i just listened to that record yesterday thanks to ilxor 69, who gave me his copy. 'sleep it off' is pretty great, but i think i like 'doll in the box' better. SIO is a new wave/rock record produced by Don Was, while DITB is a weirdy disco album produced by August Darnell. both are pretty great tbh
― jaxon, Tuesday, 6 July 2010 01:28 (thirteen years ago) link
Sleep It Off is imho a stronger album overall, even though Doll in the Box features her best song, "Disco Clone". some of the tracks on DITB "Jungle Love" and "Blame It On Disco" strike me as somewhat generic takes on Kid Creole's style, and I think they'd actually be more entertaining if Darnell had performed them himself.
I heard the original John Cale-produced 7" version of "Disco Clone" a while back, and it's horrendous, with some punchable, nasal-voiced art student doing the spoken-word bits that Kevin Kline re-recorded for the more well-known release.
I'm intrigued by the "rude" version of "Disco Clone" that mike t-diva mentions upthread? his (6-year-old) blog entry doesn't link to it anymore, and I can't find it elsewhere online. 100000 thanks to anyone who'd be willing to share.
― if you see her, say ayo (unregistered), Tuesday, 6 July 2010 02:16 (thirteen years ago) link
(oops, should say "some of the tracks on DITB such as 'Jungle Love' and 'Blame It On Disco'")
― if you see her, say ayo (unregistered), Tuesday, 6 July 2010 02:17 (thirteen years ago) link
unregistered, here's the version of "disco clone" from mike's blog.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/sb01zi
― jed_, Tuesday, 6 July 2010 14:22 (thirteen years ago) link
thank you kindly, jed!
― if you see her, say ayo (unregistered), Wednesday, 7 July 2010 18:04 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah, this is pretty demented
― if you see her, say ayo (unregistered), Wednesday, 7 July 2010 18:21 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm much more a fan of new wave/rock than disco so I think I will start w/ SIO. Also, I already love two tracks on it.
― http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uSTXn4H5jY (Stevie D), Wednesday, 7 July 2010 18:22 (thirteen years ago) link
make sure you get ahold of "Things Fall Apart," a bonus track on the CD version Sleep It Off. it's one of her best songs, and in a way it's a response to the Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping". I wish she did more spoken word parts, because she has a knack for capturing deadpan hipster loopiness in her narrations, as in "Is That All There Is" and "Things Fall Apart".
― if you see her, say ayo (unregistered), Wednesday, 7 July 2010 18:31 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah, this is pretty demented― if you see her, say ayo (unregistered), Wednesday, July 7, 2010 2:21 PM (10 minutes ago)
― if you see her, say ayo (unregistered), Wednesday, July 7, 2010 2:21 PM (10 minutes ago)
...'specially the last 30 seconds or so, when the guy and girl start talking dirty to each other in such a way that the overdubbing is really really blatant.
"does this please you?""oh yes.""uhhhh, I have 50 more.""why, come on...and now cum on it.""uhhhh""I'm so glad we met."
― if you see her, say ayo (unregistered), Wednesday, 7 July 2010 18:36 (thirteen years ago) link
xp that's one of the two songs I was talking about! I made a Christmas mixtape last year and it was like my favorite song on the whole damn thing.
― http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uSTXn4H5jY (Stevie D), Wednesday, 7 July 2010 18:48 (thirteen years ago) link
no problem, glad you enjoyed it!
― jed_, Thursday, 8 July 2010 11:32 (thirteen years ago) link
I thought I would have to make a thread for Cristina, but here one is.
I don't know if it was on ilxor or another forum but MASSIVE THANKYOU to whoever posted a youtube link to "Things Fall Apart", one of the most rocking things I've heard in quite some time and a rare youtube link that had me really excited and led to something so good. It's one of these things I probably could have only discovered through chance because it doesnt fall into any of my favored genres.
Doll In A Box and Sleep It Off are both fantastic brilliant stuff, the bonus tracks to the latter are especially fine. "Deb Behind Bars (Alternate)" is about as good as "Things Fall Apart".
I particularly liked "Ballad Of Immoral Earnings" (Brecht/Weil cover), just weirdly gorgeous.
Some of it reminds of Bongwater, anyone else getting that?
Wish she done a load more albums. From the sleeve notes interview it seems like imposter syndrome stopped her. What a shame!
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 21 March 2020 14:01 (four years ago) link
Now reading about Ann Magnuson (later of Bongwarter, which started in '86, '87, I think) along with Cristina and Michael and other ZE people in Tim Lawrence's doorstop paperback Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980 -1983. Cale left to form Spy, which I mainly remember for Lester Bangs's excellent 7", "Let It Blurt." Hopefully more about that later in here, which goes "crab-wise," as the author says, tracking inter-and intra-related activities across the calendar, year-to-year, so lots of recurring appearances, as in Ken Burns docs.Author seems to agree with one of Cristina's colleagues, who says she was "very, very, very clever," but not the most effective singer.I mostly know her from comps released in the great ZR reissue wave of 00s, seems effective to me.Covered this in '06, blogged archived clip w 2016 update:Liquor For The Soul
Lizzy Mercier Descloux: Best Off (ZE)In 1979, NYC's ultrahip ZE Records issued Press Color, the debut album ofParisienne expat painter et post-punkette Lizzy Mercier Descloux. It was pretty goodpunky funky no (-ish) wave. But the most striking thing about the early songsinvited to ZE's new Lizzy fair, Best Off, is the way their parsing paisley parsleyand bodyhair telegraphy grow through the French, South American, Caribbean andAfrican elements of LDM's Eiffel of a peak. For instance, Best Off offers ajuicy slice of 1984's Soweto-collaborative, bollocks-to-apartheid Zulu Rock, which ZEhas also reissued, with several bonus tracks. Wherevershe goes, Descloux sounds far too at home to be satisfied, but there's anervous delight in her flight, though it's never unsteady. She often suggests theartist as discreetly caffeinated spectator, responding to the multiplyingdimensions in her pulsating frames. Descloux (who moved to the West Indies in the90s, and kept painting, right up until her 2004 death from cancer) even moldsbullets from samples of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker's narcotic blue satori,which remains undisturbed, of course. Opposites attract, eternally.(ZE site still"under construction" last time I checked, so for instance seehttp://www.forcedexposure.com)
(update: in 2016, Pitchfork published Laura Snapes' informative,, insightful, incisive profile of LMD: http://pitchfork.com/features/from-the-pitchfork-review/9828-lizzy-mercier-descloux-behind-the-muse/)
― dow, Saturday, 21 March 2020 17:17 (four years ago) link
great *ZE* reissue wave of 00s, that is.
― dow, Saturday, 21 March 2020 17:23 (four years ago) link
Don't Mutilate My Mink is one of the best songs of all time and I wish I could find my audio cable so I could play it really loud instead of through shitty laptop speakers
― Colonel Poo, Saturday, 21 March 2020 17:25 (four years ago) link
Geniunely pissed off to this day that we had a Cristina in the music world and lost her bcz she convinced herself her only real talent was being married to a label head.
― really looking forward to wearily scrolling past all your posts (Champiness), Saturday, 21 March 2020 18:12 (four years ago) link
"You Rented A Space" is another bizarre gem.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 21 March 2020 19:55 (four years ago) link
The 2CD Mutant Disco expansion from 2003 (later split into two volumes) remains one of my favorite releases of anything, ever. No one else on it has quite Cristina's specific attitude, but it is wall-to-wall great.
Fans of the label/scene may enjoy the Michael Zilkha-produced Basquiat shaggy dog story that is Downtown '81 (available here in low quality), which has performances/bits from Kid Creole, Coati Mundi, DNA, The Plastics, James Chance, Debbie Harry... but no Cristina IIRC, sadly.
― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Saturday, 21 March 2020 20:23 (four years ago) link
@ZEBooks_USA"He exuded cool, sangfroid, and—unusually for the time and place—quiet competence." @luxante+@nybooks on ZE's first title by @lordrochester. Article at: https://nybooks.com/articles/2020/04/09/glenn-obrien-sweet-smell-hipness/
#intelligencefordummies #glennobrien #zebooks #nyrb #lucsante #withprojects #nectarliteraryhttps://twitter.com/ZEBooks_USA/status/1240684458392485890/photo/1
― dow, Saturday, 21 March 2020 22:00 (four years ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ETfIHSuUwAAa3GJ?format=jpg&name=4096x4096
― dow, Saturday, 21 March 2020 22:02 (four years ago) link
was bored a few months ago and decided to look Cristina up, surprised to find out she's on Instagram! And still as brilliantly droll and fashionable as ever: https://www.instagram.com/rupertandedith/?hl=en
thanks for bumping this thread, been meaning to post about this but kept forgetting.
― Roz, Sunday, 22 March 2020 06:02 (four years ago) link
Oh wow that’s an immediate follow for me, thanks
― really looking forward to wearily scrolling past all your posts (Champiness), Sunday, 22 March 2020 14:39 (four years ago) link
Almost made me sign up for Instagram.
― stirmonster, Sunday, 22 March 2020 15:09 (four years ago) link
completely obsessed with this multilingual-rap/AOR anthem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrU8Ghbx7BU
― rí an techno (seandalai), Wednesday, 25 March 2020 01:15 (four years ago) link
word is going around that she's passed, due to complications of coronavirus.
― dan selzer, Wednesday, 1 April 2020 17:07 (three years ago) link
What?! No...
― Album Moods: Rambunctious; Snide (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 17:08 (three years ago) link
yeah, I just poked around. No official announcement yet but a few clear messages from friends of hers on social media and such.
― dan selzer, Wednesday, 1 April 2020 17:30 (three years ago) link
Oh fuck no :(
― Roz, Wednesday, 1 April 2020 17:44 (three years ago) link
Hell of a final post: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-ZdBpGgRcW/?igshid=hbwcqdw1988e
Going to jam her version of “Is that all there is?” in tribute. Godspeed you badass legend.
― Roz, Wednesday, 1 April 2020 17:54 (three years ago) link
Oh no!!
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 1 April 2020 17:55 (three years ago) link
Shit, I just started following her Instagram after it was mentioned above (one of three accounts I now follow). Having briefly "met" her again this way, I had thought I might catch up. Now, all of the sudden, it seems she is gone. RIP.
― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 19:18 (three years ago) link
Godammit - RIP Cristina
― Jeff W, Wednesday, 1 April 2020 19:30 (three years ago) link
This is so sad. Rest In Peace to a force of nature! x
― current (jed_), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 22:55 (three years ago) link
this interview with her that my friend Kurt wrote is worth re-reading.
http://festivefanzine.blogspot.com/2010/12/from-vaults-merry-cristina-mas.html
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 1 April 2020 23:09 (three years ago) link
also - http://www.zerecords.com/booklets/32.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0ZZ05CwjY_4bMCBXrC9u_aI5LeKK-LKl-lf530rXFBckLMGzUASTszBWA
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 1 April 2020 23:12 (three years ago) link
well shit!
― brimstead, Wednesday, 1 April 2020 23:13 (three years ago) link
thanks for those links, Stirmonster, I know how much those records meant to you x
― current (jed_), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 23:17 (three years ago) link
mean, not meant.
― current (jed_), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 23:19 (three years ago) link
thanks jed. so sad. she had been hoping for over a decade to record another album but it never came to be as she had majorly struggled for the last 15 years with a serious auto immune condition. X
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 1 April 2020 23:28 (three years ago) link
such a shame.
― current (jed_), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 23:46 (three years ago) link
💔
― maura, Wednesday, 1 April 2020 23:48 (three years ago) link
Feels weird because I just fell in love with those albums in the last 6 months but I'm glad she has more fans than I imagined. I hope people will be writing lots of articles about her soon.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 1 April 2020 23:56 (three years ago) link
So, I heard she talked about having Covid on her Instagram. I don't use Instagram but had a look and can't see where that might be. Any ideas?
Guardian piece - https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/01/pop-singer-cristina-coronavirus-us
― stirmonster, Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:54 (three years ago) link
Dark Entries on twitter had said something, I think.
― current (jed_), Thursday, 2 April 2020 01:00 (three years ago) link
or maybe just alluded to and you already knew that.
Josh from Dark Entries saw my post. I heard about it from John Caples then looked at Instagram and saw some comments on her last post and then a post from a friend of hers about it.
― dan selzer, Thursday, 2 April 2020 01:11 (three years ago) link
Ah, ok. Thanks.
― stirmonster, Thursday, 2 April 2020 01:22 (three years ago) link
She may have posted about it on FB, she has an account there too but it’s private.
She posted a bunch of images/artwork of death on IG last week though - in her usual way of commenting on what’s going on in the news. Seems like grim foreshadowing in hindsight. :(
― Roz, Thursday, 2 April 2020 01:27 (three years ago) link
i ran a new wave / post disco night for a couple of years here in Bristol and we'd often play her explicit version of 'Is That All There Is' as the closer. Feels extremely apposite, especially when the original is apparently Trump's favourite song
― doorstep jetski (dog latin), Thursday, 2 April 2020 07:09 (three years ago) link
Oh, snap: Cristina's "Is That All There Is" was a favourite set-closer of mine around 1988/89, and more generally, one of those tracks which I used to delight in introducing people to. "Things Fall Apart" and both 12" mixes of "Disco Clone" are also perennial, un-witherable lifetime favourites.
― mike t-diva, Thursday, 2 April 2020 08:34 (three years ago) link
― Colonel Poo, Saturday, 21 March 2020 17:25 bookmarkflaglink
just want to point out that I was OTM is this thread
― Colonel Poo, Sunday, 12 November 2023 01:36 (four months ago) link
it is! you were!
― stirmonster, Sunday, 12 November 2023 06:05 (four months ago) link