I meant to write about Joanna Newsom's crazy, brilliant, stunning, ambitious triple-album when it came out in March, but I wanted to listen to it through and get a good feel for the entire work before I criticized it. And then I listened to it on repeat for days and days and days, but never got my thoughts out. So here I am, with a belated reaction to the beautiful Have One On Me.
So where to begin, where to begin... just to talk about this massive work is difficult for me to approach. Because it IS massive, and quite long (over 2 hours), so listening to this thing all the way through, multiple times, was no easy challenge. I first downloaded it to my iPod and just played it on shuffle, which is stupid, lemme tell you, because you really should listen to the songs in order.
Starting with Easy <3
The album begins with a soft bang, as Joanna quietly coos "Easy, easy/ My man and me," and goes on from there with a calculated rhythm and melody, while the song swiftly and steadily grows. My very first thought was something along the lines of "Holy vocal chords!" because if you know anything about Joanna, you know that she has a wild, warbly, untamed voice. But here, it is so smooth and stunning, in the best of ways. I mean, not even was I halfway through the opening song when I deduced that Joanna has grown and matured incredibly since the last album.
Up next is the exceptionally complex title track. And it is a stunner.
The song starts out beautifully and quickly livens up ("Here's Lola, tada! to do her famous spider dance for you") and lacks no quirky lyrics. While the song is so adorable that you just want to hug it, it's also so complex that you're a little intimidated. Seriously, to achieve what Joanna's achieved with only 2 songs blows my mind. And there are 16 to go, most over 6 minutes long... Most of the other songs, also, are layered with instrument upon instrument, textured with backing vocals, filled with wild percussion, and obscured with clever lyrics.
Take Baby Birch, for instance.
Possibly the most personal song on the album, with somber lyrics that point to losing a child, either literally, metaphorically, or just in a futuristic sense ("This is the song for baby birch, oh I will never know you, and at the back of what we've done, there is this knowledge of you," and "I wish I could take every path, cause you know I hated to close that doggone door on you.") I've read more than a few reviews that are sure the song is about abortion, and this is further evidenced by On A Good Day, which follows. The lyrics certainly don't rule this theory out, especially when you regard the very end of the song where she talks about catching a rabbit and skinning it quick, or laughing at a mother goose for thinking she wants a "little baby fussing all over my legs." So when I listen to this song, sometimes I follow that story line. Other times, I just believe the song to be a line of stirring metaphors that address loss in general. Either way, the song is so brooding and melancholy, so beautiful, and so easy to get lost in. And I could listen to the line, "Do you remember staring, up at the stars, so far away in their bulletproof cars?" over and over and over again until the song wore thin.
Anybody who's feeling ambitious enough to take this gargantuan listen on really needs to be in the right mood. This album is LONG, and quite testing, because Joanna, clever girl that she is, has intertwined all the songs into a complex and purposeful line. On the first few listens, certain songs really stood out for me (the ones I've listed, the shorter songs "On A Good Day" and "'81," "Good Intentions Paving Company," and "Soft as Chalk"). Others blended together. It probably took me 4 or 5 listens through for me to make the connection between "In California" and "Does Not Suffice": both songs follow the same melodic line and coincide with each other astonishingly. Listening can just become plain overwhelming, too, because you want to take everything in all at once, which is just impossible. But the effort is more than worth it. The songs are beautiful, the album is gorgeous, the musicianship is incredible.
And I'm going to keep telling myself that, because I shelled out 30 bucks to pick up the vinyl edition at my local record store.*
*I do not regret this, though-- the setup of the record is kickass.
This second cover of mine was a lot of fun to do, mostly because we didn't have to go looking for a guitar player. I just quickly threw together the keys on GarageBand and imported it to ProTools and sang. The whole project took about 5 days, maybe spending 30 minutes to an hour on it each day.
A few months ago, WICB (radio station of Ithaca College, the only station that saves me from a Lite Rock station, a Top 40 station, and 15 Country stations) began to play "Slight Figure of Speech" by The Avett Brothers. It took me awhile to figure out what the song was called and who was singing it, but after a few intense listens where I tried to make out several lines of the fast-paced lyrics, I made a successful Google search. Thus, I fell upon The Avett Brothers.
Was I ever surprised to see that they would venture to Ithaca's own State Theatre. When I discovered this lovely piece of news, I got to work doing my research. Luckily, I'm a pro at research. I headed to their Myspace, and sure enough, the band had posted a slew of albums, which I in turn downloaded. Their sound is right down the alley I'm currently trapped in-- folk-rock alley, I shall call it. I am running down the alley, for surely there is a way out, but the alley grows ever longer, and more and more artists pop out of the shadows and throw themselves in my face. And I oblige, take their CD, and listen.
The show is the 26th. It's the first show I'll be going to alone (I've been to 2 Foo Fighters shows with a friend and my mother, The Bob Dylan Show accompanied by my mother again, and a Yeah Yeah Yeahs show with my family and family friends, which was interesting...) so I hope I can just get loose and have fun all on my own. There won't be any hangups, and I won't feel obligated to find any souls I lose in the sea that is General Admission, so I'm pretty excited at the moment.
"They say don't take your business to the big time/ I bought us tickets there."
On December 24, I finished all of my Christmas shopping and headed into Borders to pick up a CD for myself. Cat Power's "The Greatest" jumped out at me because I'd remembered her performing the title track on "Jools Holland". The show had left me amazed at her gorgeous howl of a voice, and she'd made an impression. After listening to the album over and over in awe, my impression was solidified. "She's like a darker, more soulful Feist," I told myself.
How utterly incorrect I was.
The famous Jools Holland vid that awed my ears.
I was completely ignorant to Chan Marshall's past. Had I known that "The Greatest" is the sound that came after Chan emerged from a long tunnel of darkness, my perceptions of the artist "Cat Power" wouldn't have been so... wrong. When I downloaded the earlier works of Cat Power, expecting the music to be in the same vein of the soulful "The Greatest," I was a bit shocked at just how sad pre-"Greatest" really is. On the albums "The Greatest" and "Jukebox," I desire nothing more than to curl up in Chan's vocals and drift away to a peaceful sleep. Listening to the albums "Dear Sir," "Myra Lee," "What Would the Community Think," "Moon Pix," and "You Are Free," however, makes me want to curl up in the fetal position and cry. It's not that the songs aren't beautiful, for they are, and quite a few leave me entranced. But I'm also hit by all of the sorrow and pain reflected in the repetitive guitar lines and in Chan's delivery-- her voice reflects this emptiness and hopelessness that draws you into her half-glass-empty world. Yet after some research, I find that Chan's glass always used to be full; that is, up until around five years ago, she struggled pretty heavily with alcoholism, as well as depression and suicidal thoughts.
Her lyrics scream of all three of her issues, and I've assembled a handful of her more self-disparaging songs with the heaviest of statements.
ICE WATER "I feel just like/ Some great big disease." Chan's lyrics, though self-depreciating, are pretty relatable at times.
COLORS AND THE KIDS "I could stay here, become someone different/ I could stay here, become someone better" Apart from this line, where I imagine her throwing her head back and shouting to the sky, this song is filled with a conversational whisper.
ENOUGH "They can't find/ Enough to take from me" When Chan sings this song, I almost think it's about all that is expected from artists-- how everybody wants a piece of what the artist has. But Chan is so down that she feels she has nothing to give.
GOOD CLEAN FUN "Hey, I'm run down on my luck/ Hey, can I have something from you/ It seems I have nothing to give/ It seems you have nothing to give" She not only feels that she has nothing to give as an artist, but also feels as though she has nothing to offer just simply as a person. No one has any desire to help her out, either.
METAL HEART "Losing a star without a sky/ Losing the reasons why/ You're losing the calling, you've been faking/ And I'm not kidding/ It's damned if you don't and it's damned if you do/ be true 'cause they'll lock you up in a sad sad zoo" This song always makes me picture a person's downward spiral. He or she really has nothing left but their own depression, and they're a bit afraid they'll be caged, possibly in a madhouse.
NOT WHAT YOU WANT "I am not what you want/ There's no telling how long I'll be here" Chan pretty much yells the whole way through this song, and it makes me cry.
CROSS BONES STYLE
"Oh, come child, in a cross bones style/ Oh, come child, come and rescue me/ 'Cause you have seen some unbelievable things"
Though Chan is singing of horrors unseen by her listeners, the video pretty much kicks some 90's ass. She looks rather content as she enters her trance-like dance and as she rollerskates around. Yet the video, while Chan stares head on into the camera accompanied by the odd collection of back-up dancers, is indescribably creepy. The tune definitely cannot be described as happy, while the video can't be described as sad. What's weird, though, is that the video perfectly complements the song.
After playing all five albums on repeat for the past three days, I kind of want to die. She's emitting such an amount of pain and depression that is transferred directly to the listener. As beautiful as Chan Marshall's voice is, I don't know why I keep putting myself through all this misery. But I don't despair too much, for I know that Chan emerges from her black hole and finds a bit of light. Comparing her older live performance videos to her current ones show a significant change in demeanor; for one, she is engaged with the audience, and she has happiness in her eyes. I've read articles (as well as many Youtube comments) in the past few days, claiming that Cat Power was overall a better artist as a depressed and suicidal alcoholic. This ignorance made me laugh. Of course her music doesn't sound the same as it did when she was struggling with heavy, personal problems. She got sober, she got happy, and her music reflects her change one-hundred percent. She needs to be appreciated as the gorgeous phoenix that she is: yes, she burnt out for awhile, but she reached back up to greatness, and both sides are beautiful.
PS: I'd totally been pronouncing her name, "Chan," as it looks. Then I read an article that taught me it's pronounced "Shawn." This reminded me of when I kept calling Bon Iver "Bawn Eye-Verrrr."* It's supposed to be Bone ee-VAIR, I believe.
In the past month, two new female artists have come into my life. One is a superstar pop-icon who's pushing the envelope and blowing up the charts. The other is a gorgeous harpist with a not-so-gorgeous voice who made waves a few years back on the freak-folk scene. Both are, for the most part, polar opposites of each other. Yet I inexplicably love each of them, and each has turned into a new obsession.
The pop-star I am referring to, of course, is Lady Gaga, my new and favorite guilty-pleasure. I remember when I first heard about Lady Gaga-- she made a cameo on "The Hills" (a past guilty-pleasure) a few seasons ago. Lauren of "The Hills" was helping Lady Gaga with some funky, shiny, spacey get-up, and I just remember thinking, "Who the hell is this weirdo?" I didn't really give her another thought, because I figured she would disappear back into obscurity. Yet she soon appeared on So You Think You Can Dance as a guest and later on American Idol to sing another hit. I just kept dismissing her, though. I saw her as another pop-artist flooding the charts with the same dance-beats we hear over and over. This first impression remained with me for awhile, even while her singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" were sky-rocketing. Truth be told, I don't listen to much radio, for I prefer to pop in CDs. I suppose this is why I haven't really learned about Lady Gaga, and what she's all about, until recently.
When I did figure out what her whole shtick consists of, I kind of fell in love. I was taken by surprise, too, for I pretentiously reject much of pop-music (though I have recently been trying to get over this mindset, telling myself that there is no bad music, there is only better music). I got a taste of her persona when she was on the cover of Rolling Stone, and when she performed her startling performance of "Paparazzi" on the VMAs. But I still thought she just was being weird, in her bubble suit and her red-mesh-face-mask with that red Alexander McQueen crown, to gain fame What happened to change my mind? SNL.
Before the episode aired, I was sooo skeptical about what her performance was going to be like. I was still hung up on my pre-conceived notions of her-- that she was putting on an oddball act in order to gain attention.
And then she performed her first song.
As Lady Gaga started, wearing a fantastic red unitard that makes her look like a superhero, I became intrigued. I remembered the song as the one she'd performed at the VMAs, and I had to admit it was catchy. Soon she's belting out all her lines-- I guess when I'd judged her, I assumed she was another girl who couldn't sing. Yet she's incredible the whole way through, and I also secretly want to be able to do her little knee-gyrations she starts during the first chorus. After she plays her keytar and starts to freak out on the left side of the stage, I was fully loving the performance.
The first performance definitely left a good taste in my mouth. What made my new, pro-Lady Gaga feelings even better was the silly skit, with Andy Samberg and two bubble-suits, that had me completely in giggles. Of course, I'll giggle at anything Andy is in, but I still loved that she was laughing at herself.
But then, Gaga hit it out of the park.
I will say that I was completely taken aback at the bionic-woman/Saturn outfit, and she has a major wardrobe fail when she goes to sit down at the piano (you can even hear the audience giggling at this point, but she's great and totally goes straight into the performance). "Bad Romance" acoustic style is adorable, yet it's her biographical rendition of "Poker Face" (and her piano transition into it) which had my mouth completely gaping open. The piano is great, the singing is great-- but I was really struck by her authenticity, which contradicts her entire bizarre look. Here is this woman, wearing this crazy metal suit, looking as surreal as can be, yet she's singing about riding subways and knocking back beers with friends and eating hotdogs on the street.
After SNL, I was completely a fan. I YouTubed (love how that's become a verb, like "Googled") all of her music videos and watched them over and over. I downloaded a "Walmart exclusive" studio performance iPod app. And now, The Fame, Special Edition, and The Fame Monster, Deluxe Edition, are on my iPod. "Just Dance," the song I'd first written off, is now one of my favorites, along with "Speechless," a new, Queen-esque ballad. I listen to her pretty much everyday, and find any excuse to go into the intro of "Bad Romance."
Folks, Lady Gaga has truly eaten my heart and my brain.
And now, for a transition, into the "freak-folk" sounds of Joanna Newsom.
Like Lady Gaga, I (sort of) got into Joanna Newsom through SNL. Really, I was Googling Andy Samberg, because I love him, and a recommended search was Joanna Newsom. A little bit of Internet-digging taught me that Joanna is actually Andy's apparent-girlfriend, and I immediately hated her for stealing my favorite funny-man (in my mind we had brilliant plans together) and for being such a gorgeous, 1960's model-esque pixie. But after doing another quick search (I friggen love the Internet) I was surprised to find that Joanna is a musician.
Immediately, I headed to Youtube, and the first video I found was this:
Holy harp. I didn't expect her to be playing a ginormous harp, nor did I expect her to play it so beautifully. "Damn," I thought, "this chick is actually talented. And she's cool. *Enormous Sigh*." She had won my approval, even in those first few seconds, where she opens with the line, "I slept all day," sung in such an alluring way that taking a nap suddenly sounds like most fun activity you could be doing. (Then I remember I hate sleeping.) This first line is still my favorite of all the lyrics, ranging from insane to intellectual, that Joanna sings.
The video is extremely well-done. How I wished to roam through the wilderness with her wearing wonderful boots and flowy old-fashioned dresses. I wanted to play with boats in a stream and climb trees and draw animated chalk-board drawings. It was the perfect video for me to be introduced to, because the next few videos I watched would truly unveil her unique singing style.
I'll admit, I was tested by songs such as "Sadie" and "Inflammatory Writ," both songs which feature the original Joanna Newsom warble. I still can't make it all the way through "Three Little Babes," because the voice and the electric keyboard just do not mesh. But when I found "Cosmia," I was floored-- and had an entire different take on that voice of hers.
Joanna's songs had been growing on me for some time, but when I found "Cosmia," I was pushed over the edge. The music-- her voice, the harp, the string arrangement, the winding melody-- just all came together in the most perfect way. I wasn't too fussed about her shrill tone, for I love Bob Dylan, and Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, both warble-y singers in their own right. Yet in this video, I felt as though she was a young child, coming to sing to the world with the wisdom of an old woman. Or maybe she sounded like an old woman in a childlike state. I don't know, but she was certainly some strange hybrid of the two, and I'm fascinated by her. I could truly listen to "Cosmia" for an entire day, and not even move from where I'm sitting, because it is that gorgeous. I didn't even mind when my father entered the room as I was playing the song, and obnoxiously announced, "Who stepped on Fred's [our cat's] tail?" I just rolled my eyes, because I know what he's missing out on. He was more correct, when trying to insult her again, when he stated, "She sounds like she should be on some off-Broadway show." Well, her songs are masterpieces, so, not a bad idea, really.
Now Y's and The Milk-Eyed Mender are on my iPod, and I have entered the art of Joanna Newsom. Just recently, I read a blip about her in Rolling Stone's end of the year special. She was featured in an article about the genres that will die out with the end of the decade. "What genre are they talking about?" I wondered. And then they referred to her as a freak-folk princess, and lumped her in the same category as Devendra Banhart, which made me snort. Yeah, because when I watched that first beautiful video, I definitely thought, "This girl is so freak-folk." I didn't even know that was a legitimate genre. And though I am loving Devendra's new album, I completely wouldn't lump the two together. I don't even see similarities-- Devendra is unique, but Joanna is just her own breed. Never have I heard an artist like her, at least not one who's made it into popular culture. But they've apparently performed together, or she's opened for him, or something, which obviously warrants her being thrusted into this silly sub-genre. (I dislike super-specific sub-genres, for they are often simply coined to explain what people don't really understand. I don't believe anyone can really put their finger on Joanna Newsom, or a great abundance of other artists, for that matter). She appeared in MGMT's Kids video, as well. Does that make her a throwback to David Bowie's psychedelia? Nope.
For now, I'm hoping she releases a new album soon, because it's been a few years. At the moment, though, I'll just torture my family by playing her music, and Lady Gaga's music, for that matter, at an obscene level. I think I will make a Joanna Newsom/Lady Gaga playlist, just so I can have some contrast to my life, and I shall blast this playlist through the walls of my room and throughout my house. This will be a great couple of weeks, or at least until I move onto my next obsession. Right now, though, I'm glad I'm obsessing over two awesome female artists who are kicking ass and pushing the envelope in their own original styles.
I've been going to classes offered at Unity Studio in the lovely Ithaca, NY since senior year started-- classes in Group Voice, Lyric Writing, and Pro Tools-- and they have all been amazing. I absolutely love travelling to I-Town three days a week to hang out at the studio. I mean, who really gets that opportunity? Who has access to free classes at a free recording studio? I love it. And though I am sad that the semester has ended, which means that there won't be any more classes until mid-January, I want to share a piece of awesomeness I worked on this past month.
In the Group Voice class, we decided that our final project would be to cover a song and use our equipment to record it. Because I was also in the Pro Tools class, there was a bit of cross-over, which was cool. I enjoyed mixing separate aspects of music together in this way. And I got to play both the roles of the producer and of the musician.
I decided to cover a Fleet Foxes song (surprise, surprise), my favorite song, titled "Drops in the River." Luckily my favorite song is also in a comfortable range, so I didn't need to do any transposing. Since I am very limited when it comes to playing guitar, we had to find someone more proficient to step in. Thankfully, Dani's (who is the Unity Studio Coordinator) boyfriend Evan stepped in to do the job. For a few of the Group Voice classes, we rehearsed, and then we were ready to record.
In the next Pro Tools class, we first laid down the guitar track. I'll admit there was some trouble-shooting-- this was only the second time we had recorded a musician in class. Some of the M Boxes act up because they're older models. We couldn't figure out how to put a click track on in order for Evan to keep time. And even though we put our "Recording" sign up over the door window, without fail, a group of kids WILL come screaming down the Community Center hallway and pound on the door, looking for Dani. But we got going and made it all go as smoothly as possible.
I didn't really know how long the recording process was going to take, so I was under the illusion that we would have it all complete in our 1.5 hr class-- this was not so. Whenever Evan played an error, we had to cut it out or record over it or create a new track. The guitar recording process took about an hour and fifteen minutes, leaving me only around fifteen minutes to mumble out one shaky take. But it was alright: I just scheduled some time to come into the studio and keep working on it.
I believe that I worked on the vocals for about 4 or 5 days. First, we had to get the main melody just right. Then we decided to add some harmonies, and this took forever. To get my pitches to line up was pretty difficult at times, especially because there are some tricky rhythms in the song. We also doubled my voice in places. Plus, I was a little over critical of my voice, though I suppose this was expected. Dani was encouraging, but she obviously didn't hear the mistakes I heard, regardless of whether there were actually any mistakes or not. As a result, I sang a lot of takes. A LOT of takes.
But then it was done, finished, completed, and I felt satisfied with all I had done... until the effects drew me in. I spent around an hour and a half just putting reverb and flanger and other effects (that I was forced to experimented with because I didn't even know what they did) on every single track to see how it sounded. This experiment was fruitless. I didn't like what any of the effects did to my voice. The reverb made my voice too quiet and muffled, while the flanger made my voice sound spacey (an effect I didn't want on such a folky tune). The other effects just overwhelmed me, so I decided to scrap the effects altogether. And it actually sounds pretty good for my first recorded piece ever.
I'm looking forward to creating other recorded works-- maybe some covers, maybe an original or two...
But for now, please enjoy my cover of "Drops in the River" by Fleet Foxes!
Allow me to resume my Kings of Leon fandom, for I have grown away from them in the past few months. Alas, this happens with all bands I become rabidly obsessed with. It's difficult to consistently foam at the mouth over the same group forever: breaks are needed once in awhile. Luckily, these breaks don't detract any of the love I have for the band. After a month or two, I pop the CD back into my car and cruise around with the tunes positively blaring, and I am in love again. So, drumroll *ba-dum-pshhhhhhhhh* ...Trani!
This video is actually one of the more amazing Kings of Leon performances I have witnessed on the great world of YouTube. Have you ever wanted to see the Kings of Leon completely lose their shit? Watch this video-- now!
This song is not only beautiful, but also exhilarating. And this performance holds up the recorded version's atmosphere, and probably even adds to it. Caleb's voice always sounds so smooth and achy, in that low drawl of his, and the opening is pretty loyal to the album version. But the boys grow increasingly excited throughout the entire live performance, and completely freak out at the end, which makes it awesome to watch. I'm not sure whether to laugh at them. applaud them, or stand up and freak out in accordance. I would have to make sure I'm the only one in the house if I feel compelled to act on that last impulse, however.
PS.
My dad played some Randy Newman (of Toy Story fame-- "I will go saillllling... no more") in the car when we went on a road trip over Thanksgiving break. Maybe I was still in my Kings of Leon withdrawal period... but Caleb sounds quite like him, in my opinion. Their tonal qualities are similar. Check it out: I'm not crazy.
And for the fellow kids born in '92 and on, who will only associate Randy Newman with Buzz Lightyear's realization that he is, in fact, a toy: he's got a larger repertoire than what appears in Disney Pixar works. And this repertoire is kind of groovy.
Posts
