katfrankie - Tumblr blog

[katfrankie]

//

"...living in Baltimore affords one a sense of freedom, except to add that the sense of freedom exists almost solely for non-black artists and musicians. Whatever benefits there are for non-black artists and musicians to live in and move to Baltimore are directly indebted to the majority black population of Baltimore. Our liberties come at the cost of theirs." ...

"It took me several years of witnessing the contrast between my life and those of native black Baltimoreans before I started to make this connection. When I did, it became hard not to see it everywhere, in everything. It became nearly impossible to avoid thinking about it. Baltimore is a very poor city. There are a lot of white poor, but a great deal more black poor who have next to nothing. ... Increasingly I saw my life here as parasitic. I find the rent to be cheap here because I am white in an oppressed black city. The feelings of lawlessness and freedom exist for me because I am white in an oppressed black city.

This is reflected in the attention directed toward Baltimore music. Many of the Baltimore musicians who make a national name for themselves, my group included, are mostly if not entirely comprised of white people. Ali discusses this as a not infrequent source of frustration. "Me and my music peers of color have noticed, for one, it’s always that conversation of why a lot of Baltimore musicians can’t really pop off. By pop off I mean establish a career in music, start touring around the world, sell music, play at festivals, the whole nine. Becoming a blossoming musician in a city where, music-wise, it’s culturally rich. We’re right in a good hot spot. Baltimore musicians of color don’t really make it here," says Ali. He’s right. People reading this are likely to be at least nominally familiar with Dan Deacon, Future Islands, Wye Oak, Beach House and/or Lower Dens, but that you might not also know Al Rogers, Jr., :3LON, or even TT the Artist is indefensible.” - Jana Hunter (Lower Dens), Op-Ed: White Privilege and Black Lives in the Baltimore Music Scene, Pitchfork.com, 28th July 2015  https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/850-op-ed-white-privilege-and-black-lives-in-the-baltimore-music-scene/

[katfrankie]

//

“The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing.” - Toni Morrison, quoted at the "Public Dialogue on the American Dream Theme." panel at Portland Oregon State Black Studies Center, 30. May 1975.

[katfrankie]

Home

When we speak of going home, it only exists in the arms we know I feel like you never got a chance to throw Like everything got locked and loaded right before they said to shut your mouth while you’re getting degraded Keep it from the kids ‘cause they don’t wanna face it Everything about this is sick and so blatant Yet everybody feels / they’re too jaded to deal baby

Nobody owns you nobody owns your love, your blood, your bones, your trust, your home

When we speak of going home - ‘cause everyone’s afraid of what they don’t know - bridle our behaviour with police control; invalidate you through the fear, the fog. Why is there endless energy invested telling people how to be, ‘cause they can’t accept that I don’t believe in prayer, I believe in love but it’s never enough never enough never enough baby

Nobody owns you nobody owns your love, your blood, your bones, your trust And when you’re home baby nobody owns you nobody owns your love your blood, your bones, your trust, your lust your home

If you wanna be heard, gotta speak louder But inaction tells me tells me something With the sun on my face everything’s louder Keep repeating it And don’t let them win when they keep it from the kids keep it from the kids keep it from the kids

When we speak of going home, it only exists in the arms we know ‘cause everyone’s afraid of what they don’t know; invalidate you through the fear, the fog

[katfrankie]

#peace

[katfrankie]

https://open.spotify.com/track/5KbtNmrs732TVjLVE6vpOH

[katfrankie]

//

“Those lists are roosters that lay eggs. What came first, the idea that men make more historically significant music than women do, or the institutionalization of a group of albums men made? Because the vast majority of lists extend from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to Thriller to Nevermind to OK Computer, with something by Joni Mitchell or Aretha Franklin showing up around No. 30, the paradigms that define greatness remain masculine at their core. This means that The Beatles represent modernity instead of Nina Simone, and Bob Dylan stands for poeticism made populist while Mitchell or Franklin only do so secondarily. It places Nirvana and Pearl Jam at the center of the 1990s rock renaissance, never suggesting that Alanis Morrisette or P.J. Harvey belong in that same spot. It maintains the notion that hip hop's golden era belonged to rappers like Biggie and Tupac instead of Missy Elliott and Lauryn Hill. It obscures the fact that contemporary country's biggest influence is not Willie Nelson or Merle Haggard (or even Garth Brooks), but Shania Twain. It makes it difficult to see that Jay Z still has a major career as an artist mostly because of Beyoncé.”  ...

“The process of canonization — literally, of compiling lists of the greatest or most influential works within an art form — is always controversial. Many musicians despise lists and other anthologizing efforts that threaten to freeze their work within hierarchies. This is doubly true for many women, who fear that being honored as the best within their gender simply marginalizes them further. "Just another book about women in rock!" Kathleen Hanna shouted in the song "Crochet," recorded under the pseudonym the Julie Ruin. "You killed the thing." The feminine-product sponsored special events feting hot "divas" or "women who rock" that fill our television and computer screens often seem like little more than marketing ploys presenting woman's work as a perennially new sensation, packaged with little historical context or real thought. Being "lumped in with the women," as Mitchell herself has often described it, can feel like winning a plastic trinket that, in the real scheme of pop history, feels like second place. It's a dilemma. Defining women in music as women both makes their work more visible within a male-dominated milieu and potentially reduces their value.” - Ann Powers, A New Canon: In Pop Music, Women Belong At The Center Of The Story, NPR.org, 24th July 2017 http://www.npr.org/2017/07/24/538601651/a-new-canon-in-pop-music-women-belong-at-the-center-of-the-story

[katfrankie]

undefined

[katfrankie]

Solo dates.

11. Aug 2017 Kinkerlitzchen Festival, Metelen 25. Aug 2017 Molsdorfer Kultursommer 26. Aug 2017 Mind the Gap Festival, Kassel

[katfrankie]

Mornings. 🌤

[katfrankie]

“The first big song she wrote was for Raven-Symoné in 1993, but when it came time to shoot the video for "That's What Little Girls Are Made Of," for which she rapped a verse, she didn't even receive a call about it. In the video, a thin, light-skinned model who has swallowed Missy's voice raps along with Raven. The rejection was so painful that Missy gave up on trying to be a star and devoted herself to songwriting. Three years later, she and Timbaland would write and produce the majority of Aaliyah's classic album One in a Million. When the record labels circled back around, this time they understood: They were signing someone who wanted her own imprint, with complete creative control over her music and the ability to freely write and produce for others. Missy Elliott was 24 when she got what she wanted from Sylvia Rhone, the CEO of Elektra Entertainment Group at the time, and she called it her new record label Goldmind Inc.“

Photo: Mark Seliger Article: “Her Eyes Were Watching the Stars: How Missy Elliott Became an Icon” by Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah for Elle Magazine, 15th May 2017 http://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a44891/missy-elliott-june-2017-elle-cover-story

[katfrankie]

(via https://open.spotify.com/track/6XXx7XkXBsNKvLzV6b2F1w) My fave from the new Keøma album. ;)

[katfrankie]

My new collaboration with the Berlin band 'Me & My Drummer'. Listen!

ON TOUR IN GERMANY:

03.02.14 GIESSEN Muk 04.02.14 KASSEL K19 05.02.14 CHEMNITZ Weltecho 06.02.14 BERLIN HO Berlin 07.02.14 STUTTGART Freikonzert @ Marienkirche 08.02.14 AUGSBURG Schwarzes Schaf 09.02.14 DRESDEN Scheune 12.02.14 POTSDAM Waschhaus

Tickets: gastspielreisen.tickets.de/de/events/4…p;mydrummer

[katfrankie]

Drones Suck.

"I LEARNED that my 16-year-old grandson, Abdulrahman — a United States citizen — had been killed by an American drone strike from news reports the morning after he died.

The missile killed him, his teenage cousin and at least five other civilians on Oct. 14, 2011, while the boys were eating dinner at an open-air restaurant in southern Yemen.

I visited the site later, once I was able to bear the pain of seeing where he sat in his final moments. Local residents told me his body was blown to pieces. They showed me the grave where they buried his remains. I stood over it, asking why my grandchild was dead.

Nearly two years later, I still have no answers. The United States government has refused to explain why Abdulrahman was killed. It was not until May of this year that the Obama administration, in a supposed effort to be more transparent, publicly acknowledged what the world already knew — that it was responsible for his death.

The attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., said only that Abdulrahman was not “specifically targeted,” raising more questions than he answered."

- Nasser al-Awlaki (Yes, he's also Anwar's Dad... :-/), NYTimes, 17. July 2013. Full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/18/opinion/the-drone-that-killed-my-grandson.html

[katfrankie]

I was lucky enough to catch the last day of the Yoko Ono exhibition at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt. It was mostly work from the 60s, and the breadth of ideas was vast. Her 'pieces'/instruction paintings and performance art felt stronger than her installations, but maybe that's because I'm already quite familiar with them through her book 'Grapefruit' (from which a page is shown above), and we all want the band to play the songs we know...