Why does Europe love CocoRosie so much?

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what label was it????

― scott seward, Friday, 30 March 2007 17:21 (seventeen years ago) link

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

deej on Wednesday, 28 March 2007 21:22 (Yesterday)
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i do realize that made it sound like i think sean john is a person

deej on Wednesday, 28 March 2007 21:23 (Yesterday)

Oh I get it, deej, because Sean John Combs is black, you consider him less than a whole person? COCORACIST!

― Alex in Baltimore, Friday, 30 March 2007 17:22 (seventeen years ago) link

Also SOMA is sick of being asked about it. He's had those questions for years. It's hardly a free ride. It's not his fault magazines you write for/Read are late to the party!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 30 March 2007 17:24 (seventeen years ago) link

haha xp

― deej, Friday, 30 March 2007 17:26 (seventeen years ago) link

the irony is that he's sweet talking africans into a boat and they don't know that they are actually going to be slaves!

Yeah but Scott I think the part of it that resonates is that the "sweet talk" he's using is (in parts) the same kind of patriotic sweet talk Americans fervently believe / repeat about the country. (Though he maybe muddles by lapsing into other kinds of irony, like the watermelon and buckwheat cake part.) It's basically just a Pied Piper song, except it puts you in a weird position by having the Pied Piper sing for where you already are!

― nabisco, Friday, 30 March 2007 17:36 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, that's the problem. Who is this song directed to, really? What's being mocked? Again, it just reads as an attempt to say some unpleasant stuff, justified by the invulnarable armor of "satire".

― Pye Poudre, Friday, 30 March 2007 17:50 (seventeen years ago) link

OK Scott I gotta clear this up for you. The narrator of "Sail Away" is describing his activities as he would like to have them remembered. In truth, he (along with crews of armed sailors) is brutalizing whole villages and forcing them into a cargo hold where many of them will die on the long journey over. Newman is, as nabisco points out, observing that many of the lies about America which the slave trader likes to imagine are true are also beliefs held by Americans now. And, probably, forever.

it's sorta one of the most horribly sadistic songs ever, and by setting it in one of his most lushly realized melodies, Newman's commenting on the almost narcotic appeal of America-as-Myth; on how deep some of the lies underlying the country's history run, and how they can resonate even with people who know they're bullshit.

Coco Rosie aren't really capable of anything like "Sail Away" but I love their new album

― Hans Rott, Friday, 30 March 2007 17:50 (seventeen years ago) link

haha pye poudre you are a weirdo

― deej, Friday, 30 March 2007 17:52 (seventeen years ago) link

(the entire album addresses other versions of this theme - "the past was wonderful and innoncent" (Dayton Ohio 1903, Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear), "father knows best" (Letter to My Son), "no-one understands the suffering of the impossibly rich and successful" (Lonely at the Top), etc etc)

― Hans Rott, Friday, 30 March 2007 17:53 (seventeen years ago) link

"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

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