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Ain’t that cold - Bodega Girls
From their Bio: “BODEGA GIRLS. Dance. Fuck. Sweat. Dance some more.” Yup.
Justine - Unicycle loves you
Yet another band from Chicago. What’s up with that? I’m not sure about their name (unicycles are for NERDS!) but it conveys the sort of happy, fun, whimsical music they make. My erratic radar did not pick up on their debut album of the same name (listen to Hawaii!) last year, so they’ve come back to force this new bouquet called Justine on me. I have a complaint though: where’s the A song?? Justine, Sadie, Alice, blah blah blah. WHERE’S ‘A’? Hmph.
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Open water - A grave with no name
I swear. All I hear is: “I love you I love you I love you” and then somewhere along the line, I think it becomes “I f*ck you I f*ck you I fought you I f*ck you.”
Like, fo realz.
Sex with ducks - Garfunkel & Oates
Riki “Garfunkel” Lindhome and Kate “Oates” Micucci sing a pro-gay marriage song in response to a Pat Robertson quote that legalizing gay marriage would lead to legalizing sex with ducks.
This reminds me somewhat of the Ukes of Hazzard classic “Gay Boyfriend,” except these girls are hotter. Oh, I guess it’s wrong to objectify them like that, but those duck suits just bring out the animal in me.
Lady Gaga, the (con/non) artist? Discuss!
I've made a post on Lady Gaga's latest video, Bad Romance (http: //coolkidsbelongtogether.tumblr.com/post/240066465/bad-romance-lady-gaga-this-monstrous-video), and it got some interesting comments from fellow members, so I thought it was worthwhile to highlight the discussion. Please add/edit any further responses!
A: ... Wherever you stand with regards to her music, it is blatantly obvious she’s the most exciting PERFORMER to come out of 2009. There’s an incredible sense of abandonment with the way she pushes for something extraordinary in the entertainment realm. I really thought she would boringly live up to the ridiculousness that people expect out of her now, but this [Bad Romance] video proves to me how her vision runs miles longer than I had given her credits for (and you KNOW I’ve given her a lot of credits!). That shot @ 4:40 could be right at home in some very deprave but highly entertaining Lynch film!
DS: There are some things I'll never understand about you, A.
A: She was wearing a polar bear rug/robe while posing like a department store mannequin beside a burning bed? I can't help myself, she's crazy.
DS: But there's lots of crazy images and outfits in music videos. Extraordinary? Exciting? Not especially. Shrewd? I'll give her (or her label) that, but wacky clothes don't make up for the total lack of a distinguishable personality in all the other aspects. She's interchangeable! You just wish you could wear a muppet head outfit. :deal: If I want crazy outfits/imagery/choreography from a female artist, I'll take Missy's videos from 10 years ago. Hmph.
Daniel: I'm pretty much with DS on this. The costumes are inventive, and I'll give you the "sense of abandonment" for certain. But close your eyes so you can't see her attention-hungry hand-waving, and a deeply mediocre artist suddenly emerges, barely worthy of being tacked onto the end of some forgettable Robopop compilation. I think referring to yourself repeatedly by name in your own song is a mortal artistic sin. The mantra of Lady Gaga: "Me, me, me!"
Miscreation: I don't dislike Lady Gaga, at least she makes an effort to be something other than safe pop music for teens and tweens, but my issue with her is that her performance comes across as more contrived shtick than genuine artistry. It's not really all that innovative to wear strange outfits, is it? I would compare her as the female equivalent of Marilyn Manson back when he was at his height.
A: DS, it's true, I really want a muppet head outfit. :( I love Missy's videos! All you haterz, sure, Missy and Marilyn Manson have done weird things in their videos, but the brilliant and unique thing about Gaga's vision is that it aims squarely at those plastics who do NOT ever want to look 'weird.' When Missy put on a weird bubble outfit for one of her videos, she's having fun, being off-beat Missy, totally harmless. When Marilyn Manson wore the boobs body suit, it was a one-off shock costume donned by a guy who looked like your standard outcast. You would kinda go, "oh yeah, I can't believe would wear that, but he's weird anyway?" Gaga's not an 'outcast.' With her (fake) blond looks, her constant skin (crotch) exposure, her (mainstream) catchy brainless electropop music, her wildly kitschy get-up disguised as high fashion, her naked ambition for fame and attention, and her glamourous sexed-up videos, she is the one relevant entertainer for today's plastic celebrity age, where the Kardashians or Hiltons are famous because they want to be famous and will flaunt all they got for it. She has done what none of them could - using her smarts to take everything that makes one famous nowadays and out-fame everyone looking for it. As for her music, I wrote somewhere on my blog that I liked about 42% of her music. I do believe she has more talent than you give her credits for, and I wonder if her outrageous schtick didn't make you underestimate her. Have you seen her performing live? On her piano? She is of some talent. Regardless, it may not even be your kind of music anyhow. That's okay. I didn't post the video because it was an amazing song (it wasn't), but because it was an awesome music video. I want to make that distinction so that whenever I post a Gaga-related item, it is not assumed that it was the music that I was posting about. Gimme some credit! Dan, what about Kid Cudi? Kanye West? JayZ? There's a tradition of naming yourself in certain genres - when is it okay?
Daniel: I never think it's okay, but I accept that it's not going anywhere. One thing Lady Gaga seems to do very well is polarize people. I saw another video of her today (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvWZzG5QIys) which people were hailing as unbelievably, life-changingly amazing and proof positive that Lady Gaga is having us all on with her subversive genius, and honestly, all I see is someone fucking up a Coldplay cover.
A: Does it break the flow for you? I don't have a problem with stamping your work (like signing a painting). I can tolerate it much more than, say, having 'put your hand in the air' thrown in the middle of a sad r n b ballad (ahem, Ciara). I rather like that she was playful with the cover?
