Evanescence, Wes Borland, Avril Lavigne

[Two hands31]

Just to update those interested:

-Wes Borland will be helping to write/produce some of Evanescence's next album (from his own mouth, he wants to give them a more "gypsy" sound, whatever that means, and they want to go more industrial like their early demos)

-Ben Moody, who left Evanescence mid-tour in Europe, has signed on to write for Avril Lavigne's next album.

As well:

Originally Posted by MTV.com

Lavigne's guitarist Evan Taubenfeld and Canadian singer/pianist Chantal Kreviazuk are also lending their pens to the project (see "Avril Lavigne: No Showers, Just Songs"), which is being recorded in a Los Angeles studio.

...

A host of new producers have also signed on to help Avril. Don Gilmore, who engineered Pearl Jam's Ten and helmed both studio albums for Linkin Park, is on board, as are Our Lady Peace singer Raine Maida and former Marvelous 3 frontman Butch Walker, who has gone solo and has been producing since his band broke up in 2001.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/148...headlines=true

[darren wilson]

Avril sure does seem to need a lot of "help".

[Two hands31]

Originally Posted by darren wilson

Avril sure does seem to need a lot of "help".

Apparently she recorded 30-something songs for her first album, some of which she wrote herself, but none of the songs she wrote made it onto that album.

The new album will have some of her own songs though, as she's been writing since then as well, apparently. She wants the new album to be more rock, less of the pop sound of the first album (probably why Ben, Don Gilmore, Raine Maida, and the others are being brought in).

[davester1234]

I wonder if avril will have a longterm career....

It seems like the more LIKELY you seem to have a longterm career, the more likely the chances of you falling off the edge of the earth into oblivion.

I thought Nelly Furtado would have a lot more longevity than she did. i'm sure her new album is doing fine, but it certainly is no where NEAR what the first was, in terms of street buzz. same with Alicia Keys. her second run is selling fine, but there's no buzz about it anywhere. I feel like putting on the Extreme song, Hip 2 day (you'll be gone tomorrow).

It's a shame how the bizz works.

[Two hands31]

It'll be interesting, because from the sounds of it, her new album will be vastly different to her first (I'm hoping these reports are true anyways). Who knows, maybe she'll pick up buzz with a whole new crowd of fans?

[darren wilson]

... or maybe she'll just be "flavour of the month."

[BucketBot]

I don't know...everyone seems to say that their next album is going to be "vastly different" but it ends up sounding pretty much the same. Especially in someone like Avirl's position. She sells a decent amount of albums so I don't really see her record lable letting her stray to far from what works. We'll see.

I tend to agree with the "flavor of the month" theory.

[pawel]

Ditto on Nelly Furtado, I enjoyed hearing her on the radio.

[Two hands31]

I guess time will tell. I'm just rather impressed by that list of collaborators, which seem to suggest she's come a long way in terms of saying she's all about rock, and actually playing rock There was a lot of BS with her first record, and best I can tell it was mostly record label stuff trying to get her to put all the pop-y stuff on it.

As for Nelly Furtado, her new song's pretty decent, and the video is all over Much Music and Much More Music.

[davester1234]

I don't really get the line in Nelly's song "put my face in a magazine, make it look whiter than it seems'.


Although I'm certainly not about to say that latin's/portugese people aren't regularly the subject of racism in North America, because they certainly ARE and that has to change, that line strikes me as a little superficial.

Most of the time when I open a magazine (or watch tv, or listen to radio, or read the paper) and read about Nelly, a big part of the story is about her past, her culture, and the influence her culture has had on her music. her music of course, is seen as very unique and diverse, bringing in all types of styles that have had an impact on her. her background and musical diversity has played a big role in her success. I know its one of the things I personally enjoy hearing about, and it definately comes through.

However, she seems to be ignoring all of that in that line. She almost makes it sound as if people only like her because she looks white, which is untrue. As I said, her music is essentially a celebration of cultural influences on her. in essence, it almost sounds like she's trying to formulate a clever way to keep herself looking 'cool' to the mtv crowd, by telling others she isn't white, and thus disconnecting herself from "middle america" - a label that certainly doesn't ooze 'cool' in the pop market today.

The lyric just seems off to me. People like her because of what her culture and influences bring to the table. I know a few who think she's a hottie as well

Of course, i could be way out to lunch. Perhaps she experiences discrimination in her personal life, hence the lyric. The lyric would still be out of context though since she orientates it around her career and publicity. Maybe its just a 'lyric' that's not supposed to hold much meaning at all, just interesting line to the listener.

[darren wilson]

Originally Posted by davester1234

I don't really get the line in Nelly's song "put my face in a magazine, make it look whiter than it seems'.

I don't know about skin tones, but Nelly Furtado did take issue with a photo of her that appeared on the cover of FHM magazine.

She asserted that the photo was digitally manipulated to crop off the shirt she was wearing just below the chest, exposing a stomach that was not hers, which she felt was a misrepresentation.

I think the line in that song is about the media's desire to neutralize anything different so they can spoon-feed it to white-bread America.

Nelly Furtado's new single is the first time i've actually heard any cultural influence in her music, despite her constantly claiming it's a huge influence in what she does. And she comes across as very arrogant in any interviews i've seen her do... there's something not quite right about her outward persona that just grates me the wrong way.

[Two hands31]

Originally Posted by darren wilson

I think the line in that song is about the media's desire to neutralize anything different so they can spoon-feed it to white-bread America.

That's what I was thinking, it's meant in a more general way, not specifically about her.

[davester1234]

Originally Posted by darren wilson

I don't know about skin tones, but Nelly Furtado did take issue with a photo of her that appeared on the cover of FHM magazine.

She asserted that the photo was digitally manipulated to crop off the shirt she was wearing just below the chest, exposing a stomach that was not hers, which she felt was a misrepresentation.

I think the line in that song is about the media's desire to neutralize anything different so they can spoon-feed it to white-bread America.

Interesting, didn't know she had an issue with FHM. Perhaps that is precisely what she was refering to, Darren.

Perhaps you guys are right, and the lyric is a generalization.

She does however specifically mention her face in the context of her career, and its color that she refers to, so I dunno, there may be a bit more to that statement....all I know is that the way she's marketed and ACCEPTED by the population (as an artist with a bit more to her in terms of her ability to merge her influences and culture) seems to disagree with that statement about being forced to appear white washed.

If there is more to it than meets the eye, I'll say this. It seems to me that people want to accept her as unique and versed and cultural, even if [as you said] the music doesn't sound as muli-cultural or versed as everyone says. There just some incongruency there that makes me scratch my head. If that is a generalization, it is very carelessly worded.


Anyway, I think your interpretation of that lyric is exactly what she'd publicly say it means.

but I can't help think it serves alternate purposes, at a more hidden level. It may well be a clever way to keep her "cool", a way to disconnect herself from all that is 'uncool' in the music bizz - white america. it MIGHT be a word gamebut I could be wrong of course : To put it as simply as I can, even though she's saying she's fighting the "blanket effect of white america", the underlying point is that its not white america that's cool in the music bizz....its everything else that's cool. It ends up being a case of distancing from the quote unquote majority to appeal to the cool majority - the mtv majority, who seem to want to rebel against the white picket fence notion of white america. even white americans who live in houses with picket fences want to rebel against that notion. It might be a case of trying to fit in, by invoking the idea that she doesn't fit in.

Ah, I probably sound like a complete jabroni.


She just seems to want to identify with struggles that I'm not so sure she really faces to stay cool. Like I said earlier, I know Portugese people are often the target of racism, I'm not saying they're not. I'm also not trying to downplay the effects racism can have on people. perhaps its struggles in her personal life she's refering to, which is very possible. Those are peculiar words to choose if they are personal struggles though. its awkward specifically because of the fact that people want to like her for the new and culturally charged and interesting things she brings, not because she a conformist -well, if I'm right, then maybe she is a conformist, in an a$$backwards way.

[BCShredder]

What do you expect from a religous singer (avril) gets a deal and the peopel write basically everything for her out. She goes intot he studio and the bigger/older she gets the more her influences an dliking will come out. Rememeber how young she is she's all into bands like Sum41 and such and from what she's expressed things are supposed to come out more like those tunes. Her 1st album was darker being a lot of it was about ex b/f's etc.
I think she's going to do fine if she changes her attitude because she got big and has a huge ego trip rolling now. She threw a fit at one show because the gum in her room wasn't the kind she liked.