...on pop culture and art and etc, from a noted authority figure.
Expect Tulk to begin song-blogging shortly.
UPDATE: I've now actually listened to a certain amount of the music she's making under her own name. Seemed like it might be a good idea. Responding to it more straightforwardly than expected. Her other and/or earlier work may differ, but the songs on the "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" album, ar least, don't seem to have much to do with Tom Lehrer, that Merritt character, "Kurz Weil" or the Great American Songbook. Communication is quite direct, not especially distanced or self conscious. Echoes of an operatic/declamatory strain of pop music that could be said to include (letting the pedants know I'm speaking loosely) Bowie, Waits, early Springsteen and possibly even Meat Loaf. Meat Loaf! Virtuoso extended metaphors help to grease the skids for surprisingly raw emotional expression. No pinkies raised when you're pounding the keyboard this hard.
This, on the other hand, is fairly amazingly Lehrer-esque.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Sort of an ultimate statement...
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26 comments:
Reason 4,123,254 why "Filksinging" is lame.
Don't let Neil hear you say that.
She's great -- the teenaged thirty-something bohemian girl of many people's dreams.
If you're of this sort of thing, coming from a different sort of pose entirely, I highly recommend Stephin Merritt, who records under the name of The Magnetic Fields, and whose three album set entitled "69 Love Songs" hits this spot perfectly. Only, you know, funnier and more sophisticated. Less cute and gayer, though.... (Merritt plays a mean uke. I would guess that she heard this song..)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxyhCm_vTMc&feature=related
Not my dreams.
She's what I thought I wanted when I was more elitist. I have since returned to loving things like "The O.C." and "Twilight" and ceased wasting my time with people who "shockingly" put the f-bomb in their performing name.
De gustibus, as a very wise man once said -- Goes double when it comes to matters of, ahem, desire.
I think you've got the elitist part wrong though. The whole point is one of enthusiastic and somewhat silly romping -- the use of earlier avant garde tropes (long since aged well beyond avant status, of course) to have fun. (and not, I think, to express the kind of tiresome 'shock' that you rightly find boring.)
In that sense, what she's doing is less elitist, and more hand-made, than commercial efforts like "The O.C." (Although the adventures of a cute and game boho girl in the big city could be a dynamite sitcom. Call your agent.)
I'm with Tulk on this one. Sincere in her playfulness. Too robust for hipsterism.
As for Stephin Merritt -- to my ear the loop-like repetative tempo takes it out of the realm of sponstaneous melodic song-making and turns it into a self-conscious art object. But what do I know?
The fact that AFP has "Kurt Weil" printed on her piano seems a better indication of influence.
I don't find her to be sincere at all, but if that is what titillates you then so be it.
My whole point was that I have re-embraced the commercial and consumer while pretty much abandoning the intentionally alt. Compare this woman to Cossbysweater and her D&D song and you'll see what the difference between "professionalized hipsterism" and "sincere indie geekery" is IMHO.
I'm sorry. Anyone who writes a blog/song entitled "gaga, palmer, madonna" had better break the third wall with some humility or absurdist imagery.
Meanwhile, I need to get back to my literary opus Twain, Gaiman, Lindke, Shakespeare.
The Cossbysweater singer is wonderful... Time will tell of course, but I would almost be willing to be that the difference between professionalized hipsterism and sincere indie geekery in this case is about fifteen years.
I still believe that hipsterism is just a subset of geekery -- perhaps a little less lovable, but readers of comment threads on geek-heavy blogs are aware of unlovable geeks.
Don't think it's time-sensitive. "Hipster" oftens simply means "poseur," what Bogie would have called "phony." The pretnese of advanced insider knowledge and stylishness. Who would PRETEND to be a comic book geek in a smelly tee-shirt? The notion dismisses itself.
I was referring to the fact that the cute D&D singer looked to be about 18 or so, and was wondering whether she'd turn to the dark side of geekery later in life. Many do, making a stop at gothishness first.
You're being naive: lots of people pretend to be comic book geeks in smelly t-shirts. Hollywood is full of them, especially around Comicon time. Lots of cred there.
"Phony" never made sense to me. What do you call people who actually have advanced insider knowledge and stylishness? And how do you tell the difference?
I resist the notion that there are any people with advanced insider knowledge and stylishness who AREN'T phony. Certainly if they pursue those traits as such.
You might think that such lack an essential authenticity -- but there are many sincerely stylish and knowledgeable people, who enjoy being s.s.a.k., who are not at all 'phony' in any but the broadest meaning of the word. I'll bet I could find people within a hundred years of you right now, who think that Indian movie buffs who read French romans policiers and listen to Wagner are phonies.
Or, of course, as Ringo sang so many years ago: "I've got a chip on my shoulder bigger than my feet...."
Trying to figure out what or who you think you're defending, here. And why.
I agree that hipsterism is a subset of geekery. I definitely think you are on to something with that line of thought, as we have discussed on the phone.
My issue is with the "professional geek," a kind of subset of the culture that is profiting by developing a certain image. I think that subset is rife with frauds, people who have enough talent to succeed with a niche community -- even if it means adopting a fake persona. I think the whole Star Trek convention thing demonstrated there was as sizable amount of disposable income that could be exploited. There are certain members of the Star Trek cast who have made careers being the "displaced secondary character" while not actually producing anything genuinely entertaining. It's hard for my jaundiced eye to tell the genuine fan made good or industry star/geek from the fraud pro-fan, and I admit that it is a sore spot for me.
Some I believe aren't fraud fans? Geoff Johns, David Nett, Nathan Fillion, Michael Chabon, and the guys making the Mercury Men series on SyFy. I think all those people have demonstrated the kind of advocacy and sincerity that make me believe them.
Other than them? I get pretty skeptical and will want to base it on personal experience.
And BTW: It isn't "Kurt Weil" that's on AFP's piano, it's Kurzwiel, the make of the instrument.
I think you had it right at Kurt Weil.
I don't understand your implied disdain for (or dislike of) art song, which is what all these seem to be, however presented.
On a side note...
It's pretty clear that Amanda Palmer was used as the model for the Uthgardt Barbarian picture in the D&D Neverwinter sourcebook recently.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/downloads/galleries/neverwinter_art/img/11.jpg
For what it's worth.
Tulk: What's the difference between "song" and "art song"?
Christian: I think I need to be a subscriber to see the D&D image.
Not that we're into labels, man. But here's the always completely reliable Wikipedia:
Although categorizing a piece of vocal music as art song rather than as another type of song (such as a folk song, or an aria) can sometimes be difficult, most art songs are
settings of lyric poetry
not part of a staged work (such as an opera or a musical)
intended for performance as part of a recital or other relatively formal social occasion
Exceptions can be found to any of these rules.
Although piano accompaniment is usual, the singer may be accompanied by instrumental forces of any number, including a full orchestra. A guitar, a harp or a string quartet are some of the more common accompaniments. Songs may be written to be performed in a group to form a narrative or dramatic whole, comprising a song cycle.
A folk song can form the basis of an art song, but a composer must reinvent it with respect to one or more of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or sonority.
Pretty much what you said earlier, with emphasis on artificiality... Not folk music or folk or blues based, not rock, not show tunes, but cabaret/art songs. The Blue Angel costume is probably not a coincidence, I'd guess.
Most of her songs can be and are probably best performed solo voice and piano, performed during recitals (although she plays the piano herself and is not accompanied as she would have been 150 years ago), and not written as part of, say, a musical.
Even though it might sound like the Clash, it's not music for four guys with instruments. Her use of rock idioms doesn't seem particularly natural. All kind of like Magnetic Fields.
Very natural, to my ear. Not artificial, not arch. I think you're heating the form, somehow, rather than what she's actually doing.
You're partly right but only partly. Some of the numbers on the "Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under" live album, which I've been listening to today, sounds much more cabaret-ish, and her interactions with the audience include a lot of nightclub style patter. She wouldn't be anywhere near as interesting if that was all she was up to.
Give her an axe, a couple months at the gym, and about twenty pounds, and she makes a mean Uthgardt Barbarian. Christian's right. A great tribute.
http://dungeonsmaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/uthgardt-barbarian.jpg
By the way.... The list of specious, little-talented, self-promoting, and gimmick laden artists of a bad century for art is led by Chuck Close. A guy who knows what he's talking about when he says he doesn't need inspiration.
Good to know, thanks!
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