Lana "Vindicated" Del Rey

As is tradition for my Sunday mornings, I rolled out of bed, suited up (house coat and slippers) made a serious pot of coffee, and watched the previous nights SNL, taped for my pleasure so I can skip through the one million commercials. This was actually a decent 'sode considering I had zero expectations of Channing Tatum.  I'd like to say the best part was when Bon Iver performed, but SNL parodying/totally defending Lana Del Rey was amazing.  People have been harshing on her for changing her name, not doing too much moving around when she performs, seeming nervous... everything.  I think this portion of Weekend Update made all the haters look a fool, and Lana Del Rey look AWESOME.

Sorry it's backwards y'all

Lady Love Part 6

Cat Power aka Chan Marshall

Oh Chan. I don't know if I could admire a laday any more than this. I feel like I got into her albums in a chronological order, so it's almost as though I started listening to her when I should have. I started in the dark early days of What Would The Community Think and am now bloggin' about her latest release, remake of King Rides By. I've listened to her through her hard times, drunk times, getting sober times, possibly back on the drank times again... but it's always the heart-melting, goosebump giving, mad respect giving and girl crushing times just the same. Even Karl Largerfeld fell in love with 'er. He recruited her as the new face of Chanel in 2006.. Chan explains to The Daily, "I was outside waiting, sitting on a pile of Louis Vuitton luggage, drinking water, with an apple and a cigarette in my hand, my cell phone, oh, and two guitars and out comes Karl. He walks up, looks at me and says, 'Only a woman can look glamorous when smoking.' And I lowered my glasses and pointed to (the bags under my) eyes and said, 'With these'?"

Chan Marshall is the epitome of 'cool' and I'm positive at least a million other people agree with me. The girls got mad steez, my bestie Katy and I can even tell each other that we got a "Cat Power shirt" and know what the other means. I've bullied employers into letting me listen to her at work, bedroom danced to CP, late night walks, morning gettin' ready's, drives around town, hanging with friends, the drunk n' lonlies (and fun-ies) craft time, dinner cooking, maybe every possible Ali scenario has been done to Cat Power. CAT POWER FOR PREZ!

(Again, seriously thank you HD)

Lady Love Part 5

Lykke Li

Lykke Li is also bad as hell. She's Swedish, gorgeous, a fashion icon, dances sweet, and has an awesome, unique voice. I think that people criticize when female "indie" stars dress sexy. It's almost as if we're taught that it's alright for pop stars to wear basically nothing, but when an indie gal does it, bitches be actin' like she's undoing what her lady pioneers worked for, or that being sessy takes away from their actual talent. In a Bust interview Lykke Li was quoted as saying, "I don't want people to limit me. If I feel like taking my fucking pants off, I'm gonna do that." Word, girl.

Here's an old fav:

Lady Love Part 4

Debbie Harry

How cool is Debbie Harry?  This icon was one of the first ladies that got me thinking about women in music.  As the singer for Blondie She was one of the few ladies making it when punk and new-wave was dominated by men, and she wasn't just "good, for a girl" she was amazing all around. Not only is she one of the babeliest  babes of all time, but her rap in "Rapture" was the first rap ever broadcasted on MTV.  Not saying m'lady invented rap, but the band was the first to introduce it to a larger crowd.  When I first moved to BC I would drive along the old island highway, looking out at the ocean and listening to this song: (thanks for inventing HD, someone.)

Lady Love Part 3

M.I.A

I feel pathetic even trying to write about MIA. So I'm not really going to. She is without a doubt, the coolest woman in the whole entire world. She is a fashion goddess and queen of being a huge babe without showin' off her shit. But you know that if she chose to do so you'd respect her all the same. Her jams are amazing for any situation. "Bucky Done Gun" reminds me of dancing at Lucky Bar, the album Arular reminds me of driving around on dirt roads in the prairies with Sara looking for abandoned houses, "Born Free" makes me drive like an asshole, "It Takes a Muscle" reminds me of Katy bopping her head around, and I can't wait to make some mems to "Bad Girls."

This video was released today, I even woke up early after a night on the town to check it out, which is pretty big, right? I was in for a treat, it just may be the most bad ass thing I've ever seen. M.I.A doing her nailzzz while sitting on a car on 2 wheels? In an Arab desert? Yes please!

Lady Love Part 2

Karen O

Karen O, singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's was my biggest high school influence.  The album Fever To Tell single handedly changed everything for me.  Not only was their music so different from anything I had heard before but I'm sure many girls can testify that Karen O is one of the coolest girl in music. She dresses crazy and puts on some of the most insane stage shows. As a 16 year old girl all I wanted was to be front row and center when Karen O would mouth-spray beer all over the crowd. This is the video I used to watch on repeat.

Lady Love

I love women. Love em. Although I'm 25 and don't quite consider myself a woman.. but saying "I love girls" seems kinda creepy. I love em so much I decided to make Gender & Women's Studies my minor. I occasionally get teased about it, which I can understand, fo sho. But I've learned too many interesting and important things in these classes, and have way too many gal-pals scattered around Canada that are way too cool and inspiring to dismiss Women's Studies as unnecessary, or to stop lovin' on ladies.

My respect for the ladies probably started in high school, after discovering women in music. Not all the Sarah McLaughlin and Chantal Kreviazuk bullshit. The women in music I'm talking about didn't need to put out annual compilations to prove that women were actually doing something in the music industry.

This is an ongoing list of all the ladies I consider to be major playas in the game. (I started writing it all at once but I started getting stressed out, and a blog that only 2 people read should not be stressful.) These are the ones, in no particular order, that started my admiration for women, shaped my taste in music and, I believe, music in general:

Feist

I started listening to Feist in 2004 when Let It Die came out. It's one of those perfect albums that is great to listen to at anytime of the day; morning noon and night I had this album on repeat. Although Feist's music is "parent-friendly" and she got pretty big on the radio, I think she's bad as hell. It could be when I saw her perform in Victoria and she completely lipped off the radio chick that introduced Feist to the crowd, calling her sound "adult-contemporary." I kind of stopped listening to her when 1234, my least favorite song on The Reminder became so overplayed on the radio. However, her new album Metals is amazing and combines perfectly Feist's sweet little voice with shouts, stomps and chants. (I love when female singers have male backup vocals) There's a lot of crescendos where the songs seem to completely change mid-way, which is one of my favorite properties in a song. This album is a little bit darker (can you use that word with Feist?) than her previous ones, as well as one of her best.

This is her very new and amazing video for "The Bad in Each Other"

does this post make me sound gay?