dear friends let me know if you want albums! i was going to just upload them but mf is being twatty
Diego Garcia used to be the frontman of this band called Elefant, which I kind of listened to in 2004?? Maybe some of you did too? I say kind of because I only listened to this song, which I only just now realized is SUPER DUPER CREEPY, which like, duh Alexandra, it's called Lolita, but I'm sitting here like... I don't know. When I was 14/15 I was obsessed with mp3 blogs, and I used to make these mixes for my friends and my parents called "Indify me #whatever" (I think I got into the 20s before I stopped??? And sometimes I wish I still labeled my car mixes with 'Indify Me #82', not because I still care about 'indifying' anyone, but because then I'd have something identifying to write on them besides "I'm sick of all the music in my car"), and I'm SURE that song had to be on one of them and like, how would you be if your 14 year old daughter was like "DAD LISTEN TO MY NEW INDIFY ME!!!" and that song was on it. I guess my parents just had more to worry about in 2004? And it's not like I ever noticed...
So I was familiar, but not a fan, and then idk a year or two ago I was like "whatever I remember that band I'll try his solo album" and surprise, AMAZING. It's called Laura, and it essentially chronicles a breakup, but in this really beautiful, mature way that is more about love than bitterness. This is my favorite song from it.
Is it me or do solo projects done by frontmen usually end up sounding exactly like the band they fronted?? I'm suddenly weirdly obsessed with the SHARP CONTRAST between him by himself and Elefant. Elefant is so 2000s grunge, so dirty NYC boys, so uninteresting. What he does by himself is barely even reminiscent of that -- it's like he was freed from that particular anchor and allowed to make music that was about himself, about his ex-girlfriend, whom he loved. I know I said mature already but I think that the maturity of his work as Diego Garcia is striking when you compare it to his work with Elefant. And all his songs feature this really amazing, intricate, Spanish-style guitar work, and last night he proudly introduced his guitarist (who was amazing!) as "from Argentina" (Garcia himself is Argentinian). It's about him.
Anyway last night I went to see him at the Central Presbyterian Church (you guys I ALMOST CRIED when I realized because it was a church I could sit and listen to him and Boy, this qt German band I like a lot. APPARENTLY working Tuesday and then staying out till 2 for f(x) followed by a bunch of day shows Wednesday afternoon was almost a little more than I could handle??), and he played songs from his forthcoming album for the FIRST TIME EVER (he said he'd been busy in the studio and it was weird to have to look presentable for the first time in four months hahahaha but he was actually dressed pretty formally -- again with the being an adult now!).
This is a video I took (I am terrible at taking videos because I never want to look at the video while I'm taking it -- I want the video to preserve my experience but I don't want to not have an experience, if that makes sense? Anyway this post is full of such videos so I guess I am saying, watch them at your own risk):
also he told this story about how he'd practiced his "lalalala"s every morning (they're integral to one of the songs) and then told us that the moral of it was that he was diligent, "and then... she came back" and I JUST WANTED TO CRY, bc I'm not weirdly overinvested in his relationship with this Laura girl AT ALL (wikipedia says THEY HAVE A BABY NOW!!).
Anyway you know how there are just concert experiences that you TREASURE and will remember forever as the best?? He was absolutely one of mine, along with Marina & the Diamonds at SXSW '09 (it was super cold and we were in this tent with heaters??? And it was before she'd even put out "The Family Jewels" in full so it was literally just all those songs she put out in the very beginning, aka my very favorites, I Am Not A Robot, Mowgli's Road, and Obsessions, although I think the only reason I love that song so much is because of that show), SMTown with cambridge and goldenmelisande, the Boy Least Likely To which was my sister's first concert!!, Michelle Branch which was mine (of course!!), and Rooney/Tally Hall with Vivian and Summer.
also FALLULAH!!!! I don't know what to say about her except that sometimes I feel like if someone wanted me to describe my music taste I could just give them a Fallulah song. Also she has an amazing voice and she's electric on stage. I saw her twice this week, although I didn't see a complete set either time, because I was late to the first show (I thought it started at 1:30 but it was 1:15!) and the second time I had a show that started 30 minutes after hers that was about a 15 minute walk away. The video is from the first show, which was kind of awkwardly unattended (it was at mid-afternoon on a Wednesday and you couldn't like... hear the music outside so you literally had to be specifically taking time off to see going to see this random Danish girl so... yeah)... the second show was better audience-wise but not nearly as pretty, with the clouds and the purple dress. I didn't know she had a new album out until this week but she does and it's soooooooooooo good, just as good as the first one, and I loved the first one. This is a bit of her first US single:
I LOVE HER omg
I don't know what to say about f(x)!! I got to the venue at maybe 11?? So there were two bands before them. There were a lot of people who had pretty obviously come just for f(x), and a loooooot of Korean-Americans (I think maybe more than other kpop stuff I've been to -- I think because it was cheapish? and also probably partially because of the other bands there), but also a pretty good number of 30-40 yr old people with badges (so industry professionals/media), which is/was the point, I think, both of SXSW in general and of this showcase specifically. (But it all was the point -- the point was to have that exact mix of people, so they had people who were there to scream loudly every time f(x) did something and people to witness that screaming.) They put money into this! There's a pamphlet of official music happenings that literally everyone with a badge/wristband gets handed and on the back of it was an ad for "Kpop Night Out". Even the fact that it's called Kpop Night Out points to SM money -- the other acts were Korean but they were nooooooot Kpop. (I liked Jeong Cha Sik, did not like Galaxy Express.) I was closeish but not that close -- there were probably seven people in front of me. Of all the shows I went to it was BY FAR the hardest one to get close for -- I think the second hardest was prob Dessa, but with literally everything else I could get third row (and in a lot of cases closer!), and I'm not that pushy. There was a lot of stuff I didn't try to do the crowd jockey thing for, there were points this week where I was just so exhausted that I was like "I only kind of care about this band, I care more about sitting on this nice floor than I care about listening to them). Anyway f(x) was like -- I started trying to get up there TWO BANDS BEFORE THEM and never got anywhere. But I guess that's not shocking, the people who were front row must have gotten to the line outside at like 4pm and been standing there in front since the doors opened at 7:30pm and f(x) played at 1:30am. I am not capable of that. The crowd was solid for everyone but INSANE when f(x) came out -- everyone was waving cameras, which is part of why my already bad videos were SUPER bad, arms kept popping up in front of me.
Luna was SO PRETTY in person -- they all were??? (I kept getting distracted by how pretty Luna was and then by how pretty Sulli was and then I just gave up because they were all rly beautiful and more striking than they are in pictures, I think? Except Krystal looked like, exactly the same, she was not more striking, but I mean she's beautiful in pictures so I don't mean that in a bad way?? It's just weird how some people look different in person than they do in videos and photos, and some people really don't. I think I look super different -- and worse!! -- in pictures than I do in person).
It was fun and of course I'm happy I went but it was a little uninspiring. I know I shouldn't've expected more than their four most recent/recognizable singles -- that's what kpop bands DO, when they do those festival things back in Korea -- but remember when they went to Cannes and did an English version of Chocolate Love and Luna did that amazing cover of 'I'm Telling You I'm Not Going'?? And of course they didn't have four singles back then but. But!!!
Anyway I don't have a full video of any song but I have at least a piece of all of them -- I was having a lot of trouble with people waving cameras in front of me, and that's kind of obvious if you watch these. I am sure there are much better fancams out there if that's what you want but, these are mine and indicative of my f(x) experience. I already made some of you watch these on twitter... I was gonna post some of the different ones but MAN they're bad. Like this is bad but those are bad:
One of the funniest things about the show was that at the beginning some guy who worked for them came out and tried to make everyone step back from the stage???? And everyone was just like no. He tried over and over again but then finally I guess he went to the club staff, and they STOOD DOWN THERE FACING THE CROWD. You can see them!! They're so intimidating!!
Amber was obviously so happy to be there, and everyone else seemed pretty energetic and happy too, even though I think they flew in Monday night, had one day in Austin culminating in this 1:30am show, and then left again. This is my terrible video of their intro, which came after Nu Abo + Danger, before Hot Summer + Electric Shock:
It was "Nu ABO" > "Danger" > intro > "Hot Summer" > "Electric Shock". My dream four-song f(x) concert would have been "Mr. Boogie", "Topbillin' Love", "Love" (you know this is fantasyland because they've never done that one live) (and they've never done "Mr. Boogie" live with Amber right? FUCK THAT), and idk... either "La Cha Ta", "Nu ABO", or "Hot Summer". Why do I love Hot Summer so much :(
Anyway I thought the NYT Article about the show was pretty accurate, the end especially:
The set was all catchiness and choreography, with lots of angular elbow and shoulder action, like Janet Jackson above the waist; hip motion, not so much. ”Hot Summer” included one move like wiping sweat off the forehead. The group was impeccable, twitching and twirling and hitting its marks with smiles while an audience full of Korean girls squealed and took photos. South by Southwest or not, this was pop, and no one wanted idols brought down to earth.
I'm reading a Judy Garland biography right now (you're all surprised) and there's this quote about MGM in it that made me think of SM:
"he other big studios--Paramount, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and Universal--also had their own stars, talented technicians and collections of art, of course. But whatever they had, Metro had more.
There had never been, nor probably ever will be again, such a splendid moviemaking machine. Nothing was allowed to stand in its way. No problem was too large to take on, or too small to notice; an obsessive attention to detail was built into the system. At other studios, good was often good enough. At M-G-M, it could invariably be better. [a couple of paragraphs about perfectionism in a "this scene is flawed because a door squeaked" sense and test audiences]
The worst Metro movie usually had a sheen and polish that declared that no corner had been cut, no effort had been spared. But if it turned out few truly bad movies, Metro also turned out few truly great ones, particularly after Thalberg's death in 1936. Greatness thrives in an environment of independence and innovation, and both were viewed with profound suspicion at M-G-M. Talent was prized only as long as it worked within the tight framework of a team; anyone who attempted anything radically new was deemed a malcontent.
I've honestly always thought there was an arguable connection between the studio system of old Hollywood and the idol factory, but this made me stop and wonder WHY I AM SUCH A BRAND LOYALIST for the bland, moneyed, giants. I am!!! I love MGM and I love SM. What is it about me? You gotta wonder.
The Dessa show wasn't honestly one of my very favorites like the rest of these (which is fine, I've seen her twice before this and she hasn't put out new material since then) (it was really just that it was crowded, I was tired, and I almost fainted?? which I do sometimes, this is the third time it's happened and I wasn't as close to actually collapsing as I was those other two times). But when I was looking through the video I took I rly loved them because I got a lot of her talking (I wish I'd filmed the talking more than the songs more often in general! So mad at myself for not filming Diego Garcia saying the thing about "she came back" ugh), and she's just so GREAT and so SASSY I love her more than anything.
I love that I got her talking about the bands she liked, because she and Marit Larsen (who I'll talk about in a couple paragraphs) I had both seen at SXSW before and idk... I just love that some of these artists love SXSW?? Not all of them do but it's fine, but people like Dessa and Marit Larsen obviously LOVE IT and try to do it every year that they can, regardless of whether they're putting out new stuff or not (that's usually a big thing -- people come when they're about to put out a new album or just recently put out a new album). Anyway like I said I saw both of them at SXSW in 2010 and this time both of them were like "YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS AMAZING BAND!!!", like they love it as spectators as well as performers. It's definitely a thing for a specific kind of person. Anyway here's Alibi and then just a video of Dessa talking:
I was super annoyed by the dancing boys at the time, in retrospect they're kind of cute. It's kind of funny to me that she has rabid fanboys, she seems so female to me, and the more "female" a thing is the less likely I think it is to have fanboys?? But I mean, she's the only female member of a rap collective that has a bunch of dudes. So. I don't know. Maybe I'm crazy.
I'M IN LOVE W/ THIS BRITISH GIRL GROUP CALLED STOOSHE, DID YOU KNOW?? I think I mentioned them once on my infrequently updated music blog but never here. The rest of you have your One Directions and your Little Mixes and your Girls Alouds (actually I was rly into Girls Aloud too at one point) (well, into them, not REALLY into them), I have Stooshe. Anyway they played at the Perez Hilton party thing, WHICH WAS SUPER WEIRD TO BE AT because like, it was SXSW and it was also just NOT SXSW. Like it was totally officially part of the festival, but (this entry aside hahahaha I LIKE SPECIFICALLY SEEK OUT THE POPPIEST STUFF AT SXSW), SXSW is like, about almost any genre of music BUT pop. Like you can be pop -- like Fallulah or Marina & the Diamonds -- as long as you have a band backing you and not a backtrack, you know?? Anyway the Perez show wasn't like that?? It was a weird mix of people who were already at SXSW doing the SXSW thing and a bunch of sets everywhere (Foxes, Angel Haze, Lissie), and people who had flown in specifically to do this one Perez Hilton thing (Stooshe, Kerli, Wynter Gordon, and apparently Fall Out Boy closed but I was gone by that time bc I had other more important shows to be at?? ACTUALLY IT'S REALLY FUNNY, because he acted like they were this big secret and wrote "special guest" on his schedule and then tweeted a big reveal the day of the show BUT IT WAS LITERALLY IN MY PROGRAM THAT I GOT TUESDAY THAT THEY'D BE THERE) (the other thing he did that annoyed me was wrote on his website that the "only way to get guaranteed entry" was to buy a ticket on his website -- which was not true at all, at the actual show they were a lot nicer about badges and wristbands than the other people which is how it's supposed to be and how it HAS to be, since it was officially a SXSW showcase not a separate party, but it just irritated me that he sold tickets like that) (PEREZ HILTON IS DUMB) (but we have the same taste in music sort of, I rly hate Kerli and Wynter Gordon but he was like "you know what I like??? LADY RAPPERS AND GIRL GROUPS" and I was like "...yeah :(")
ANYWAY SOMEHOW THAT WAS ALL SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT HOW STOOSHE FLEW IN SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS PEREZ HILTON THING, and it was literally their first ever show in the US and even though Perez Hilton is dumb I LOVE THEM and I'm so happy I was there:
The sound on this is SUPER SHITTY because I was really near the speaker (and also because the bass was turned WAY RIDICULOUSLY HIGH on all the speakers there for some unknown reason, there were points in the DJ sets where I literally just wanted to gouge my ears out), but I also kind of love it because for some reason the backtrack didn't record very well, it's all bass and their voices, like my very own mr removed thing, completely by accident (it didn't sound like that when I was hearing it live!). SUPER COOL.
The chorus of Kiss Chase:
I really love pop music you guys :(
Honestly you guys if you're not aware of how much I love Marit Larsen (once of M2M fame, omg she had a blondeish girl with her this time and it was SO WEIRD, like, she's been a brunette forever and I'm so used to it, but I'm not used to her being the more brunette of two girls if that makes sense??) you prob don't know me, but now I've said it and you know. She only played one show, and I didn't think I was gonna get to go because I almost had to go to a dinner party on Saturday, but it ended up not happening and I'm SO GLAD, because I JUST LOVE SEEING HER SO MUCH. She was Vivian + I's favorite SXSW show when we went two years ago, we wanted to see her a second time that week but then we were too lazy from all the SXSWing. SHE'S JUST DIVINE, U KNOW??? And even though I loooooooove seeing new stuff there's just something about seeing someone whose songs you all know by heart?? Idk I was a little drunk when I went to see her but I just sat there and EYEHEARTING AS HARD AS I POSSIBLY COULD it was the best. She was so cute, she kept joking about her previous SXSWs, and how this was by far the best venue the festival had ever given her (another church!), and telling these stories about the time she was next to a strip club and she could hear the uhn-ta uhn-ta uhn-ta music, and another time she was upstairs from like, a metal band, and trying to play her soft acoustic girl stuff. She also talked about how Joni Mitchell got her big break by writing a song about songs playing on the radio, and so she tried to work the word "radio" into a song and ended up with her biggest hit, this beautiful little song:
she kind of fucks up at :54 it's adorable :(
I'm really mad at myself because I TOTALLY could have gone up and met her afterwards and gotten a picture with her, but I wasn't brave enough. SOMEDAY I'M GOING TO SEE HER AGAIN AND TAKE MY SISTER WITH ME, because she'd make both of us.
So I was familiar, but not a fan, and then idk a year or two ago I was like "whatever I remember that band I'll try his solo album" and surprise, AMAZING. It's called Laura, and it essentially chronicles a breakup, but in this really beautiful, mature way that is more about love than bitterness. This is my favorite song from it.
Is it me or do solo projects done by frontmen usually end up sounding exactly like the band they fronted?? I'm suddenly weirdly obsessed with the SHARP CONTRAST between him by himself and Elefant. Elefant is so 2000s grunge, so dirty NYC boys, so uninteresting. What he does by himself is barely even reminiscent of that -- it's like he was freed from that particular anchor and allowed to make music that was about himself, about his ex-girlfriend, whom he loved. I know I said mature already but I think that the maturity of his work as Diego Garcia is striking when you compare it to his work with Elefant. And all his songs feature this really amazing, intricate, Spanish-style guitar work, and last night he proudly introduced his guitarist (who was amazing!) as "from Argentina" (Garcia himself is Argentinian). It's about him.
Anyway last night I went to see him at the Central Presbyterian Church (you guys I ALMOST CRIED when I realized because it was a church I could sit and listen to him and Boy, this qt German band I like a lot. APPARENTLY working Tuesday and then staying out till 2 for f(x) followed by a bunch of day shows Wednesday afternoon was almost a little more than I could handle??), and he played songs from his forthcoming album for the FIRST TIME EVER (he said he'd been busy in the studio and it was weird to have to look presentable for the first time in four months hahahaha but he was actually dressed pretty formally -- again with the being an adult now!).
This is a video I took (I am terrible at taking videos because I never want to look at the video while I'm taking it -- I want the video to preserve my experience but I don't want to not have an experience, if that makes sense? Anyway this post is full of such videos so I guess I am saying, watch them at your own risk):
Click to viewalso he told this story about how he'd practiced his "lalalala"s every morning (they're integral to one of the songs) and then told us that the moral of it was that he was diligent, "and then... she came back" and I JUST WANTED TO CRY, bc I'm not weirdly overinvested in his relationship with this Laura girl AT ALL (wikipedia says THEY HAVE A BABY NOW!!).
Anyway you know how there are just concert experiences that you TREASURE and will remember forever as the best?? He was absolutely one of mine, along with Marina & the Diamonds at SXSW '09 (it was super cold and we were in this tent with heaters??? And it was before she'd even put out "The Family Jewels" in full so it was literally just all those songs she put out in the very beginning, aka my very favorites, I Am Not A Robot, Mowgli's Road, and Obsessions, although I think the only reason I love that song so much is because of that show), SMTown with cambridge and goldenmelisande, the Boy Least Likely To which was my sister's first concert!!, Michelle Branch which was mine (of course!!), and Rooney/Tally Hall with Vivian and Summer.
also FALLULAH!!!! I don't know what to say about her except that sometimes I feel like if someone wanted me to describe my music taste I could just give them a Fallulah song. Also she has an amazing voice and she's electric on stage. I saw her twice this week, although I didn't see a complete set either time, because I was late to the first show (I thought it started at 1:30 but it was 1:15!) and the second time I had a show that started 30 minutes after hers that was about a 15 minute walk away. The video is from the first show, which was kind of awkwardly unattended (it was at mid-afternoon on a Wednesday and you couldn't like... hear the music outside so you literally had to be specifically taking time off to see going to see this random Danish girl so... yeah)... the second show was better audience-wise but not nearly as pretty, with the clouds and the purple dress. I didn't know she had a new album out until this week but she does and it's soooooooooooo good, just as good as the first one, and I loved the first one. This is a bit of her first US single:
I LOVE HER omg
I don't know what to say about f(x)!! I got to the venue at maybe 11?? So there were two bands before them. There were a lot of people who had pretty obviously come just for f(x), and a loooooot of Korean-Americans (I think maybe more than other kpop stuff I've been to -- I think because it was cheapish? and also probably partially because of the other bands there), but also a pretty good number of 30-40 yr old people with badges (so industry professionals/media), which is/was the point, I think, both of SXSW in general and of this showcase specifically. (But it all was the point -- the point was to have that exact mix of people, so they had people who were there to scream loudly every time f(x) did something and people to witness that screaming.) They put money into this! There's a pamphlet of official music happenings that literally everyone with a badge/wristband gets handed and on the back of it was an ad for "Kpop Night Out". Even the fact that it's called Kpop Night Out points to SM money -- the other acts were Korean but they were nooooooot Kpop. (I liked Jeong Cha Sik, did not like Galaxy Express.) I was closeish but not that close -- there were probably seven people in front of me. Of all the shows I went to it was BY FAR the hardest one to get close for -- I think the second hardest was prob Dessa, but with literally everything else I could get third row (and in a lot of cases closer!), and I'm not that pushy. There was a lot of stuff I didn't try to do the crowd jockey thing for, there were points this week where I was just so exhausted that I was like "I only kind of care about this band, I care more about sitting on this nice floor than I care about listening to them). Anyway f(x) was like -- I started trying to get up there TWO BANDS BEFORE THEM and never got anywhere. But I guess that's not shocking, the people who were front row must have gotten to the line outside at like 4pm and been standing there in front since the doors opened at 7:30pm and f(x) played at 1:30am. I am not capable of that. The crowd was solid for everyone but INSANE when f(x) came out -- everyone was waving cameras, which is part of why my already bad videos were SUPER bad, arms kept popping up in front of me.
Luna was SO PRETTY in person -- they all were??? (I kept getting distracted by how pretty Luna was and then by how pretty Sulli was and then I just gave up because they were all rly beautiful and more striking than they are in pictures, I think? Except Krystal looked like, exactly the same, she was not more striking, but I mean she's beautiful in pictures so I don't mean that in a bad way?? It's just weird how some people look different in person than they do in videos and photos, and some people really don't. I think I look super different -- and worse!! -- in pictures than I do in person).
It was fun and of course I'm happy I went but it was a little uninspiring. I know I shouldn't've expected more than their four most recent/recognizable singles -- that's what kpop bands DO, when they do those festival things back in Korea -- but remember when they went to Cannes and did an English version of Chocolate Love and Luna did that amazing cover of 'I'm Telling You I'm Not Going'?? And of course they didn't have four singles back then but. But!!!
Anyway I don't have a full video of any song but I have at least a piece of all of them -- I was having a lot of trouble with people waving cameras in front of me, and that's kind of obvious if you watch these. I am sure there are much better fancams out there if that's what you want but, these are mine and indicative of my f(x) experience. I already made some of you watch these on twitter... I was gonna post some of the different ones but MAN they're bad. Like this is bad but those are bad:
One of the funniest things about the show was that at the beginning some guy who worked for them came out and tried to make everyone step back from the stage???? And everyone was just like no. He tried over and over again but then finally I guess he went to the club staff, and they STOOD DOWN THERE FACING THE CROWD. You can see them!! They're so intimidating!!
Amber was obviously so happy to be there, and everyone else seemed pretty energetic and happy too, even though I think they flew in Monday night, had one day in Austin culminating in this 1:30am show, and then left again. This is my terrible video of their intro, which came after Nu Abo + Danger, before Hot Summer + Electric Shock:
It was "Nu ABO" > "Danger" > intro > "Hot Summer" > "Electric Shock". My dream four-song f(x) concert would have been "Mr. Boogie", "Topbillin' Love", "Love" (you know this is fantasyland because they've never done that one live) (and they've never done "Mr. Boogie" live with Amber right? FUCK THAT), and idk... either "La Cha Ta", "Nu ABO", or "Hot Summer". Why do I love Hot Summer so much :(
Anyway I thought the NYT Article about the show was pretty accurate, the end especially:
The set was all catchiness and choreography, with lots of angular elbow and shoulder action, like Janet Jackson above the waist; hip motion, not so much. ”Hot Summer” included one move like wiping sweat off the forehead. The group was impeccable, twitching and twirling and hitting its marks with smiles while an audience full of Korean girls squealed and took photos. South by Southwest or not, this was pop, and no one wanted idols brought down to earth.
I'm reading a Judy Garland biography right now (you're all surprised) and there's this quote about MGM in it that made me think of SM:
"he other big studios--Paramount, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and Universal--also had their own stars, talented technicians and collections of art, of course. But whatever they had, Metro had more.
There had never been, nor probably ever will be again, such a splendid moviemaking machine. Nothing was allowed to stand in its way. No problem was too large to take on, or too small to notice; an obsessive attention to detail was built into the system. At other studios, good was often good enough. At M-G-M, it could invariably be better. [a couple of paragraphs about perfectionism in a "this scene is flawed because a door squeaked" sense and test audiences]
The worst Metro movie usually had a sheen and polish that declared that no corner had been cut, no effort had been spared. But if it turned out few truly bad movies, Metro also turned out few truly great ones, particularly after Thalberg's death in 1936. Greatness thrives in an environment of independence and innovation, and both were viewed with profound suspicion at M-G-M. Talent was prized only as long as it worked within the tight framework of a team; anyone who attempted anything radically new was deemed a malcontent.
I've honestly always thought there was an arguable connection between the studio system of old Hollywood and the idol factory, but this made me stop and wonder WHY I AM SUCH A BRAND LOYALIST for the bland, moneyed, giants. I am!!! I love MGM and I love SM. What is it about me? You gotta wonder.
The Dessa show wasn't honestly one of my very favorites like the rest of these (which is fine, I've seen her twice before this and she hasn't put out new material since then) (it was really just that it was crowded, I was tired, and I almost fainted?? which I do sometimes, this is the third time it's happened and I wasn't as close to actually collapsing as I was those other two times). But when I was looking through the video I took I rly loved them because I got a lot of her talking (I wish I'd filmed the talking more than the songs more often in general! So mad at myself for not filming Diego Garcia saying the thing about "she came back" ugh), and she's just so GREAT and so SASSY I love her more than anything.
I love that I got her talking about the bands she liked, because she and Marit Larsen (who I'll talk about in a couple paragraphs) I had both seen at SXSW before and idk... I just love that some of these artists love SXSW?? Not all of them do but it's fine, but people like Dessa and Marit Larsen obviously LOVE IT and try to do it every year that they can, regardless of whether they're putting out new stuff or not (that's usually a big thing -- people come when they're about to put out a new album or just recently put out a new album). Anyway like I said I saw both of them at SXSW in 2010 and this time both of them were like "YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS AMAZING BAND!!!", like they love it as spectators as well as performers. It's definitely a thing for a specific kind of person. Anyway here's Alibi and then just a video of Dessa talking:
I was super annoyed by the dancing boys at the time, in retrospect they're kind of cute. It's kind of funny to me that she has rabid fanboys, she seems so female to me, and the more "female" a thing is the less likely I think it is to have fanboys?? But I mean, she's the only female member of a rap collective that has a bunch of dudes. So. I don't know. Maybe I'm crazy.
I'M IN LOVE W/ THIS BRITISH GIRL GROUP CALLED STOOSHE, DID YOU KNOW?? I think I mentioned them once on my infrequently updated music blog but never here. The rest of you have your One Directions and your Little Mixes and your Girls Alouds (actually I was rly into Girls Aloud too at one point) (well, into them, not REALLY into them), I have Stooshe. Anyway they played at the Perez Hilton party thing, WHICH WAS SUPER WEIRD TO BE AT because like, it was SXSW and it was also just NOT SXSW. Like it was totally officially part of the festival, but (this entry aside hahahaha I LIKE SPECIFICALLY SEEK OUT THE POPPIEST STUFF AT SXSW), SXSW is like, about almost any genre of music BUT pop. Like you can be pop -- like Fallulah or Marina & the Diamonds -- as long as you have a band backing you and not a backtrack, you know?? Anyway the Perez show wasn't like that?? It was a weird mix of people who were already at SXSW doing the SXSW thing and a bunch of sets everywhere (Foxes, Angel Haze, Lissie), and people who had flown in specifically to do this one Perez Hilton thing (Stooshe, Kerli, Wynter Gordon, and apparently Fall Out Boy closed but I was gone by that time bc I had other more important shows to be at?? ACTUALLY IT'S REALLY FUNNY, because he acted like they were this big secret and wrote "special guest" on his schedule and then tweeted a big reveal the day of the show BUT IT WAS LITERALLY IN MY PROGRAM THAT I GOT TUESDAY THAT THEY'D BE THERE) (the other thing he did that annoyed me was wrote on his website that the "only way to get guaranteed entry" was to buy a ticket on his website -- which was not true at all, at the actual show they were a lot nicer about badges and wristbands than the other people which is how it's supposed to be and how it HAS to be, since it was officially a SXSW showcase not a separate party, but it just irritated me that he sold tickets like that) (PEREZ HILTON IS DUMB) (but we have the same taste in music sort of, I rly hate Kerli and Wynter Gordon but he was like "you know what I like??? LADY RAPPERS AND GIRL GROUPS" and I was like "...yeah :(")
ANYWAY SOMEHOW THAT WAS ALL SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT HOW STOOSHE FLEW IN SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS PEREZ HILTON THING, and it was literally their first ever show in the US and even though Perez Hilton is dumb I LOVE THEM and I'm so happy I was there:
The sound on this is SUPER SHITTY because I was really near the speaker (and also because the bass was turned WAY RIDICULOUSLY HIGH on all the speakers there for some unknown reason, there were points in the DJ sets where I literally just wanted to gouge my ears out), but I also kind of love it because for some reason the backtrack didn't record very well, it's all bass and their voices, like my very own mr removed thing, completely by accident (it didn't sound like that when I was hearing it live!). SUPER COOL.
The chorus of Kiss Chase:
I really love pop music you guys :(
Honestly you guys if you're not aware of how much I love Marit Larsen (once of M2M fame, omg she had a blondeish girl with her this time and it was SO WEIRD, like, she's been a brunette forever and I'm so used to it, but I'm not used to her being the more brunette of two girls if that makes sense??) you prob don't know me, but now I've said it and you know. She only played one show, and I didn't think I was gonna get to go because I almost had to go to a dinner party on Saturday, but it ended up not happening and I'm SO GLAD, because I JUST LOVE SEEING HER SO MUCH. She was Vivian + I's favorite SXSW show when we went two years ago, we wanted to see her a second time that week but then we were too lazy from all the SXSWing. SHE'S JUST DIVINE, U KNOW??? And even though I loooooooove seeing new stuff there's just something about seeing someone whose songs you all know by heart?? Idk I was a little drunk when I went to see her but I just sat there and EYEHEARTING AS HARD AS I POSSIBLY COULD it was the best. She was so cute, she kept joking about her previous SXSWs, and how this was by far the best venue the festival had ever given her (another church!), and telling these stories about the time she was next to a strip club and she could hear the uhn-ta uhn-ta uhn-ta music, and another time she was upstairs from like, a metal band, and trying to play her soft acoustic girl stuff. She also talked about how Joni Mitchell got her big break by writing a song about songs playing on the radio, and so she tried to work the word "radio" into a song and ended up with her biggest hit, this beautiful little song:
she kind of fucks up at :54 it's adorable :(
I'm really mad at myself because I TOTALLY could have gone up and met her afterwards and gotten a picture with her, but I wasn't brave enough. SOMEDAY I'M GOING TO SEE HER AGAIN AND TAKE MY SISTER WITH ME, because she'd make both of us.