Kleenex Girl Wonder: Classic or Dud?

i can't really comment on the rest of it because i haven't paid too much attention (even though i have the records! bad maura!), but i have to say that i find the idea of combining lyrical bragging with the indie-boy aesthetic is more than a little terrifying, especially for people who might *date* these boys.

I think Graham's an AMAZING songwriter at his best, and I think someday he's going to put out an album that's gonna make everyone wonder why they've been sleeping. To date, you sort of have to take him song-by- song. But if you've missed "Why I Write Such Good Songs"--Nietzsche by way of N'Sync--or "Bones and the Smiling Mackerel" (beating GBV at their own game) or "Wireless" or "Sexual Harassment" or "Ponyoak" or "The Bostonians" or that friggin' amazing "Coda" piece at the end of _Smith_, well, you probably have a lot of room for useful things in your head that's occupied in mine by his tunes/words running through it.

:jek

If he can ever fully reconcile the pop and the rap (he was a third of the way there on Aftermathmatics) he would be on to something really great I think.

'The Comedy Album' out today, 13 songs on iTunes etc. but a 23-track double album version is available direct from http://kgw.me/album/the-comedy-album

I think he's been on a roll with the last few albums, though they seem to slip by without being noticed too much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gtfp_zzu6A

Hey wow, I didn't know anyone else here was still into KGW! Totally agree about the last few albums -- I recently realized that Let it Buffer is probably my favorite thing he's done. It's hard to rank anything above Ponyoak, but I definitely listen to the recent stuff a lot more often.

I've had the double album version of The Comedy Album for a few months and I'm not really surprised to see it trimmed down for official release, but I am surprised at some of the cuts, like the Max Tundra-produced track, etc.

He seems to have cut most of the odder tracks, although 'Fuck The New Yorker' survived. 'Like Lena Dunham' is an especially bizarre song. Overall it's easily the weirdest album he's managed since 'Smith', though the abridged version definitely seems more easy to take in.

I only really discovered KGW a couple of months ago but have become familiar with just about everything Graham Smith has done, musically-speaking. It seems very odd that major labels didn't come knocking after Ponyoak, which I'm pretty sure would have been the album that Weezer fans would have wanted Rivers & Co. to put out a studio version of in 1999, in some kind of alternate universe. Easily one of the best albums I've ever heard and kind of shocking he wrote it while still in his teens.

Another great KGW album. He never stops. http://kgw.me/

'May Be Icy' has, over the years, slowly evolved in my esteem from just another good song on a real good album to one of my favorite songs of all time.

Coincidentally was listening to that for the first time in years yesterday. A lot to be said for the teenage KGW era

Ponyoak is incredible, surprised i never knew about it earlier as a lifelong superfan of 90s GBV which is obviously the closest reference point

Weird timing, I got in the mood for Smith’s solo “Final Battle” earlier this week and have been randomly dipping into it (it was my album of the year in 2004)

(I don’t know why I never sought out his other stuff. Maybe this one just hit it too well.)

Ponyoak is all-time. Though it doesn't really hit at all like GBV for me. Probability two left feet!

"the mohican antler-yard alphabet" and "mayflower looks at asia" are basically robert pollard songs and "power bird" is basically a tobin sprout song which is enough for me to draw the lines but yeah the rest of the album is more diverse

Yeah I’d say the GBV influence is more noticeable in his pre-Ponyoak stuff. “What Is Your Posture?”doesn’t just sound like GBV, it sounds like an absolutely classic GBV song that they’d probably still be playing at every show if Bob had written it.

https://kleenexgirlwonder.bandcamp.com/track/what-is-your-posture