Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Coco Rosie


Maybe I'm just not in with the "in" crowd, not hip enough, but I *just* stumbled upon Coco Rosie, one of the strangest, most unique acts I've heard in the 00's. I realize I'm late to the game, that every Pitchfork reader under the sun already knows that "Noah's Ark is one of the most annoying records you're liable to remember," but I think I'm glad to have finally discovered the duo.

Every Sunday night I Tivo Subterranean on MTV2 and usually fast forward through 90% of the videos, stopping only to give bands that I'm not familiar with a 10-second chance at capturing my ear.

Two weeks ago Coco Rosie's "Noah's Ark" was shown. My reaction to the video and song were similar to my reaction to the Polyphonic Spree the first time I saw them perform (2001 CMJ Festival in NYC). I didn't know what to make of Coco Rosie - the duo were either the most brilliant thing I've heard in years or the most disturbing.

I've read various things about the Casady sisters, Bianca and Sierra, and I'm not sure how much is truth and how much is fiction. Whatever the case is, they make oddly compelling music that I guarantee will be stuck in your head for weeks. If you like it, that's a great thing. If you don't, it'll drive you nuts (just ask Mike, my co-worker, who I forced "Noah's Ark" upon - he keeps sending me IMs at work saying, "I had to listen to it AGAIN. I can't shake it from my head").

I know that the folks over on the Donewaiting message board were talking about Coco Rosie last year when the duo opened for Bright Eyes and I think No Name #1 put it best when he/she said "Horrible affected singing like yer mom's grandma trying to impersonate Billie Holiday on crack, but not even as good." Now, I tend to disagree with the "horrible" part of that description but I think the rest is pretty spot on - one of the sisters DOES sound like Billie Holiday on crack. It's kind of creepy; it's kind of endearing. It certainly is different.

Judge for yourself. And accept my apologies, in advance, if this song drives you nuts.

MP3: Noah's Ark

2 comments:

ulalume said...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who isn't quite sure how to feel about Coco Rosie.

AlixRose said...

HAHA! I feel the same way about them, which is I dont know what to feel. I have a few songs of theirs that I have been listening to forever and I cant just work out why.