The Month In POP - August

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

[Poll #810937]
Continue in the comments if you run out of space!

Also, quote of the day from everyone's favourite wapper, Fiddy Cent:

"You wanna know something? I actually like Bush. In some ways, I'm the George W Bush of hip hop - nobody likes me, but I'm still gonna run it for the next four years."

Comments

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

i refer poptimists here http://www.djearworm.com/

get the Kelly Clarkson, Depeche Mode/Rex the Dog mp3

[(Anonymous)]

ta for link

Jeff W (logged out)

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

bang bang = NEW TO ME (despite already being on my itunes)

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

In general, I like Justin, but I have to say that SexyBack is still leaving me cold.

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

Sorry I can't give you anything that is actually NEW in August, because I do not keep up with the "trends" and the "young person's music" and the "new releases" in general (oh, except for a whole bunch of v. unpoptimist picks, indie/guitar music, i.e. Mountain Goats, Young Knives, Lambchop albums & other assorted FD).

But I am NEW personally to the JC Chasez song I listed. It is AMAZING! I am astounded by its counterintuitive musical progressions; its enunciation of a dual/duelling narrative personality; its hilarious (for a singer of this background) lack of success in its narrative, er, THRUST. It's also a nice contrast to R. Stevens' similarly titled poptimist-favourite song.

(Also am new to Cecil Taylor's Conquistador which is super mindbendingly good, but that would hardly be of interest to this community. Kthxbye.)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

New-to-you is all that is required! We just want to know what poptimists have discovered this month.

[giddyoldgoat.livejournal.com]

I can think of at least three poptimists who are ALWAYS interested in Cecil Taylor - one of whom only yesterday linked to their brilliant article on the hidden humour (as play + dare) that runs throughtout CT's life/work (I wld link again if I knew how to) - and another poptimist accompanied me to see CT the last time that he played in London (CT, that is - we had a box and everything!)

Conquistador is great, if slightly subdued, but I think I prefer his other Blue Note alb Unit Structures - a larger ensemble tackling some of CT's most mathematical shit

Surely being a Poptimist = always having an open mind (cf we never assume that Paris Hilton, Lester Bangs or Cecil Taylor is rub)

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

Yes, after I hit 'submit' I did recall seeing a recent mention of CT somewhere or other, so perhaps a little rash. But not really populist, eh? (Or is that a misunderstanding of 'poptimism'? Quite possibly, I imagine, but I hope it's an understandable misunderstanding.) I would be greatly keen to see CT in action. I saw Shipp and von Schlippenbach recently, who were both GREBT if I may say so, but I can only imagine what comparative wonders CT can conjure from the ivories.

As I have never before properly been exposed to Mr Taylor's work (just a short piece on that BYG Actuel compilation that T Moore/B Coley curated), I shall be pursuing more of his back catalogue anon.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I'm sure lord sukrat would welcome your thoughts on CT

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

I was the poptimist giddyoldgoat refers to - and I wrote about the gig on Freaky Trigger, too.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

Is Paris Hilton's 'Turn It Up' better than Frank's 'Turn It Up' I wonder? I can certainly hear the former performing the latter's song anyway. It is my favourite Xenomania track of 2006 (altho this may not be saying much, and 'Red Dress' the single don't count).

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I like the PH track for a very indie reason.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Which is what?! I thought you'd like it, but not it specifically from the Hilton album.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I'm going to post to FT about it I think.

Re: my answer

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

You can hear it on Myspace's rubbishy noisebox here:
http://www.myspace.com/emilieautumn

I have raved at length about it in my journal and virtually everywhere else anyone will give me a box to write things in so might as well do so here, also. She really is an extraordinary artist; classically trained violinist who now makes music that sounds basically like the Kate Bush soundtrack to some Doctor Who episode from 2030 where the Doctor gets stuck in the Victorian era with nothing but a huge load of electronic instruments, ie: fucking brilliant.

Re: My three-second memory/50 Cent

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Darn it, I need to start writing myself post-it notes of what I intend to say in comments so I can check before I hit 'post.'

I once expounded considerably on the similarities between 50 Cent and the Bush administration/Nu Labour since they all basically believe in enterprise capitalism more than anything else and he (Fiddy) is pretty much the... bugger, words have abandoned me due to dad calling dinner... archetype of that ideology and as such, they and he can regard each other with jealous eyes.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

I picked the new Basement Jaxx up above, but I'd like to give honourable mentions to the singles by Shanadoo, DMX and Pharrell and Kanye, and I have been greatly enjoying the latest albums by Kelis, Outkast, Lyfe Jennings and DMX.

Something new

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Since I picked an old, old record in the poll itself, can I mention here also the Various Production album, which I heard in full for first time last night? Dubstep meets Massive Attack (w/Topley-Bird on vox) meets The Wicker Man soundtrack (1973 version). Some of it is a bit bland, although the lyrics often undercut the smoothness of the music. But a lot of it is quite unlike anything I've heard before (alright, the sounds are familiar but this particular combination of them is unusual).

I must get the Burial album and the first Dubstep Allstars mix CD sometime too. I liked what I heard from these in HMV.