This video for “Heart Made of Sound” by SoftLightes is guaranteed to make you smile. From Very Short List:
The video, directed by Kris Moye (who knows a little something about rockers; his brother is in the popular Sydney band the Presets), is reminiscent of work by artists who make words out of things, most recently that of designer Stefan Sagmeister, and uses stop-motion photography and takes a clever and literal twist on the poppy song. The words appear as they are sung and are formed with materials that match their meaning: cloud from fluffy flour, been out of green beans, spring with Slinkys.
I’m catching up on my reading after being away for a week, and was happy to discover that Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) got some nice recognition by becoming the first woman to win the Shortlist Music Prize for The Greatest. I was confused when some reports called it an award for “emerging artists” while mentioning that one of the other contenders was Tom Waits, who’s been around for about a hundred and fifty years. The more precise explanation is that it’s for albums that have not attained gold status, but that doesn’t fit in a headline very well.
That in itself puzzled me. Hasn’t Grey’s Anatomy discovered her yet and caused her career to skyrocket? I guess she’ll have to wait her turn. Anyway, here’s a few songs while we wait.
She was an “amazing talent,” a young singer with a wonderful voice who wrote beautiful songs. But she was no beauty, plus flat-chested and overweight to boot.
Remembering the aspiring star, music executive Jody Gerson still feels terrible about thinking: “She’s never going to get signed, even though she’s fabulous.”
The article ends with the caveat that talented but less attractive women can find success on smaller labels, but this “hopeful” remark is tempered by that music exec’s final pointed question:
Where are the Patsy Clines of today? More often than not on smaller, underground labels, which put more of a premium on talent. And with the devolution of today’s music industry, Gerson says, small labels may be the best path to success for a woman who doesn’t look like a mold of a Barbie doll.
So how would Gerson advise the flat-chested, overweight, amazingly talented singer to chase her dream? Put out her own music and promote herself on the Web.
“As far as we’ve come as women,” Gerson asked, “where are we really?”
The double standard goes far beyond music marketers, of course. Ruben Studdard wins American Idol and he’s the “Velvet Teddy Bear.” Jordin Sparks wins American Idol and the National Action Against Obesity calls her fat on television.
But male or female, musicians are often judged on looks and style as much as talent, and have been since before The Buggles launched MTV. Seeing the vamps on parade any time you flip past a video channel, it’s easy to think that’s all there is.
Salon’s Audiofile recently launched a new feature that hopes to celebrate musical talent using a different yard stick. Alongside their free song download of the day, they’re now profiling music videos, and they make the same point that music exec Gerson does, that the pure talent is often in the crannies of the industry:
But because so many of the best videos are being made outside the margins of the mainstream — and certainly aren’t getting shown on MTV — it can be a little difficult to track down the good stuff.
Their first choice was “Ankle Injuries” from Fujiya & Miyagi. Animated using dice by director Wade Shotter, the video “features band members, gymnastics and exploding fireworks, trippily rendered in squares and dots,” as Salon says.
How can I watch that without a smile on my face? So even though that article is festering, and music videos tend to be proof of its message, there’s actually optimism here if you choose to look at it that way. And since I’m in a good mood today, I do. We might have to dig a little deeper, but there is room for talent to be celebrated over sex appeal, with indie musicians carving out their own niches and video directors who reach for interesting instead of titillating.
Alexandra Gill of the Globe and Mail reviewed the Vancouver Police concert, and I think she meant this as a compliment:
Sting, now 55, was divinely slithery – in a sexy Sanskrit serpent, Kundalini yoga kind of way – with his rippling biceps, piercing blue eyes and wiggling hips.
What’s that horribly blurry photo of, you ask? That’s The Police in front of “4,000 of (their) closest friends” (so said Sting) during last night’s fan club performance in Vancouver, before tonight’s launch of their reunion tour. Which, yes, I will also be at.
Nearly every time I told someone I was going to The Police concert, I had to explain, “you know, the band with Sting, not the cop concert.”
I’ve known since I was about 12 that I was a little in love with Sting (not that you can tell, but he’s on the left in that photo), but now I’m a little in love with Stewart Copeland too (you can tell he’s behind the drums). He’s goofy.
On her new album, Wire Waltz, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Megan Hickey (front woman of The Last Town Chorus) strips the Thin White Duke’s 1983 hit “Modern Love” bare, transforming a catchy pop tune into a sad, yearning country ballad. Where Bowie’s version was all manic energy, Hickey’s slowed-down cover finds a startling poignancy in timeworn lyrics.
VSL adds: “A great example of an underrated art: the cover version that allows you to look again at the familiar.” Here’s a couple more examples I’m loving right now:
