Radio Rant: LMFAO – Sexy and I Know It

Posted on October 3, 2011 by bgibs122

Hello, and welcome to Radio Rants. Before we get started, I just wanted to say thank you, America. It’s been fairly smooth couple of months for Radio Rants; the worst things I’ve dealt with lately were kind of boring, dumb, or uncreative, and I have you to thank. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had bad songs, but nothing horrifically bad. Which makes this even more disappointing.

I know a lot of people don’t like LMFAO. Hell, I still get almost daily site traffic off searches like “I hate party rock anthem” or “party rock anthem horrible”. I know I said good things about “Party Rock Anthem”, but at the same time, I knew damn well that if LMFAO were ever going to do a good song, this was it. And it’s not even that “PRA” is an objectively good song; it’s a cheap synth shitshow of a song, but got lucky by being a fun shitshow. But we’re not talking about “Party Rock Anthem” today, are we? We’re talking about “Sexy and I Know It”.

Alright, let’s start with the title: “Sexy and I Know It”. I can’t even compare this to Ke$ha’s glittery vapidity, or the Black Eyed Peas’ empty headed swagger, this is dumb on the level of frat guys trying to score a YouTube hit. Well, it’s going to suck, so let’s just get the lyrics out of the way right the hell now. For some reason, SkyBlu (the curly haired guy) decided to sit this one out, so we’re stuck with Redfoo (afro guy), who is apparently sexy and he knows it.

“When I walk on by, girls be looking like damn he fly” I don’t doubt that they look at you, Redfoo. Hell, if I saw someone wearing this getup in public, I’d look at them in ridicule, too.

“It’s Redfoo with the bigass afro”. You know, Redfoo, as an occasional afro owner myself, let me just say that I’m not sure I’d brag about your afro. Now this is an impressive afro. This looks like someone with a Jheri Curl stuck a fork in an outlet.

“Girl look at that body, AH. Girl look at that body, AH. Girl look at that body, AH, I work out!” Anyone else reminded of Stewie’s “Look at my fanny!” bit? Also, I want to point out that this bit here is the most recurring lyric of the song. 

“When I’m at the beach, I’m in a Speedo trying to tan my–Hey, look, the window I was using to look up lyrics just died on me out of pure, unbridled spite. Well, you get the idea, “Sexy and I Know It” has some of the worst verses I’ve head this year.

Anyway, the music. The main synth bass hook is actually kind of good, but gets looped entirely too much. And…that’s really it for the verses. It’s not until the chorus that we get a drumbeat going, and it uses the build strategy from “Party Rock Anthem” to much, much lesser effect. Aside from that, we don’t get anything you haven’t heard before: superfluous synths, a basic stomp-clap beat, a high pitched synth at the bridge, and that’s it. Oh, by the way, the lyrics for the bridge? “Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, yeah”.

The chorus takes a stumble, too. After a couple abysmally bad lyrics (“I got a passion in my pants”), Redfoo apparently stopped trying and just looped a couple of words to eat up space until he could get to “I’m sexy and I know it”, and then runs those into the ground.

Much like fellow party knuckleheads the Black Eyed Peas, LMFAO does a much better job when they’re with us having fun instead of talking about how much better than us they are. If “Party Rock Anthem” showcased club pop’s better aspects, then “Sexy and I Know It” shows the worst tendencies of the trend: dumb lyrics, a repetitive nature, limp production, and a misbegotten premise. They tried to sell Redfoo as sexy. And failed. Hard.

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Radio Rant: Lady Gaga – You and I

Posted on September 29, 2011 by bgibs122

Hello, and welcome to Radio Rants! Who’s on today?

More Gaga, huh? Despite this being her fourth Radio Rant appearance (five, if you count “The Edge of Glory” and “Hair” separately), I’m not really too tired of talking about her. Sure, she can be an overbearing and borderline obnoxious artist (see: the single art), but at the same time, you can’t fault her on a lack of trying or daring to be different (again, see the single art). There’s always something kind of new and “what the hell?” about her, which makes talking about her a damn sight more interesting than dealing with Katy Perry.

Anyway, today’s song is “You and I”, single number 4 off Born This Way, putting the album at 4 singles in 6 months. And while “Born This Way” was usual Gaga fair and Judas was “Bad Romance II: Romance Harder”, third single “The Edge of Glory” shied away from club pop, and we’re going to see more distance from that genre today. “You and I” breaks out the guitar and piano, which means we’re in store for Born This Way‘s official About a Boy Ballad.

Buried within each Lady Gaga album is a piano-tinged, vocal heavy affirmation from Gaga to some guy in her life. And unlike some artists  who strip ballads down to the bare-bones, the About a Boy Ballad should be just as much as a massive undertaking as the rest of the release’s material. Gaga’s done it for each outing now;  The Fame had the shallow, messy “Brown Eyes”, and “Speechless” (which was leaps and bounds better) appeared on The Fame Monster.

Instead of going with the all electro sound of “Brown Eyes” or the live band approach to “Speechless”, Gaga splits the difference on “You and I”. Aside from a drum machine, the song uses all live instrumentation, but still has a super poppy production. Actually, like most of Born This Way, the music to “You and I” seeks to pummel you in the ground with its own grandiosity and overbearingness. In this case, such oppression comes from the beat of “We Will Rock You”, but with a stomp removed every other beat. It’s a blatant move, but it really subverts what you’re used to with that beat.

At the chorus, the song’s lumbering beat is assisted by a massive guitar riff and backing vocals. I really have to say, for a Lady Gaga song, “You and I” is surprisingly hook-free. It’s not something for which I’d ever take points off, but the only real part of the chorus that begs singing along is “Something, something about my cool Nebraska guy/Something about, baby, you and I”. Although things hit a musical highpoint with Brian fucking May’s guitar solo at the bridge (I love that he ends it with the same riff as “We Will Rock You”, just as a way of saying “Yeah, that’s me).

So what’s “You and I” about? On the surface, it’s about, well, you and I. But on a deeper level, the song is a five minute send up to America. Gaga’s lyrics are steeped in the imagery of classic Americana: bars, heels, rock and roll…hell, even Bruce Springsteen gets a shoutout. These lyrics are so deliberately Route 66 American that I thought The Gaslight Anthem ghost-wrote it. But really, the song drifts much further into country than anything else; remove the drum machine and some of the synths that creep in during the chorus, and “You and I” wouldn’t sound too far from a Nashville meets classic rock crossover.

Which is one of the reasons I can’t fully get into “You and I”. In case I haven’t made it clear yet, this song is almost painfully crowded; the drums and beat are everywhere, May’s guitar goes barreling through the mix, backing vocals take up almost every space where Gaga isn’t singing. Instead of toning down anything, everything is turned way up in a constant fight to be above everything else, ruining any dynamics (these production problems were arguably Born This Way‘s biggest issue).

The other thing that threatens to turn me off of “You and I” is Gaga herself. Even on most of her BTW material, she’s knows when to attack and when to release, but she completely overperforms here. Instead of her normal voice, we get a forced, annoying, obnoxious drawl. Example: “Sit raght down where you belawng in the corner of mah bar wit yer hagh heels on”. Gaga, we all know you’re New York born and raised, don’t try to fake it otherwise. In addition to the accent, she makes a point of sounding too rough; the second half of the song is filled with her growling and screaming. Used sparingly, it’s effective, but here it just gets grating and annoying. Gaga’s always been campy, but she’s chewing too much of the scenery on “You and I” for it to be fun.

But “You and I” really isn’t a bad song when you get down to it; it ends up succeeding much like “The Edge of Glory” in that you can’t help but get swept up in its ridiculousness. The song tries too hard (and fails) at synthesizing three genres in one go, but ends up kind of working in spite of itself. “You and I” is on the surface great, but is kind of clunky on introspection. Could be better, but things could be a lot worse.

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Album Review: Wavves – Life Sux (EP)

Posted on September 26, 2011 by bgibs122

Life Sux is an ironic title for the new Wavves EP because for the first time since the band’s inception, life for frontman Nathan Williams doesn’t actually suck. His band put out their best (read: actually listenable) album last year, things are still great with girlfriend Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast, and now he has his own brand new label in Ghost Ramp.

Life Sux is Ghost Ramp’s first release, and also Williams’ “Look at my new label!” EP. These things tend to be a dumping ground for all of the band’s less inspired material, but that’s not entirely the case here. This EP is another step in Wavves’ progression from unlistenable noise to lo-fi pop punk; the same sound of King of the Beach shows up on Life Sux, but the band sounds more confident. Opener “Bug” has a freewheeling energy (not to mention a catchy riff), and encapsulates what Waves has come to sound like: distortion, an active bassline, and lots of snarl from Williams.

Looking at Life Sux, every song aside from “Bug” experiments in some way. “I Wanna Meet Dave Grohl” tests how long a song Wavves can squeeze out of an idea (it’s also a shoe-in for the best song title I’ve heard all year). The tempo’s only a little slower than the band’s usual material, and Williams still lays on his “I can’t get my life together” rhetoric until a chorus that alternates between “I wanna meet Dave Grohl” and “I wanna be Dave Grohl”, and ends with chants of “Still never gonna stop me”. It’s something like two songs stuck together, but it works.

The EP peaks dead in the middle with “Nodding Off”, featuring Bethany Cosentino. Her input is reduced to harmonies on the chorus, but the chorus is so incessantly catchy that you can’t help but sing along. It’s a little catchier than Wavves’ other material, but still as aggressive and loud, teasing at future collaborations between indie’s favorite stoner couple. Between the loud and soft dynamics and boneheaded guitar riffs, “Poor Lenore” comes across as a grunge tune. It’s a typically experimental track; it kind of works and it kind of doesn’t.

At any rate, it works a lot better than “Destroy” (featuring members of Fucked Up). There’s plenty of energy to the song, but no direction. The song suffers from some serious underwriting; after about a minute, it becomes clear that the song was thrown together just to give Wavves and Fucked Up a reason to play together. It’s worst crime is being repetitive, but it does end the EP on something of a stumble.

Wavves seems like the kind of band that’s suit to an EP more than a proper album. Life Sux runs about twenty minutes shorter than King of the Beach, but has only slightly fewer ideas than the full album, and doesn’t sound as thinly spread. When you get right down to it, two songs work really well, one works, one kinda works, and one really doesn’t; an ok track record for a band that’s still really getting its footing. Three and a half stars out of five.

tl;dr: Life Sux doesn’t have to, 3.5/5.

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“Well, Whatever, Nevermind”: Nirvana’s Nevermind, 20 Years Later

Posted on September 24, 2011 by bgibs122

I know there is absolutely nothing that screams amateur music blogger/critic/journalist/whatever more than writing a reflection on  Nevermind, but for the album’s 20th anniversary, just indulge me this once.

Unlike most of those reflections, there’s no story of 1991/1992 me listening to stooge music like Guns ‘N Roses, seeing the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video on MTV, having my mom drive me to Sam Goody, buying Nevermind on CD (or cassette), listening to it in my Sony Walkman, and seeing life as I know it get changed. Truth be told, Nevermind was my third or fourth Nirvana album (Nirvana and MTV Unplugged are a definite first and second, I can’t remember if I bought it before or after In Utero), and I didn’t buy it until 2006.

But on some level, it didn’t matter if you found Nevermind in 1991 or 2006, because it did for me what it did for a lot of kids: it made you want to find more like it. On one level, that’s a huge chunk of Nevermind‘s legacy; in alternative/indie rock’s nearly 30 year expanse, it’s still the genre’s flagship album in terms of mainstream popularity. Combine that with Kurt Cobain’s penchant to name drop influences, and your new Nirvana fan can do some digging and find The Vaselines, Pixies, and labelmates Sonic Youth. Interested in Seattle bands? Go ahead and give Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains a spin. Fans of Nirvana’s poppier side would do well with R.E.M. or some indie pop. Love the way thatNevermind sounds? Then look up producer Butch Vig’s other alt. rock gigs with The Smashing Pumpkins, Tad, L7, Urge Overkill, or his band Garbage. There’s a dozen or so bands you could find off one album. Nevermind opened the doors for a lot of people to music they never knew existed, and on some level, I don’t think that’s too different from today; most 15 year olds today that haven’t heard of Nevermind also haven’t heard of Dirt,Siamese Dream, Garbage, or Doolittle.

Nevermind‘s impact on kids goes beyond simple record finding and into inspiration. Pearl Jam’s Ten was loaded with Mike McCready’s classic rock solos. Jerry Cantrell and Kim Thayil of Alice in Chains and Soundgarden respectively had their own sludgy, effects covered riffing and solos. Guns N’ Roses and Metallica, meanwhile, wrote huge rock songs that easily reached the six to eight minute mark. Nirvana, on the other hand, brought rock back to the garage; that “Smells Like Teen Spirit” riff is “why didn’t I think of that?” basic, and songs like “Breed”, “Stay Away”, and “Territorial Pissings” could be replicated by a good garage band. Combine Cobain’s powerchord riffs and noisy leads, bassist Krist Novoselic’s muddy but tuneful basslines, and Dave Grohl’s furious drumming, and you have an album that made most upstart musicians thinking “Shit, I could do that”.

Let’s not discredit Nevermind as simply being a cultural touchstone; it’s a kickass album. Cobain had a knack for writing songs that synthesized sloppy punk rock energy with poppy hooks and honest to God melodies (for my money, I still consider “Drain You” to beNevermind‘s best song). The songwriting is tight and the lyrics are deft; these songs stay with you. And Nevermind has style: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” still hits hard, but deeper cuts like “Breed” and “Stay Away” have riffs loaded with cool.

Alternative rock’s been through a lot in the last twenty years, but Nevermind still holds up. Without it, I don’t think there’d be half as many music nerds in the world, or any sense of alternative on the modern music map. The songs are great, but at the end of the day, what makes Nevermind approachable is that it’s a human album; beneath the crashing drums and waves of distortion, there’s just three guys riffing out good music. Anguished, angry, and more than a little weird, Nevermind at twenty is still as great as Nevermind at one.

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