TS: TaTu vs Blond Redhead

It's not just a problem of me hating the image and creation and the reprehensible fuck-tard who came up with it all and is controlling those girls like puppets either. Beyond all that, the music is generally shite.

(it's le tigre all over again...5000 new answers by tomorrow morning)

It's almost like we need another Tatu thread here, cause the split of opinion's so wide and no one's been able to discuss why very much apart from saying "it's shit" and then "it's great" and then accusing one another of either rockism or pop-irony, respectively (yes, Oops, I mean you). I think a lot of the Tatu stuff is just terrific. The Smiths cover sounded like it should be incongruous, at first, but really it's the perfect emblem for what they're doing, which is big and melodramatic and moany and very Smiths-like (or rather let's say very 80s-Brit-like, likely via Mr. Horn) only glossy, dark, and mechanical (just like "How Soon is Now").

Actually, better comparison: the vibe I get from a track like "Not Gonna Get Us" is the same sort of vibe I got from Morrissey's "Alsatian Cousin." And "Show Me Love" and "Malchik Gay" . . . I really don't understand unsupported statements that Tatu's music is crappy. Someone please elaborate: what's so evil about these songs? They sound ridiculously good to me.

i love love love the sound of tatu's combined voices

Why WOULDN'T I?

(he posts here doesn't he?)

I am not a tight pants indie hipster. I was listening to Monolake, Autechre, Pan Sonic, and Detroit/German techno when I heard that record for the first time. When I heard it, I said to myself that this is a wholly relevant and original rock album that is not a complete rehash that will be as vital in 2015 as it is today. It was a rock album that was completely fresh, vital, and interesting. It was like hearing Loveless for the first time; a record that just beats you over the head with its genius right off the bat and never loses that immediacy, that reveals itself more and more with each listen.

Forget subjectivity, they are such an objectively great band. They can play like motherfuckers. Their performance on record is technically perfect, yet at the same time it is wholly emotional and direct. They write great songs with interesting instrumentation and arrangements. Aside from any touchy-feely emotional reactions, you can just tell that the people in this band are not jokers. They know exactly what they are doing, and they are doing it exactly right. They created a blueprint perfect rock band at the end of the 90's that was ORIGINAL!!! Nobody sounded/sounds quite like Blonde Redhead.

You hear their music and it bounces and falls, it rises and glides and you never know where you stand. Is it jubilation or tribulation? You are taken down but uplifted, it is the greatest emotional mélange. That ambiguity is their greatest asset; you are being taken somewhere, but you never get the feeling that you are being manipulated. Their records have feeling, deep feeling. They touch you. They leave you affected. They inspire the kind of passion that makes one willing to fight in a world full of Meh+ disposable product.

You should like them because they are just plain fucking awesome.

Frankly, given that I've heard both bands only briefly (say 30 sec or less), I'm given to ally with Blonde Redhead, because I imagine their live show is much more worthwhile than anything Tatu puts on. Neither of the girls in Tatu are attractive to me (er) whereas a real rock band with full instrumentation is much more likely to be up my alley, livewise, what with the beating and the slamming and the hitting things and all.

I can score better lesbianism here at home thanks to my cable internet connection. If I want loud, burning guitar shriek, I am better off seeing BR. End of story. You're all fired.

Make sure you get Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons, because it is the most consistent.

this thread is starting to get frisky.

The only tATu I have is that Russian import. The first time I played it it reminded me immediately of the 5 song BR ep Melodie Citronique.
BR certainly have their moments but would not make it on any of my top tens.

One of the main reasons I picked the recording studio I just finished making a record at was because Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons was recorded there.

I'm sorry but yeah, if my dog could sing I'd rather listen to her than this.

Simply an awful sound.

when they sing it in Russian it sounds like they are saying "I'm not in California" in English. Quite disturbing to hear in the morning before my caffeine megadose.

Well, then go ahead and saw my ears off....they're of no use to me now, because Blonde Redhead bore the living daylights out of me.

But I'll go and listen to BR tomorrow anyway just to be sure. They were nice and I haven't listened for ages but as I recall it was sorta like if madonna covered sy insteada v/v and also fairly light.

which i just realized makes 'em sound fairly good, at least from a distance.

i think they are totally brilliant and I love their albums, especially "Certain Melody Lemony etc" - but it works the best for me as short shots, small doses on random play, when they can still fool me into thinking they might just fly apart; listening to the whole album can get wearing, their shit is just too-tightly held. didn't a couple of them used to play jazz? funnily enough i feel that tAtU suffers from the same syndrome

I think when they started a lot of people made Sonic Youth comparisons. But by 'Melody' they had become something nuanced and unique. The Italian twins make something like a rock equivalent of Gainsbourg or Morricone, a rather passionate and sylvan sound with great dynamic range and subtle arrangements. Kazu sings in a really heart-stabbingly emotional way, with little yelps around the edges of words or full-throated cries. There is this constant sense of melancholy, but also elegance. They also dress very well and go to art galleries a lot.

As for Tatu, they seem to have learned a lot from Mylene Farmer, which makes them cool in my book. The records sound exciting and the videos are sexy. Of course the sampling, the svengali manager, the inauthenticity (the fake lesbianism, for instance) and the global domination make them firmly pop music, a marketing phenomenon next to BR's earnest art rock culture. But heard blindfold, and just taken as sound and sensibility, I think they're closer than either of them might allow. The dominant Tatu emotion is fierce defiance and the dominant BR tone is fierce elegy.

maybe the radio is pretty fuzzy....

That wasn't comparative enough for you nabisco?

Er. I like Enon more, for whatever that's worth.

can we look at the score?