Indie Pop Descontrol

Okay, I like indie pop; not as much as I like the mainstream, but I like it. So, indie music got hyped and mainstreamed here in Brasil; I blame MTV of course, but since I sometimes tend to look after the underdogs, I'm kinda ignoring the whole indie rock scene and hooking up to the pop side of indie, the one that tends to be overlooked.

Today I got this urge to revisit an artist that had a big hit in 2002 but after some quite successful singles she fell into media ostracism: Vanessa Carlton. Everyone knows that A Thousand Miles song and the cute road movie-ish video. But few people know how genius and beautiful are her two albums. I name them The Winter Album [Be Not Nobody - 2002] and The Summer Album [Harmonium - 2004]. Her debut has a pretty shiny art work but an attentive listen to it you realize there's nothing shiny about it. Lyrics like Rinse's and Sway's or even A Thousand Miles itself are full with heartbreak and sorrow; even the sweet ballad Pretty Baby or the wonderful Ordinary Day are somehow pinched by sadness and a reclusive behavior similar to winter [my favorite season, I must say], when animals go hibernating. The orchestra, arranged and conducted by the pop mogul Ron Fair [who produced hypes like Aguilera, Ashlee Simpson and The Black Eyed Peas], is present all over the album in a piercing and heartbreaking fashion, transmiting with perfection the deep tone from the songs.
Her sophomore is no less than deep either. However in a reprised paradox that I much love about her two works, Harmonium that has a rather dark art has more hopeful and shinier songs. Already on the first single, the lead track White Houses, we can already see Carlton went more lightful. The song, about being adolescent and breaking out on the world making the mistakes required for growing up but never regreting them, has an apparently clumsy piano that along the song gets bigger and more mature. Noted the song inner metaphor? Later we have a collection of songs that sounds perfect for being played on summer vacations, while you are with your friends at this beautiful kind of decadent summer house, having fun and first experiences. Who's To Say has a wonderful look at overcoming love, Afterglow talks about regret free souls and Private Radio is pure fun.

Then there's Nelly Furtado. You may ask what's indie about her, but that is because you probably only know her current reinvention. But before her turn into a [as stupid haters say] pop whore she was a restless and eager girl wearing baggy jeans and big bright smiles. But I'll talk about her unfairly underrated sophomore album. I confess it's my least favorite of hers, but it's no less genius like everything she does.

Furtado in Folklore goes darker. I think the album fails in taking itself too seriously, but I can't help praising the beautiful mix of cultures she and producers Track & Field do in it. Here there's no hip hop abundance like in her debut; instead there's an interesting and [this word again] overlooked collage of Portuguese folkloric elements and pop music. The Kronos Quartet featured One-Trick Pony is a beautiful set-the-mood intro that leads to the empowering and sassy Powerless (Say What You Want). The album later presents other interesting fusions like the Samba rap in Explode, the cheery fado in the masterpiece Força, the Blues-y Picture Perfect that is about imigrant life, the main subject of the album, also present in other delicious tracks like Try, Fresh Off The Boat and the Tonada De La Luna Llena sampled and Caetano Veloso featured Island Of Wonder.

Maybe this mix of not so largely known cultural references were the reason of Folklore's flop; Furtado seemed to be obviously doing an album for her own pleasure, not thinking at all on general public's reaction and charts. I absolutely have nothing against that but that's not exactly what pop labels really look for. But in the end, the nostalgia is so well constructed in the album that you find yourself missing a bunch of things, even if you can't exactly define what they are [saudade again folks].

My third piece of indie pop from today is actually very hyped right now. Everyone loves Mika [excpet the ho of course]. There's nothing much to be said about this guy; the Life In Cartoon Motion album is sheer fun, a cute pastiche of Elton John and the Scissors Sisters filled with sassy lyrics and tunes. I absolutely love the Love Today and Lollipop songs, but it's [surely] the sorrowful Happy Ending [click to download] that's been on my mind lately. I wonder why.

[Song: Annie - Vanessa Carlton]

Depression Movies #1: A Rouge Holiday With Saudade

When on Friday I saw on IMDb that it was Audrey Hepburn's birthday I instantly decided to homage her by doing a Hepburn marathon as soon as I got home from college; but I was so tired when I arrived that it'd be hard to watch three movies in a row, so I had to pick one. Many would choose Breakfast At Tiffany's on the first hand, but even though I love it to death, differently from the other titles I have, I've seen it like a million times. So I chose Roman Holiday: Audrey's first hit in Hollywood, Audrey's first and only Oscar [I don't count the honorary ones].
On this second screening of this Paramount classic I wondered how would be like if Audrey had the chance to work with Woody Allen. I did it because this woman's sense of naturalness in her acting is so vibrant that even if you see her in some flamboyant and hardly-to-happen situations like in Roman Holiday, you still feel like they're the most common thing to happen.
Well, in it Audrey plays the young Princess Ann who for political duties is touring around Europe. In her stop in Rome she's clearly tired and bored, like any young person would be, and decides to flee so she can see the vivid Roman nightlife. So, things happen and she ends up spending the whole following day with a sly and mischievous American journalist [a marvelous and absolutely charming Gregory Peck] who, realizing he's in the company of such royalty intends to do a bombastic sensationalist report on her. Like many other classics this movie has become pop culture icon and was imitated by many other movies and medias [even Sabrina, the teenage witch]; so for me it's an amusement to watch and try to remember where else I've seen those scenes.
Despite tiny flaws, [we hardly feel Princess Ann and Joe Bradley's affair grow, you simply know it's going to happen and it simply does] superficially this is a movie at cinema's basic premise: entertaining; but of course there's more to it than this. As you follow their adventures on Rome's beautiful and historic landmarks you experience a young woman maturing in front of your eyes. Ann goes from an innocent girl crashed by her larger-than-life duties to a woman finally aware of her importance to her country; and she gets to it by living - even for only one day - her life as she pleases and doing the expected things from a normal adolescent [even if Ann's age is never specified]. That becomes clear when she enters a beauty salon and cuts her hair, as an act of desire for independence, and it makes us wonder if the young should really mature as early as nowadays, missing that way things that will mold them for the rest of their lives.
Audrey Hepburn seems at each moment to be in perfect knowledge of it and owns Ann with sublime and subtle acting [what's that scene when she finds out Joe and Irving are journalists!]. During the shootings Gregory Peck raved on Hepburn's acting abilities and said she should and would win an Oscar for her portrayal of Ann. And well she did, beating established and genius stars like Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr [as the mysterious and mesmerizing Karen Holmes from From Here To Eternity].

All the colors, music and vibrant life in Moulin Rouge! disguises a deep and sorrowful love story. We all know the ending is beyond sad, but few people realize that it's the culmination of elements that have been explicited since the begining. The fact that Satine's death is revealed on the first ten minutes of the picture is a warning that this is no sappy musical we're watching. For me, this is one of the most heartbreaking and dark movies ever made; I decided to watch it last night due to life synchrony and I was aware it'd be a tearjerking experience.
The contrast between the pop culture carnival and the dark melodrama from the screenplay is delivered by Baz Luhrmann in a glitzy and so glamourous way that you can't help having your jaw dropped, your eyes watered, your body chilled; the kitsch and all over-the-place sets and costumes get wonderfully joyous when you hear all those wonderful songs glued perfectly like the soundtrack of our lives. I mean, if your life were a musical it'd be filled with the songs you listen to everyday; so it's pure amazement to watch Moulin Rouge and sing-along those songs as if you were listening to a mixtape.
Then there's that Kidman woman razzle-dazzling us all with her milky skin and violent red hair combined with that gorgeous blue cinematography. For me Kidman is on the top of her game here; this is my favorite performance of her so far, because she does absolutely everyhting here: she sings, dances, comes down from a trapeze, does comedy, romance and drama all in her first ten onscreen minutes. After that her Satine brings a rollercoaster of emotions and a charisma so hard to find [and still those old sons of bitches gave the Bald Man to that hateful bitch Berry]. Later, when that naughty Christian boy [the always hot and perfect Ewan McGregor] sings her that song, that song we all claim as ours, it's impossible for us not to root for their love.
Oh, and there's Kylie Minogue! It took me millenia to find out that the Green Fairy is her, but now everytime I see it I longer for the moment she pops out of the absinth bottle and turns The Sound Of Music into a sexy and horny thing. She being in such project makes me love Baz even more, meaning he's tuned up to every aspect of the cult, including the underrated G-ds like Minogue. Kylie's cameo in it is one of those pleaseant surprises I love in movies and one of the various others in Moulin Rouge. I abso-fucking-lutely love when Christian and Satine fly to the top of the roof on Your Song and the Singin' In The Rain reference; or the heart-shapped fireworks on I Will Always Love You [not to mention the whole Elephant Love Medley]; and oh man, talk about Material Girl in Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friends.
So in the end, Baz's pop culture collage feels like a musical should make you feel but better, simply because it turns the world in a more happy and beauitful place despite its darkness. And since I'm a sucker for cathartic experiences, this movie is for me the one I need to watch whenever I'm melancholic or romantically crushed; and here stays the tip.

Ages ago I was talking with the ho about how Almodóvar makes his actresses look so hot and desireable even when they're not beautiful; a great example is Rossy De Palma. Last year he turned Penélope Cruz into a real woman again, dropping behind the American startlet image Hollywood imposed to her. So, last night as I watched Hable Con Ella for the second time I got this idea to my mind again. The way Rosario Flores looks masculine and manly is just the cover of a huge feminility she exhales whenever she's onscreen.
But for me, in this 2002 masterpiece Pedro goes mostly about a Portuguese word that is hard to be translated to other languages: saudade. Basically it is like when you miss someone in a way your mind stays caught up into nostalgia. And in this movie it's portrayed in a heartbreaking yet quirky fashion that only Almodóvar can do. Marco missed so much his troubled wife that he cried whenever he lived something sublime and emotional. Why? Because he didn't have her next to him to share it. That's saudade my friends.Another thing that hooked me on this second screening was all the cute flirts he does with Brasil. You all know Caetano sings Cucurrucucú Paloma in it; before that, on the first bullfighting scene the song played is Por Toda A Minha Vida by Elis Regina and Tom Jobim; later Marco cites a Jobim song to Lydia [How Insensitive]; and among the guides written by Marco, there's one from Brasil.

Hable Con Ella by the end turns out to be a beautiful essay about solitude pinched with saudade, where Almodóvar shines his adorable style homaging the art of Cinema [this time the silent era] and using polemic plotlines; but for me this is a movie that has such a hopeful and lightful end that it reassured on me the power of good-bye; but also incited my current desire for love, and I'm not talking about sex.

[Song: Lamb - Gorecki]

Top 5 Sambas

Continuing my lazy-sleezy-got-nothing-to-do posts I now will do a musical top 5.

There are still nowadays controversies about the origin of the word samba. However it's clear that it's a very popular and known Brazillian rhythm; actually the style is kind of a metonymy to my country; grigos erroneously think we all down here walk around naked dancing to samba in a daily-basis. I, in the other hand, ignored the rhythm for long; like the American Jazz, Samba originated many other rhythms that are part of Brasil's culture, and some of them are just mostly crap [neo-pagode], but just as it's stupid for the gringos to assume Brazillians only dress up with the Carnaval costumes [or not], it's stupid for me to overlook such a rich and traditional style just because of a disliked branch. Alright, this introduction is already dang long so if you got all the way to this point and want to know a bit more about samba here's the link. However, the best way to know it is listening to it.

5. Samba do Ernesto

Alright, I'm aware that most of the songs here are totally unknown by you; that's why I'm providing downloading links, click on the song's titles if you feel curious to know them. "Samba do Ernesto" is a samba by one of the greatest sambistas of all time Adoniran Barbosa. He wrote many sambas chronicling the Brazillian poor suburbia; the lyrics are written in poor Portuguese dialect, spoken wrongly; this style was known as "paulista samba" because the poor people on the free markets from São Paulo speak like that. Back then Adoniran, as much as many other sambistas, were neglected by the prejudiceful cultural elite, nowadays not only he but his "Samba do Ernesto" are praised academically, especially because his songs are perfect social depictions, being studied by sociologists, philosophers and even linguists; for me, "Samba do Ernesto" reminds me of my childhood when I used to seat on the backseat of my parents car listening to it on the radio and laughing my ass off with the wrong pronunciation of the words. For you Portuguese illiterates, just tap to the cool groove of this marvel.

4. Corcovado (Quiet Night Of Quiet Stars)

Of course you all know the marvelous Bossa Nova. What I believe that few of you know is that Bossa Nova is a branch of Samba; João Gilberto [G-d], Tom Jobim [G-d] and Vinicius de Moraes [G-d] one day created a different way to do samba, with complex harmony and less/slower percussion. The first Bossa song was Chega De Saudade, recorded by Elizete Cardoso. Of course the rhythm was firstly banned from the upper class balls for being considered too "popular-esque", until of course the gringos fell in love with it. Corcovado is by Tom Jobim inspired by the Corcovado mountain in Rio de Janeiro; many artists recorded this song but it's with Astrud Gilberto's [pic] version [the one for download up there] that my eyes wells teary waters. The marvelous saxophone crying all over the song, plus Astrud's mellow vocals put me in a trance; I imagine myself dancing slowly at a piano bar by the sea, in Rio of course. At the same time, Corcovado follows the Bossa delicious minimalist mood: it feels cozy and cute. For its imaginative pushes, this song is one of my favorite songs in the whole world.

3. A Vizinha Do Lado

This song is by baiano music bestman Dorival Caymmi [pic]. This old dude, known by his laidback and bohemian life style is author of some of the best songs ever written in this country. "A Vizinha do Lado" is simply cute, a song about a hot neighbor à lá Edie Brit who drives the borough's men crazy. Roberta Sá [unfarily] finished the 2nd season from the reality show Fama [Star Academy] at #2, but was able later to deliver one of the best albums from 2005, Braseiro. In it she mixes classic sambas with new compositions creating a fresh and exciting enviroment. In "A Vizinha" her sweet vocals enchant whoever's listening [even if you get nothing from the lyrics], add the marvelous sax and the lovely beats and you'll be surely on the way to a joyride. DO download this song!!

2. Tive Sim

Cartola [right]. He's the man! His lyrics are known for perfect use of the cult dialect of Portuguese and he never had higher level of education. He's considered by many the main sambista of the country and is praised among musicians, intellectuals or simply music lovers. Tive Sim [here sung by the heaven sent performer Ney Matogrosso - left] is a cute song about sincerity; in it Cartola's tells his love something that we don't often imagine telling our boy/girlfriends: he admits he's loved another woman before. I love this thing because of it, of its unconventional way of describing love and relationships.

1. Pelas Tabelas
This one is by one of the the top 3 best Brazillian composers alive [considred by many the best]: Chico Buarque. The song is perfectly constructed both lyrically and musically, sounding endless it could play repeatedly like a plot-samba from a samba school. The lyrics go about a man desperatedly in love, losing his head to the woman ["pelas tabelas" could be translated literally "on the table"; in Portuguese that means "to lose the mind"]. Here again you'll have Roberta Sá singing it with a full and increasing arrangement. I've been totally addicted to it because of this sense of loop the song has, as if I cannot stop listening to it. And I can't! I totally love it!

Other adorable sambas:

- Ah, Se Eu Vou - Roberta Sá

- Desde Que O Samba é Samba - Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil [written by Caetano Veloso]

- Canto De Ossanha (Let Go) - Astrud Gilberto [written by Vinicius de Moraes and Baden Powel]

- Berimbau - Astrud Gilberto [written by Vinicius de Moraes and Baden Powel]

- Samba E Amor - Caetano Veloso [written by Caetano Veloso]

Rocks

As we took our positions at the closest spots to the stage we were booed from the people behind us who were sit. They wanted us to sit... and the show haven't even started yet! Do you think we sat? Well, they later threw paper and beer on us.

Caetano Veloso delivered tonight a show beyond expectations: techinically perfect and uhg who am I kidding with this talk? Everything was perfect including the companies, so cool and hype. The man has such a charisma and presence! He's humble and snob altogether but always close to the public, sometimes dancing always making us cheer. The repertoire was a well balanced mix of the rocks from the latest album Cê and samba [electrified by psychodelic guitar and bass]. And fuck the man can rock! In a less effusive and classier Mick Jagger style he fronted a band that shone with him throughout the show. I danced, sang-along, waved hands did everything I needed to extravasate the joy that music was bringing. When he played the classic Sampa as a rock I simply died; and when Rocks was played Nine and I danced widly as people gathered on the front to do the same. At the encore he played Transa's You Don't Know Me... fuck! the whole place went down, singing and dancing madly!!

We noticed the old people didn't seem much to be into the vibe as if not getting Caetano's latest reinvention. Which is something really stupid; Caetano is a pure example of a totally free artist, he never ever cared to please anyone doing what he likes and that way gathering fans and admirors all over his more than 20-year-old career. This time he came with a fresh and raw experimental rock album that resembles the indie rock being done nowadays. Some loved [meeeee!!], some rock geeks despised, some Caetano fans too.. but fuck these last two, they missed to enjoy a marvelous reinvention plus concert.

Caetano is Rock! Caetano is Art!

Click on the links to download the songs and/or additional info on the mentioned albums. That's necessary!

[Song: Deusa Urbana - Caetano Veloso]

Caêêêêêêê!!!

Caêêêêêêê!!!
Caêêêêêêê!!!
Caêêêêêêê!!!
I'm leaving to his show in 5.
Plan: get him by the back!!
Caetano venimiiiiim!!
Wish me luck! riseeees...
[Song: Rocks - Caetano Veloso]

Music To Turn The Repeat On

Even though none of the songs from this album will be performed on Saturday's concert, the prospect of seeing Caetano Veloso again - this time in his "man at work" mode - gave me a whole nostalgia about this man. Good because my Justin Timberlake/Björk full mode obsession was starting to tire me out, so I got hooked again in an album that touched me deeply when I reunited with it a couple years ago.

In his 1994's work Caetano goes Spanish recording classic songs from alternate Latin American countries [there are songs from Argentina, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Cuba etc]. However the man does something that is itself enough to get me curious: he reinvents the songs, giving them new and sometimes surprising arrangements. My longtime favorite and adored Pecado, from an Argentinean tango goes to a heartfelt and gloomy bolero; another more-than-exciting moment is the Peruvian title track Fina Estampa filled with a genius string section making you feel all-over-the-placely happy. The Paraguayan Recuerdos de Ypacaraí has a mysterious and dramatic basslined aura, sounding like a perfect soundtrack for an Almodóvar moment. [Caetano, as most of you must know, performed Cucurrucucú Paloma on Almodóvar's 2002 masterpiece Hable Con Ella.] He transforms the overplayed, mostly corny and sometimes assassinated Contigo En La Distancia into a lovely understated and bossa nova-esque rendition. He simply takes these classic songs and make them his own, filling them with classical erudite arrangements and mood that sound enourmous but as frequently cozy.

Another favorite thing about this album is that despite the showy [in a good sense] arrangement, it's Caetano's voice that outshines here. His performances are perfect pitched sounding times gleeful [Rumba Azul, Capullito de Alelí, Mi Cocodrilo Verde] and times melancholic [the aforementioned Pecado and Recuerdo de Ypacaraí], emotionally introspective [Lamento Borincano] and excitingly romantic [Vete De Mí and Un Vestido Y Un Amor - the latter's lyrics are pure poetry in service of "future filmmaking"]. It is a Music City's user comment that best describes Caetano's voice in this work: "With his high, pure voice, which has a lovely, subtle vibrato, Caetano sings like a smooth caress, in a style that is at once sophisticated and sweet."

Below, you can see his performance on Almodóvar's movie.

And here a bad pic, but still proof, that I met the man and played the silly fan.[Song: Pecado - Caetano Veloso]

Being Blasé

I think my gaydar is broken.

Last weekend I was having drinks with my folks at this cool café and I [thought I] got flirtted by this cute British guy - Daniel. We talked and I gave him my number and email, and he invited me to go to the inn he was staying in the morrow because Caetano Veloso was going to be there. I was happy with the possibility of getting a hook-up, but it was the possibility of knowing Caetano in person that got me all excited about. On the following night we [Alais, Chasha - Alias's roomate - Nina and I] went to the inn and we met Mr. Veloso [I DIED!!]; afterwards we went to this cool place called Borracharia ["tire place" in Portuguese] to dance and make some scene. There I learned from Alais that Daniel wasn't gay.

Lucas 0 x 1 Cold Mean Universe.

Saturday I finally went to the party I was anticipating for a whole month: the Nave [Portuguese for ship]. Ha, it was marvelous! I caused a lot, danced like crazy and when the darling DJ played Hung Up I jumped on the stage with Alais and danced even more. Before it we got to dance with this group of unknowns [by me] and among them there was this cute thing; he was so pretty and danced so cooly I could not take my eyes of him. Afterwards Alais, me and him were dancing to this awesome rock beat and he said something in her ear, right after she formally introduced us. I glowed. But later, when I told her my interst for him she told he was not gay.

Lucas 0 x 2 Cold Mean Bitchy Motherfucker Son-Of-A-Bitch Cocksucker Universe.

I am confused. I know Universe is not to be blamed, the needy feeling this rut brings [aka ego] is the real fucker; so you know what, I decided to be blasé. I'm gradually de-crushing from Éder but this want of a guy beside me has been tripping me up; it's like I'm looking for a substitute to receive these feelings that got interrupted to flow. Therefore, in an attempt to stop confusion I'll occupy my head with other things, flirt the less possible and forget men. Men suck! I'll be asexual at least in the meantime I organize my life.

[Song: Move - Dreamgirls]