Topics

511

Stream of Consciousness / Member Stats 1/26/05

« on: January 25, 2005, 09:06:57 PM »

Formatting's gonna be dreadful -- go to "Memberlist" in the top right corner to see this for yourself -- but I'm already amused by how much we post.

 1       Send private message      ggould             San Francisco     19 Jan 2005     73      Visit poster's website
 2      Send private message     Alicat           The Emerald City    19 Jan 2005    19      
 3      Send private message     urth           San Franceesco    19 Jan 2005    37      
 4      Send private message     Rod                20 Jan 2005    26      
 5      Send private message     Gazoo     Send e-mail     New York Fuckin' City    21 Jan 2005    34     Visit poster's website
 6      Send private message     RGMike     Send e-mail     SF    21 Jan 2005    99      
 7      Send private message     Beej                21 Jan 2005    27      
 8      Send private message     mshray           Santa Clara by day Castro Valley by night    21 Jan 2005    31      
 9      Send private message     Rastermon           Corvallis, OR    21 Jan 2005    1     Visit poster's website
 10      Send private message     princessofcairo     Send e-mail     god's green earth    24 Jan 2005    52     Visit poster's website
 11      Send private message     airbrush           Houston    25 Jan 2005    4

512

Stream of Consciousness / Workplace Exchanges

« on: January 25, 2005, 07:02:21 AM »

(Joe and his cow orker Angel are in a discussion about scratch-off tickets and the places where people buy them; one such place has a large image of an elephant with trunk outstretched on one wall.)

Angel: In my country, Puerto Rico, when an elephant raises its tusk in the air, it's a good sign, it's a sign of prosperity.

Joe: So how many elephants are there in Puerto Rico?

513

Stream of Consciousness / Big News

« on: January 22, 2005, 08:55:38 AM »

My proposal has been accepted by the Experience Music Project: I'll be presenting it at the 2005 Pop Conference, being held in Seattle April 14 - 17.  Thrilling news, but this means I've got a lot of work do to in the coming months researching and polishing this mother.

As a reminder, here's what I pitched to them.  My ears are always open if you have any suggestions on how I can make this an interesting and educative and contemplation-inducing piece.  Thanks, everyone, for your encouragement!


MUSIC AS MASQUERADE: Poseurs, Playas, and Beyond
2005 Experience Music Project Pop Conference

Abstract: “Whoops, I Mean Girl: Toying With Sexual Identity in Song”
by Joseph McCombs
December 29, 2004

In early 2004, the Scottish rock quartet Franz Ferdinand burst into the American consciousness with their self-titled debut album.  Although “Take Me Out” was the hit single from the disc, it was “Michael,” a paean to a same-sex hookup on a sweaty dance floor, that grabbed the most attention.  “Michael”’s lustiness posed endless are-they-or-aren’t-they questioning in online chat forums discussing the straight band.  Which FF deftly handled: as Rob Sheffield aptly pointed out in a piece for the Village Voice, “It's usually hard for straight bands to identify gay without getting self-conscious or even self-congratulatory, acting gayer than thou, but Franz Ferdinand breeze through ‘Michael’ as if it's no sweat.”

A few months later, Eminem returned from what by his standards was a hiatus with “Just Lose It,” a sneering tossaway that was unremarkable save for his toying with his sexual identity: “Yeah, boy, shake that ass / Whoops, I mean girl / Girl girl girl.”  Such a coyness was not entirely unexpected from a man who’d acknowledged in a skit on a prior album that he was “rappin’ about homosexuals and Vicodin” -- but never had he, nor had any other rapper of note, ever called his own orientation to question, especially not on a Top 10 hit.  Many in the public wondered: was Eminem mastering the art of public deconstruction of a caricatural identity, or was he just a big ol’ ’mo with an incredible shrinking closet?

Meanwhile, the increasingly influential website Plugged In Online spent 2004 continuing its archly reactionary Christian reviews of popular CDs and movies.  Its assessments of queer identity and themes were hardly surprising: albums from the Indigo Girls and t.A.T.u. were sharply criticized for their “lesbian leanings.”  Most tellingly, though, was this comment made about Elton John’s 1995 album Made in England (the site, strangely, does not review Sir Elton’s more recent material): “Even the positive love songs are hard to enjoy knowing Elton John's own sexual preference.”  Where Eminem and Franz Ferdinand had both had fun with their own identities by taking on others in song, Plugged In Online suggests that an individual’s personal identity cannot be submerged in the context of an album.  What you are in life is what you are on record, they implictly argue.

My intent with this paper is to look at what happens when a musician’s sexual identity doesn’t match the sexual identity on the record.  Why is this kind of “role-playing” so much different from other instances of singing a song “in character”?  Does it still matter whether Franz Ferdinand, Eminem, or Elton John are gay or straight when they sing about love and sex?



About the presenter:

Joseph McCombs is a freelance music journalist, critic and trivioso based in New York City.  His work appeared this year in the Village Voice, the All Music Guide, and StarPolish.com.

514

Stream of Consciousness / Can I believe the magic of your size?

« on: January 21, 2005, 02:58:23 PM »

Who sings the backing vox on Carole King's Tapestry rendition of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?"  I thought I heard James Taylor on the bridge but I don't know who else is there.  Just heard it on DDT, after switching over from an AMAZING Capital Gold soul spectrum.

515

Stream of Consciousness / BOS = Gloria G, WOS = Steve M

« on: January 21, 2005, 10:23:04 AM »

No surprises there, I'm sure.

And now Dave makes up for skipping EWF yesterday.  A very '70s-centric week, ne?

P.S.  FWIW, I *far* prefer the disc.server.com mode of organization to this one.  This one's great for groups that have discrete and specific topics of conversation, but I find it a nuisance for general chattery: too hard to tell at a glance which threads have unread messages, and if you click a thread you have to scroll through the whole thread to get to what's unread.

516

Stream of Consciousness / BOS - "Just Like Me"

« on: January 21, 2005, 08:20:35 AM »

One of the best garage-rock singles ever.

517

Stream of Consciousness / Best Backing Vox of Set

« on: January 21, 2005, 08:15:55 AM »

The Vogues, "Five O' Clock World."  What an inspired arrangement.

518

Stream of Consciousness / I'm Down, but I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better When You're Gone

« on: January 21, 2005, 08:07:53 AM »

1965, I suppose?  I came in late.

Happy Mad Inspiration Day!  Although I'm too tired to be inspired right now.