I am waiting for some marketing genius to coin the phrase that will be widely accepted as the identifying term to describe the years 2000 to 2012. We have all grown accustomed to calling the crazy hippie / anti war years “the sixties”, the disco years “the seventies”, Reagan / MTV years “the eighties”, and the grunge / no national debt / violent crime dropped in the United States (for the first time in five decades) years “the nineties” but what do we call 2000 to 2012? Will those be the preteen years, or simply “the aughts” as in two thousand aught one.
In the post-apocalyptic world of illegal downloading, new methods of promoting music have arisen. Among these, Youtube has been recognized as a cheap and effective way for musicians to get themselves seen… Well the effectiveness DID exist. Now Google has turned it into such a cluttered mess, it is less likely that your video will be seen. But in the last five years of this century’s first decade, or “the aughts”, Youtube made some people celebrities on some level. Of these side-stage stars, Lauren O’Connell shines the brightest.
For the most part the majority of the Youtube darlings are cover bands, and for the most part they all do the same schtick. They do jazzy renditions of pop songs. It’s a slightly less ridiculous version of the Richard Cheese routine. Of these, Pomplamoose reign king and queen. If not for their popularity, I would never had heard Lauren O’Connell. Initially I was exposed to her side project with Nataly Dawn: My Terrible Friend. Up front, it doesn’t appear any different than the rest. They did covers, though with choices like Tom Waits, they were admittedly less from the pop charts. I watched their videos, not really interested, until I saw them perform the song “When I Decide.” The song doesn’t list any writing credit. I am not 100% sure it is an O’Connell song, but having grown more familiar with her wit, clever cynicism, and poetic taunts, I would be willing to go all in and bet the credit is her’s.
It is a wonderful song, and if My Terrible Friend had less cover songs, and more songs like “When I Decide” and “The Daylight Here” I would have bought their EP. Don’t get me wrong. From a commercially viable, units sold, perspective, the cover song gig works. I just prefer cover songs in smaller doses, heavily slathered in a gravy of original material.
At that time, prior to the release of Quitters (her 3rd album) O’Connell was offering a bulk download of everything she had ever recorded for $20. It was about 25 songs including her albums Sitting In Chairs, and The Shakes. In addition there were some out takes including the song White Noise which eventually ended up on the next release, Quitters.
The CD Sitting In Chairs doesn’t really do much for me. I am glad I didn’t hear of her when this album was released because I know how narrow minded I am and it is possible I might have dismissed her permanently based on this album. It is much easier in hind site to look at it compared to the two albums that followed and guess that she was likely just finding her voice. Maybe she was shaking off everything she learned, and preparing to do things her own way. When it comes to song writing, you never really know. To Lauren, these songs on the first album could be the most personal, and in some cases those tend to be the ones that don’t really resonate as well with others. That is unless you are Eric Clapton and you have the ability to go up to Will Jennings and say “hey, I will pay you to write a song about my kid dying, so I can tell everybody I wrote it, put it on a sound track, and make millions off his death.”
From the first line from the first song from The Shakes, the Lauren O’Connell style stands out. With beauty and charm she describes something as simple as her lawn, and when you think she is making a point, she lets you know she is not:
"There's a tree in my yard and it killed all the other plants / And showed no remorse but even nature's a bitch / So that bitch is gonna take her course / It dominates the lawn and it doesn't seem right / It played out like that / But you won't hear me complain 'cause it don't look bad"
There is a theme in O’Connell’s writing. She often comes across as “Maybe I care. Maybe I don’t” and she delivers the message with astute observations of minute details while spinning a yarn half exaggerated, and a quarter true.
The first two albums were very well recorded, but obviously home made. For her third effort, she wanted to go into a studio. Lauren chose to utilize Pledgemusic to raise money to help with her recording cost. She set an undisclosed goal, and created a new Pledgemusic standard by raising her goal in less than 24 hours (the first to do this). Sixty days later, at the end of the pledge drive, she had reached 268% of her original goal.
Very shortly after raising 268% of her goal, O’Connell announced to her fans that she was going to ask them for more money to pay her way to SXSW. At the time, that struck me as rather ballsy.
Still operating on her own, with no label support, Lauren released the album Quitters March 2012. The record was engineered & mixed by Oz Fritz, and is pretty impressive. O’Connell has really come into her own. She has an all around understanding of what makes an album enjoyable from beginning to end. In addition to focusing on song writing, she also crafts the complete work like a roller coaster ride. Just when you are tired of the lows, she lifts you up, and then eventually drops you down again. The woman is a rock star. She just doesn’t know it yet. She is a Neil Young for her generation. She has the ability to take us down the middle of the road, and maintain a mainstream interest, but she won’t. She is going to hit the ditches and cross the field and take us on a more interesting journey. I personally am looking forward to the ride.
