Big Star

Big Star by Haley Bonar

Big Star - Haley Bonar

She's got the voice that's for sure. And she can write a great tune... just check this out here. And at such a young age, I can't help but think we're watching one of the next 'big' female stars/voices along the lines of, dare I say, Neko, Liz, or Lucinda.

(I also thought Annie would be the next female pop star back in 2005/2006, but I'm not sure what happened there... label problems?)

But Haley's got the voice to do it. It's huge and it doesn't sound nearly as big on any recording as it does live.

I love the guitar on this song... it's chilling yet beautiful. Stragley, I get a lot of pleasure when I can't fully articulate a sound and the feeling that sound gives me. You can say that saying something like that shows the weakness that I am as a writer (and you'd be right), but at the same time as David Byrne said, "writing about music is like dancing about architecture." The best songs and the greatest music are those that one can't fully articulate. The feeling is too great -- much like love -- that it's impossible to fully capture what a note, or voice, really does to the pit of one's stomach. When we're upset -- angry or sad -- the inability to express our feelings creates frustration which leads to us becoming more upset. But when it's a good feeling? It makes us (or just me) want to explode, in a good way -- to be so over come with a lovely emotion that it feels good all over is fantastic.

Anyway, that back ground slide like guitar? It makes me feel like that. Throw in that voice, and as John Madden would say, BAM! And that's why I come back to music... for those moments when a note or the way someone sings a line that make me feel good all over.

If you were ever wondering if God Exits, the answer is yes.

#4 -- Best Songs of 2008

Queen of Everything by Haley Bonar

Queen of Everything - Haley Bo...

It's the voice. The guitar, the drums... they're nice. But it's the voice and how she sings this song. You can hear the sorrow in her voice. "Rock'n'roll... will tear you from the inside fuck with your spine, take you to the same place I lost my mind" she sings. Why? "Then they hear what I want, and I'm the Queen of Everything." And I love that part... it sounds so good.

Culture and art never explore the REAL heartbreak of females. Movies are usually about the tortured male who will go to the end of the Earth to get back to Penny. Or if it's told from the female point of view, it's something along the lines of, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife" and the women that line up for Prince Charming... see the female always NEEDS the man. Even in the 'ground breaking' "Sex in the City" the moral of the show is that those four women CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT A MAN (even though we're supposed to believe that they can). Movies are simplistic and chauvinist—women needs man and cannot live without him. Women are there for the men. It's tired and boring and totally false. But Hollywood has somehow convinced us that this is real... even though it isn't. It isn't for guys and it isn't for girls.

But Haley is doing something else with this heartbreak... she broke up with her man (a good man no less), and instead of sitting there feeding into this chauvinist world, she goes somewhere else: I'm the Queen of Everything. She's basically saying, "I'm not demanding, but everyone wants to make me out to be that demanding. But the reality? You, my man, want everything." She blows up this Hollywood/fairy tale world we want to believe in—but not in the 'fuck Hollywood' kind of way. Rather in the 'this is how I feel and the way I see it' kind of way.

This song is refreshing for two reasons:
1) The backlash against feminism is in full force only no one really will say that... but think about it for a minute or two. In an election between a black man and a woman, we heard little to no racial talk... but it was totally acceptable to call Clinton or Palin pretty much any name you wanted without any consequences. Young white males (children of the Boomers) have somehow made it cool and politically correct to reject and suppress feminism. And misogyny is still prevalent in black art.

2) The irony pours out of this song yet irony was seemingly forgotten by those who champion it as a lifestyle this year (hipsters supporting Obama was NOT ironic and frankly I'm disappointed in them). There was nothing IRONIC about 2008. This might not be a bad thing since we went a tad over board with the whole irony movement/era thanks mainly to George W. Bush. But this song gets back to what irony really is, it's unfortunate and not that funny when it happens to you.