2005.11.18.1240 :: o superman

we had a discussion recently on a web forum about the most avant garde song to ever reach the top 10. i had a lot of ideas about what i thought were avant garde songs and suggested them, but all of the british people kept talking about "o superman" by laurie anderson [yousendit mp3 link], a song i'd never heard.

i managed to track it down and i'm, uh, a little confused. how did this song ever chart? i mean, it's awesome, but i guess i just don't give the general public enough credit. i know british tastes are a little more forgiving of experimentation, but i didn't think even they would push something like this all the way up to number two. sure, it's an oddly appealing (and somewhat haunting) song, but it's just a woman talking/singing through a vocoder with very minimal keyboard behind her. i guess the moral of the story is that john peel is the man.

anyway, to make all this weirder, laurie anderson is going to be in chicago at the art institute next week (november 20th and 21st). unfortunately, it's $65, which is pretty ridiculous.