Comic Books
PHONOGRAM SINGLES CLUB #4 (OF 7)
Price: $3.50
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 2.3%
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| User | Added | Spoilers | |
| AmirCat | 07/27/09 | No | Read Review |
| markfg | 07/24/09 | No | Read Review |
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A Phonogram issue with McKelvie and Lafuente artwork?!?! Sweet
barely hanging in, barely hanging in
I wouldn’t be reading this if it wasn’t for Ron’s pick of the week for issue 3 that helped introduce me to this series. Love it.
@edward-Is that a song? I don’t get it
@drake: nah, dude, the book. i’m buying it. i’m not super-digging it and a cover homage to Robyn would drive me away from any other comic/magazine
Phonogram weeks are the best weeks! Sad part is there’s only 3 more after this one.
<3
@edward: Whats wrong with Robyn? I’ve never dug her as much as say Annie. But, I dig and respect what she does.
@WinTheWonderboy: at best, she writes novelty songs
I think shes made some fun/good pop music, Thats no easy feat. Some people can’t see past her teen idle/girl group past. Kinda like Robbie Williams or Justin Timberlake.
Who’s That Girl is a phenonemal pop record.
KG
she has exactly the same act as princess superstar. where is she now?
She doesn’t. Princess Superstar was ironic slut, bless her, and little else. Robyn isn’t. None of her serious hits – Bitches not being a hit – worked on that axis*.
Of course, that’s overlooking the larger issue implicit in your question, man. You imply that some kind of career means anything in pop music. Deelite’s Groove Is In The Heart versus every Coldplay record ever. The only people who give a damn about careers are Publisher accountants.
If you do pick up the issue, do read McNamee’s piece on Robyn. If not, read it in the shop. The story around Robyn’s success is an interesting one, in terms of genuine DIY-indie-pop culture.
I didn’t write much about Robyn in my own essay stuff, so I’m totally making up for it here.
KG
*Be Mine, Who’s That Girl, With Every Heartbeat all wear their heart firmly on their sleeves.
dude, she has a track off that album called Jerk U Off. How does the ironic slut tag not apply to her as well?
and don’t worry, i’lll read the issue
Are they her singles?
KG
i don’t understand the question or how it applies to this
You said she was exactly the same as Princess Superstar. Princess Superstar’s public profile as a performer is the aforementioned ironic slut due to her singles about being an ironic slut. Robyn, being primarily known for melancholic electronic pop songs, isn’t exactly the same as Princess Superstar.
Oh – and I forgot to say: Jack U Off is a Prince Cover.
KG
Er… this is probably not the place to do this, being a comic thread and all. And the thread about my comic, making it even worse. Drop us a line if you want to yabber some more?
So – anyone dig it
KG
Great stuff, Kieron and Jamie. Great use of the repeated angle grid and then a big cosmic spread? Really, really cool. Frustrating that some readers are getting so hung up on the music and not seeing all the storytelling experiments. Learning a lot from this series.
ok. ok, i’m not going to do that.
but to fihish up, i’ll say this. Handle Me which was a big hit for Robyn was about how she is too hot and cool for some dude. that’s still in the ironic slut zone.
oh, and this thing where the reader has to separate the musical context and references from the story is ridiculous. I mean, why SHOULD reader need to do that?
In how many podcasts has someone commented on ‘the city’ in a superhero comic being a character in itself? The setting and situation is as important to the story telling as character development or any other buzzwords you care to use.
Why don’t i rent Momento and just forget that the story is told backwards? Or Sex, Lies and Videotape and ignore the time-code and slip-screens?
So can we, please, stop asking the audience to disregard and enormous and integral element of the comic?
Hey, I like Sleater-Kinney. Good comic, though.
@edward – you bitch a lot.
@deadspace: there’s a word that sounds like "punt" that i wish i could post in response
settle down and hug someone.
I didn’t enjoy this issue as much as the others, but still good fun. More K.W.K. please
@edward: WOW :/
ANYWAY… great issue; Jamie’s work on Seth and SG’s expressions was stunning, and this chapter, an almost unmoving shot of their booth, and a microcosm of their lives and onion-y relationship was just the one to showcase it. Their perspective, just a normal music-inspired night, is a perfect pivot for the series, and certainly resulted in a generally much more light-hearted issue than the previous two. Although, perhaps because of that, it didn’t hit me personally quite as hard as the the other singles thus far, but I can see it working as a great ‘breakdown’, and refocus, in the middle of a trade.
I wasn’t overly fond of the ‘earworm’ story. I think you* were stretching a rather mundane anecdote/idea dangerously thin (sorry, but I guess that was partly your point), and I thought the art, sorry David, was nice but almost but almost by the numbers. However I did really love, and relate to, much more so than the superficial-ness of the other backup, Indie Dave’s conflicting rationales.
*It’s kinda weird I’m directly addressing the writer. This raises the point that perhaps, most naysayers and opinionated have been frightened off, or intimidated by your "presence"**.
**That is your admirable interest in people’s reactions! I wouldn’t want to suggest that you pop in less often (definitely not, I would kill to see more artists, and writers having open discourse with their readers like this that isn’t through some obscure, incidental twitter feed, if that), but it’s just odd seeing ‘the Creator’ (cue orchestral swell) staunchly dispute the finer points of Robyn. I guess it’s probably due to your journalisism side (RockPaperShotgun etc) where exchange between the article writer and commenters is pretty much expected***.
***Btw, your recent Darkfall/MMO-Reviews review was superb. And now I believe I may have fellated your ego enough, eh? 😉 .
just, tell my friends to listen to THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS
saw a preview enjoying Blondee’s "Atomic," and …
in 2009, new-wave music fans should like the truth and distorted guitars of the U.S.A. trio, that send out songs as beautiful as a lion with hot pink hi-lights during the 7th inning stretch during a subway series between the Mets and the Yankees, the YEAH YEAH YEAHS. I can’t believe they’re subbing for the Beastie Boys at Lollapalooza.
Peace, God, The Ramones, and love-in-utero.
Mac: I don’t think my presence matters that much. I was around last time, and it didn’t stop when it was pick of the week turning into a cheery bloodbath. It’s also worth stressing that I’m only discussing Robyn here. I wouldn’t try and get into a debate about Phonogram itself, because that’ll be totally counter-productive. People’s responses are people’s responses. Getting in the way would be rude.
(Which is why, apart from the fact I’m at SD, I haven’t responded again to you Edward – you turned the conversation into a debate on PG rather than Robyn. As such, it’s for other people to respond)
And thanks for the Darkfall praise. It was an odd ‘un.
AngryDad: I love ’em too.
Ed: Didn’t realise Handle Me was actually a hit in the US dance charts. Only place it went Top 10, oddly enough
(Her hits make interesting reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robyn_discography)
Still: neither now, nor 2006 is that Robyn’s story. And we’re getting closer to PG again, so I’m shutting up.
KG
@PymSlap: MCA was recently diagnosed with a cancerous salivary gland. He had to go into surgery and will go though weeks of treatment. Thats way YYY’s took the place of the Beastie Boys at Lollapalooza.
@PymSlap: Oops. I misread your post.
*hugs edward* there there. all that anger can’t be good for you pet.
that word was "cunt" by the way
@KG I know you’re not here to discuss the book but I wanted to say that I only know a handful of the bands and acts referenced in PG but still really enjoy the series. It’s just stories about how art (in general) affects people, which I’m sure you’ve said somewhere before. The medium matters not. There’s a lot of honesty in this series and I appreciate that. I think you wrote in th backmatter at one point that many of the characters are based on you, Jamie and others you have met at clubs and in the music scene. Do you ever get old friends calling you up asking whether a character or story was based on them? Almost forgot. You’ve given my girlfriend another comic to read. She’s terribly selective about her reading, so kudos.
Another splendid issue! After the last two issues it was nice to see a more silly/fun(not that the others weren’t fun) story.
I read way too much Warren Ellis for "cunt" to shock me. Nice talking to you edward.
The best issue of the series so far, imho. Silent Girl is probably my favorite character.
Silent Girl is not so silent…I loved this issue!
I missed this question. In case he comes back…
Anson17:"Do you ever get old friends calling you up asking whether a character or story was based on them?"
Not really, at least yet. The people who it are based on generally clock themselves immediately.
KG