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ROCK OF ASIAN: Clara Belle
We’ll admit–we can’t help but be a little biased towards loving the London-based singer/songwriter Clara Belle. She’s so heavenly gorgeous we can barely take our eyes off of her.
Speaking of which, stop looking at her, dagnabbit! Read this! Eyes to the left! To the left!
Half-Scottish/half-Japanese, raised in Osaka and schooled in the UK, she’s a testament to why race/culture mashing is so freaking cool. Soft-stepped breezy melodies punctuated by bright, punchy vocals, and seminal rock tracks (like, oh, Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”) interpreted by a six-string ukelele (that’s right, a six-string ukelele), give the sense of a whole amalgam of influences. Are we at in island jam or a dirty pub crawl? Are we vibing Celtic or feeling super Zen? Quite frankly, we don’t care.
See what we mean:
And get more Clara Belle here.
Filed under: Beautiful Ladies, Celtic is Cool, Clara Belle, Cover Songs, Island Jams, Johnny Cash, Ladies Who Rock, Race Mixing is Cool, The UK
ROCK OF NO WAYSIAN: Nicole Scherzinger Ruins Our Day Again
Duran Duran’s Rio defined my young life–Jesus, maybe still defines my entire life. I write this as I sit under a mint-condition Seven and the Ragged Tiger poster, which is prominently displayed 5 feet high on the wall behind me in my fancy Beverly Hills office. The band itself is essentially sacred in my book–the first page of which includes a 3 ft. x 10 ft. Duran Duran collage splayed across the back of a closet door in the bedroom I shared with my oldest sister in Missouri. Somewhere in the middle is the image of John Taylor, perfectly cut out of a magazine, wearing a tailored blue suit, his left leg crossed over his right and one come-hither eyebrow raised, all like a textbook diagram of the kind of man you kiss. Or tumble on the beach with.
And “Rio,” the song that begat the album, with its tumbling intro and maniacal execution, remains one of the most perfect and erratic and important tunes ever to cannonball into my ears. If I closed my eyes, I never knew if I was at a nightclub or a jungle, if I was in a fantastic movie scene or on a terrible safari. Did it matter? Does it matter? All that counts is that it was the essence of cool, and Duran Duran was sooo British, and that the possibilities to be so chic and so rad and so seething with sex, when you listened to that song, were endless.
And so it is with deep dismay that I came across this terrible news this week: Pussycat Dolls alum Nicole Scherzinger has laid her paws all over the seminal track, creating a tacky breath-pop island version that will ultimately mean nothing to no one–except of course Caress, the brand of soap she’s peddling for with the song.
What’s next, Lennon’s original masters in JC Penny commercials?
Filed under: Bad Days, Duran Duran, Island Jams, New Wave is Life, Nicole Scherzinger, No Waysian, One Bad Song Cover Spoils the Whole Bunch, Peddling for Companies, Rio, Seminal Songs, Simon LeBon is God
ROCK OF ASIAN: The Jack Lords
Last night, while celebrating the publication of Listen Again: A Momentary History of Pop Music in lovely, oft-ignored Downtown LA, Christine Balance (shown rocking her accordian above) made a five-minute case for the pop listener’s re-contextualization of The Breeders’ vintage strummer, “Drivin’ on 9.” As she broke down her deep and sincere love for Kim Deal, I fell a bit in love with Balance–and was delighted to hear the shameless plug for her sweet isle-indie new wave band The Jack Lords.
Let their gentle ocean tunes take you away! And then listen again.
Filed under: Asian Ladies Rock, Books, Dreamy Tunes, Island Jams, Kim Deal, Listen Again, Pop Music, The Breeders, The Jack Lords, Ukulele Makes It All Go Away
