they say that rock is dead, and they're probably right

America's Sweetheart is so much better than even I was expecting. I've been very ambivalent about her in the past, but I'm really leaning heavily towards "Courtney Love RULES" right now. The angry, defiant bits ('Mono' especially) have helped lift me out of a grumpy slump, while the bits openly influenced by the soft rock of yore are a revelation ('Hold On To Me', 'Uncool'). Is Courtney's opinion of The Darkness on record? I suspect she might like 'em.

I'm not the first person to make this point, but one of the things I really like about this album is that on one level it works the way certain rap albums do: a distillation of the artist's public persona which captures the things which are great about them, the things which aren't so great, and the things they've been castigated for by the media (including both the previous categories and also simple media fictions) - and this is then thrown back at the listener, taunting her critics. She does this easily as well as Eminem or Jay-Z. And it's just as thrilling. On tracks like 'But Julian, I'm A Little Older Than You', 'I'll Do Anything' and 'Hello', she plays to perfection the part of the older, richer, badly-behaved woman... sexually voracious, with a weakness for beautiful boys and popping pills, and a tendency towards stalking and violence, one minute slashing the tires of seedy corrupt old rock gods, the next minute emulating their decadence... In other words, just as much of a threatening anathema to Middle America as the figure of the gangsta rapper.

Haterz, step off: Courtney Love is a motherfucking P.I.M.P.

(Live review of the Fiery Furnaces to follow, Suedehead, I promise.)

...Which means that my possible shopping list for music looks like this:

Courtney Love - America's Sweetheart

Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress - I am glad to see they have become obsessed with sport again. I always picture a young sexually-confused person jogging across a windy heath when I hear their songs.

Kanye West - The College Dropout - although I will probably be able to get a copy of this. I should start working harder at this scrounging lark (see also: Coral Fang).

My Bloody Valentine - Loveless - only £4.99 in HMV, kids!

Also considering getting that ridiculously awesome new Jamelia single - which might just be the single of the year so far, at least until March 1.

Oh, and I'm also a little bit tempted by The Von Bondies' newie, if only because I am unlikely to get the chance to push Jack White down a flight of metal stairs any time soon, and so have to Do My Bit in other ways.

This is fickle even by my standards, but I've changed my mind about 'Mono' again: on record, without the distraction of the video, it suddenly makes a lot more sense. Something new about Courtney's vocal stylings, too, that I really like - it's there in the way she sings the "iiiii" in "three chords in your pockey toniiiiight" - kinda less harsh than the way she might have done it in the past, but still very distinctive and... I'm trying to think of a word that isn't 'sexy'.

lead us into / not into

Now playing: 'Drain The Blood' / 'Tombstone, Baby'

"Heavy religious upbringings are responsible for some of the greatest rock stars in the world. Put someone in that position and they're going to react against it. Sinning is good."

Easy for you to say.

But what does it mean to say that sinning is good? Does it mean A) "there should be no such concept as transgression", or B) "there should be the concept of transgression, and one should transgress as often as possible"? Hippies and sex therapists will tell you A, punks and pornographers tend to go for B. I suspect Brody Dalle means A since a rock star who doesn't believe in the concept of transgression tends to be rather boring by the standards which I suspect she has in mind, whereas B gives you Iggy Pop, Nick Cave and Greg Dulli, each in their own way (although the last two spend as much time trying to resist temptation and wrestling with their consciences, cuz even B gets boring after a while if you don't add some conflict or variety).

The problem is, while heavy religious upbringings may well make for great rock stars, I'm not sure they make for very healthy normal human beings. I'm all too aware of how much I'm repressing, and I don't have a guitar handy I could smash. Fuck!

Peaches is a whole other kettle of fish, with complications - I reckon many of her fans would say she falls into category A, whereas I've seen some of her detractors put her in category B and castigate her for this: the accusation being something like "she thinks she's so transgressive but we're not shocked or titillated by strap-ons anymore". Personally, while I have no time for the detractors (who I think are being disingenuous in their jaded wordliness, and not realising who this stuff would still shock - beside which, the tunes to back up the sex are there, cloth-ears), I'm not entirely sure about first explanation either. This is the problem I have with some manifestations of the ideology "sex-positive": everything's healthy, which means that everything's squeaky clean. Which means nobody ever gets that thrill which comes from succumbing to temptation... Which could mean that our lives are a lot less fucked-up, but it could also mean that they're a lot more dull.

Oh, this is another can of worms. I can see the worms crawling into place to form new possible threads of discussion. To think this started as one of those thinly-veiled personal therapy posts.

I don't know what I was trying to articulate yesterday, but it didn't come out very well. Maybe I was just being dishonest, pretending there was a political dimension to my personal shit (getting the p = p equation the wrong way round). You should probably read today's montezboy instead.

WE APOLOGISE FOR THE INCONVENI-ANGST



NORMAL SERVICE WILL BE RESUMED SCOTTLY.

we knew all the answers and we shouted them like anthems

Thinking about Le Tigre again not just because All Tomorrow's Parties is just over a month away now, but also because after a period spent practicing a combination of a) sensual immersion in the shiniest and most decadent excesses of pop music and culture, b) attempting to take part in dialogues that critique the problematic nature of most left/progressive/radical approaches to pop music and culture - I feel like I need some fucking clarity. Apparently the new Le Tigre album will be out in late summer 2004 - I need them to form like Voltron with The Coup and give me some anthems.

"And they said unto Simon Peter, 'Are you not one of his Disciples?' And Simon Peter said 'I am not'."

I've been falling back on surreal gallows humour as a coping mechanism where actual governments and policies are concerned for too long - because otherwise it all feels too real and solid and brutally threatening - like a wooden block with which someone might hit you in the face - but now I think that absurdist approach might just be making me feel ever more nauseous. Sea-sick. (Still, thanks to Somedisco for that link.)

I'm all fragmented today. Last week I was haunted by bad dreams and weird sleep patterns and other things, until the clouds cleared and it suddenly looked like Everything Was Going To Be Okay. This peaked over the weekend but ended in the small hours of this morning, suddenly all is angst and maybe you've just been in denial.

Ugh. I'm sure I'm probably just seratonin depleted and sleep deprived. Picking up of oneself and getting back - in - da race! - well, it's bound to happen in the next couple of days.

I'd just like to add that 'Love Builds Up' on the Electrelane album is almost as good as 'Only One Thing Is Needed', especially the last minute or so - those grrls are always best when they break out the instruments which have keys which you press down with your fingers. In fact, The Power Out is all about the last four tracks and the first two, in that order. That's my considered opinion, subject to change in the next 45 minutes.

Nobody wants to read this whiny shit, do they?

Oh say can you see...