Btw, I wish that someone here with better fashion sense than I (and that would be almost anyone who posts here) would say something about Ashlee's various magazine-cover appearances over the last few months: Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, Elle, and Jane. She's endeavored not to look remotely similar on any of them.
Also would like to know what you make of the various photos in the I Am Me CD booklet.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 30 March 2006 02:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― nameom (nameom), Thursday, 30 March 2006 02:57 (eighteen years ago) link
Ashlee seems to have a pretty sharp sense of humor about her music (the "LIKE YOU" bit in "I Am Me" is gold!), I imagine she gets a kick out of those ultra-posed pics. Skye is maybe more transparent about which songs she's "in" on.
Can't comment on fashion, as I have none.
― nameom (nameom), Thursday, 30 March 2006 03:12 (eighteen years ago) link
Whereas I think it's a bit of a truism about adolescence that we don't necessarily feel like there is some stable concept of ourselves that we can point to and say "that is what I am". "I am me" in this sense doesn't necessarily mean "I am this singular thing". Rather, it can mean "I am not prepared to a conform to a singular thing outside of myself; I refuse to play by other people's rules". The "me" in "I Am Me" stands in for the inadequacy of any other word to "cover the field" in describing what "i am..."
The incongruent (as in, compared to one another) setpiece shots in the CD booklet might in this sense be a tongue-in-cheek elucidation of the album title rather than an attempt to undermine it; their incommensurability bearing witness to Ashlee's sense of internal fracturedness.
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 30 March 2006 04:20 (eighteen years ago) link
That seems more reasonable. I wonder how the cover (and maybe album) might be received simply as I Am... "I am me" is definitely a statement worthy of further analysis...the "to be or not to be" of teen pop?
― nameom (nameom), Thursday, 30 March 2006 04:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Thursday, 30 March 2006 13:09 (eighteen years ago) link
1. lily allan (u.k. i guess?) "LDN"2. wir sind helden (germany) "von hier an blind"3. aly & aj (u.s.a. i guess?) "rush" (this reminds of joshua clover i think it was calling beth orton's song with the chemical brothers i think it was a cross between fairport convention and silver convention, except this blows anything by beth orton out of the water)4. mahsar (iran) "vase chi"5. tinchy stryder f. wiley (u.k.?) "uptown girl"6. cansei de ser sexy (brazil) "let's make love and listen death from above" (a reference to how skye likes death from above 1979 these days?)7. light beat (tunisia) "nhary liel"8. amy diamond (sweden) "what's in it for me"9. saian supa crew (france) "la patte"10. dx7 (spain) "el plan semanal"
(and even that #10 one is pretty good, i admit)
― xhuxk, Thursday, 30 March 2006 14:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Thursday, 30 March 2006 14:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Thursday, 30 March 2006 14:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Thursday, 30 March 2006 15:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Thursday, 30 March 2006 15:10 (eighteen years ago) link
Yeah, this is part of it. Though what was that Hilary Duff song I mentioned way upthread? "Wake Up"? Is that more disco in my memory (or my memory of its video, anyway) than in its actual sound? I forget.
>wouldn't "L.O.V.E." count as r&b, albeit more Gwen than Teena?<
Yeah, I'll buy that. And also more Led Zeppelin than Teena, right?
― xhuxk, Thursday, 30 March 2006 15:24 (eighteen years ago) link
http://cdbaby.com/cd/mckee
― xhuxk, Thursday, 30 March 2006 15:43 (eighteen years ago) link
http://cdbaby.com/cd/hollistunes
― xhuxk, Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:27 (eighteen years ago) link
Well, if the story's true, Kelly C. told Max Martin to redo "Since U Been Gone" with more drums and more guitars, which in the abstract could easily equate to "afraid to be too catchy," even if it actually amounted to an insanely catchy song, and that could very well have been why Kelly did it. But it's more likely that catchy didn't enter into it. I see what chuck's saying, but my suspicion is that the textures they're going with are just more appealing to their ears--they're not as dense, not as showy. Certainly in the case of Robyn the road to indie leads not away from pop but through Neptunes-y / Prince-y (hip-hop-y?) minimalism. But someone should probably interview Ashlee or someone and ask, if they haven't already (I don't keep up enough).
― Eppy (Eppy), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:39 (eighteen years ago) link
The songs are solid, and more significantly there are three of them even though the show's only aired once. The show's theme is already climbing up the RD Top 30.
Soon she'll probably be credited under her real name. I'm pretty sure that Miley Cyrus has a deal with Hollywood Records in addition to "Hannah's" soundtrack on Disney.
From YouTube: Best of Both Worlds, Who Said, and This Is the Life
― nameom (nameom), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:51 (eighteen years ago) link
I guess part of what I'm saying is that I wish teen-pop now had a little more "Pour Some Sugar on Me" or "Talk Dirty to Me," a little less "Love Bites" and "Every Rose Has Its Thorn." Does that make sense to anybody? Is it my imagination, or are most teen-pop hits *power ballads*?
― xhuxk, Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eppy (Eppy), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:58 (eighteen years ago) link
I think that using new wave as the mediation point can make even the sillier material (like "Wake Up") seem oddly serious or earnest, in the sense of "this could be on one of the The O.C. soundtracks." It's that implied "soundtrack to adolescent life" vibe that comes off this stuff in waves. Something about "Wake Up", for example, announces, "Yes, I am a silly, fluffy, inconsequential song, but in the right time and place I could change your life."
Whereas with freestyle-pop, for example, it certainly can change your life, but it does so without necessarily announcing that possibility in advance.
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 30 March 2006 20:56 (eighteen years ago) link
The Ataris.
― Zwan (miccio), Friday, 31 March 2006 01:47 (eighteen years ago) link
Humorful: Lindsay Lohan, Ashlee Simpson, Skye Sweetnam, Brie Larson, Marit Larsen, Robyn
I can't tell if she's being funny or not: Hilary Duff, Hope Partlow
Funny in her remake of "These Boots Are Made for Walkin": Jessica Simpson
I forget if they're funny: Aly & AJ
They probably think they're funnier than I do: Veronicas, Bon Jovi, Morningwood, Crazy Frog, Pink
Person who would do an amazingly great version of "Pour Some Sugar On Me": Ashlee Simpson (remember Xhuxk, I'm the one who says that there is a lot of Mutt Lange in John Shanks); "La La" seems very Joan Jett (but better); Ashlee's Deborah Allan disco-slut imitation during the "You make me feel like fire/Is this love, or just desire" break in "Burnin Up" is (1) an approach to disco by way of disco, (2) an extravagant bit of scenery chewing, (3) brilliant, (4) hilarious. It's exhibit 1 in my case for Ashlee playing dressup on I Am Me (of course every dance* song that contains a line such as "You make me feel like fire" is scenery chewing).
Although "Burnin Up" has a dub reggae arrangement, its main vocal melody is a sexy itchy vocal descent that sounds not at all like reggae but rather like "HabaƱera" from Carmen. It too is fun(ny).
*Not to mention nondance songs like Courtney Love's Robert Plant imitation on her (great) "Life Despite God": "Run away, your head's on fire/Can't tell the difference between hate and desire"; this too is a great bit of scenery chewing, even if it isn't disco.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 31 March 2006 04:59 (eighteen years ago) link
I once gave a teacher the lyrics to "I Am a Rock" as an example of great song lyrics. But I was only 14 or 15. Since girls mature faster than boys, you'd think Brie's "I Am a Rock" phase would have ended a couple of years ago.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 31 March 2006 05:05 (eighteen years ago) link
NOT FUNNY. "I Am One of Them" to thread!
Brie's "I Am a Rock" phase would have ended a couple of years ago.
True, but I still haven't read any Henry Miller. Something to be said for a girl who claims to spend $60 on books in one go (w/ no mention of CDs, DVDs, etc). Also, is any of the new Lindsay humorous at all? Dahv has been mentioned before...
― nameom (nameom), Friday, 31 March 2006 05:40 (eighteen years ago) link
However....
>there is a lot of Mutt Lange in John Shanks<
...reminds me that Mutt produced Def Lep's power ballads, as well. So I still stand by my claim that too much teenpop is just way too slow (and also too "emotional," which is often not better than being fun.)
― xhuxk, Friday, 31 March 2006 15:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 31 March 2006 15:39 (eighteen years ago) link
What a DORK! That guy in the church band -- the drummer to be exact. He is way into me. I know it!! But all he does is look. Well I got sick of waiting for him to say something.
So right before the Youth Group tonight, I just walked up to him. I said -- Hey. We should hang out. You're in a band -- I need a band. (Plus I heard that some guys like girls that can approach them...guess he didn't.) He said, "I have to go pray now." ...all I could say was Amen!
I'll just take that one as a compliment. TOO BAD!!! Nobody can figure that guy out!
― nameom (nameom), Friday, 31 March 2006 20:34 (eighteen years ago) link
― Haikunym (Haikunym), Friday, 31 March 2006 20:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Haikunym (Haikunym), Friday, 31 March 2006 20:46 (eighteen years ago) link
'LDN' is getting its official release as a 7"-only single on April 24th. Also, for excitable New Yorkers, Lily will be DJ'ing on http://www.eastvillageradio.com between 8-10 tonight, your time.
Popjustice has been getting in a lather this week about the respective returns of Siobhan Wot Used To Be In Sugababes and Alesha Wot Used To Be In Mis-Teeq. In both cases, they have a point.
― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Friday, 31 March 2006 21:18 (eighteen years ago) link
From Ireland, was on Regal, may still be. Myspace heeee-yah.
― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Friday, 31 March 2006 22:31 (eighteen years ago) link
Liking those Pennsy cdbaby new wave-synthed teen-rock disco-metallers Hollis more than I expected, especially ("Chemical," "Waiting," "Better Day," "Fade," "Automatic") when they can the gnu-metal shtick and let their girl Holly get her Patty Smythe and maybe Benatar on. "Fade" has '80s Bryan Adams riffs, and I can actually imagine people moving their thing to "Move That Thing," the song that quotes "Into the Groove". "Torn & Broken" and "Keep Me Down", where they try to act tougher, aren't quite so fun. But thumbs up regardless.
― xhuxk, Saturday, 1 April 2006 19:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eppy (Eppy), Saturday, 1 April 2006 20:02 (eighteen years ago) link
Also curious if Devo 2.0 are being played on Radio Disney given that the album was released by Disney. They're not in the Top 30.
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 2 April 2006 06:09 (eighteen years ago) link
I suspect Disney labels get special treatment in being added to the general playlist (ex. "Hannah" was never actually voted into rotation), but Devo 2.0 seems to live or die by the two-step voting process like everyone else. The kidz still get their new wave from Hilary Duff.
― nameom (nameom), Sunday, 2 April 2006 06:48 (eighteen years ago) link
But I love every song on the album. If I'd heard it last year it probably would have been my third favourite of the year (I like it much more than Autobiography actually, though maybe that's because I heard it first so it hit me harder). I even love the powerballad "Say Goodbye", which has some awesome lyrics:
"Maybe/you don't/love me/like I/love you/baby/'cos the broken in you doesn't make me run"
Something about that line is so ace, maybe it's that it drags out the simple first part so much, then all the meaning is actually so tightly compressed in the second half.
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 3 April 2006 06:08 (eighteen years ago) link
Yep, there's been some, Tim; search above!
― xhuxk, Monday, 3 April 2006 12:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Monday, 3 April 2006 12:12 (eighteen years ago) link
that's so awesome.
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 3 April 2006 14:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Wednesday, 5 April 2006 16:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 16:43 (eighteen years ago) link
They're streaming a couple of Platinum Weird songs on their myspace page; I've been patient enough to get beyond the rebuffering (sometimes this works, sometimes not). "Avalanche" sounds great. Stewart's putting a bit more Keith Richards in the guitar than Shanks would have, but basically this could have come right off the first Lohan album. But I dont think Kara holds the stage as well as Lohan (nor close to as well as Ashlee). Tell me what you think.
The words here support my belief that there's no way this woman is writing Ashlee's lyrics for her. Not that the lyrics are bad. They're good, just as "First" and "Come Clean" are good. "And I breathe, and I sleep, and I wait for a _____/And I lie, and I learn how to live in the hurt/And I'm on the run/Look what I've become/So many nights I've heard you talking to light (?) about the promise land(?)/Oh your promises/So many times you never walked towards the light into your promises/Oh your promise land (?) doesn't stand, can't hold back the avalanche/So I laugh 'cause I dream, and to dream is for fools/When I'm up high it all looks up because I can't see the clouds above me and I can't hear the cries below me/We go around, I'm fading out/And I'm on the run, look what I've become/There's no turning back, I'm giving up everything I've had/So many nights I've heard you talking to light..." Sorry, this is no match for "I was stuck inside someone else's life and always second best" - doesn't speak to the broken in me nearly as well.
(Of course, maybe Stewart wrote these lyrics. And maybe Shanks plays guitar.)
Anyway, it's not remotely trying to sound like 1974, that I can tell.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 18:01 (eighteen years ago) link
I can imagine that in real life Kelly Clarkson has a sense of humor. In fact, she does a swell job in the "Since U Been Gone" video, putting a sly look on her face as she's disassembling her ex's love nest. And her voice certainly has a nice lift in "Since U Been Gone" and "Walk Away." Still, after listening several hours nonstop to Kelly and Avril's "Unwanted" and Evanescence's everything, as I was often doing several months ago (to check out the similarities and because I was obsessed), it was hard not to run screaming to my Lohan and Simpson records afterwards, saying to myself, "At last, someone whose told a joke in her life."
Marion Raven had some great lines in M2M that I'd describe as "intentionally funny" - esp. "Jennifer" about the guy's girlfriend (whom she's immensely jealous of) having skin like porcelain and shame on him if he should hurt her, but you know, wouldn't it be nice if someone would drop her (for all I know Marit wrote that, but Marion is ace the way she delivers the line); also, Marion's lines in "Give a Little Love" - I quoted some of Marit's above - include her hilarious part instructions to the guy to "get down on your knees/I'm the one you have to please." So as I listen more to Here I Am maybe some such lines will emerge as well. But the sound of Here I Am is so heavy; there are some great pop melodies but - I never thought I'd say this - the songs rock too hard a lot of the time, and there's so much orchestration and passion that they come drenched in the weight of several oceans. This isn't really a criticism, just an explanation of why, when the album's done playing, I'm not replaying it incessantly but rather diving for my Hampton the Hamster records (of which I have none, hence I usually bonk my head on the wall).
The three singles from the Marion Raven album are great (if over-orchestrated). Strangely, the only album track I really dislike is her duet with the generally likable Art Alexakis.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 18:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 18:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 18:45 (eighteen years ago) link
By the way, the band is letting you download the song ("Avalanche")from their myspace page. Free Mp3s!
So, aren't any of you curious? I mean, if Richard Rodgers had sung lead in a band, or Ellie Greenwich had, wouldn't you want to hear it? Come on, this is KARA DIOGUARDI, folks.
(Actually, Ellie Greenwich did put out records with her singing lead: the group was the Raindrops. "The Kind of Boy You Can't Forget" made it to #17 in 1963. I've never heard it, but I have heard a couple of other Raindrops tracks (one of 'em, "What a Guy," I've got on an old, beat-up cassette) which are nice but don't have the zing of the Ronettes, the Shangri-Las, the Crystals, the Jelly Beans, or Darlene Love. The Raindrops recorded the first version of "Hanky Panky." I'd love to hear that.)
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 6 April 2006 00:41 (eighteen years ago) link
Here I am at the family functiononce again I tend to bite my nails and sit aloneWhile the folks are getting tipsy with their Absolut and mixed drinks.Oh my god, this always happens every yearMy aunt runs off with a waiter serving caviarimported from Belugaand I think that he was too.There's only 1 thing left to do
Pass the Shirley Temple...
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 6 April 2006 00:58 (eighteen years ago) link
I agree. Ashlee's fundamentally earnest, which doesn't mean that there isn't a lot that's really witty.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 6 April 2006 01:02 (eighteen years ago) link
Yes. See my previous 50 posts on the subject. She spends most of "Fastlane" winking at the sound man. On "I Want You to Want Me" she does the vocal equivalent of playing air guitar. On "Who Loves You?" she's plastering the room in so much ham that pigs are picketing outside the studio.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 6 April 2006 01:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 6 April 2006 01:27 (eighteen years ago) link