St Vincent: Doll Rocker Ramblings

A porcelain doll with musical métier. Annie Clark AKA St.Vincent has been on loop in the car lately.

Very loosely related, I now have a Honda Accord, circa 2006. The sound system is pre-mp3 CD player or hook-up and post-cassette ipod converter. I'm stuck with only the standard CD player until I get the gumption to drill a hole in the console. To ease the withdrawal from the ipod, which is sadly on its last leg anyway, I actually bought a CD, in the real, in the physical, in the flesh, packaging and all. Just kidding. From time to time, when I like the packaging or want to support an artist, this happens. So short story long,  a few weeks back, I bought Actor by St. Vincent.

I'm impressed with how sophisticated her arrangements are. But then given her history, she's not a newbie like Lorde or even Grimes. She played for years with Polyphonic Spree, toured as a guitarist for Sufjan Stevens and has collaborated with a bunch of other artists, most recently and notably David Byrne, as you know former front man of the legendary Talking Heads.

Laughing with A Mouth of Blood is my favorite track on the album. It's kind of manic, weirdly happy and dark in a twisted balance, with equally catchy chorus and verses.

On the other hand, Marrow, one of the singles is my least favorite. Whenever that happens, I'm reminded that if I don't like the first single I hear from an artist, I should listen to some of the other tracks on an album, because the Record Company, specifically the A&R person, doesn't necessarily share my taste. In fact I'd wager a bet that sometimes A&R doesn't even like that track, but they vote with their wallet, thinking that it's probably the bread winner.

She studied at Berklee in Boston, which.. sorry folks... means there's a good chance she's pretentious and smug. (If you go to Berklee, you guys have a reputation to work on.) But I hope for the best.

It's like lightening, when such talent, intelligence, and beauty all strike on the same person. I can't help but wonder how many fiercely talented brilliant (non-photo ready) musicians are out there, struggling to get a leg up in the industry. Sadly it goes with out saying that this is much more of an issue for women.

I was debating with my best brainy friend about this. We were trying to decide between  mainstream music and movies, which industry would it be harder to get into if you weren't a typical young and photogenic woman. She said obviously acting, it's all about the camera. I saw her logic, but I say mainstream music.

For actresses, it's of course not easy, but though it may take time to find, there are parts for all types and all ages. Movies follow reality, to some degree. A role might not be the leading lady, but there are character actors who have made lucrative careers with plenty work and fame, who don't have the typical magazine-cover face and body. Take Helen Mirren, even though she has been around and active forever, it is just now as she's hitting her sixties that she has become a sort of pop culture goddess.

So back to my argument, in mainstream pop music there are no real niches for anything other than white teeth, hair, body and no wrinkles ala Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, Rihanna, Gaga, Taylor Swift, et al. Even Adele, who doesn't have a dancer's body, is incredibly beautiful and photogenic. I heard her producer call her "disgustingly overweight," which just goes to show you how physically scrutinized these musicians really are, even by the people that are supposed to be on their team. That's not wanting to pose nude for Vogue, forget being older, when was the last time anyone other than a symmetrical girl in her twenties broke through in mainstream pop. I don't think it has ever happened.

What a hard road it is for an outsider to get their music out there to the masses.

Then of course there's St. Vincent.

Come on seriously. She's the perfect mix of unusual quirk and poise.

My mister was making fun of these lyrics:

"Paint the black hole blacker"

I actually really like the lyrics to this track, Strangers. One can surmise forever what a writer meant by lyrics, but to me these relate to how sometimes when a situation is bad, you have an eerie desire to make it worse. It's a self-destructive tick, that might just be your last vestige of control trying to take action, thinking that if a situation cannot be improved, then at least I have the control to make it worse.

"You showed up with a black eye looking to go start a fight"

As in the baggage that people carry into a relationship. They are already wounded from the pain of previous heartache, but are carrying that masochistic torch onward into another.

David Byrne is probably one of my top five all time favorite musicians, that said, his voice on this track lingers too long in the high registers and therefore kind of kills the song for me. But seeing him dance is still enjoyable, especially now that he has let his hair go completely white and taken on this roll of a kooky senior.

Grimes: The Next Generation

Goth-pop Electronica, Dark Wave, Witch House... I'm enjoying all of these genre names. I have increasingly gotten interested in Grimes, moniker for Canadian artist, Claire Boucher. Now that I've played through her catalog and joined in the internet's curiosity with her, I've come to like her...more than her music.

She's got a little impish grin, an endearing lisp, genuine humility that is so refreshing, tons of creativity and talent spread over many disciplines - singing, layered music composition, live shows, dancing, drawings, paintings, video concepts and directing and style - she reflects what I believe defines this emerging generation, more an any other artist out there.

"More than any other artist out there?" Those are big words and big shoes to fill. Well, not really. It's not the Hall of Fame, it's just a sign of the times. She reminds me a little of Tavi Gevinson.

This is the first generation that has grown up with the internet as part of their psyche. They know no world without this information depot a finger's length away at any second. They've spent their free time, their aimless teenage hours, browsing the net, finding bands, and clothes, and pop cultural movements, scrolling through infinite collections of pictures and snippets on sites like Tumblr and Reddit.

Elders like to point fingers and claim "today's kids have no attention span!" That might be true, but there are benefits and drawbacks to everything. The next generation has an unprecedented amount of information swirling around in their brains.

Intelligent ground breakers like Grimes personify this mix in the best possible way.

Represented in her style, music, and videos, there are shades of pop culture from every country, from every era, and from every angle: elements of Japanese anime, mainstream low-brow humor like The Simpsons and Family Guy, fringe Goth movements from the 90s like Marilyn Mansion and the ravers, beach and surf culture, hyper-sexualized Bubblegum pop from the late nineties, R&B divas like Mariah Carey, then there's Russian Literature and classic avant-garde film, underground hip-hop and noise bands, it goes on and on.

Her influences are so disparate that a decade ago she would've been a blip on the fringe of society, but today, because her experiences mirror so many of her information-saturated peers, the interpretation of these influences through her art is mainstream relevant.

She's able to funnel all of this into something new and creative. It is truly interesting, mainly because you can tell she finds it really interesting. Even though, honestly, I don't love her music, I find her style and videos like a black hole of goodies that want to be explored

According to an interview this video is supposed to be based on her interpretation of religion as she saw it as a child who was simultaneously watching loads of anime.

Lou Reed passing on

© Janet Macoska

Lou Reed finally succumbed to liver failure, despite a transplant back in June. I guess alcohol, drugs and Hepatitis had disintegrated his original one. With Basquiat, Warhol and now Reed gone, that era of music and artistic innovation feels further and further from our reach.

Lou Reed in one of the most influential rock groups ever: Velvet Underground.

The first time I heard this was on the Trainspotting Soundtrack. It opened my eyes to a whole new world of music. This song immediately takes me back to an abyss of nostalgic woes: unrequited love, seedy New York, and for some reason this book, which I imagined embodied the New York of Lou Reed's time: drugs, unscrupulous sex, close calls, and digging really deep into the possibilities of living and dying.

This would definitely be one of the albums I'd take to the deserted island with me. I know because it has a revival in my playlist every few years. I can pick it up and listen to it on repeat like it's new all over again.

Fredrik (quasi-new album) Flora + goose

Fredrik's third album, Flora, is here for your enjoyment today. They've  crafted this atmospheric cloud of ethereal something something. Coming to you from the southern town of Malmo. That's Sweden, if you hadn't already guessed it. Curse you and your government-subsidized artistry.

I don't know why, but when I first saw the little wolf I laughed for a good five minutes. Again, I don't know why. I guess it's kind of ridiculous and quaint at the same time.

On the  topic of ridiculous and quaint, last night I dreamt that I had a pet goose. My family gathered around the dinner table to eat, but the goose slipped out of the screen door. We watched to see what he was doing, as he very deftly caught a tiny bird and brought it inside, put it on a plate at the table, wattled up into the seat and waited for everyone to be seated before digging in. There you have it: a polite carnivorous goose. I really loved him. I carried him like a football under my arm everywhere I went; he was a great pet.

Is it the 60s?

Another swipe from my hermanito's collection. As soon as he gets internet connection out in his little abode by the lake, he can co-manage this little music thing I have going. We can call it Slobek / Milo..Slolo...Mibek...Slobilo..we'll work it out. Until then, I will pass on his game.

Opossom kind of sounds like a band that was unjustly overlooked in your Sixties anthology and their video confirms it. Other than the sound/mixing quality, you'd have no inkling that they were contemporary.

Song Lingers On

I've been on a Roaring Twenties book binge the last week. This song perfectly fits the atmosphere. It was recorded by Elizaveta, the musician I do design work with. It's an Irving Berlin cover. I really love it!

New Album: Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear released their fourth album in September called Shields. It is by far my favorite work that they have ever produced. I've tipped my hat to them before, but this album has put them center stage. I don't mind shoe gazing, we all do it on the subway. Don't have a strong aversion to it, but I much prefer the directness they explored with Shields. It's more lyric-heavy and open, it feels more structured. The ideas are almost separated out so that they can shine, and the ideas are really compelling. The lyrical moods seem to speak to the perseverance of the soul, haunted by the past, trying to carve out a path for itself before its too late, struggling with the desire for freedom but also wanting the comfort of intimacy. The lead singer, Ed Droste, speaks directly to this :

"There's a desire to be autonomous, but there's also this great fear of being alone, and there's this constant feeling of, how do you reconcile this?’ There's this need for space, but there's also this, 'come closer come closer.’"

Gun Shy


A Simple Answer

New Music: Alt-J

Don't you assume the blond-haired guy is the lead singer? Seems like the singer is always the odd one out and shorter. People seem to embody their instruments, the singers are always a little more in your face, the bass players are often tall. These guys shirk the conventions..oh but wait, they are an English band formed in art school!

Alt - J (aka delta)

Their album, An Awesome Wave, was released earlier this year, falling just outside of this new age dream pop thing (Beach house, et al). The album is cohesive, but diverse enough to make singles out of each song. The songs have interesting seamless layers, that don't get too murky, having that hook even without the vocals, which by the way, are melted nicely like another instrument. Lead vocals sound a lot like Bombay Bicycle Club, which is kind of a restrained old man voice. While interesting, it should be used cautiously/sparingly just like the false-falsetto that Bon Iver made trendy. Alt-J experiments enough with the vocals to keep them from sounding too coy.

Anyway, feeling rant-y today. Check out these masterpieces.

Breezeblock -

 

Something Good

 

Even with the distracting hipster-stache

Alright Paskalev, it's time for you and your record company to stop teasing the world and put out the album. If you've gotten this much exposure with basically one song on the market, you can bet they have plans. And this little live clip has me speculating that the plans are big. The girl in the background clapping gives this tune a whole new dimension.

Bring on the album asap.

My favorite rapper

I have a crush on Mos Def.

While everyone else was copying the thug look, Mos was expressing own his unique style.

But he's not just style, he's a true artist - one of the best lyricist around. 

Mos Def - Umi Says - Black on Both Sides

Mos Def - Quiet Dog Bite Hard - The Ecstatic

New Music: Tame Impala

New tunes.

Thao + Mirah

As far as collaborations go, I'm really down for this one. I love their sincerity, energy, and creativity... I would love to hear a group of middle school girls jamming to this. It's time for some real female musicians / creative forces to guide the young. I'll stop myself there before playing my patented mainstream pop rant.



I can easily see myself in the background there strumming uke or banjo or clapping, basically ruining the jam, but having a great time with my gal pals. haha

 

Elizaveta - Meant, betrayal, revenge

Check out this video by rising musical star, Elizaveta



My oh my that scarf looks familiar.

Loss and music

Music heals the soul when we are lost in grief. Losing a loved one is a natural part of life, but it seems paralyzing and puts your mind and soul into a neither-world, somewhere between the here and now and the unknown. There is that strange ethereal feeling of spacelessness. Where are you departed one? Where are we?

Music is like that too. Spanning the here and now into the unknown... and completely without space.

This past month we lost our dear friend. One of his favorite singers was Misora Hibari.

Her song Kawa No Nagare No You Ni and its lyrics always make me cry. They seem to bring it all into focus. Here's a sampling of the lyrics.

Shirazu shirazu aruite kita / Hosoku nagai kono miti / Furi kaereba haruka tooku / Furusato ga mieru / Dekoboko miti ya magari kunetta miti / Tizu sae nai sore mo mata dinsei

The path is narrow and long and / We walk along it without much thought but / If we turn our heads, far in the distance / We can see our places of origin. / Bumpy and winding; these uncharted roads, / But then again- that is life isn't it?

Ikiru koto wa tabi suru koto / Owari no nai kono miti / Ai suru hito soba ni tsurete / Yume sagashi nagara / Ame ni furarete nukarunda miti demo / Itsuka wa mata hareru hi ga kuru kara

To live is to journey / On this path without an end / and people we love draw near us / As we search for our dreams / Even though the rains may fall, muddying the way / Someday, again, another clear day will surely come

Aa kawa no nagare no you ni / Odayaka ni / Kono mi o makasete itai / Aa kawa no nagare no you ni / Itsumademo / Aoi seseragui o kikinagara

Ah, like the flow of the river, / Calmly / We release ourselves / Ah, like the flow of the river, / Forever / As we listen to the flow of the blue*

I also really like this song, especially I think it is the shamisen.

*  I don't speak Japanese, so obviously these lyrics and translation are borrowed. I love them; but if you know more about it and have some corrections / accuracies - I am happy to hear

I'm very saddened by the lost of our Beastie Boy, Adam Yauch. He was not only a rapper of lore, he was also a really great human being. I respected what he evolved into as an adult and the message he put forth in his music. You will be much missed Adam!

ready for Shins

I am pumped up for the new Shins release in March. After 5 years, I am ready!

The hipsters here in Los Angeles (and there's some sort of collective consciousness worldwide) have turned their backs on Mercer and The Shins. The band crossed that one-way threshold of popularity, had their songs in a movie, maybe a commercial or two. The brutal death of an indie band. But face it, when you are as good as Mercer people of all tastes are going to start liking you. And eventually, sadly, even people with no taste. But if you step outside of who likes what music and just listen, there is a master at work here. I am kind of in awe of his musical prowess.

Let's discuss.

Songwriting. You get the sense that there must be some formula for writing Shins songs, but it eludes you. Each are completely absorbing on their own and as part of a pack. There's a signature Shins sound, no doubt, Mercer's singing voice and the melody of his lyrics, but each song is a new and different idea. I can listen to all of the albums in a row and not get bored with it, that is a feat.

Instrumentation. The craftsmanship of each song and how all of the pieces fit together is really seamless.

Vocal Track. What I really love about The Shins is the way the singing acts as another instrument, rising and falling within the song as if it is a third guitar or keyboard track. In most pop songs, the singing is a separate layer apart from the music. You can hear the struggle between the two and how they were laboriously composed to fit each other. The vocals here take unexpected turns and accompany the instruments like part of the gang.

Singing. What can I say I really like his singing voice. I mean this is just luck, I guess. There are some bands that have great songs, great lyrics, great-great, awesome-awesome, then the lead voice starts wearing on you, and then you start getting annoyed with how he is pronouncing time. Mercer's voice is all over the place, strangely high if need be and low, but he's got it, whatever it is.

Lyrics. They are quirky and a little loopy, but there's just enough sense to make you think. And sometimes when you are having a really inexpressible thought, you might fall into one of these songs and think, aha that's what he meant. I really get it now. Even if you've completely misheard the lyrics. Which happens all the time, and it's great.

Consistency and change. What I am really drawing attention to here is the fact that they've put out three incredible studio albums. You can hear an evolution in the drum beats and complexity of the songs, but you can still listen to the first albums with the same enjoyment that you had the first time. Growing, changing, and making fulfilling music throughout; I take my hat off to it.

Now the pressure is on. Ports of Morrow. The time is near at hand! But I will always love you no matter what the hipsters say.

Love, DJ Slobek