Oskar / Cat Power

[prcsmith]

I am a latecomer to Cat Power's music, but as a testiment to my enjoyment of her music - I saw her feature in Bang Magazine (new music publication - very good)... within 2 hours i'd got the album 'You are free' and a day later i'd listened to it about 10 times, that happens probably 1 in 50 albums that I buy. Fantastic album.

Anyway i'd make the following as recommendations:

Patti Smith, Horses
Beck, Sea Changes
Bob Dylan, Blonde on blonde
Any Mazzy Star (Hope Sandoval) album...

Okay - a shameless plug now...

Oskar, http://www.oskarmusic.com are an up and coming folky band - check out Morning Sun on the recordings bit of website, its such a lovely song... beautiful female vocals... leave a message for the band on the messageboard (above image on homepage). See them at the Spitz, Spitalfield market, Commercial Rd, London E1 on Saturday 21st June at the free music festival - 2pm - Time Out call it "Freebie Of The Week".

[Apocryphelle]

well well well. look what the power drug in....

it makes perfect sense, really. i begged and pleaded with my UK-located brother to go see cat power when she played a small club in york. but did he? no. he was probably down in london, seeing the likes of oskar or BOHJ or some other fool-parade of deviants...

however someone's brother has indeed been turned on...and nothing but sweet werewolfy goodness can come of that.

[chop_39]

What do you mean deviants?
I'm in Oskar.
And I think I might know your brother.
Is he called David?
hehehehe.
I'm Tom.
Please confirm your identity.
Tom

[winterwooskie]

is this allowed moderator people? for someone to come on here and start a thread about how they like catpower only to use it as a way to spam their own crap band and then people arguing about this oskar crap? and to the thread starter are we supposed to find this band appealing because of your blatant attempt to try and associate them to being similar to catpower? and catpower and oskar probably have nothing in common since chan just writes songs the way she likes them to be and oskar are a contrived folk band who want to be apart of some club by following the formula? and that list of bands along with the catpower is supposed to make this oskar band cool by association i suppose, if you like those other bands?

and labeling things as folky just because there are acoustic guitars is so shallow and silly.

[Apocryphelle]

hmm. apparently someone's hissing cockroach got up on the wrong side of the rotting today. little insect, i point in your general direction before ignoring you in my most ultimate of fashions, and i say, "our posts had do with cat power simply because we wrote them while singing and playing."

so, grow up, or meet the bottom of my cat shoes. metaphorically speaking, of course. kiss kiss.

[winterwooskie]

yes i should grow up and get a superiority complex and treat people in a condescending manner because it makes me look good. and do you really talk like that or is it just for effect? or maybe you have some oscar wilde emulation going on.

[Apocryphelle]

see, this is why i fell for cat power in the first place. the woman has found a unique, gut-wrenching way to express her complaints and hopes and observations. and halleluja that she's brave enough to go out there every night and sing it for strangers. i like people and music like that, and so this is what my friends and my musical loves are like.

but the truth is most people just piss and moan and criticize everything around them. granted, this is occasionally fun. however, if you want people to listen to you, to pay attention to you, to give a rat's rear what you have to say, you have to HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY....which, you, snowflake...oh nevermind

or maybe do you have something to say, but no one has asked you lately. so how about it? what band are YOU in? what music do YOU make? what articles, interviews or books have YOU written? and incidentally, what's your problem, anyway?

[winterwooskie]

there is no problem. i think it is rude for people to spam a place to get their music noticed especially in the guise of praising a band but only to advertise your own stuff. it's silly and taking advantage of people. and making one criticism does not mean that you should assume that this is all that i do. but it's fun to make these types of shallow generalizations i suppose to make yourself feel better.

and about whether i am in a band or write articles or whatnot is silly. if you have something to say than you must do so on one of those types of platforms because that makes something valid or more important than other things? and about asking me if i have anything important to say but am not being asked to give an opinion. that seems to be your problem, since no one is asking about oskar and you feel the need to defend your friends in their pursuit of advertising it to people who are not asking about it and on a board that is not to be used as an opportunity to advertise your band and to try to get people interested by associating them with a certain band.

and you obviously feel the need to condescending as a defense mechanism because you cannot back up what you have to say, any other way. i could do the same thing, it's pretty easy but it's a joke and too much of an act to make yourself feel above someone and it's very immature.

[Apocryphelle]

you're in over your head. just be quiet now.

[Apocryphelle]

okay. i understand, winterwooskie, that you believed someone spammed cat power's board, and thought you were defending it against a commercial attack. and normally i respect this - being anti-spam, protecting cool literate boards that are tied to great bands, etc; however, you got it wrong from your first post......oskar itself is a great band with music as 'gut-wrenching' as chan's. they probably know more about folk music than cat power and ani difranco combined and a worthy band for any CP fan to taste. you sound lock-her-up crazy complaining about their appearance on chan's board. listen, oskar are the furthest thing from being internet-sales scumbags. they're simply musicians who have studied music their whole lives and dedicate all of themselves to their various bands and performance projects. and since they are musicians, they talk about their music wherever they are - i can't stress enough that this is NOT spamming. maybe it just seems like spamming because you're unfamiliar with the concept of being IN a band and how in varying degress it's all you ever talk about.

however, to your credit, i know that in general these days it seems like everybody is trying to sell you something. but the answer to this discomfort is not to wrongfully harrass musicians supporting musicians. i'll leave the solution up to you, but throwing a large heavy object at your television is a good place to start. good luck.

[Patrick]

Can everyone please chill out - I saw the original few posts and decided it probably wasn't spam... we're pretty vigilant about keeping this board spam-free but we do try to keep an open mind at least for a little while until it becomes clear what is going on (Cf. maloze).

Patrick

[winterwooskie]

apocryphelle- i do not see it as a commercial attack. just because this is an indie label it does not mean that you should naively assume that i see this as some type of commercial attack. and spamming is spamming, regardless of whether you are biased to see nothing wrong with it just because you like the band. i suppose spamming is only bad if it is for a band that you do not like. so there must not be that much spamming on the internet since people do not advertise bands that they do not like. or is it ok to spam a place if you like the band, in that case then spamming should happen more because it's ok because somebody likes their band enough to do this.

and i am in a band, but i do not start threads praising someone's band and include my own when it has nothing to do with it. and it would be very unlikely that i would put the name of my band or a friend's band in the title of a thread that is supposedly about how you really liked some other band.

and i hope the oskar website has a message board because if people like oskar then they will really, really like the band stryper and they should check them out.

[prcsmith]

I'd just like to give peace and love to everyone who's got this far in reading this thread...

Winterwooksie, I honestly thought, and still think, that many Cat Power fans will find the music of Oskar interesting... excluding yourself of course.

The more you go on about it the more attention you are bringing to my original post anyway. So please go on and on ranting as long as you find it necessary.

PS. Stryper is the coolest band i've ever layed my eyes on - where the hell did you find them?

[winterwooskie]

yes the more i go on and on, the more attention you get for oskar, that is the whole purpose of this thread and i'm glad i'm helping in the spam department.

and yes stryper is hot, especially the bass player. i heard of them on the white stripes message board. someone was like, "hey if you think the white stripes rock, you should check out stryper."

[prcsmith]

Cool - good job you came across their name on the messageboard or you wouldn't have ever known about them.

Thanks for the Oskar publicity too - you're a star!

[winterwooskie]

i don't think you are getting that much publicity on a message board especially when people tend to not have any interest in bands that use this tactic to get some attention. but then when you can't get any attention for your band based on its music then other things have to be used to get it. too bad people just can't play music because they enjoy it and that be rewarding enough. but it's just a means to some other end for some people.

[prcsmith]

winterwooskie, where are you from?

you're an absolute dick!

[winterwooskie]

how does where i live have to do with anything? are you going to stereotype everyone that lives in the same area as me, as a dick because that is where i live? grow up. and name-calling hasn't hurt my feelings since first grade.

[ozzie]

I've been reading through this thread and I really thought music was all about sharing and keeping an open mind.... as far as I can see PRC was just trying to share something but it looks like this wooskie person is so closed minded to anything but Cat Power that he feels the need to argue with everyone on this forum - I was looking at some other threads and saw his name come up and hey, what do you know - arguing again!!! Why does it worry you so much? Anyway, why don't you both chill out and enjoy music, afterall, thats what its there for - to enjoy, not to moan, argue and get all defensive about!

[winterwooskie]

are you joking? to assume that i only like catpower and am closed-minded to anything else is such a an idiotic assumption. and i do not complain about everything, that is just another assumption you are making from a couple posts and you ignore the ones that do not support this idea. and sharing music is one thing but spamming a place and trying to get people to associate them with a band that they like is another thing. also this is not a board to advertise bands that you like.

and about the kinds of posts people have on here. how many posts do people who spam boards about their bands usually have in which their few posts are just about getting their band noticed and that is the only interest they have in a message board and do not take part in any discussion because they are just using it for ad space?

and it's interesting that you're a first poster and complaining about this because it would be really funny if you were just one of the oskar-ites who felt the need to change your name to help in the oskar spamming department. also considering that prcsmith stopped posting and this thread was basically over, but now you start it up again. of course you will never admit to being prcsmith and it is so obvious that i'm a paranoid music snob.

[ozzie]

you really are paranoid
I have no connection with PRC or the 'oscar-ites' but I suppose there is no point in trying to convince you of that in your state of mind - anyway, just calm down - I was mearly putting my oppinion into the thread as I have one, just thinking that maybe you should BOTH chill out and enjoy and share music, that is my philosophy anyway - but lets leave it at that - I have no desire to continue an argument I shouldn't have joined in the first place - just wanted to put my oppinion accross which I am entitled to do.

[winterwooskie]

it's not paranoia. it's not that difficult to get another name and be sad enough to do that, people do that sometimes and i was not absolutely sure that you are the other person but its possible and i was only going out on a limb. it just seems odd for someone else to take such an interest in it and have the same kind of arguments as the other poster and similar pettyness and you have no problem with the other person being rude, name-calling, and exaggerating things at all, it seems like you have an invested interest in it.

[ozzie]

well never mind - lets just forget about it eh
I guess it just caught my attention as it was the first
string up on the forum and the first one I read and then I read the next string after that one and you were arguing with someone else so I just wanted to make a point.......End of story - I am not going to reply again - cause lets face it - we are all pretty sad really having petty arguments on the internet with people we have never even met before.

[silver_glider]

Winterwooskie, you ARE being paranoid and cynnical.

From my objective viewpoint, I see a couple of people who listen to cat power and like to make music. It seems natural to introduce themselves and their music to some others on a messageboard of a group they are obviously excited about. To assume this is some form of spamming is taking an unsubstantiable leap, and, as you already admit, does not make sense: there are better places to spam than the messageboard of one of your favorite bands.

It is obvious then, they simply want to share their creative work with other cat power people. Your continual damning of this single act signifies you are not being a very tolerant and understanding person.

On a lighter note, I do think this thread is kind of comical.

[winterwooskie]

comical? how dare you. being an ass to spammers is all i have to do for the summer.

and it is odd for someone to never post here except about their band and put the name of the band in the title of the thread when it's supposedly about how wonderful catpower is. and why are there only new one-post posters having a problem with this, especially when this thread would be over with the exception of them bringing it up? and spammers know their stuff will be deleted usually so some just give some little acknowledgement of something and then go on to spam about their band.

[silver_glider]

First of all, I've posted here before, but I forgot my username and password. I think it was AWOL Paul, but that is neither here nor there. As much as you hate what this thread represents, maybe you too ought not add to the terrible amount of publicity it is getting for the London based group OSKAR. Yes, OSKAR, say it aloud folks! OSKAR, OSKAR, OSKAR! I bathe with OSKAR and I sleep with OSKAR!

Now that I am done being silly, let's talk about this OSKAR situation on a more serious plane: has anyone bought the new oskar cd and what did you think? Better than Tickle Me St. Elmo's Fire?

[prcsmith]

funny you should ask silverglider - and winterwooskie will think even more that i am all 3 people sticking up for oskar on this thread (which insidentally i'm not which ozzie and silverglider will very much appreciate!!) but you can listen to the tracks on the website mentioned on the first post. Then you can make up your own mind as to whether we are worthy to mention our music...

and thanks for pointing out that there are much better ways for small bands to spam - like maybe going on an Oasis or U2 messageboard where the readership is far higher... but thats not what we're about, i genuinely love cat powers music and thought people who like her may be interested to find out about a new band. i'd like to know what you (silverglider) genuinely think of our music. Constructive criticism welcomed.

[silver_glider]

Well, my opinion, for what it is worth...

The first song I found pretty likable, "morning star", the lyrics of which work out well in the composition overall (you could alternate one or some of the 'shine shines' with a separate lyric for additional variety and meaning inside the refrain, but this is minor). It is a very catchy melody wrapt in warm interesting effects and nice vocals. I would definitely call that a success. As for the other - "another day" - this one was not quite as challenging musically to me. Not a bad sound, but - for one - the lyrics are a little cliche. As a bit of constructive advice on this point, I might say try to be a little more open to the spontaneous in composing and, instead of focusing on creating a solid hit, focus more on tapping your expressive abilities. You guys appear to be good musicians. Everyone needs time to mature as artists (an ongoing process). If you are so leaning, I recommend looking at some of the experimental processes worked by other musicians and artists and then perhaps trying some of those out yourselves (e.g. dada, surrealism, fluxus, jazz improv, john cage, etc.).

As to the third song, "babe I'm gonna leave you", if you took led zeppelin's "I can't quit you babe" and any song off of mazzy star's 'so that tonight I might see', this would very closely approximate the song. If that was intentional on your part, then I would call it a great success!

Not sure I have anything else worthwhile to say. Hopefully my opinion was of some use to you. Good luck and most importantly have fun!

[Patrick]

OK folks. Take it to email.

Patrick