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seedarklyxeroWelcome to SeeDarkly Sunday DisCOVERies:
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
International Women's Day was Thursday, March 8. In recognition, I decided to share some of the blogs I'd written about covers done by female musicians. Closer inspection revealed that the male/female balance of my previous 150 blogs is pretty boi-heavy. Not criminally so, but certainly I could direct more attention that direction for a while. So for the next five to six weeks (including last week's) I'll be focused on covers done by female artists and female-led projects. This week's Second Sunday Slowly downtempo cover is from a female-led darkwave/witchhouse trio that transforms a "fierce" R&B pop hit from an accomplished artist and activist into a naughty dancefloor dirge!:
Grypt(w/Myrrh Ka Ba) - Naughty Girl (Beyoncé)
Naughty Girl was supposed to be the first single from Beyoncé's post-Destiny's Child 2003 solo album, Dangerously in Love. It was instead released as the album's fourth single on March 14, 2004 (celebrating its 14 year anniversary later this week). Elementally the track was an intricate amalgam of disco, reggae, and dance-hall styles, influenced in part by Middle Eastern & Arabic melodies, Vanity 6's Nasty Girl, and Donna Summer's Love To Love You Baby, the titular lyric of the latter specifically interpolated by Beyoncé throughout the song.
It didn't quite reach number one on the charts like two of the album's previous singles, but it did go top ten with a significant period of overall commercial success and earned Beyoncé and her collaborators (one of whom was her cousin and personal assistant Angela Beyincé) "Songwriter of the Year" at the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers' 2005 Pop Music Awards.
Critical reception of the track varied from concern over its troubling, problematic, or reductive depictions of women to praise for its empowerment of feminine sexuality.
Very few have covered this track and most in jest or parody. (Richard Cheese notable among the few.)
Grypt (a portmanteau of "Glass Crypt"), a trio of dark art musicians from L.A., appear to have been motivated by both a bit of dark humor and by sincere inspiration to cover the track. Frontwoman Romie Romak stated in one interview that the, "line between parody and authenticity is obscured past the point of recognition," and then cited Rebecca Black's Friday as an example of how "fame is more easily acquired by being bad at something than being good at it." However, with respect to the covers the project has done, (Push It by Static X, Love Me by Lil' Wayne, and, of course, Naughty Girl,) in another interview Romak expressed a genuine appreciation for the tracks and perceives something inherently dark in them that she was inspired to expose. She noted the inescapable nature of radio and pop exposure and wondered if she were the only one to hear "how nihilistic and self-serving and how kind of creepy and lusty and desperate and disparate these songs really were."
Their version of Naughty Girl, which they have characterized with the hashtags "#bitchhaus" and "#sasstanic," was included on Cleopatra's various artist covers compilation, Indie Goes Pop, released in August 2014. The album features a variety of pop covers by artists like Bestial Mouths, Vowws, Radclyffe Hall, ∆AIMON, and others. Its Bandcamp page appears to have added additional tracks past the original release with a current total of nineteen. Grypt bandmate Myrrh Ka Ba received additional credit on this track, apparently because she had not yet been inducted as a full member of the project at the time, though a cynical eye might suspect Cleopatra thought her name more recognizable than Grypt's alone.
Storytime: A couple of years ago when I was brought on as a resident DJ for an event that I lovingly describe as "goth-friendly pop - pop-friendly goth," I too had heard something dark in Beyoncé's track that made me think "if only I could find a gothier version of this, it would be perfect for this night!"
Grypt delivers on that and maintains a similar rhythmic energy to make this a bewitching piece of slow-tempo sorcery!
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Third Sunday Throwback to the 20th Century with an old school goth-metal super-heroine gone solo who offers tribute to a group of lapin lads under what might be, for her, a very familiar moon! It's even a kind of perverse prelude to the upcoming Easter holiday!
Feel free to tell me what you think about today's cover! Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
My gig this week gives you a better reason to wear green! Check my schedule for details, the RSVP link on Facebook, and other upcoming events! ↼‿ಠ
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Mar 04 - Ayria - Headhunter(Front 242)
Feb 25 - The Alpha Complex - #1 Crush (Garbage)
Feb 18 - Assemblage 23 - Love My Way (The Psychedelic Furs)
Feb 11 - Johnny Hollow - Temple of Love (Sisters of Mercy)
Feb 04 - Rotersand - A Strange Kind Of Love (Peter Murphy)
Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
International Women's Day was Thursday, March 8. In recognition, I decided to share some of the blogs I'd written about covers done by female musicians. Closer inspection revealed that the male/female balance of my previous 150 blogs is pretty boi-heavy. Not criminally so, but certainly I could direct more attention that direction for a while. So for the next five to six weeks (including last week's) I'll be focused on covers done by female artists and female-led projects. This week's Second Sunday Slowly downtempo cover is from a female-led darkwave/witchhouse trio that transforms a "fierce" R&B pop hit from an accomplished artist and activist into a naughty dancefloor dirge!:
Grypt(w/Myrrh Ka Ba) - Naughty Girl (Beyoncé)
Naughty Girl was supposed to be the first single from Beyoncé's post-Destiny's Child 2003 solo album, Dangerously in Love. It was instead released as the album's fourth single on March 14, 2004 (celebrating its 14 year anniversary later this week). Elementally the track was an intricate amalgam of disco, reggae, and dance-hall styles, influenced in part by Middle Eastern & Arabic melodies, Vanity 6's Nasty Girl, and Donna Summer's Love To Love You Baby, the titular lyric of the latter specifically interpolated by Beyoncé throughout the song.
It didn't quite reach number one on the charts like two of the album's previous singles, but it did go top ten with a significant period of overall commercial success and earned Beyoncé and her collaborators (one of whom was her cousin and personal assistant Angela Beyincé) "Songwriter of the Year" at the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers' 2005 Pop Music Awards.
Critical reception of the track varied from concern over its troubling, problematic, or reductive depictions of women to praise for its empowerment of feminine sexuality.
Very few have covered this track and most in jest or parody. (Richard Cheese notable among the few.)
Grypt (a portmanteau of "Glass Crypt"), a trio of dark art musicians from L.A., appear to have been motivated by both a bit of dark humor and by sincere inspiration to cover the track. Frontwoman Romie Romak stated in one interview that the, "line between parody and authenticity is obscured past the point of recognition," and then cited Rebecca Black's Friday as an example of how "fame is more easily acquired by being bad at something than being good at it." However, with respect to the covers the project has done, (Push It by Static X, Love Me by Lil' Wayne, and, of course, Naughty Girl,) in another interview Romak expressed a genuine appreciation for the tracks and perceives something inherently dark in them that she was inspired to expose. She noted the inescapable nature of radio and pop exposure and wondered if she were the only one to hear "how nihilistic and self-serving and how kind of creepy and lusty and desperate and disparate these songs really were."
Their version of Naughty Girl, which they have characterized with the hashtags "#bitchhaus" and "#sasstanic," was included on Cleopatra's various artist covers compilation, Indie Goes Pop, released in August 2014. The album features a variety of pop covers by artists like Bestial Mouths, Vowws, Radclyffe Hall, ∆AIMON, and others. Its Bandcamp page appears to have added additional tracks past the original release with a current total of nineteen. Grypt bandmate Myrrh Ka Ba received additional credit on this track, apparently because she had not yet been inducted as a full member of the project at the time, though a cynical eye might suspect Cleopatra thought her name more recognizable than Grypt's alone.
Storytime: A couple of years ago when I was brought on as a resident DJ for an event that I lovingly describe as "goth-friendly pop - pop-friendly goth," I too had heard something dark in Beyoncé's track that made me think "if only I could find a gothier version of this, it would be perfect for this night!"
Grypt delivers on that and maintains a similar rhythmic energy to make this a bewitching piece of slow-tempo sorcery!
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Third Sunday Throwback to the 20th Century with an old school goth-metal super-heroine gone solo who offers tribute to a group of lapin lads under what might be, for her, a very familiar moon! It's even a kind of perverse prelude to the upcoming Easter holiday!
Feel free to tell me what you think about today's cover! Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
My gig this week gives you a better reason to wear green! Check my schedule for details, the RSVP link on Facebook, and other upcoming events! ↼‿ಠ
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Mar 04 - Ayria - Headhunter(Front 242)
Feb 25 - The Alpha Complex - #1 Crush (Garbage)
Feb 18 - Assemblage 23 - Love My Way (The Psychedelic Furs)
Feb 11 - Johnny Hollow - Temple of Love (Sisters of Mercy)
Feb 04 - Rotersand - A Strange Kind Of Love (Peter Murphy)
Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies