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Atlanta Mall Goths The Swear Strive For Suburban Success

 

The Swear are Atlanta young people (three boys, one girl) who have every intention of making it big. Their press bio looks like a frigging resumé – long boring lists of TV shows they’ve landed their songs on ( Rescue Me, Roswell, Smallville); movies they’ve ditto (Surreal, Cross Country, By Chance); endorsements (Gretsch, Gibson, Marshall); contest successes (“Rolling Stone/Ray-Ban ‘Never Hide Your Music’ finalist”); web stuff (“#1 track In All Genres and a Featured Artist on NumberOneMusic.com”); radio stuff (“Arizona Jeans Radio Free Arizona featured artist”); “Noteworthy Performances and Conferences” (who the heck cares); you name it. Ambitious little strivers trying to impress the gatekeepers of a dying biz – that’s pretty much what rock music has come to these days, right? Maybe it’s the economy’s fault; it’s not like bohemian messing-around is all that viable an option anymore, at least not for provincial tykes not born with silver trust funds in their mouths.  Still -- do bands like this actually have fun, or is it just a job? The Swear’s music is not especially joyful, to my ears. Odd thing is, I kind of like it anyway.

Singling Out 2008: Glasvegas, F*ck*d Up, Sam Sparro, more

Once upon a time -- like, two decades ago -- jolly old England's New Musical Express used to come up with incredibly diverse, educational and intriguing best-of-the-year lists as a matter of course. But for years now, the venerable paper has tried to pass off the silly lie that the best music comes from pasty and undernourished white lads who can neither sing nor rock. Though their best-of-'08 lists seem to fall firmly in the latter tradition, that's not going to stop me from bravely trolling through a few mysterious titles from this year's Top 50 Singles to see if any might be worthy, just as I've previously done with several Best-Singles-of-08 lists from other places. To wit:

Singling Out 2008: Duffy, Solange Knowles, Delta Goodrem, Shwayze, more

Time to sample more of the singles I've never sampled before from Blender magazine's "Top 144 Songs of 2008" list! Just like I did with other ones last week! Will I like them or not?

He Said/She Said: Beyoncé/Sasha Fierce

Chris Ryan: I am ... underwhelmed. Usually doubles are so conceptually robust that they demand the extra acreage; or they come at a time in an artist's career where the fever pitch of creativity demands a big canvas. This joint is about as long as Thriller and despite all the talking-points memos going around about B's beguiling "split personality," the two poles of Beyoncé seem to be "slow jams" and "club bangers."

Angela Bruno: I am ... going to ignore 85 percent of this album. Or, I'm gonna wind up saying something I'll regret. Like, oh, her artistic bipolarity only reminds me of that commercial for a product-which-shall-remain-nameless where a woman sees her totally-slummed-out-on-the-inside reflection in the mirror due to a lack of "freshness." Which, actually, is quite applicable here. (Forgive me Sasha, for I know not what I say!) I feel like I'm betraying a good friend, like LC and Audrina or vice versa (depending on whose side you're on). What happened to that brickhouse-ness that only B'Day can invoke?!?! Sigh. I may have to disagree with you on the acreage, though. B covers a whole lotta ground: Buzz Lightyear ("Single Ladies": "Here's a man that makes me then takes me/and delivers me to a destiny/ to infinity and beyond"), Dave Matthews ("Smash Into You," ummm "Crash Into Me"), Renée Zelweger (in Jerry McGuire, "Hello"), Pavarotti ("Ave Maria," WTF?), career criminal ("Diva": "this is a stick up, stick up"), you know. Shall we dissect (further)?

Ten Singers Who Should've Made the Rolling Stone List

Rolling Stone recently ranked its 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. The list is packed with legendary artists, plus features a handful of celebrity columnists gushing over their fave crooners (Billy Joel on Ray Charles: “He was the minister and I was the congregation”). As with any all-time-greatest list, it’s also riddled with questionable choices and glaring omissions – at least that’s how I see it. With help from Rhapsody Pop Editor Rachel Devitt, I’ve compiled 10 artists who could and should be included in any serious conversation about great singers. Some are obvious, many obscure and a few will have you muttering, “What the … ?”

Have a read as we stoke further controversy!

Singling Out 2008: The Raveonettes, Lykke Li, Busta Rhymes, Jessica Simpson, more

More 2008 singles that other people of wealth and taste think are great, and maybe I'll agree or maybe or I won't  (see also these two previous posts). This time, from the running best-of-the-year list on New Yorker critic Sasha Frere-Jones' blog. Here goes:

Q&A: Lady GaGa

Lady GaGa is a whole lotta diva, a fountain of X-rated pop goodies with a couture edge, a blend of "glitter mixed with rock 'n' roll," as she says it best on the bubblegummy-bad-girl number "Boys, Boys, Boys." Born and raised in the Big Apple, GaGa, whose name was inspired by the  Queen hit "Radio Ga-Ga," groomed herself for success from the ground up, fine-tuning her in-your-face performance glam-art since her early teens at open mics. She left NYU's Tisch School of the Arts to pave her own way, gigging around New York's Lower East Side. "I just started to bring my music from club to club," says GaGa. "I'd lie and say I was Lady Gaga's manager and say, 'Uh, yeah, she's been really booked up for this month, but we could squeeze you in on Friday.' I'd make myself sound bigger than I was." She was eventually discovered, signed-and-dropped, then signed again, having since penned songs for the Pussycat Dolls. Her debut album, The Fame, is 100-percent disco debauchery, taking on the standard themes of the night  -- partying, intoxication, sexual provocation -- or so it seems. Lady GaGa is a mistress of illusion. Here, Rhapsody's November Ones to Watch artist explains how.

[Click the "Continue Reading..." link to listen to a playlist featuring the music discussed in this post.]

Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Singers of All-Time

Now that the election's all settled and there's some dead time between now and your dysfunctional family's Thanksgiving dinner, I bet you're sitting there thinking, "What am I going to argue and fight about for the next 10 days!" Well, leave it to Rolling Stone to answer your prayers. They've got a new list out, enumerating the 100 Greatest Singers of All-Time, and it's sure to cause some Lincoln vs. Douglas-/Coke vs. Pepsi-level debate.

He Said/She Said: R.I.P. TRL

Rachel: So, MTV's Total Request Live is set to end its 10-year run, airing its final episode this Friday and a good-bye bash on November 16. In honor of the long-running request show, Rhapsody's Rock editor, Nate Cavalieri, and our Pop editor (that would be yours truly, Rachel Devitt) decided to have a little conversation about its legacy, which I, poptimist that I am, think is fairly significant. Nate is a bit more cynical, however. And off we go.

OK, yes, one of TRL's most significant "gifts" to the world has been Carson Daly (seriously, can we regift that one?), but I also think the show has carved out -- and deserves -- a special place in music history. It's been host to lots of important pop cultural events: the beginnings of the boy band phenomenon; Mariah's popsicle-laden meltdown/striptease; the first official report of Britney Spears's split from K-Fed. For a good chunk of its run, TRL was an important barometer of popular culture. Not to mention it's been one of the only places you can actually see, uh, music videos on the music video network (even if they aren't full clips).

Nate: Rachel, if I wake up on Christmas morning to find a wobbling refrigerator box that stinks of Axe body spray, I'm re-regifting Carson right back to you. I'll go along for the ride that TRL deserves a special place in the annals of pop culture, but, at the risk of coming off like a curmudgeonly fishing buddy of Walter Matthau, the cancellation of the show was a mercy killing after so many years of TRL hobbling along like a crippled old nag. Sure, it made waves during its short and juicy peak, but, like the cast of twits that dominated its charts – the thrill was quickly gone. Its place in the pop-culture scrap heap is somewhere near the Star Trek franchise – enormously popular, increasingly wretched and ultimately unwatchable. As for it being the only place on MTV to see actual music videos, sure, maybe if the video was number one. But if it wasn't number one, they only played part of it! I know but slogging through an entire three-minute video is rough, but, sigh, I want the M back in MTV!

Dig This! School of Seven Bells, Curumin, San Quinn

Welcome to the November 2008 version of Dig This! Every month, Rhapsody’s editorial staff will introduce you to a few artists you may not know, give you a chance to check out their music, and present them in their own words -- watch this space for upcoming features on the individual artists. Oh, and we’ll throw you some free downloads from them, too.

This month in Dig This!:
Curumin, a Brazilian of Spanish-Japanese descent who fell in love with American hip-hop and Jorge Ben at the same time.

San Quinn, an underground rap legend in the Bay Area, prolific and celebrated locally, but only now starting to break out on the national stage.

School of Seven Bells, a Brooklyn trio that combines gorgeous harmonies, a world of rhythms and some ecstatic studio sense to create beautiful psychedelic pop jams.

[Click the "Continue Reading..." link to listen to a playlist featuring the music discussed in this post.]