Respectable

I kind of burned myself out on Nellie McKay last year. I loved 'Get Away From Me', but after listening to it a lot, the cleverness of the lyrics kind of die after a while, because you know what's going to happen next. It kind of becomes boring. And that was a problem for that album, because the lyrics carried a lot of it. Not that the music was bad, it just wasn't enough to bring me back after awhile. This would have been fine since this was all happening around the time that 'Pretty Little Head', McKay's follow up album was supposed to get released. But then it didn't. And then, in January, it wasn't released again. And then Sony dropped her from the label, and McKay went off to do 'The Three Penny Opera' on broadway. And I kind of moved on. Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, Lily Allen, Regina Spektor - they all released albums in the last year that kind of filled my alternative angry girl pop need. Not that my alternative angry girl pop need can ever be filled. Which brings me to Tuesday, when 'Pretty Little Head' was finally released on McKay's own Hungry Mouse label. Well, it came out on Tuesday, but I wasn't able to get it till Wednesday, but on the plus side, I got lunch at the pirogi factory - that's right, an entire restaurant devoted to pirogis. And an added bonus - I'm pretty sure the woman working the counter was a Bond girl in a former life.

It turned out to be the best Wednesday ever, because not only were the pirogis delicious, but the album is fantastic. I've realized that I've been using the word fantastic a lot lately, mostly because I like the way it sounds, so if anyone has a suggestion for a new word, well, that would be fantastic. The music is a lot tighter, the lyrics are still really smart, kd Lang guests on a song, which I'm pretty sure was on the Rumour Has It soundtrack, because they keep saying "Rumour has it" over and over again. So other than the visualizations of Jennifer Aniston and Rob Reiner cinematically violating the memory of 'The Graduate', it's a really enjoyable album. Here's a video for 'Real Life', which isn't that stunning, but the odd scenes of running in the dark and playing in a secluded cabin for a bunch of old people gives you a real feel for what this album is like (I meant that in a good way):



The Hold Steady, and especially front man Craig Finn, seem to believe in the same literary lyrics approach that McKay takes to writing. Which also might explain why they've put out three albums in as many years, if my idea of lyrical burnout has any merit. But I think 'Boys And Girls In America' finally overcomes that, when Finn actually tries to start singing, which makes the music much more noticeable, and enjoyable. I also love the fact that these guys are an ugly band. And not like, in the Weezer way, where they're weird looking but people still think the lead singer is cute, but honest to goodness ugly people. You wouldn't look at these guys twice if they weren't playing, which means they have to everything through the music. Or dress up like Zorro. (I like this video, but I think it falls into the kind of gimmicky, Blink-182 territory that a band as smart as The Hold Steady doesn't deserve to be in)



Also, I've been up all night, though I haven't been able to watch television because my roommate just bought the new Final Fantasy game and Holy God I hate myself for typing this sentence. Sorry. Anyway, I ended up trolling YouTube the entire night. Hence this post. But, it brings up the serious question of, when you mix Jenny Lewis, Sarah Silverman, and He-Haw together, is the result destined to be the greatest thing in the world?



Yeah. Pretty much. Also, in the wake of the Google buy out, where the world of YouTube, a utopian land of freedom and old videos of Mr. T calling people fools, has been transformed into a world of corporations bickering over copy right violations and kittens falling asleep, it interesting to see who the new emerging stars are. In the olden days of, last month, people loved the earnest kids talking into their cameras. They were all about the lonelygirl15s. But now that we're down to business, people aren't even pretending anymore. They just want to be Catwoman:



Plus, she uses the Pipettes. Segue!



They would have made a fantastic Haloween costume for you and two friends, but no, you had to be the sexy mental patient. Also, I'm sorry I said fantastic again. I'm working on it, I promise.