What are the mtvU Woodies, exactly, and why should we care? Every fall music journalists are bombarded with press releases about this awards show, which will air on December 4. This year nominees include former-Atlantan Asher Roth (”Woodie of the Year”) and transplanted Atlantan Janelle Monae, (”Left Field Woodie,” given to “genre-busters”).
“I’ve never questioned what my purpose was. I’ve always felt like I was given a gift and I’ve always felt like I’m being led.”
Janelle Monae’s new song, “Come Alive (The War of the Roses)” is being released today via Kia Soul Collective — a group of highly-touted artists comprised to help market the auto brand. The energetic, pop-punk song is also a sneak peek into what’s in store from Monae’s 2010 sophomore follow-up to her Wondaland Arts Society/Bad Boy/Atlantic debut Metropolis: The Chase Suite.
A free download of “Come Alive (The War of the Roses)” is available at KiaSoulCollective.com.
The behind-the-scenes video, shot at Wondaland’s Atlanta homebase/studio, features Monae and her W.A.S. peeps Nate Wonder and Chuck Lightning, as well as her bandmates, including the wig-wearing guitarist Kellindo Parker.
'HEY MAN, SMELL MY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD': George Clinton (right) with BMI CEO Del Bryant
Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) functions much like its competitor ASCAP, collecting royalties on behalf of songwriters and publishers from radio and other outlets. But unlike ASCAP, which is owned by its songwriters and publishers, BMI is owned by broadcasters, the same people they license for royalties.
Shady, right? Still, it’s been ahead of the curve when it comes to representing black musicians, and today its artists include the majority of top-selling hip hop artists. The weirdness of these dynamics were on full display at BMI’s Urban Awards show September 10 in New York. Held at Lincoln Center’s jazz hall, the evening’s co-host was BMI CEO Del Bryant, whose tightly-buttoned suit, weird tan and strained attempts at street banter routinely caused a huge room of cocktailed-up rappers, producers and music industry types (one of whom was rocking a Gumby haircut) to fall into awkward silences.
I thought I’d missed an old show when I heard Janelle Monaé on Fresh Air yesterday — especially since Terri Gross kept referring to her “new CD” Metropolis: The Chase Suite. You know, the one that was originally released in ’07, and later nominated for a Grammy after being re-released with added songs via Bad Boy in ’08.
Just goes to show how many people are still being exposed to the homegirl’s cyber-sound. Here’s a snippet:
Gross: As we can hear, you have a voice that really could’ve made it on Broadway — like, you have a beautiful, legit-sounding voice. But what you’re singing now, in a beautiful voice, is like your own breed of hip-hop. Did you feel like you had to change your voice in any way when you changed your aspirations from Broadway to hip-hop?
Monaé: (small laughter) Well, you know, no. I actually didn’t. I don’t really categorize anything that I do or say, you know, ‘this is the genre that I’m trying to go into.’ Still to this day I don’t have a name for necessarily what I call my sound or what it is that we’re doing. It’s one of those things where I don’t force anything, and by nature I think that I’ve always been drawn to women like Judy Garland, who always kept a classic and timeless voice. Even Anita Baker at times; I love her voice as well. So, you know, taking those out would just be taking a part of me away.
Listen to the full interview, Janelle Monaé’s Funky Otherworldly Sounds.
See photo via Twitpic
Be sure to check out my story on Bobby Ray this week, in which he discusses his transition from gat-rapping persona B.o.B to existential genre-hopping rocker/crooner/MC.
He was very forthcoming in the interview, and I ran out of space for all the great anecdotes and info he shared. Here are the best cutting-room floor bits.
Why he won’t visit his Grand Hustle label head T.I. in prison
“He doesn’t want anyone to see him in prison. I thought about it, I was definitely going to come by a lot. But he doesn’t even want his kids to see him there. He doesn’t want that image implanted in their heads, of him being in jail. I can kind of understand that.”
Janelle Monae
“She is probably my sister from another planet or something. She reminds me a lot of me. Everything that she says and does, her music and her show, kind of rubs off on me. She has a lot of good energy, and I take what I like from it and put my spin on it.”
His future goals
“I’m trying to outdo myself. I’m going to take all the best elements from all the music I know. I don’t even want to say some of the stuff I’m thinking about, because it’s stuff that’s never been done before, like recording a song on an airplane. Or maybe even recording a song outside.”
On the Outkast-sized expectations people have for him
“It’s what you make of it. Sometimes it used to intimidate me, but now, it’s like, you gotta go with it, you have to use the energy to your advantage. If people are excited to see me, I’m like, ‘Fuck yeah, I’m excited too. Let’s do it.’”
Not since Hall & Oates have two white guys been as funky as Chester French.
Need a co-sign? The duo’s new Clinton Sparks mixtape (Jacques Jams Vol. 1: Endurance) features Diddy, Pharrell, Jermaine Dupri, Talib Kweli, Cassie, Solange, etc.
(Actually, considering that list of cameos, maybe Chester French is doing the co-signing here?)
Haven’t heard the product yet, but you can check the tracklist and download at NahRight.com.
Chester French & the White Tie Affair opens for Lady Gaga. SOLD OUT. 8:45 p.m. Tonight. Center Stage, 1374 W. Peachtree St. 404-875-9364.
Tonight’s previously scheduled show featuring Deep Cotton, Jaspects, Hollyweerd, Rahbi, Scar, Tendaberry, Brittany Bosco and Jimi Cravity is cancelled.
For more information, call the Rialto box office at 404-413-9849.
See more CL soundmenu picks for shows this weekend, including Random Rabbit, Afro-Cuban Allstars, Michelle Malone, Omar, and the Strange Boys.
The Creative Loafing team survived the brutal drive to and from Austin for this year’s South By Southwest festival, kept alive only by gallons of gas station coffee and truck stop tacos.
While we chased down every free meal and drink ticket we could find, we also managed to see a tiny fraction of the 1,900 bands that played this year. Sure, everyone is talking about it today, but we didn’t see Kanye or Metallica. We’re OK with that. Check out a rundown of our favorite moments from the festival after the jump.
Not that we’re surprised to hear it; Atlanta has long been hip to Ms. Monáe.
Still, it’s nice to hear them good ol’ boys from the Big Apple confirm what we already knew, as the Village Voice’s Rob Harvilla does in his post, “SXSW 2009 Best in Show: Janelle Monáe”:
Ideally at this thing you find someone to champion, whether they’re a relative unknown or already loudly championed by myriad others. Definitely the latter here: Janelle’s been hailed as the future of r&b for what feels like years now; should that come to pass, the future of r&b will apparently be fantastically incoherent.
No worries, that’s New Yawk City critic-speak for “we digs ya.” He gushes on:
she vacillates gleefully from Orwellian space-funk to skronking heavyy metal to her pretty incredible torch-song cover of Nat King Cole’s “Smile” to the new “Tightrope,” a fantastic pop-r&b anthem with serious “Umbrella”-of-2009 potential. Throughout, she dabbles in diva howls and operatic lunacy, all while dancing like a robot trying to do the Human.
“Haven’t you talked enough today?” Ian McCulloch, lead singer of Echo and the Bunnymen, asked the audience at Emo’s in Austin last night. He was in a typically dour mood, playing their late-night set clad in a pair of dark sunglasses and a heavy, black pea coat that didn’t make much since in Austin heat.
Despite all the industry schmoozing that seems to happen in the room of every single show at SXSW, Echo played an absolutely killer set to an otherwise rapt, packed crowd last night. FLickr has a ton of photos from the event.
The shows at Emo’s were among the biggest draws last night — a big line formed to see actress Juliette Lewis prance around in a cape with her new band Juliette and the New Romantiques. I wasn’t exactly impressed. The Leafy Green showcase next door at Emo’s Jr. had a great back-to-back line up, with sets from creepy folksters Larkin Grimm, recent Sub-Pop signees Vetiver, and San Francisco newcomers Sleepy Sun.
We missed Atlanta hero Janelle Monae last night, but we’re really happy to see Rolling Stone giving her some much deserved blog love.
She may not have returned home with a Grammy, but Janelle Monae still made a big splash from the looks of it.
Check out this footage of her poolside performance at L.A.’s Mondrian hotel, spotted at ArjanWrites.com. As the four-minute mark approaches, she’s spotted climbing out of the pool — apparently after diving in — then proceeding to climb a tree.
And they even got her to take off her classic “uniform.”
If the showcase at 595 North was intimate, Common’s concert at the Tabernacle on Wednesday, Oct. 8, with openers Janelle Monae and N.E.R.D., was just the opposite: loud, rowdy and packed to the rafters.
The crowd smashed in thick, angling for spots close to the stage. The look was comfortable fashion, not trying too hard but far from straight b-boy/b-girl apparel. Hardly a hoodie to be seen. In fact, birthday boy Chris Ogbuefi celebrated 25 decked in a black button down, alongside a nearby crew comparing Opi and Essie nail polish.
Janelle Monae
The interlude after Monae’s set and before N.E.R.D. seemed to go on forever, but classics from the Sugarhill Gang, Chubb Rock and Mary J. Blige kept folks content. Speaking of Monae, one guy in the crowd who’d never seen her perform had nothing but “awesome” and “hot” to say, referencing her stage diving and incredible guitarist.
N.E.R.D. blasted onto the stage, sending the crowd mad. The vibe was more rock show than hip-hop, complete with crowd surfing, and a few elbows. The makings of a pit seemed underway. The crowd sang along to just about all the songs, though I was disappointed they didn’t do more of their downtempo stuff, especially “Frontin’.” Toward the end of N.E.R.D.’s set, a few girls made their way on stage. By the end of N.E.R.D.’s performance, the stage looked like a video set, with fake money falling from the ceiling, and at least 15 ladies dancing like they hadn’t a care in the world. Nothing nasty, just good fun.
N.E.R.D.
It didn’t take nearly as long for Common to come out, which he did among a bar-like set up — selecting an “Angel” from the crowd a couple songs into his set, to sit and chill with him. By then he was sweatin’ but had all the necessary breath control, bouncing from one side of the stage to the next. Hardly the laid-back performance you might expect, Common’s energy didn’t wane from “The People” to “You Got Me” to some new tracks that were all uptempo and induced plenty of hand-clapping and dancing. Like the 595 show, he busted some freestyles with political and social references, and even some T.I. Indeed, we are all connected, from Chicago to Atlanta.
(Photos by Tara-Lynne Pixley)
It’s easy to forget the good folks at Paste magazine are based in Atlanta since they’re so good (too good, perhaps) at avoiding hometown favoritism.
But in Paste’s September ’08 cover issue, Best of What’s Next: 26 Emerging Artists You Must Know, two local yokels actually made the cut: Janelle Monae and Andy Hull.
Both are artists we’ve talked up (and sometimes down) in the pages of CL. Hull is best known as the lead for Atlanta indie rock act Manchester Orchestra. But his solo set, Right Away, Great Captain is a stripped-down concept album about a sailor from the 1600s, with each song representing journal entries to his captain and family.
Monae, whose Metropolis: The Chase suite was re-released last week, was the topic of CL’s music feature last week, along with her Wondaland Arts Society label. Metropolis is another conceptual release that tells the story of an android from the future who must be destroyed when she falls in love with a human.
But Atlanta has no monopoly on fresh talent. Check the full list for such artists as Wale (Washington D.C.), the Everybodyfields (Tennessee), Black Kids (Jacksonville, Fla.), Mugison (Iceland) and more.
Cee-Lo and DangerMouse certainly proved to be The Odd Couple last night on Gnarls Barkley’s return home to Atlanta for a performance at the Variety Playhouse.
For most of the show, Cee-Lo resembled a fired-up storefront preacher mixed with a little bit of a Hell’s Angel as he quickly peeled out of his shiny turquoise tuxedo jacket and black shirt to reveal a black wife-beater, tattooed arms and chest, and a thick gold chain with a cross that dangled down to his pot belly — to which I overheard Jodine of Jodine’s Corner respond, “Big Sexy’s in the building!”
Though he didn’t dance (”This floor is slippery — I was going to show y’all some of my moves.”), he’d half do a little herky jerky thing with his arms every once in awhile then throw them up in the air in a way that reminded me of the little church lady who used to catch the Holy Ghost on the front pew every Sunday.
Meanwhile, Danger Mouse looked like some crazed but concentrated concert pianist as he hunched his back over the keyboard and played ever so slightly. The only thing missing was a candelabra and a black cat.
For the encore, Cee-Lo returned to the stage wearing black shades and smoking a cigarette. Paired with his bald head and gold chain, it immediately conjured up the image of Isaac Hayes, circa his Hot Buttered Soul era. And when DangerMouse sat down at the synthesizer, he began to play two notes in a fashion that almost mimicked Hayes’ classic eight-minute monologue on his remake of “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.”
Instead, Gnarls Barkley launched into “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” — a song Cee-Lo told CL in last week’s feature that he originally wrote to mourn James Brown’s death. The lyrics were a perfect ode to the recently deceased Isaac Hayes last night.
BAD BOY’S BEHIND THIS: Natural-born hype-man P. Diddy compares Janelle Monae to James Brown and Elvis during their interview with Sway on MTV. Click here to see the full footage. (Photo courtesy MTV News)
If you’ve been following local phenom Janelle Monae’s career as close as we have, you know she’s been hella busy. Besides starring in the Atlanta Ballet collaboration with Big Boi titled big — which you can read about in this week’s CL cover story — she just got back from a trip to New York last week where she performed for an industry crowd.
MTV was on-hand and Sway even sat down to interview her and P. Diddy, who has been courting Monae and her Wondaland Arts Society partners since late last year. After keeping their working relationship under wraps for months, natural born hype-man Diddy compared his new artist Monae to James Brown, Elvis, Judy Garland and Anita Baker in the same breath.
The announcement of her signing confirms the story we broke last November. In the joint venture between Wondaland and Bad Boy/Atlantic, Big Boi of OutKast will “continue to serve as a collaborator and co-executive producer,” Monae announced in a blog posted on her MySpace page yesterday.
For fans who fear what might become of Monae at a pop label like Bad Boy, she added:
I feel this movement is beyond independent or mainstream. Soul or rock. Black or white. Pompadour or perm. Saddle shoes or high heels. It’s about altering history through a great new era of music and art.
According to Mitchell Martin II of Wondaland, Diddy is so excited to be involved with an artist of Monae’s caliber — and a team with WAS’s marketing expertise — that he plans to stay out of their way as they do their thing.
So that means no “Bad Boy this, Bad Boy that” chants all over Monae’s vocals, right Diddy?
The next suite from Metropolis is scheduled to drop in June, with a full-length album containing both new and previously released material to drop in September, according to Martin.
Martin also gave some insight into a lot of conversation Wondaland has been fostering within the local music scene. Stay tuned for more on that in the upcoming CL Music Issue, which drops April 23.
(photo by Brian Crumb)
Georgia State University’s acclaimed college station Album 88 (WRAS-FM 88.5) caps another year of programming with the musical showcase WRASFEST. Previous editions have featured buzz bands such as the Selmanaires and Deerhunter. The 2007 installment ventures outside of Album 88’s traditional indie-rock pastures for a more eclectic lineup featuring avant-garde soul starlet Janelle Monae, funky-breaks ensemble Cadillac Jones (pictured), experimental punk trio Chopper, rap group Clan Destined and organic-electronic crew Random Rabbit, among others, Fri., DEC. 14. $8. 7 p.m. Eyedrum, 290 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Suite 8. 404-522-0655. www.eyedrum.org.
For more See & Do, click here.
For the Sound Menu, click here.
HERE’S LOOKIN’ AT YOU, KID: Janelle Monae does her best impression of Larry from the Three Stooges, Dec. 1 at Lenny’s.
(all photos by Alan Friedman)
I’d love to see Janelle Monae on a real stage.
Sure, the stages at Sugarhill, Lenny’s, Apache and even the Tabernacle — all of which she’s ripped in ‘07 — are cool. But I really think she needs something closer to off-Broadway to realize her vision.
Don’t get me wrong, I dig the cybergirl punk-soul role she’s portraying. Her recent show at Lenny’s was definitely out there (read the Nightcrawler write-up, here.) But imagine a full-blown musical-theater production of Metropolis, with Monae cast in the lead role of Cindi Mayweather, and a strong supporting cast backing her.
With Big Boi’s upcoming Atlanta Ballet production, big, premiering in ‘08, the Alliance Theatre would be smart to consider such a stage interpretation of Monae’s work. Her concept album already plays like a storybook.
All she needs now is a good headshot. Maybe one of the pics below will do the trick. (more…)
