It is true that I won't go anywhere without The Smiths' entire catalogue of LPs. And that I won't listen to the opinion of anyone who won't admit that The Velvet Underground are the most important band of all-time. And until the day I die, I will stand firm in my assertion that Genesis Breyer P-Orridge truly is a musical (and theoretical) genius and that I don't just listen to the bands Psychic TV and Throbbing Gristle to make myself seem intellectually hip.
However, there is another side to me. I mean, one can't perpetually be listening to Fun House and Daydream Nation, can they? I do occasionally appreciate things on the sunnier, less heady side of things, sentiments that seem well suited for the summer months.
In particular, I have quite a fondness for piano pop (even more specifically, piano pop by postmodern princesses.) Anyone who's had any form of contact with me in the past three months has heard me hailing last month's Lenka/Elizabeth & The Catapult/Shannon Corey show at the North Star as the concert of the summer and my long-time readers know that Kate Nash (and not some Louise Brookes knock-off) is actually my #1 crush.
So why is it that these delightful dames attract me like a moth to a flame? Well, they're not as different from my hiply morose musical heroes as you might think. I mean, in Lenka's debut single she envisions life itself as a stage show and concludes that she wants her money back. And Ms. Nash once wrote "When I'm quiet people think I'm sad and usually I am." See, they're every bit as disillusioned as the Mozzer. They just express that dissatisfaction in a manner that is a little less poetically eloquent and a little closer to how us mere mortals think. And they do it all with pep. I'm pretty sure no one will ever kill themselves because of a Sara Bareilles song. They're a bit like musical ice cream - sometimes when everything sucks, it just takes one little concentration of sweetness to make everything all better, even if for just a moment or two.
I find this blending of the melancholy and the optimistic to be quite brilliant, especially since I could never pull it off. So if you read Pitchfork every day and have always rolled your eyes at anything of this nature, I will have you know that I have chatted with Elizabeth Ziman (of Elizabeth and the Catapult) about David Lynch, asked Kate Nash about Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney, and Lenka about Hundertwasser, Kandinsky, and Kara Walker (admit it, you can't even honestly say you are familiar with all six of these.) So just because a pretty girl can write a pretty song that "normal" people aren't repelled by, doesn't mean that she and her music aren't totally fucking awesome. I'm sure any of these "she's" are have better taste and are smarter than you.
