[Drjohnrock]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

to think that carrie brownstein is going to subvert shit from the inside is hilariously supernaive.

having said all that, i'll be happy to change my beliefs for a 1/2 million dollars right now.

I said perhaps, chuckles, and it would be a very slow rot if it did happen. But at least you're willing to admit you're a whore.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by Severian

Even at their most hip- the pinnacle of their career... Just before All Hands on the Bad One started turning up at Best Buy & Circuit City, have S-K ever received this much ass kissing from the press.

were you not paying attention in 1997 when Dig Me Out was the darling of the music press??? Also they had KillRockStars discs in BestBuy before 2000 and AHOTBO and really that had nothing to do with the band at all, you don't "sell out" to get distribution at big chains, what happened in the late 1990s is that all the major distribution companies (not to be confused with the major music labels) realized there was money to be made even in small volume so they began putting "indie" records on mainstream store shelves and it was a gamble that paid off. Bands shouldn't lose street cred for their moderate success changing the dynamics of the music industry, if anything quite the opposite.

I can't help but feel that this is a mistake. I have never seen Portlandia, and I've never heard the NPR show, and I've barely kept up with Corin Tucker Band, but I used to attend every S-K show I could.

The NPR blog was fantastic, the first seasons of Portlandia were hilarious, and the Corin Tucker Band is by far Corin's best side project too date, its very mature lyrics and developed sound.

I feel like they left at the perfect time. I can't see what's to be gained from this, but it does smell a bit like $ to me.

The new record I think isn't about money, because Carrie makes plenty of money and Janet and Corin have had ZERO problems putting together moderately successful bands and tours.. Really, I dare say this is an authentic reunion based on the fact that in the past 2-3 years all these ladies have had some really fun tours and they realized they missed the chemistry they had together. The realer question is not one of "selling out" or not but rather simply can a band that hasn't performed together in a decade rejuvenate that initial spark of chemistry to begin with? Honestly I'm hoping so..

Whatever. Punk isn't even a thing anymore.

What S-K "stood for" was always a bit more ambiguous than more extreme punk ethos.. Their perspective shifted over time but by the Woods they weren't a "political band" and neither was Wild Flag, Quasi, or the Corin Tucker Band, so really I think they just changed as musicians. Now, for example had they been more politically radical I think we could hold this taming and toning down against them as a matter of principle, but I'm not sure they ever abandoned any principles to begin with so we don't have much to judge here... Either the record is good or its not, either the tour is fun or its not, lets leave the judgements for there..

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Honestly I think the most controversial thing that happened to S-K was when Corin Tucker got married and was no longer a lesbian because a lot of her earlier music was very anti-male..

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Genteel Death

What did Sleater Kinney stand for anyway?

no idea, and i do not care, but their live shows were tons of fun.

i do remember in one of their shows corin making bad jokes about indie artists having to have a day job. but i was pretty drunk already so i can't quote.

maybe they stood for first world problems?

Originally Posted by Drjohnrock

I said perhaps, chuckles, and it would be a very slow rot if it did happen. But at least you're willing to admit you're a whore.

i'm not a whore! not yet anyway, and not for small sums… but show me the 1/2 million dollars i requested and we'll see if you're right ha ha ha.

[Bytor Peltor]

Why We Need Sleater Kinney Now More Than Ever

(Savage Clone doesn't agree, I don't have an opinion on them!)

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Bytor Peltor

Why We Need Sleater Kinney Now More Than Ever

(Savage Clone doesn't agree, I don't have an opinion on them!)

that's a pretty great read

double bonus for me because i never understood most of the lyrics (i'm pretty bad at english phonetics)

[Rob Instigator]

Originally Posted by evollove

Fair enough. Everyone's a whore, I suppose.

everyone needs money.

[Rob Instigator]

to me, a musician getting paid for their music to be used in ads and such things is not "selling out." It may cheapen them, cheapen the music, etc., but it is not selling out.

to me selling out is actively changing what you do to try and please the lowest common denominator, in order to then make more profit. making your songs the way you want then selling them to Honda or whatever is one thing, but actually crafting your music to try and appeal to a fanbase that never before gave a shit about you and will never give a shit about your previous music? sell out.

[evollove]

^ Yeah, "cheapened" might be a better word.

Originally Posted by Severian

Even at their most hip- the pinnacle of their career... Just before All Hands on the Bad One started turning up at Best Buy & Circuit City, have S-K ever received this much ass kissing from the press.

I can write a review for the new one already. "Bold statement," "Surely will rank as the best album of the year," "passion," "heart," "the same fire they had in their younger years"... you know the drill.

---

I take it this

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

double bonus for me because i never understood most of the lyrics (i'm pretty bad at english phonetics)

explains this?

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

no idea,

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by evollove

explains this?

it's an obscure fact but well documented in linguistics (i read a paper about it) that non-native speakers of a language will hear lyrics in said language as music before hearing them as words. the opposite happens to native speakers-- they will hear the word first and the music second.

so for my ear a lot of english lyrics will sound something like "choooni waaa, leeelo lloy, awa looolli wee waaa waaa" or something.

say, if you don't speak japanese, go listen to a song in japanese. that's what i hear most of the time in english--word sounds without meaning. like that poem by tears eliot.

to go further-- janacek famously took the cadences of the czech language and turned them into piano music. he said that if he could overhear the conversation he could understand what was being said by the cadences alone without having to understand the words themselves.

now i'm not saying i'm completely deaf-- i understand some singers more than others. it's just that i hear it less than you do. cat power is super-easy for me to understand for example. thruston more is half-easy. but do you remember that episode of the wire when prezbo can tell what people are saying because when he was 15 he spent 2 months with his ear to the speaker deciphering the lyrics of the intro of the rolling stones' 'brown sugar"? a lot of music is like that for me. e.g. in "words and guitar"-- those are the only words i get ha ha ha. the rest is growls and meows.

this is also the reason i think why i hate pavement-- while most pavement fans really love the supposedly clever lyrics, i can't understand them and i can only hear boring music, ha ha ha. (so boring!).

i hope that explains that (i know it was long but i find it to be a curious phenomenon).

forgot to say-- all of this happens because while grammar and vocabulary are easily acquired, phonetics are the hardest part of learning any language-- both hearing and pronounciation.

[Rob Instigator]

Oh that I could bend my tongue outwards
leave your lungs hurting
tucking my shirt in
pants I wear so well
cross your T's shirt smells
worse than your lying
caught my dad crying
loos like the wind
from the rough we get par
sleet city woman waiting to spar
I'm Drowning for your thirst
Drowning for your thirst
Drowning for your thirst
Drowning for your thirst
Getting off the candelabra
We call her Barbara
Breeding like larva
She rabble rousing
Dental surf combat
Get out those hard-hats
And sing us some skat
Blade gushers gush
Chained and perfumed
I don't need a minister to call me a groom
but I'm rattled by the rush
rattled by the rush


I love pavement specifically because their lyrics are personal babble!

(stay away from Terror Twilight. Boring)

I fucking love westing by musklet and sextant and slanted and enchanted and crooked rain crooked rain. the others are more or less good but not like these threee

btw, the EP's and singles were where pavement put their best shit which is why westing rules.

Watery Domestic and Perfect Sound Forever are GAWD

[!@#$%!]

^^ i can read that and it reads well but i can't hear it when they sing it-- see? that's exactly it.

[evollove]

^ Thanks. That was really interesting.

Is English punk especially impossible? That first Clash record makes almost no sense to me and I'm guessing Strummer's singing is just a blur of sounds to you.

On the other hand, I'm wondering if Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave are somewhat easy? Not sure why I picked them. They seem pretty articulate to me, I guess.
--

I should point out both SK singers are sometimes hard to understand for most people.

I think S-K's lyrics are important to appreciating them fully. But they also fucking rock, and that's very important as well. This Lallapalooza show from '06 is a fine example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOgmPG2n3OY

[Rob Instigator]

I have never understood 99% of Unsane's lyrics, yet I love them so.

[evollove]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

I have never understood 99% of Unsane's lyrics, yet I love them so.

I know the "meaning" of exactly one Pavement song. "Grounded" is vaguely "about" a doctor, or doctors in general.

BTW, "Trolls in the glen are consorting again" is the stupidest lyric ever.

[Rob Instigator]

I thought the stupuidest lyric ever was "oh alice, come back he's just a kitten... he's just a kitten"

[!@#$%!]

yes i loved s-k precisely because they fucking rocked.

true about cohen & cave. also 95% of lou reed. also all of jenny lewis or those babymen from belle and sebastian. with the clash: the only words i ever extracted from them were "shareef don't like it, rock the casbah" and "know your rights" and "loooondooon callliiiiing" (didn't know about what). i get a good chunk of the sex pistols but i remember reading/memorizing those from some insert and then they were such fun. johnny cash-- crystal clear. dylan--incomprehensible and therefore super-ugly (a high-pitched nasal torment). etc.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

to me selling out is actively changing what you do to try and please the lowest common denominator, in order to then make more profit. making your songs the way you want then selling them to Honda or whatever is one thing, but actually crafting your music to try and appeal to a fanbase that never before gave a shit about you and will never give a shit about your previous music? sell out.

yes. exactly yes. unless your music is politically motivated at the root-- e.g. crass, quilapayún, etc.

===

ETA: fun stuff: http://www.vice.com/read/crasss-penn...his-bands-name

[Rob Instigator]

I wonder what percentage opf people who love Metallica because of the Black album actually went and bought the previous albums? I would say it is like under 10%

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

to me, a musician getting paid for their music to be used in ads and such things is not "selling out." It may cheapen them, cheapen the music, etc., but it is not selling out.

to me selling out is actively changing what you do to try and please the lowest common denominator, in order to then make more profit.

But rob, using your art to advertise for products is the very definition of selling out. Art is art, not advertising. When you sell your song to advertising its no longer art, its a fucking corporate jingle yo.. its beyond just the $, you're nit promoting your art, you're promoting some bullshit corporate agenda.