Ke$ha Day 2

[koganbot]

I was with friends at Tokyo Joe's this evening, a quasi fast-food Japanese joint, and music was piped-in, adding noise to a place already full of crowd noise. Not sure what the purpose of the music is, since it's not loud enough to help create the ambience. Perhaps by adding more noise to the noise it provides cover for people who don't want the

Comments

[jauntyalan]

been listening to the album a lot, blah^3 has a BIT of bosh - there's the eurobeat beat-doubling thing in the middle

another ref in the mix for you, as lots of bits, (esp eg dinosaur) reminds me of Daphne and Celeste.

[koganbot]

Yes, reminiscent of D&C (whom she may not have heard), and L'Trimm and Salt-N-Pepa (whom she definitely has). Btw, thanks for posting comments on my threads. I'm way behind on getting around to thinking about all the stuff that people have been saying on my "What do philosophers do?" threads and several others, but if you don't hear back that doesn't mean that the comments aren't appreciated.

[skyecaptain]

Picking up on a few things I said either here or elsewhere, I've been distinguishing between "the heart of the party" and "reflection on the heart of the party," a kind of second-hand recalling of the party with some kind of undercutting edge. On Animal Ke$ha falls somewhere between these two poles, at her best getting right into the heart, where the nonsense syllables become content and stage trumps character, but most of the time there's something a little more off-kilter about it. On the times where it almost-not-quite connects I find myself just as captivated as I am when I play the more obvious party tracks (and there's an almost-not-quiteness even in "Blah Blah Blah," I think, but the song itself is massive enough to make this more irrelevant). Nowhere in any of this do I have sense of Ke$ha as a character, but maybe as ringleader or (shock) emcee. And in that sense I see her like a Tim Burton character -- specifically the mayor from Nightmare Before Christmas, who has only two faces (Cheshire cat grin carnival barker and

[chuckeddy]

Man, still not hearing this -- "Blah Blah Blah," I mean. I like the album fine. But to my ears, "Blah Blah Blah" really goes downhill after its amazingly visceral first 17 or 18 second (which I'd probably give a 10 to), and after that -- when the melody comes in, I guess -- it slips into averageness. Good averageness, but still averageness I'm having trouble caring about. Need to listen to the album more; honestly have yet to pick up on all the audaciously retardo lines everybody keeps raving about either, so obviously they're at least not jumping out of the background at me. Mainly, though, I guess I'm starting to realize that I might have no idea what people mean by "bosh" -- not clear to me, say, how this song is more HI-NRG Europop than, say, "Bad Romance" much less, I don't know, Aqua or Las Ketchup or Jordy or somebody. (Maybe they were too early to be bosh-worthy, or didn't get high enough on the charts? Though it is interesing Gaga and Ke$ha are Americans!) So basically, so far, I wish I was hearing more Scooter (and Dictators

[chuckeddy]

"17 or 18 seconds" plural I meant, obviously.

Also wondering why nobody has compared the album yet to Licensed To Ill (not that I'm saying it's necessarily comparable, but that one definitely reminded me of the Dictators in its day -- and you could dance fast to it, too.)

(And right, I know it was Metal Mike -- not you -- who made the Dictators comparison {See my reposting of it on Dave's Tumblr and on Jukebox.} I don't even know what you think of the Dictators, come to think of it, Frank! And Mike was talking about her lyrics, where you're talking about her music -- get that. Yet somehow you end up in a similar place.)

[skyecaptain]

Don't think that "Bad Romance" is any less indebted, but I think "bosh" has to be a little less...I think the word is "tasteful"?...in its execution. The three you mention after "Bad Romance" may just pre-date the concept, yeah, though I think Aqua comes closest. There's also a specific strain of bosh in which non-Europop songs are given a throbbing techno beat (the ones I think of most readily are Cascada, though to be honest I think in some ways their version of "Sk8er Boi" is less in your face than the original). The only direct sonic Scooter link that I find on Animal is "Take It Off." But there's something about Scooter's single-mindedness that I think Ke$ha has in a way Lady GaGa doesn't.

[chuckeddy]

See, I don't hear how Cascada are less tasteful than Gaga, at all. (Not sure I hear how Ke$ha is either, though apparently it's in the lyrics and the noise I haven't yet picked up on.)

Do get how Scotter is less tasteful than all of them, though.

Actually, I'd say the synths in "Hot And Cold" by Katy Perry sound pretty darn boshy, or at least Europoppy, too.

[chuckeddy]

yammer yammer yammer (cf. woolly bully, a-hip a-hop, womp bomp a loo bomp, dang digga dang d-dang d-dang diggy diggy)

Gotta say this -- which I'm probably taking out of context, since I haven't absorbed your entire spiel -- is perplexing me a little too, given that one thing that's been so obviously great about all the Gaga hits in the past year (which I've pointed out repeatedly) is their unabashed reliance on goofy repeated nonsense syllables. Of course, Gaga doing it doesn't negate Ke$ha doing it, but I'm not sure how Ke$ha is doing it better (maybe you think hers are more in your face? She does put them in the song title, after all.)

[chuckeddy]

And actually, personally, I'd say that, compared to Gaga or Sam the Sham or Little Richard or Sugarhill Gang or Kid Rock, Ke$sha's blah-blah-blah's feel considerably less in my face! They sound kind of bored -- and, uh, blah, when she could instead be using them to, say, propel the beat. (Though I do get the idea that, by her yammering, you might actually be referring to the rest of her words there.)

[koganbot]

GaGa's nonsense syllables always sound gentle and lyrical (though not lyric-al)!

But what was on my mind was that "blah blah blah" should be taken more as nonsense syllables than as belonging to whatever Ke$ha might think that she's saying in the lyrics (so I'm extracting "blah blah blah" from the idea that Ke$ha may be making a comment on partying [which she may well be doing; I haven't gotten that far in figuring her out; but blah blah blah as party enhancer supersedes any commentary that it may contain, is my point] - this was in reaction to Dave and Sabina's and Erika's focus yesterday, which is a fine focus, but isn't fundamental to what I was reacting to in "Blah Blah Blah").

[koganbot]

I'm not sure how Ke$ha is doing it better

I don't think you and I are quite having the same conversation. I mean, the first person I know of to love "Just Dance" was me. But for what it's worth I don't think GaGa is even trying to get in our face with her sound. In any event, that's not what I value in it. (My three favorites of hers are "Just Dance" and "Paparazzi" and that guest spot she did for Wale.) She and her collaborators are creating nice tunes and good grooves, and building up from there. I don't think "Blah Blah Blah" and "Wild Thing" are what she's aiming for.

[chuckeddy]

Flipper's "Sex Bomb" (walking sludge that lifts itself up until it's thundering across the landscape) married to the dance-insistence of "Into The Groove

Ha ha, isn't this what Sonic Youth (as "Ciccone Youth") were blatantly trying to do on their "Into The Groovey" 7-inch? And much as I hate to say it, from my current vantage point, they did it a lot better. (Though if I was actually hearing either "Sex Bomb" or "Into The Groove" in "Blah Blah Blah" I might think otherwise. Honestly, musically my favorite part of the song might actually be those repeated jolts of metal guitar noise that sound like they're being turntabled in in that aforementioned first 18 seconds. My ears tell me they disappear after that, but maybe they just become more subtle, and I'll notice them later. Though, the way people describe this song, subtlety should not be an issue.)