Cosa Uno
I want to be upfront here: I don’t understand Lady Gaga. This morning I woke up to somebody outside my window singing along horribly with “Bad Romance,” which is, admittedly, the only song that I could hope to identify as a Lady Gaga song. Which is not to say that I haven’t heard others, but I found them so forgettable that they were gone from my memory as soon as they were done. And it’s not just the popularity itself that I don’t understand; it’s the speed of proliferation of said popularity. It’s like she has some native appeal to a gene in people that I just don’t have. I wonder if this gene is responsible for anything else. I’d hate to have an early death because my Lady Gaga gene expression didn’t result in appreciation of Lady Gaga, but rather in heart disease or ass cancer. I worry about these things. Anyway, this week she was made a creative director at Polaroid. For some reason. Apparently Polaroid doesn’t understand that the surest way to save their brand is to create a product that people want.
Cosa Dos
It’s Ricky Gervais’ New Wave band.
Cosa Tres
As requested by Mr. Lost in the Alley on Wednesday, here is another cover. Thank you, sir, may I have another?
Lady Gaga might be awful, but she strikes me as anything but forgettable. Based on her songs alone (forgetting her gimmicks), the three choruses in the hits with which I’m familiar were all instantly memorable—nay, memorized.
Whatever can be said about her quality (I dig her), she knows how to write choruses and structure her songs so to support them. She also has the good sense to title her songs with the most memorable phrases from her choruses. Bad Romance, Paparazzi, and Poker Face are all written with the sole goal of burning those phrases and associated meldodies into your head.
If you managed to hear those songs and forget how they went, congratulations. The first time I saw Lady Gaga, I realized I somehow already knew all her songs. And I had no idea how it happened.
Same thing, by the way, happened with Muse, who are a million times more awful than Lady Gaga. Saw them on SNL, and couldn’t figure out how I’d come to already know their songs. The mystery was solved the next day, when both songs were used as “bump” music on two separate NFL telecasts.
They will dominate the next Jock Jams compilation, I’m guessing.
I think Andrew WK has a lock on any new Jock Jams compilation.
I just checked out your cover page for the first time in a long while.
Bravo on Lyin’ Eyes. You know I love my Eagles.
I had to replace “Lyin’ Eyes” today because it had disappeared from the directory where I keep the music. I think I hated doing that one more than any of the others. You know how I hate the Eagles.
Nice. I also liked Carrot Flowers (prince or queen thereof or whatever it is).
I never hear “you” in the vocals so I’m guessing you’re manipulating them a bunch. How you do that and why? Sounds like you sing nicely enough anyway. Or are you like Mel Tillis: your singing voice is different than your t-a-lking voice.
I’m gonna let somebody else throw one at you but if the dilly dally too long I’m letting loose.
No, there’s not a lot of manipulation at all. There is doubling and reverb on a lot of them, but that’s about it. Perhaps I am like Mel Tillis.
Maybe it’s a psychological thing but your voice sounds uncannily like the originals, the next one I give you is going to be Billie Holiday or Björk.
Oh forgot to mention I checked out Lady Gaga a couple of times and I can’t remember a thing about it now. For what it’s worth. So you know, if you find any more connection with this and heart disease, T Pain, Sade, Friends or Hostess Snowballs let me know.