July 5 - Iggy Izalea, "Fancy" [feat Charli XCX]

Erryone's talking about Iggy Izalea lately - maybe because she's a white Australian woman rapping in an American accent. There are bulk haters, let me tell you that.

While I agree that the appropriation of black culture is problematic (Miley Cyrus is another one copping regular criticism for the same sort of stuff) I have to say I find her incredibly interesting. The attacks on her are on everything from the fact she doesn't write her songs by herself (if Beyonce is allowed to get help from Sia I don't see this criticism as particularly fair, I don't see music as being any less true or real if it's written by someone and performed by someone else) to her ass. I'm very interested in women in hiphop in any shape or form and so I will continue to keep my eye on her, as well as her haters.

I find this song to be rather catchy, and I find the clip's 'Clueless' theme to be particularly awesome. That is all.

"First thing's first, I'm the realist (realist)
Drop this and let the whole world feel it (let them feel it)
And I'm still in the Murda Bizness
I could hold you down, like I'm givin' lessons in physics (right, right)"

 

July music challenge: week 4, or, In Conclusion

I'd like to say that it's taken me this long to get to wrapping up last month's music challenge because I wanted to take some time to reflect, but the truth of the matter is, I just didn't get to it til now.

While I have found myself more likely to put on a female-based playlist this month as an echo of the habit of July, I have enjoyed a whole lot of new music that I was waiting until August to enjoy. And interestingly, what I've found is there's a lot of hiphop in that list. See, besides supporting women artists I'd like to support local artists, so there's a bunch of Aussie MCs I have grown quite fond of over the years; I suspect the love affair started when I was snowboarding, and it's never really gone away.

My ultimate dream-scenario would of course be an Australian female MC. Anyone know anybody? Please do let me know and make me the happiest girl in the world.

Statistically if we look at triple j (see way back to the first post for a link to such things), women are just not getting as much airtime. See also: this article. If women aren't getting as much airtime (let's for fairness sake assume these artists are just as talented as male-fronted bands... because they are) then we're just plain old less likely to get their songs stuck in our heads. Our favourites are partly our favourites from repeat listening, don't you think? If women musicians are statistically less like to be our favourites, we're less likely to buy their records, which means there's less of a market, which means less women are successful musicians, which means there's less of a pool of female-made music to put on the airwaves... and it all goes south at about this point. Understand me here though; I'm not saying you're not allowed to like male musicians anymore, or that you've been tricked into your favourites and you only think you like them. We definitely like what we like, but it's not such a stretch to think about why we like them, in terms of such a simple thing as what we've been exposed to. And I am not giving up Matt Corby for all the First Aid Kits in the sea.

This is the point where I admit it: fucked if I know how to sort this one out. Sometimes it's just awareness, but there is also the fact of your dollar: after a month of listening and admittedly barely scratching the surface of the female talent out in the world, I have to say, the thought of giving preferential spending treatment to female acts appeals. It's investing and being just slightly political with my pennies. For now, that's the best I can do, besides making you all mix cds that I'll be insisting you listen to (this probably won't happen, unless you ask me nicely and tell all your friends about my blog). Let's start a revolution: it would make an impact if we all started giving preference to purchasing music by female artists, or even making a point to request a song by a female artist once a week on triple j. ripple effect, and all that. no action is too small to make a ripple.

In a broader scheme, I have liked putting myself through a 'feminist challenge' - hopefully those of you reading for whom feminism is a squirmy word will realise that small and simple acts can hold a personal political significance. This is where these things start, and I have found it to be quite an easy task. So on top of various other writing-related challenges I'm committing to with my writing, I'm going to start a segment as regularly as I can manage to talk about how I've actively practised my feminist identity. Watch this space, and if it so pleases you, play along.

I'd like to leave you with a few favourites, old and new:

this one, because she's amazing and lovely, and I remember seeing her live at Woodford years and years ago, before she was even a solo act. 



this one, because Flume = awesome, and Asta is a newbie from my July Challenge. I like it; apparently not everyone on youtube does, but meh.



and this one because of 500 days of summer, and because I have a wicked girl crush on Regina Spektor; she is just bloody spectacular.

treasure: musics

i was once one of those who could name drop with the best of them. music was sort of my thing, but not in the hipster way of knowing of bands before other people did. i just knew the bands i knew, and i loved them. the christmas i got a cd player was swiftly followed by the year i got a weekend job, and then nobody could stop me; i earned $40 a saturday and it went straight to cds. i'd either shell out for one new release or i'd get away with 2 or 3 $10 classics. i had a few years of disposable income which went to those shiny plastic discs which are so outdated now. i still have most of my collection, i suspect it was canibalised a little (or a lot) by my ex who had the duty of 'minding' my collection after i abandoned him. some of my favourites (or, his favourites) are missing. i don't mind though, i still say i got the better end of the deal; i got Canada.

i used to be a lot more of a music snob than i am now- i got past the point of hating things just because mainstream radio thinks they're catchy. i'd still rather support talented musicians, especially ones that i know, because i think the ability to create something is still underrated by many people who really should know better. recently i've supported the imprints, more recently second hand heart and am looking forward to supporting the flailing inhalers sometime soon. i'll see the imprints launch their latest work shortly, and it's music i got to help to make from the comfort of my own living room.

i've been trying to see more live music since i've come back to australia. as a teenager, trapped out in the country and misunderstood (either that or listening to way too much radiohead) i always assumed adulthood would bring with it a huge amount of live music, all those bands i'd loved so faithfully becoming more than just sound blaring out of my shitty portable CD player. i lived in melbourne and managed to see quite a lot of live music almost by accident, in account of the fact i lived with 3 studying musicians who always seemed to be practising jazz standards (love you guys!). but i didn't see the bands i expected to see, and thus i learned the sad reality that it's a fucking long way to australia from anywhere else (UK, USA, Europe) except for australia. as a student the pricey big shows i was so hot and heavy for remained a fantasy.

on returning to OZ and procuring full time well paid employment, i've definitely seen more live music. i loved the gentlemen of the road tour hosted by mumford and sons, and i felt super cool at sprungfest, finally getting into the vibe of a good old-fashioned hiphop show- actually, australia's first all-aussie hiphop festival. i fell in love with hilltop hoods all over again.

i hold a lot of respect for the power of live music. it can consume you; it can hijack whatever else is going on in your night or even in your life, and show it from an angle you haven't seen before. seeing people i know perform gives me even more of a kick; that weird pride you have when someone you know is kicking ass and even though you've had little or nothing to do with it, you're still proud like a parent. i get goosebumps when people i know are performing, as a strange reflex. i kinda like it.

aside from live music, since moving back to the country and having some wheels, i've been really enjoying the simple pleasure of pumping the tunes in the car on the drive to work. i have a few long-burners that i'm always in love with, but recently i've put them aside to just focus on falling in love with the new music that's come across my path, either by way of curiousity or recommendation. let it be noted that when i say new music, i mean new to me. i'm working on catching y'all up, but i'm still about a year behind what's hip these days. sometimes i think i'll never catch up. sometimes i wonder why i'd want to.

so i wanted to share my faves of today with you- i love them for various reasons. apologies there's not a lot of happy pop being suggested, it's just that there's not.

shredding the balloon - hilltop hoods
my favourite bit goes:

And it might blow up but it won’t go pop,
And it might blow up but it won’t burst,
She said she might grow old but she won’t grow up,
Well she might, but only if I go first. 

She wears her heart on her sleeve like she’s wearing a patch on her shoulder,
It’s not a matter of whether I can catch her, more a matter of whether I can hold her. 

She thinks out loud, she’s got me; she laughs with her whole body,
I think about how she's got it all figured out and wonder why she’d even want me?
Each night I find it’s the same old, when I crawl inside in the evening,
I lie down next to an angel; fall asleep and fly with my demons

boxing night- frightened rabbit
... listen i just love scottish accents. plus the dude's got beard for days. it's from an ep; they've since released an album that i haven't gotten into yet. this one's it's a nice old breakup song, really:

Well the clock just stopped
You can cut that into my headstone
Won't something move so I stop staring a hole into the phone?

summertime sadness- lana del ray
i've had a lady crush on her ever since i heard her interviewed on triple j and she just seemed like this genuinely cool person who i'd like to be friends with, which logically leads to a crush, as that's how my mind works.

i'm into you - chet faker, an awesome aussie artist; i've been listening to his ep a lot. of special note are the cover of no diggity and also cigarettes and chocolate. very nice indeed.

king- thelma plum - can't find a copy on youtube as it's off a pretty new EP, but i really do love it all- father said is the single that won her triple j's unearthed and it's pretty cute.

wish you were here- lee fields & the expressions
i actually shazaamed this right off the tv show 'suits', which i love. mainly because i love harvey spector. but the song is also a lovely one.


and listen, i can't not love macklemore. this show is awesome.

my confession to you all, as a way to end this post, is that i wish i could rap. i'm pretty good at singing along with other people's songs, but i just can't rap on my own. i'm too white and lacking in rhythm. it breaks my heart, every. single. day.

#fmsphotoadaynovember 9. small

 

many of the pictures i put on instagram are of drinks. i think photos of drinks are artistic and basically, they're where it's at.

this was a small (#small) cider that hugh poured me at red brick hotel in brisbane. we went there for a hiphop festival, having first the happy opportunity to see friends from whistler who have since moved back to spots all over australia. we drank some things, we ate some things, we caught up. it was quite a nice time.

i guess though, this photo really reminds me of that feeling of excitement you get right before you see good friends you haven't caught up with in a long time, or even just a while. because i'm a little bit uncool this way, i tend to be at places bang on or before the time we'd organised to meet. that night, for instance, i do believe we arrived at 6:28 for a 6:30 meeting. the boys, however, being boys, dragged their pants on and mosey'd on down by maybe 7:15. all of the them separately texted me to ask if it was ok for them to wear thongs to this particular establishment.

my relative earliness meant i got to sip on the above cider, while building up quite the bubble of reunion-based excitement. and i was not disappointed. everyone was happy to see each other, and soon we were all filled full of drinks and pub meals, telling tales of things much more expressively than they actually happened. hugh was there to take away our empty plates and fill up our glasses.

it was a nice time.