Why does Europe love CocoRosie so much?

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We've realized they were really bad by album two, yet they keep dropping the "N" bomb and France and company eats it up likes it the freshest shit out there.

Europeans, care to explain this rather perplexing and distrubing phenomenon ?

― tornup_andhurt, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 18:59 (seventeen years ago) link

Not sure that fresh shit is more palatable than any other kind. Unpack?

― Pye Poudre, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 19:20 (seventeen years ago) link

We've realized they were really bad by album two, yet they keep dropping the "N" bomb and France and company eats it up likes it the freshest shit out there.

http://mmii.info/icons/Kaeptn_Blaubaer/other_O_RLY_.gif

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 19:28 (seventeen years ago) link

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d4/Jean-Marie_Le_Pen.jpg
those girls are le yoga flame for all time

― and what, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 19:30 (seventeen years ago) link

They do?

http://i10.tinypic.com/449gpz8.jpg

― StanM, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 19:43 (seventeen years ago) link

N bomb?
I think their most recent single, "Rainbow Warriors" or whatever, is pretty great.

― Ben Boyerrr, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 19:54 (seventeen years ago) link

n00b

― rps, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 19:56 (seventeen years ago) link

what is cocorosie

― fies, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:02 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.no-13.com/vb/attachments/38Ep_cocorosie.jpg

they are from new york

― rps, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:04 (seventeen years ago) link

There's something fishy about one of them and some kind of weird racist/anti racist party thing I don't quite understand:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/25/AR2005082501818.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/25/AR2005082501818_2.html

― StanM, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:11 (seventeen years ago) link

their new album is the worst yet, a lot of crap rapping

I'm sorry, those girls can beat box, throw gang symbols, whatever but I'm not down with their ironic use of racial slurs

― tornup_andhurt, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:15 (seventeen years ago) link

Wait, I know the part about the "Kill Whitey" parties, but do they really drop the N bomb? On the album?

― matt2, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:18 (seventeen years ago) link

in their song "jesus loves me" they do but it's supposed to be ironic because the song is from the p.o.v. of a racist "good christian" or something

― rps, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:27 (seventeen years ago) link

im reasonably sure that cocorosie are not big in europe.

princess superstar is pretty big here; i dont know if she says nigger in her songs.

― fies, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:29 (seventeen years ago) link

It was on the first album.

They have a black backing group.

They have ... let's say they have some sort of "issues" or "a complicated relationship" with blackness. I have zero idea what its details are or how it works, but there is something going on there. They are "interested in" the notion of blackness, or "trying to engage with" the notion of blackness, or something, but god knows there's a thing there. A thing happening.

(Haha I went to see them once, with a big fan of theirs, and on the way down said "I think they have a vague and hard-to-interpret thing about black people," and she vehemently disagreed until after the show, at which point she was like "OMG okay yes." That said, though, I liked their performing live with a beatboxer, and would totally love to see more acts try that.)

― nabisco, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:30 (seventeen years ago) link

Actually to be completely honest I imagine a whole lot of acts have weird mental relationships with blackness / black people that are totally outside the scope of the music, so maybe it's better that Cocorosie at least kinda engage with theirs and occasionally score points for stuff like "sound good with beatboxer." Their issues here are hard to pin down, but I doubt they're more complicated than like "mild fetishization" and possibly a touch of "entranced by stereotypes."

― nabisco, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:35 (seventeen years ago) link

I definitely think it's hugely misleading to use the term "drop the N bomb"; that song "Jesus Loves Me" is clearly a song sung in character. Not trolling - I'm genuinely wondering if you think a non-black artist should never use the word "Nigger" under any circumstance?

― Ben Boyerrr, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:37 (seventeen years ago) link

----"entranced by stereotypes."----

hahaha

― tornup_andhurt, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Haha I think the only adequate approach to take here is that of Cocorosie's psychologist, who would say that while it's not prohibited for white singers to say "nigger," it is (shall we say) "very very interesting" that one would choose to put it in the song, then have to sing it to groups of people every third night for the next few years, then trade your drum loops for beatboxing from your black backing band (haha then get quoted in infamous "Kill Whitey" article), all leading up to a general chin-scratching steeple-fingered "very interesting, Cocorosie, you are very interested in black people."

― nabisco, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:54 (seventeen years ago) link

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/bramafear/James%20Bond/K1620-20Hugo2020Drax.jpg
"Ahh, Cocorosie..."

― deej, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh also when I saw Cocorosie one of them was wearing cornrows and a Sean John velour tracksuit.

― nabisco, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 21:11 (seventeen years ago) link

any ironic homophobia in their music too or are we just not listening hard enough?

― blueski, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 21:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Which, you know, whatever, she just looked like Lady Sovereign or something, but doesn't exactly play against the "HMM VERY INTERESTING" factor.

― nabisco, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 21:14 (seventeen years ago) link

i heard that some of sean john's clothing is actually pretty nice

― deej, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 21:22 (seventeen years ago) link

i do realize that made it sound like i think sean john is a person

― deej, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 21:23 (seventeen years ago) link

I downloaded the new one on o1nk because I saw it just upped and thought it might help boost the ratio but it hasn't and it's basically unlistenable.

― jim, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 21:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh my, just read the thing about the Kill Whitey party. Doesn't go to non-hipster hip-hop nights because there's too many black dudes is basically what she's saying, no?

― jim, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 21:41 (seventeen years ago) link

These girls have art school theory coming out the ass. They wouldn't be sincere if you asked for the time.

― fife, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 22:21 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/wayw/060908/
http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/wayw/060908/grills.jpg

― deej, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 22:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Rich white semotics victims adopting gangsta stereotypes. My worldview has been so shattered.

― fife, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 22:27 (seventeen years ago) link

i don't really know much about the whole controversial aspect of this band.

but i went to their myspace and listened.

and, in my non-professional opinion, ignoring any racial implications, this band sucks up a storm.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 22:28 (seventeen years ago) link

CocoRosie are not loved in Europe, in my experience.

― caek, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 22:51 (seventeen years ago) link

is that a picture of cocorosie that deej posted? they look like a bunch of ding-dongs.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 22:51 (seventeen years ago) link

oh wait nevermind. that's some other ding dongs.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 22:53 (seventeen years ago) link

White message board posters casually equating "black" with "gangsta" = my worldview is sarcastically shattered too.

― nabisco, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 22:54 (seventeen years ago) link

Fred Durst is a fucking faggot
He thinks he's black, but he's just gay
He cancelled a show cuz he sprained his ankle
He's also a fucking midget

[Chorus:]
You're not fucking black, you're just fucking gay (x2)
You're fucking gay

The guitarist wears a mask
To hide the cum stains on his face
They're the gayest band I've ever seen
And I've seen the Culture Club live

[Chorus]

Fred wears a hat to hide his baldness
I refuse to believe blacks think he's cool
I wish he'd beaten and raped by some black guy
And see if he still wants to be black

― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 23:03 (seventeen years ago) link

zing!

― s1ocki, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 23:05 (seventeen years ago) link

fucking xpost

― s1ocki, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 23:06 (seventeen years ago) link

White message board posters casually equating "black" with "gangsta" = my worldview is sarcastically shattered too.

Have they toyed with any non-gangsta black stereotypes?

― fife, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 23:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Do you think every black person wearing Sean John, cornrows, or beatboxing is a gang member?

― nabisco, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 23:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Make this go away.

― Pye Poudre, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 23:22 (seventeen years ago) link

I mean FFS, what "gangsta" stereotypes have they played with?

― nabisco, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 23:25 (seventeen years ago) link

doug e. fresh was a vice lord.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 23:27 (seventeen years ago) link

This dreadful racism stuff aside, I do like their choons. I dig the music box stylo.

― Drooone, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 23:27 (seventeen years ago) link

i'm just sad that the cocorosie controversy is taking away attention from the 50 foot tall michael jackson robot.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 23:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Wait who are these people? I am in Europe and I don't even know who they are </lex>

― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 23:36 (seventeen years ago) link

I like how the hipsters on ilm interpret hipsters fascinated with blackness as morally worse than "mainstream"/middle class/working class fascination with same.

― vadx, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 23:48 (seventeen years ago) link

I like how the hipsters on ilm interpret hipsters fascinated with blackness as morally worse than "mainstream"/middle class/working class fascination with same.

― vadx, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 23:48 (seventeen years ago) link

I like how you're projecting

― deej, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 23:52 (seventeen years ago) link

No, not every person in real life, but those who submit themselves to mass media scrutiny use them as signals to establish a subcultural affiliation for social or commercial reasons. Doesn't a row of silver teeth as in the picture above have "gangsta" media associations? Doesn't it say "I'm a tough guy you don't wanna mess with?" CocoRosie are trying to dynamite that association or point up the shallowness of media identity by stripping the signals from their racial/cultural context. I think. If that is the case, my problem is that they're muddling the issue by not declaring their intent.

― fife, Thursday, 29 March 2007 00:08 (seventeen years ago) link

Skipping 107 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

"Invulnerable". Yeah.

P.S. I'm a weirdo.

― Pye Poudre, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:02 (seventeen years ago) link

I think its pretty clear who it is directed to

― deej, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Tuesday, March 13, 2007
CocoRosie - Japan
Life is like a rollercoaster
It does flips and throws you over
Board your ship that’s going nowhere
If you stop, you’ll end up somewhere

Everybody wants to go to Japan
Everybody wants to go to Japan
Everybody wants to go to Japan
Everybody, just hold hands

Everybody wants to go to California
To live their life on a sunny day
Dreaming of someone else’s wife and kids (kids and wife)
But they'll be bringing you the same old shit (strife)

Everybody wants to go to Japan
Everybody wants to go to Japan
Everybody wants to go to Japan
Everybody, just hold hands.

Everybody wants to go to Jamaica
Queens in drag will surely fake you
Take you home, and then they'll rape you
But you like it, so say 'thank you'

Everybody wants to go to Japan
Everybody wants to go to Japan
Everybody wants to go to Japan
Everybody, just hold hands.

Now, everybody wants to go to Iraq
But once they go, they don’t come back
Bringing peanut butter jelly and other snacks
We might have our freedom, but we're still on crack.

Everybody wants to go to Japan
Everybody wants to go to Japan
Everybody wants to go to Japan
Everybody just hold hands

― max, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:07 (seventeen years ago) link

you wanna parse that verse for us max

― Hans Rott, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:09 (seventeen years ago) link

okay, i'll take that from hans. makes more sense that way. i'd never really thought about the song that hard. i really do have a problem with his voice. maybe if i heard other people sing his stuff i would like it more. ray charles did sail away didn't he? and hey i love mama told me not to come when three dog night does it! or the wolfgang press! (though nothing saves you can leave your hat on for me. certainly not joe cocker)

― scott seward, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:10 (seventeen years ago) link

jamaica is full of sexually predatory drag queens, but dont worry 'cause most people like getting raped

― max, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Rott OTM. Helped me understand this song. I never bought it as a mockery of the promises made by slavers, 'cuz I'm not aware that slaves were seduced in that manner (perhaps I'm wrong). But it makes lots of sense as a satire on the allure of American luxury to immigrants. Still, even in that context, the monkeys and watermelons imagery seems unnecessary, deliberately ugly. Maybe it's the worm in the apple? The reveal that the promise is predicated on an acceptance that will be denied? Dunno. But I admit I may have been too quick to condemn...

― Pye Poudre, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Or, "what Scott said."

― Pye Poudre, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:14 (seventeen years ago) link

the (awesome) live solo version of "leave your hat on" might actually do it for you - seriously all of his classic stuff, once you've correctly placed the narrator, is unstoppable

― Hans Rott, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:14 (seventeen years ago) link

jamaica is full of sexually predatory drag queens, but dont worry 'cause most people like getting raped

if this is what they mean there, then I think the issue is less "racist" than "loopy" eh wot

― Hans Rott, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:16 (seventeen years ago) link

i am glad that we can use this shitty thread to find that eveyrone who isnt a total douche thinks randy newman is a genius

― and what, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:19 (seventeen years ago) link

The Cocorosie song seems confused. A statement of some sort about exoticism and the appeal/terror of otherness. Collapses into groan-inducing cheese at the end, with the Iraq stuff. But they do such a good job of masking their intent, of making the confusion seem intentional, that it's almost totally butlletproof. WTF is the only response available.

― Pye Poudre, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Thanks, AW. Wouldn't be ILX without that ray of sunshine.

― Pye Poudre, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:21 (seventeen years ago) link

You know what else is a great song is Louisiana 1927.

― max, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:22 (seventeen years ago) link

I also really like Dixie Flyer, but a lot of people I know don't.

― max, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:22 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.harrynilsson.com/images/newman.gif
best white ppl music ever?

― and what, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:23 (seventeen years ago) link

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/1e/9a/c62f024128a0305799cde010.L.jpg

― rps, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:33 (seventeen years ago) link

see, there ya go. i would buy that album. i love harry nilsson.

― scott seward, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:45 (seventeen years ago) link

i like the song "old man" off of sail away a lot.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:48 (seventeen years ago) link

"i am glad that we can use this shitty thread to find that eveyrone who isnt a total douche thinks randy newman is a genius"

fuck you. at least i explained WHY i don't like him. or more specifically his voice. and his shitty film work. what do you got? "randy pwnz, you suck". dillweed.

― scott seward, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:56 (seventeen years ago) link

his disney songs make me feel old and depressed

― rps, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:58 (seventeen years ago) link

how is his film work shitty? it's predictable maybe but I think it's decent enough! then again my personal history with randy newman is so long I'd probably defend anything he did

this is the post where I brag that, being very old, I saw him on the Good Old Boys tour only after he'd ditched the orchestra

― Hans Rott, Friday, 30 March 2007 21:26 (seventeen years ago) link

unless I already did that, it's kinda late here

― Hans Rott, Friday, 30 March 2007 21:26 (seventeen years ago) link

the Natural is fucking classic. Fucking classic.

― max, Friday, 30 March 2007 21:27 (seventeen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

wow, new album only gets a 2.3 on pitchfork. way to go guys, take a BITE out of RACISM

― modestmickey, Thursday, 19 April 2007 10:28 (seventeen years ago) link

It's really sad to me that white people always have these "vague" and "complicated" "relationships" with black people, and yet they very rarely live in an area that has a significant black population at all, and probably never will.

― filthy dylan, Thursday, 19 April 2007 19:56 (seventeen years ago) link

^ lol

― Catsupppppppppppppp dude ‫茄蕃‪, Thursday, 19 April 2007 20:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Way to generalize, filthy.

― Mordechai Shinefield, Thursday, 19 April 2007 20:08 (seventeen years ago) link

CocoRosie is Pfork's new Joan of Arc?

― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Thursday, 19 April 2007 20:19 (seventeen years ago) link

UH doesn't CocoRosie live in NYC

― Catsupppppppppppppp dude ‫茄蕃‪, Thursday, 19 April 2007 20:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Uh, it's not like NYC has a uniformly significant black population. It's plausible that CocoRosie could live in the city 24/7 and avoid any meaningful interaction with people who are not of the hip-oisie.

― mark 0, Friday, 20 April 2007 07:32 (seventeen years ago) link

That pfork review is appalling. "Think Joanna Newsom with shittier pot and nobody to edit her"? Fuck off.

― Ben Boyerrr, Friday, 20 April 2007 07:37 (seventeen years ago) link

fuck you. at least i explained WHY i don't like him. or more specifically his voice. and his shitty film work. what do you got? "randy pwnz, you suck". dillweed.

-- scott seward, Friday, March 30, 2007 11:56 AM (2 weeks ago)

classy

― gershy, Friday, 20 April 2007 07:49 (seventeen years ago) link

It's something like Vitamin C's 1999 Top 40 hit "Graduation (Friends Forever)", only with neighing horses, buzzing synths, and Sierra's operatic soprano instead of Pachelbel-derived orchestral Radio Disney pomp/circumstance.

This sounds fantastic to me. Seriously, I would have bought the album on this quote alone.

But, I've been going to a lot of concerts in Belgium and of the people I've seen (LCD Soundsystem, Andrew Bird, Joanna Newsom, Akron/Family, Deerhoof, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Air) The only band that's been recognised more than once is Cocorosie. And everybody has been very jealous about that one. It was sold out. I mean, as far as I can tell, they're more famous than Air here.

― I know, right?, Friday, 20 April 2007 09:33 (seventeen years ago) link

That quote is from the Pitchfork review btw.

― I know, right?, Friday, 20 April 2007 09:33 (seventeen years ago) link

i've been on the fence because i've thought in the past that they had interesting ideas which at some point they might do something with, but the new album is just so...mediocre, so amateur, so comfortable in its refusal to make any kind of artistic progress, so hokey.

― lex pretend, Friday, 20 April 2007 09:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Really? I think it has a kind of frazzled eight year old psychedelia that comes over really well.

― I know, right?, Friday, 20 April 2007 09:52 (seventeen years ago) link

I think, rich kids in the attic, awaiting a genuine crisis, making fey and pretty tunes before the deluge. I should know. After the deluge, if they're not too rich to cushion it, we'll see what they've got. In the meantime, cute, fatuousl, smug.

― moley, Friday, 20 April 2007 10:08 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah it has this air of..."sigh. do we need to write a melody here? make an effort to convey anything in our voices? hire a producer? ...nah, whatever."

― lex pretend, Friday, 20 April 2007 10:18 (seventeen years ago) link

Who edits Joanna Newsom? I could do that job.

― braveclub, Friday, 20 April 2007 10:32 (seventeen years ago) link

"Editor-at-large, Joanna Newsom"

― braveclub, Friday, 20 April 2007 10:55 (seventeen years ago) link

one month passes...

I quite like the new album. The serious sister's vocals reminds me of one of the female vocalists on the Bows album a lot - and a lot of the music has that same ornate papery trip hop vibe too.

― Tim F, Tuesday, 5 June 2007 01:02 (sixteen years ago) link

and isn't their last name Casady?...(not exactly the Bows LP title, but you get my drift)...

― henry s, Tuesday, 5 June 2007 19:05 (sixteen years ago) link

eleven months pass...

http://hypem.com/track/550970

― danbunny, Sunday, 18 May 2008 15:33 (fifteen years ago) link

http://www.concertgebouworkest.nl/nieuws/nieuws-detail.asp?id=355&cnt=3

― danbunny, Sunday, 18 May 2008 15:41 (fifteen years ago) link

ummmm

― RabiesAngentleman, Sunday, 18 May 2008 16:44 (fifteen years ago) link

yeah,,umm

― danbunny, Sunday, 18 May 2008 16:53 (fifteen years ago) link

so maybe it's better that Cocorosie at least kinda engage with (their weird blackness issues)

^^^kinda seriously questioning this

― RabiesAngentleman, Sunday, 18 May 2008 17:02 (fifteen years ago) link

engage
enrage
engorge
dislodge
hodgepodge
resolve
implore

― danbunny, Sunday, 18 May 2008 17:05 (fifteen years ago) link

i like th look of some of th orchestra players faces in that dutch video

― danbunny, Sunday, 18 May 2008 17:06 (fifteen years ago) link

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