Music Dump - Nicki Minaj's Ramones Blurs Fiona Apple's Jet
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$hmyl by Shaun Prescott (100% SP): I often get annoyed reading (sometimes TheVine contributor) Shaun Prescott's writing. Not because I have different opinions when he touches upon things I listen to (though I often do have different opinions), but because his writing is excellent despite the fact that I disagree with it. Here he muses upon the existence of Gosford YouTube rapper $hmyl, portraying him as the Australian Tyler, The Creator. He makes an interesting argument about that kind of music, that it speaks to a certain rage at being cheated by life in an ultra-capitalist society. After all, if life is pretty much all about self-interested capitalism - and plenty of things about society rub it in our faces that this is the way it works in plenty of areas of life - it's no surprise that the likes of Tyler or $hmyl see sex and women in the same way that Rupert Murdoch sees a rival corporation; something to be exploited, that would exploit you the same way if they had your power.
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The Pleasure Seekers by Sam Leighty (Perfect Sound Forever): "Well, I may not live past 21, but whoa!, what a way to die" sung Suzi Quatro in 1965 as the underage lead singer of the all-girl garage rock band the Pleasure Seekers. Quatro went on to become very famous, but the story of the Pleasure Seekers was fascinating in its own right; one member of the band was busted by her dad horseplaying with Chuck Berry; another night Suzi's parents were awoken at 3am in the morning by members of Jefferson Airplane jamming loudly, and Suzi's dad stomped down to see why they were causing such a racket; Suzi's dad (a jazz musician) just joined in. Also, read this article and you'll discover which Twin Peaks actress is Suzi Quatro's niece!
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Becoming Johnny Ramone by Johnny Ramone (New York Magazine): It's a bit strange to see a new autobiography by Johnny Ramone come out this year, seeing as Ramone has been dead since 2004. But still, this excerpt from the autobiography is fascinating; the Ramones, in their leather jackets and jeans, are the epitome of down-to-Earth rockers, and yet here's Johnny Ramone talking how for a while, his favourite thing in life was wearing glitter, velvet suits and silver lame pants. And how, when he was in the Ramones, he thought the clientele at CBGBs were 'assholes' and how he just wanted to watch cable TV sports and have milk and cookies. No, seriously.
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A Singular Influence by Jon Caramanica (New York Times): Nicki Minaj, argues Caramanica, is the most influential female rapper of all time. Big call (especially for an article that doesn't even mention Missy Elliott)! But she's one of the more interesting characters to hang around the top of the charts (her single 'Starships' is currently #2 in Australia) and she's certainly influenced 'bawdy Harlem rapscallion' Azealia Banks, for example. What Caramanica argues is that she's redefined rap in such a way that it opens up new possibilities for women - because her personality is so big, because she's capable of acting out so many different roles, the likes of Azealia Banks or Kreayshawn can inhabit just one or two of her dizzy array of personas and still make a mark for themselves.
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Graham Coxon: 'It's Not 1975. It's A Confusing World.' by Miranda Sawyer (The Guardian): An excellent, subtle, portrait of once and future Blur guitarist, Graham Coxon on the release of his new album A+E. Sawyer paints him as a thoughtful artist hiding behind the childlike stripey-t-shirted caricature he likes to portray himself as, and she gets some good anecdotes out of him, including an amusing story about how one of his new songs is about going to a party, taking off the party music and putting on a Smiths record so he and his friend could dance in a 'faggy way'. And then getting beaten up.
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The Space Is The Place: Taylor Parkes On Abbey Road Studios by Taylor Parkes (The Quietus): There's not a single recording studio in the world more famous than Abbey Road (it does help to have the most famous band in the world ever name one of their best albums after the place!) And the fascinating thing about a place like Abbey Road - and something that's hard to understand now, in a world of autotune and dubstep - is that part of what made albums like Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon or, well, Abbey Road, so special was the sound of Abbey Road's rooms, the particular kinds of reverb and echo you'd get bouncing off the walls of the place. According to Parkes (and well, my ears), pretty much everything recorded at Abbey Road couldn't help but sound good, simply because the rooms sounded good.
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Jet: The Rise And The Fall Of The Nu-Rock Scene by Darren Levin (Mess+Noise): Mess+Noise had their fun with Jet on April Fool's Day, suggesting that Jet were releasing a greatest hits album called Monkey Off Our Back featuring a cover image of an ape urinating into its mouth (honestly, it would increase my respect for Jet by 200% if they actually did it...please, Jet?). But here Levin attempts to put Jet in context, talking about the scene they came from, the 'Bermuda triangle' that allegedly stretched between Melbourne venues like Cherry, Ding Dong and Pony, and explaining their rise, the people behind them and what happened to them in the aftermath of world fame.
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Mind Is Your Might: The Politics Of Oversharing by Lindsay Zoladz (Pitchfork): In 1996, Fiona Apple made a splash with a single that started, "I've been a bad bad girl", and numerous commentators have noticed the similarity between Apple and Lana Del Rey: "I heard you like the bad girls, honey, is that true?" Perhaps what draws people to Del Rey, and what definitely still draws people to Apple, is her confessions of poor decisions, of unhealthy impulses, of imperfection, of not being what they want. For Zolads, Apple's return to the stage at SXSW chimes in with a current cultural moment where "the thrill of voices dismissed as silly or excessive in the past [are] now deriving power from the ordinary details of their everyday lives."
Tim Byron
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