I recently started an ongoing project with this...Skye beats most of them hands down, but Brie Larson's page is pretty great (semi-underrated album, too).
I have the same problem with the Veronicas album...I was using the phrase "confessional bubblegum" but it's more like "anonymous confessional," a total killer in this case when at least half the songs are ballads.
― nameom (nameom), Thursday, 16 March 2006 20:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Thursday, 16 March 2006 21:32 (eighteen years ago) link
Whereas on Autobiography there are number of tracks (I think "Undiscovered" is one of them maybe?) where Ashlee sings very sweetly, quite a distance from "Autobiography" or "Lala". In the context of the album I like that, it works by virtue of being on the same album as those harder tracks and thus showing up a different side of her (although I might not find Ashlee interesting if she did a whole album like that).
Still getting to used to Autobiography so I'm not sure yet how much I like it in relation to I Am Me, but I know that I love every single song on the latter, which is quite an achievement!
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 16 March 2006 21:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― ana78ng (ana78ng), Thursday, 16 March 2006 21:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Saturday, 18 March 2006 02:50 (eighteen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Saturday, 18 March 2006 03:12 (eighteen years ago) link
>Do Perspehone's Bees count as teenpop? I know I saw their name in Billboard, but can't remember whether it was on one of the European charts or on the dance chart. Music is Eurodancepop from, uh, somewhere; I don't have the press release handy. Album out on Columbia next month. Girl singer, though she sounds like new wave era Geddy Lee or maybe the guy from Sparks on the first song, and the second one has her saying you're on the bottom and she's on the top climbing, and "Nice Day" is totally pretty and summery, and "Muzika Dlya Fil'ma" has a title in some world language or other, and closer "Home" brings it back home with an extended Link Wray twang rumble. Cool, but what the heck?
― xhuxk, Saturday, 18 March 2006 20:54 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Saturday, 18 March 2006 21:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Saturday, 18 March 2006 21:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 18 March 2006 21:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 19 March 2006 00:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Sunday, 19 March 2006 01:31 (eighteen years ago) link
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=24911247
― xhuxk, Sunday, 19 March 2006 01:36 (eighteen years ago) link
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=16743376
But yeah, they both seriously need to take lessons from Skye Sweetnam.
Incidentally, both Joanna and Hope are apparently over 100 years old (at least if you google their myspace pages they are).
― xhuxk, Sunday, 19 March 2006 02:19 (eighteen years ago) link
Wednesday, March 15, 2006 NO more FREE donuts when the light is on!!!!!!!We drove to South Carolina tonight.On our way to stop to eat dinner, we see a Krispy Kreme across the street.The Light was on!So I told the guys that you get free donuts when the light is on, because we always used to do that!They didn't believe me.So I told them to pull over and I will prove it to them.We all walk in.They lady looks at me like I'm crazy when I ask her to tell them that we get FREE donuts because the light is on.GEEEEZZ!They definitely think I'm a loser.AND I'm sad to say that this Krispy Kreme is no longer giving away free donuts when they are fresh and hot! Hopefully other Krispy Kremes have not conformed to this absurd craziness.
― xhuxk, Sunday, 19 March 2006 02:26 (eighteen years ago) link
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=23896606&blogID=57756512&MyToken=378e44d1-a8d4-464e-979f-9ca0f8f204ba
And they also have the best taste in music ever:
Influences Jump5, Reo speed wagon, Pussycat Dolls,gwen stefani, green day, click 5, Mcfly, Ludacris, DHT, The all American Rejects, Martina Mcbride, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Carrie Underwood, Meredith Edwards, Brittany Hargest, Deanna Carter,Christina Aguilera, Gretchen Wilson, Big and Rich, Kenny Chesney, Leann Rimes, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears,gunz n roses, Hanson, Charlotte Church, Josh Groban, Zoegirl, Kimberly Perry, Skillet, Pillar, casting crowns,TheNcrowd, OUT OF KILTER, Korn, Manson,Kenny Chesney, Tim Mcgraw, Faith Hill, Trisha Yearwood, Garth brooks, Emma Bunton, spice girls, ashlee simpson, aly and aj, Jesse McCartney, Evanescense, Skye Sweetnam, Usher, Raven, Metillica, NIN, The Donna's, Aaliyah, fat joe, Ciara, OZZY, Janet Jackson, Cher, Hilary Duff, Rascal Flatts, Jodee Messina, Billy Gilman, lil Kim, Victoria Beckham, 80's music, Cinderella, Tesla, Twizted sister, whitesnake, JOURNEY, Steve Perry, ICP, Kelly Clarkson, Jackson5, Mariah Carey, Pillar, Lita Ford, Leann Rimes,BEN FOLDS (Thanks Cali), Todd Agnew, THE RIDE HOME, FATTY HAZE, Punk music, Goth, Rave,techno, BLUEGRASS, The Starting line, My chemical Romance, Ac/dc, Good Charlotte, Cold Play, Dashboard Confessionals, Yellowcard, Death Cab, MegaDeath, Rob Zombie, Whitesnake, Posion, ALICE COOPER, Charlie Daniels Band, Daniel and Jonna's band (name tba), Michael Gungor, Kirk Franklin, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Cheetah Girls, Josh Gracin, Tiffany, Kelly Osbourne, Haylie Duff, Leann Womack, Dolly Parton, Allison Krauss, and the Union station, Prime Suspect, Elysium, Jim Parrinello (my adopted Dad), Toby Keith, Keith Anderson, Loretta Lynn, Switch foot, Mandy Moore, Rachael Lampa, Meredith Edwards, Sister Hazel, hoobastank,Katy Rose,Hanson,brooks and dunn, Cowboy Troy,Howie Day, Max a million C, Red hot Chili peppers, Looking glass, Reba,Gavin Degraw, Hope Partlow, Kaci Brown, John Mayer, (Plenty more)Go
She has music on her site, too:
http://www.myspace.com/bnicole
― xhuxk, Sunday, 19 March 2006 02:56 (eighteen years ago) link
(And I suck because I forgot to say thanks, but thank Chuck--before I'd just sorta liked The Gathering from afar but now am turning downright fannish.)
― Grey, Ian (IanBrooklyn), Sunday, 19 March 2006 07:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Sunday, 19 March 2006 15:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Sunday, 19 March 2006 15:18 (eighteen years ago) link
I remembered liking the second, emo-ier song from the first Lohan album more but now I can't remember anything about it at all. I think it had a cute guy in the video clip, hence my approval. Maybe he looked like Ian Somerholder? He was having a fight with his dad or something?
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 20 March 2006 02:11 (eighteen years ago) link
The song is called "Over." The chorus gets so wonderful as it's winding down. I had difficulty understanding the storyline of the music video as well though. I guess the next door neighbor love interest for Lohan was being abused by his father, in effect adding an extra layer of narrative to the song which by itself is just a straght forward break up angst number.
My favorite Lohan track right now is "Black Hole" from A Little More Personal. Really nice rolling piano line. The verse melody is strong in a Max Martin going for Abba grandness. Unfortunately, the chorus then shifts to a kind of lite nu-metal sludgey whine but the verse parts are worth putting up with this.
― theodore (herbert hebert), Monday, 20 March 2006 08:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Monday, 20 March 2006 14:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― Je4nne Æ’urÂ¥ (Je4nne Fury), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 16:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― Je4nne Æ’urÂ¥ (Je4nne Fury), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 16:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eppy (Eppy), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 17:03 (eighteen years ago) link
also the first lohan album is awful. the "drama queen" single from that movie is a good song trapped in lohan's voice.
the success of anything off the second album is totally contingent on how well the producers can hide her voice or scare up something decent for her to cover, especially drowned by backup singers.
still, "who loves you" is fantastic punked up moroder until it turns terribly cloying at the end.
i don't even see the dolls as emo particularly.
they're terribly teen however, or actually more for 20 somethings who are still living out their teens, in terms of the fanbase -- but also they're a good band, so don't take that as an insult.
and yeah, i did see them do a very good cover of war pigs i guess. which is old metal but not new metal at all (and by that token more nu goth)
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 17:40 (eighteen years ago) link
(Notice that none of us has the same take on Lohan. This in itself makes her valuable.)
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 20:25 (eighteen years ago) link
"Symptoms of You" - The music is so-what (Shanks & DioGuardi producers but not writers), but the lyrics qualify it for the multi-volumed Rough Guide to Codependent Relationships: "Baby all I do is suffer from symptoms of you." This is supposed to show how much she's in love, the old love-is-a-fever-or-flu routine, but the song unintentionally makes the condition seem really pathological.
[We could make The Rough Guide to Codependent Relationships an ongoing series, one or two a year, like the Now compilations.]
"First": Not her very best, but a good test case. If you're drawn in by this blaring self-centeredness, as I am, then you'll like Lohan. If you can't stomach it, then you should stay away. (From her music, that is. As an actress she's far more versatile.)
By the way, the music at the end of each verse, the part that leads into the chorus, seems a pure example of why Shanks & DioGuardi are great (and Kara DioGuardi gives herself the answering vocal part, making her voice affectless so as to highlight Lohan, but sounding beautiful nonetheless, filling in the sound). I don't have the music theory to explain what makes it typical Shanks & DioGuardi, but something about it deepens the song, gives it what I've been calling "the ache of beauty," the unexplainable feeling that love and pain are genuinely at issue here, even if the words are claiming self-confidence: "'Cause you're mine/And tonight/You don't revolve around her/You're mine and this time/I'm gonna scream a little louder."
And the Shanks guitar riff that starts this track is as exuberant as Lohan is. It's one of Miccio's favorites.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 21:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eppy (Eppy), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 21:10 (eighteen years ago) link
So, Daj. *I Know You Want Me*, 2006, Purple Buddha Records, Albanian-American, from Florida. One of the first things you'll notice when you look at her cdbaby link above is "imagine the Veronicas on acid." Unfortunately, I have still barely heard the Veronicas at all (hope to soon), so I have no idea if that's true or not. What I do know: (1) The first song on the album is somewhere in the '80s Prince/Teena Marie/Sheila E neighborhood, and where her voice gets loud is also when the powerchords get loud, and it *isn't* Teena, I know, but it still makes me *think* of Teena, which counts for something since almost nobody ever does anymore. (2) The second song, a totally kicking cover of "I've Done Everything for You" with totally chirpy high-pitched backup vocals, supposedly written by Sammy Hagar but I know it as a Rick Springfield hit, is even better. (3) The third song might be even better: "Pretty in Punk," over-the-top silly-at-least-partly-by-accident-I-think new wave bubble-punk pop about a dad being concerned because his daughter is dating guys with piercings and she's wearing fishnets and getting kicked out of Catholic school for flashing the priest and listening to the Sex Pistols on her iPod because her favorite word is anarchy. (4) Fourth song "When You Put Your #@!! on My !#@" to quite sexy effect leaves the blanks for naughty bits blank a la George Jones's "Her Name Is..." or the Beastie Boys's "Cookie Puss" or Boney M's "Bang Bang Lulu" or something though I forget why those last two belong on the list. (5) Fifth song "Just Rock N Roll" to me is BLATANTLY Billy Joel's "Still Rock and Roll to Me" as redone by a more hard-rocking C&C Music Factory, with Daj stretching out words with extra vowels James Brown style near the end. (6) Sixth song "Forbidden Fruit" starts with a hushed fluffy spoken-word part that reminds me of Seduction or Bardeux or one of those groups, and from there on lets the music drop out into open space in a sort of dub or psychedelic pop way. (8) Ninth song "Photogenic Memory" is also apparently a cover (originally written by Jerry Knight and Davitt Sigerson!) though I don't think I ever heard the original before but this version is super catchy with freakazoid '80s robot-funk backup vocals. (Just checked AMG; turns out it was the first song on the Philip Bailey album with "Easy Lover"!) Anyway, minus the acid, is this what Veronicas sound like?
― xhuxk, Wednesday, 22 March 2006 18:41 (eighteen years ago) link
I like Rick's better but it's not very different from Hagar's, which was also very good. "Rock 'n' Roll Weekend," "Plane Jane," Sam did a lot of hard teen pop on his Capitol LPs.
― George 'the Animal' Steele, Wednesday, 22 March 2006 18:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Thursday, 23 March 2006 16:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Thursday, 23 March 2006 16:45 (eighteen years ago) link
lindsey & kathy, 4-song teen-pop country bubblegum rock EP by two teen florida sisters said on their cdbaby page to also be former child actors on a PBS kids' show called "the huggabug club" not to mention daughters of a pro baseball player i never heard of: first song is yet another "walmart parking lot" song, different than chris cagle's and probably closer spiritually to shannon brown's "cornfed"; in this one, you get things-frank-would-(probably accurately)-call-lies like "no one's complaining about nothing changing here" and stuff about how the local paper only has a page or two which is enough for the news in such a small town and there's only one button on the radio dial which of course plays country so it's "kinda like livin' in the past," okay, the usual myth, but who the hell said songs were supposed to be honest anyway? sound is like a fast early tom petty tune or something, though maybe somebody can figure out a more accurate '80s pop-rock referent for the guitar parts. second song is about a breakup the singer wishes didn't happen, very nice, and helped out what i believe to be a bassline from the doobie brothers' "listen to the music." third song is more bluegrass/folk trad, and the place the sisters' sibling harmonies most shine. and the last song is maybe the most interesting -- not country at all, way more like lisa lisa losing herself in emotion or deniece williams hearing it for the boy in the mid '80s. updated '60s girl group, in other words; in fact, the updating might be accidental. and it works; people who've listened to that *one kiss leads to another* box more than me should figure out what REAL girl group singer it sounds like.
― xhuxk, Thursday, 23 March 2006 19:35 (eighteen years ago) link
http://cdbaby.com/cd/lindseykristy
And it's a picture disc!
― xhuxk, Thursday, 23 March 2006 19:37 (eighteen years ago) link
My favorites right now are "Perfect," "Breathe Today," and "I'm So Sick." The latter two have been the two singles so far.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 23 March 2006 20:37 (eighteen years ago) link
Did you know that John Shanks played in Teena Marie's band when he was still in high school!
Your description of Daj makes her sound better than the Veronicas. I love "4ever" and "Leave Me Alone" [which is the Veronicas imitating the song they wrote for t.A.T.u.]), and the majority of the Veronicas' other stuff sounds good but leaves me feeling a bit hammered by high-pitched so-what normality, the joy of breaking up and telling guys to fuck off, I guess, but coming across not all that joyous, you know?
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 23 March 2006 20:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 23 March 2006 21:13 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Friday, 24 March 2006 00:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Friday, 24 March 2006 11:50 (eighteen years ago) link
'twas "funk boutique," 1991. AMG sez angel [sabater] was there for the second album in '89 but not for the third one in '92, and my CD single is storage; not positive whether angel's still on there on not.
i guess part of what gets me excited about these two cdbaby CDs is that i can't think of many acts, teen-pop or r&b otherwise, who picked up where either teena *or* lisa lisa *or* the cover girls left off. am i forgetting somebody? probably i am. but to what extent is '60s girl-group sound an element in late '90s/early '00s teen-pop at all? not nearly as much as it was in '80s pop r&b and latin freestyle, i'm sure. i didn't even hear it in the spice girls much (though of course i've yet to define what i mean by "'60s girl group sound," and i'm not sure i can. unschooled voices might be part of it, though. which obviously means lisa lisa more than it does teena. though maybe i should throw stacy lattisaw in there. {or shanice maybe?} i do know that i seem to be having a much harder time getting excited about kelly/lindsay/avril/etc than lots of people on this thread, and i'm not sure i know why. i like all of them fine, and hilary and robyn too, but they're missing SOMETHING. a sense of adventure or weirdness or surprise, maybe? though quite likely that stuff is there, and i'm just not hearing it.) (i also wish "konichiwa bitches" WAS as surprising or funky as "attack of the name game.")
(disclaimner: i'll decide a lot of that rant is utter bullshit mere minutes after i press "submit," but i'm gonna go ahead and press.)
― xhuxk, Friday, 24 March 2006 13:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Friday, 24 March 2006 14:24 (eighteen years ago) link
then how come i don't like pink or gwen (or even lindsay) more? so maybe that's not it, either. (i do like all of them fine. but still.)
― xhuxk, Friday, 24 March 2006 14:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Friday, 24 March 2006 14:32 (eighteen years ago) link
'Twas the Dance Club Play chart, where their single "Nice Day" is now at #3. Not sure who their album (again, coming out this month on an actual major label) would be marketed to -- I guess their audience now would be clubgoers (and specificially gay adults? Or maybe Eurotrash adults? I'm not sure), though they're songful enough that they easily *could* be marketed to teens. They'd fit in on Radio Disney. Anyway, I like this verse from "Home": "She takes her daddy's money/She spends it all on junk/She goes out with different girls."
― xhuxk, Saturday, 25 March 2006 15:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Saturday, 25 March 2006 15:05 (eighteen years ago) link
http://thecaglefamily.com/
finally got the veronica's CD yesterday, and "4 ever" is indeed pretty awesome, but what it mainly sounds like to me, except for the chorus parts where the high harmonies kick in, is just a really good donnas song. (it must have been the song i compared to joan jett above, when recalling perfunctorily having listened to parts of an advance of their CD a few months before, when i didn't know who they were.) other tracks? i'm not hearing much yet. not bad, just shoulder-shrugworthy. unlike many of the non-single cuts on the e-40 CD ("muscle cars"! "yay area"! "white gurl"! "they might be taping"!), which i actually think i might like more than its single. (and e-40 belongs on the teen-pop thread, since he mentions lindsay lohan in "white gurl," which isn't about lindsay lohan but about cocaine.)
finally bought the akon CD today at princeton record exchange, after procrastinating for like 2 1/2 years. (he belongs on the teen-pop thread because frank said he does, in the first post.) "locked up" and "ghetto" are even better than i remembered. who i'm realizing he sometimes reminds me of is shinehead. (he also belongs on the world music thread! and if there was an industrial thread, the percussion of "locked up" would belong there!)
"paper plane" by persephone's bees may well take its melody from "green tambourine."
― xhuxk, Saturday, 25 March 2006 22:36 (eighteen years ago) link
anyway, more akon thoughts: (1) i think i like the version of "locked up" without styles p better than the version with him since i prefer the jail-guitar-door slamming effects to his rapping; (2) when "lonley" was played on radio disney, did they just bleep the "bullshit," or what?; (3) "ghetto" is the song that reminds me of shinehead -- when akon's not as good, he reminds me more of shaggy, which is still okay; (4) best non-hit maybe: "journey."
so far my favorite non-hit on the veronicas' CD is "revolution." lalena says their version of "mother mother" sounds exactly like tracy bonham's (though didn't tracy just have one mother?). lalena also says the flyleaf singer sounds way more like the cranberries' singer or even sinead than bjork (who she's listened to way more than i have), but that the flyleaf vocals seem more multitracked than any of those. also, as a precedent for high female harmonies in a goth/metal context, she says Drain STH did that all the time in the late '90s.
― xhuxk, Sunday, 26 March 2006 16:35 (eighteen years ago) link
(Drain STH apparently Swedish, all female, Ozzfesters, and often rumored to be a producer concoction not a "real band" during the high Swedish teen-pop era. Which might be relevant.)
― xhuxk, Sunday, 26 March 2006 16:44 (eighteen years ago) link
For some reason I think of "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh" when I hear their version. One of the pitfalls of having no discernible personality, maybe.
― nameom (nameom), Sunday, 26 March 2006 18:54 (eighteen years ago) link