Nicole Dollanganger

[Jazzmin 302]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQJybahg6HM

Nicole Dollanganger - the author of beautiful dark lullabies recorded in the secrecy of her bedroom and, later, Grimes' sweet and disturbing protégé. Natural Born Losers (2015) is the first album to belong to the latter era.

 

Listen to her music or/and buy it here.

[Lirazel 700]

OMG, you must be reading my mind! I've been wondering why there hasn't been a topic about her...

I've just read Flowers in the Attic, so it was interesting stumbling upon her I love her lyrics, how everything inspires her. Favourite songs are Nara Dreamland, Ball Jointed Doll (Harry) and Angels of Porn.

[Heaux 1,400]

Ooh shes cool

 

i just dl'd everything on her bandcamp lel

[Lirazel 700]

I've been listening a lot to Nicole past two days. I'm in love with her voice and lyrics!]

I think that right now my favourite record is Ode to Dawn Wiener. It's just perfect.

Observatory Mansions has great songs (Nara Dreamland, Rampage, Angels of Porn), but there's something off with production that takes away from the songs. They seem to be to quiet.

[slang 1,532]

She's new to me, but then again she hasn't been around for very long. She's so explicit, creepy, and *clear* in her song lyrics that there's absolutely no way I can't fully face those amazingly dark topics she sings about. She seems influenced by horror literature (both quiet and splatterpunk sides), so I like the fact that she lightens the mood of her songs occasionally with references to sex (as horror literature occasional does). For me, her lyrics exceed her music, but sometimes the music approaches the lyrics, so I hope she continues to develop her musical style.
 
Observatory Mansions is my favorite so far. This song is apparently based on a book of the same name, that I haven't read, by Edward Carey. I would say the song's about death, the futility of maximizing hedons (or collecting things), or something. I especially like the last stanza.
 
and one day they will knock 
the buildings down
like vomit our ghosts 
will all spill out
 
 <<ETA: all links extinct now, except for the Born To Die cover snippet near the end (at least, as of 7/4/19).>>
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg2s1sHH1XM

 
She has four videos on Youtube (one for OM made up of vintage movie clips), but most videos are put up by fans. Some songs, like "Blood Brothers" have positive messages (e.g. about friendship); some songs like "Please Eat" (on anorexia) have social relevance, though it's so blunt it will make you cry. 
 
For me, at least, comparisons to LDR are inevitable. This is simply because I have LDR on my brain so much. However, in this case, in some limited respects, I think there are interesting objective bases for comparison. The most obvious comparison, for me, is to May Jailer.  It's the guitar style mainly, but some vocal styling as well, like maybe this could be a parody/homage?
 
"Smitten with you". 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74ZNREiGIxk

 
She also has similar sorts of infatuations/kinks as May/Lizzy but this is *way* more explicit (see lyrics in description): 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrBmoie-Jgo

 

<< ETA: I removed the link because it seemed malicious now (according to Kaspersky). I don't know where the interview ended up.>>
However,  unlike LDR, she seems to know how to answer the dreaded "are you a feminist question".
..link removed..
 
Her tweet style is oddly humorous and prolific (reminding me of a Grimezsz tweet style a bit), so she does have a sense of humor, even if her songs don't really have any room for it.
 
Here she refers to "West Coast" in twitter:

 

https://twitter.com/nbabybell/statuses/455730080111947776

 

 

At least, "good god" is more ambiguous than say, "good grief". I wonder what she thought of the video. She may have also seen LDR in Toronto, as she has a March 10 tweet that suggests she was going to go to her show (though maybe they just had lunch).
 
https://twitter.com/nbabybell/statuses/443230150759841792
 
Her tumblr is where she really exceeds LDR by being more extroverted (although LDR may have been more like this before she got famous). She posted a snippet of a Born to Die cover. It starts off weird (or shakey), but it ends up being just beautiful, imo. Wish it were complete.
 
http://nicoledollanganger.tumblr.com/post/77773756720/hey-to-the-girl-who-just-asked-me-about-whether-or
 
She also has a list of 100 influential songs or "game changers" (LDR appears twice, for Born to Die and Ride). When an artist does something like this, it's always incredibly interesting to me (and yeah I'm going to check out the people she cites that I don't know).
 
http://nicoledollanganger.tumblr.com/post/77460504908/ive-always-found-it-hard-to-answer-the-favorite

[Jazzmin 302]

@@slang I got to know about Nicole thanks to Emilie Autumn's forum... And the users there compare her with LDR (particularly, because of their voices - Nicole is supposed to sound like "a more childish Lana") as well so this association must be caused not only by thinking of Lana all the time.

 

I too fancy they're similar, at least in a few ways. ND reminds of Lana's pre-fame days. Sonically - especially when it comes to "Sirens".

 

And I think there's something similar about sexuality in their songs, although I got problems with naming it >.< . Of course, Nicole is way more expressive for that matter but when it comes to "Boarding School" or "Behind Closed Doors"... Well.

[Jazzmin 302]

... 

[Jack 2,919]

You guys know she is on lanaboards right?

[Lirazel 700]

You guys know she is on lanaboards right?

I had no idea! Though it doesn't surprise me at all. How did you know?

[Jack 2,919]

I had no idea! Though it doesn't surprise me at all. How did you know?

I've pm'ed her a few times on here, she has Juliette Lewis as her icon

[Blythe 112]

hey that's me! :')

[Jack 2,919]

hey that's me! :')

I knew you would comment here soon enough! Love your music!

[Jazzmin 302]

hey that's me! :')

 

Heeeello

 

Sorry about being a creepy stan and creating this thread 

[Blythe 112]

Heeeello

 

Sorry about being a creepy stan and creating this thread 

 

Are you kidding me? I was (and am) totally honored you created it.

[Lirazel 700]

@@Blythe it's wonderful to have you here on Lanaboards, I love your music! Gives me feels and made me inspired to dig into Columbine more.

[slang 1,532]

Wow. Kudos to Grimes for mixing stuff up genre-wise and supporting indie artists:

 

https://instagram.com/p/3frHO5Dflg/?taken-by=actuallygrimes

 

https://instagram.com/p/3ft0QVDfoA/?taken-by=actuallygrimes

 

anyone see what (and how many songs) were performed with this vocal backing at this (6/3/15 Toronto, Endless Summer, Lana Del Rey) show? 

 

Too many links broken in this thread, though I'm happy to say songs like Smitten with You, Dog Teeth, Observatory Mansions, and others are (currently) on youtube, and you can play everything ND at her bandcamp. Also NEW albums "Natural Born Losers" and "Greta Gibson Forever: Embarassing Love Songs II" are in the works. 

[Jazzmin 302]

https://nicoledollanganger.bandcamp.com/album/greta-gibson-forever

 

Not all the songs yet released and though I am already in love with the demos. Somehow the first song from it I heard was "Chapel" and initially, I felt like something was missing in comparison to her/your, @@Blythe (don't know in which person I ought to write, sorry  ) previous songs. Now, though, I can't even recall what it was exactly cause it grew on me right after I'd given it a second listen... Impatiently awaiting the album!

[PinkVelvet 382]

she recently got some press in vice and fader too

http://www.thefader.com/2015/04/30/nicole-dollanganger-rampage

http://noisey.vice.com/en_ca/blog/nicole-dollangangers-music-is-darkly-dolled-up

 

her and Grimes talk a lot on twitter. i think they're good friends.

 

also @@Jazzmin most of the videos in the OP are gone.   would you mind updating? someone recently made very pretty lyrics videos for "Lemonade" and "Chapel" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQJybahg6HM and

)

 

[slang 1,532]

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/udondoll/videos

 

might be her legit youtube channel, 

 

and it's worth restating that you can listen to all her songs (with lyrics) at her bandcamp:

http://nicoledollanganger.bandcamp.com/

 

So Greta Gibson Forever is finished? And it's no longer a sequel to "embarassing love songs"? I liked the earlier illustration of GG (by ND?), so I'm kind of curious about the change in cover art.

[PinkVelvet 382]

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/udondoll/videos

 

might be her legit youtube channel, 

 

and it's worth restating that you can listen to all her songs (with lyrics) at her bandcamp:

http://nicoledollanganger.bandcamp.com/

 

So Greta Gibson Forever is finished? And it's no longer a sequel to "embarassing love songs"? I liked the earlier illustration of GG (by ND?), so I'm kind of curious about the change in cover art.

 

 

no i don't think greta gibson forever is finished. can't find the link to the ask on her tumblr now because she deletes a lot of stuff but a few days ago she said the songs from it on her bandcamp are just demos and the album will probably be between 13-16 songs. i'm not sure about the sequel thing however.