Every Bookmark Tells A Story

Looking at the songs I've bookmarked since the last time I did this, I'm wondering If I might have had an agenda. Some are just really good songs, or songs I really like, or new songs by people I favor, but several I've clearly noted down because I had some sort of point to make or because I thought I might hang some anecdote or story from them. 

Is that good? Does it suggest some sort of structure or - god forbid - plan? Dunno. I guess... just pull a few up and see what happens?

Supergirl - Springbok Nude Girls

That's a place to start, isn't it? Blimey, charlie! I'm guessing no-one's heard of the band unless I have any readers in South Africa, which is where they're from and where they were, as far as I can gather, quite well-known at one time. 

I'd never heard of them until a week ago. You might assume, with good reason, I only discovered they existed because of the title, which would clearly have caught my interest. I mean, I have an entire blog dedicated to the Maid of Steel in my feeds... (I thought it was in the blogroll as well but it's not... it is now!)

That's not how it happened. Something else by them came up, purely at the whim of the algorithm, and unsurprisingly I found the band's name click-worthy. I mean who wouldn't? Presumably that's why they picked it. 

With some trepidation I clicked on it and it turned out to be an alt-rock band in the vein of, oh, I don't know... Faith No More, maybe? Eleventh Dream Day?  Even The Church, dare I say it? Something in that area. 

I do have a weakness for that kind of ragged, blissed-out braggadocio so I carried on listening and it was pretty good. That track wasn't Supergirl, it was Blue Eyes, which I think is their best-known song in their homeland, which is presumably the only place any of their songs are well-known. I liked it enough to see what else they'd done and that was how I came across Supergirl. Once found it I obviously had to be heard and now here we are, all listening to it together.

As to whether it has anything to do with the actual Supergirl, I have no idea. If anyone can make out the words, perhaps you'd like to let the rest of us know what they're about. The lyrics aren't anywhere online that I can find. I bet it has nothing to do with Kara Zor-El, though.

Tell me I never knew that

caroline ft. Caroline Polachek

Looks like I'm doing all the ones with a story attached first... Okay then.

So, Last week I was reading a really good novel by Holly Brickley called Deep Cuts.  It's out in hardback and I'd seen it a few times at work without thinking much about it until one day at lunch I noticed a proof of it lying around, which had presumably been there for a few months at least. I picked it up out of curiosity and read on the blurb that it used the "indie sleaze" era of the noughties as a setting, a period I slept through, musically-speaking, thanks to EverQuest, but which I'm now starting to rediscover for myself with all the inauthentic fervor of any young person mining a golden age for nuggets. The irony is stifling.

It's a very good novel. I wholly recommend it. Since I read the proof, not the published version, I'm legally obliged neither to review it or quote from it (Says so right on the cover.) but I doubt Harper Collins are going to sue me for saying it's a great read with relatable characters and a lot of very interesting background detail about the period. Also a huge number of specific songs get mentioned, many of them very good. I'm thinking of doing a YouTube playlist of them all. 

Anyway, the story features the formation of a band called Caroline and when the main character hears that's what they're going to call themselves... let's say she doesn't think it's a great idea. But it's the name of the lead singer's dead mother so she really can't say much against it. 

I don't know why caroline called themselves caroline or why they chose not to capitalize but it was weird that they turned up in my recommends at the same time I was reading the book. I listened to the song because of that but I'd most likely have listened to it anyway because of Caroline Polachek's involvement. I don't know if the band would want to hear it or not but the song really goes somewhere else, somewhere better, when she comes in.

In Heaven - Princess Chelsea

This is a cover of the song from Eraserhead sometimes known as the Lady in the Radiator Song. It's Princess Chelsea's tribute to the late David Lynch and it absolutely does the great man justice. Princess Chelsea can do no wrong.

I'm a very poor example of a David Lynch fan. If asked, before he died, I would have said he was one of my favorite film-makers. Still would, actually, although now I've had cause to think about it I'm not convinced it's a justifiable position for me to take. After all, how many of his movies have I even seen?

Not many. Blue Velvet, which made a huge impression on me and did quite a lot to shape my taste in cinema back in the eighties. Wild at Heart, which ditto. And Fire: Walk With Me, of course, but that's Twin Peaks at the movies. Apart from that, though... well, I own Mulholland Drive but I haven't watched it. 

I've never seen his most commercially successful movie, The Elephant Man, or his big-budget mainstream miss, Dune, and I've only seen part of Eraserhead, late one night, when I came home and switched the TV on and there it was, half-way done. Most of my reverence for Lynch comes from his TV work with Twin Peaks, not so much from the movies.

And this sounds straight out of Twin Peaks. Which is great!

Laid - Miya Folick (James cover)

Another cover. Seems I've given up on saving the good ones for covers posts. Probably just as well.

For some reason, every time I see Miya Folick's name I think she's one of the actors out of Stranger Things. That, in fact, is pretty much the only reason I clicked on this, when it came up as a recommendation. It certainly wasn't because of James. I don't like James.

Miya Folick is not in Stranger Things and if I was going to be less hipster about it, I probably do like James. I mean, I don't want to like them and I for sure don't want to admit to liking them but I do perk up when I hear one of their big, rollicking, singalong refrains and they are the sound of good times in the sunshine, so it seems a bit churlish to pretend I don't appreciate it.

That, though, is where covers are the hipster's friend. They allow people who are too cool to like people who aren't cool enough and to enjoy things that are popular without it looking too much like that's what they're doing. So, thanks Miya, for not being in a super-popular TV show and for covering a very catchy song I'd otherwise not be listening to right now.

 Kratom Headache Girls Night - Asher White

I only listened to this in the first place because of the odd title and the first thing I did after I'd heard it was google what "Kratom" meant. So now I have that in my search history. Thanks Asher.

There was a time when I'd have known but that time was long ago. I don't even like it any more when my thoughts aren't entirely mine. Funny, that. When I was an adolescent it was close to my dream, to get out of my head, even though I was always comfortable enough inside it. It was never a desire to escape from anything, more a wish to find a way to somewhere else, somewhere interesting things might be happening.

Later, when it had just become a thing we did, the thing I did, the thing that made the world a more interesting place for me, was to sharpen it, not warp or hide or reshape it. And now I just prefer to leave it as it is and work around the parts I don't like. I don't even drink any more. Well, barely ever. Like a couple of times a year.

I'm not going to be giving Kratom a go, that's what I'm saying. Especially if it's going to give me a headache. 

Also, parts of the melody remind me the hell of something else but I can't quite figure what it is. Driving me nuts...

Personal Film Reel - Izzy Provenzano

Getting anyone to look at a YouTube channel is a challenge. Too big a challenge for most people. Almost all videos that get uploaded - nearly fifteen billion by now - never get watched by anyone. Well, okay, not quite, because the person who uploaded them probably watched them once or twice, just to check they were working. 

In fact, according to a recent BBC investigation, the median is 41 views. Getting past 130 puts you into the top third of watched content. I have several with that distinction although not on the new channel. I still have a final post to write about my AI Music Project and that's on setting up the YouTube channel for it. I won't pre-empt it here but I'll just say that it's my dream to have 41 views for anything I've posted there.

One thing making the channel has tipped me to is the extreme difficulty of getting any kind of traction at all. It's not just me. I've started to pay attention to how many views some of the videos I watch are getting and it varies wildly. 

I've long had a predilection for posting obscurities here, artists and songs and videos that have been on YouTube for a while - years, often - and still have hardly any views, even though they're excellent in some way or other. It doesn't surprise me that there's truly great work going unseen. What I hadn't noticed and what does surprise me is that many of the songs I'm finding through reviews or news items on the likes of Pitchfork, Stereogum or NME also have extremely low view counts, even after a few weeks. 

More surprising still are the relatively tiny viewing numbers for new videos by bands whose names I see cropping up often, working bands who get played on the radio and draw audiences at clubs or in small tents at festivals. Sometimes, not that uncommonly, they have fewer views by a margin than their channels have subscribers.

The Asher White track, for example, which I saw promoted on at least two large music sites, has managed just 800 views in two weeks. The official video for Witch Post's magnificent single The Wolf has four thousand views after a month and they're a real buzz band in certain circles just now. As for Izzy Provenzano, who put that rather professional video together, it's been a week and thirty-four views. 

Something's killing video stars and I doubt it's the radio.

Caterpillar - Florence Road

If we're talking buzz bands... 

I've seen them compared to the early Cranberries. Actually, I've seen it said that the two are all but indistinguishable. Seems odd to me. I never liked the Cranberries but I like Florence Road. It's certainly a very old-fashioned sound, though. The Cranberries were definitively '90s but this sounds almost seventies at times. 

Well, that was succinct for a change. Let's see if I can keep it up and get a few more in before the end.

 Headphones On - Addison Rae

Here's someone who doesn't starve for views. 2.3m in two weeks. Until very recently I wasn't aware Addison Rae was a TikTok graduate. I mean, I know all music comes to us through a TikTok filter now but she actually was a TikTok star with a huge following (88m) before she started acting, then singing. She's been mega-famous for more than five years but the first time I paid any attention to her was with Diet Pepsi, which I loved.

I love this one, too, especially that two-note whine at the end, which reminds me so stirringly of Venice Bitch. I could hear that used a lot more. I seriously do not care if people were influencers or reality TV stars or if they're industry plants or nepo babies. Who gives a fuck? It's all about the work, or it should be, and if the work is as good as this...

 What Was That - Lorde

Been a while since I liked a Lorde song. I wanted to like Solar Power but I really didn't, much. Then there was the stunning collab with CharliXCX and suddenly she's right back. This feels new and desperate in the best way. And since I've been talking numbers - 2.8m views in a week.

She's back, alright.

Poplife - umru & underscores

I really wanted to end with Model/Actriz' latest, Diva and ElleBarbara doing Operating Thetan: Unknown because they're bangers but neither has a video yet and it seems like a lame way to finish, with statics. Do click through, though.

Instead, I'm going with the ever-reliable underscores followed by Lexie Liu for an all-pop ending that's really no pop at all. Well, pop-art, maybe.

Pop Girl - Lexie Liu

And with that, we're done. A few didn't make the cut but maybe they will next time. Music isn't milk, after all. It doesn't go off just because you leave it standing around for a while.