Catching up with all things Janelle Monáe ...
The "Tightrope" sensation performed KCRW Live Session with her band Saturday night in Santa Monica. The session will be broadcast July 2, reports the LA Times. "Monáe showed the lucky crowd of 150 people why she's got the
pop cognoscenti all worked up.
The rising star let loose her signature pompadour ("it's called a
Monáe," she informed the crowd) during a high-energy outing that
featured her intricate, powerful vocalizing along with expressive
dancers in freaky costumes."
Photos of the KCRW Live Session are HERE.
Monáe is currently on tour with Erykah Badu. Tomorrow night they head to San Diego. The "Tightrope" singer is also on the Lilith Fair schedule.
Monáe and The ArchAndroid continue to receive phenomenal reviews. An excellent write-up today at The Scotsman describes her as a "pint-sized, extravagantly bequiffed dynamo from Atlanta who is destined
to be the next big soul star to emerge from the U.S."
Janelle Monáe performs a brilliant cover of Charlie Chaplin's "Smile" for Billboard's Mashup Mondays. Michael Jackson covered the classic on his 1995 album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. The song later became so identified with the King of Pop—who died one year ago this week—that his brother Jermaine sung it at at his memorial. "Emotionally, I've been connected to this song for quite sometime," says Monáe. "It's one of those classic standards, it's been sung by a lot of the greats, Stevie Wonder to Nat King Cole to Judy Garland to Frank Sinatra."
Watch the performance WHEN YOU JUMP ...
I LOVE YOU ROD!
THIS WOMAN IS FANTASTIC!
Posted by: Grambling State | 21 June 2010 at 20:14
ONE TIME FOR "THE TIGHTROPE" BABY! I really want to get to see HER AND BADU! That must be a HOT show!!!
Thanks for this post, Rod! BAM!
Posted by: TheRevKev | 21 June 2010 at 20:32
Love KCRW and this young lady is a firecracker. She has so much energy.
Posted by: FREELEO | 21 June 2010 at 20:35
It took me fifteen minutes of searching on the internets to find out exactly what “bequiffed” meant...
Posted by: Jim | 22 June 2010 at 01:40
So is this the new trend? Black fingernails on one hand and white on the other? I guess I need to get to Walgreen’s...
Posted by: Jim | 22 June 2010 at 01:47
Thanks for this Rod, I'd meant to email you her outstanding metacritic score, but I'm sure you already knew.
I saw her with Erykah (and Questlove inbetween sets) at the Roseland in NYC a couple weeks back and it was amazing! Sadly it didn't seem like the huge crowd knew about her just yet, they were just standing around, I guess waiting for Erykah,..not me n my people! We went off during Janelle's all to short set!
Erykah is amazing and clearly has a wider breadth of material to pull from, but honestly I'd have much preferred if she were the opener and Janelle the headliner,..I mean heck, Erykah's opening for Maxwell these days, for me right now she takes a back seat to Janelle cause this girl goes off!
Did I mention the crowd dive at the end of the set?!
Everything.
Posted by: Procrastination_Xtravaganza | 22 June 2010 at 11:40
Loves me some Janelle Monae, can't wait for her to make it to my neck of the woods again...and I won't miss it this time around.
Posted by: DT | 23 June 2010 at 00:22
So far I think she's . . . . alright. I think she should give up the hair and costume gimmick (which she has been rocking for YEARS) and get some better material. She doesn't have to go pop, but at least create some music that people will remember and not see as just a novelty act. She has a GORGEOUS voice, just not the best management apparently.
Posted by: Chris H. | 23 June 2010 at 10:27
@ Chris,
You're clearly in the minority. Both among casual listeners and professional critics. She's been getting rave reviews all around.
If you've seen any interview, she mentions that her tuxedo is her uniform, as a nod to her blue collar parents and working class everywhere. Gimmick? Kind of, but its a classy one, and it works. If you need someone in a new house of Dereon bodysuit and piles of new fake hair every week, I'm sure you know where to find it.
With regard to her music, I think her Metropolis themed suites will stand the test of time, there's one more due, "Suite 4" and as a whole will be remembered as one of the more ambitious and successful undertakings in recent music. We'll just have to wait and see.
Just out of curiosity, please let me know some current artists out there who you think have great material, aren't gimmicky and are creating timeless music?
Posted by: Procrastination_Xtravaganza | 23 June 2010 at 11:33