slang

I don't know this artist as well as I should, but could this be real? It's the best cover of this song I've ever heard. The voice sounds similar to Sky's (maybe even highly similar, as I say, I don't know her as well as I should). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SewiAPc089s

Whether Lana knows Chelsea Wolfe would be really interesting to know. I suspect she does, as Barry tweeted this when Lana and he were still tight: https://twitter.com/NightmareBjo/status/397191416087977984 On a more general topic. A "Hate EP"? Really? How am I supposed to interpret that wrt Lana? It's either clever marketing or a heartfelt statement, although I'm unclear on who or what the object of hate is. The song Riverside would appear to be a reverential song about Lana (Barrie posted the lyrics at his facebook last Aug 20). The song also seems about their sharing of life goals. It wouldn't surprise me if he wanted to get a little emotional distance from that song and not release the CD right away. I'm also wondering if the two "Chivalry" songs (one on the tracklist for his CD; one for the upcoming EP) are the same song (ep has a longer title).

I do believe the French have already compared LDR to Chris Isaak with some admiration. What I find amazing about this newer comment is this: If Chris Isaak was heavily criticized as an anti-feminist menace, then Kim Gordon's comment could make sense. However, if Chris Isaak was never so criticized, then her remark is amazingly anti-feminist in the sense that it suggests males can do anti-feminist things with impunity that females can't. BTW, what I think she's referring to is CI's tendency to obsess or submit to a lover in some of his songs (e.g. songs like "Livin for you Lover", "Wicked Game"). Finally, I get the impression Kim is digging herself into a deeper hole (and that LDR shouldn't reply for that reason).

"I would argue that the uncomfortable feelings she elicits are simply the by-product of watching a woman wanting and taking like a man." -- Liz Phair http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/02/04/liz-phair-on-why-lana-del-rey-scares-rocks-boys-club/ I might be taking Liz's comment a bit out of context, but I still think it could apply here. If LDR engages in "free love" or "open relationships" to some extent (which maybe she does), so what? Who are you to judge?

Well, Joni Mitchell would be the example I would most consider a comparison benchmark to LDR's potential. JM migrated in style quite a bit, especially during the first half of her career going from folk singer (clouds, blue) to pop (court and spark), eperimental (hissing of summer lawns), mellow but thoroughly modern jazz (hegira), classic jazz (Mingus, a collabo with Charles Mingus, his last project, in fact), progressive/neo-romantic (don juan's reckless daughter), and socially informed/pissed off (dog eat dog). Obviously, Joni has superior guitar chops and arguably a more literary and socially-responsible sense of lyrics. She also painted and often composed her own awesome album cover art. IMO, what LDR has going for her is a better and more diverse sense of melody. This is combined with more powerful computer-aided composing tools than were available to Joni. I'll assume their vocal talents are (were) equal but for different reasons (i.e., they have different strengths). LDR is perhaps also a better meta-composer in the sense of bringing out the best in her producers, which is why I think her producers uniformly love her. As you point out, it's both the prolificness and diversity that really sets LDR apart, so she does herself a disservice by not having Sirens and the AKA album in print (released) so that people can better appreciate this. At least if these were out there, the discontinuity between BTD and UV would have seemed more expected. Then there's all the unreleased work (5+ or so hours, that I know of) that is different from both the two aborted albums and her released work. The mind boggles.

This article seems to cite *significant* modifications to the initial quote about Lana Del Rey. It also seems to be saying the context for Lana Del Rey quote in Kim's autobiography was in her saying LDR was some kind of logical outgrowth from Madonna's take on feminism: http://diffuser.fm/kim-gordon-lana-del-rey-memoir/ This article seems to be doing damage control on behalf of Kim: http://www.vogue.com/11368171/kim-gordon-interview-girl-in-a-band-memoir/ Of course, misogyny accusations and ignorance accusations (about the importance of specific artists and their specific work) cuts both ways. I guess my final feelings can be summed up in a joke: Did you hear the one about the Ride youtube comment that got lost and found its way into Kim Gordon's autobiography? No wait a minute; it's not a joke; it actually happened. The quote modifications take a bit of the bite out of the joke, though.

LDR's quite clearly an outsider and non-conformist. She therefore draws a lot of fire simply because *successful* people like that inevitably do. Regardless of Kim Gordon's position in music history, she should have stayed focused on her life (it's her memoir!) and not be so dismissive and reductive of LDR. Why focus on Lana Del Rey (or Courtney Love) at all in teaser extracts? It's weird AF and makes me wonder what the larger context of the quote is going to be. Is it going to be some kind of random I-don't-like-this comment or is she going to talk about Taylor and Beyonce too, and provide some kind of critical analysis of popular music?

Artist community: "Beck is a purer artist" Kanye (hypothetical): "Art from a hive collective is still art. Resistance is futile." I bought Morning Phase and I'm glad Beck won because he might get a sales boost, and I want his type of music more encouraged in popular music. That could also be the reasoning process behind the voting decision. The Grammys also self-corrects when they get a chance, so while they may have given Beck Grammys for best performances in various categories (in the late 90s), they never really recognized him for the revolutionary he turned out to be. Kanye could make decent points about Grammy snobbery, if he wanted to. He could state disappointment that alternative, rap, or urban were not announced or performed and perhaps not fixate on Beyonce so much (e.g., Tenacious D getting best metal performance, why doesn't he care about that? LOL). Did anybody else feel uncomfortable about the huge emphasis on domestic violence combined with the fact UV (or LDR) wasn't nominated for anything? I also wished they would have had a musical personality give the talk-from-my-life speech after President Obama. Several possibilities jump to mind.

Just another opinion but Barrie always seems to be going through some kind of shit as part of his grunge/emo aesthetic. However, this particular tweet seems a sly parodying of LDR, whose been known to say stuff like that, such as: "What else is there to say after BTD?", "I'm retiring", "I wish I were dead already". If I were LDR I would think it pretty sweet that Barrie still thinks about her. But on a different topic, does anybody know if Barrie's instagram of Sky Ferreira (Jan 12, '15) is stock footage or a real photo he took? I haven't been able to find this image anywhere, and she looks mighty utraviolentish to me. http://instagram.com/p/xxtDyvRdQr

Sorry to derail the thread further, but I thought this specific post needed more of a response. I don't think you can ask, "what does this or that *specific* excerpt mean", without considering the overall meaning of the song. Once that's done, the excerpt can either fit or not. I, for one, don't find this too difficult. Her songs are pretty literal as you imply (with the exception of the sarcastic ones like National Anthem). Therefore, it's perplexing to many of us why you think aspects of her live performance or footnotes to her life given at a concert are needed to fix what is ultimately a *subjective* interpretation anyway. She even sings about this a little in "Brooklyn Baby". So ... This Is What Makes Us Girls" A highly sympathetic bimbo anthem. She both identifies with them (because of her physical nature and shared experiences) and paints a picture of their tragic nature: "We all look for heaven and we put our love first Somethin' that we'd die for, it's our curse" I said in another post somewhere that the lyrics in this song (and in National Anthem) seem about as good as Dylan's. "Video Games" http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/8726-the-top-100-tracks-of-2011/9/ I like what these guys say, which is different from LDR's (stated) intention, though the Quietus article @@RiverPhoenix cites has her being consistent with what they say. I think she said that she intended to portray a happier, simpler time with the song, to hammer the point that the same song can have different meanings to different people. Actually, I think I can hold this belief without her holding it. "Off To The Races" or a whirlwind romance. The lyrics are literal but they exist for her to sing brilliantly at rap-like speeds. There has to be enough words and description to do this, and it's not all just physical description, but characters and feelings, and some consider it a pastiche of Nabokov, too. All in all an unambitious song (ultrasarcasm, in case you missed it). "Body Electric" It wouldn't surprise me if the initial lyrics are there to include Elvis, Marilyn, and Jesus in a video (holding back John Wayne as a surprise). However, all three are also relevant to the overall theme of the song as I see it. The song reminds me of Making Out (her country-like song about a defiant, charismatic, nymphomaniac), only this one is very dark, so here it's like the hedonism is a kind of "possession" and a religious conflict follows from that. There is also a fair amount of fatalism (the only thing that's going to "stay young" is the photographs, the only thing that still remains is the stench on clothes, so are these all just memories in her head from a more aged time?). So my rebuttal is basically this: if I can make these interpretations of her songs, why can't you? Or are you just testing us? Criticize her all you like about not being the best live performer, but she is an honest performer.

It's a very relative thing just how good the Ultraviolence video is (e.g., compared to Lorde's Tennis Court video, I'd say UV is "Gone with the Wind"). While my initial thoughts about it were "oh man, this isn't going to go over well", since then I've watched the video most of any from the UV era. It's very enjoyable. The video is like a blog entry from an artist that doesn't blog/tweet her own thoughts that often. The act of having her boyfriend (admittedly a well-known fashion photographer) film it on her phone is kind of like that. It was also possibly done in defiance of the label, which didn't seem to want to be associated with it *initially* ("Vice is running shit"), but after 2 million views at Noisey (with no copyright notice at the end), it goes to LanaDelReyVevo (and ends with a copyright Polydor notice). Finally, the speculation has been made (twitter 1/6/15 @DelReyLane) that the theme of the video is related to the next album Honeymoon, but what kind of honeymoon can there be if the groom doesn't show up to the wedding?

Lana's dress is a fine and interesting historical/cultural allusion, and a public instance (one of the few I know of), of her stanning specifically for Marilyn Monroe. Her recent instagram where she blows kisses and photoshops the dress to be gold is an interesting reiteration of this and also an effective FU to the fashion police, imo.

Critics who put her into the worst-dressed list and compare her to the little mermaid and Lisa Marie Presley *without* mentioning the vintage Hollywood connection (and the Marilyn Monroe connection), look pretty bad (or like idiots), imo. So I wonder if that was one of her intended effects.

I must confess it's not my favorite book, and I read it simply to try to understand LDR better. It's not overly long and well-written descriptively, but I did have to re-read earlier portions of it to understand just exactly how later portions of it revealed themselves as they did (so in one technical sense, it was not that well written for me). As for why LDR likes it (aside from admiring the author's descriptive abilities), I can guess it has something to do with the moral ambiguity of it. Humbert is not strictly a devil, and Lolita (Delores) is not strictly an angel. That combined with the fact that the first-person narration makes it a highly personal experience for the reader. It would be nice to know when LDR first started liking the book (I'm guessing at "boarding school") and more of the "conceptual" why she likes it (e.g., as might be understood in Lanalysis). I don't see LDR as too overwhelmingly influenced by Nabokov, either in the majority of her songs (or her lifestyle choices), but she shares some love of themes and some desire to extend his aesthetic. For instance, her earlier songs (and maybe Ride) share an endless-Americana-roadtrip theme that the book has. Off to the Races uses some quotes and perhaps imagery from the book to construct a *non-Lolita-like* whirlwind romance scenario, but her song Lolita has very little to do with the character Lolita, imo. Also Go Go Dancer strikes me as a great Nabokovian style application (morally ambiguous, multiple 1st person perspectives, great visual and character descriptions) to a different topic. This article gives a good overview of the novel's long time appeal. http://www.npr.org/2006/07/07/5536855/why-lolita-remains-shocking-and-a-favorite

Here's a Dan Heath interview on Big Eyes (no mention of Honeymoon, unfortunately): This has been on youtube a couple of days. First learned about it on a @GoldDerby tweet that was retweeted by @lanaDReyOnline 1/7/15 I wonder if it relates to this: http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/5687-early-news-of-lanas-next-album-honeymoon/?p=226594

I remember seeing a video on youtube claiming this (with a speeded up dicwb), but you shouldn't automatically believe everything you see on youtube.

The UV era, to this point, doesn't seem under-done or unfulfilled, or even forgotten to me. I mean, the album recently got a boost on Billboard 200, probably from Big Eyes, where it charts at 78 (BTD at 103). The three UV videos made original statements relative to music videos in general and relative to her own past work. Finally, a UV-dominant tour still seems likely. Still... "I’m afraid this album will be forgotten. I’m always afraid good things will be forgotten, burried. Musically, I’m still looking for something different, with majestic choruses, beautiful orchestrations, a type of 50s vibe with a bit of soft grunge." This would have been a great place to bring up AKA Lizzy Grant, May Jailer, and other unreleased. She does have a tendency to forget about good things, imo.

National Public Radio, I think, has always been supportive, so it's not surprising she made their list of top picks. LDR is also mentioned in the context of being the anti-Taylor-Swift, who is also on his list of 9 picks. http://knprnews.org/post/ken-tuckers-top-9-albums-2014-plus-book

All of the stuff LDR's been accused of glamorizing (e.g. abusive relationships, and I guess with this video, rape) has been swarming in the US media lately as major news. It's eclipsed a bit by civil rights (e.g., police brutality), but it's being discussed. It's just not specifically attached to LDR as the other stuff @@Viva cites. Discussion seems to be coming more from personal experience (e.g., Lady Gaga just reported her own rape experience; as did Kesha before her). However, it is still necessary to consider what the negative effects of rape depiction in art is as this person does. http://www.xojane.com/issues/lana-del-rey-rape-video Maybe it's not "60 minutes", but tumblrs and blogs often do work effectively as discussion venues.

With all the weird references to the AKA period in the interview, including saying it was "the most enriching time as an artist", it strikes me doubly weird that no reference to a possible AKA re-release (including why there won't ever be one) is made. On a different topic: I think KJazz, is this: https://www.facebook.com/JAZZandBLUES You can get a stream of it in itunes by view menu --> more (submenu) -->internet radio (choice)-->jazz (tab) --> then search for 88.1 if you don't have "internet radio" already as a "view" menu choice I think she means it's the only thing she ever listens to on her phone. Obviously she listens to other things, otherwise it would be impossible for her to know when people were ripping off her swag.

She's mentioned Steve Mertens in 3 interviews (including this one, although it's Chuck that does the mention), so it's hard for me *not* to believe she isn't trying to collaborate again with him again, which would be fine as he's a talented guy. He does animation for music videos, but he's also in Bass Race (isn't he? This is a man/woman duo who write pretty decent songs (e.g. 11 dollar days). I'm never really sure if he is a part of Bass Race or not, because he sort of tweets about them as if they're an independent personae). Steve also has earlier songs that are interesting.

The frustration continues with AKA bashing ... and her ambivalence. So the key question for me is whether LDR is aware of the fact that the article has her "discarding" AKA in one sentence, "trashing" it in another. And yet following those references we get this: “For me, there really wasn’t reinvention. That is more of other people’s reinterpretation. I feel so much continuity between all my music and all the videos.” Which is a natural lead in to ask her why so much of her earlier stuff is commercially unreleased. for me this was an interesting reference: "...erotic dancer with a double-teardrop tattoo" This was first done in YAB video. So the reference is not *just* a Tropico in-character reference. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teardrop_tattoo "The teardrop tattoo or tear tattoo is a symbolic tattoo that is placed underneath the eye. The tattoo can have several meanings, including signifying the number of years spent in prison, the number of times they were raped while incarcerated,[1] the loss of a loved one or fellow gang member,[1] or the fact that the wearer has killed someone.[2]" “The girls who work in the club in the video are my friends, people I knew before I became a little more well known..." Has there been a similar statement about the bikers in Ride? finally, the "tags" at the end of the article, which allow search of other related Maxim material (I guess). If they are ordered in importance, it says something about the reading audience. "Tags:women, sexy, hot, brunette, singer, cover, magazine article"

It's interesting to compare this to other stuff out there portraying battle-of-the-sexes type scenarios. So Taylor Swift's got this socially acceptable video for 'Blank Space'. Is she doing any better than LDR in the video clip we saw (assuming what we saw is the whole video for argument's sake)? I'd like to suggest that the question can at least be debated. I mean you could say that Taylor handles herself well and gets rid of the man (kills him?) by doing a lot of ultraviolency things (for Taylor). However, had the video's scenario been occuring in real life, Taylor might have gotten the crap beaten out of her. So the debating point I'm trying out is this: you might learn that some men are assholes (and can hurt you) from Roth/Manson/Rey, but you might not learn that as well from Taylor's video. I think the people that are saying the rape scene is *not* exploitive because the rape is *realistically* portrayed are making this point. I agree with @@Blythe that you have to consider carefully just what it means when Lana Del Rey involves herself in a rape scene, and that you should not consider artists as simply having a carte blanche. You need to think about whether it's exploitation or social commentary (in addition to being art). I hope there will be more of an actual video that gets released, so one can judge this better, but the fact that Manson's rep denies this, is really upsetting and unexpected. Hopefully Eli Roth will make some kind of statement soon.

There was a lot in Tropico that you don't see in a standard music video, a lot of acting/cinematography, a lot of eclectic poetry, and not the least, an actual film score a la Dan Heath that connected the three album tracks together. If Tropico doesn't get nominated for long form video, I'd say the Grammys are anti-ambition-in-art.

Wow, sorry I wished for this. Rape seems to be a theme, yellow/purple balloons with the word Rape on them at around 2 mins. I'm wondering if the Eminem thing had anything to do with the leaking, or whether it's even a leak at all. Does Marilyn Manson have something coming out soon?