― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Monday, 3 April 2006 12:12 (seventeen years ago) link
that's so awesome.
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 3 April 2006 14:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Wednesday, 5 April 2006 16:09 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 16:43 (seventeen 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 (seventeen 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 (seventeen years ago) link
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 18:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 18:45 (seventeen 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 (seventeen 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 (seventeen 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 (seventeen 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 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 6 April 2006 01:27 (seventeen years ago) link
"Daddy daddy/ Why'd you break your promises to me?/ ...I’m not the little girl you left waiting at home/ All the hurt and pain you left with mom and me/ Why can’t I be angry?"
Going into a chorus that's less paranoid than "Because of You" and more poetic than most of Lindsay's angst stuff -- maybe a mid point between Kelly and Ashlee's earnest I Am Me ballads, or at least worthy of being compared to those two:
"And I want you to know that I didn’t need you anyway/ And this rope that we walk on is swaying/ And the ties that bind us/ They will never ever fray/ But I want for you to know/ You are/ You are/ Unforgiven" (x-post)
― nameom (nameom), Thursday, 6 April 2006 01:29 (seventeen years ago) link
(OK, I need to listen to this one again...) Forgot to mention that the Dobson track is also very aggressive -- "UNFORGIVEN" is like a group chant.
― nameom (nameom), Thursday, 6 April 2006 01:32 (seventeen years ago) link
She seems like the anti-Marit, right?
So what does "Clean and Neat" sound like? Like Marit, without the '50s carny cabaret. Like Marit but spikier.
Well, anyway, a high cheery playful voice, going into fake primitive power pop. The drums seem to be doing the drum equivalent of oompah. The guitar strum goes strum strum strum strum. Quite likable. Quite. I can hear how someone might think she's doing pop year zero, like the first two Modern Lovers albums. Prob'ly too old (25) to claim to be teenpop, but I'd like someone to try and sneak this onto Radio Disney. RD is playing the shit out of the Tashbed, after all, so they could like this, though I don't know if they'd find the primitiveness too primitive to fit their sound.
Oh yeah, the sound is bright and pushy, whereas the lyrics are [to tell you the truth, I didn't pay attention to the lyrics].
(Damn, I'm going to have to listen to some Bjork, so that I won't be a complete ignoramus.)
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 6 April 2006 03:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 6 April 2006 03:05 (seventeen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Thursday, 6 April 2006 12:22 (seventeen years ago) link
You might find the same thing true in comparing country lyrics to pretty much any noncountry genre (except maybe to calypso or to rappers who make a big deal of place names and of course to this or that particular performer who casts himself as a storyteller: Craig Finn or Bruce Springsteen): country will give you place names, car brands, and a whole bunch of other social markers, will specify that a love note is written on a luncheonette napkin. I talked about this a bit in my Rodney Atkins/Lee Greenwood review. This doesn't necessarily make country lyrics better, or even more detailed. Just differently detailed. Marit and Ashlee give you plenty of psychological details in their songs. Marit has one where the woman wears makeup to bed, but she doesn't tell you anything about the house or furnishings.
"She Loves You" and "Be My Baby" don't have place locations and the like, but it isn't as if they're missing something.
(And of course Ashlee goes "Hollywood sucks you in but it won't spit me out" in "Boyfriend.")
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:38 (seventeen years ago) link
Well, this isn't fair to DioGuardi. Just because she vagues out in one song doesn't mean that she can't do songs where she doesn't vague out. But there's just such a difference between the lyrics you're getting on Ashlee Simpson albums and those you're getting from anything else DioGuardi's involved in. I guess it's just that I'm greatly disappointed in "Avalanche" even though I think it's a very good song. Here's my first sight and sound of Kara DioGuardi unfettered, a great talent, speaking through herself and for herself, and what I'm hearing is a first-rate melody but vague words about cries and clouds and broken promises, and a voice that's got volume and sings well but doesn't come across with a character.
Maybe it is Kara who came up with "Maybe/you don't/love me/like I/love you/baby/'cos the broken in you doesn't make me run." Maybe it was Ashlee who drew it out of her. Maybe Kara drew it out of Ashlee.
The reason I said the song could have come off the first Lohan album is that the vocal "phrasing" in "Avalanche" - by which I don't mean words but hesitations, wails, and such, the basic stuff of vocalizing - reminds me a lot more of Lindsay's than of Ashlee's (or of Gwen's or Celine's or Hilary's). My guess here is that Lindsay copies her phrasing from Kara's demos. But Lindsay gives the phrasing more life than Kara is able to give to "Avalanche."
Again, I'd like to know what you guys think.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 6 April 2006 20:17 (seventeen years ago) link
The song being Platinum Weird's "Avalanche," not Ashlee's "Say Goodbye," though it was the latter that I had just quoted. Sorry to be so confusing.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 6 April 2006 20:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― Je4nn3 Æ’urÂ¥ (Je4nne Fury), Thursday, 6 April 2006 20:57 (seventeen years ago) link
Anyway, Je4nn3, now that I've got you here, I've been meaning to post this quote from Ashlee's Elle interview (and I'm desperate for more insights into her various photo transformations as well):
Elle: Growing up in the Dallas suburbs with Jessica, was there ever any sibling rivalry; times when you hated her?
Ashlee: We never, ever really fought. I used to wear her clothes, and they would stink and have holes. Little things. There were times when I was insecure, but not because of my sister. I was a weird-looking little kid for a while. And her world of high school and stuff I did not want to be part of. I was a ballerina with ballerina friends, and we thought cheerleaders were stupid. I was Miss Artsy Fartsy.
(And maybe it's time for me to finally post about "Shadow," but probably not today.)
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 6 April 2006 21:50 (seventeen years ago) link
Lily's "LDN" is definitely in competition with "Rush" and "4ever" as my single of the year so far.
(And yes, Matt, I realize that if I'd been 11 and with it, "Rush" would have made my ballot last year; but it's video only came out this year, so it counts this year on my P&J ballot, yes it does.)
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Thursday, 6 April 2006 22:00 (seventeen years ago) link
― Je4nn3 Æ’urÂ¥ (Je4nne Fury), Friday, 7 April 2006 13:43 (seventeen years ago) link
It's really you but no one ever discovers
Those of so foolish as not to haunt the teenpop thread may be unaware that Miley and her dad Billy Ray have a TV show, in which - I gather from the theme song, which is all TV-less me knows of it - by day she's a regular middle-schooler, but at night she twirls around like Sailor Moon and takes on a SECRET IDENTITY as a... as a... well, you'll just have to look for yourself.
The theme song's OK, likable enough, not grebt.
-- Frank Kogan, April 9th, 2006.
Agreed, I like one of the other ones ("Who Said") better. I tried watching one of the episodes on YouTube with limited success (surprise, it's cute), but what IS significant about this is that "Hannah Montana" is the highest rated show in Disney Channel history (I'd be interested to see how it compares to High School Musical; Hannah got something like 5.4 mil viewers last week, though.)
They seem to show clips of songs, but not full songs, at the beginning or end of each show, previewing one new track per show with the goal of putting out an "official soundtrack" by the summer.
Last thing: Brie Larson just wrote what I'm pretty sure is her first indie rock song. Available for download at her Myspace page.
― nameom (nameom), Sunday, 9 April 2006 00:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Sunday, 9 April 2006 03:44 (seventeen years ago) link
"Don't Go" - Bratcutepunk sort of halfway between Gwen and Jo Jo(maybe even some Lene Lovich), though with a tough cuteness, or a cute toughness. A toughness that'll punch you pink.
"Unforgiven" - Hey, here we are, splits the difference between Lindsay Lohan and Stacey Mosley - neither of whom had made a record when this came out. So let's say it's Evanescence (or whatever ur-pop-teengoth Rosetta Stone I've yet to find) backing and arranging Avril, adding gangshouts. Also, occasionally, a real pretty plinky-dink that could come from disco or from Lee Van Cleef's sister's locket in For a Few Dollars More. Kicks butt.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Sunday, 9 April 2006 04:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Sunday, 9 April 2006 04:14 (seventeen years ago) link
Also got B.G. Tha Heart of tha Streetz Vol. 1. As with the other two CDs, I'll report on whether the vocalist on this one most resembles Lacey or Marit.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Sunday, 9 April 2006 04:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― don, Sunday, 9 April 2006 05:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― don, Sunday, 9 April 2006 05:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― don, Sunday, 9 April 2006 05:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Sunday, 9 April 2006 17:57 (seventeen years ago) link
Or it might be that your judgement is better than mine, which is hardly unlikely. (Have I mentioned recently that I love these threads? They're almost all I read on ILM.)
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 9 April 2006 18:31 (seventeen years ago) link
"Asked how she would describe herself, Aliana rolled her eyes and replied, 'Funny.'
"'People laugh at me -- like my jokes, not personally at me,' she said.
"Her sister is known for her on-screen wit, Aliana said. But watch out. 'Lindsay's not as funny as me,' Aliana added with a smirk."
. . .
"Diana Lohan, who studied with the American Ballet Theater under Mikhail Baryshnikov, has apparently mastered the art of stage mother. She said she had been positioning Aliana to follow Lindsay's 'it' girl trajectory.
"'She's on the track, basically,' Ms. Lohan said, discounting the pitfalls of fame that have dogged Lindsay. . ."
"Recently Aliana was at Tainted Blue studios in Manhattan finishing up her debut solo album with Chris Christian, chief executive of World Digital Media Group and a producer, singer and songwriter who has worked with Elvis Presley, Olivia Newton-John and Sheena Easton."
― Sang Freud (jeff_s), Sunday, 9 April 2006 18:50 (seventeen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Sunday, 9 April 2006 19:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Sunday, 9 April 2006 19:56 (seventeen years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 9 April 2006 20:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Sunday, 9 April 2006 20:44 (seventeen years ago) link
from the rolling metal (!?) thread:
This new Bananarama album is weirdly joyless. Their old stuff always sounded like they were having fun, on the brink of cracking each other up. This new one is all cyborg-y, like Kylie Minogue's last one (but not nearly as good as that).-- pdf (newyorkisno...), March 9th, 2006.i hate to say it, phil, but the last really good bananarama album was pop life. the disco album after that with the cover of more, more, more wasn't that hot, and the album with every shade of blue wasn't that great either.-- scott seward (skotro...), March 9th, 2006.pop life even had some metallic moments and was produced by youth of killing joke. and of course it had that ace doobie brothers cover of long train runnin'.-- scott seward (skotro...), March 9th, 2006.Well, I haven't paid attention to them in years - I never even heard them after Siobhan Fahey left. So this direction (which appears, after a quick visit to AMG, to be one they've been pursuing for some years now) is new to me, and thus more disappointing than it probably should be.-- pdf (newyorkisno...), March 9th, 2006.
― xhuxk, Sunday, 9 April 2006 22:33 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jimmy Mod: My theme is DEATH (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Sunday, 9 April 2006 23:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― don, Monday, 10 April 2006 02:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 10 April 2006 05:37 (seventeen years ago) link
(1) I love "My Humps," which perhaps says more about me than about the song. (Well, actually, I love "My Humps" when teenagers play the ringtone in order to annoy nearby adults, even or especially when I'm one of the adults.)
(2) I have played Fefe Dobson's "Unforgiven" 30 times in the last 36 hours. (I think I was asleep the other six.)
(3) Je4nn3 (and the rest of you), I posted Ashlee's Elle quote not so much because it pertains to Ashlee and Jess but because it pertains to Pink's "Stupid Girls." That is, it's Pink who's the arsy-fartsy still trying to differentiate herself from Ashlee's sister and types like that, and doing it by calling them stupid. (Of course, Pink's being a little more complex than that, but still...) Also posted the Ashlee quote because it pertains to social categories, and because it's smart.
(4) Sang Freud, nice to see you back.
(5) I don't have the interview in front of me, but Dina Lohan told Seventeen that when Aliana, who's naturally thin, goes to school, kids will come up to her and say, "You're anorexic like your sister." Not fun. Also said that when Lindsay tries for a part she finds she has to spend several hours with the producer and director convincing them that she's not a drug addict and doesn't have eating disorders.
(6) The Björk soundtrack for Drawing Restraint 9 probably is out of judging range for me, since my guess is that the music makes more sense accompanied by visuals. Slow moving sounds, repeated with slight variations. I think to listen to it most profitably I'd have to do it like meditating, concentrating on sounds, returning to the sound. Rather than daydreaming, which of course is what I did. Anyway, the parts that had her voice didn't remind me much of either Marit or Lacey, but the voice is a lot closer to Marit's than to Lacey's. Oh yeah, and unlike Marit or Lacey, the soundtrack bored me silly, but as I said, maybe there's a way to use it well.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 10 April 2006 14:04 (seventeen years ago) link
Back in my New York days I had a good friend who'd grown up in horrific family circumstances. She told me that when she was a little girl, age five or so, and would complain about something, her mother would turn to her and say, "What if you had no legs?"
So, this is from Pink's Seventeen interview:
17: Have you ever been a stupid girl?
Pink: I've always been. I'm a stupid girl every other day. I'm still a stupid girl. I made that song because I don't want to be in that struggle anymore. I gotta break the chain.
17: How do you do that?
Pink I visit children's hospitals and see 6-year-olds with cancer. I see girls who say "I wish I had legs at all." Let alone [worry about] fat legs...
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 10 April 2006 14:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― Je4nn3 Æ’urÂ¥ (Je4nne Fury), Monday, 10 April 2006 14:20 (seventeen years ago) link
Covais, from the one or two times I saw him on the show, is utterly loathesome, one of those "old songs are better than new songs!" kinda guys. His contrariness comes off less punk-rock and more conservative, and his fans have a similar creepiness to Clay Aiken's "Vanilla Revolution" partisans. If he acheives stardom I can only assume it will involve Branson, MO prominently.
― Eppy (Eppy), Monday, 10 April 2006 14:22 (seventeen years ago) link