Joanna Made Me Cry

So I saw Joanna Newsom for the first time on the 22nd of March, 2010 at the 6th & I Synagogue in DC.  Discarding cliche spiritual references to the quality of the performance aside; it was the first concert I've ever cried at.

I don't think I've ever experienced someone, at a live show, who could so perfectly emote their music on stage without melodrama and just pure, genuine talent. I was in awe. And when she broke the mood with banter and when her harp string broke, it just cut the tension like a cool wave over my body, to bring me out of a dumb struck stratospheric-zone, and back to earth for a bit to enjoy her on a human level.

At the same time, she seems to have taken criticism to heart, often equating her previous work to cats, screeching vocal artistry akin to Yoko Ono, or women in pain.

An Old Favorite, but Oft Criticized Song

Seriously, she is now showing much more command of her voice and has created a smooth croon approach to this album, and approaches the singing with more tonality.  But in contrast, to me, it makes all her previous work seem purposeful in their expressions, despite their lack of mass appeal.  Her current voice and delivery in the album "Have One On Me" has much less of the folksy twang, youth and cracking, favoring that croon and purposeful intonation.  Her emotional impact is still the same, but at the same time, much more palatable to more people on first listen than her previous work.  "Have One On Me" takes into more consideration a polyphony between the harp/piano and voice, maintaining tonality vs. the previous and in my mind purposeful flourishes of atonality.  Hopefully this new release and tour will build her fanbase further, as people can ignore the whimsical vocal acrobatics and cracking and indulge in her luscious, genius and intense song writing.

As a point of comparison, "California" my favorite track on the new record:

Regardless of the criticisms of her body of work, her live performances apparenlty are always consistently beautiful.  If she can continue to give this much soul, on every performance...if I had the money and time...I would make every show she gives.  When I saw her, the performances of California, Emily, and '81 had me weeping with how beautiful they were.  Only thing I would have preferred is if the volume of the guitar amp was about a notch and half lower.

Also, I would have liked her to play my favorite song of hers:

Sawdust & Diamonds - The song she hooked me with

Haters gonna hate though...haters shouldn't listen to her music then, or make comments on youtube.

Short Form Proposal

So when examining how the blogosphere works, and getting feedback from my friends, I realize that what's key to moderately successful blogs is constant update.

It's been almost a year since my last update, before I wrote the piece about the Jonna Lee viral videos.  That's not really a good way to maintain a blog.

So here's what I propose, that I will post some short-form blog posts.  Hopefully the feedback will be encouraging, and these posts will invariably cure the writer's block that stops me from writing my long posts anyway.  That and there'll be updates that will show up...at least on Calm Canary's google reader ;)

So I leave you(myself) with this inspiration to keep at it. Afterall, I don't have to goto school anymore, so what excuse to I have not to fill up the blogosphere with my presence.

So need a remix of this!

Building a Mystery...The Beautiful Virus

So when the UK's guardian speaks, the internet listens:

http://www.mrlukeabbott.com/marketing/listening-without-prejudice/

And the beautiful series of videos purported by the mysterious iamamiwhoami has culminated to the latest and scotch-tape wrapped present of this:

b...starring Jonna Lee & the Black Cats

I don't believe this would have gotten any of the due and press it has recieved if the hype started in that seedy rumor that these videos are the responsibility of Christina Aguilera and her creative/advertising team.

However, further analysis and the buzz of the internet has shown, that nearly without a doubt in my mind, this is the work of Jenna Lee.

If the scandinavian aesthetic of the amazing video series wasn't enough to convince us that the sultry Aguilera had turned over a wonderful new leaf of sound...this ultimate reveal showing bandmates that are irrefutably, a bearded/hairier version of Jonna Lee's bandmates, along with her vintage synths/organs.

for comparison:

Also consider the evidence in my mind that an up-and-coming artist, who is scandinavian AND does of a cover of a Nizter Ebb song, it shows off that this artist is more in-tune with these glitchy and dare I say more industrial sounding textures than would the pop-sensation Christina Aguilera...unless, as I previous thought that Christina was collaborating with artists akin to when Bjork got angry and worked with and Mark Bell on Medulla (which is definitely one of my favorites). Or when Radiohead created Amnesiac...

A softer side of Nitzer: "Violent Playground"

I also invite you compare the series of movies and songs and sounds made by the iamamiwoami crew versus the previous work of Jonna Lee. In my opinion this older work is sort of thin and hollow. Her songwriting is fun, and uses some entendre, but it's not got the impact that really makes her stand out in a sea where Regina Spekter can move you with her breath, Kate Nash can color your visions cute and Karen O. can discard art-rock for a few months and win a grammy writing music base don children's whimsy! So when Jonna Lee previous-single worthy work sounds like this:

My High is cute...but not-infectious...like the viral vids...

...at least the comedown is easy.

Anyway, what this signals to me, is that someone can really spruce up their sound by taking a cue from Yeasayer (yes...I won't compare anything to how Radiohead's changed their sound).

Old-sound was good...but not as famous

Ah, now I see why the kids like Animal Collective...and we're the toast of Brooklyn!

So what have we learned? That Jonna Lee's got an amazing creative team. And learn to enjoy your electronic mouth as much as your acoustic. And...to build this hype before you make a huge US debut at it's most widely media-covered cutting edge music festival, SXSW (sorry CMJ).

http://www.jonnalee.com/

I suppose what I'm hoping for is that this movement is further refined, and not discarded, like the glitchy laptop pop of the early 2000s that came out after Radiohead released Kid A. They were pioneers! However, they weren't remembered in my mind by the majority of today's hipsters. Except for Animal Collective, which really found their own, and quite inspiring, powerful voice and have also lent their hands to creating this amazing sound of the new decade. Then again, they both released their albums in 2000, which kinda could lead to all sorts of chicken-egg arguments, and then we'll have to bring in Load records, Einsturzende Neubauten, Mum, Mille Plateaux and so on.

Look what I made with a laptop! Julian Fane is amazing!

I suppose it all boils down to...that I thought that somone with Christina Aguilera's amazing voice, was actually going to turn to a more heartfelt and experimental sound at the risk of her image and brand.  I suppose such thoughts are usually just whimsy and want, and don't really do anything real except fuel rumormills.