If you didn't yet know, Le Tigre recently wrote some songs for Christina Aguilera's upcoming album Bionic. If you are thinking "HUH?" then think again! I've always been a huge Christina fan and it makes total sense to me that these two forces would team up. I imagine that Kathleen Hanna would actually be a great person to write vocals for Christina because while their voices are very different, they have the commonality of both being very big & booming. Johanna Fateman from Le Tigre just blogged about working with Christina on Le Tigre's website, so read about it from the Tigre's mouth below:
"I just saw the Marie Claire with CHRISTINA AGUILERA on the cover and I realized we are waaaay overdue for an update. Yes, the rumors are true. . . Le Tigre wrote and produced a couple of songs with Christina! Not wanting to break the spell of this magic opportunity as we wait in suspense to hear if our tracks make it on the album, we’ve been quiet on the topic. But now that the buzz is getting crazy I just can’t contain myself. Needless to say, for a feminist band obsessed with pop music, it was pretty much a dream come true.
Around this time last year we got word that Deceptacon was Christina’s jam and that she wanted to work with Le Tigre on some new songs. At first we were tormented by the goal of writing “another Deceptacon” for her, wondering how to crack the code to its energy and production style (“shit, do we have to find an HR16-B on eBay and synch-up a fast beat with a warped guitar sample on an antique Mirage?!”) plus we wanted to write melodies that would showcase Christina’s incredible voice. The pressure was on! But we quickly realized that we just had to be ourselves and put our hearts into pulling together our best demos to play for her.
So. . . we prepared for our trip to LA to work with her in a typically crazy Le Tigre way due to our individually hectic schedules. Kathleen and I were in NYC meeting up periodically, handing off beats on mini-drives, and downloading JD’s arpeggiator loops and basslines sent from hotels rooms and backstage wi-fi all across the country (she was on tour with MEN). And, oh yeah, did I mention I had just given birth?! In June I flew to LA with my 11 week old baby Goldie and met up with JD at the airport shuttle to the car rental place. Kathleen stayed in NYC and we did lyric brainstorming via text messages, and JD and I sent her running to FedEx with her secret signature vocal FX box so Christina could try it out.
Meeting Christina and working with her at her home studio was simultaneously super comfortable and normal-seeming while also kind of a mind-blowing window into another world. If you’ve read the Marie Claire article you know about the crucifix doorknobs and plush couches, red and black decor, dish of ricolas and awesome speakers. But what made me feel at home as an artistic collaborator was that the space she had to be creative in was also filled with cool art and beautiful books and tons of notepads and a million great pens. Curling up in sweatpants, puzzling over lyrics and checking her blackberry while the beat loops forever. . . Hey Christina is just like us after all! She is totally cool and hilarious and down-to-earth.
But when it came time to lay down vocals we were in awe. She is a technical virtuoso behind the mic, layering take after take of flawless vocals and coming up with variations, ad-libs, and harmonies on the fly. And while her voice is like a force of nature, she is completely disciplined in her approach to recording and realizing her vision for each track. At the end of each night she would have a CD burned for her and come back with detailed comments about things she wanted to perfect the next day.
It was definitely intimidating, when we stopped and thought about it, to work with such a huge star (I mean, she has her own perfume line), so we tried not to think about it too much. Obviously Christina has a massive audience and a mainstream presence, and so the question a lot people ask about the experience is how did this change or influence our approach to the content of the songs. Together we tailored themes and specific references to her personality and image but found a ton of common ground in our aim to make upbeat danceable tracks celebrating female friendship, strength, and of course, PARTYING. And while the giant sound of her stacked vocals and the pop sheen she lends to the tracks might seem at odds with Le Tigre’s aesthetic roots, it really works. The songs have a lot of elements we’re known for, like a garage guitar sound, schoolyard chants, new wave-y synths, electro beats, and somehow it all sounds crazily right with Christina’s unbelievable voice. We hope you get to hear the songs sometime soon!
In other news, we’ve been busy shooting interviews and gearing up to promote our forthcoming DVD of live performances, backstage antics and touring adventures. More on that later. . .
Love, JO"
***
And there you have it! Bonus: One of my favorite Christina songs:
Christina Aguilera feat. Lil Kim- "Can't Hold Us Down"
Christina Aguilera + Le Tigre
Christina Aguilera + Le Tigre
If you didn't yet know, Le Tigre recently wrote some songs for Christina Aguilera's upcoming album Bionic. If you are thinking "HUH?" then think again! I've always been a huge Christina fan and it makes total sense to me that these two forces would team up. I imagine that Kathleen Hanna would actually be a great person to write vocals for Christina because while their voices are very different, they have the commonality of both being very big & booming. Johanna Fateman from Le Tigre just blogged about working with Christina on Le Tigre's website, so read about it from the Tigre's mouth below:
"I just saw the Marie Claire with CHRISTINA AGUILERA on the cover and I realized we are waaaay overdue for an update. Yes, the rumors are true. . . Le Tigre wrote and produced a couple of songs with Christina! Not wanting to break the spell of this magic opportunity as we wait in suspense to hear if our tracks make it on the album, we’ve been quiet on the topic. But now that the buzz is getting crazy I just can’t contain myself. Needless to say, for a feminist band obsessed with pop music, it was pretty much a dream come true.
Around this time last year we got word that Deceptacon was Christina’s jam and that she wanted to work with Le Tigre on some new songs. At first we were tormented by the goal of writing “another Deceptacon” for her, wondering how to crack the code to its energy and production style (“shit, do we have to find an HR16-B on eBay and synch-up a fast beat with a warped guitar sample on an antique Mirage?!”) plus we wanted to write melodies that would showcase Christina’s incredible voice. The pressure was on! But we quickly realized that we just had to be ourselves and put our hearts into pulling together our best demos to play for her.
So. . . we prepared for our trip to LA to work with her in a typically crazy Le Tigre way due to our individually hectic schedules. Kathleen and I were in NYC meeting up periodically, handing off beats on mini-drives, and downloading JD’s arpeggiator loops and basslines sent from hotels rooms and backstage wi-fi all across the country (she was on tour with MEN). And, oh yeah, did I mention I had just given birth?! In June I flew to LA with my 11 week old baby Goldie and met up with JD at the airport shuttle to the car rental place. Kathleen stayed in NYC and we did lyric brainstorming via text messages, and JD and I sent her running to FedEx with her secret signature vocal FX box so Christina could try it out.
Meeting Christina and working with her at her home studio was simultaneously super comfortable and normal-seeming while also kind of a mind-blowing window into another world. If you’ve read the Marie Claire article you know about the crucifix doorknobs and plush couches, red and black decor, dish of ricolas and awesome speakers. But what made me feel at home as an artistic collaborator was that the space she had to be creative in was also filled with cool art and beautiful books and tons of notepads and a million great pens. Curling up in sweatpants, puzzling over lyrics and checking her blackberry while the beat loops forever. . . Hey Christina is just like us after all! She is totally cool and hilarious and down-to-earth.
But when it came time to lay down vocals we were in awe. She is a technical virtuoso behind the mic, layering take after take of flawless vocals and coming up with variations, ad-libs, and harmonies on the fly. And while her voice is like a force of nature, she is completely disciplined in her approach to recording and realizing her vision for each track. At the end of each night she would have a CD burned for her and come back with detailed comments about things she wanted to perfect the next day.
It was definitely intimidating, when we stopped and thought about it, to work with such a huge star (I mean, she has her own perfume line), so we tried not to think about it too much. Obviously Christina has a massive audience and a mainstream presence, and so the question a lot people ask about the experience is how did this change or influence our approach to the content of the songs. Together we tailored themes and specific references to her personality and image but found a ton of common ground in our aim to make upbeat danceable tracks celebrating female friendship, strength, and of course, PARTYING. And while the giant sound of her stacked vocals and the pop sheen she lends to the tracks might seem at odds with Le Tigre’s aesthetic roots, it really works. The songs have a lot of elements we’re known for, like a garage guitar sound, schoolyard chants, new wave-y synths, electro beats, and somehow it all sounds crazily right with Christina’s unbelievable voice. We hope you get to hear the songs sometime soon!
In other news, we’ve been busy shooting interviews and gearing up to promote our forthcoming DVD of live performances, backstage antics and touring adventures. More on that later. . .
Love, JO"
***
And there you have it! Bonus: One of my favorite Christina songs:
Christina Aguilera feat. Lil Kim- "Can't Hold Us Down"
iamamiwhoami
Photo from thegoldenfilter.tumblr.com
A couple of days back a new video was posted to the iamamiwhoami youtube account. Since we posted last time I think everyone has pretty much ruled out Goldfrapp as an option. Rocket doesn't fit the sound of the clips and the Head First album cover couldn't be more different from the look in the viral videos.
Although Christina Aguilera's publicist denied iamamiwhoami has anything to do with her, everyone still seems to be convinced she's behind it. Given the fact that the blond woman crawling through mud could easily be Xtina and that everyone knows she's worked with Ladytron and Goldfrapp, it doesn't seem too far off. BUT...Christina's first single from Bionic is set to be a song called Glam which is supposedly "a poppy, hip-hop inflected throwback to Madonna's Vogue." ???????? HOWEVER...if you get real nerdy on it and decode the numbers as letters and use the dots as spaces it spells out "I T S M E BIONIC". I love viral mysteries!
Let's just imagine for a second though that it's not Christina Aguilera. The internets are speculating alternatives such as NIN, MGMT, Lady Gags, Bjork, The Knife, Fever Ray and Aphex Twin, just to name of few. But what if it were someone less obvious like The Golden Filter? Mysterious, blond, nice looking videos, new record coming soon, the cover for the record matches the imagery....just a thought.
Here are some songs and videos to keep you thinking. We'll keep you updated when iamamiwhoami posts more!
Ladytron - Ghosts
The Golden Filter - Thunderbird
Goldfrapp? Xtina?
Allison Goldfrapp released the cover artwork for the new Goldfrapp album Head First on her blog yesterday. That would normally not be very newsworthy, but with all the speculation that the creepy viral videos floating around on the interwebs are teasers for her new album, this image may disprove the theory.
If you haven't seen the videos, they are dark and seemingly high budget clips featuring sexually aggressive tree licking, owls, lots of mud and sort of animal birthing something. Obviously that imagery seems to contrast with the pink and blue-Allison Goldfrapp's head in the clouds look on the album cover.
Goldfrapp - Strict Machine (BlackStrobe Italian Fireflies Bootleg)
Christina Aguilera - Genie 2.0
Goldfrapp? Xtina?
Allison Goldfrapp released the cover artwork for the new Goldfrapp album Head First on her blog yesterday. That would normally not be very newsworthy, but with all the speculation that the creepy viral videos floating around on the interwebs are teasers for her new album, this image may disprove the theory.
If you haven't seen the videos, they are dark and seemingly high budget clips featuring sexually aggressive tree licking, owls, lots of mud and sort of animal birthing something. Obviously that imagery seems to contrast with the pink and blue-Allison Goldfrapp's head in the clouds look on the album cover.
Goldfrapp - Strict Machine (BlackStrobe Italian Fireflies Bootleg)
Christina Aguilera - Genie 2.0
Goldfrapp? Xtina?
Allison Goldfrapp released the cover artwork for the new Goldfrapp album Head First on her blog yesterday. That would normally not be very newsworthy, but with all the speculation that the creepy viral videos floating around on the interwebs are teasers for her new album, this image may disprove the theory.
If you haven't seen the videos, they are dark and seemingly high budget clips featuring sexually aggressive tree licking, owls, lots of mud and sort of animal birthing something. Obviously that imagery seems to contrast with the pink and blue-Allison Goldfrapp's head in the clouds look on the album cover.
Goldfrapp - Strict Machine (BlackStrobe Italian Fireflies Bootleg)
Christina Aguilera - Genie 2.0
Are you ready to shit yourself...
I've always been somewhat of a fan of Christina Aguilera. Unlike other pop girls from that era, she really attempted to include a large amount of musical influences in her work as well as writing and having that huge voice. So when I first read about her 3rd full length a few months ago, I was pretty shocked. She had brought on Ladytron, Goldfrapp, and Sia to help out. Now we have news that Le Tigre (All 3 members) are working on her new album as well. If you remember, Le Tigre announced at the end of 2006 that they'd be going on an extended hiatus (We heard this from Sleater-Kinney as well...aka break up). So it's kind of cool to know that Le Tigre is still around, even if it is production duties. Here's the news link:
I'm kind of excited and I can't deny it