M.I.A: Come Walk With Me

Over the weekend M.I.A tweeted "mannnnnnn , days like this i wanna jus upload the songs right now and go clime the himalays with ikhyd on my back." and followed that up with a two minute preview of the video for a new track 'Come Walk With Me'. The song sounds dope, the video so far looks cool and is definitely visually arresting. I'm hoping once the entire thing is released we'll get to see the ladies at the back in the yellow tops come forward and have a dance but aside from that, all I have to say is I can't wait to hear her new album. 

ELLA FITZGERALD Is My Homegirl

Happy belated birthday to the "First Lady of Song" and enjoy your weekends.

The Pram In The Hall

The other day, Jezebel.com published an article criticising a piece on xoJane.com about a 30-something single man's experience with one of those “crazy” women who, like, tell guys that they're interested in them and reply to texts and stuff. Jenna took the opportunity to briefly explore the history of calling women crazy, and she made some interesting points which moved me to think of how this cultural framework has affected/is affecting women in music.

She writes, “As a term, 'crazy' is entirely of a piece with the long and nasty tradition of pathologizing female emotion (and particularly sexuality). Hysteria comes from hystera, the Greek word for uterus, after all: "crazy" has been a gendered trait in Western culture for thousands of years. The male gaze was for virtually all of human history synonymous with the medical gaze, and men assigned themselves the authority to determine which bodies are sick and which are hale. (In some U.S. states, they still arrogate that right.)” I would add that this “pathologizing (of) female emotion” applies particularly to creative women, and can do the most harm in this area.

I don't think I'd be reaching in saying that women who are especially atypical or outlandish in their art inspire a certain brand of dismissiveness which their male (or mainstream) counterparts do not. They're “crazy”, “eccentric” and rarely, if ever, exalted as musical geniuses the way men like Brian Eno, Thom Yorke or David Bowie are. Their music is almost never reviewed in a positive way without first being prefaced as something crazy, seemingly by virtue of it being strange and being created by a woman. Yoko Ono, Lydia Lunch and Nina Hagen come to mind.

A few years ago, not long after Björk's album Volta had been released, Luiza Sauma wrote a great article for the Independent about this phenomenon. She proposes (and I'm inclined to agree) that their lack of mainstream feminine indicators like diets and plastic surgery – à la Madonna or Dolly Parton – is off-putting to a lot of men. Sauma asks, “Why is it that one of the greatest musicians of the last 15 years is still pigeonholed as an elfish eccentric, when so many of her male peers (Oasis, Blur, Nirvana, Radiohead - the list goes on) are so readily accepted into the pantheon of musical immortality?” And then there's this: “Rowan Pelling - journalist and Kate Bush super-fan - has various theories on why brilliant female musicians never reach the god-like status of, say, Bob Dylan. 'Music critics are historically quite macho,' she explains. 'So that Dylan worship, for example, is a given... I'm a huge Kate Bush fan; she sings the interior landscape for women, just as Paula Rego paints it. I think it leaves men bewildered.'”

All good points, but a disheartening situation nonetheless. Is there something inherently threatening or ridiculous about a woman who makes experimental music and is asking to be taken seriously as an artist? A woman who isn't interested in denying or simplifying her gender? As Luiza Sauma points out, musicians like Björk and Kate Bush and, more recently, Joanna Newsom, are frequently burdened with adjectives like “pixie” and “elfin” as if they're mythical creatures from another universe. Apparently one where women can make creative music without being treated like medievil novelties.

But the thing is, they're actual humans with actual butt loads of talent. And if a music critic can't take these incredible artists seriously, then I think we all need to stop and think about who the crazy one is.

Cat Power Power!

"Chan Marshall (a.k.a Cat Power) announced on Twitter this weekend that her new album will be called Sun and will be out 9/11 on Matador Records." (via Minneapolis Fucking Rocks)



Talk about a beam of sunshine on this rainy London day. Thank you, Chan!