'What's Up?' and the very worst songs ever

[sloopjohnc]

Christ, just heard something by St Vincent

She's on Jools Holland now. I only heard half a minute but I feel ill.

Yeah, St. Vincent strikes me as something I might have given some time to when much younger.

And then I thought, "I was pretty dumb back then."

[sloopjohnc]

Christ, just heard something by St Vincent

She's on Jools Holland now. I only heard half a minute but I feel ill.

However her relentless media campaign for the new album has got right on my knockers.

Me too. I heard her pandering on the New Yorker Radio Hour on NPR. She didn't help her case, from my point of view.

[Deebank]

I don't know. Maybe.

I've never seen them criticised here before

It's just a band that seem to get a lot of muso love. I don't know anything else they did, I just can't imagine how anyone could possibly defend it. It's empirically proven to be agonisingly annoying.

I bought a couple of albums back in the barren early 70s when, as Deebank suggested, they were Better Than Prog. In my defence, I always thought old Alex was appalling, with all that Brecht/Weill nonsense and overdramatisation, and in the press they were written up as edgier glam, largely because of Zal Cleminson, and they were the darlings, it seemed to me, of the OGWT, which was in colour, which helped them along.
Also in my defence i now pretty much agree with the Wiganite and can't bear to listen to the records any more.

Zal Cleminson used to scare the shit out of me when I was little. Then much later in my student days we used an old SAHB sleeve to skin up on and it always had us in fits - mainly due to the pic of the drummer.

[harvey k-tel]

This is just...weird

(if you don't have patience for this sort of thing just skip to 2:22)

[The Red Heifer]

I saw Kirin J Callinan as support for the massive Crowded House gigs on the steps of the Opera House. The missus didn't like him but I was convinced. He put on a great show.

[Milarepa]

This is just...weird

(if you don't have patience for this sort of thing just skip to 2:22)

Thanks for posting this! After looking into this guy, I'm fascinated. He takes every cliche of today's pop music - house/dance/fake country/soulless emoting/vocal histrionics - and turns it all up to 11. He's someone to watch, IMO. It's hard these days to put out something outrageous, offensive, exploitative and yet somehow grotesquely appealing. Sui generis.

[toomanyhatz]

I get the 'grotesquely' part, but where's the appeal? There's a long line of that kind of provocateur. Jim Morrison was reviled for showing his dick when he probably didn't, this guy's celebrated for it when he made sure everyone knew he did. So does he have a "Blue Sunday" in his repertoire?

[naughty boy]

i think you already know the answer to that...

[Minnie the Minx]

Dear friends and fellow music lovers - if you haven't experienced the joys of listening to ICEJJFISH yet, here you are ...



You're welcome.

That's a Shreds thing surely!

[Milarepa]

I get the 'grotesquely' part, but where's the appeal? There's a long line of that kind of provocateur. Jim Morrison was reviled for showing his dick when he probably didn't, this guy's celebrated for it when he made sure everyone knew he did. So does he have a "Blue Sunday" in his repertoire?

Any appeal or lack of it can be found only in our subjective reactions. But I can tell you why I find it interesting. First, he's really sharp about pulling together musical and cultural cliches. So we have here sort of a Brokeback Mountain sensitive cowboy backdrop in power ballad style, against a throbbing EDM beat, punctuated by A screaming cowboy in the sky (Jimmy Barnes of Cold Chisel) and tired American symbols like the crosses and white churches. Little sonic touches like the cheap echo on "big enough" climaxing in the meaningful moment of silence, then off to a rousing close by namechecking every friggin country on earth in a "We Are The World" global anthem. It's like an alien trying to make a video that's a sure-fire hit based on market research, and getting it horribly wrong.

He's an attention whore, no doubt about it, but he's working at a pretty high level of awareness, IMO. I would never compare him to Jim Morrison, but the thing is, I can't think of anyone doing what he's doing. Anybody that can shake things up and roll it out so cannily gets my attention.

Then again, it may be worthless, tasteless kitsch! I don't find it boring, and maybe that's enough for me.

[fange]

Dear friends and fellow music lovers - if you haven't experienced the joys of listening to ICEJJFISH yet, here you are ...



You're welcome.

That's a Shreds thing surely!

I did a quick check a while ago after my girls introduced me to the song, and there's a fair chance he (real name Daniel McLloyd) actually did sing like that on purpose. The details are quite interesting, in both a good and bad way; the backstory is a terrific spotlight on the many faces of social media.


https://www.sacurrent.com/sa-sound/arch ... loor-video

[Neige]

I get the 'grotesquely' part, but where's the appeal? There's a long line of that kind of provocateur. Jim Morrison was reviled for showing his dick when he probably didn't, this guy's celebrated for it when he made sure everyone knew he did. So does he have a "Blue Sunday" in his repertoire?

Any appeal or lack of it can be found only in our subjective reactions. But I can tell you why I find it interesting. First, he's really sharp about pulling together musical and cultural cliches. So we have here sort of a Brokeback Mountain sensitive cowboy backdrop in power ballad style, against a throbbing EDM beat, punctuated by A screaming cowboy in the sky (Jimmy Barnes of Cold Chisel) and tired American symbols like the crosses and white churches. Little sonic touches like the cheap echo on "big enough" climaxing in the meaningful moment of silence, then off to a rousing close by namechecking every friggin country on earth in a "We Are The World" global anthem. It's like an alien trying to make a video that's a sure-fire hit based on market research, and getting it horribly wrong.

He's an attention whore, no doubt about it, but he's working at a pretty high level of awareness, IMO. I would never compare him to Jim Morrison, but the thing is, I can't think of anyone doing what he's doing. Anybody that can shake things up and roll it out so cannily gets my attention.

Then again, it may be worthless, tasteless kitsch! I don't find it boring, and maybe that's enough for me.

Good analysis.

I'd still want to get paid to listen to it a second time.

[toomanyhatz]

I get the 'grotesquely' part, but where's the appeal? There's a long line of that kind of provocateur. Jim Morrison was reviled for showing his dick when he probably didn't, this guy's celebrated for it when he made sure everyone knew he did. So does he have a "Blue Sunday" in his repertoire?

Any appeal or lack of it can be found only in our subjective reactions. But I can tell you why I find it interesting. First, he's really sharp about pulling together musical and cultural cliches. So we have here sort of a Brokeback Mountain sensitive cowboy backdrop in power ballad style, against a throbbing EDM beat, punctuated by A screaming cowboy in the sky (Jimmy Barnes of Cold Chisel) and tired American symbols like the crosses and white churches. Little sonic touches like the cheap echo on "big enough" climaxing in the meaningful moment of silence, then off to a rousing close by namechecking every friggin country on earth in a "We Are The World" global anthem. It's like an alien trying to make a video that's a sure-fire hit based on market research, and getting it horribly wrong.

He's an attention whore, no doubt about it, but he's working at a pretty high level of awareness, IMO. I would never compare him to Jim Morrison, but the thing is, I can't think of anyone doing what he's doing. Anybody that can shake things up and roll it out so cannily gets my attention.

Then again, it may be worthless, tasteless kitsch! I don't find it boring, and maybe that's enough for me.

Good analysis.

I'd still want to get paid to listen to it a second time.

Well said.

I mean, I get what you're saying, but I think it's ultimately self-serving. If I found it more charming musically maybe I'd dig deeper.

[Neige]

I was curious though, and discovered a whole lot of recent videos by the guy, all similarly conceived.

[naughty boy]

I thought maybe time had been kind to it.

Not a bit.

[naughty boy]

I bet Darkness Fish likes it though

[Bent Fabric]

I'm strangely okay with that Heart song.

I may have to stumble over a lengthy list of caveats in order to say anything generous about it, but...here we are.

[harvey k-tel]

I'm strangely okay with that Heart song.

I may have to stumble over a lengthy list of caveats in order to say anything generous about it, but...here we are.

The song isn't as bad as the video.

[Bent Fabric]

I'm strangely okay with that Heart song.

I may have to stumble over a lengthy list of caveats in order to say anything generous about it, but...here we are.

The song isn't as bad as the video.

Even the screen grab was warning me not to go near it.

[Quaco]

It's not too bad. It's just basically supermarket muzak. There are so many greater villains out there.