Cat Power/ Chan Marshall- genius or fruitloop?

Anyhow, I agree with Nitsuh that she can be excruciating live. Once I saw her and she was telling them to turn up and turn down the monitors for 15 minutes. Having said that, she *was* a live powerhouse in the tour right after moon pix, when she was with two fellows (one of whom I believe was Jim White) who helped rein in her more neurotic impulses, I think. There are some people who don't need to eb onstage alone, and Chan is one of them.

ronnylongjohns: she's been singing this song, I saw it last summer too ronnylongjohns: I'm very eager to hear again, I hope she puts it on a record BlueOtterTwo: which song? ronnylongjohns: I dont know the name ronnylongjohns: It's the chorus I like BlueOtterTwo: tell me more BlueOtterTwo: ? ronnylongjohns: the chorus starts w/ her whistling this little melody ronnylongjohns: then she repeats the melody twice more but not whistling BlueOtterTwo: whistling?! ronnylongjohns: 2nd - wah wah WAH wah WAH ronnylongjohns: 3rd - Doo doo DOO doo DOO! BlueOtterTwo: neat ronnylongjohns: o my god it is the cutest thing I have ever seen BlueOtterTwo: i want it ronnylongjohns: at the end she got the audience whistling ronnylongjohns: over and over ronnylongjohns: while she did the wahs and doos BlueOtterTwo: i cannot whislte BlueOtterTwo: whistle ronnylongjohns: and when she realized that everyone was whistling ronnylongjohns: she got this tremendous grin ronnylongjohns: ahhhhhhh..... ronnylongjohns: sigh BlueOtterTwo: i think you are alive ronnylongjohns: I was for a minute there BlueOtterTwo: i meant in love

I have become the owner of "Myra Lee." I told my mom she might like Cat Power, but she didn't, so she donated the CD to me. It's okay so far. Previously the only Cat Power song I'd heard was that really popular one--I think it was called "I Don't Blame You."

This is, as you kidz say, OTM.

chan was a big inspiration for me. a fruity folk heroine. the new dvd is out in a couple weeks. two hours of her playing outside in a field.

i want to make creep folk pscyh noise with her and she has me demos.

as for her live, Nitsuh is OTM. the thing is, live, when she is onto something & havng a good night. the show works at a level that no other singer-songwriter reaches today. i have a video of her from knitting factory 96 and she does this version of water and air that is just downright gut wrenching genius.

I think so far Myra Lee is my favourite Cat Power album, despite never hearing it before. I have What Would The Community Think, Moon Pix, and The Covers Record and I think I'd rank them so:

Myra Lee > What Would The Community Think = The Covers Record >> Moon Pix

I know a lot of people like Moon Pix best but I just don't get it. Am I alone?

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/08d7e6b5ae/kids-songs-with-cat-power

Well, good that she can laugh at herself,

It's not exactly funny though.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C3FFkIIUkAA-L5O.jpg:small

finally, a definitive answer to the question in the thread title

Oh nooo

ummm... false?

no, wait, true - but correlation is not causation?

i give up

holy shit no!!!

chan :(

omg have you followed her on twitter, i did for a week or so

nope... fruitloop?

This (upthread) was clearly not watched enough. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubigmaH2AOE

She's being funny come on.

Or is she?

doubt it

Genius

I love this:

But the rejection galvanized her. “The 70-year-old me, whom I have yet to meet, was like, You ain’t got no time for this shit. You fucking fuck those motherfuckers. You got your kid here. Keep working, do what you do. Life will continue. You’re going to be okay,” Marshall explains.

Maybe the songwriting has gotten blander than what she did on the 90’s but I prefer this level of professionalism and overall healthiness in her than those erratic, trainwrecked performances that were very common in her 20+ years ago. She was miserable and as someone who went to one of her concerts, it also made for a terrible listening experience. Most of the people in the concert I went to wanted their money back. I didn’t ask for my money because I felt really bad for her but it was really not a good show.

at the time I certainly didn't think I'd be going to see her again in 2018, in fact I probably doubted she'd be around by now.

I mean I prefer it in the live performances. I too prefer the music from way back then.

Chan is in general a very frustrating vocalist for me because I really love her voice and she is easily in my top 20 but I rarely find her musical choices interesting.

listening now, this album sounds great!

People who loved older Cat Power performances simply for her 'erratic personality with all the up and downs' just like to jerk off while watching women fail on stage, don't they? I thought we moved past that.

Anyway, the new album is giving me strong Covers Record / You Are Free vibes in how understated and stripped down it is. I was actually surprised how stark it sounds after the messiness of Sun and the lushness of The Greatest. Not breaking any new musical ground, sure, but I like it and I can see myself coming back to it a lot in the upcoming months.

I feel like that whole attitude is just the logical end-point of the whole fetishisation of imperfection/fragility/precariousness you get in some indie rock circles. As an aesthetic preference it's defensible (even if it's one I think is mostly lame) but when you're extending that to behaviour that's a product of obvious mental illness... I mean that's just grim.

I don't remember anyone saying "wow Elliot Smith is so much better now that his sets are a goddamned drugged up mess"

contemplating the fragility of existence always makes me horny

the idea that women artists aren't sufficiently fascinating unless they are figuratively bleeding on stage has always burned me up.

32 minute radio show from today. Music and interview.

https://www.kcrw.com/latest/live-on-mbe-cat-power

^ Thanks, this is awesome! A Cross Bones Style / Nude as the News mashup!

Also a p4k feature

https://pitchfork.com/features/5-10-15-20/the-music-that-made-cat-powers-chan-marshall/

I feel like that whole attitude is just the logical end-point of the whole fetishisation of imperfection/fragility/precariousness you get in some indie rock circles. As an aesthetic preference it's defensible (even if it's one I think is mostly lame) but when you're extending that to behaviour that's a product of obvious mental illness... I mean that's just grim.

― Matt DC, Friday, October 5, 2018 7:08 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

definitely this but also the age old cliche' spouted by lots of non-hardcore music fans I've met who believe one must SUFFER for their art, which is total nonsense.

I fell in love with Myra Lee and Dear Sir without really knowing anything about her (or drugs, illness) in the dial-up era, I still vastly prefer everything through You Are Free to anything after.

I don't see her substance abuse or mental health as integral to what made those albums great, though. The issues probably also robbed of us good live versions of that era, which is tremendously sad to me. She's said that "He War" was supposed to be a Stonesy rave-up (and performed it live that way, I guess?) but I've never found anything recorded in that style.

I still vastly prefer everything through You Are Free to anything after

this record led me to You Are Free last night, which I had somehow never heard in full, despite the fact that I love Moon Pix and WWTCT? is one of the most important albums in my life. fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. I actually did get a bit of a Stones vibe from the jagged syncopated riff in "He War."

you are free is my #1 cat power pick, other than Moon Pix

Never would've expected Autotune on a Cat Power song, but then I would've said the same about drum machines prior to Sun (an album which I really like, seems the ILM massive sniffs at it).

I really like most of Sun but the three songs in the middle (Always on My Own > Real Life > Human Being) are basically subpar outtakes compared to the rest. They really drag the album down and mess up the flow in my opinion, whereas one of the best tracks from that era (Back in the Days) is just an iTunes bonus.

You Are Free always felt underrated to me. It’s easily one of her most solid records if not the most solid. It loses steam on the second half (“names” being a highlight amidst them) but the first 8 songs are amazing.

I don’t remember where I read that she doesn’t sound as comfortable on a piano as on a guitar but oddly enough I think most of her best performances are usually behind a piano and You Are Free’s best cuts are all piano-based imho.

It’s not my favorite album of hers but individual tracks are amongst my favorite Cat Power songs. There’s some beautiful moments in there that she hasn’t rivalled anywhere else in her work.

I feel like that album is peak Cat Power and everything after it marked a descent. I like hearing the way up, those albums before it, but the albums after it not so much. I have not lost interest at all though she’s always been worth following.

New record still hasn’t won me completely but I think her voice sounds incredible and the whole thing is very tastefully done. It might just be the wrong time of year for me to listen to it.

I wouldn't say You Are Free is underrated. It was kind of a breakthrough album for her

Isn't You Are Free the only one that's been semi-canonised?

I love old school CP (haven’t heard “Nude as the News” rhapsodised, to me it’s breathtaking) but I will rep hard for the title cut of The Greatest - conventional, sure, but the vocal is one great melancholy bruise and it wrecks me every time.
But of course Moon Pix is the colossus.

I like the stuff pre-Moon Pix best but then I suppose I would wouldn't I - Myra Lee and What Would The Community Think - yeah Nude as the News is great, and the single Headlights which Discogs categorises under Cat Power (2) because Cat Power was apparently a band then vs a solo project later.

You Are Free always felt underrated to me. It’s easily one of her most solid records if not the most solid. It loses steam on the second half (“names” being a highlight amidst them) but the first 8 songs are amazing.

I don’t remember where I read that she doesn’t sound as comfortable on a piano as on a guitar but oddly enough I think most of her best performances are usually behind a piano and You Are Free’s best cuts are all piano-based imho.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, October 10, 2018 2:58

yeah! Also the rudimentary style of the piano playing is super effective, much like the way it was on White Chalk

if any of them are canonized it's Moon Pix

though I feel like MP, WWTC?, and YAF are equally well regarded. seems like the split itt and at large is between pre and post The Greatest.

The Covers Album seemed major at the time, and I might prefer it to her originals.

most of her albums, except maybe the very first, were critically well received. allmusic gives them all 4 - 4 1/2.

some notes on WWTCT:

- Michele Romero of Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A-rating, writing that Marshall "raises goose bumps on What Would the Community Think with bluesy, traumatized songs on which she whispers laments over a spare arrangement of guitar and drums

- Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield called the album "leaner and tougher" than her previous release, adding: "It's a quiet album, but the songs get more powerful the closer you listen, as Marshall testifies to her unbearable longing for an unbearable love."

- Music critic Mark Groescher wrote of the album: "Listening to What Would The Community Think is like watching a friend on the verge of losing her mind. It is a wild and sometimes disturbing ride, but it is completely honest. And like any great blues album, it is contagious."

- Biographer Elizabeth Goodman referred to the album as Marshall's "most violent, angry work, a deranged epic filled with sadness, guilt, and defiance."

- Allmusic's Heather Phares says "An intimate, personal album, What Would the Community Think makes imperfection beautiful and turns vulnerability into musical strength."

I like the earlier albums more because they're raw and less lush and beautiful sounding. There's less reverb on her vocals.

I feel like a sham Cat Power fan since I've tried a number of times to get into Moon Pix to no avail. "Cross Bones Style" is great, but the other tracks don't move me.

if "Metal Heart" doesn't move you then you must have...uh...a metal heart

I like the Jukebox version!

oh well then you're beyond help

Come on! That version is beautiful and I hope she re-records it every 10 years for the rest of her life.

metal heart is the essence

saw an amazing show by Cat Power last night in PDX. This was my 3rd show of hers and I don't think I have ever seen her as comfortable on stage before, and she sounded amazing. setlist was pretty close to this one:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/cat-power/2018/astra-berlin-germany-53960fe1.html

Today’s email from Matador (25% off sale)(the “Nearly 15%...” line has a strikethrough):

As we reach the end of 2018, it would not be an exaggeration to say we’re in the midst of many difficult moments in human history. The icecaps are melting. America is on the brink of a constitutional crisis. You can’t walk 15 feet in any major metropolis without breaking your neck on a discarded scooter. Your personal data (including everything we collect in this campaign) is being used for nefarious means. Nearly 15% of the public believes we actually told someone to “sound more like Adele.” Nearly $40 million was spent to produce “The Hurricane Heist”

lol

hahahaha

Good Song Exploder podcast about "Woman":

http://songexploder.net/cat-power

she was completely amazing tonight in Oakland. Now I feel like I've slept on her live performances for the past few years. This was kind of beyond great.

Cat Power/ Chan Marshall- genius or fruitloop?

Err, make that "Dear Ms. Power, please sound more like Adele" - Cat Power - Artist Poll #99 - VOTING THREAD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNoj4oXvQI8

that ending <3