We haven't got an official TATU thread yet, have we?

I can't wait for the new single by The Penis Enlargers. What did people think of "A CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY" by the Sons Of The Former Presidents Of Nigeria?

Don't you think your classmate could have been reacting to the lesbian schtick to sell records rather than objecting to them being lesbians?

I think that Tatu are fun but I could see some people thinking their act as being tacky.

I think the whole TEEN RUSSIAN LESBIANS thing gets emphasised because it's like the spam in your inbox suddenly came to life and produced a great pop record

On the surface, yes, and I'm sure that a big part of their marketing plan is to attract the audiences that such spam is targeted at. But if you actually look at the video and listen to the song, it's hardly "Dirrty". TATU have a lot more in common with a Tara/Willow scene on Buffy than they do with Lesbian Classmate Action Part XXVI.

Also it *is* very unusual for Russian acts to do well in Western Europe or America.

True...I'm just detecting the first hints of the patronising attitude that makes reading reviews of The Hives so unbearable (only replace "those crazy swedes with their rawk action and their funny accents, what will they do next?" with "those crazy Russian schoolgirls with their lesbianism and their funny accents, what will they do next?")

Don't you think your classmate could have been reacting to the lesbian schtick to sell records rather than objecting to them being lesbians?

I'm pretty damn sure her reaction of disgust was due to them being lesbians- I've talked to her about such subjects before, and she's pretty homphobic. Remember, I live on a small island near Portugal, this ain't exactly the most enlightened of places (which is why seeing those lyrics quoted on the table made me so immensley happy, no matter what reservations I might have about the group themselves)

nyeh. It's a two-way street... the Hives blatantly play up to their funny foreignness.

or maybe i was too drunk ??

there are also 2 threads on 'HSIN' and 1 on 'ATTSS', fact-fans

Never implied otherwise, but surely that doesn't make it any better?

"All The Things She Said" is amazing. I can't think of a male/female duet that has such a similar desperate power to it. The loud guitar and drums clearly honor the fire too.

I can't claim I'm totally with the Smiths cover though. They really shouldn't try to compete with Morrisey in my mind. Then again, if he tried to sing "All The Things She Said" I doubt it would work either.

Also, I dig that the album is really only 8 songs long. More pop artists should try this.

Have they blown up at all yet? Are they even gonna be able to GET on TRL? This sure kicks Frankie Goes To Hollywood's ass. I can say that much.

This is not the All The Things She Said vid you're talking about, I assume? In that one, they dress up in what would be schoolgirl outfits if the skirts were several inches longer, then hang around in the rain until thoroughly soaked, then they start snogging. I've not actually seen any Lesbian Classmate Action films, but I can easily see one starting like this, and I certainly missed that episode of Buffy.

It's a terrific single anyway, but the teen Russian lesbians is so being used as their USP.

" Stared yesterday inna record shop for a coupla minutes at a Russian language t.A.T.u. - or at the very least tATu, or T.A.T.U. - CD, even touched it. Didn't buy. "

(And Don't intend to. Not until my daughter assures me she's heard a good - or at the very least, ""decent"" ("haha") - song by them.)

I was rummaging about in my books and I came across this quote from Lucretius (in Maurice Riordan's excellent "A Word from the Loki") which, as well as being extremely beautiful writing, sums up my view of t.A.T.u pretty well, but there is still a need for the article to explain what this means:

"The raw materials or utterance are drawn from deep inside the body; impelled towards the mouth where, first, they're cut and nimbly crafted by the tongue, then given final shape by the contours of the lips; after which, as words, they're imparted to the air."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/music/newsid_2716000/2716757.stm

Their music (and this video) is pretty tame (although they have another video in which one of the girls is depcited masturbating while thinking about the other girl...*GASP*), and really doesn't promote pedophilia any more so than Britney Spears et. al did (when actually underage). This leads me to think that the homosexuality depicted is the REAL issue people have with them.

Ryan -- i cannot vouch for "people", but speaking for just m'self, their songs, those few i've happened to hear, simply sound boring. and if i'm biased, it's in a dirrerent way - what passed for 'soviet popular music' some 13-15 years ago wasn't essentially much different (and i've never liked any of that); this duo sounds to my pair of ears like a merely synthed-up & studio-polished take on perestroika-period 'sovetskaya estrada'

I do agree on the whole Trevor Horn WTF? front, actually. It's not all that this time around.

Cybele: Do you think these girls are being exploited? How does one measure what "real" homosexuality is? As unoriginal as I sometimes find their music, the content seems less overtly geared at male fantasy fulfillment than towards speaking to young people who might feel alienated by their 'aberrent' desires...or even just alienated in general. Granted if there is lesbianism going on, it is expressed in a much less overt or affirmative manner than by some of the riot-grrl bands for instance. I don't doubt there are some "dirty old men" in their growing fan base either...but is this really THE targeted demographic?

Dan Perry is trippin'.

"All The Things She Said" rox. Morrissey shouldn't be tackled ESL.

Thank you, that is all.

*turns off mic*

Jerry: that’s interesting in revealing Lolita as being perhaps the paradigm form of this kind of thing. An interesting spin on this, I suppose, comes from just considering the name Lolita. Just the fact that the girl Lolita is forever locked behind her name (note the impact of the word/image of the lolita on popular consciousness: things can gain importance by losing capital letters as well as gaining them) and only be losing this playground fencing, or by Lolita flashing her teeth, or whatever, can we get to see both Lolita and the fence (because I think that’s important: “and the fence.”)

For me, at the moment, t.A.T.u. are the most interesting band going because of these ‘membranes of dissociation’ type worries. But I fear I think too much into them.

http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20030211/i/1045001886.3758153799.jpg

* or to the other band member - I'll have to study the trait more closely

Isn't one of them still pregnant though? Or has she had her Tatulette?

She admits that at the height of the duo’s popularity last year she felt pressurised into having an abortion – because she knew that if she kept the baby the image of Tatu would have been shattered. Lena, too, also 19, has suffered from depression and says she feels ‘disgusted’ by her sordid antics with Tatu. In fact she recently turned to religion to ‘redeem my sins’.

Also, they have seen little – or nothing – of the millions they made with Tatu. “The girls were never paid well,” said a Russian show business source. Even when they were enjoying international chart success, it now emerges, the duo were paid no more than $300 per concert.

Yulia still lives with her family in a slum flat in a five-story block in Moscow. Even by Russian standards it is particularly grim. Her mother is a chronic diabetic who rarely goes out; her father a small-time businessman who’s fallen on hard times.

Lena, the daughter of a struggling musician, finally managed to scrape together enough money to move into her own apartment in the Russian capital last month. According to friends, it is “nothing luxurious”. Indeed, there is only one room. Neither Lena or Yulia own a car.

from: http://eng.tatysite.net/

http://katina.net.ru/video/MUZTV_AWARDS_2005_OZ.avi

Some details about the new album...

Group Producer:
--Boris Rensky

Group Label:
--Interscope Records

Group Contract:
--Universal Music International

Studio:
--Village Studios

Studio Location:
--1616 Butler Ave, West Los Angeles, CA 90025

Studio Phone Number(s):
--tel: 310-478-8227
--fax: 310-479-1142

Album Producer:
--Dennis Ingoldsby

Album Engineer(s)
--Sergio Gallagan
--Jared Nuget

Release Date:
--September/October

Tracks:
--15 English Tracks ("Craving")
--15 Russian Tracks ("Vsya Moya Lybouv", "Obsenyanka-Null", "Lyudi-Invalidy", "Sacrafise")

Writers:
--Sergei Goloyan
--Valeri Polienko
--Trevor Horn
--Guy Chambers

Album Name:
--Russian: "Lyudi-Invalidy"
--English: TBA

Albums:
--1 English Album
--1 Russian Album

Improtant Dates:
--January 17: Girls went to LA to record.
--April: took brake, went back to Moscow.
--April 27: Girls went back to LA.
--June 1: Vocals finished.
--June 1: Went back to Moscow and performed Obezyanka-Null
--The girls are going back any day now to help with mastering, producing etc.
______________
sources: villagestudios.com + tatu.ru + universalmusic.ru

True; sorry, I went for the near-rhyme instead. But it feels like they're using it as an insult of sorts, doesn't it? "Invalidy" in the sense of "psihi." And "handicapped" is too formal... It raises an interesting point, by the way - Russia was so full of handicapped veterans after WWII that the word "invalid" became very, very colloquial.

http://www.spitfire-media.com/movies/tATu-AAU-Uncen-rev10.mpg

new song recorded from the radio in ok quality!

http://s7.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=33H0LQTTL0ZCG1ZCJP3J5VNZKA

i love the way with tatu you can really hear their rusian accents like when they sing "the things i feel that they cant touch" in that tune.

also, they seem to have decided to swap the SexyRole. this time the red haried one (Lena?) looks hot in a suit, where Yulia gets to look kinda rough in some Pretty Woman style wig. its kinda weird seeing the roles reversed.

I think they need to move their lyrical content on a bit too. the next tune shouldnt have them talking about "They and Them*", who are really against tatu cos theyre lesbians and theyre trying to get away from Them, and They are chasing them and They dont understand etc. isnt that 3 tunes with the same theme? move onpls

* They = massive latent Russian homophobia

also the way the video ends with yulia opening her mouth slightly is kinda sexy

I don't think this song is about running away, incidentally; it's a tired-of-tabloids song, isn't it, a la Lohan's "Rumors" (but much better).

ya soshla s uma - we love each other loads, also we are both GIRLS geddit

nas ne dogonyat - oh no! we are being hounded by them for our barely-legal lesbian love! lets run away on a lorry!

this one - omg they are always chatting shit about us in the papers, we cant get away from it! all this talk of us splitting up is making our relationship go bad! oh but its ok you shot someone and came back to me, phew

im just a bit sick of the us/they thing.

re: hi nrg. well, theres a lot of it in russia, but not much of that comes over and makes the charts over here. that would be ace!

also, i really want Alsu to break it in the west, she just needs some better production.

I want Splean to record an English-language album. They're signed to Sony already anyway. It would flop in the US but I think it would go over well in the UK (they sound like a slightly manlier Placebo, with better hooks).

Re: Trance vs. Rock Chugging: Many of the tracks on the Russian version of the first album have a more generic-dance-music kind of production, including some that never made it to the English album. The dance tracks on the Russian version are pretty great (especially "Robot"), but the ones that made the cut for the English album definitely don't have the visceral punch or the monolithic quality of the post-Trevor Horn versions. The original "All The Things She Said" didn't have any guitars on it and it sounds positively anemic next to the Trevor Horn version.

That said, the two Russian singles which were released between the albums, "Prostie Dvizhenia" and "Ne Ver, Ne Bojsia" are very non-rock and are easily the equal of the productions on the English album, and hopefully there will be tracks like this on the new one.

Come to think of it, the original version of "Ne Ver, Ne Bojsia" is a big breakbeaty beast with little flourishes that sound like Aphex Twin, whereas the "Eurovision 2003" version sounds more conventional and has guitars all over it, and it's not nearly as good. Maybe t.A.T.u. think that The West needs guitars.

I read the Sting thing too. I also read that Richard Carpenter is doing some string arrangements on the album. The list of t.A.T.u. collaborators is indeed a rich tapestry of weird.

Anyway, EXCITING!

as for trevor horn....i much much prefer the "ya soshla s uma" version to "all the things she said"!!!! thats partly cos i dont like rock i guess. which is why i want Gosti Iz Budeschevo to rule the UK top 10

YES YES YES YES YES

Um... wow.

Supremely WTF new naked TATU video weirdness

can we have a vocoder burning session soon?

Guys, is the debut as good as "All the Things She Said" and "Not Gonna Get Us" lead me to believe?

Um, no. "All The Things She Said" is easily one of the most memorable (and therefore in some sense irresistible) songs you will hear, The fact that "Not Gonna Get Us" even comes close is just short of a miracle. Some good stuff on the second album, too, though, so wait for the greatest hits in the (unlikely) event that you're going to spend money on them.

Why is that unlikely?! I mean, I bought Dream's debut yesterday!

Dream. Not The-Dream.

Also: http://www.amazon.com/Best-t-T-u/dp/B000I2JH2M

"all the things she said" is still a jam

The first two albums are magnificent. The third had its moments too.

Lena is still releasing ok stuff. Yulia seems to have had a difficult few years.

"all the things she said" is still a jam

You're goddamn right