Girl Rock Can Save the World #3

I don't care what drugs she's most definitely on, I don't care how shitty the video was (it ends with black, then the words "R.I.P. Amy Winehouse's Heart" show up), I don't care how fairly (if entrancingly) terrifying she is, the title track from Amy Winehouse's Back to Black is a legitimately incredible song.

I mean, the chorus? Come on. If you don't get all goosebumpy and wrapped up in shivers, there's something wrong with you.

Oh, and this is to say nothing of the version of her song "You Know I'm No Good" featuring GHOSTFACE.

Girl Rock Can Save the World #2

A Short List of Reasons (On a Much Longer List) Of Why St. Vincent's Marry Me Is Great

1) There are some decidedly non-melodic guitar riffs at the end of the first song, “Now Now”, that remind me of similar guitar riffs at the end of Wilco’s “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart”. Reminding me of that song is never, ever a bad thing.
2) The words and the way she starts to deliver the line, “While Jesus is saving, I’m spending all my days in the backgrounds and landscapes and languages of saints,” in the song “Jesus Saves, I Spend” that is (to my ears) a clear homage to the way Patti Smith sings, “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine,” at the beginning of “Gloria”.
3) The refrain of “Now Now” is a group of childlike voices repeating, “You don’t mean that, say you’re sorry,” which are instantly rebuffed by Annie Clark’s deathly serious “I’ll make you sorry.”
4) “Your Lips Are Red” starts off sounding like The Knife and Liars fucking.
5) Her disheveled appearance on the cover does absolutely nothing to prepare you for her cool, refined sound.
6) The entirety of the song “Human Racing” makes me giddy.
7) She has the balls to reference Mad Magazine. (“What, Me Worry?”)
8) Her “Dear John” approach to the title track makes me think (hope) that she’s actually asking me (please?).

Girl Rock Can Save the World #1

The two men behind Jason and me in line were of the opinion that, “when I got older,” I would learn how bad Grizzly Bear was. In time, I would grow to understand what they already understood, that Grizzly Bear and bands like Grizzly Bear sucked it hard, and that the only music really worth a damn came from Britain. (This last part was inferred.)

These two gentlemen, in their late twenties or early thirties, had seen Jarvis [Cocker] (who has Madonna’d himself for some reason) and were disappointed by the opening band, The Dirty Projectors, whose songs “didn’t make any sense.” “They’re like Sigur Rós’ retarded cousin,” one of them said. I would have pointed out the irony in the fact that they were telling me what I wasn’t going to like in ten years while they were still going to shows of a guy whose band had its heyday ten years ago, but there was one common bond between the four of us that transcended any generation gap we may have encountered:

We were all waiting for autographs from The Pipettes.

In what I hope will be an ongoing series of posts, “Girl Rock Can Save the World” will explore various bands, songs, specific girls, etc., in hopes of unifying each and every person under the banner of catchy, intelligent, girl-fronted music.

A friend of mine from school, one of the more metal kids I know, has a tendency to call a lot of things “gay” or “fucking stupid.” Things that fall in to these categories for him could be dear friends of his, Modest Mouse, the movie Volver… pretty much anything. However, in what must be some of his weaker moments, he has been known to voice his love for The Cardigans’ “Lovefool.”

A great Girl Rock song can bring together even the most diverse people. Think about everyone you know who loved “Since U Been Gone.” If you’re like me, that list probably literally encompasses everyone you know. The free Pipettes in-store performance and signing brought together frumpy, middle-aged dudes, dads with their ten-year-old daughters, twenty-something couples, and three kids who leaned against the wall looking cool the entire time, one of whom was wearing an Anti-Flag t-shirt.

Sights like that give me hope. Hope that everyone’s respective differences can be put aside for some good, old-fashioned pop music. And, when I say pop music, I don’t necessarily mean Billboard Hot 100-worthy stuff, even though some of it can be really awesome. Lord knows The Pipettes will never see a Number 1 hit on the Billboard charts (unless the world becomes a much better place than it is right now). I just mean a group of girls (and guys, if they want to come along for the ride,) who put their voices together to make the world a better place.

So I’m calling upon you, The Pipettes, Girls Aloud, Lucky Soul, Vanessa Carlton, Natasha Bedingfield, Hello Saferide, Kelly Clarkson. You are music’s freewill ambassadors to the world. You must go forth, bringing Outkast and Gnarls Barkley with you, to spread your message of peace, love, and sexyfuntimes to a human race that desperately needs some sexyfuntimes.