Cat Power/ Chan Marshall- genius or fruitloop?

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Thank you Ross and Sean!

Sean your experience with the album mirrors so much my own. If you change the age to 16 years and the location from canada to mexico I might as well felt like I was reading myself! Thanks for making me feel slightly less alienated... also your description about her late career is spot on. She’s in a happier place nowadays it seems and how can I demand she goes back to breaking my heart. Back then I just wanted her and myself to live through the melancholy and we have... most of time.

✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 24 April 2018 16:15 (six years ago) link

I love all her stuff. I guess I fall in the genius camp, because I find even her failures fascinating.

campreverb, Tuesday, 24 April 2018 16:21 (six years ago) link

seems amazing and wonderful to me now that cat power releasing a video of her ambling through songs in front of some bushes for 40 mins felt like a significant cultural event to me at the time

ogmor, Tuesday, 24 April 2018 16:26 (six years ago) link

You are not alone, Moka. My fave album of 1998 is Moon Pix. I discovered her on the tour for that album. She was mesmerizing.
https://musik.antville.org/stories/1133632/

Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 05:10 (six years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv7UTCGD4hI

flappy bird, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 05:26 (six years ago) link

Alex: tuff choice between Mezzanine and Moon Pix for 1998... I love them both for very different reasons.

Flappy: oh wow she’s way too drunk or drugged in that performance. There’s still something endearing about her singing in that state but I would hate to be a musician trying to keep up.

✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 06:44 (six years ago) link

i straight up love the redo of "metal heart" that she recorded 10 years after the original
her return from the abyss of self-loathing/depression/substance abuse was really inspiring to me and that song distills the essence of what i like about her and recontextualizes a song that used to remind me of sad/bad times into an anthem. i think she is a genius.

weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 12:48 (six years ago) link

Never really liked her live. She expected too much from a scenester type crowd that would show up.
In the mid 90s, along with Will Oldham, I remember thinking she was ushering in some new kind of dissonant blues.
A top 50 artist for me. Love a bunch of her albums:

Myra Lee (1996)
What Would The Community Think? (1996)
Moon Pix (1998)
The Covers Record (2000)
You Are Free (2003)
The Greatest (2006)

POX:
We All Die
Still In Love
Good Clean Fun
Nude as the News
American Flag
Colors and the KIds
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
I Don't Blame You
Shaking Paper
Living Proof

nicky lo-fi, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 13:32 (six years ago) link

One of my most uncomfortable concert experiences was a somewhat recent double bill of Cat Power and Rufus Wainwright, who were supposed to perform in that order but got switched because Chan showed up late, and a handful of biddies in the front row did nothing but loudly complain throughout the Cat Power set about how awful and depressing it all was. We could hear every word so I assumed she could, too. I felt so bad for her but she kept going like a trouper, and it was a great set.

.38 Special K - 'Hold On Muesli' (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 13:39 (six years ago) link

one of the most influential american vocalists of the 21st century. for better or worse. worse. but that's not her fault.

scott seward, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 13:49 (six years ago) link

still love this one. i don't know her stuff that well, but this one i love. maybe it reminds me of mary margaret a little.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx6F1jesJ5o

scott seward, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 13:59 (six years ago) link

also was she the first person to do an indie rock video with normal/average people/friends doing modern dance/exercise moves in a video. if so she is truly a pioneer.

scott seward, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:01 (six years ago) link

one of the most influential american vocalists of the 21st century. for better or worse. worse. but that's not her fault.

― scott seward

truth bomb

I love her, I would probably still go see her live if I got the chance

need to hear that Metal Heart remake!

sleeve, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:04 (six years ago) link

if you want to see her live you should go to australia, wikipedia says:

"In 2018, Marshall will perform a Moon Pix 20th anniversary concert at Sydney Opera House. It will feature album collaborators Jim White and Mick Turner.[54]"

i saw her three times in frankfurt, once on that moon pix tour where she and her band were amazing. then in a kind of living room where she was so and so and then in a 2003 concert which she fucked up totally.

Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:15 (six years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGP3KirGqsY

jim white!!

weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:15 (six years ago) link

i love how much more confident she is

weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:16 (six years ago) link

Ogmor - Is joanne Robertson the same artist who put out a record with dean blunt last year? If so, she’s good!

after party for the apocalypse (Ross), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 15:36 (six years ago) link

You are free is my favourite cat power record overall

after party for the apocalypse (Ross), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 15:37 (six years ago) link

Oh never seen that performance before! Why is that not the version on the jukebox album! Jim White improvising those drums send the performance to another place.

✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 15:42 (six years ago) link

I think one of her “recent” songs I liked was The Greatest she nailed those performances:

https://youtu.be/0KtrQ5nWl7w

She likes that green shirt a lot btw... I think I’ve seen her on different perfomances with that exact same look... some years apart like in Letterman performing “metal heart”

✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 15:54 (six years ago) link

she looks really comfortable in that green shirt. i love seeing her happy and healthy and feeling free to be herself
she may have inspired a lot of imitators but she has always been very much herself, unreproducible

weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 16:14 (six years ago) link

yes ross, same JR, I heard her through the dean blunt collaborations. I like everything she's put out but am especially fond of "dragg" from the lighter

this thread and the relistenings it's prompted have been a joy

ogmor, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 17:06 (six years ago) link

Marking 20 years since the release of her breakthrough album, Moon Pix, Chan Marshall (aka Cat Power) returns to the Sydney Opera House, debuting this seminal precursor to the current cultural explorations of female experience.


uh

chilis=lyrics...hypocrits (sic), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 17:16 (six years ago) link

You are free is my favourite cat power record overall

― after party for the apocalypse (Ross), Wednesday, April 25, 2018 10:37 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

me too

The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 17:22 (six years ago) link

She's no genius, and I think she's a little nuts. But, I like some of her stuff, she can be an interesting singer. I interviewed her a few years ago when she came to Nashville. She mistook my obvious Tennessee-speak for an "Australian" accent--invited me to visit her and introduce myself as "the Australian"--and she was, er, kind of sexy, in a bored-housewife kind of way, on stage, but meandering, unfocused. Another potentially good singer who never quite breaks through into anything I really want to listen to.

eddhurt, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 17:41 (six years ago) link

^v good post

absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 17:45 (six years ago) link

^by a ripper of a mate

Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 17:49 (six years ago) link

none of you break through into anything i'd really want to read but i do find you all kind of sexy, in an oblivious, entitled way

ogmor, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:00 (six years ago) link

this is the second time i have seen "bored housewife" used as a pejorative in like a week
what's up with that!?

weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:03 (six years ago) link

i straight up love the redo of "metal heart" that she recorded 10 years after the original

I thought I was the only one to like the Jukebox version of "Metal Heart"! I love how triumphal it is.

Twyla Thwoorp (Leee), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:09 (six years ago) link

I love her but some of the things she posts on IG make me cringe (anti vaccine stuff, things about "earthing").

Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:14 (six years ago) link

"this is the second time i have seen "bored housewife" used as a pejorative in like a week
what's up with that!?"

its easier to speak in cliches. you don't have to think as hard.

scott seward, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:16 (six years ago) link

oh no, i adore it
i think i have even mentioned it on ilx before and people argued with me and said it was flaccid or something else totally untrue
i find the live versions of it electrifying but i like the recording too

this is the 2008 version from jukebox

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lofk956GM78

you don't have to think as hard.
may i request slightly harder thinking so the cliche doesn't sound so sexist?

weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:16 (six years ago) link

i don't follow her on IG
would rather not know about earthing, whatever that is!

weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:17 (six years ago) link

Yes, you're prob better off not knowing.

Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:18 (six years ago) link

i mean she was relationshipped into scientology wasn't she? i don't think a person has to be perfect in order to be a genius. she has issues. who doesn't!

weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:23 (six years ago) link

Of course not! The pseudoscience stuff is just one of my pet peeves, that's all.

Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:24 (six years ago) link

here it is -- i still hope she continues to record it every 10 years. that means she's due! Cat Power - Jukebox

weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:35 (six years ago) link

don't like the Metal Heart remake, but the original is one of my favourite songs ever so it's hard for it to measure up

The only time I've seen her live was on The Greatest tour. She was fairly confident on stage but they leaned too far into the whole soul revue angle and it ended up kind of jarring. I seem to recall the band introduced her as "the greatest soul singer in the world" which just...no

Number None, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:35 (six years ago) link

lol, agree - not the greatest soul singer in the world
i wish there were some comfortable middle ground to chill in between "i hate myself" and "GOAT"
i guess that doesn't sell though

weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:38 (six years ago) link

none of you break through into anything i'd really want to read but i do find you all kind of sexy, in an oblivious, entitled way

― ogmor, Wednesday, April 25, 2018 11:00 AM (thirty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ogmor otm

flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:42 (six years ago) link

I really like this cover of Hanging on the Telephone from a commercial she did. Wish I could find the full length version:

https://youtu.be/0X-5b5kuax8

Darin, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:58 (six years ago) link

The one time I saw her was a solo set at ACL Fest, You Are Free-era. At one point, she said something to the effect of "During this next song, I'm going to do something that'll [get my roadie on-stage]...it's his birthday and I want you to sing to him when he comes out." I don't remember how she got him out there, but he came and seemingly several hundred people sang "Happy Birthday".

Making Plans For Sturgill (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 19:07 (six years ago) link

I've never seen her live, but I've read that Chan once lipsynced to Smoosh onstage. I'd die to see that.

Twyla Thwoorp (Leee), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 19:09 (six years ago) link

I saw her in '99 and it left little impression on me though I was a huge fan. I was living in NYC a couple of years earlier and wish I'd caught a show then but she wasn't on my radar yet

thots and players (rip van wanko), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 19:13 (six years ago) link

I was obsessed with her music '98-'01 or so, and I lived in Atlanta for most of that time so I saw her a play a lot. Several were of the wrenching, "this person seems unwell" variety, though tbh I was young and couldn't tell whether or not it was just debilitating stage fright or something scarier (the latter I realized later).

A bit later, I saw her in London and everyone sat on the floor and didn't make a sound, even shushing people, which was faintly ridiculous really. I think the best performance I ever saw was in ATL when she played during a screening of Dreyer's silent "The Passion of Joan of Arc," which was an inspired combination and not being the center of attention suited her well.

rob, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 19:25 (six years ago) link

I'm sure I was at at least one of those shows with you Rob.

What always struck me was how good looking she was under that sheen of indie despair and drug use. The photos Richard Avedon took really brought that out.

Joe Gargan (dandydonweiner), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 19:37 (six years ago) link

i really like how rudimentary the piano playing is on "you are free" - reminds me of pj harvey's white chalk - clearly these were artists not operating within their typical wheelhouse and all the better for it

after party for the apocalypse (Ross), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 19:50 (six years ago) link

Also a shout out to Manhattan on her last album which is one of her best tracks. It's so simple in some ways but it has so much momentum.

I saw her solo circa You Are Free in an art gallery where she I think was not in a good way and played three songs in a row on her Danelectro then three in a row on piano then back and forth, with barely a break or any talking. Then I saw her later on The Greatest/Jukebox era soul revue thing where she seemed in way better form. Musically I preferred the former but it felt a bit weird enjoying it even then. I think if I was older, I would have felt even more uncomfortable.

in twelve parts (lamonti), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 22:28 (six years ago) link

saw her twice circa moon pix; one time was a complete shambles that was embarrassing to witness, the other was utterly riveting and fantastic

iirc having jim white glowering behind her was beneficial to the latter; glad they are working together again

mookieproof, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 23:45 (six years ago) link


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