Catching up

Bo Diddley passed away recently. You can read about him at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Diddley. Bo was in the uncomfortable position of being incredibly influential but often being treated as a mere footnote. What was interesting for me was that the word 'hambone' was never used in describing the 'Bo Diddley beat ' - which is widely acknowledged as a hambone variant. But apparently the public can't be trusted with that knowledge ...

One downside of listening to a variety of styles is that it can be easy to lose track of happenings in one area because a different area was being focused on. For example, I've been reading about riot grrrl lately - completely missing the overhaul in the Pipettes front line! Wasn't keeping up on indie pop. But it is true. Becki and Rose have both moved on to other projects. That means 2 of the 3 Pipettes vocalists have been replaced. Hope to hear material with the newbies (Anna and Ani) soon. In other Pipettes news, they recently did a show with REO Speedwagon. I feel unclean now ...

U2 should can their manager (Paul McGuinness). I mean, really, the guy is just embarassing. Pretty much monthly he natters on someplace about how the music recording industry is being hurt ... by everybody else. This time he targets ISPs (old hat, there), cellphone manufacturers, and telecoms in general.

eMusic makes recomendations based on past download history. How embarassing that my 'new releases' list included an album by ... Tiffany. I only previously downloaded one song by Tiffany! I swear!

On the subject of eMusic, material by the band Po' Girl is split between different spellings of the name - with or without the apostrophe. This annoys me much more than it should.

Still on the topic of eMusic, I have discovered they have some Joan Jett stuff I don't have yet. That is beyond cool, and something I just stumbled upon. Never would have thought to look.

They Are Pipettes

The lack of 'the' in the title is important. You could us 'in' I guess. This post doesn't look at Pipettes material, but rather stuff featuring members of the band.

Much of this I have not heard but will mention for completion's sake. Co-founder Monster Bobby has a fairly well-received solo album out (Gaps) and there are strong rumours of a second on the way. The other musicians in the band have also contributed to other bands.

But most folks focus on the three vocalists. Becki ('The One With Glasses') contributes vocals to two tracks on Blind Cowboy's 2005 EP (the group also features one of The Cassette - the shadowy background musicians in the Pipettes) and also sings on "When U See The Future" by Y.Misdaq from the album Flowers & Trees.

And now stuff I actually have listened to. Rose ('The Brunette') takes vocals on The Young Plaything's "Life Is Great" from the single Yr So Fit (For Me). This single is available for download on emusic. The song comes from the poppy side of 'Pop 'n' Roll'. Lots of guitar. Rose's vocal isn't the best I've ever heard from her, but still very listenable. Recomended for Pipettes fans and guitar-heavy indie pop fans. The pop being guitar-heavy, not necessarily the fans.

Gwenno ('The One That Hits The High Ethereal Notes') has a MySpace page on which she has posted demos of solo material. The vocals are fairly close to 'final quality'. The instrumentation itself, however, can best be described as Casio-keyboard rough. The main attractions are the vocals and songwriting, so we won't judge the songs on the keyboards (they crack me up, though). The songs are more modern electropop than retro-flavored vocal group. My favorite of the batch is "U & I", which makes much better us of akward phrases than Pipettes' material sometimes does. (It fits 'running around like headless chickens' in!) The songs all have a great sense of melody - very hummable. Again for completion's sake Gwenno's two multilingual pre-Pipettes albums should be mentioned. 2002's Mor Hud and 2004's Vodya.

There. I mentioned them.

We Are The Pipettes

The day We Are The Pipettes was released in the US I made a trip to a record store to pick up a copy. I haven't done something like that in years. I had intended to write a track-by-track review, in fact I did just that. But then I read it, and saw that It Was Not Good. So this is more of an overview, hopefully better than my first go at it. But before we look at the contents, we need to look at the album.

THE COVER ART

I don't care for the cover. It features an image of the group towering Godzilla-style over the skyline of a city no doubt cringing in fear. The blue cover art on the UK release is much more appealing, just a basic group shot. The US cover art does play into the B-movie vibe of our first track though ...

And that first track is the aptly named "We Are The Pipettes". Every album should kick off with an anthemic statement of identity this good. The song has a strong sense of motion to it, something I really like. Lots of handclaps too, another good thing in my book, and a nice nod to the groups musical predecessors.

PREDECESSORS

Reviewers trip over themselves in a bid to label the Pipettes as early 60s girl group for today. To an extent they are correct, although the 'standard' story of that genre is at best full of enough holes to make stuffing the group in to it a bit of a chore. At any rate, the Pipettes are pretty forward about who and what has influenced (or not influenced) them, from the Spectoresque opening drumbeats of "Sex" (borrowed from the Ronettes' "Be My Baby"), to a controversial non-Beatlecentric attitude towards pop. The group draws freely from the well of early 60s pop, but is not enirely bound to it.


THEMES

Keeping with its early 60s pop heritage, most songs on this album are about either dancing or relationships. Or sometimes both ("It Hurts To See You Dance So Well"). "Judy" is the exception that proves the rule. The story-song has nice vocal work but is confusing. It is a story about the "good girl" who befriends a girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Or growing older. Or family trouble. Something.

HIGHLIGHTS

My favorite song on this release is "Because It's Not Love (But It's Still A Feeling)". A very danceable near-ballad. For second favorite I am torn between "One Night Stand" and "ABC". "ABC" is the oft-told tale of unreturned "geek love". In the movies it often takes the form of geeky guy falling for an unatainable girl. In "ABC" it is the girl pining for an oblivious guy who is more interested in science books than the ecstasy (or "XTC") of romance. "One Night Stand" is the song that actually made me in to a Pipettes fan. One part of it anyway. The transition between the first verse and chorus works almost like a motion picture crossfade. As the last line of the verse trails off ("warning ...") the sha-la-las kick in. It sounds absolutely gorgeous. Which is fortunate, because the second verse suffers from ...

UNFORTUNATE LYRICAL CHOICES

Sometimes Pipettes lyrics sound clunky - to be charitable. Examples include "One Night Stand"'s "baby did it hurt when you fell from heaven" and "It Hurts To See You Dance So Well"'s "they know that I wanna kill them". Urrgh. Shoo-be-doop or something would be better sounding.

FINAL GRADE: I DON'T DO GRADES

Overall a worthwhile listen. Lots of nice touches for enthusiasts of early 60s pop. Handclaps and harmony abound. A bit of attitude too - this ain't your daddy's girl group (but neither was your daddy's - but that's another topic for another time.)

I had to rewrite this mini-review numerous times (and am still not happy with it). I listen to portions of this album near-daily. Makes any kind of critical perspective difficult. Too busy humming along to be very objective.