Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke

I fell asleep in the back of the van once on tour somewhere between Toronto and Thunder Bay. Actually I've fallen asleep a bunch of times in the back of the van on tour, but this particular time was when Phil Clark was playing in our band and he was in the middle of one of his Philip Clark Patented Power Drives that last between ten and twelve hours (the recipe for which, is canned sardines with mustard and a iPod playlist with at least 80% Jungle House). In between all of the boom-tchaka-thickaboom-tchak I awoke to the most wonderful sounding drums I had heard since Holly MacNarland's debut album (I'll get to that one someday, I promise). They were well recorded, with cool parts and with enough effects on them to push the right frequencies but without sounding stupid.

In a half dreamlike state I yelled "What is this? This is awesome" from the back seat. Everyone tuned around and yelled loudly, in unison "LADYHAWKE". They were in the middle of talking about the record when I interrupted asking about it. That's something that happens in our van a lot.

People like to assume that "musicians" or, better yet, "music" people have a hate on for pop music, and I guess it's a safe assumption. We can usually be found at parties bitching about Nickleback or Simple Plan or the Jonas Brothers or Canadian Idol and I'm no better, because I do that stuff to.

The thing that bothers me is that it's not that we don't like pop music, which is what people assume, and brush off as musical elitism, it's that we have a different idea of what pop music should be. Despite the fact that pop means popular, and obviously there is always the argument that it is catered towards a mass audience thereby making it a more dishonest and shallow type of music, it doesn't mean that you can't make it good. Some people make pop music, and from the get go they try to follow rules and criteria to make it fit into those guidelines in an attempt to market it to the largest possible amount of people. The end result is usually something fairly transparent and it leads to shirtless guys on TV singing about their feelings or five chicks with camel-toes wagging their asses around. Some people make music, and by being well written, comeposed, and well recorded with the right amount of creativity, talent and structure it appeals to a large amount of people. It's because of the components that it has mass appeal and it becomes pop music, not by playing into the conventions but by slightly shifting peoples ideas of what pop music actually is. If this wasn't true we would have never had the periods where classical music was pop music then jazz music was pop music then rock music became pop music, then new wave and punk became pop music then hard rock became pop music then hip hop became pop music and every shift had mini-scenes under them that contributed as well. Each of those movements had the actual important figures that put out important, great albums and then the hacks that capitalized on it.

My point is that pop music is not a bad thing. As long as things are done well (and if the average person had even slightly higher standards we would see an amazing shift in what comes out of your radio), you can have great records become extremely successful.You know, like Justin Tiberlake or Kings of Leon or that first Kelly Clarkson record. This Ladyhawke record is on par with all of those, and I have no idea why she is not part of my sister's CD collection.

You wanna know about the drums? Fine, the drums are awesome. The snares are beefy and there is lots of cool arrangements. Philipa Brown (aka Ladyhawke) got a bunch of different drummers for this album to suit the need of each song. Oh, and she wrote all the record herself too. She is an actual pop star, involved in her music from start to finish, making sure it's representative of herself.

I don't know where I am going with this. Phil Clark just flew away to Korea and it got me thinking about all the awesome stuff he had on his iPod and how much fun it was to hang out with him. Hell, the guy left and gave me lasers to use until Saturday. That's pretty awesome. I set them up in my room and now when I shut off the lights it looks like this:

If I could make one point out of all of this is people who are actually into music won't just dismiss something because of a label attached to it, they are going to analyze everything from the writing to the lyrics to the sound of the actual recording, and if it's one thing pop music has, it's well recorded songs. I have no problem listening to it, appreciating it and defending it as valid.

Now here are some awesome videos of Ladyhawke being awesome.