Monicker

The only thing i’d be opposed to is the nonsensical title “The Leaked Sessions.” 

Don't let the old man get you down, he is way too liberal with the groundhog 

The only thing i’d be opposed to is the nonsensical title “The Leaked Sessions.” 

I didn't say it hadn't been posted, I said I hadn't heard of it.

I feel groggy and i'm in a weird mood and i'm just going to ramble and spout out thoughts related to the direction that this discussion has taken. I should probably drink tea and move my body around, but oh well.
 
The subject of leaks is quite complex. There are so many variables and considerations to take into account. I've yet to form a definitive opinion on the matter, and that bothers me because i'd like to neatly wrap my stance on the matter in a pretty little bow, feel certain about it, be done with it and move on to something else. That said, what Baby V Alex said earlier today in another thread is one of the few things i can say i really feel certain about:
 
 
I don't think this point can be overstated. In general, a lot of leaked music isn't really "commercially viable" and we'd be unlikely to hear it otherwise. It's unfortunate how often a popular artist isn't fully represented because of what the label deems marketable. So, why not subvert capitalism, right? Sounds good to me.
 
However, that, of course, is not the only thing to consider here. There's the artist's thoughts and feelings about their unreleased material circulating; their financial standing can be a factor (though that can introduce a moral slippery slope); the moral issues of piracy; is intellectual property not property?; should music be free?; a real, tangible, full quality product vs. an inferior copy, and the relative monetary value of each. The list goes on and on, hence why it's so complex.
 
The thing is, the subject seems to be pretty elastic, varying from case to case, depending on an artist's own views and their situation. In Lana's case, leaks have certainly helped her develop a greater fan base. But as evilentity reminded us, we don't know her stance on leaks. It would be a different scenario if there was word from her saying that she's actively opposed to leaks (for whatever reason, be it she is embarrassed by her older stuff and doesn't want it circulating; she doesn't consider it finished and doesn't like the idea of people hearing works in progress, etc.) As i said before though, what we do know is that she hasn't exactly shied away from sharing her music throughout the years. Once an artist becomes a public figure though their back catalog, how it gets handled, and who has and should/shouldn't have access to it becomes a pretty hairy situation. But the control is pretty much out of her hands now. You'll recall that there have been times where even her posting a video to her own YouTube channel lead to WMG pulling it.
 
Being a professional musician/performer is a weird concept. What a luxury to get paid to make music! And how remarkable that we live in a world where it's even an option. I've never fully known what to make of this, and i say this as someone whose entire life revolves around music, whether it's creating it or appreciating it. Now, would i want my demos to slip out of my fingers and get into the public's hands? Ignoring the fact that most people probably wouldn't give a shit about my music, no, probably not. That's because i am very controlling about how i want myself and my work to be represented and heard. There are others, of course, who have a completely different view of the situation. Should the way that we approach leaks vary from artist to artist? Is that realistic or even possible? Really, at the end of the day, someone's demos and unreleased work is none of our fucking business. It's their or some company's property. But that's also not realistic, it's not the world in which we live. The proverbial can of worms or pandora's box has been opened long ago, and as things stand now, there doesn't really seem to be any going back, no? This is the culture now, it has been for a while, and is only moving more and more in a certain direction. I think the game just needs to be reinvented, and i am curious to see where things go in the next decade or so, because something fundamental in the system has to change. Maybe in the future we'll find ourselves purchasing vials of Lana's sweat in an attempt to have something tangible and personal amidst a cultural sea of sameness, all those 1s and 0s. Of course, that'll only be after some company has convinced us with their advertisements that we want and maybe even need Lana's sweat...
 
 
EDIT: I forgot to mention one very important thing--the one undoubtedly positive thing that has resulted from leaking in the internet age: third parties (bootleggers) hardly, if ever, get to profit from other people's music anymore. And that's a really great thing. Why should anyone profit from something they don't own, had no hand in creating, didn't fund, AND obtained illegally?

Is that NEAL? 

Is that NEAL? 

Is that NEAL? 

Is that NEAL? 

This thread is like being in a mental institution. I feel sad but on the outside i’m laughing.
 
If someone had told me years ago that one day there would be tiny cameras built into computers in people's bedrooms and they would willingly broadcast their madness to the entire world...
 
Can you imagine being the person responsible for spawning videos like these, having that sort of cultural impact, and so quickly? How can anyone desire fame? 

And K is just a pony. All right, mystery solved. Reality pales in comparison to the fantasy. Next. 
 
Ponies, for some reason, always make me want to cry. 
 

Carole King and Gerry Goffin are gonna be pissed. 

This thread is like being in a mental institution. I feel sad but on the outside i’m laughing.
 
If someone had told me years ago that one day there would be tiny cameras built into computers in people's bedrooms and they would willingly broadcast their madness to the entire world...
 
Can you imagine being the person responsible for spawning videos like these, having that sort of cultural impact, and so quickly? How can anyone desire fame? 

Carole King and Gerry Goffin are gonna be pissed. 

What the fuck is 14?
 
Also, this is great. Her facial expression in that photo really seems to be appropriate to what i imagine she looked like (yeah, it already happened long ago, obviously) when she first came upon this here lil forum and she went through the emotions of shock, confusion, anger, sadness, hopelessness, back to anger, back to sadness, rage, and finally apathy. I've been saying it forever: she fucking hates our guts. If the entire worldwide Lana Del Rey community were a traveling circus, we would be the freaks from Tod Browning's Freaks.
 
Who the fuck is evilentity? 

Are you sure you're not hearing a k sound from the huge reverb of the handclaps? I have never heard anything other than P-P-Pepsi, studio or live. We've been over this 

Yeah, aside from all the omissions, my other big complaint about the studio recording is that she repeats "I sing the body electric" too many times, especially toward the end, at which point it feels a bit exhausting, and where the song really needed to breathe and just surrender itself to that chilling, lyrical string outro. The vocals over that last section, i feel, really take away from the music and stifle it. I think she had it all right the first time around :/  I find it frustrating to trace the progression of this song, how it initially had a magic to it, some strange, ineffable quality, and then, i think, it just got overworked and they kind of botched it up. Hmmm, story of Lana Del Rey's art? 

The pedant in me needs to weigh in here on the terminology (and i will suggest things that i think are truly befitting of the genre). 
 
“Surf Noir” as related to Lana Del Rey is bullshit. I think there are very little to no surf elements in the Lizzy Grant stuff. It’s always seemed to me like it’s just a catchy, grabbing name she came up with that ultimately is meaningless.
 
Let’s look at the term SURF from the genre of music and NOIR from the genre of film. Integral to surf music is a very straight, driving 8th note, fast 4/4 rhythm, though there’s definitely slower tempo surf stuff, and, of course, heavily reverberated electric guitars with lots of vibrato. There are other elements but those are the main, essential attributes, the telltale characteristics of surf music. And then there’s Noir, characterized by: darkness, shadow, bleakness, grit, mystery, and action. Carried out in ways that are expressionistic, gothic, off kilter, and even brutal.
 
That said, i don’t think there’s much music that actually fits the conflation of these two descriptors. I think that specific coalescence of surf and noir most likely has to come in a modern context because most surf music/other styles that incorporated surf elements from the late ‘50s/early ‘60s tended to be rather “lightweight.” The idea of surf + noir seems like a pretty postmodern one to me. But, again, i don’t think there’s much out there that is truly fitting of that mostly imaginary genre, especially in the way of vocal stuff. 
 
Here are a few things that, while having nothing really to do with the sound of the AKA album, are the closest to something that i think could be described as “surf noir.” Some of this stuff is a kind of natural evolution of Exotica: 
 
A surf style cover of a song by the black metal band Burzum. Truly as surf noir as it gets:

 
Actually, if you look up “trve kvlt surf” on youtube, you can find a lot of stuff in this style. Don’t fall for the joke in the description though--this stuff isn’t really from the ’60s!



 
 
Secret Chiefs 3 do a good amount of dark sounding surf stuff:

 
I couldn’t find this song on youtube, but it’s on grooveshark: http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Book+T+Orbital+Ballroom+In+The+Hall+Of+Resurrection/4kZK13?src=5
 
 
There’s a certain tension and some dark undertones in The Chantays version of Pipeline that i think can loosely fit a noir aesthetic: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omG-hZfN6zk
 
 
John Zorn also has done a good amount of surf related stuff in a kind of modern Exotica context that has a darkness and mysteriousness to it: 



 
 
There’s this too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybz7kHdmi1k
 
 
I’m sure i’m forgetting stuff but that’s all i can think of at the moment. Maybe try some Man or Astro-man? too and some Stereolab. Joe Meek often had elements of surf and he produced a ton of girl groups and singers. Possibly try some Vincent Bell too. Check out Jerry Goldsmith’s score to the movies Our Man Flint (1966) and In Like Flint (1967), they definitely have some elements of dark surf, and they’re both some of the best film scores of all time to boot!
 
But, again, this stuff isn’t in a Lizzy Grant pop vein.  
 
Oh! Maybe some Julee Cruise:  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uq_ix7nfkc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dINbJL9HoII


 
 
By the way, on an indirectly related note, i saw recently on wikipedia that Kill Kill is being described as having elements of... ELECTRONICA? Who writes this shit? 

The pedant in me needs to weigh in here on the terminology (and i will suggest things that i think are truly befitting of the genre). 
 
“Surf Noir” as related to Lana Del Rey is bullshit. I think there are very little to no surf elements in the Lizzy Grant stuff. It’s always seemed to me like it’s just a catchy, grabbing name she came up with that ultimately is meaningless.
 
Let’s look at the term SURF from the genre of music and NOIR from the genre of film. Integral to surf music is a very straight, driving 8th note, fast 4/4 rhythm, though there’s definitely slower tempo surf stuff, and, of course, heavily reverberated electric guitars with lots of vibrato. There are other elements but those are the main, essential attributes, the telltale characteristics of surf music. And then there’s Noir, characterized by: darkness, shadow, bleakness, grit, mystery, and action. Carried out in ways that are expressionistic, gothic, off kilter, and even brutal.
 
That said, i don’t think there’s much music that actually fits the conflation of these two descriptors. I think that specific coalescence of surf and noir most likely has to come in a modern context because most surf music/other styles that incorporated surf elements from the late ‘50s/early ‘60s tended to be rather “lightweight.” The idea of surf + noir seems like a pretty postmodern one to me. But, again, i don’t think there’s much out there that is truly fitting of that mostly imaginary genre, especially in the way of vocal stuff. 
 
Here are a few things that, while having nothing really to do with the sound of the AKA album, are the closest to something that i think could be described as “surf noir.” Some of this stuff is a kind of natural evolution of Exotica: 
 
A surf style cover of a song by the black metal band Burzum. Truly as surf noir as it gets:

 
Actually, if you look up “trve kvlt surf” on youtube, you can find a lot of stuff in this style. Don’t fall for the joke in the description though--this stuff isn’t really from the ’60s!



 
 
Secret Chiefs 3 do a good amount of dark sounding surf stuff:

 
I couldn’t find this song on youtube, but it’s on grooveshark: http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Book+T+Orbital+Ballroom+In+The+Hall+Of+Resurrection/4kZK13?src=5
 
 
There’s a certain tension and some dark undertones in The Chantays version of Pipeline that i think can loosely fit a noir aesthetic: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omG-hZfN6zk
 
 
John Zorn also has done a good amount of surf related stuff in a kind of modern Exotica context that has a darkness and mysteriousness to it: 



 
 
There’s this too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybz7kHdmi1k
 
 
I’m sure i’m forgetting stuff but that’s all i can think of at the moment. Maybe try some Man or Astro-man? too and some Stereolab. Joe Meek often had elements of surf and he produced a ton of girl groups and singers. Possibly try some Vincent Bell too. Check out Jerry Goldsmith’s score to the movies Our Man Flint (1966) and In Like Flint (1967), they definitely have some elements of dark surf, and they’re both some of the best film scores of all time to boot!
 
But, again, this stuff isn’t in a Lizzy Grant pop vein.  
 
Oh! Maybe some Julee Cruise:  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uq_ix7nfkc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dINbJL9HoII


 
 
By the way, on an indirectly related note, i saw recently on wikipedia that Kill Kill is being described as having elements of... ELECTRONICA? Who writes this shit? 

The pedant in me needs to weigh in here on the terminology (and i will suggest things that i think are truly befitting of the genre). 
 
“Surf Noir” as related to Lana Del Rey is bullshit. I think there are very little to no surf elements in the Lizzy Grant stuff. It’s always seemed to me like it’s just a catchy, grabbing name she came up with that ultimately is meaningless.
 
Let’s look at the term SURF from the genre of music and NOIR from the genre of film. Integral to surf music is a very straight, driving 8th note, fast 4/4 rhythm, though there’s definitely slower tempo surf stuff, and, of course, heavily reverberated electric guitars with lots of vibrato. There are other elements but those are the main, essential attributes, the telltale characteristics of surf music. And then there’s Noir, characterized by: darkness, shadow, bleakness, grit, mystery, and action. Carried out in ways that are expressionistic, gothic, off kilter, and even brutal.
 
That said, i don’t think there’s much music that actually fits the conflation of these two descriptors. I think that specific coalescence of surf and noir most likely has to come in a modern context because most surf music/other styles that incorporated surf elements from the late ‘50s/early ‘60s tended to be rather “lightweight.” The idea of surf + noir seems like a pretty postmodern one to me. But, again, i don’t think there’s much out there that is truly fitting of that mostly imaginary genre, especially in the way of vocal stuff. 
 
Here are a few things that, while having nothing really to do with the sound of the AKA album, are the closest to something that i think could be described as “surf noir.” Some of this stuff is a kind of natural evolution of Exotica: 
 
A surf style cover of a song by the black metal band Burzum. Truly as surf noir as it gets:

 
Actually, if you look up “trve kvlt surf” on youtube, you can find a lot of stuff in this style. Don’t fall for the joke in the description though--this stuff isn’t really from the ’60s!



 
 
Secret Chiefs 3 do a good amount of dark sounding surf stuff:

 
I couldn’t find this song on youtube, but it’s on grooveshark: http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Book+T+Orbital+Ballroom+In+The+Hall+Of+Resurrection/4kZK13?src=5
 
 
There’s a certain tension and some dark undertones in The Chantays version of Pipeline that i think can loosely fit a noir aesthetic: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omG-hZfN6zk
 
 
John Zorn also has done a good amount of surf related stuff in a kind of modern Exotica context that has a darkness and mysteriousness to it: 



 
 
There’s this too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybz7kHdmi1k
 
 
I’m sure i’m forgetting stuff but that’s all i can think of at the moment. Maybe try some Man or Astro-man? too and some Stereolab. Joe Meek often had elements of surf and he produced a ton of girl groups and singers. Possibly try some Vincent Bell too. Check out Jerry Goldsmith’s score to the movies Our Man Flint (1966) and In Like Flint (1967), they definitely have some elements of dark surf, and they’re both some of the best film scores of all time to boot!
 
But, again, this stuff isn’t in a Lizzy Grant pop vein.  
 
Oh! Maybe some Julee Cruise:  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uq_ix7nfkc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dINbJL9HoII


 
 
By the way, on an indirectly related note, i saw recently on wikipedia that Kill Kill is being described as having elements of... ELECTRONICA? Who writes this shit? 

I’m not seeing it as a positive/negative thing. I was just saying that i don’t see the reasons for imposing those guidelines on how she should conduct interviews. Something that i think a lot of people don’t realize or remember (myself included because i tend to forget sometimes) is that Lana Del Rey is not giving these interviews for us. This place is insane. We are insane. We pick every single last shred of meat off the bone. We scrutinize everything. We know every single interview she’s done. So for us, her interviews are painfully repetitive. Or it may seem to some of us that she’s mentioned outreach work/charity a lot when, to the average fan, she really hasn’t. This is the nature of being a public figure and being interviewed frequently by several different sources and markets. People who are interviewed like this are mostly repeating shit because they’re covering a lot of bases, and you can only vary your responses so much. Overlap is inevitable.  
 
Also, for the most part, celebrities get asked the same shit all the time. I don't think that's unique to Lana or an indication that she and/or her management are screening questions and only allowing certain ones through.
 
Remember that a publication and interviewer reflect its audience. So if a clueless interviewer is asking her very basic stuff, stuff that has been asked a million times before, it is most likely that the bulk audience of that publication doesn’t know this stuff, just as the clueless interviewer doesn’t know, hence the questions in the first place. They are catering to their readers, not to the minority cult following. We are small in numbers. Think about the amount of fans she has, the number of record sales, and then take a look at how few people are registered on this forum, the only active forum that exists for her (and how many of those are people who registered and never bothered coming back more than twice?) Most people that read her interviews, i’m betting, do not read every single one of them like we do. Even within this forum we haven't all read every single interview, so it’s almost like it’s a niche within a niche. I think people being interviewed recognize this, so they don't necessarily see it as repeating the same stuff over and over.
 
Plus, you think most people who are interviewed as much as she is keep perfect track of all their responses? I'm sure we are more familiar with her responses to interview questions than she herself is. I think, like most any celebrity, when she answers a question, she has a broader audience in mind, not the obsessive/fanatical core of fans. And i don’t think that she’s thinking of giving a satisfactory answer in the same way that we’d consider it satisfactory. In all honesty, we probably fucking freak her out some and she’s probably a little put off by us to an extent. 
 
 
 
 
Not in those words, no, but: 
 
 
 
So if someone mentions philanthropy more than once, according to what you wrote above, you expect them give the name of the organization, no? That's all i was pointing out. But i guess i have the answer to the why now (because you find it in poor taste). 

Oh man, i had completely forgotten about the existence of Retard Girl and hadn’t heard it in literally 20 years. Wh a t  a  r  e y   o   u   d     o  i  n g       t o       m   e    l o l a  ? What is time? Where am i right now? 

i love the beach boys confessions tumblr

Dig the landslide voting going on here! But of course dearest lola is very worthy and a key member in the LB community, if only for her second-biggest post whore status (hi ). But also for her boundless wit and her unamused avatar reflecting in all of her posts. Laugh cry puke and give it up for our most sassy jailbait...
 
Member of the Month: lola!