ac/dshe

Photo by Napoleon Habeica

I think it's symptomatic of the effects pedal/laptop addled world we live in that when I first heard the name "electrocute," my mind immediately jumped to kewt girlz makin' beets, and not a heavy metal band from Norway, which is clearly what the name electrocute should belong to.

Electrocute is pretty much two girls playing up being girls and being real cute, while pedaling taffy-infused beats to match. To be honest, part of me, a large part of me, feels like electrocute is just using me. They're definitely relying on the same kind of "girls who make harmless pop" schtick, with the same kind of self-aware gender marketing that bands like the Go Gos relied on. If that's true, does Electrocute just deserve to disappear into the sands of pop-time?

But I don't know. The songs certainly are fun, and Electrocute's definitely aware of their own self consciousness (a paradox, I know), with lyrics like, "If you want to make them dance/get your spray on hot pants." Also, my itunes is composed almost entirely of cute girls who make music, so two more can't hurt.

Buy On The Beat 

Electrocute - On The Beat

Electrocute - Uh Oh 

Siren Song

The first time I saw that video, MTV was running this series of videos called "Most Controversial Videos," and I stayed up until about 3 in the morning for the chance to maybe see some nudity/fucked up shit. Even though this video more or less delivers on both of those promises, I'd completely forgotten about my goals, so fucked up was I by the music I was hearing.

I think that was the beginning of my serious preference for lady vocals over dude vocals.  Actually, there's a good chance that it's equally owed to all of the time 8 year old me spent in my room, euphonically paralyzed by "Always Be My Baby" (which pretty much everyone loves, right).

I love women's voices so hard, it's really unfortunate. If every song on my computer sung by a man was sung by a woman, I would probably like them more. If Bob Dylan got sex reassignment surgery and released an album, I would probably buy that shit and see him when he played Chicago. It's a problem.

Rubies is a band with prime lady vocals. Singer Simone Rubi doesn't have incredible range or a terrifically unique voice, but it's just such a goshdarn nice sound. It's just so sweet and warm, you want to put it on waffles, or sleep with it in your arms when it's cold.

I've never considered this before, but this is probably the reason why I sing in falsetto. I guess this is the closest I could ever come to my lady-voice dream and still be able to piss in alleys.*

Them's Rubies

Buy Explode From The Center by Rubies

Rubies - Stand In a Line

Rubies - Room Without a Key

*If I just planted the image of post-op lady Matthew in your heads, then success! You have been pranked by nothinbutcuts.

you go back, jack, and do it again.

Oh loyal readers, I is so sorry for the long content drought that has ravaged nothinbutcuts, and is largely (entirely) my fault.

Pretty much, what happened was that I heard of a particular event, and go to so excited that I decided to pour a glass of water into my laptop. Luckily, the only part of my computer that was damaged was my keyboard, so I didn't have to buy a whole new computer.

Unfortunately, unless I wanted to pay 100 dollars for a new keyboard and get it immediately, I had to wait about two weeks to get one from Hong Kong at a reasonable price. Because my summer grind doesn't pay me 100 dollar keyboard money, I opted to inconvenience the both of us, and be without access to my baby for two weeks.

Sorries.

I was at work the other day, and the song "I Kissed A Girl" came on. I imagine that something about the words, "I kissed a girl/and I liked it," have some undeniable appeal to my newly minted, post-adolescent mind, cause I found myself nodding my head, and made a note to investigate it further. 

eh.

To be honest the ??maybebisexual?? trope is a pretty uninteresting platform for any kind of pop anything, on its way out ever since the media made such a bfd about it when Lucy Liu and Calista Flockhart kissed briefly on Ally McBeal.

That being said, where the Katy Perry original fails, is the point where it tries to make lady-on-lady snogging transgressive and dangerous, which it certainly the fuck ain't. If Perry went a little bit further and made a song about scissoring, then she might be on to something.

However, I did find a pretty good remix of it. Some songs just beg to be remixed; something about them is a little off, and you just know that if someone fiddled with it a little, it could live up to its potential. The MR GASPAR remix nixes the danger and just makes it frivolous, excessive, and thoughtless. That's what the young people want, right?

p.s. here are some other remixes I like that I don't think I'll ever have a chance to post.

Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl (MR GASPAR remix)

Cassie - me & U (siik remix)*

Klaxons - As Above So Below (Justice remix)

*this track was sent to me sometime ago by the O to the R to the mothafuckin H. What it do what it do.