannot be bothered with any super-long "song suites" or whatever, I attribute this to my godawful lawlessness

well a third as long i can get with, yeah

lol

argh, I'm trying to write something coherent about this elsewhere, but HI DERE is going to remain OTM about this, and I enjoy Jamie Stewart but his commentary on Cocorosie is absolutely moronic, on multiple levels

the beginning of that linked interview is hilarious

xp: about the only reason The Cure got away with Lol in blackface in that video with me is because I'm totally inconsistent and because the entire thing is incompetent from head to toe (also that's the video where they were calling Lol a cunt IIRC so it seemed like him being in blackface was more band inside cruelty than an overt statement on race)

I borrowed a couple of you guys' posts for this: http://chainofknives.tumblr.com/ / http://chainofknives.tumblr.com/post/722859553/op-ed-an-artists-dialogue-on-cocorosies-grey-oceans

Really? Well... "Jesus Loves Me", I don't know if you recognize it, but it's a children's song, and it's really popular. I don't know if it's really popular in Canada as well. Anyway, kids learn it really early, and it's really stripping down Christianity to its most basic, to a child's perspective. There's such a large population of African-Americans for whom Christianity is a huge thing, but Christianity still remains to be exclusive, and is very segregated, and it's very intricately connected to an old-fashioned mentality that's still very racist. To me, it's a huge contradiction with Christ's message.

*sigh*

this person is stupid

like if anything there's some really fundamental misreading of black culture/Xtianity going on there, among other things

yeah. it is sooooooooooooo not the Christian church's fault that Christian churches are largely segregated

like if anything there's some really fundamental misreading of black culture/Xtianity going on there, among other things

not to mention a fundamental ignorance of history

Really? Well... "Jesus Loves Me", I don't know if you recognize it, but it's a Cocorosie song, and it's really popular. I don't know if it's really popular in Canada as well. Anyway, kids learn it really early, and it's really stripping down Christianity to its most basic, to a child's perspective. There's such a large population of African-Americans for whom indie rock is a huge thing, but indie rock still remains to be exclusive, and is very segregated, and it's very intricately connected to an old-fashioned mentality that's still very racist. To me, it's a huge contradiction with Cocorosie's message.

I like the country teasers but really can't listen to cocorosie

my favorite part of that is "it's really popular. I don't know if it's really popular in Canada as well."

xpost re country teasers

i also don't really get why they were mentioned on this thread

I mean I understand why someone would mention them, but they are like leagues ahead in many ways

Splendid: Yeah. What was the statement behind "Jesus Loves Me"?

Bianca Casady: You really don't know? Or you just want to hear it out of my mouth?

you are being interviewed. for a publication. do you really expect their entire readership to already have an opinion on that song?

i want to hear it out of your eyes

btw if someone comes in this thread now talking about the male nurse I'm gonna get mad

is "the male nurse" the new legal name of genesis p-orridge?