not-quite-new janelle monae track!

NUFF SAID. Oh, besides here is a behind the scenes and I want her shirt and yes I'm totally embarrassed that I am like three months behind on this news oh and you can LEGALLY DOWNLOAD IT too.

the devil. true story.

"Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it," he said on Christian Broadcasting Network's "The 700 Club." "They were under the heal [heel] of the French. You know, Napoleon the third, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you will get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it's a deal." [Pat Robertson via Ta-Nehisi Coates]

Ok, we all heard about that and were suitably outraged and embarrassed. There's a bit of a thing going on at The Atlantic's Coates' blog-- a blog I often find things to take issue with but continue to visit on occasion because it does provide interesting and smart discussion.

Coates posted about Robert Tabor's "A Qualified Defense of Pat Robertson." As Coates eventually points out, this article suffers from a misleading title. Besides a brief conciliatory note, which I don't think is hardly ever a bad thing and is, anyway Tabor's opinion, I don't find that Tabor is defending Robertson's intentions. He is instead explaining the background Robertson is drawing upon. It's a very interesting article on its own, just in terms of ideas and history, and gives a brief focused primer on Haiti's political woes. It's well-written and most importantly, it provides a description of what needs to be thought about when viewing Robertson's as-usual nasty remarks.

I take issue with people's reactions to the article. Many are quite nasty themselves, saying that the history and information Tabor's article contains is irrelevant or shouldn't be mentioned if it is used to cast a wider, more revealing but not necessarily more negative light on Robertson.

Both these objections represent the same frightening strength of uninformed opinions. I don't understand how revealing further information about a comment is irrelevant. I agree that Robertson should be criticized, but he must be criticized using as much information as possible to do so. Simply dismissing his statement as loony racist pseudo-Christian babble is, Tabor has proven, not the entire truth. It is the result of a loony racist pseudo-Christian's ideas, but it not itself only something PR dreamed up. Robertson is using information to misinform, a very smart piece of demagoguery because the tiny kernel of fact present, however distorted it eventually becomes, tends to make for even more convincing and thus more dangerous arguments for those willing to believe something.

I think people are upset that Tabor didn't offer anything that outright refuted or proved Robertson wrong. This is obviously not something he chose, and Tabor is doing a favor for those who would rather lazily wholesale dismiss Robertson's comments based on their admittedly warranted dislike of him. Tabor is helping people form informed opinions, vital to any dialogue that is going to get anywhere. Tabor is providing context that anybody who wishes to form criticisms must take into account if they want to create a strong and solid counter-argument. Vitriol only gets you so far, and it tends to bring any and all opinions, no matter how diverse, to about the same muddy place to spin your wheels in.

Coates is smarter than me. This is obvious and so I think I may be misunderstanding what he is saying here:

What really got me, and perhaps too much, was the idea that the history--while very important--offered any kind of defense of Robertson. Suffice to say, I still believe that, and I still stand by my point about the generous reading.

I am not sure about this. The history Tabor provides is the background. It is not defending what he said or what he meant. It is showing that Robertson is not making shit up all on his own, but that he is distorting things. And again that is his real crime, taking something and using it to misinform. Tabor is allowing people to not be misinformed, because those who think Robertson pulled it out of his ass (which thought until I read Tabor's piece-- when I, funnily, caught up with Pat Robertson re: some aspect of Haiti's history, distorted or not) are just as misinformed as those who believe he is telling the historically accurate truth-- in any aspect history is not just "very important," it is critical. Which Coates does say in the same post: "As I told Robert, and I think as was clear in the thread, I certainly do not object to anything that helps clarify the history and origins of Haiti. It's important to understand. Pat Robertson's ugliness aside, I think, as one commenter said, the good thing is we've all been a little enlightened here." History isn't the core of the argument, but it is still vital information.

But is Coates also saying that no context should be given if it makes Roberston look a little less. . . crazier than usual? Because that's what some of the more hysterical comments on all the posts mentioned here are saying, and I find it hard to believe that Coates agrees. But regardless what he's saying, others are saying it. It's a dangerous thing to deny history when you disagree with it. We all know that and all the easy examples of why this is so are found in the last 100 years, which gives us some nice material evidence that is harder to locate the further back in time you go, for example Haiti at the end of the 18th century with an educated non-native elite. See also, Timothy Snyder's article "The Holocaust: The Ignored Reality" for a description of the problems with relatively recent history (again despite the existence of a greater amount of primary, some still living, sources) and how it has been distorted, to history and to its victims loss, by cherrypicking facts.

I appreciate that Coates has provided a forum for mostly reasonable exchange. (Though not quite so in his original post, which contains some odd assertions.*)He is eventually very gracious towards Tabor, who provides a good clarification of what he was writing, and it is good to see a space online for that kind of interaction.

Bonus funtime music: Satan is Real - The Louvin Brothers

The Rumpus has a good roundup of ways to help Haiti.

______
* Coates draws this comparison:

Again, if I go on TV and claim that the Boston Tea Party was actually the Boston Cocaine Party, then claim that the drug trade is what liberated America, and then further claim that the Meth epidemic is a direct results, saying "But there was a party," isn't a defense--not even a qualified one.

This is hyperbolic and does not draw any kind of parallel to Tabor's article. There is no myth, oral tradition, or anything that involves cocaine; Coates is presenting this as the devil of Robertson's argument (and I suppose trying to be as silly as Robertson is), but it doesn't make sense if he is trying to attack Tabor. This is different from Tabor's description of the trajectories of syncretic Haitian traditions and institutionalized Christian traditions.

One of the first things that comes to mind in any discussion of Haiti, Voudou is a complex blending of West African and popular Catholic traditions. Paul Farmer gave the best description of Voudou’s place in Haitian culture and society when he thus described a firmly Christian peasant: “Of course he believes in Voudou. He just believes it’s wrong.” The Voudou question strikes at the heart of Haitian religious life. For its practitioners, Voudou offers a pantheon of friendly spirits, or lwas, that offer avenues to healing and hope. For its opponents, including many conservative Protestants and Catholics, it is spirit possession and satanic worship. The two sides disagree on what percentage of Voudou involves curses and malevolence, but both agree that such things are part of the religion. And, for those who oppose Voudou, Boukman’s ceremony in Bois Caiman sold the country to the devil.

Tabor isn't saying "there was this party." Coates is simplifying what Tabor has bothered to spell out and expand on in his article. Tabor is saying "there was this party, and there are some sources and traditions that suggest they were smoking rocks."

The art of letter writing is not dead, but it is hurtin.

Despite the increasingly incomprehensible emails, texts, and messages this modern age sends out ("urrgggh. ick. ok. cool. see you then." was one gem that went out yesterday), the art of letter writing is getting some cheerleading from joint sites Letters of Note and LetterHeady (via TheRumpus.)

I never really had a penpal growing up, though I corresponded with my best friend who had moved 40 minutes away. Recently, I was wanting to start that up again. Last year I bought from the Met some nice stock cards with a beautiful gold embossed Tiffany bee design, but it's been languishing in my drawer like it's waiting for somebody to invent a WABAC machine so I can, like, write to my cousin in 1920. "My dear cousin. Thank you for the preserves and relishes. Everyday the light fades a little earlier. Blah blah blah." I think it's also waiting for my handwriting to improve.

Looking at the letters as well as (especially) the designs of the letterheads-- which include those of Hitler, Churchill, Nat King Cole, the Man in Black himself, Einstein, and a super sweet old motel letterhead with a cowboy-- makes me want to write fantastically elegant and well-phrased (and legible) letters to people (who I don't know.) It even makes me want to stay at a hotel and use their letterhead, which is something I haven't seen in awhile. Rather than providing whole sheets of paper, they usually just have a half-used notepad, which I have used to write letters, but it's not the same. Small cramped letters poorly written using the hotel/motel cheapo ballpoint pen. Boo. Point is, seeing how nice things used to be inspires a revival. I have always had huge issues with instant messaging and the like, but it was always about the degradation of social interaction and responsibility etc. Now I'm feeling polemic about the aesthetics.

Actually, I think the last letter I sent out (this was for work, thank you notes for the 5 year old's birthday) was "Dear Blah, Thanks for the KNex set. It is fun and I like to build things with it. Thank you for coming to my birthday party." Which is definitely not deserving of a letterhead. (And it should have said, "Thank you for the KNex. I LOVE TO LEAVE IT LAYING AROUND IN PIECES SO SOMEONE ELSE-- THAT'S B--HAS TO PICK IT UP FOR ME. FUCK YOU FOR GIVING HIM THAT THING.")

	The White Stripes - Death Letter
	Found at skreemr.com

it's gross out. thank god eggnog is back in the stores.

gross. [view while at work the other day. willing to sacrifice comfort to take children to playground because there, they entertain themselves. i read and ignore them and tell them to walk it off when they "hurt themselves" and when i get bored i listen to music and jump up and down-- cue middle school kids looking at me weirdly, hi kids, it's cold, or it's the magic of music! makes ya wanna mooove.-- and take pictures. if i was an old man, i would probably be arrested since it's a playground full of children. i saw that svu episode. speaking of which, i just saw the new ice-t svu ep and he got all 'police brutality' on some fella. which was awesome. speaking of which, j came back the other day rather drunk & idealistic & tried to put in a complaint of overexertion of force some cops- who refused to give badge numbers, which is illegal- were using on same couple in the subway. i couldn't get the whole story out of him, or the story didn't really make much sense and after a few of his (drunk) calls to, like, everything, including clogging up the 911 line, nothing got done, which isn't a surprise. but as they say. . . well, go down for the music files to find out what they say. yes, self-pitch! subtle, too.]

grossss. [view of ave A from the window right now. ick. & in an hour i have to walk alllll the way to ave B.]

not grossss. eggnog (3 parts-- hard won. j ran out of the line when we were almost to the check-out and harassed someone til they dug out the off-brand eggnog. cashier yelled at me when the machine didn't ask for my pin. happy holidays!) with coffee (1 part, surprisingly good, made the flavor darker and richer, no real hint of coffee, more like caramel. i don't drink eggnog with alcohol because alc & dairy makes me, lame, sick without fail.)

iko iko

There are a few songs I really, really hate-- can't stand. I know it sounds high maintenance but there is something about these tracks that makes me cringe. Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl." Any version (even the Clash version) of "Louie Louie." "Chapel of Love"- "sing-songy, cloying, childish"- by the Dixie Cups, a group which I wrote off for a long time solely based on that insipid, insidious track that stays in your head the way Tootsie Rolls stay stuck to your molars and then makes you get cavities and have to have Novocaine and pay insurance on false advertised filling material that isn't covered by insurance but Dr Dentist Evil failed to mention that before.

Which is too bad, because 1, they're a seminal group that really can sing, etc, and 2, the Dixie Cups do a fantastic (my favorite, probably) version of the oft-covered"Iko Iko" (or "Jock-a-mo.")

"Jock-a-mo" was the original version of the song "Iko Iko" recorded by The Dixie Cups in 1965. Their version came about by accident. They were in a New York City studio for a recording session when they began an impromptu version of "Iko Iko," accompanied only by drumsticks on a coke bottle [Barbara Hawkins: "We were just clowning around with it during a session using drumsticks on ashtrays. We didn't realize that Jerry and Mike had the tapes running". ]. The tape happened to be running and session producers Leiber and Stoller added bass and drums and released it [wikip]

The bare bones beat from those Coke bottles mesh perfectly with the precise, ultra-clean, almost blase vocals. The song is about a fight between two Mardi Gras crewes, which explains the epically threatening lyrics, which kind of form the fun with the contrast to the bright melody. I've also included the version off of the Diplo/Santogold collab "Top Rankin Mixtape," which I listen to more than Santogold's (or however she spells it now) s/t. Enjoy!

• Iko Iko - Dixie Cups
• Iko Iko - Dixie Cups/Diplo & Santogold
  

ps. What??

backk.

guess which one was the shit hole. hint. t's the one with blood everywhere.

hey all. So it's been awhile, but I have an excuse! I've spent the last few weeks embarking on a less-than-expected chaos but still overwhelming move out of the old shithole and into a fab new apartment downtown. We just got the wireless set up two days ago, after 5 or so customer service calls, 2 of which didn't get us anywhere because the party making the call was drunk. Wasn't me. But here's the best part, besides that we have a real kitchen and we're by some mediocre but cheap bars. . . we NO LONGER HAVE BED BUGGIES. (And our friends will visit us again. I think.)

So some party music to welcome me, you, us (?) back. I don't know why I've been listening to this song so much. I don't own nor have I ever worn Adidas, but you could probably hate Adidas for your own personal secret important reasons and still (had better) dig this track. According to the Adidas website, it was the first time a major artist endorsed a brand, though interestingly, "no checks were signed[, n]o managers were approached." So of course Adidas is a little bitter about it all, or would be except that group is plastered all over their website.

PS. What's with the explosion of Run DMC shirts everwhere? They're even before my time and I saw a 12 year old wearing one on 9th Ave the other day. Is Urban Outfitters selling them?

	Run-D.M.C. - My Adidas
	Found at skreemr.com

Fantasy Shopping for the Purposes of Auto-Housewarming

So I'll be moving apartments by the end of the month (or we better be-- either that or stuck in Maison Shithole with Wop Slumlord for another month. I'm not kidding. Our building is sagging and the windows are not lined up.)

Been wistfully looking at house decor that I (still) can't afford; but it's warranted to some degree. We'll finally be moving into a real apartment (we aren't squatting, because we're paying a rent, but we're zoning squatting in that we're living in a commercial/light industry space. . . as is the child-beating fortune-teller downstairs.) So in this new fantasy apartment we actually have a stove, a kitchen sink, all mod cons. Like real people. With real stuff.

I'm looking for something that crosses a faux camp boudoir or rococo-ish (lamps, couches) aesthetic with clean modern lines (in cabinetry and bath and curtains especially) and a little whimsy. So I want all those punk rock flyers and posters we've got in nice frames. I want to look like adults live in this new place. Of course, I'm talking like this is going to happen tomorrow-- it's not; we're dealing with the snakiest of snakes: Manhattan brokers on what was originally listed as a NO FEE apartment. But it is just too nice to pass on: French doors, a kitchen, nice building, good neighborhood near the bars (and near the Joe Strummer mural.)

So now that those brokers are about to break the bank, let's talk fantasy purchases because that's as far as we'll get after we're done funding their Jets tickets and fashionable coke habit. Of the products I've found this is my favorite. Useless, sure. But cute. Why do I need a cream caddy? Because real people have cream caddies. (Which aren't called cream pitchers or jugs or cream thingies.)

Cute though is a problem. My roommates are an ex-Marine and a guy who was in Subincision. . . so I guess the bedroom will keep looking like this: Continue reading!

(Which like I said, I love. But I want FRAMES dammit.) Because it looks pretty swell when it happens. Check out our NWA poster (we also have a Bad Brains in a frame-- all found on the street when FIT kids-- urkkk-- evacuated for the summer, from what I remember):

Pure class, eh.

Here are some other favorites:

OUTRAGEOUSLY priced sofa from Urban Outfitters. (not pictured because UO is a dick, not news) . . toothbrush holder in the shape of Bambi's absentee father. . . TOAST CLOCK. Shiiiit. . . This Sweet Throw Pillow.

YEAH PS Urban Outfitters (besides PS- thanks for letting every Douchebag Mackelroy go around wearing Fred Perrys that I still can't afford- or fit, since you're not carrying girls. . . ) This looks like it's supposed to be used for something else. I don't know what. But something.

Mindless Drug Hoover: "Fuck Off." From Jim's sweet SFRP mix :)

Amanda Blank? More like Amanda Blah!

Oh, I am clever. (Also grumpy. Sorry.) Two things prompted me to post this. One is that you all know how I'm on the cutting edge of music ("the Offspring are still around? Durr.") Second is that I was sitting around waiting to do something very important with my future roommate (it's apartment hunting time aka getting fucked up the ass by Manhattan brokers time.) He was showing me some songs he likes (Fleet Foxes-- ok cool; Matt & Kim-- ugh) and when he would describe ones he didn't like, or an album that the song came from he didn't like, he'd say "it just didn't work for me." Which on one hand seems like a nice way (and he's a nice guy) to say fuck it, it was shit, but on the other hand actually is a good descriptor for some things. Things that are uninteresting so that you become disinterested. (See what I did there?)

So going back to the cutting-edge part of this blog. Amanda Blank is I guess a newish big thing-- foul mouthed female MC from Philly, not hard on the eyes-- marketable, easily packaged for the hipster crowd (cute and white, how convenient.)

She generously has a lot of tracks available on her Myspace so it's easy to get a sampling of her music, but I can't figure out what the difference between her tritely explicit lyrics and the Pussycat Dolls & co-- sure she can talk fast. But if you want some fast talking, go listen to this-- yeah, even this is more interesting. If you want some snarly female spunk that is smart and dirty at the same time (and SAX), go listen to "Never Say Never," referenced in Blank's "I Might Like You Better." Amanda Blank seems like the Lady Gaga of the female MC crowd-- intriguing for about ten seconds, and since this is mostly through the hype, actually hearing the music is like coming up against a brick wall. It isn't that it's terrible; it's that it's neither here nor there. It just doesn't work for me.

On the other hand, she is part of Diplo's interesting remix of Santogold's "I'm a Lady" with sample + cover of LL Cool J's "I Need Love," which is found on the pretty darn good Top Rankin Mixtape. I really hate the way the Skreemr embed thing looks, so click on the links below.

• "I'm a Lady" Santogold (Diplo remix feat. Amanda Blank)
  
• "Never Say Never" by Romeo Void
• "I Need Love" LL Cool J

Swimming Pools & Summertime Tunes

J Bennett Fitts photography series "No Lifeguard on Duty" showcases retro motel pools in such exotic locales as Victorville, Panama City, the Inland Empire, others. It's interesting to look at the pools, most only partially if even filled, as well as the skies that Fitts captures- the colors complement the abandoned faded-out feeling of the pools, a Polaroid aesthetic. Check out the rest!

	Ella Fitzgerald – Summertime featuring Louis Armstrong
	Found at skreemr.com

	Billie Holiday - Summertime (Organica Remix)
	Found at skreemr.com

Tunes can be downloaded if you follow the links. I'm not sure how I feel about the Billie Holiday remix, but I'm leaning towards the positive so I threw that in there (it sounds like something they would have used in Kontroll), and then I threw in "Ebin" for good measure because 1. Sublime makes me think of driving in the car in the summer and 2. my boyfriend won't stop listening to it for some reason and now I want to hear it. And then I thew in "Crack Rock Steady" because I never post these guys and it seems like a good poolside song. (And it's been stuck in my head.)

	Desmond Dekker - Israelites
	Found at skreemr.com

	Choking Victim - Crack Rock Steady
	Found at skreemr.com

Zoe Avril

I've been a fan of Zoe Avril since I heard and saw the video for "On ne changera pas le monde" (I believe it was posted on Filles Sourires.) It got mega plays on my iTunes but I had trouble finding other stuff and let it go.

But I just found the entire album (and you can too!), the self-titled Zoe Avril. I, and I expect I'm not alone, associate French chanteuses with light often simple and cheerful, and when not cheerful, slightly melancholic, songs. It helps also, as Jim pointed out regarding Carla Bruni, that they're usually easy on the eyes.

If you get a chance to watch the "On ne changera pas" video, you'll see that Zoe Avril is the most cheerful person you've ever watched in a music video. She seems to be having fun but also seems to be genuinely happy to be singing. I'm not sure if the video is supposed to be a satire of a kid's show or what. It's almost a little disconcerting (not knowing the lyrics but knowing that the gist of it is "one will never change the world" and that we need to live simply, and maybe she's talking to her mom?) but at the same time the energy engenders enthusiasm in the viewer. Anyway she should be happy. Her work is fab, fun to listen to, catchy. The music itself is poppy and sugary with fun sound effects (the opening of "Avec toi" makes use of subtle clicks and horns, video game synthy notes on "Jeune diplomee"), and Avril's voice can easily and smoothly bounce between a light sweetness typical of this genre to a more serious, even more vulnerable mature sound (think Keren Ann), already evident in the chorus of "On ne changera pas" and in stand-out form in the urgent "L'accident."

Here are a few tracks, which you can download if you click through to divshare. Buy the album here.

Remember the Offspring?

Well I bet you don't remember PhD Molecular Biology/Offspring frontman Dexter Holland looking like the guy from the Goo Goo Dolls. But wait. . .

You can't tell, can you! (Dexer is on the left.) And I mean, yeah, Dexter isn't known for wise hair choices (beads. . .) but still.

That was a single (watch it here) off their latest release, which I completely missed, something with a long name ("Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace," 2008.) I like the Offspring, and I still have fun listening to their songs even though I liked them in middle/high school. I had put them into Youtube and noticed that there were some new videos. Lo and behold, etc.

For those of you who are too young to remember (kids on Youtube. . . jhaha, except for this guy: "This reminds me of my pog collection.") the Offspring wrote 90s/early '00s classics like "Pretty Fly for a White Guy," "Come Out and Play (Keep Em Separated)," "Gotta Get Away," the underrated "Da Hui," "Bad Habit," and "Original Prankster." If you pick up there greatest hits album and you listened to the radio in their heyday, you will recognize and probably have memorized a big chunk at least the chorus. Hailing from Long Beach, the Offspring wrote fantastic pop punk and always seemed a little wilder than the Blink-182 guys. Even with classic gems of lyrics like "When you're in prison don't be no one's bitch" the band managed to pull together, like their fellow pop-punk Green Day & Blink kids, some incisive commentary on the brat culture of the 90s.

So this new album. I've checked out a few of the singles' videos. "You're Gonna Go Far Kid" delivers the expected harmonies and melodies that have always recalled a light hearted Bad Religion, and "Stuff Is Messed Up" opens with an American Idiot-era Green Day drum beat. It's all okay stuff, and while everything sounds familiar, nothing quite achieves that special Offspring formula that we all have come to know and love. But as that implies, I'll always have a soft spot for the guys and I will give them the benefit of the doubt. The record company MADE Dexter wear a John Rzeznik wig.

More music for a hot summer day with Sublime & Bedouin Soundclash

Obviously this photo has nothing to do with anything except hopefully those bathing suits means it's hot out, but it's from Toronto Life, credit due. Maybe that dapper old fellow is waiting for his ruca. So here is the original from Sublime, and then the Bedouin Soundclash cover, which loses a lot in the interpretation but features their as-usual great vocals and makes for a decent track if you pretend it's a different song. Click the links to listen & grab. You can buy "40 Oz to Freedom" here.

See me in a 'alter back. See me give you heart attack.

But enough bitching about songs I feel bad about liking/can't decide if I like it. The weather is finally clearing up (for now), and it's time for some good summer music. And here's a surprise-- it's a little reggae for you (because it's hot in Jamaica, I just checked the weather), "Uptown Top Ranking," a song I had criminally forgotten about til last week and is now being played every hour. Althea & Donna are the youngest artists in Britain to top the charts when in 1978 they reached number one in the UK. As with such tracks as "Return of Django" and Link Wray's "Rumble" it's absolutely impossible to not, as they say, groove along to the track.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Zero"

I meant to post this closer to its sister posts. I had earlier written about Thao and the something-or-other's "Swimming Pools" and also about Lady Gaga. As an update, I haven't been hearing "Poker Face" in the supermarket anymore, and I'm not really missing it. The ultimate in disposable pop music.

So the last horse in my pop-songstress guilty pleasure trifecta is "Zero" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. First, though, I don't like Karen O, and it all has to do with the way she dresses. I don't like it and I hate seeing people influenced by her on the streets or on the L train. Her clothing, designed by a friend of hers, looks slapped together and sewn poorly, like all that doll clothes you used to make when you were a kid but always got too impatient to actually finish. There are ways to be avant-garde and creative and then there are ways to be sloppy. Like the "work" of the art students who worship the band, Karen O's fashion veers towards the latter-- uninspired and attention seeking.

As I mentioned, indie rock tends to be guilty pleasure music for me, and this song, this band in general, also falls in that category. They're widely-played tracks are either fun radio singles or uninteresting songs like "Y-Control"-- which have the same elements that the good singles have, catchy phrases, a blend of musical styles, repetition-- but never come together. When they stick to making radio-ready music, they succeed, though the songs are so catchy it's easy to get sick of them ("Pin"). I get YYY fatigue easier than I get Johnny Depp or "Such Great Heights" fatigue. "Maps" was a great song until every station in the world was playing it every hour, on the hour.

I think I might stick with "Zero" for awhile, though. It's a big song and does a lot more with the vocals than other songs have, eschewing the gimmicky "Pin"-like chorus, resulting in a track that is more mature and ambitious. Check it out.

• "Zero" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs [listen & download]
• Watch the Video
  

C'est quelqu'un qui m'a dit que tu m'aimais encore

So it seems like Carla Bruni is practically perfect in every way, goddamit, having achieved the equivalent of the princess girls now want to be when they grow up-- a model, musician, political figure of sorts. Of course she is married to a DIRTY OLD MAN (ha! it wasn't the black man) who looks like an evil parrot, but I mean, I guess he's the king of France of something.

Bruni is a mature, classic beauty who makes the pedestrian Megan Foxes of the world look hilariously incompetent, and has an intriguing range of appeals from Audrey Hepburn-esque charm to a Yé-yé girl to what could have been the most gorgeous Bond girl, and she also has a good First Wife face-- approachable, the access point of the public and the media to the halls of power.

About a year or so ago we were favored with current it girl I made up my name by adding extra y's-Agyness Deyn's milquetoast foray into the musical world, and while that was like, uh huh, ok, don't quit your incredibly lucrative day job, Carla Bruni apparently writes her songs and has a wonderful voice. Her albums get lukewarm to positive reviews, and while they are your typical acoustic Chanteuse fare, there's not a lot to criticize because she gets it right and the result is an enjoyable and relaxing listen.

Musically, the tunes range from folk Français to echoes of le jazz hot to bluesy torch numbers. The spare, mostly acoustic instrumentation is unfussy and atmospheric, while the I-couldn't-care-less ambience is occasionally punctuated by chimes, insouciant whistling or an impudent, sly giggle [amazon].

Check out the dulcet "Quelqu'un ma dit (Someone told me)," track 1 off her 2005 debut album of the same name and the cheekier "Le plus beau du quartier." It's almost springtime music, or some mild summer night listening, so it might help you cool down in this nasty heat we've got going.

	Carla Bruni - Quelqu'un ma dit
	Found at skreemr.com

	Carla Bruni - Le Plus Beau du Quartier
	Found at skreemr.com