Taking Sides: Lene Lovich vs Danielle Dax

'Popeyes' and the 'Jesus Egg That Wept' ep are two all time bizarre what-the-hell-are-you-playing home studio classics. And 'Inky Bloaters' is a very strange pop record for being so catchy. 'Dark Adapted Eye' is a recompilation of 'Inky Bloaters' + singles, is okay, but 'Blast the Human Flower' was when major label poison caught up to her, that album is v. bad. Has anyone heard the EP she put out in 1995?

Oh. My. God. If this is true then I really love her all the more. I remember hearing "Lucky Number" on the (mainstream) FM radio in the car being driven back from summer camp by this older rock'n'roll chick. I was fascinated by it then, bought the record (I was 13) and still love it. I've never heard Danielle Dax.

And yes, I have that e.p. It's very "industrial" and has no singing or pop elements. But it's also not like her first two lp's.

That early stuff was all recorded on 4-track, too. A really good compilation is "Comatose Non-Reaction", but the first two are must-haves.

"Lucky Number," "New Toy" and "It's You, Only You (Mein Schmerze)" are some of my favorite singles of that era.

That said, "Big Hollow Man" by Dax is fucking perfection (though her cover of "Tomorrow Never Knows" was dire).

I remember hearing some "scandalous" gossip about her from 4AD people which turned out to be ridiculously tame indeed. Sigh.

nah, probably not.

Remember 'Cat House'? Tune!!!

Stateless was one of the defining records of that whole era - and it still sounds awesome. A brilliant collection of songs - and a sterling version of 'The Night'.

Flex - apart from having my favourite album sleeve ever, is a great follow up... You Can't Kill Me, Bird Song and Joan all highlights.

No Man's Land and Home were both patchy affairs, I thought, although 'It's You Only You' still sounds marvellous.

Lene's still going, you know - search the web, she does one off gigs sometimes and they're always worth seeing - and as for Dax being better looking? Nah - no way. Lene was a fox!

i have all the lemon kittens music but i don't do soulseek and can't be arsed burning cdrs. yr all welcome to pop round for a listen though.

or: i need to get a copy of some lemon kittens stuff for the purpose of review.

(i don't slsk as i am a copyright lawyer, though i have been known to do investigative work.)

I liked the recrds too, even the Blast the Human Flower. Does anybody remember her on the "breakfast time" bbc programme?

That said, for me it's more....
TS: Lene Lovich "Lucky Number" vs. Danielle Dax "Cold Sweat"

I'd still rather spin the latter at a party, so I give the slight nudge towards Dax.

Where is La Dax today, I wonder.

Does anyone happen to know the titles of the three bonus tracks on that CD reissue of "Spoonfed And Writhing"? I no longer have the actual CD and can't find a tracklisting on the interweb.

Two of my favorites:

"Kites":
s10.yousendit.com/d.aspx?
id=37GBUMIN073471W98KPCUR3JZH

"What The Cat Brought In":
s10.yousendit.com/d.aspx?
id=3TOVDDJ7QUDTV2H0YGRMRO5EFN

Danielle is not well.

http://www.myspace.com/ddax

HI THERE - JUST A MESSAGE TO SAY THANKS TO THOSE OF YOU WHO ENQUIRED AFTER DAX HEALTH - THERE IS STILL MUCH MORE HOSPITAL TREATMENT TO COME - SHE IS MANAGING TO STAY CHEERFUL FOR THE MOST PART, AND LOOKS FORWARD TO BEING ABLE TO RESUME HER LIFE AGAIN - UNFORTUNATELY PROFFESSIONAL ESTIMATES SAY IT WILL BE A LONGISH TIME BEFORE BEING SO.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danielle_Dax

I have never even heard of Lovich but the Daxor has been a favorite for years. "When I Was Young"...so dreamy.

Surprisingly I am not all that crazy abt Lemon Kittens! Maybe I should give them a second go.

much more abrasive... track down the Cake Beast EP and the Big Dentist LP for the most Dax-like stuff. "Kites" = beauty.

Rocking Dentist right now & it is better than I remember.

I have never even heard of Daxor but Lovich has been a favorite for years.

Love 'em both, going with Dax.

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000003SZU.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

^^^^^^^^^ kickass record

During my very first summer in Austin I didn't have a lot of friends yet, so I found other ways to occupy myself on my days off. I was just a couple blocks from Antone's records, so at least once a week I'd head over and plop myself down on the cement floor and start thumbing through the milk crates of $1 records hidden underneath all the full price stuff. Over the course of three months I managed to work my way through the whole stock of bargain buys. I saw the same Al diMeola record 73 times, I gathered that lots of people are fickle about Herb Alpert & the Tiajuana Brass, and I counted 16 copies of Bird of Fire.

I also bought Stateless...Plus because the cover looked New Wave and what with all the 80s revival happening it couldn't hurt to get a New Wave record, right?

Man, shit hit me like The Marble Index on smile pills. Kept me cool in the heat, put a smile on my face, indulged my lonely summer blues without letting me get down in the dumps about it.

Damn cool cover too.

Fucking hell, are you kidding? Danielle Dax could beat the shit out of Lene Lovich with her hands tied behind her back. Catfight!!!!!

Marble Index and smile pills. I like that, man. Ladies and gentlemen: Hoos.

haha yes I am definitely more partial to Dax... Nate, you gotta find Dark Adapted Eye, for starters...

Xpost: Lene would win, because she's got Nina Hagen on her side.

vote still goes to Dax but this thread reminded me to watch this again

Nina Hagen - Don't Blame The Crocodile (With Lene Lovitch)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNOKgDvGeDk

I decided Big Dentist is awesome but I can't do anything but shrug regarding We Buy a Hammer for Daddy.

Dark Adapted Eye...my copy has my name taped to it bcz when it came in used at the record store, dude set it aside for me. Same with Fred Frith's 'Gravity.'

yeah Abbott that was what I was meaning with that "more abrasive" above, We Buy A Hammer is like a totally different band, Spoonfed & Writhing is even more raw and has no Dax presence at all. Except that she did the cover art.

I love Dax (obv.) but I never cared for Lemon Kittens, either.

I know I've heard Dax AND the Lemon Kittens, but have zero recollection of either.

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/30489143/Danielle+Dax+n1101627654_323949_9257.jpg

this picture is making me so happy!

Nice!

This comparison makes a lot more sense if you're just comparing their looks and not their sound
I love both of these gals so much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDKRveTgruA

secret Thomas Dolby!

About time for La Dax to have some sort of revival. Official site indicates she's been working on a new album.

Wow, OMG, etc. Very excited.

w/Karl Blake! wonder if it will be in the Lemon kittens vein.

her art is really cool!

man this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwc2QJFXpb4

keep coming back to this proto-techno one off Pop Eyes. recorded in 1982!! crazy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk9fi-ZOp-U
Danielle Dax ‎– Kernow

i guess the first chris & cosey was the year before that but still, danielle deserves more credit for what she was doing

also i hate the 'taking sides' format of this thread. wtf?

Actually i suppose that piece is quite similar to something like 'the jezebel spirit' (1981), has that same funkiness to it. Mostly it reminds me of the staff that the Cabs were putting out in ~83 though, especially that squelchy james brown guitar thing

she definitely does deserve more credit; i think she is a genius. she plays every instrument on that and it's some magnificent early era 808 drum programming.

also i hate the 'taking sides' format of this thread. wtf?

100%. also, two artists with literally nothing in common too.

Ok curveball: just been watching this - Danielle and team mate Psych/Sike competing for the 1997 Amateur Decorator of the Year Award on the (very shit) BBC TV programme Home Front which also features Kevin McCloud as one of the judges...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oshLSrCC-NE

It's a dreadful show but it's cool jumping through it to see her room get weirder and weirder as the show goes on, like she's absolutely gonna live in her own reality. Finished room is at 21:40. Winner announcement is at 27:00 :)

i knew she had been on it but hadn't seen it. she's also a qualified garden designer.

i got to know her a bit in recent years and can vouch that she is delightfully eccentric.

glad to hear it and i hope she's doing okay!

btw someone please sample kevin mccloud saying "i could sit here and play some acid house jungle", can totally hear that on an ambient dub track

(tbf TS was a good format when deployed by a smart, entertaining, knowledgeable poster with a gift for discursive provocation, viz dave q. this is a lord custos epsilon thread… )

my gripe was mostly to do with the two artists being pitted together because... i dunno, they're both individualistic women? that was my kneejerk assumption anyway. it would've helped is the OP had explained this. why do they have to fight anyway though? just celebrate them both. but i've started my fair share of bad threads too, so i should really stfu

but while we're here, i was thinking that there's bits of dax's early work that have this nightmarish quality, sort of sing-song tunes shot through with a creeping sense of amorphous weirdness. and that made me think about the residents and then i remembered that lovich appears on the commercial album with something that could've been lifted straight from 'the jesus egg that wept':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFpnptcqtkg

Yes, Picnic Boy could definitely have sat well on Pop Eyes or Jesus Egg That Wept!

I've been working on reissues of those 2 Dax masterworks for literally years. They have been lovingly remastered and all the original artwork was meticulously scanned but various issues in her life precluded the project getting a final sign off. i fear it may never happen now.

Aw no way, sorry to hear that! Could've been some interesting remixes tied to that too, would be interested to hear what people could do with the likes of Ostrich or The Spoil Factor

Were you doing the Lemon Kittens stuff too? I need to properly dig into that stuff, all I have is the Spoonfed 7" which i don't think she plays on. that stuff is hard to find in the wild!

I am so here for this revive

Lemon Kittens records are all unimpeachably great

Were you doing the Lemon Kittens stuff too?

if this had worked out that was on the to do / to investigate list. i'd particularly liked to have done We Buy a Hammer for Daddy.

The only Lene Lovich threads pit her against other female artists? Lame. Anyway, she is touring! Some shows as a B-52s/Devo package, other nights as a standalone performance, which is how I’ll be seeing her.

No idea what to expect, she’s 76 years old, but I’m game!

https://www.lenelovich.net/main.htm