Cogs can think.

You can’t be satisfied with something just because it’s great, it has to be what you intend to do.

Fiona on the original Brion version of Extraordinary Machine. She loves it, but it just wasn’t what she wanted it to be.

I want to make people happy.

Fiona on why she makes music.

I must say that it does kind of sting a little bit. The King Of Pop is dead.

Yes, he became a weirdo freak, but he didn’t exactly have an easy life. That’s no excuse, but it is important context.

The world lost one of its greatest artists last night.

I just love this song. It’s also one of the few songs where Nina really lets her voice lash out - and send shivers down your spine. Normally, she’s all bedroomy and sleepy sexy (she’s SO beautiful), but this is one of those songs recorded after drinking 5 cups of coffee. Refreshing.

If you’re one of those few cocky and arrogant chocking-the-eagle Americans, there’s a lesson in here.

Darling, darling
The moon went out tonight
And I’m caught like a doe in your headlights
Oh yeah, alright
I’m yours to knock around
I’m a little too starstruck to wanna fight

Oo-e-oo-ee, it’s a cold-hearted world
Oo-e-oo-ee-oo, I’m gonna be your girl
It’s a little too late to cry
You’re my America

Not quite snow white
It came down all night
And put a filter of ash on the sunrise
Oh yeah, alright
Move a little bit closer
Lay your big dirty hands on my innocence

Oo-e-oo-ee, it’s a cold-hearted world
Oo-e-oo-ee-oo, I’m gonna be your girl
It’s just a little too late to cry
You’re my America

Ooh, heaven laughs at us now, baby
But we’ll be shooting it down, honey
It’s a little too late to hope and pray for a miracle
You’re my America

Hey Rock star!
You’re my America

Shirley Manson, frontwoman of one of my favourite bands (Garbage), has released the first demo of her solo project. You can find it here, titled “In The Snow”.

I’m blown away. A very distinctive sound, but obviously with Manson’s instantly recognisable voice. I love it.

Sadly, her record company, Geffen, has turned down her demoes because they considered it “too noir”. Well, boo-fcuking-hoo, what else did they expect? Have they even listened to Shirley’s work with Garbage and Angelfish? Shirley’s lyrics are always very moody, dark, and depressing. That’s her style, it’s why people like me like her lyrics. They are always complicated, full of layers and deeper meanings. It’s not one-two-pop nonsense, it has never been.

Manson had this to say about it:

I had taken some of my solo music into the record label. They didn’t really care for the direction I was moving in and I found it really disheartening. They wanted a pop hit, which I understand in terms of making money. I get that. But what they were going to ask of me was something I wasn’t prepared to deliver and I felt kind of trapped. I just stopped writing. I just stopped. It was stifling.

Manson and Geffen then decided to part ways, and she’s now working without a record deal. This story bears remarkable resemblance to the Fiona Apple saga with Sony, where Sony also turned down her work because it wasn’t marketable.

This is exactly why I want the big media companies to just fcuk off and die. I don’t care about pricing or other restrictive policies they might enforce - I care about the art, and these media companies are hindering the production of art because they let themselves be guided by dollar signs. For all I care, the media companies charge 40 EUR for each album, I’ll still buy it - as long as they stop hindering the production of art.

The Pirate Bay case, summed up.

Music:

Old World: we want to put you through the trouble of going to a store, and buying overpriced CDs, because it benefits the artists us.
New World: we’re lazy, and we want the easiest way possible to get our hands on music, but we are willing to pay for that (iTunes).

Film:

Old World: we want you to buy a DVD ten million yeas after the film’s release, filled to the brim with unskippable warnings about how you are a pirate and a criminal and will go to hell - all on a legally purchased DVD.
New World: we’re lazy, and we want the easiest way possible to get our hands on films.

Seriously, I don’t give a rat’s ass. I buy all my music Old World style (.mp3 sucks ass), and when it comes to film (TV series in my case), I download first, and buy later. This is because most of the series I like aren’t even broadcast and/or sold in my country, so I’m forced to go the way of the pirate. Even if a show does appear on TV here, our local companies fcuk it up by having irregular broadcasting schedules, and we’re always two to three years behind. I see downloading TV shows as the solution to stuff not being broadcast here. If the show is good, I’ll buy it on DVD (BSG, Dead Like Me), and if it isn’t (Lost), I don’t. Hey, just like real TV!

It doesn’t matter fcuk anyway over here. In The Netherlands, you are allowed to download whatever content you want, copyrighted or not.

Even though I’m a royalist through and through, that doesn’t mean I don’t see the ridiculousness of it all. Never has that ridiculousness been put into words better than in “The Crowning”, from the brand new A Camp album, “Colonia”.

Coincidentally, this applies just as much to republics, of course. And fits in nice with Obama’s inauguration.

Brighten the corners and clear out the room
Colour the flowers in rose and maroon
Light up the fires and season the swine
We’re gonna party like it’s 1699

Slaughter the rabbits,
the doves and the boars
And lay all the tables and open the doors
The crème-de-la-crème will be waiting
on one guest of honour

Oh, up go the curtains
And down go the virgins
Oh, no, mothers are crying
Ladies of virtue will stand to accuse you of heartbreak and theft

Bells are gonna ring
Birds are gonna sing
Let the people begin
The crowning of your big head

Young drunken girls in a hideous dance
Sing a heartfelt lament
of the death of romance
Beautiful boys turn and offer their cheeks
Preening and prancing,
the outcome looks bleak

Good times are rolling
but outside these walls
Our houses will crumble, the city will fall
But a few broken pawns don’t mean nothing
to our guest of honour

So let’s raise our glasses
to murderous asses like you
May you sleep soundly
Once we have laughter,
you got what you’re after
Oh, you wear it well

Bells are gonna ring
Birds are gonna sing
Let the people begin

Hear how their hearts are pounding
We’re all witnessing the crowning
Of your big bleeding head

Bells are gonna ring
Birds are gonna sing
Let the people begin

Hear how their hearts are pounding
Your rise - nothing but astounding
We’re all witnessing the crowning
Of your useless, ruthless head

Awesome, just awesome.

Due to all my Fiona worshipping, you’d almost forget that there are actually other artists in my world. There is one song that in all its simplicity has more emotional power than just about anything else I’ve ever heard. The Ballad Of Billy Jo McKay, one of the most touching and endearing songs I’ve ever heard.

My name’s Billy Jo McKay,
I just turned 16 yesterday
I’m gonna get the nerve one day
To get outta here

My ma passed on 3 years ago,
they said it was cancer and it took her slow
And ever since then I’ve been
Sayin’ no to my daddy and my tears

Now when you come down our road
You gotta watch the bump
Right there across from the garbage dump
You can find me out back
Jumpin’ on the trampoline

And in the springtime
We’ll be skippin’ school
We sneak off to the Cantrell’s swimming pool
Man, you can’t get much cooler
than me and my friend Darlene

Now my grandaddy’s hands are worn
From 50 years of growin’ corn
Back behind the house where I was born
Before he had to sell
And my cousin Eddie,
He got shot in the Wal-Mart parkin’ lot
Yeah this little town’s changed a lot,
He said it hurt like hell

My name’s Billy Jo McKay,
It’s a hot Mississippi summer saturday
Daddy’s on the front porch with uncle Dave,
drinkin’ Dixie beer

16 years of being bored
My window’s open, forget the door
Hope there’s some gas in the old man’s Ford
‘cause I’m outta here
I’m outta here, I’m outta here

Maybe I’ll go down to Biloxi
Or maybe to New Orleans
Or maybe Hotlanta

Before it gets taken down by the record company nazis, here’s part one of Fiona Apple’s 1997 MTV Unplugged performance. Even I didn’t know this existed, so apart form the fact that I have to do penance now, I’m enjoying it just as much as everyone else. Part II isn’t yet uploaded, it seems, so let’s hope the uploader gets it up there as well. Never knew this had been recorded.

By the way, looking at old footage of Fiona just makes it all the more clear how much healthier she looks these days. God am I happy for that fact.

While we’re at it, here’s a fan interview with Fiona, which shows off so well how humble and kind she really is. There’s no media training here, no fake answers, no pleasing - it’s just who she is. She might come across as unnatural to people who aven’t been initiated into this whole Fiona thing, but that’s just because she is normal - everybody else in the music business has been media trained to death, void of any emotion or realness during their interviews. Fiona isn’t awkward - she’s just not trained to handle the media, making her all the more real and honest.

Too bad I won’t be able to interview her. I’ve got so much to ask her.

As I lift my groceries in to my car
I turn back for a moment and catch a smile
That blows this whole fucking place apart

Too close to home, Bruce, too close.