It's pretty crowded at the female pop star pageant lately, with a range of contestants on the runway: emo-girls like Christina Perri, glitter princesses like Ke$ha, and avant pop divas like Gaga have carved out their audiences, and seem poised to crowd out any newcomers.
And then along comes Amy Heffernan, a scrappy little singer-songwriter out of Alberta (by way of L.A.) with her new snarkily titled album
Friggin Little Know It All.
I like her.
Most of Heffernan's songs sound like they're meant to be played beneath a sitcom about six urban singles in their late 20s (ok, maybe mid-30s) who are out there
living life!, the kind of tunes that would inspire any group of friends to jump into a downtown fountain together or burst into a hipster bar, having the time of their lives as we watch and feel less cool.
That's ok with me. I wouldn't mind being in the sitcom that plays Heffernan's music in the background.
Heffernan seems to be diving head first into Angry Chick Pop: Some of the album's songs have titles like "Ignorant Pig" and "Crap," and are predictably about women who've had it up to
here with idiot men. Others are Screw-You bar anthems like "Being Awesome" (
"Not checking my hair or fixing my makeup / if I looked any hotter I'd be hooking up with your boyfriend"). Pretty sugary, faux-angry stuff: edgy lyrics, but upbeat melodies, to the point of redundancy. At times, the songs start to sound a little one-note: bitter(ish) music meant to illicit feminine fist pumping in the car at the beginning of a Girl's Night Out.
And yet... I listened to the entire album twice on repeat the other day. I sort of couldn't help myself.
Heffernan's music is undeniably hook-driven and compulsively easy on the ears. Her voice is both supple and gravelly; her attitude both optimistic and a little dirty.
There's a gloss of overproduction to this album, a sense of each song being just a little too prettily assembled, but Heffernan's voice pierces through the extra shininess that too much studio time can sometimes provoke, carrying an attractive grittiness to it. I'm pretty sure that her songs would sound better performed live, in a dive bar at 2 AM. Until she decides to tour in your neck of the woods, though, listening to
Friggin Little Know It All on repeat will have to suffice. I say do it.
To find out more about Amy Heffernan, visit her official site, follow her on Twitter, like her on Facebook, or follow her MySpace page.
For this week's Ranked!, we decided to rank our favorite politically incorrect films. Did your favorite make the cut? Find out below!
Artist: Twisted Sister
Artist: Eddie Vedder
Artist: Jordan Knight
Artist: Kate Bush
Artist: Ozzy Osbourne
Artist: Ozzy Osbourne
Ironically, the night of the season finale of Glee, a night I had fully expected to spend sedately eating cookies in front of the TV, I unexpectedly ended up at Glee Live!, the concert which just kicked off its tour. First off let me explain that I like the show, a lot, but I would never call myself a fan of the intensity of most Gleeks out there. I don't follow their every move or write love notes to the characters. I wasn't even sure going into the show whether it would be a remake of the TV show but Live!, or if it was going to feature the singing talents of the cast in another venue than their acting roles.
It's only in retrospect that I realized how big a year in music 1991 was. It was my senior year in college, and I spent much of that year listening to Metallica's Black Album and the newest Skid Row and Great White albums. I remember going to parties where EMF, Jesus Jones, and the DiVinyls were playing, and the big concert draw in town was Garth Brooks. A couple little bands from Seattle released some albums that year you might have heard of, but at the time they didn't hold a candle to Achtung Baby or that crazy Michael Jackson video where everyone’s heads morphed together at the end. The single most important musical event of the year for me was the release of Use Your Illusion I & II, which I stood in line for at midnight to buy. I had no idea that a week later a Scottish band would be putting out a modern masterpiece: Screamadelica.
Turning the dial on the TV to get different channels.
It's pretty crowded at the female pop star pageant lately, with a range of contestants on the runway: emo-girls like Christina Perri, glitter princesses like Ke$ha, and avant pop divas like Gaga have carved out their audiences, and seem poised to crowd out any newcomers.
Artist: NKOTBSB
Artist: Thurston Moore
We don't normally post deals and bargains here at Culture Brats, but this was too good to pass up.
When I heard that Bettie Page Clothing, a line based on the glamorous styles of the 1950s and named after the famous pinup star Bettie Page, was open for interviews I jumped at the chance to speak with them. I have long been a vintage clothing hunter and Bettie Page Clothing produces the best blend of modernized but retro dresses and clothes. Today, I'm talking with the co-founders of Bettie Page Clothing, Russian-born designer Tatyana Khomyakova and her husband and commercial financier Jan Glaser. 
20. Vanessa Lutz, Freeway
Artist: Go-Go's
Artist: Warrant
Artist: Black N' Blue
Artist: Moby
You know that Wonder Woman show we've been bagging on for months? Well, this is television pilot pick-up season and it seems that NBC has opted to pass on poor, misguided David E. Kelley's show.
Fact: Dynasty Electric's "Mountain Song," from the forthcoming album Golden Arrows, is the best song of 2011.
30. "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
How are you doing today?
Dynasty Electric just released their new album, Golden Arrows, on May 8th. To celebrate, the band gave us autographed copies of the CD to give to five lucky readers.
Artist: The Cars
Artist: Raphael Saadiq
Artist: Urge Overkill
Artist: Sloan
Artist: Christopher Cross
