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Monicker

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Posts posted by Monicker

  1. Posted

    I love Lana, I really do, but her self-made early music videos including shots of herself are cringeworthy. I'm not even sorry to say this.

     

    First of all, the camera she uses (probably the cheapest digicam she could grab or maybe even a phone) doesn't do the video's quality any favor, and it is not helpful to have random furnishing from the 1990s in the background when you try to convince the viewer that the overall odd scene is taking place in an ancient, somehow vintage-ish, setting.

    Next thing: the hooker wigs. What was she thinking?

    Also, what's up with the lighting? Since when do desk lamps qualify as appropriate light sources for attempted cinematic productions.

     

    Quintessentially, I am glad she's now having people around her knowing what they do.

     

    Hmm, it's been a while since i've read a post in which i am in complete disagreement with every single aspect and detail, as well as the way in which the opinion has been formed.

     

    It seems to me that you're projecting your thoughts and values on aesthetics onto her process, and assuming that she was attempting to approach her music videos in the same way you would have made them. How do you know her point was to a) take into account cinematographic considerations and quality in the same way that a director of photography on a film set would, and b) "convince the viewer that the overall odd scene is taking place in an ancient, somehow vintage-ish, setting"?

     

    I've always taken her videos as a melding of old and new, past and present, and i think that point comes through pretty clearly when watching them. There is a considerable span of time and culture that is seen throughout all her videos. I don't see any evidence anywhere that she is trying to hide or distort time/era/place in the shots of herself. Also, did you forget, perhaps the most telling and obvious example, Video Games, which is replete with footage of skaters, paparazzi shots of young actress Paz de la Huerta, and, of course, contemporary video games?

     

    As for the hooker wigs, you may have missed this detail, but Lana Del Rey and kitsch are inextricable.

     

    I've said this a few times on here before and i'll say it again because it pertains exactly to this: Lana Del Rey is a quintessential postmodern artists. That whole "vintage" aesthetic that people love to reduce her to is stifling and, most importantly, not even accurate--there is no way that someone like her could have existed in any other time but the present. She's not just rehashing old tropes. I wouldn't be here right now if that's what she was about.

    5

  2. Posted

    What is this about reworked/rerecorded versions of Mermaid Motel, Little Girls, and Smarty? This is news to me. Where are you getting this info from? Are you sure you're not just thinking of alternate registered titles or even possible demos? You're saying you have concrete evidence that after she finished the AKA album she went back and rerecorded those three songs?

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  3. Posted

    So what if I would like it to be reworked to see what she'd

    do with it...?

     

    Nothing, i was just being playful. I wouldn't take me too seriously. I love that song (and arrangement, recording, performance, etc.). But, yeah, ultimately i wouldn't say no to anything being rerecorded. I really love the idea of multiple versions of songs, no matter how perfect it already was the first time around.

     

    It was reworked into Mermaid Hotel but it hasn't leaked

     

    Pardon?

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  7. Posted

    Oh gosh, i always sense with this stuff that it's teetering on the verge of turning into a nationalist thing. Yeah, Lana luvs my country and that's why she cums here, and she just doesn't lyke yours, so get over it LOL.

    5

  10. Posted

    I would like to see what HeadBitch looks like, and maybe lolitahey too....

     

    Trash said he would post one, but hasn't yet! >:/

     

    And I kinda doubt European would participate, but it would really ramp up the stakes for me.

     

    lola has already shown her face, or at least partially, if i recall.

     

    :ohmy:

    At this angle, you look nothing like Evil...but I totally get the whole "lanky" deal now.

     

    What, were evil and i supposed to look alike?

     

    And, you bastard, you lightened the photo, ugh. Naw, it's fine, i had already thought of that and saw what it would look like if it was lightened, so i already knew that you still wouldn't be able to make anything out. Gotta think ahead.

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  13. Posted

    Who do you think would, then? :horror:

     

    I don't know, let's look at the options. Excluding evilentity because he has already promised to post a picture, and anybody else who has already shown their face before, here are, i think, the top contenders:

     

    Madrigal

    TrailerParkDarling

    Neal

    Monicker

    PrettyBaby

    Trash Magic

    Hellion

    European

    ednafrau

     

    Am i missing someone?

     

    I think Neal would steal this one, no?

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  14. Posted

    u guys r crazy i think i posted my pic on ldr fm when no one liked me ~8)

     

    :ohmy: I don't remember that. I think you're fibbing.

     

    :smokes:

     

    let's hold a vote for who the forum wants to see the most and that person has 2 upload a picture face on. i will 1000% participate as i know people are most curious about monicker/neal :)

     

    Oh my god haa, this is a great idea. Let's do it (i don't think i will get voted)!

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  16. Posted

    Sounds like my kind of album :ohreallygirl:

     

    $5 on Amazon MP3, suitable quality to hear it in? :hooker:

     

    Do it. Be kind to it, too. Give it a good chance. You may have to warm up to it, but it is so rewarding. Just let is smash you over the head. And prepare to feel like a spear is being driven through your chest and ripping you open. And then, it’s beautiful, the last two songs are these little joyous strolls through the park. It’s so nice that she finally finds happiness in the end after that brutal journey. And it refutes the (i think totally stupid) argument that an artist needs to be sad and tortured to create their best work. In fact, she has said multiple times that she doesn’t like to/can’t make music when she is feeling depressed. That’s how i am too.

     

     

    i think lizzy's AKA would've been amazing anyway (if her demos are anything to go by) without him. am i sacrilegous?

     

    Oh, absolutely, me too.

     

    also, jon brion's has released albums of his own, such as 2001's "meaningless", which was pretty good. though i can't hear this at work to verify the quality of the video, this is a song of his that i like a lot:

     

    Ha, i've never been able to get into his singing, thus i can't get into Meaningless. But his film scores for Punch-Drunk Love, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and I Heart Huckabees are amongst my very favorite music in recent years. I have the complete scores for P-DL and ESofSM if anyone wants them.

    1

  17. Posted

    My sister said she reminds her off, "trying to be amy whinehouse/duffy/dido" like really okay now I'm adopted. :crossed:

     

    You should remind your sister that Amy was trying to be Ronnie Spector :)

     

     

    Brion did a wonderful thing when working with her on EM. I still don't understand exactly why they chose Mike to produce it instead for the actual release.

     

    This was one of those things where the truth took a long time to form because her fans didn't want to accept that, as amazing as the original sessions for Extraordinary Machine are, she wasn't happy with them. People love to pit the "Artist" against the big, bad record company and turn everything into a matter of artistry vs. business, but that's not what was going on at all with this situation (and i think a lot of her fans still don't want to accept the truth). She didn't feel the music/sound/direction was her (which i sensed from the very first listen--that record has Jon Brion's thumbprint all over it) because, as she admitted later, she didn't know what she wanted. She just knew that when the sessions were over what turned out wasn't what she wanted. It's even well known that she didn't even really feel like making the record and that Jon Brion had to sort of push her to do it. It wasn't until she stepped away from it for a while that she finally got a clear picture of what she wanted, so she herself chose to go in another direction with a different producer. I feel like i'm in the minority in that i actually like both versions. I mean, the Elizondo version doesn't hold a candle to Jon Brion's production, but i still think it's really solid and quite inventive in its own right. I'm thankful we have both, such radically different sounding versions of the same album.

     

    I just started listening to TIW this past week, and you're sooo right about the rawness. Mentally, I haven't sorted all the tracks apart from one another, but there's one (maybe "Regret?") where she just belts more than I could've imagined possible. It shocked me at first, and lends a really unnerving emotional layer to the song.

     

    There are a few lines throughout the record where it sounds like her guts are churning. You can just see the veins in her forehead bulging as you listen. It's really great. And gosh, there are few songs i've ever heard that are as angry and bitter and stinging as Regret. "I ran out of white dove feathers to soak up the hot piss that comes through your mouth every time you address me." What a fucking line.

     

    Sorry 4 hijacking this thread.

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  19. Posted

    As much as i absolutely adore the AKA record and consider it one of my recent favorites, i think that Jon Brion's producing and arranging on the original, unreleased version of Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine blows Kahne's producing and arranging on AKA out of the water. That's not a slight on Kahne (who really is very good), but rather a comment on how utterly brilliant Jon Brion's work is on Extraordinary Machine. That is masterful record production and pop music arranging, a (unfinished and unreleased!) record that can stand up to any of the classics in the annals of pop/rock records, i think. That is not hyperbole. Also, The Idler Wheel, which is self-produced with Charley Drayton, ain't too shabby. That is a fucking amazing sounding record too, but such a drastically different thing from both EM and AKA, going in a totally different direction. Like i said, i really, really love AKA, but there's still just a smidge too much gloss on it for my personal tastes. I just think these two Fiona records are on another level entirely.

     

    EDIT: I should mention though that, vocally, i do much prefer Lizzy over Fiona. Lizzy is so very inventive with her voice and vocals and her harmonies/backing vocals and all the layering she does. Not to mention how many different characters her singing has. And her range! I think she really understands the human voice as an instrument like few people do.

     

    Also, Sitar, as much as you love the rawness and mood of Get Drunk, you really should check out The Idler Wheel if you haven’t already. That goes too for everyone who’s been raving about Noir. I mean, The Idler Wheel is a gaping wound. It's also one of the angriest records.

    2

  20. Posted

    Hey, the game plan was already established. Evil was supposed to upload a still from the five seconds he showed of his face in the tinychat the day of his reydio show. Then i proposed that Maddy and TPD follow, and that i would then go. None of it has happened yet, so...

     

    Oh man, but i would love to see what Hellion looks like.

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  22. Posted

    ^ Logic would dictate that, but i don't think that's what's playing. Can you tell me exactly what point in the song (down to the second) you think is playing at the beginning? The only reason i'm so curious about this is that i think it's a song that hasn't leaked yet. Although it's very possible that i'm just having a brain fart. Either way though, i really don't think it's this version of DMD.

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  23. Posted

    Say, this thread is working out nicely, huh? Better than i thought it would, honestly.

     

    Here's a question that has been bugging me forever: What song (of hers?) is she listening to at the very beginning of the second DMD video?? It doesn’t sound like anything i’ve heard before. Can anyone tell? It's one second, if even that.

     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SGoE3vUjDY

     

    Also, on a tangential note that has nothing to do with anything in particular but has been on my mind for the past year since having gotten into LDR , does anyone else sense a strong Harmony Korine sensibility in the Lizzy universe? Is anyone here familiar with him?

    2

  24. Posted

    Unless David Lee Roth has fallen on significantly harder times these days, I think DD must be a nickname :)

     

    :lmao:

     

    Yeah, she's talking about David Lee Roth in Mermaid Motel (she also mentions Van Halen and heavy metal hour on TV in the preceding line).

     

    Oh my god, i am now thinking of David Lee Roth as assistant director on the set of Ride and he's being all smarmy and trying to grab a girl's ass and

    and everyone on set just wants to jump ship.
    2

  25. Posted

    And do I hear a male voice harmonizing with her on the chorus?

     

    The "synth choir" keyboard setting? There's no one else singing lyrics anywhere on the song.

     

    Oh wait, never mind, i see what you're talking about now. Yeah, there is a boi singin' along with Lizzi.

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