#tjo

[spookyscqr]

Luni is scared xuz shes thinking shes having a stroke but slso super sleeepyyyyyyyyyyy

[thejaxonion]

jax is like an onion hE HAS LAYERS

[pinkiepig]

My sillys

[the-inevitable-minor-fires]

[dustedmagazine]

TJO — Songs for Peacock (Orindal)

Songs for Peacock by TJO

Tara Jane O’Neil has always had a way of finding deep emotional resonance in wispy, ephemeral sounds, her songs built out of fog and shadows yet providing a surprisingly solid place to stand. Reviewing her 2014 Where Shine New Lights, Lucas Schleicher called her songs, “skeletal, bittersweet and exquisitely quiet.” But what if her songs are new wave chestnuts and 1980s mega-hits? Can they shimmer with the same ghostly light? Sometimes, but not always. TJO’s 1983-centric mix tape dedicated to her brother Brian, who died in 2019, works sporadically on material from Boy George, Bananarama and Siouxsie and the Banshees, but even TJO can’t save Cher’s “Believe.”

These are not all exactly covers – some are glancing meditations that provide only brief glimpses of ultra-popular source material. “Borderline Intro” barely teases the synth pop, gate-reverbed drumming opening of Madonna’s early hit, while “Everything Counts” makes only brief contact with the Depeche Mode song it references. Aztec Camera’s “Oblivious” is decocted into the barest essence of its guitar line and colored over with drum machine. The songs are in TJO’s head more than in the music itself, touchstones briefly tapped and discarded.

Fuller, longer re-imaginings are easier to recognize, but even they bear TJO’s imprint. Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer,” one of 1983’s ubiquitous singles, turns strange and chilly in her interpretation, its peppy marimba riff sinking into haunted, rueful refrains. Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows” comes in on tick-tocking drum machine beat and vampire castle synth foreboding. Cohen sang it with a brash worldly-ness; he was in on the joke and not expecting much better. TJO sings softly, distantly, as if from the other side of reality, as if the world had already done its worst and won.

The biggest hit that TJO considers is Cher’s massive “Believe,” an unusually dance-pop entry in Cher’s catalogue and one of the earlier pop songs to make extensive use of autotune. TJO pays her homage in autotune as well, albeit a fragile, whispery autotune that sounds like it’s coming in from another planet. And yet, it’s not a very good song, certainly not good enough to strip down to its acoustic underwear like this.

Indeed, that’s the problem with the whole collection, that these are disposable pop songs mostly, not really worthy of an artist like TJO however fondly she recalls them. TJO’s artist statement makes it clear that this is a very personal project, mostly a way to remember her brother (she calls it “good medicine”), and it’s hard to criticize on that basis. But yeesh, some of these songs.

Jennifer Kelly

[sugarbitzdisco]

The Spinners / It’s A Shame TJO Remix

配信開始： 2019年 7月17日 ユニバーサル ミュージック合同会社 >> https://lnk.to/TJO_MOTOWNREMIX

「Motown Records × SUGARBITZ」

モータウン・レコーズ設立60周年を記念して、歴史的リリースが決定！

日本が誇るDJレーベル"SUGARBITZ"よりDJ LEAD、DJ KOMORI、TJOらがモータウンの名曲をリミックス！いずれも本国 US「モータウン・レコーズ」より世界配信される。

同時発売： ・DJ LEAD -  Jackson 5 / I Want You Back (DJ LEAD Remix) ・DJ KOMORI - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell / Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (DJ KOMORI Remix)

[phil-and-a-corgi]

chlorine video ny 21 pilots. cool concept. good angles. 18/10.

[ignoremeprettyplease]

This Just Out with Liz Feldman (bloopers)