Stream Another 17-Minute Memory Tapes Jam, “Walk Me Home”…It’s Halloween Spooky, And Leads To Fun Puns Such As “Monstrous Memory Tapes” or “Memory Terrifying Tapes” [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Nas Joins Courtney Love and Method Man On List of Musicians Who Owe a Shit-Ton in Back Taxes (For Nasir, $2.5 Million); Well, Life’s a Bitch (Eh? Get it?) [Prefix]
Stream New Of Montreal “Wet Butcher’s Fist” Off the HHBTM Single, Which Sounds Like It Was Recorded It Was Sounded Underwater, and Features Kevin Barnes Admitting to Wanting to be a Sex Offender [You Ain’t No Picasso]
Canadian Hardcore Band/Polaris Prize Winners Fucked Up To Release Singles Collection, The Two-Disc Couple Tracks; Released January 26 [Pitchfork]
Stream All of Devendra Banhart’s What Will We Be a Week In Advance of Its Release – This Album Isn’t Nearly Strange Enough; I Thought The Warner Bros. Were Supposed to be Pretty Crazy [Stereogum]
Animal Collective Joins Animal Rights…Collective, PETA, In Fight Against Bludgeoning Seals; If You Don’t Want To See a Seal Bludgeoned, Don’t Watch This Video [I Guess I’m Floating]
The Roots Push Baked Upcoming LP How I Got Over To Early 2010; Meanwhile, The Roots Still Playing on Jimmy Fallon Every Night, So No One Has Any Shortage of Roots (Except Licorice Root…I Can’t Get Enough of That) [Idolator]
Watch Norwegian Sleep-Folk Duo Kings of Convenience Play a Bunch of Songs in the Spin Studio Off Released-Today LP Declaration of Dependence; Grow Bored In a Matter of Seconds, Take Nap [Spin]
Madonna Getting Sued By Her Neighbor For Rehearsing To Loud; Shouts of “Damned Kids With Their Grasping at Straw Attempts at Former 80s Glory” Heard From Neighbor’s Apartment [NME]
Lego Freddy Mercury Will Appear in Lego Rock Band; Lego Moustache and Chest Hair Not Living Up To Precedent of Actual Moustache and Chest Hair [Idolator]
compiled by Max Sebela
October 3, 2009
#4: 1987
THE NINETIES-IST
Welcome again to another edition of Brook Pridemore’s The Nineties-ist. This edition discusses 1987, revolutions, how much glam metal sucked, and the importance of The Joshua Tree, Licensed to Ill, and Madonna in light of an indie-slumber. For earlier installments, go here.
Revolution stems from dissatisfaction: early American settlers would most likely never have separated from the British, if not for the taxes and arbitrary trade restrictions imposed after the threat of French invasion. The counterculture movement of the 1960s could have just been a handful of bummed-out stoners noodle dancing in an open field, if not for Vietnam (though we might have been spared the jam bands — and Vietnam — if this were the case). If the 70s weren’t watered down by prog rock and disco, four unrelated guys from Queens might not have declared themselves brothers, and coined a term that had been on the tongue of the collective American underground for a solid decade (The Ramones, “punk”).
But I digress. This week, I’m thinking about 1987. I have almost nothing to say about the year without doing some research. After doing that research, I now understand why I have no frame of reference for ‘87: it was all about pop metal. The theatrical, androgynous “glam” sound, popularized by T. Rex, Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, and The New York Dolls in the early 70s had mutated over the subsequent decade. Having been stripped of it’s shock value (Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies still rings particularly ghoulish to these ears), MTV-era heavy metal seemed a constant struggle between fashion-crazed prancing and Bacchanalian debauchery.
Seriously: has anyone else seen that Bret Michaels sound bite from the height of Poison’s career, where the camera zooms in on Michaels and he says, “Poison is LA fashion, and LA fashion is Poison”? That someone on the pop metal circuit (specifically, Mötley Crüe’s Vince Neil, who inspired Aerosmith’s “(Dude) Looks Like a Lady”) managed to make Steven Tyler – who has looked like an old tranny since 1972 – look butch says something about gender bending in 80s rock. It was a Bizarro World kind of gender bending, though. Whereas 70s glam stars made androgyny sexy, 80s glam stars looked like old cokeheads; these guys from the 80s who are still active today look exactly the same. It’s interesting that punk and glam were both appropriated by MTV in the 80s, with the no-rules ethos of punk chewed up and spit out as New Wave, and the dangerous, seedy content of 70s glam (again, thinking specifically of Cooper here, but also Lou Reed’s gay dance party Transformer) was homogenized and respun as “LA Fashion.” Plenty of undeniably great (at least in terms of sales) pop metal records were released in 1987: Guns N Roses’ Appetite For Destruction, Def Leppard’s Jim Steinman-produced Hysteria, and Motley Crue’s Girls, Girls, Girls, to name just a few. And while these records are all the epitome of a teenage boy’s fantasy lifestyle, I feel like the ultimate lesson behind late 80s pop metal is: “You can fantasize, but you can never be this.”
More on #4: 1987
September 22, 2009
Lady Gaga |“Paparazzi” at the VMAs
IN THE TUBE
It’s amazing how successful the recent VMAs have been at making people forget that MTV isn’t very cool (or musically relevant). Because, beyond Kanye’s goof, Beyonce and Lady Gaga offered up some pretty revelatory performances, and it seems like the VMAs, right now, are one of the most important forums for musical innovation. Beyonce’s “Single Ladies,” briefly, was one of the best classic pop-performances, insofar as pop and spectacle can and should be married, that I’ve ever seen. It was like a maniacal, hyper-sexed, de-geometrized Busby Berkeley production. Beyonce is a super good dancer and just, you know, really hot. And my favorite part of the whole bit is that she doesn’t even really try to pretend like she’s not lip synching. What a cool girl.
But it’s Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” that really surprised me. I’d neither seen nor heard Gaga until my buddy Pete showed me her VMA performance, and I was pretty blown away. Call me an old-timer, but I just don’t recall there being anything like this when I was young enough to even want to watch the VMAs. Madonna is an obvious precursor, however, Madonna was clearly a pop starlet first and foremost; she may have pushed the limits of public and performative sexual expression but I don’t honestly think she ever intended anything other than the amplification of “Madonna” as a brand. Lady Gaga, staring blankly at the camera, hanging dead and covered with blood, just seems to be psyched to fuck with me. I don’t even think I like the song, although it’s a serviceable enough pop song. I just get the distinct impression that Gaga’s a calculated prankster, that her intentions are more the dissolution of pop celebrity than her own star power. Between this performance of “Paparazzi” and its official video, her WTF factor is epic. I’m clearly behind the buzz on this one, but the choreographed cripple dance? The martyrdom? The crazy? There are totally a million seven-year-olds soaking this stuff up. Which is kind of amazing and way more radical than Madonna having sex with Jesus [Editor’s note: not that Jesus]. Well, maybe not. But… wait for it…THERE’S BLOOD IN HER EYEBALL. That’s dedication.
by Chris Kiehne
Popular Music Blog Gorilla vs. Bear Runs A Top Twenty Albums of the Decade; In Other News, Music Blogs Unaware That Decade Is Still Happening [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Madonna Dubbed “Crypto-Satanist” By Polish Catholics For Concert Occurring On Feast Of The Assumption (If Madonna Is a “Crypto-Satanist,” What Is Alkaline Trio For This?) [Idolator]
London’s Glam-Pop Star Patrick Wolf Runs a Tirade Against a Woman In His Band; Throws A Microphone, Chair, and Spits In Her Face – All While Dressed Up As What Looks Like Bowie From Labyrinth [Pitchfork]
Auto-Tuned Hip-Hop Artist T-Pain Runs For President Of University of Florida…“Gonna Buy U A Dr-…New Field House, and Improve Bathroom Conditions In The Freshmen Dormitories” [Idolator]
Watch Art Rocker Nick Cave Read From His Upcoming Novel The Death of Bunny Munro (With That Score Behind Him, Cave Looks Pretty Well Suited As A Daniel Plainview Double); Bunny Munro Released September 1 [Spin]
Watch Antony And The Johnsons Cover Beyonce’s “Crazy In Love;” Hauntingly, The Song Becomes Desperate And Obsessive [Pitchfork]
Sonic Youth Set To Appear On Episode Of The CW’s Teen-Sex Romp Gossip Girl; Next, I Want To See Jim O’Rourke On The Recently Restarted Melrose Place [Prefix]
Radiohead MAYBE to POSSIBLY Release a RUMORED EP, HYPOTHETICALLY Titled Wall of Ice ALLEGEDLY Monday [Stereogum]
compiled by Max Sebela
Weekly Review
Is there a stage doctor in the house? One woman was killed and at least 15 (though possibly as many as 75) were injured when the stage collapsed at the Big Valley Jamboree Festival in Canada this past week. This coming not too long after the stage being built for Madonna’s concert in Marseille caused a similar tragedy. Maybe that $40 million stage isn’t looking so bad after all…
In other slightly less serious, albeit still injurious stage-related news, Aerosmith’s tour was interrupted (yet again), when Steven Tyler tumbled off the stage at their show in South Dakota. Not nearly as entertaining as another stage fall reported on earlier this year.
Let’s hope that none of these stage shenanigans interrupt tonight’s much-anticipated hard-rock-trio debut. More to come on that (I’m sure) later this week.
by Elana Jacobs
July 31, 2009
Madonna: Madge Do What She Want
TOP DOG
An online auction from Gotta Have It! will hawk love notes that Madonna faxed to her boyfriend in 1993. Madonna faxed thesecorny notes, calling herself “Lil’ Booty” and “Lola Montez,” to her bodyguard-cum-boyfriend, James Albright, between 1992 and 1994. Also for auction is a “very personal and intimate video” of Madonna and some of her crewmates from the 1993 Abel Ferrara film Dangerous Games. As of Thursday, there were no bids on any of these items. Starting bids are around $20,000 per facsimile and $10,000 for the videotape. Of course, Perez Hilton claims to know what is on the tape: “Madonna appears to snort cocaine, inhale nitrous oxide and expose her breasts while allowing [costar James Russo] to snort cocaine off her body.”
In related news, The Post Chronicle and the NY Daily News are troubled by the state of Madonna’s biceps. What, can’t a lady as old as my mom have nice biceps?
by Thomas Wilk
July 18, 2009
Madonna | “Crazy For You”
HATE TO ADMIT IT, BUT…
Madonna
“Crazy For You”
Vision Quest Motion Picture Soundtrack
1985 | Geffen
We’ve talked about Madonna in this column before[link], but it’s a funny kind of summer. There’s a twist to the air that makes Brooklyn feel less like mid-July and more like early May, and I find myself thinking about prom. You know, “Senior Skip Day,” getting really dolled up for the first time in your life. I’m thinking about slow dances, and a song that was pounded into your head all year, almost ruining it, until you heard it while you dancing with someone you cared about. And I think about the class of ‘85, and how many kids must have felt something they hadn’t before, while “Crazy For You” played in the background.
Originally released in the spring of 1985, Madonna’s second #1 hit “Crazy For You” was the lead single for Vision Quest, a coming of age movie starring Matthew Modine and Linda Fiorentino. I haven’t seen Vision Quest, but apparently Madonna makes her film debut as a club singer in Spokane, Washington, singing “Crazy For You” and “Gambler.” I imagine that if the Spokane portrayed in Vision Quest is anything like “Crazy For You” itself, it must be a film awash with pastel colors, great expectations and obligatory new-wave synths.
More on Madonna | “Crazy For You”
Madonna’s Stage Collapses In Marseille; 1 Dead, 7 Injured [Billboard]
The Guggenheim Museum (This Big Twirly Building) Puts On “It Came From Brooklyn” Concert Series; First Show Features The Walkmen and High Places [Brooklyn Vegan]
Stream War On Drugs’ Frontman Kurt Vile’s New Single “Overnite Religion”; New LP Childish Prodigy Released October [Matador]
Paul McCartney Plays On Top of David Letterman’s Marquee – Forgive Him The Relationship With Starbucks, And Wings’ Whole Catalogue, Because This Is Pretty Cool [Idolator]
Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo, Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, and Dudes From Panic! At the Disco and Gym Class Heroes Debut Coke Sponsored Video/Single That Looks Ripped From Shark Boy and Lava Girl [Idolator]
The Hills’ Spencer Pratt Announces Rap Career; Spin Conducts Interview That Simultaneously Enrages, Confuses, and Destroys Mind [Spin]
Nick Cave and Bad Seed Warren Ellis Release Two-Disc Anthology Of Their Film Scores [Pitchfork]
LA’s Spaz-Punks The Mae Shi Breaks Apart Into New Mae Shi And A New Band Called Signals [Pitchfork]
Stream Yet Another New Modest Mouse Song, “History Sticks to Your Feet” – This Time It’s Electro (And Boring) [Pitchfork]
Calvin Johnson’s K Records (Home of The Microphones & Mirah) Announces Sleepover At Helsing Junction in Washington…Which Again Proves K To Be Most Adorable Label Ever [Tiny Mix Tapes]
compiled by Max Sebela
