Pitchfork Music Festival 2010

This year marked the second time I've attended Pitchfork since the inception of my blog, and also the third (out of five possible years) that I've attended Pitchfork period. I only went on Saturday and Sunday this year (ticket prices have gone up and I prioritized) but I will say that I intended to only attend Saturday and had such a good time that I bought a Sunday ticket and came on Sunday anyway, despite my best-laid plans.

Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera to either day, so I can't do a proper photo+writeup post about it, but I will go through the concerts I attended.

I arrived with my brother and cousin on Saturday with a mild hangover and a belly full of refriend beans and rice. We met up with a friend of ours who was very gung-ho about forcing a bottle of vodka lemonade onto us, and there began my bad idea boozing at Saturday Pitchfork. We were standing by stage A, half-assedly listening to Delorean, a band named after something incredibly trendy in that 2000's nostalgia for the 80'ss kind of way. They sounded good to me; I had never heard them before. I downloaded their album last night and put it on and it didn't sound nearly as good as their live show. It was vaguely like Cut Copy and I still think In Ghost Colours sounds better as a studio album. Since I'm about to see Cut Copy at Lollapalooza, I guess I can judge then whether they sound better live too.

Anyway, after that I walked around the poster fair and saw these amazing Gossip Girl posters that I totally wanted to buy (two images, one of Chuck Bass, one of Leighton Meester) but they were 50 bucks for a set and I chickened out about spending that much money (probably because I was planning on coming back for Sunday). Anyway, I got the business card of the artist and here is his website: Dead Meat Design. And here is one of the posters:

Afterwards I sat around with a couple of my cousin's friends and drank rum and coke with my brother to the point that I felt a little sick because it was like 90 degrees out with full sun and I was drinking booze instead of water. At some point I waited in line for half an hour to fill up my water bottle at the water fountain--they really should have more of those, but they also want us to spend money on bottled water, so I understand why they don't do it. Although it's still hella lame. Around this time Raekwon came on and I idly listened to it and felt like a poser because I have never listened to Wu Tang Clan, not once. I mean, maybe there was a song in the back of my head that just popped up, but I couldn't think of it right now. So anyway, yeah I'm not THAT cool when it comes to my music tastes, as evidenced by my Sunday experience, which I will describe shortly.

Then we stood up to listen to Wolf Parade. They put on an all right show; it really suffered from happening when it was still light out. Wolf Parade in general is kind of a huge disappointment for me because their first album was SO GOOD and everything since has been SO MEH. Also, it was the fourth time I've seen them live which means they're the band I've seen most often in concert, which is just screwy because they are nowhere near my favorite. Sometimes life works out this way.

The highlight of the night and the reason for the season was LCD Soundsystem's headliner set.

And..... It...... Was.Amazing.

They opened their show with Us v. Them. They played three songs off their new album: Pow Pow Pow, Drunk Girls (of course), and I Can Change. I Can Change is one of my favorites off the album so I was excited about that, but if I had my way I would have substituted All I Want and Dance Yourself Clean for the other two. Off of the first LP they played Yeah Yeah Yeah (Crass Version), Tribulations, Daft Punk is Playing at My House, and Losing My Edge. They also played Someone Great and All My Friends off of Sound of Silver, and now that I'm done listing most of the show, I may have actually remembered the entire set (which is a very rare occurrence for me).

They closed the show with New York, I Love You and in the last refrain broke into a split second cover of Empire State of Mind. As a friend of mine said, to insert a song about the glories of New York into their song about how New York is becoming hollow was a genius move, especially combined with the fact that LCD Soundsystem is ending and this is their final tour.

Everything about that show was amazing. I was close enough to the stage for it to be pretty loud and to see James Murphy and every song was a revelation. During Someone Great I even got choked up, mainly because that song's lyrics are so heart-rending.

On Sunday I bit the bullet and bought a scalped ticket for 60 dollars because I had so much fun on Saturday I wanted a repeat (and sitting by myself in my apartment while everyone I knew was at Pitchfork sounded awful). I got there with my roommate around 2:15 and first off we saw Girls, and got pretty close to the stage. I thought that their set was a pleasant surprise because I sincerely thought every song would be a straight up version from their album, but during a couple of their slower songs they took it to the next level and made it loud and droning. I was surprised at how much I liked the difference between their sun-drenched surfer rock sound and then straight guitar noise. It really worked for them. Also the lead singer was wearing silver socks.

Afterwards I hung out at the Beach House stage and enjoyed every second. Their set went by way too fast, probably because I was just lounging in the shade, but also they played a lot of songs off their latest album, which I love. They played my favorite, Zebra. And oh heck, I'll include this detail even though it's embarrassing: I cried during a couple of their songs. It happened for layered reasons, but one of them was definitely that their music just sounded so emotional and raw and beautiful that loud, and it went straight to the heartstrings. God, I'm a wuss.

Afterwards my people wanted to see some bands I wasn't interested in, so I wandered around the record fair and bought a key necklace from Spinal Fusion, whose shop you can find here. Very cool stuff, although she didn't have a button at her table for my neighborhood, Edgewater, among her Chicago-related products.

I then ate a vegan ice cream cone (the only ice cream available was vegan) and I found it very good. I think there is a hope for a vegan-only nation, although converting everybody from dairy is a hard task. I still can't make that leap because of Cheese. It's all about Cheese. Cheese which is so important I MUST CAPITALIZE IT. CHEESE.

After my respite from music, I went back to Stage A for Major Lazer, which had to be the silliest thing in the context of a music festival. Major Lazer is a collaboration between Diplo and Switch. Since it's basically just club music, they had some dancers bouncing about the front of the stage, and this guy with a mike who kept saying "CHICAGO! PUT YOUR HANDS UP!" and acting like he was the creator of the music. "HEY DIPLO, SLOW IT DOWN FOR A SECOND. I WANT TO SWITCH IT UP FOR CHICAGO!!" This repeated every few minutes. The best part of the whole thing were these two Chinese dragons on stage. Once they left, I found my roommate and we went to Neon Indian.

Neon Indian's set was kind of erratic, mainly because the lead singer had a theremin that he enjoyed dicking around with in between songs. So a song would be grooving along and sounding totally rad, and then he would cut it short to put in some noise. I like a bit of noise and some difference in the songs when I see a band, but if you get your apathetic crowd actually moving, I suggest you do NOT cut the song short to dick around with your noise machines. Just thoughts. Their two biggest songs still sounded great (which are "I shoulda taken acid with you" and "Deadbeat Summer").

Afterwards we went back to the main stages for Big Boi, who actually played "I like the way you move" while he had these little kid breakdancers on stage. The only girl in the group, who was about 10 years old I'd say, spun on her head for a good 3 minutes at the end of the song. When you're spinning on your head, I imagine each minute feels like an hour, so I'm still impressed with that. They begged us to like their page on facebook, but I can't remember what they were called now, so I guess we'll just have to live without that particular detail. Also he played a couple of minutes of "Bombs Over Baghdad" which was crazy! Probably because Pitchfork named it the song of the decade.

Then, finally, it was Pavement's big reunion show. Which I did not stay for all of, so you can just go ahead and revoke my indie cred card right now. As much as I would have liked to stay, I never listened to Pavement growing up and so I couldn't fuel the experience with nostalgia. I also didn't want to deal with how crazy the trains are after the headlining act (as it stands they were crazy enough when I left). What I saw of the show was awesome, and their stage was set up with really cool strings of regular light bulbs. They had this shock-jock DJ from the 90s with someone named like Rocking Mike (can't remember now) introduce the band, and it was kind of ridiculous. I think he was pulling a lot of asshole shit for entertainment value, but he claimed that Pitchfork was the minor leagues to Lollapalooza's major leagues, and wouldn't we rather be in Grant Park right now? Okay, yeah, so I am going to Lollapalooza this year, but I can tell you that my musical experience at Pitchfork is as good as Lolla is going to be (if not better). So anyway.

That is my write-up of Pitchfork 2010. HOLLER.

On Taylor Swift's "You Belong with Me" Part 2

Some of my more faithful readers may recall this post about how I thought that Taylor Swift's video for "You Belong with Me" should be made with a gay boy as the main character. Well, in this wonderous world of Youtube and Jezebel commenters, my wish is...my command! Check it:

Love this! Love the ending! Gah this makes me happy.

Jezebel reactions to release of Alejandro

Click to enlarge!

it's here it's here it's here it's here

It's that time again. Gaga's got a new video out. Some people will say it's repetitive, some will say she's a knock-off of Madonna, but I'm just hyped to read all of the fallout.

What was the best concert you ever went to?

I was messing around in my formspring account and the system asked me this question. At first I was going to answer it in terse earnestness, but then I realized I had a lot to say. So much to say, in fact, that I thought I would jump start my writing for the month of June by answering the question.

Sometimes I think that the halcyon days of my concert attendance are over. Not to say I don't attend concerts or still enjoy them; rather, in high school (when I went to the highest rates of concerts per month) going to a concert was a soul-defining exercise. By going to see the Arcade Fire with my friends, I felt like I was confirming that I was some hip young chick, something so far outside of my conservative Southern high school (I will still swear on a Bible that our de facto class song was "Sweet Home Alabama.") At the time I thought that every band my brother made me listen to, or every time I joined in conversations that involved Pitchfork's rating system, I was being so incredibly unique that I deserved a star.

Ok, seriously, I had problems. Regardless of that, eventually Urban Outfitters invaded our national consciousness and started playing Karen O while a bunch of teeny boppers bought t-shirts that said things like "I don't eat ham because I'm a vegetarian so FUCK OFF MOM AND DAD" and then I discovered that whatever music I liked wasn't really going to define who I was anymore. Everyone loves music and it's fun to be able to share that with people, so hiding in a corner with a list of "indier than thou" bands feeling superior was no longer going to work for me.

But the world doesn't really need another blog post in which someone expostulates "The Shins were sooo cool before Garden State made them all famous and stuff" so I'll move on. All I'm trying to do is make the point that concerts meant a lot more to me back then, when I was even more of a moldable human being searching for some reason to feel like the world was rocking. This fact alone would affect my top five list of concerts.

Then I was talking to a friend today about how I was writing this blog post and she said "so much of my concert experience is my mood, the comfort of the venue, and the number of songs they play that I really know."

And isn't that the truth? You go to a concert and you're stuck in your head the entire time because it's too loud to talk. Hopefully what's going on during the show is entertaining the music is so good you're totally swept up into it. But 90% of the time I spend concerts thinking about how I really fucking wish I was in a band and how much I having a desk job.

So, without further ado, I'm going to put up a list of top five concerts that I've attended. I don't really know if they legitimately are the best concerts, but they are ones I've been feeling in my memory:

5) Miike Snow

Venue: the Metro, Chicago

My roommate and I went to see Miike Snow on a lark a couple of months back, and the show surprised me in many ways. I didn't like the Metro is a venue that much, but these crazy Swedes came out in matching plain white masks and played with an extreme intensity that was infectious. I'd only heard one song by the group but they managed to hook me for the entire concert, which is quite a feat. Their sound was loud and powerful and their look was eerie.

4) Patrick Wolf

Venue: The Cat's Cradle, Carrboro, NC

I went to see Patrick Wolf with Radonwolf last summer. It was part of a Nylon magazine tour which in and of itself is kind of embarrassing. However, I've loved Wolf for a few years now and because it was part of a strange promotional tour there was absolutely no one there. I think there might have been 75 people in a venue that could hold up to 300, and I was right at the stage. Beforehand, Wolf walked by me and said "hey" and I nearly crapped my pants. He makes me wish I was a gay man. During the show, he stopped in the middle of the set to give a eulogy for Michael Jackson who had died days earlier. He then sang an a cappella version of Joni Mitchell's song "Michael." I hate a cappella as a rule, but it was still a nice gesture. He spent most of his banter between songs telling us how amazing the slow life in North Carolina was, and how he could have been at this Glastonbury Festival in England but had chosen to experience the USA instead. To top off the set he put on a grey leather jacket that had bird wing-type epaulets. I should have stayed to get a photo with him. He's also very tall.

I think the weirdest part of the entire show was that there was a very drunk man in attendance with his girlfriend who kept turning to us and saying "THIS IS MY FIRST GAY CONCERT." He also got in a weird back and forth with Wolf at one point about his sexuality that was uncomfortable, but who doesn't like a good asshole story about a concert? As my brother likes to say, the perfect dinner experience should always include one thing to complain about.

3) Gogol Bordello

Venue: McCarren Pool, Brooklyn

Everybody who's seen Gogol Bordello raves about how good their live show is, and I'm no exception. I spent a lot of the show wasting cash on 6 dollar cups of beer. The lead singer has a baller mustache and there are dancers. I think the reason I liked this show so much is that standing around in an empty pool with a bunch of Williamsburg hipsters was fucking surreal and AWESOME. Afterwards we got pizza.

2) The Arcade Fire

Venue: The Cat's Cradle, Carrboro, NC

These top two shows are from high school, and they both hold very dear places in my heart. Particularly because they were at my favorite venue of all time, The Cat's Cradle. I saw the Arcade Fire with a dear high school friend I referenced above, and it was during their funeral tour. I knew every song. Final Fantasy played beforehand and I enjoyed watching him create loops and building his songs--doing a one-man show must be rough. The best part of the show was that they created a funeral procession through the crowd: all of them holding various instruments, sweating their asses off, and beating drums, they walked through all of us and I got to touch the guy who looks like an adult Ron Weasley.

1) Franz Ferdinand

Venue: The Cat's Cradle, Carrboro, NC

This show will always have a one-up on my other concert experiences because it sold out before I had a chance to get tickets. My cousin and I decided to make a last-ditch effort to see them by standing around outside of the venue and hoping that someone would need to sell of their tickets. I finagled a ticket somehow, but then it seemed like Sam would never get one. We waited around through both of the opening bands before a guy who had won the tickets in a radio contest came up and sold his ticket to Sam. We walked in just as Franz Ferdinand came on stage. At that point in time, Franz Ferdinand's sound was so fresh and new and fun that every second of the show was undiluted positive energy. Also, the lead guitarist dances in a very particular and funny way that is best illustrated by the video for "Take Me Out."

Beyonce Why Don't You Love Me?

"Why Don't You Love Me" - Beyoncé from Beyoncé on Vimeo.

Beyonce's got a new video out and I think it has to be in my top ten favorite music videos (now there's a list that would be hard to make!) You got to watch it to believe it but she does the 1950s housewife thing in typical Beyonce fashion: totally fucking bitching while kicking ass and taking names. I'm not sure this is necessarily more than '50s eye candy, but you could definitely interpret it as a critique of this way of thinking (i.e. asking "Why don't you love me?" and fawning all over your man is soooo 1950s). WATCH IT!!!

Life has been getting in the way lately

Life has been all up in my junk lately and I haven't has as much time to write on the blog. I recommend you check out my tumblr if you're dying to see my internet activity. It mainly consists of fashion images I find interesting and other internet detritus.

In other news, I found this Runaways video the other day and thought I would share it purely on the basis of Cherie Curie's silver jumpsuit. Oh yeah, be still my heart!

and the sky was made of amethyst

yet another hole lyric i thought the world should see

The girl with the most cake

As you know, I've been on a total Hole kick lately, and one lyric always stood out to me as worthy of remembrance (and therefore illustration). Here it is:



Illustrated in photoshop by me, Copyright by me.

Totally kicking ass in every way: Chick music and grunge

Jezebel recently posted an article about the video vixens of the 90s. I was so inspired by the style and attitude of these songs that I started listening to all of the Hole and Garbage I could get my grubby little hands on. It made me really miss genuine grunge; it made me miss female artists who were 90s-era Courtney Love gritty. Wearing little girl dresses that were stained and ripped. Dolls covered in mud and doc martens and red lipstick. I miss aggressive lyrics about womanhood and raw voices, things I never knew I loved until I realized that I felt like they were lacking in the current music scene.

But, I am not musical maestro. I am unaware of many bands that exist today that might fit the description I gave in the previous paragraph. I apologize for this gaffe, if it is indeed a gaffe. I do have the power, however, to embed music videos and get steeped in a 90s nostalgia that isn't exactly mine. When my ages ranged from 3-13 through the course of the 90s, I can only really lay claim to vintage Britney and N*Sync, sadly. I will just excuse myself by saying that my brother listened to practically all of this during his rebellious 90s youth (I'm going to embarrass him further by pointing out that he TOTALLY used to sport a rat-tail).

Without further ado, my vid pics for 90s vixens and ultimately AWESOME bitches:

Things that totally rock about this song: "They get what they want, and then they never want it again...." Hole. "Violet." 1994

Ah yes, Old Time Liz Phair before she sucked, yada yada yada. Loving the refences to Chicago in this one. Liz Phair. "Stratford on Guy." 1993.

It's funny because Pink has a single called "Stupid Girls" but I think this one accomplishes much more of what Pink was going for with that heinous song and video. Garbage. "Stupid Girl." 1995.

Quite the bitter song about a father not coming home to his child. Loving it. It makes me want to buy a pair of boots (but then again, what DOESN'T make me want to buy a pair of boots?). PJ Harvey. "C'mon Billy." 1995.

To be honest, it was hard to find a song by them I truly loved because Seether was a little too glossy sounding for me. This is pretty kick-ass though. Veruca Salt. "Volcano Girls." 1997.

No official video for this song on youtube, as far as I could tell. Sleater Kinney. "Little Babies." 1997.

Heck yes, Bikini Kill! Fucking STICK IT TO THE MAN. Bikini Kill. "Rebel Girls." 1993.

Doll parts has GOT to be my favorite girl angst 90s anthem. It is so epically bitter. Hole. "Doll Parts." 1994.

pipettes/valley of the dolls

I found myself thinking about this Pipettes video (embedding disabled unfortunately) this morning during my commute.

I wanted to share with you the inspiration for the video, a clip from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls which makes me so happy. It is a great time capsule.

this song: sexy bitch

If you've been reading this blog at all, you have probably figured out by now that I am a humorless femi-Nazi who spends a good deal of time on the internet with other femi-Nazi commenters on Jezebel (hi Jezebel!) Obviously all of this should be foot-noted with "/sarc," but I really feel like I need to start this post off with an appropriate amount of self-awareness and self-deprecation because I'm about to dismantle a song called "Sexy Bitch" by David Guetta featuring Akon. Click on the play button below and give the song a whirl.

A lot of the song is so auto-tuned that I am afraid you will miss the key details of the lyrics, so I have pasted them below:

Damn, you's a sexy bitch

Yes, I can see her
'Cause every girl in here wanna be her
Oh, she's a diva
I feel the same and I wanna meet her

They say she low down
It's just a rumor and I don't believe 'em
They say she needs to slow down
The baddest thing around town

She's nothing like a girl you've ever seen before
Nothing you can compare to your neighborhood ho
I'm tryna find the words to describe this girl without being disrespectful
The way that booty movin', I can't take no more
Have to stop what I'm doin' so I can pull up close
I'm tryna find the words to describe this girl without being disrespectful

(Damn, girl)
Damn, you's a sexy bitch, a sexy bitch
Damn, you's a sexy bitch (x2)
Damn, girl

This chorus is so priceless. The first time I heard the line "I'm tryna find the words to describe this girl without being disrespectful" I did a spit-take that looked something like this:

Like whoa. I mean, really dude? You can't find a single word to describe a girl you really like that isn't disrespectful? Here, let me help you out with a list:

Good, respectful words to use to describe a girl you really like

Beautiful

Pretty

Intelligent

Smart

Sensual

Funny

Amazing

Light of my Life

Genuine

Gorgeous

Dreamy

Alluring

Attractive

Magnificent

Marvelous

Sublime

Fit

Wonderful

Nice

Awesome

Good

Great

Lovely

Fabulous

Fantastic

Brilliant

Astute

Sharp

Bright

Sexy (arguable)

Hot (arguable)

...etc. Just type "Beautiful" or "Intelligent" or any one of those words into a thesaurus and you'll find yourself with so many respectful ways to describe a girl you'll probably need a snack before you go through them all.

However, I think I should point out that there are, indeed, words you can use that are disrespectful. And, in fact, you use them in your song.

Bad, disrespectful words you probably shouldn't use when describing a girl you really like:

Bitch

Diva

Booty Movin'

Nothing you can compare to your neighborhood ho

Some words I would also recommend not using (and am afraid you are about to because of this song you just wrote) in any description in any way of any woman in your life, ever, if you want to be respectful:

Cunt

Slut

Prostitute

Whore (in fact, any slang or proper word for a woman who sleeps around or gets paid to go to bed with someone)

Twat

...etc

All right, I think this speaks for itself. I'll leave out explicitly analyzing the line "nothing you can compare to your neighborhood ho" and leave you now. I hope you, dear reader, see that there are many many ways in which to describe a woman respectfully.

THIS SONG IS MY JAM

best chorus of the year, y/y?

For those of you who don't know, it's Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys.

Lady Gaga & Pop Music

Before anything else, if you haven't seen these videos, you've got to watch them

(sorry these have disabled embedding which means I couldn't put them in the post, unfortunately)

1. Lady Gaga's acoustic version of Poker Face
2. Paparazzi
3. Bad Romance

Some of you might remember a post I had a while back about the Taylor Swift video for "You Belong with Me" (as opposed to its creepy stalker cousin, "You Belong to Me") in which I opined that pop music needed a shred of originality. Well, I take that sentiment back. There was a time in my life when I was the ultimate detractor of pop music. This phase was firmly rooted in my last two years of high school, when I wised up and started listening to indie rock like Interpol and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and all of the sudden, anybody who liked pop music explicitly was a philistine. Fuck no I didn't care if pop could include genres like hip hop or country or just plain ol' pop. It was lame. You are lame. Let me go to the Cat's Cradle and feel smug for a couple hours. Kthanxbai.

I guess this stance towards pop changed during college when I started caring about something else: parties. I think that's when I finally understood pop music--it's the shit you listen to when you wanna get crunk and then wiggle your body around, a delicious respite for the kids who went to my liberal arts college and all took everything so ironically and seriously. We liked pop music because it was unexpected for us to like pop music, so it was okay. I would literally salivate if that Kylie Minogue song "can't get you out of my head" ever came on during one of the many dance parties I attended. Pop music from all generations was fair game--I knew more people than I believed possible who were into the Shangri-Las or wanted to hear Motown music at our college's dance club.

So yeah, for a while now I have become a defender of pop music. This statement doesn't necessarily belie the fact that I like all pop, or that I think Nickelback is great (newsflash--they aren't--and I wouldn't call their music "pop" anyway). And I believe, sincerely, that past the superficial reasons that I started to come back around to pop music (the vague 90s nostalgia, the onset of partying and college life, a sincere desire to shake my tail feather), there are some greater forces at play that reveal a lot about our society. I mean, what is allowed in pop videos, what is popular, and what is controversial often says a lot about constructions of gender, conceptions of material wealth, and the collective daydreams of the American people.

All of this information is a set up for me to talk about Lady Gaga. I first began to care about her somewhere around April of this year, when I spent an hour forcing my boyfriend to watch "Pokerface" with me online. I couldn't believe what I had stumbled upon--the new pop wrecking force. I was coming around to Gaga kind of late in the game, but man, did I become one vocal supporter. I found that, even though she wasn't that palatable for a lot of people, I could generally bulldoze anybody who didn't care for her with my loud and avid declarations of her awesomeness without having to back up my claims even a little. Example "SHE'S SO COOL HAVEN'T YOU SEEN ONE OF HER VIDEOS THAN YOU CAN'T TALK IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MUSIC"....etc. Recently, however, I've entered a slow-brewing tete a tete with a friend about Lady Gaga's ultimate worth (and whether pop musicians are really worth a damn, but hey, one battle at a time folks).

If you've reached this point in the post I hope that you've watched those videos I linked above. I want to proclaim, above all else, that what Lady Gaga is doing as a musician is barely even worth mentioning. YES these songs are unoriginal. YES they are overproduced. and YES I agree that they don't exactly merit all of the hype (although Poker face is damn catchy). What makes Gaga great, however, is her role as a pop cultural phenomenon. And her worth, ultimately, lies in our society's conception of a pop star's body.

So to start off, watch this Beyonce video, Crazy in Love. Notice anything? Notice the fact that Jay Z is fully clothed the entire time, often with a cap that covers his entire face? Notice that Beyonce is barely wearing clothes at all for most of the video? Notice that she does all the heavy lifting in terms of dancing, looking hot, and being sexually available for the viewer?

At this point I posit that our pop stars are a) instantly recognizable b) hot as fuck and c) willing to offer their bodies to us for our consumption. Yes, South Park has it right in their episode about Britney Spears--once someone becomes famous, especially through pop music, they have sacrificed themselves for us on the altar of fame. In short, they are our possession. We can do whatever we want to them (and with them). We're upset with Chris Brown because, yes, he beat up Rihanna, but he also damaged something that was OURS when he hit her in the face. Now Rihanna has a new asterisk beside her name--she might still be America's Girl, but she's also Domestically Abused Women's Girl. That sort of asterisk is uncomfortable and we're pissed we have to deal with it. Hence all of the outrage and all of the bullshit that surrounded that one event which, pretty much, should have been kept private. I'm not saying it's not a good thing that Rihanna is willing to speak up for women's rights, but that shouldn't be a defining part of her image. Just as all women who are raped or suffered abuse have to live with that new reality the rest of our lives, Rihanna will be the Tina Turner-esque "abused famous woman."

All of this is to say that yes, we know exactly what bodies our pop stars possess, we have access to them photographically at all times and even the ends of their bodies are ours (michael jackson's death anyone?). What makes Gaga great, however, is that she has both willfully entered the Fame Monster (as she would call it) but also managed to avoid becoming Our Possession through her constant manipulation of her image. Don't believe me? Check out these pictures. (Each word is a different link).

Or better yet, rewatch Bad Romance. Now, can you tell me WHAT THE FUCK she looks like? If she took off all of her pop start trappings, would you recognize her on the street?

The answer is no.

The best anecdotal I have of this phenomenon is when I was watching video phone (embedded below) with my roommate and she said "I have no idea what this girl looks like."

Gaga has somehow managed to create a fame for herself that isn't inextricably combined with her identity outside of the fame monster (I'm sorry, Taylor Swift!) which shows an extremely high level of intelligence and an incredible understanding of the Pop Music Fame Making Machine. It's totally awesome. She's rolled right into the belly of the beast, winked at us, and asked "Do you see what I'm doing here?" She describes herself as a performance artist because yes, that's what she is, she's performing being famous. Her sexual use of her body in her videos is supposed to be aggressive; it's up in your face and it makes you uncomfortable. Her body isn't there for you to consume sexually. It's there so you think about the fact that all pop stars have to have certain bodies and have to look certain ways. She looks different around every corner because she's calling attention to our constant consumption. She offers up a new version of herself every day because we'll eat it up. We should feel gross when we deal with all the versions of herself that she presents to us because we're gluttons for it.

And above all else, her strongest allusion to the idea that we, the viewer, are there to consume the (female) pop musician's body is in her video, Paparazzi. She performs in a neck brace and she performs with crutches--she's still going although we have chewed her up and spit her out and broken her down and possessed every part of her.

I am not speaking about Gaga's future as a famous person. I guess only time will tell if I'm technically right, if this totally awesome meta-fame is actually regular fame and if Gaga is just the proverbial moose we're chasing around the lake until it drowns. But as of right now, she's doing the damned thing so well that people can't tell the difference, and to them I say: I'm sorry you're missing out on enjoying one of the biggest pop music scams of all time.

And if nothing else, at least her presence in the world made Beyonce look all crazy whacked out in this one video:

i'm back baby! i'm back!

Moving on and Moving Out: The Musical Tribute

What is a road trip without its signifier playlist? I got the idea for this list the other night when I was listening to my New Order compilation...the second song came on (at the time I had no idea what it was called) and I found myself so enraptured that I knew I wanted to make a playlist to go with it. I call this grouping of songs The Reawakening.



It's Over Roy Orbison


Long Forgotten Fairy Tale Magnetic Fields


Feel the Love Cut Copy


Deadbeat Summer Neon Indian


French Navy Camera Obscura


Skinny Love Bon Iver


Evaporar Little Joy

*for the song below, I couldn't find a video of Luna the band actually playing, so instead I found a weird shortened version with Dean Wareham...It's better than nothing I suppose (see the absent Replacements video below for a fully formed sense of disappointment).

Moon Palace Luna


On Call Kings of Leon

*For the life of me I couldn't find this song on youtube--I guess the Replacements were too early for this youtube crap. Either way, I did find a Hole cover. So if you're interested in hearing Courtney Love sing a Replacements song...well, I didn't deign to include it. But now you know the key words for a youtube search.
Unsatisfied The Replacements


Skeletons Yeah Yeah Yeahs

...and the coup de grace....

Dreams Never End New Order

and something else to think about: today I was driving to meet a friend and I was on a very popular street that has lots of crosswalks that aren't at actual intersections. One of the cardinal rules of driving, I have found, is to be decisive--because indecisiveness is often what causes accidents. So if you're going to stop, stop. If you're going to drive, drive. Never decide to stop for a yellow light in the middle of an intersection or momentarily hesitate in taking a left turn that could potentially cut someone off.

Okay, now that I've rationalized my driving philosophy, I can relate the rest of this episode guilt free. Basically, on this pedestrian-heavy street, there are signs at the non-intersection cross walks that say "Yield to Pedestrians--it's state law." So I was driving along, a couple of minutes late, and saw that a girl was beginning to cross the street, but she bailed out. Right before I was at the intersection I realized some other guy I hadn't seen before was beginning to cross the street but I was committed to driving through and I knew I wouldn't hit him so I kept going. He stopped in the middle of the intersection when he realized I wasn't slowing down and yelled out "Hey look at the sign" in a very angry voice. And, forgetting my windows were open and that I was only going about 20 mph, I retaliated with "yeah yeah yeah fuck you." Oh, you think that you're living in the kind and gracious South, but ya ain't.

Just Thoughts on Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me"

Ok, we've all been there. If you are an American human being with a television set and a pair of eyes (and probably grew up sometime after the 50s), you've seen a pop video that was entirely about the fact that the protagonist belonged with the attractive object of their affection. It's a tale as old a time, a song as old as rhyme, right?

Yes. It is. But yesterday as I was driving on I-40 I heard Taylor Swift's longing rendition of this theme on the radio, and I found myself thinking of the music video I posted above. I will make no excuses for the song or Taylor Swift herself; I am a music snob [generally speaking] and her pop is some of the worst pop. During this drive, however, I realized what could make this music video exactly the opposite of what it is (repetitive, overwrought, unoriginal drivel): the protagnoist should be a gay kid. Yeah, that's right. In the video, Taylor Swift plays both versions of this cute high school jock's possible girlfriends. Wearing a brown wig, she's the bitchy one. Looking like herself with big ol' glasses, she's the au-natural, practically-perfect-in-her-nerdiness band geek. (And hello? Hasn't everyone already seen Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend?") So the video should really be about unrequited gay love. The perfect blond jock-boy should be dating Taylor Swift. The person singing the song, living next door to Mr. Perfect, and writing him cute signs should be a boy. Then this video would really be interesting--and perhaps, could speak to a largely unexplored version of unrequited teenage love in mainstream pop culture. It would be marvelous and perfectly fantastic--imagine a boy singing the lines "She wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts", "She wears high heels, I wear sneakers" or alternately, "She's the cheerleader and I'm in the bleachers." The song already matches up so well to this idea I'm tempted to sell it to Taylor Swift herself.

I dream of a world in which pop music has an iota of originality. Oh well, at least there's Lady Gaga.

the musics

...so faithful readers...of which I am sure there are but a few...

I come to you asking to make music recommendations for me, especially if you have a hankering for my opinion on anything. 'Cos I'm jonesing for some new music to listen to, but I am dry on ideas and new music. I know the responsible thing to do would be to actually read a music website for once (like would it kill me to peruse pitchfork?) but that's really not my style. For one, I only like reading really scathing record reviews. One of my favorites was their review of the Bravery album the Bravery, which I will excerpt here:

"The Bravery will tell you they don't know of any nu-rock revival. They just happen to like wearing leather jackets and having their gaunt faces photographed in elevators. Their idea to combine new wave, garage rock, and dance music just popped into their head, because, hey, what if rock bands started doing that?" (Adam Moerder, April 18, 2005)

But, on the other hand, I've decided to own up shamelessly to the fact that I don't always aspire to intelligent reading on the web. After all, I just finished scouring One D at a Time and have been lovingly gazing at the bellismo photos on the Sartorialist (if you're interested in either of these blogs, I refer you to my blog list sidebar, as well as the links above).

But since I can't expect to receive without giving, I will let you all into my iPod playlist of the day and my thoughts about each respective song/artist combo.

On-the-Go from August 19, 2009:

Zero & Heads Will Roll by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
One can argue a lot about which song is the better song (or better dance song) from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' album "It's Blitz" (or one could also argue about the fact that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs sound a heckuva lot different now--duh) but I still like Heads will Roll best. Perhaps it's my love of the straight up macabre dance hook "Off with your head. Dance til your dead."
[For the record, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have done a pretty good job of making sure you can't embed their videos...hella lame...I guess they're too corporate for us]



L.E.S. Artistes, Creator, & Lights Out by Santogold (Santigold? I don't think I can ever fully acknowledge that name as it's simply not as cool)
I went with the three-hit trifecta from Santogold's debut album because I'm.still.not.over.her. This music reflects a pretty specific time in my life (summer 2008) when she was all over New York and T.V. and all of that. Even today I'm surprised to find people who haven't actually listened to her much. I think this is great pop music--what pop could really be if we expected more from it--and I love every inch, even a year later.



Modern Art by Art Brut
Listen for the spoken word diatribe in the middle during which he "SEES A MATISSE AND...RUNS AT IT"



Hell Yes by Beck
Strangely enough I got my first real exposure to this song because my dad liked the video. He wanted me to watch all of the little robots. A couple years later, I found myself absently adding this song to every playlist I had going, thinking "Hell yes" every time the girls told me to "Please Enjoy."



Pretty Baby by Blondie
Oh yeah, Blondie rules. I feel like anybody who typically likes my favorite genre of music (Indie rock--if that still means anything anymore) is all about the Blondie so it almost feels redundant to list this song, but it was the one Blondie song I wanted to hear today.



Julie With... by Brian Eno
My aunt put this song on a mix tape for me when I was in high school. Needless to say, this song is very evocative for me, but I think it would still be evocative without the pervasive "oh I remember how it was to feel like an adolescent" B.S. that typically taints music you REALLY REALLY liked in high school. There's something otherworldly about the song, and dare I say, Brian Eno's music in general.



The Next Time Around by Little Joy
Little Joy is Fabrizio Moretti's solo project (For those who don't know, the drummer from the Strokes). I picked this up at an Amoeba Music, and I find it utterly charming. Charming is a pretty damning word to use for music I suppose, as I don't think I would ever buy an album based on that description. But the album as a whole, as evidenced by the music video, is sprinkled liberally with ukelele and French and the kinds of sounds and cadences that make you feel good just by listening. Like, maybe someday I too can chill out in Hawaii with a vintage Botex camera.


So hit me up with your recent music listenings and desires!

Pitchfork Music Festival

Of which you can see the official recaps here and here at pitchfork.com

I was in Chicago all week leading up to Pitchfork, so here are some visual highlights from that part:








It is, apparently, Pirate Summer in Chicago because the Field Museum is having a pirate exhibition.





This picture was taken at the beach by my brother's apartment.

As for Pitchfork, my personal viewing set list went something like this:

Friday

1. Yo La Tengo



The band played a great set. As some of you already know, Pitchfork had made the headlining acts abide by the rules that the fans "write the night"--so everybody voted on what each band was going to play. As a result I heard most of the hit Yo La Tengo songs, including such highlights as "Tom Courtenay" and "Autumn Sweater". However, I never claimed to be a music writer so a) I can't remember the exact setlist and b) I can't give any sort of critical examination of any of these bands. BUT I will say that the set was fun and that Ira Kaplan looked like he was having an epileptic fit when he started doing mad noise drones during many of the set's freakout songs. I was three rows back for this, the closest I got to any stage during the entire festival, so I shot my Pitchfork wad on the first day and first show that I attended. However, the Flaming Lips did manage to go out with a bang, which you can read about below.

2. Million dollar Ratatat bike




So in the record tent there was a sign for a million dollar Ratatat bike. I could have solved this mystery by simply asking the guy at the table why the bike was so expensive, but I preferred leaving it unsolved. Besides, it's way more fun to walk around gasping in horror: "ONE MILLION DOLLARS? WHO DOES RATATAT THINK IT IS? IS THIS BIKE MADE OF PURE GOLD?" I speculated that the bike was so expensive because it was for charity. It also could have been an art piece. ("Hey, you wanna come to my apartment later? I've got this keen million dollar ratatat bike." Try this pick-up line, guys. It gets the girls every time). Needless to say, I was astonished.

3. Built to Spill



There was no real reason to post a picture since, as you can see, I was far away from Built to Spill. But damn if it wasn't a baller show. I really enjoyed seeing them as they were my favorite band in high school for about a month. The highlights of the show included "Carry the Zero", "Conventional Wisdom", "You Were Right", and opening the entire set with "Liar." My brother suggested that Built to Spill should play a set some time with every song they allude to in "you Were Right," which I think would be DOPE.

The lowlight of the show was, of course, the fact that they didn't play "Car," probably the most popular Built to Spill song. It was assuredly voted number 1. My entire Pitchfork posse claims conspiracy. When my brother was muttering to himself, "what, no Car?" an overly enthusiastic girl practically jumped down his throat to agree.

Another thing to point out about Built to Spill is that Doug Martsch looks like a bobble-head doll on stage, regardless of how fast or slow the song is. Look out, Pitchfork 2010: I'll be there, selling limited edition, 500-run Doug Martsch bobble-head dolls! Get them for $200 while supplies last! And maybe I'll sell the last one for, shall we say, ONE MILLION DOLLARS?! (I'm looking at you, Ratatat).


Saturday

This day was definitely a dud for me on the music front (all Beirut fans simultaneously gasp in horror). This was partially affected by the fact that my boyfriend was suddenly ill and couldn't attend. Hence I took no pictures of my own, but click on the links if you want to look at the images I chose online to fully encapsulate my experience of these three acts.

1. Mf Dooom
I don't listen to MF Dooom's music and probably never will in any serious way. However, he rolled out on stage in that incredibly cool mask, and it was enjoyable to see him all fun-sized and far away looking like a supervillian. I think the picture says it all: MF Dooom was clearly the hippest (and blackest) act to play Pitchfork. Although I haven't looked at the entire setlist to back up that claim.

2. Beirut
Beirut was boring. Beirut sounded terrible in the open air. Beirut was like a big indie rock candy bar that gave me a cavity when I was 7. Le yawn. But I will say Zach Condon is dreamy. Take a look at the picture. Ain't it da truf?

3. The National
The National was, admittedly, also boring. Hence the boring linked photo. I heard the two songs I wanted to hear--"Slow Show" and "Mistaken for Strangers"--and then bounced before the bumrush to the green line train at the end of the set. We went to Wicker Park and got drunk.

Sunday

Sunday was a good day. Sunday, in fact, rivalled Friday in its awesomeness, though there were no gratuitously overpriced bicycle discoveries for me to constantly reference.

1. $20 Squid Poster



Read it and weep bitches! This poster is MINE!

But all bragging rights aside, one of my favorite parts about Pitchfork is the poster sale, where local artists from around Chicago bring together their silkscreen posters and sell them. I didn't buy any posters last year, but this year it was a difficult decision. It essentially came down to squid suit and a poster that said "U is for Unicorn," but squid suit won out. The artist who made this piece was definitely my favorite of the day. He also had a poster of famous beards throughout history which included many Civil War soldiers (the south represents!)

2. M83
This video link doesn't encapsulate the awesomeness of M83 and I wish I had taken a video of them now. They were incredibly energetic and played a lot of fun dance music. They also included "Don't Save us from the Flames," for which I was grateful, although they didn't play "Unrecorded." Why no Unrecorded, M83? Why?

But the girl from the group was wearing an overly fabulous blue sequined long-sleeved shirt and spent most of the set bopping up and down. Whenever they talk the entire crowd sighed, as they are le french with le sexy french accents.

2. Grizzly Bear

To be honest, I spent most of the Grizzly Bear set wandering around the Flaming Lips stage, trying to find an appropriate spot with my cousin and my boyfriend. But what I overheard was damned good. I will also take this time to mention (as I must have said a million times that day) that I saw Grizzly Bear over a month ago at a small venue in Chapel Hill and it was infinitely better than Pitchfork, if only for the fact that there were 15,000 fewer people. They did not play "He hit me." Oh, I should link to that as well. Watch this.

3. The Flaming Lips.

I have my own youtube videos for this! Wee! Watch them below!

The show started off with a video on this big LCD screen they had set up of Wayne Coyne's naked wife dancing around. The video then zooms in on her vagina. Wayne came out into the crowd in a giant blow-up hamster ball and rolled around for about half a minute. He never really came near my part of the crowd, but oh, don't I wish.

And then came the first song: infinite amounts of confetti and balloons.



This was at the end of the first song. It's a very short clip but I wanted you all to get the idea of truly how many balloons were floating about during the first song. It was a beautiful thing, the way the Flaming Lips mercilessly pelted the crowd with big, soft balloons.

So the set went on. They didn't play nearly as much music as I would have hoped because of all the additive stuff (the hamster ball, the hype leading up to them coming on stage, Wayne constantly talking between sets), but they played a good show. I am not a flaming lips die hard so I can barely remember any of the songs, but they played both Yoshimis, She don't Use Jelly, and, of course, Do You Realize.



This was the finale, "Do You Realize," where they pumped more confetti out than I've ever seen in my life in one place. Ever. It was like the V-day ticker tape parade in Union Park. I'm sorry the video cuts off and doesn't get the entire song but I wanted to live my life instead of just recording it, so next time mon petit readers.

Regardless of how you feel about their music, seeing the Flaming Lips live was an amazing experience. They almost made me convert to following the band around the country, if only because I could be immersed in confetti and balloons during every show and watch scantily clad bunny girls dance on a stage.

So that was Pitchfork. Any questions?