Apologies for the delay in this week's post - I was a busy bee getting ready for the holidays and playing with friends. Now I'm off to make Little Dude a penguin for his Christmas pageant.
Hunting my Dress – Jesca Hoop
I was born in New York. Not the cool part, mind, the uncool suburbs of Long Island. Sure we had/have a strongish hardcore scene but it was/is hardly cutting edge. Still as an official New Yorker born and raised, I feel a personal duty to bash LA. It’s like it’s ingrained in our DNA – east coast=cool; west coast=yoga-swami-airy-fairy-crunchy-granola-shakra-BS. At least that’s how I’ve always seen it. My view is not always a popular view, but I would be lying if I pretended that I don’t bring this prejudice to any music from the West Coast. And the bands I like from out there, say Deathcab for instance, I like because of their take on the airy-fairyness and their willingness to lay all of that side bare. Bands like the Killers, though I love their music, make me laugh.; I just can’t take LA seriously as a rock haven as my view of it is far too softcore. And before you start ranting about the Doors, don’t even get me started on them.
Enter Jesca Hoop. First off who spells their name like that? Who? And then there’s the backstory. Mormon girl, leaves her tight-knit community to nanny for… wait for it… Tom Waitts’ kids (of course) and BOOM. Superstardom. And immediately I’m like, come on lady. Who are you kidding? Then there’s the sound itself – someone listened to a lot of Ani DiFranco and Sarah McLaughlin when she was growing up. And yes, that someone was Jesca Hoop if her sound is anything to go by.
Tom Waitts says that listening to her music is like swimming in a lake at night (I’m paraphrasing) and I guess that’s sort of evocative. And if you’re Tom Waitts, that’s an ok thing to say and he might be able to get away with that or maybe Michael Stipe, but otherwise, it’s just silly. Playing to type? Methinks so.
Are the songs ok? Annoyingly, yes. They are pretty and ethereal and there are moments where you think “Ok – I really want to hate this, but it’s kind of good.” Case in point “My Boo.” Who calls a song “My Boo” unless they’re Beyonce or Alicia Keys? Come. On. But it works. Curses. I guess if she swapped places with Regina Spektor and was all New Yorky, it would be easier to accept the music because it would be sort of ironic.
As it stands, it just bothers me.
Objectively, the music is lovely. If you like Ani DiFranco, Regina Spektor and Sarah McLaughlin, you’ll like this. And I do sort of like it. But it annoys me more than anything else so I’ll be loathe to listen to it. ***
iTunes Free download of the week – “No Time” by the Heavy
With flavours of old school rock and roll circa 1968 with Hendrix style guitars and growly Joe Cocker-ish vocals, it’s worth a listen. ***
iTunes Holiday Sampler – FREE THIS WEEK!
In my family, Christmas was the absolute best time of year. My mom made it so special for all of us with greenery everywhere, advent calendars, meeting up with our cousins to shop, going to see Santa at Macy’s. It all started on Thanksgiving with the Macy’s parade and then dinner with our huge wonderful family followed by our annual viewing of White Christmas. And then the season had officially begun.
The best bit of Christmas for me has always been the music. We stick mostly to the 40’s and 50’s hits: Bing, Sinatra, Perry Cuomo, Dean Martin, Rosemary Clooney all singing the wartime favourites to newer and newer generations. As we got older, it was A Very Special Christmas (1&2), BandAid and Mariah Carey singing “All I Want for Christmas.” The music was the common link across all my family and friends and you just knew that everyone was listening to the same stuff as they got ready to celebrate.
This week the geniuses at iTunes have been kind enough to provide a full Christmas album for free. Its success is variable. I could do without Rascal Flatts and with the Aretha version of “Angels We Have Heard on High” I expected to be inspired, but wasn’t, an unfortunate theme amongst Christmas albums. However Weezer doing “We Wish you a Merry Christmas” is good fun, especially when they start to sing about figgy pudding and the original song by Glasvegas is really lovely. And hell, what’s my montre? It’s free and free stuff is good! Merry Christmas! **1/2
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