Friday, May 21, 2010

Red-haired piano

I never really got into Tori Amos back in the early 90's. Her music was simply too estrogen-drenched for me. There were chicks that rocked, that I could get into -- Hole, Cat Power (during her days with Steve Shelley and Tim Foljahn), P.J. Harvey -- and there were chicks who were just so friggin' cool that I couldn't ignore them, like Suzanne Vega, who even today is just so cool, it's like she radiates cool the way a teabagger radiates stupidity. But Tori Amos? Sara McLachlan? That whole chick thing just didn't resonate. Younger me just said "BORE-ing!" and tuned'em out.

Nowdays I can appreciate some of that music a bit more. Not a whole lot -- I'm not heading out to buy every Tori Amos album like I have every Suzanne Vega album, frankly her music still doesn't excite me -- but I can appreciate some workmanlike musicianship and the construction of the music on an intellectual level. That's not why I listen to music, I listen to music for the primal digs it does at my neural cortex, but sometimes it's good to listen to well-done music that you don't like just to analyze what it is about this music that works.

-- Badtux the Music Penguin

8 comments:

  1. That was my big issue with Lilith Fair when it first started. I thought it was a great idea (female musicians banding together to succeed in a sexist, male-dominated industry and all that) and was actually all gung-ho to go -- until I got a look at the actual lineup: "Um, so how come they didn't sign up any chicks that ROCK?" No PJ Harvey, no Sleater-Kinney, no L7, no female hip hop artists... just an endless procession of overly earnest singer-songwriter waifs strumming their acoustic guitars and singing about goddesses and crap. Snore!

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  2. Until today I would have thought it impossible to have Suzanne Vega and teabagger in the same sentence. Nicely done, sir.

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  3. "workmanlike musicianship"

    If ever there a backhanded compliment, sir...

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  4. I just like musicians as musicians. If I really love them, they're musicians who are women. The female artists I love provide a female perspective without making it all! about! being! a woman! (Am I making any sense?)

    FWIW, I think Kate Bush is miles above Tori Amos.

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  5. Not even a real redhead.

    (Sigh)
    JzB

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  6. Are you sure? Granted, she wears that bright red wig nowdays that makes her look like a fire engine, but I remember when she was starting out that she had a sort of blondish red hair that sure seemed natural to me. Do you have more information on Tori Amos's fake red-headedness? Curious penguins want to know!

    - Badtux the Redhead-admirin' Penguin

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  7. I couldn't say, based on any primary source or knowledge. She doesn't quite look it to me, though.

    I did a google search and found a list of ten modern redheads, where she was identified as the only one not real. Others were Nicole Kidman, Molly Ringwald, etc.

    If it's on the intertubes, it must be true - no?

    wv: darilly - in a milky way

    Cheers!
    JzB

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  8. I hope Karen Gillan is on that list. She's gotta be one of, if not the, most famous ginger in the world (outside the US) just now. And she's lovely. And if you don't love Doctor Who, then what is wrong with you?

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