Lady Gaga Is Kurt Cobain, Axl Rose And David Bowie Rolled Into One

By Kyle Anderson

It's official: Lady Gaga will bring her fashion-forward stage show to the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, as she is set to perform at the ceremony on September 13. Though I love Jay-Z, Green Day and the other acts already announced as performers, I'm most looking forward to Gaga. I echo James Montgomery's enthusiasm for The Fame — even without the juggernaut singles, it would still be one of the more impressive pop albums of the past decade. When you add in her phenomenal approach to fashion, her ultra-quotable interviews and her extraordinary visual sense (hence her nine VMA nominations), you get a tremendous package. (No pun intended.)

But the woman born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta didn't simply drop from the sky fully formed. Rather, she's a careful construction of a number of other stars. Think of her as the FrankenStar, made up of the parts below.

David Bowie: Bowie spent most of his early career pretending he came to this planet from outer space. Those shiny suits Gaga wears? Totally Bowie. And Ziggy Stardust was also obsessed with the concept of fame — in fact, it was the title of one of his biggest hits.

Grace Jones: A woman who plays a hybrid stew of pop styles and has a commitment to stage costumes? That sounds familiar.

Axl Rose: Axl was a great singer and frontman (and hell, an underrated dancer), but the thing he was great at was creating a sense of unpredictability and danger wherever he went. Gaga has yet to refuse to perform because her deli tray wasn't up to snuff, but every time she shows up to an interview in costume or performs live, there's always the possibility that something could get out of hand — and that's awesome.

Kelis: Gaga probably wishes every night that she was the one who wrote "Milkshake," as it's probably the best double-entendre tune of the past 20 years. But perhaps Gaga's greatest skill is making things sound dirty — after all, "Bluffin' with my muffin" sounds like it should be filthy, but maybe it isn't after all.

Kurt Cobain: It may seem like a stretch, but one of the genius things that Cobain did during his all-too-brief career was not take himself seriously. Whether it was in videos, on stage or during interviews, Cobain sometimes came across like a guy who didn't care about being famous or even being a musician. Gaga is the same way — sometimes, it seems like she's just going to stand up and say "Gotcha!" and laugh at our expense. Again, that sort of unpredictability is so rare that it becomes truly thrilling.

I'm putting my money down now: Lady Gaga will steal the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.

Q&A: Girl Loves Distortion

Black Plastic Bag
Washington City Paper: It seems your first record—most of it was very visceral, and then there were a couple more electronic numbers. But this one is more coherent.

Christopher Goett: I would totally agree with that. While I love our first record for what it is, in terms of documenting where we were at the time, I think it represents us figuring out how to play together. We got into the studio in Summer 2007 so we were just playing together for over a year. The last song on this new record is actually one of the first songs we ever played together, in ‘06.

Washington City Paper: I was going to ask about that song [“Ascend”]. I think you can read it as a bit of a band manifesto. Or at least that’s how I read it.

Christopher Goett: Yeah, yeah. It was literally the first song we played together. I kind of came in with those rough chords … those lyrics, they’re a little bit nostalgic, a little bit about getting a sense of your time and place. And that’s kind of how we approach a lot of things. I work for a nonprofit. I met Jenn at a community nonprofit in Northeast D.C. [eSharp Music Center] I think we’ve been involved in community in a lot of ways. I know it sounds cliché but it’s important to us.

Washington City Paper: It seems you write a lot about neighborhoods.

Goett: Yeah, I think in neighborhoods [he laughs again]. I was a community organizer for several years.

Washington City Paper: The blog party line seems to be that you’re one of the last bands embodying a “D.C. sound.” Do you buy that?

Goett: I have mixed feelings about that. I think most people are saying that as a compliment, but when I think of the D.C. sound, I think of a wide swath of kinds of music. There’s so many different kinds of bands. If you take Teen Beat or DeSoto or Dischord, even within there there’s a large spectrum. I love the D.C. “sound,” I suppose, and I’m not ashamed to be part of it at any stretch. I am a part of this community, and I’m entrenched in it and I like it. It’s one of those things [where I say], “Oh yeah, that’s really nice, but I don’t really know what that means.”

Washington City Paper: Can you tell me how the band formed?

Goett: Steve and I were in a band called Eight Track Mind that kicked around for most of ‘05 and some of ‘04, and it was becoming a situation where band members were moving further apart … It was mostly Steve’s songs and I was kind of playing second guitar. And Jenn and I were working together … in a studio called eSharp. And so kids were learning midi and learning guitar, bass, drums … it was actually really cool. Some young Go-go bands started cropping up. And so Jenn and I worked at the same nonprofit right around when our other band was stopping, and I knew she was an awesome drummer. And I said, “Hey, are you interested in playing rock again?” [Jenn Thomas walks up] … that was probably March of ‘06. We played a house show, I think in May …

Thomas: It was pretty much “let’s do it right now. O.K.” Then it what was like, “O.K. it’s working. Now let’s keep going.” And that’s that.

Goett: We all bring a different thing to the table.

Washington City Paper: What are those things?

Goett: I mean our perspective in terms of our library. That’s just an audiophile term, sorry, but I mean our collection. I love My Bloody Valentine, Ride and shoegaze stuff as much as I love punk, like T.S.O.L. and The Germs and all that other stuff.

Washington City Paper: … like the horror-rock T.S.O.L.?

Goett: No, the earlier stuff, please. [Everyone laughs.] And then Jenn turned me on to the Big Boys and stuff I wish I’d heard about … We’re not one-note in terms of where we’re coming from. I don’t mean to sound nerdier than I need to be, but I think that it helps. Steve has a certain proclivity where he’s coming form, I have a certain proclivity, Jenn has a certain proclivity …

Thomas: Steve comes from a little bit more of a smoother background.

Goett: Actually, Steve was in a hip-hop band for 10 years.

Thomas: And he comes from a melodic classic-rock [background], like Pink Floyd, and he really loves the stories behind the music and he brings in a lot of that in lyrics. … And my background is more like protest punk, like early D.C. stuff. I came from Austin to here, and I was at University of Texas for a while and saw the Big Boys and Minor Threat. And I moved up here as a skate punk. At some of the shows I remember being the only girl in a bright yellow Zorlac shirt amid an entire sea of people dressed in black. I was wearing cowboy boots and people were like, “whoa …”

Black Plastic Bag

YOU CAN PRE-ORDER GIRL LOVES DISTORTION'S NEW ALBUM, YOU BETTER RUN YOUR HIGHNESS HERE!

Horn > Ocelot

Spoiler Alert!

Phish was in rehearsals all week at the DCU Center in Worcester, MA (The Centrum).

Thanks to some fanatical Phanners we have audio and video of "Moma Dance," "Destiny Unbound," "Horn," "Rift," "Time Turns Elastic," "Backwards Down the Number Line," "You Enjoy Myself," "The Star Spangled Banner," and ... "Ocelot."

Moma Dance
Moma Dance

Destiny Unbound

Horn > Ocelot
Horn > Ocelot

Rift
Rift

Time Turns Elastic

Backwards Down the Numberline

YEM

Horn, Ocelot

Star Spangled Banner
Star Spangled Banner

Rift

Destiny Unbound

YEM

Why Are You so Paranoid?

Edit: Well, I guess the-powers-that-be refuse to let this video be hosted on the internet. That's a damn shame. I could keep updating the link, but they're taking them down as fast as they go up!

I guess the fossils over at Universal Music Group do not want anyone to actually see these videos - go figure. I'll never be able to understand why it's OK for us to watch them on TV, but viewing them on the internet is some kind of massive crime? WTF?

Cool video anyway. Rihanna is smokin'!

If you have this video, please host it somewhere besides YouTube.

Here are the Top 31 free alternatives to YouTube.