Your single "Hey Lou" — and especially the video — is a loving and honest look at a real and complex relationship. No one but Laurie and Lou knew the machinations of the relationship, but to outsiders, it always seemed that Laurie Anderson enabled Lou Reed's softer side to blossom, and in turn they both found a way to heal and thrive as a couple. Was that your angle? Did you know them?
I'm really enjoying the Laurie Anderson's Norton Lectures , and have even gotten my parents and godmother into watching. She's a gifted narrator and mixed media conductor. The imagery and wordplay is at once hypnotic and enervating.
How much does that theme of unconditional love inform your forthcoming album, Soberish ? Do you dissect the many angles of a relationship (especially where an addictive personality might be concerned)?
Substances — potions, habits, ritual — often show up in the insecurity of those transitional times. I love to create, almost like using a substance, to settle me down when I'm traveling over the rocky parts of the road.
How did the pandemic first affect the writing and recording of Soberish with Brad Wood? Did your experiences alter the trajectory of the album in a significant way?
Most of the music was completed before the pandemic, though three songs were recorded and finished remotely. Luckily, we had established our working shorthand for the album before we were in lockdown, but it still colored the album in a lot of ways. I think the artwork in particular reflects the isolation and escapism I was feeling during this past year.
Your wit, laced with poignancy, has always been a defining quality in your lyrics. The title Soberish itself hints at that very thing. Is there a particular quality to the new album that circles back to your beginning? Certainly working with Brad evokes those early Exile in Guyville days too.
We borrowed many of the textures and sounds from our Guyville , Whipsmart and Whitechocolatespaceegg days, combining them in new ways to reflect our tastes now. I'm more into sound design. To some extent, I think of Soberish arrangements as us painting with sound. That's how I approach recording in the studio. I can visualize the arrangements as clearly as I can hear them. The humor is essential to me. Tragedy and comedy share a wall, if you know what I mean.
8. When we last spoke in 2019, after the publication of your book of essays, Horror Stories , you'd been working on a second volume, Fairy Tales , which was to lean more towards the rock 'n' roll aspect of your experiences. Where are you in the second volume?
Liz Phair to release new album 'Soberish' on June 4 with new single 'Spanish Doors' - UPI.com
April 14 (UPI) -- Liz Phair has announced that her first album in 11 years titled Soberish is set to be released on June 4 through Chrysalis Records.
Phair made the announcement on Wednesday alongside the release of her latest single, "Spanish Doors." Advertisement
The track is available to stream on YouTube , Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer and Pandora.
"Pushing past the table, spilling my drink/ Locked up in the bathroom, staring at the sink/ I don't want to see anybody I know/ I don't want to be anywhere that you and I used to go," Phair sings.
Phair last released the album Funstyle in 2010. The musician said during an interview with UPI that the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the release of Soberish and that staying indoors made music more difficult to pursue.
Rosie Tucker: 'Habanero' | Today's Top Tune | KCRW
Rosie Tucker 's " Habanero " is a spicy indie morsel with hints of Liz Phair and Aimee Mann sprinkled throughout. Turn up this perfect sing-along companion from a wry LA-based singer-songwriter.
Baggy Jeans are Back and Skinny Jeans Are Out
Blue jeans are as American as apple pie but, while we all wear them, no one can seem to agree on the best way to wear them. All we can do is wait to hear what the fashion world has to say about the appropriate cut for the time period.
The fashion world has spoken again, revealing that skinny jeans are out and baggy jeans are back.In fact, there is something called "the denim cycle" according to Chip Bergh the CEO of Levi's. Bergh told CNBC wide is in and and skinny is out, saying:
Cycles do come and go. And I think the pandemic definitely played a contributing role to consumers looking for a more comfortable, more relaxing denim.
Some people have said that this is going to create a new denim cycle, and we think that that could very well be true. The last real denim cycle was driven by skinny jeans. And that cycle lasted about 10 years.
I don’t think skinny jeans are ever going to go away completely, but clearly right now we are seeing a very strong demand for these looser fits, both the men’s side of the business, as well as the women’s side of the business.
Jeans are so important to Americans we have stereotypes based on different kinds of jeans. If you where certain jeans, people may make assumptions about you.
To-Do List: Socially distanced Columbia arts and entertainment picks (April 14-21) | To Do List |
After a brief restart last fall, the nation's oldest continuously operating community theater is back in action again.
Columbia's Paisley and the Birdwalkers play the Rock the Block fundraiser this weekend at Trustus Theatre. Provided/ Mandy Dyer
The blossoming spring weather and the waning, but still present, concerns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic make this a wonderful time to enjoy jazz outside. This week presents two attractive options. Les Flat Out Strangers bring their jaunty and dynamic gypsy jazz vibes to the Saluda Shoals Jazz Series on April 16, playing on the deck at the riverside park. Admission to the 7 p.m. show is $10; beer and wine will be available for purchase. Find out more at icrc.net/parks/saluda-shoals-park . Harbison Theatre also has an outside jazz option this week, as it brings back its Drive-In Music Nights on April 17, with the Dick Goodwin Quintet and Kristi Hood, who should satisfy those looking for more old-school, big band-leaning vibes. Tickets range from $30 to $50 per parking space for the 6 p.m. concert. Masks required when purchasing concessions (including food from the Hippie Chicks truck). More info available at harbisontheatre.org . JORDAN LAWRENCE
5 songs you must hear this week: 12 April 2021 | Globalnews.ca
You can feel when we’re in the midst of some sort of musical trend. Given the stratospheric rise of a certain social network platform, the term “TikTok pop” is starting to gain purchase. Think of it as songs that either lend themselves to 30-second dance routines on TikTok or songs that blew up on TikTok to penetrate the mainstream’s collective consciousness. A few of this week’s song picks will inevitably end up in that category.
This Dutch-American project consisting of Martin Garrix and an EDM due who goes by the name Maejor mine pop, hip-hop, trap, and a few other genres for their sound. If you're the kind of person who has the Ultra Music Festival on their bucket list, then this is something you should check out.
While everyone waits for a double album due this year (33 songs!), this is another single from last November's still-quite-mammoth (20 songs, 72 minutes) Cy r album. The video—pretty big budget for this COVID times—will remind you of a spaghetti western from the late 60s/70s that took a left turn into Goth. Billy actually looks pretty cool as a cowboy.
Let's overlook the terrible name and focus on what's happening here. We have a four-person musical collective featuring two singer-rappers, a producer/mixer, and a "creative director." All of the guys are high school friends from San Jose, California, who have been working together for the last three years.
Last week, this song was racking up two million streams a day. And I can see why. Older alt-rock fans might be reminded of Vercua Salt or Liz Phair, two other acts from Beach Bunny's native Chicago. Nothing wasted here. Singer Lili Trifilio and her three male bandmates say what they have to in two-and-a-half minutes.
Neutral Milk Hotel's On Avery Island is underrated brilliance
But all the adulation tends to overshadow its predecessor, 1996's On Avery Island, which recently marked the 25th anniversary of its release. Neutral Milk Hotel's first LP is just as brilliant as Aeroplane , but often gets neglected in the conversation about the band's legacy. While Aeroplane thrives in its strangeness, On Avery Island hits hard because it's more rooted in reality, possessing rich storytelling with which anyone can identify.
There's even more yearning in "Where You'll Find Me Now," the sister track to "A Baby For Pree" (both have the same melody, but each tells a different story, with the latter being dedicated to Mangum's friend who'd just had a child). "Where You'll Find Me" is about unrequited love, with Mangum detailing his true feelings for a romantic interest while knowing they don't feel the same way in return: "But I let you down / Swollen and small is where you'll find me now / With that silver stripping off / From my tongue you're tearing out / And you'll never hear me talk." And even while harboring intense feelings for this person, he returns to his apprehension over intercourse: "Tear into me, the scent of you sweating smells good to me / As long as we keep in our clothes." It's a mellow ballad, with suburban imagery of smoking in the park and adolescents hanging out in their cars. While Aeroplane feels more focused on imaginary worlds and convoluted metaphors, On Avery Island thrives when rooted in reality.
In addition to the record's relatable lyrics rooted in relationship struggles, On Avery Island is just as sonically dynamic as Aeroplane ; there's plenty of experimentation on hand. "Marching Theme" is one of three instrumental tracks (the other being "Avery Island/April 1st"), but it's the riskiest of the three. While "April 1st" is serene and joyous, working as an interlude for "Gardenhead/Leave Me Alone," "Marching Theme" is heavily distorted, sounding unlike anything else on the album. Its psychedelic sound is rivaled by closing track "Pree-Sisters Swallowing A Donkey's Eye," a particularly eerie song; it could likely be mistaken for the score of an avant-garde horror movie and lasts nearly 14 minutes. Closing with "Pree-Sisters" feels like a reminder to fans that while Mangum's capable of excelling at writing relatable indie rock songs, the band wouldn't conform to being ordinary.
Kids in the Hall's 'Brain Candy' and the Makings of a Cult Classic - The Ringer
Sheer acrimony has produced some of the greatest music in rock history. Everybody knows about Abbey Road and Rumours , but there's also the Replacements' Tim , the recording of which contributed to founding guitarist Bob Stinson's total alienation from his bandmates, or the Smiths' Strangeways, Here We Come , which pointed to a bold, new musical direction for the group until it led to their demise before even hitting stores.
The Kids in the Hall are, technically, not a band. They are a sketch comedy troupe, founded in Toronto in the mid-1980s. But in every conceivable way short of picking up instruments, they function as a band—from their perfectly complementary skills as individual performers, to their obvious band-of-brothers bonhomie, to the surf-rock-driven mystique of their TV series' iconic opening credits sequence . And with their 1996 feature film debut, Brain Candy , released 25 years ago this week, the troupe produced its own messy, ambitious version of a Tim or Strangeways , one that would similarly prove their (temporary) demise.
"If the band is writing catchy pop-rock, but they sound like they're about to split up halfway through the song, like the Replacements or Big Star, that's my favorite kind of pop music," says Kevin McDonald, Kids in the Hall's go-to neurotic and the closest thing the film's ensemble has to a star. "I think Kids in the Hall are sort of like that."
If the Kids' studio backers hoped to kick-start a Sandlerian money-printing machine, their investment was an abject failure. Much to the chagrin of producer Lorne Michaels (the SNL godfather and fellow Canadian who discovered the troupe and developed their first TV deal), the film has a leisurely, meandering pace and features none of the series' beloved characters like the Chicken Lady or Head Crusher . But as an ahead-of-its-time satire about mental health, rapacious consumerism, and personal temptation—one that's now gained the cult following for which it always seemed destined—the film is a wild success. The process may have been messy, uncomfortable, and downright painful, but the end product is just as lasting and rewarding as any of the capstone breakup records it resembles, even more so 25 years later.
In the 1990s Michaels's Broadway Video, which produced the Kids' series, was at its apex as a film production company, churning out hits like Wayne's World and Tommy Boy on a near-yearly basis. Combining their cultural momentum, the Kids set out once again with Michaels as producer to introduce themselves to the world with an ambitious satire that would retain all the humor and scrappy charm of their TV series, but add a cinematic flair and social critique that would establish them as real-deal filmmakers. "The Coen brothers, Terry Gilliam, those were the filmic comedic directors at the time, and so it was a natural influence; we wanted to create a cinematic world that was something slightly askew," says Makin.
That dedication to their vision would set them on a direct collision course with Paramount Pictures, the film's distributor. The studio expected another slapstick star vehicle like Tommy Boy , and instead got something closer to Gilliam's bleak, dystopian Brazil . Creative arguments would eventually cause the studio to cut the film's promotion budget and distribution to the bare minimum required by contract, ensuring Brain Candy was dead on arrival at box offices.
"When the Stones are making Beggars Banquet or whatever they're doing, nobody is stepping in and saying, 'No, you can't do that, Brian Jones,'" says Craig Northey, frontman of the Canadian indie rock band Odds and composer of the film's score. "With a studio film, everyone's stepping in and saying, 'I need to put my mark on this, I need to make sure the millions being spent are spent wisely.'"
Appropriately enough, the unintentionally polarizing idea for Brain Candy grew from something else straight out of rock lore: a self-isolating retreat to the woods, where the troupe and their collaborators regrouped after the television series' end to brainstorm their ambitious next act.
"We took two weeks where we went up north together and we rented out these cottages in northern Ontario and we just hung out," says longtime Kids writer Norm Hiscock, the film's only non-castmate with a screenwriting credit. (Foley doesn't have a screenwriting credit, a snub for which the other members of troupe have since expressed regret; he didn't respond to a request for comment in time for publication.) "Everyone pitched ideas, and for a while anything was possible."
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