TITLE Tuesday: Issue No. 6 – Analogue Transit, Fever Ray

Hot off the presses, it’s TITLE Magazine!

Featuring:

Analgoue Transit – Gearheart Review (pg. 89)

and Fever Ray – Fever Ray Deluxe LP Review (pg. 90)

Plus a whole slew of other worthwhile content for the literate

Best Coast – pg. 71

and the illiterate

Sam Green – pg. 43

Jess Atkinson – pg. 11

Watch This Space: Art doesn’t discriminate

Music Monday Melange: February 1, 2009

Post-Grammy “What I’m Digging That They Didn’t” Playlist – aka “Welcome to Hipster Heartbreak”

Today we’ve got some monsters, some mavens, some Basement Jaxx, some MGMT, some “Kids,” some Cudi, some Jeezy, some Common, some Lily, and some of her womanizing problems…

Has anybody seen my disco stick?

So, LoveGame… doesn’t play

Its remixes though… go harder than Baltimore: dig it, dug it, done

Paws for the cause: now dance.

No MGMT didn’t win either… so yes, they got a fair share of iPod airplay today – apropos as the Grammys were quite juvenile last night. Timeout: Grammys, meet the corner.

Misery loves company; her nickname is sorrow, her mister’s name is Cudi

Two birds, one stone, no Grammys

Lily Allen – proof that the UK and US: still hold grudges. British English is a crazy language: chips/fries, crisps/chips, lift/elevator, chavette/ke$ha, etc. Get this, what Q Magazine calls “Track of the Year” the Grammys don’t even have a word for – oh wait, “unlisted.” Crazy Brits and their slang.

Lily Allen – proof that covering Grammy nominated artists – no matter how well – doesn’t help your chances… or theirs. No shoes, no shirt, no service, no stauette.

Covering, collaborating; tomato/tomahto

Fear chills, Fame Kills

Now, what I’ve been digging Grammys notwithstanding

Basement Jaxx

Playlist:

Lady GaGa – LoveGame (Space Cowboy Remix)
- LoveGame
- LoveGame (Chester French Remix)
- LoveGame (Chew Fu Remix) ft. Marilyn Manson
- LoveGame (Party Rock Remx) ft. LMFAO
MGMT – Kids (Chiddy Bang Remix)
Kid Cudi – Pursuit of Happiness ft. MGMT and Ratatat
- Make Her Say ft. Kanye West and Common
Lily Allen – The Fear/Day ‘n’ Nite Interlude (Live at T-Mobile IN Music Festival)
- Womanizer (Live at the V Festival)
Common – Drivin’ Me Wild ft. Lily Allen
Kanye West – Amazing ft. Young Jeezy
Basement Jaxx – Hush Boy
- Bingo Bango
- Scars ft. Chipmunk, Kelis, and Meleka
- My Turn ft. Dev ‘Lightspeed Champion’ Hynes

Artist Flashlight: Greg Mike

This artist flashlight brings us back to the belly of the map – A.T.L.A.N.T.A. – to shine on the poptastic Greg Mike.

New York born and bred, but Tallahassee trained, this artist meshes graphic design, street art, creative, branding, and fashion design to create a style all too collaborative – but inevitably all is unique own.

Right when I was beginning to fumble and falter, this man made me remember why Forever I Love Atlanta – thank God for gallery exhibitions

Whether it’s his signature “Loudmouth” donning gravel, gates, ghettos, gas stations grills, and urban gardens

or his Popstarred Cokeheads graffitti-tatting your local brick walls

Like any true artist though, Mike is a staple in the streets and the sweets – from gutter to gallery

Greg Mike’s art is a melange; muppets with a bit more malice, globetrotting grills with a bit more “go getta,” Factory Pop Art with a bit more funk and fantasy, and graffiti with a thin layer of glitz over the grime: it’s street, it’s sweet, it’s a vibrantly tweaked teenage wasteland, it’s subterranean celebrity – it’s Popstars and Cokeheads.

I love Greg Mike’s art because it is so visceral. It’s like my current inner child. The characters are so unique and fantastical. They are so colorful and bright. It’s like Adult Swim. However, the emotions conveyed are polar to the surface depiction – it’s like animated apathy. The Coke cans and cartoon figures alike are multifaceted little monsters. There’s a bull in a suit steaming with passion, but standing stiffly – as a recently graduated Taurus I know that feeling all too well. There’s a monster with pencils in his ears, and another with ink spilling out – the personification, and antidote, to writer’s block. At the core is the underlying drug theme behind his latest pieces. It’s something that can’t be ignored or denied – especially here and now. However, that is exactly what the work expresses – the devillification of that problem. If you turn a cokehead into a kid’s cartoon figure, you demystify it and make it accessible… not any less impactful, just less detached and more real – through fantasy.

Honestly, I just like his work because it is fun, it is innate, it says something – it screams it without saying a word, it Pops, and it is so incredibly now.

Watch This Space:

2010: On To the Next One

2009: Out of sight, out of mind; 2010: eyes up, chin up, let’s get it in

Watch This Space: 2010 is looking too good for words. I want, you need, we deserve: art. It’s a renaissance. Hov is so clean, so dirty, so raw, so fierce, so stark, so stylistic. Last decade we saw facades, smoke, mirrors, bright colors, and flashing lights. Last decade, we saw where goldless glitter got us. When we tread a troubled track, our odds are stacked: we go back to black. Black is beautiful though. This is colourless color, the images pop off the screen with their crystal clarity. 2000-2009 was the decade of lost chances, not last chances. Pop music will never be low brow; it may have taken the backseat, but it’s locked and loaded riding shotgun now. The method and the message; the monsters and the madness; the chaos and the calm; the screams and the silence: it’s the post-apocalypse, and it’s time to catalyze the new creative class. They got a million ways to get it, choose one – Hov made it easy. Their blueprint has been displayed in black and white; get your paws out.

The Devil’s Midnight Train to Georgia: Monster Ball – Atlanta

One doesn’t review Lady GaGa: they display their point of view of GaGa. Monster Ball is built upon a forced perspective; but with one like GaGa, within that parallel universe, the rigidity of her forced perspective allows for the creative mind of a monster to roam and wander endlessly in a world all their own.

If you want a review, YouTube Monster Ball and peruse the comments – she won’t mind: “Why do you come to my show if you’ve already seen it on YouTube? I’m just kidding, I’m really glad you came to my show.”

In the words of the enigmatic Pop matriarch, Madonna:

“Today is the last day, that I’m using words; they’ve gone out, lost their meaning, don’t function anymore. Let’s get unconscious, honey.”

In the sea of GaGaisms you know the words, you know the lyrics, you know the soundbites. There’s plenty to say about Monster Ball, but for a proper delve, the words have lost meaning in and of themselves. So, come take a look through my lens, and let’s get unconscious.

Pretense: “This is the Manifesto Of Little Monsters. There’s something heroic about the way my fans operate their cameras. So precisely, so intricately, and so proudly – like kings writing the history of their people. It is their prolific nature that both creates and procures what will later be perceived as The Kingdom. So, the real truth about Lady GaGa fans – my little monsters – lies in this sentiment: They are the kings. They are the queens. They write the history of the kingdom, and I am something of a devoted Jester. It is in the theory of perception that we have established our bond – or, the lie, I should say – for which we kill. We are nothing without our image, without our projection, without the spiritual hologram of who we percieve ourselves to be, or rather to become, in the future.

When you’re lonely, I’ll be lonely too. And this is The Fame.

Love and Art
12/18/1974
Lady GaGa”

First there’s the atmosphere: Whether blurred technicolor, or crystal clear black and white, hazed, dazed, confused, or completely coherent, GaGa is, and creates, an inescapable environment of all-encompassing art

Then, there’s GaGa herself: the belle – beast, and bellhop – of the Ball

Finally, though, at the core of it all are the fans: her little monsters. They make the show happen. GaGa is as epic as they allow her to be. When she says she is like Tinkerbell and will die on stage unless they clap for her – I can’t help but see the seed of truth in that kinda-but-not-really-joke. A zeitgeist doesn’t joke about stuff like that – unless said humor is a la mode. To see GaGa is brilliant, but to see what she evokes in the crowd – as a whole, and as individuals – and vice versa, is the essence and lifeblood of The Kingdom. If this sounds that serious, it’s because it is – they will die for their art: she killed her boyfriend, just because it looked good on film. Even in Atlanta – Saxby Chambliss, Zell Miller, we-voted-for-and-subsequently-moved-to-impeach-Sonny-Purdue-solely-because-we-wanted-the-Confederate-flag-on-our-state-flag, we-were-the-hub-of-the-Civil-Rights-movement-because-racism-was-as-commonplace-as-peach-cobbler, “Impeach Obama,” yeah-we’ve-got-a-massive-gay-community-but-…-really?-don’t-get-it-twisted-this-ain’t-Frisco – Georgia, this woman had good ol’ boys, goths, cheerleaders, dawgs, war eagles, tigers, teeny-boppers, d-boys, hipsters, moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, sound technicians (did not know they could dance so well), your mom, pullin’ out their paws for the cause – when they weren’t paused, mouth agape, ears indulged, eyes glued – for the cause: half psychotic, sick hypnotic

Thus is the essence of the monster’s journey through the Ball: start solo dolo

fall into some familiar fiends

then meet the maker and get metaphysically unconscious

Thus is the Monster Ball: a perfectly focused blur… like a Henry Moore sculpture, wrapped in David LaChappelle photography, dancing to Bowie, while being filmed at The Factory

Watch this space:

Top 5 of 2009: Songs/Albums

Thanks to Winstone over at The Couch Sessions I compiled my Top 5 songs/albums of 2009 (actually without Winston I wouldn’t have even considered the feat).

True Pop is self-contextualizing. My “best of” list reflects those works that built this year in pop culture, by reflecting the end of an era – of shallow celebrity veiled behind assumed artistry. Pop done right is cohesive, not fragmented, and neither are its masterpieces. Pop done right is an atmosphere – artists create their own world. Below are 2009 Pop best artists’ songs in relation to albums – not songs, or albums, and artists. My top 5 best reflect the year they dictated: 2009 – The Death of The Fame’s Fear.

“D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)”/The Blueprint 3 – Jay-Z

Hov on that new sh*t n*ggas like how come/ N*ggas want my old sh*t, buy my old album
N*ggas stuck on stupid, I gotta keep it moving/ N*ggas make the same sh*t, me I make the blueprint

“Bad Romance”/The Fame Monster – Lady GaGa

Got no direction, just got my vamp/ Take a bite of my bad girl meat, take a bite of me
Show me your teeth

“The Fear”/It’s Not Me, It’s You – Lily Allen

I don’t know much, but I know this for certain/ And that is the sun poking its head round the curtain
Now please can we leave? I’d like to go to bed now/ It’s not just the sun that is hurting my head now
I’m not trying to say that I’m smelling of roses/ But when will we tire of putting sh*t up our noses
I don’t like staying up, staying up past the sunlight/ It’s meant to be fun and it just doesn’t feel right

“Colourless Colour”/La Roux – La Roux

My reflections are protections/ They will keep me from destruction
My directions are distractions/ When you’re ready, come into the light

“Man in the Mirror”/This is It – Michael Jackson

A willow deeply scarred/ Somebody’s broken heart
And a washed-out dream/ They follow the pattern of the wind, you see
Cause they got to place to be/ That’s why I’m starting with me

Artist Flashlight: NABIL Elderkin

This artist flashlight focuses on NABIL Elderkin: Mr. Welcome to Heartbreak

NABIL combined the most basic elements of 808s and Heartbreak – tech and raw humanity – to create this apropos masterpiece of 2009. Like West, NABIL did not try to beautify the chaos that catalyzed the creative process; he delved deeper into the distortion. In doing so, he reflected Kanye’s core and the video organically unfolded to reveal the method behind the mind of a tormented genius.

NABIL’s About: “i take photos and direct moving photos”

Now, a glimpse into the former

As above, so below – NABIL captures the essence of the glitz and the ghetto

In his spare time, he’s an ad man – like most mad men

Watch This Space: possibilities – limitless

Terry Urban Presents: Lady Stardust (Lady GaGa x David Bowie) Mixtape

Muh-muh-muh-Merry Christmas: Download

Watch This Space: Don’t think too much, just bust this kick – Ziggy Starstruck

DimePieces: In Case You Missed It – 2000

It being the last month of the decade everyone’s dropping their recaps of the 2000s thus far – Y2K bug, artists of the decade, monumental moments, etc. – but when I think of the decade in Pop I think back to the subtle moments – easily missed – that set the tone for everything that followed.

In case you missed it: Aaliyah’s “Try Again” was the decade’s first Female Video of the Year – a most apropos harbinger to the next 10 years of female pop and, oddly enough, politics as well.

“If at first you don’t succeed…”

“If you’re lookin’ for trouble, you came to the right place,” trouble: check; YouTube resolution as blurry as Brit’s that night: check.

but it wasn’t just this so-called

that kept tripping, falling, and dwelling in the mud; we as a country didn’t succeed the first time either

or the second time for that matter (because we’re Americans and we like trying everything twice to make sure we didn’t like it the first time)

But lo and behold – what’s that Aaliyah? “Dust yourself off and try again,” you say? We all figured that when you hit rock bottom – which we thought we did at first, but bad news/good news: bad news: turns out there’s always a new low when the false bottom falls out; good news: we found it! – there’s really nowhere to go but up, so you might as well start climbing. What’s the worst that could happen – doing better than before?

Personally, professionally, and definitely politically – who said we couldn’t dust the hell off our shoulders? Certainly not “this one”

I do get a bit abstract at times, so to close this out let’s take a look at how the decade’s last Female Video of the Year recipient will be remembered

“If at first you don’t succeed…”

you know the rest

and again

and again

why not dust yourself off and cry – try, try – again

That’s right, Plan B. What to do if at first you don’t succeed, and you’ve “tried” again to no avail? Get a not-really-threatening-or-ominous-until-he-wears-black-leather-instead-of-louis-vuitton-for-the-first-time public figure to make you cry (kind of) and the outcome will be the same – well for you at least, for the general public your “success” will resonate as a fail in the big scheme of things… a la Dubya (if your dad couldn’t succeed: rig an election, and con the country into bombing the bully who clowned said father – bullies are bullies are bullies, even if you are one of them).

So, that’s just a little recap on something you might’ve missed in the midst of the whirlwind year that was 2000.

(you probably should’ve) Watched That Space: Then again, it’s not a loss unless you lose the lesson – but then again again, it is modern day ADD America so chances are you’ve already forgotten what you’re read- hey, look I can refinance my home!

Music Monday/Artist Flashlight: Clipse & KAWS

It seems that the casket must’ve been hovering mid-air for the past week, because though it’s been out since last Tuesday, Twitter has me thinking it dropped today. That said, today the artist flashlight is shining on a duo who’s been blinding VA with the white for years now, and the man who put together their latest album cover: Clipse and KAWS, together “Til the Casket Drops.”

Take one part whip appeal and baby face, one part poetry – ’scuse me: floetry, throw in some “yeugch” and you’ve got Malice and Pusha T: The Clipse. Check out some of their latest, greatest, and whatnot in between

more about “PP2G.TV | Clipse Ft Pharrell – Mr Me Too“, posted with vodpod

For their latest installment, the duo brought on artist and limited edition toy/clothes designer Brian Donnelly – better known as KAWS – to seal the fate of the dropped casket’s face with his signature XX

KAWS brings together the bourgeoisie and the rebel – literally. A taste of his Graffi-coture shoot with French Vogue

Kiehl’s + KAWS = Holiday Magi-fun

Jersey-born, but like many a great artist, Brooklyn-bound eventually – therefore, he knows what’s good in New York

Watch This Space: They’re back by popular demand