Pop Premiership Week 12 RESULTS now with REVEALS

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

fugitivemotel brings the curtain down on the Pop Premiership - triumph and heartbreak lurk below...the cut.

"i really enjoyed listening to all of these and it was hard to rank them. there were a couple of tracks that i absolutely hated on first listen which grew on me and which i actually liked by the time i ranked them (track 11 for example!) and some tracks which i quite liked at first but couldn't stand after a few listens (like track 1). there was a lot of variety here, and a lot of stuff i would never normally hear, but i really enjoyed it and would actually listen to it as a compilation cd.

anyway, without further ado, here's my rankings:

01. Disco Inferno - "Technocolour": this seemed quite interesting at first but it doesn't really work, especially not for repeated listens. too many annoying rings and too much forced kookiness for my liking. 9th Place - LOSE - following Big zenith's controversial resignation, his dispirited squad can't get the win they need.

02. Powderfinger - "Like A Dog": i liked this. it sounds a bit like queens of the stone age mixed with our lady peace. nothing groundbreaking, but very listenable, and i'd probably find myself singing along after a few more listens. 3rd Place - WIN - inhibitorylinks seals title with confident win.

03. Peggy March - "Wind Up Doll": i enjoyed this. distinctive vocals, and the lyrics really appealed to me - this song seems like the opposite to "coin operated boy" by the dresden dolls. 5th Place - WIN - hauntedballroom's end of season form standing her in good stead for the Pop Open.

04. 2nd Gen - "Musicians Are Morons": i like this a lot. noisy, rocky guitars, industrial thuds and drums. reminds me of photek. definitely my favourite track. 1st Place - WIN - uncompromisingly direct play means bengraham finishes on a high.

05. Rubicks - "Midas": a bit repetitive, and the female reedy whiny vocals really put me off. very britpop. the backing is nice, but this is something i wouldn't really listen to any more; reminds me of lush and republica and kenickie. 8th Place - LOSE - relegated katstevens ends a season fans will want to forget.

06. Mummy The Peepshow - "Good Morning!": dreadful. annoying noises and occasional woofs. 10th Place - LOSE - shambolic performance sinks dubdobdee's play-off hopes.

07. The Weakerthans – “Our Retired Explorer (Dines With Michel Foucault In Paris, 1961)”: i like this. quite emo, in a dashboard meets death cab sort of way. the lyrics were a bit too twee for me though. 7th Place - LOSE - decorative play but too much fanny dangle costs braisedbywolves.

08. Philistines Jr – “The Impossible Dream Of The Submarine”: didn't really like this at first but it grew on me with each listen. the casio keyboard sounds like something i'd do whilst messing around at home, but it works really well with the spoken word stuff. 6th Place - DRAW - jel_bugle ends enigmatic season with a draw.

09. Wanda Jackson - "Let's Have A Party": one of the worst songs i have ever heard. sounds like a gremlin singing, over backing music so generic that you can probably order it from a catalogue. unlistenable. 11th Place - LOSE - tactical nightmare sinks xyzzzz_'s play-off and title dreams.

10. Legendary Jim Ruiz - "Arial": folky emo american rock. dreamy backing music. lovely stuff. 2nd Place - WIN - strange_powers claims play-off place with stylish victory.

11. Lydia Lunch - "Trick Baby": i didn't like this at all to begin with but it's just so silly that i couldn't help but want to listen to it after a while. sounds like it could be from a tarantino movie soundtrack. a fun way to end the mix. 4th Place - WIN - alexmacpherson rallies after poor start to seal play-off spot.

Results and reveals in a couple of hours.

Comments

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

haha i think there are EIGHT descriptions here which sorta kinda fit my entry! however from memory it was somewhere in the BIG LOSER'S BLOCK of 5-9 :(

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Ah well. I had nothing to lose anyway!

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

Mine could be 7 or it could be 10. The one about submarines.

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah! D'oh! Draw specialist!!

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

Feeling pretty chuffed here... might be in the play-offs after all, other results depending.

You'll Realize What A Wind-Up Doll Can Do

[koganbot]

(Forgive me if this is a duplicate post; livejournal is being recalcitrant today.)

Don't know any of these. Old songs generally better than new. There's actually a song I dislike, and there's a good balance, in that both my fave and least fave are sickly cute.

These'd have been my winners:
--TRACK THREE: Sickly sweet and sorrowful singer from the sad-voiced late '50s or early '60s; despite this basically being a (pre-rock 'n' roll) pop ballad, the voice wails in a teen tragedy way that only rock 'n' roll could do, so it is rock 'n' roll.
--TRACK FOUR: Flipper plays the Velvet Underground? This track isn't quite up to that description, but this is some great shaggy fuzz-embedded one-chord rock.
--TRACK NINE: I know who this is thanks to a pic coming along with the track. Most famous of the girl rockabillies (which is still not very famous). I hate to say that this sounds a thousand times more natural than modern music, since that's a cliché and anyway the rockabillies were actually very forceful and forced and self-consciously hip in their time, but nonetheless this sounds a thousand times more natural than modern music. The song's only OK, but the performance is ace.
--TRACK ONE: This starts like a good sharp rock song, the sort of thing Seger or the Stones once did, though with background hum, smashing glass, and distant shouts. Then it fuzzes into a mood piece without losing its drive. But the singer isn't quite there, so eventually it does lose its drive. This'd have been my favorite track with even a half-alive singer.
--TRACK TWO: This starts electro-fuzzy, then morphs into pop, then into metal. Is fascinating. Raised a notch for puzzling me. Jel? Good work, anyway.

My draw:
--TRACK FIVE: Good beats, wavering "odd" female voice, the sort that I generally hated until Marit Larsen started doing it. This isn't Larsen, unfortunately, but someone with her head up her ass; but it builds force, so even though the singer asks us not to try to save her (familiar theme) the beats and rockingness do save her.

And Now You Get To Play Your Motherfuckin' Self

[koganbot]

My losers:
--TRACK ELEVEN: Real interesting fucked-up neo soul, but it seems to live in a '90s room related to electronic dance, though I don't know why I say this, since everything about it is '70s soul funk. Anyway, singer comes on strong and keeps coming on so much that she eventually gets tiring.
--TRACK EIGHT: I like this despite myself. Nice dreaminess, and strangely I actually get interested in the (sampled, I assume) lecture on submarine designs. (In fact, like it more than the uncommittedly blank singing.)
--TRACK SEVEN: "In the right light you look like Shackleton." That line means more to the guy who sings it than it does to me; a Darnielle type finds love somewhat cold, apparently. Might this song be called "Antarctica"?
--TRACK TEN: Gentle Brazilian guitar, a fellow throwing words at his own mating dance; I don't hate this on principle, merely dislike it on principle, though I could be persuaded to like it if the singer wasn't so waveringly willfully passive.
--TRACK SIX: Really irritatingly cute voices sing girl quartets, get rejected by the glee club, but this doesn't diminish their cheer.

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

I am REALLY surprised to see #2 as a win for someone. VERY brave choice, I would have thought, and the only person in the league who would have known it, I wouldn't have picked to like it!

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

I refer you people to my comment towards the end of the discussion of last week's results (http://community.livejournal.com/poptimists/372371.html?thread=8159635#t8159635). Without having downloaded the tracks, I can't be certain, but I'd say that there's a good chance this week's winning track is mine. Which proves my original point that it would either come first or last.

If it is mine, I think my record is quite bizarre... 1st place on the opening day and final day of the season, but distinctly average in between! The Photek comparison is interesting... most of the Photek stuff I've heard has been very drum'n'bassy, whereas the track I submitted was very much industrial hardcore noise!

Lydia Fucking Lunch!

[koganbot]

Who'd have thunk it. Given that I only saw her when she was a bratty teenager, this is hilarious, her going on about a freeloader who needs to grow up. Is this a cover song, say something that Millie Jackson did first?

The Linguistic Objectification Of Will

[koganbot]

On the other hand, I should have recognized Peggy March from the very first syllable. (I remember John Waters saying in the notes to Hairspray that he'd included Peggy for shock effect!)

"I Will Follow Him" is rumored to be the linguistic objectification of will taken from an Italian march and recorded by a girl appropriately named Little Peggy March.
--Richard Meltzer, The Aesthetics Of Rock, p. 77

THE DEAD WILL EAT YOUR BRANES

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

Wanda Jackson

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Did she sing 'Funnel Of Love' too? I love her voice!

[http://users.livejournal.com/xyzzzz__/]

haha ah well :-(

If it had been me...

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

(as indicated above, I already knew The Philistines Jr)

These three are the clear winners (and March is head and shoulders above the other two):
1. Peggy March
2. Powderfinger
3. Wanda Jackson (the voice is borderline WFMU territory, yes, but then I like that sort of thing)

and these are OK but won't make my 'best of' mixes:
4. 2nd Gen (nicely constructed noisefest)
5. Rubicks

Lydia Lunch might scrape a draw.