Deathspell O'Gaga

[antitype]

Turns out I somewhat uncharacteristically like Lady Gaga. Then again, perhaps not so uncharacteristically as I find that "Bad Romance" is an immensely catchy song as well as one with a video reminding me of one of my favorite film directors: Stanley Kubrick. Evidently the masks used in Eyes Wide Shut (which I love) were originally made by

Comments

[glazomaniac]

i find "bad romance" to be very catchy as well, and i don't mind her imitations, though she's kinda hit or miss in my book. compared to most of the other mainstream top 40 pop out there right now, she's a thin slice above.

[antitype]

Yeah, pretty much. I feel like she stands apart from most top 40 stuff for all the reasons I mentioned above, but then the whole "Fame Monster" persona she's developed seems to run contrary to her "dancin' in the club" lyrics. Some of the lyrics are more interesting than that ("he ate my heart" starts putting Cronenberg-esque images into my mind), of course, but I do remain somewhat skeptical. Once in a while I find something like this that gives me a feeling I like... I think it's just a vague form of escapism, though. I mean, she's such a slippery, unknowable character -- an ordinary girl morphed into virtual demigod celebrity enigma status. She no longer seems quite human. I wonder if all the Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera fans listening to Gaga notice or appreciate this in any way.

[antitype]

On that note, I'm hoping Basil will chime in. Wondering what he thinks.

Well, from a pop music perspective I would say:

[ghost_dinosaur]

If I were to make a hierarchy of the three you mentioned it would look like this:

Britney

Gaga

Christina

Or thereabouts.

Christina I have basically no interest in, other than occasionally enjoying her radio singles (not her new one though).

Britney, I believe, is undervalued because, well, she's Britney. Everyone remembers when she was 16 and Hit Me Baby One More Time came out and she was just another piece of the late '90s hit machine (not that I'm complaining, I love that era of pop music). But since her, probably, fourth album (whichever one has Toxic), she's been pretty involved in making a lot of music related directly to her life and the love/hate relationship she's developed with her fans and her fame, which is a lot more interesting to me than what Gaga is doing -- lyrically at least. Musically I prefer Britney because the music referentialism is less obvious and she mostly does pick pretty interesting producers to work with (or someone picks them, if not her

[animate]

Her persona some times gives me hope she'll slip and fall on a krautrock record or do something that's actually far fetched for her (musically) instead of just playing the contrarian with her clothes. I'm all for style over substance, but still not sure she has enough of either.

But I'm also for Angels of Light OVER Swans, so...

[antitype]

Well, there is the video for "Telephone" in which she appears clad in a leather jacket sporting Doom and G.I.S.M. patches, which she may have gotten from the director of her videos (apparently he's been seen in Venom shirts and such). Dunno if that means she's at all aware of more "far fetched" music, though I would imagine she is to some extent... I really would like to see her become even more slippery and enigmatic, and then extend that into her music. I don't mind the pop of it, but it seems like this persona of hers could seep into it in more provocative ways. I hope that happens, because if she reverts to a more typical pop starlet after this "Monster" metamorphosis I'll be disappointed and will probably lose interest at that point. We'll see.

I would've guessed you'd be into early Swans more than The Angels of Light, if anything. Or maybe stuff like Soundtracks for the Blind and Swans are Dead. I love all of it -- I'd even say they're my favorite band at this point. In any case, I'm quite curious as to whether the new

[animate]

As far as early stuff I have heard Cop, Young God, FIlth and maybe a little more. It's never really gotten stuck on me. Maybe relistening will help. I still don't think they pull off songs over 5 or 6 minutes, though. :/

Oh, and since I probably know the answer, are you playing Dragon Quest IX yet?

[antitype]

Well, to be fair I think one gets more enjoyment out of those earlier albums once you've worked out Children of God. Once that one clicks -- if you like that sort of thing, anyway -- it opens up your ears to the more unrelenting, monotonous bleakness of Filth et al. I think The Great Annihilator works as probably the best starting point to work backward from.

Actually, I don't even own a DS anymore and my laptop doesn't quite have the punch to emulate DQIX smoothly. I don't play video games like I used to, though Steam did recently have an excellent sale and I picked up some cool things like Hammerfight (seriously, check it out), Osmos, the Introversion collection, and so on. Torchlight is a neat little Diablo-style dungeon crawler. I've had the urge to replay all of the Half-Life games as well...

Some day when I get around to upgrading to a new desktop or whatever I'll catch up with some things I'd like to play.