Saturday, February 2, 2008

Icon: Karen O


One fateful night I discovered Suberteranean on MTV. Little did I know the Yeah Yeah Yeahs would turn my world of music on its head. I was a skateboarding, moshing munchkin who wanted to be punk, but in less than three minutes I saw something different in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Yes, their music harbors the ferocity of punk but Nick Zinner, fantastic guitarist that he is, incorporates a certain funk. It was a foreign kind of rock to my young ears. On a notepad I scribbled 'Yeah Yeah Yeah's-Date With the Night,' as well as 'PJ Harvey,' so I wouldn't forget how an incredible television show on such a trendy channel had changed my life.

When I was twelve years old I asked my dad to take me to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Sadly, plans for that fell through but I was still enamored with Karen O. Sometimes she looked like she let a kindergarden class fingerpaint her clothes and wore them like they were made for the stage. (I later learned that much of her on stage threads were the work of Christian Joy, I'll cover her in another post.)Her ripped tights and tight, tapered leg pants (amongst the era of the bootcut) held their own during her on stage acrobatics. This resulted in her looking like a superhero. At a performace on David Letterman she moved like a marionette or as if she was transfixed on vital points of the universe. Through the years I've continued to regard the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as one of the best and Karen O still reigns as an icon in my mind.
























5 comments:

Andrea Martínez Maugard said...

Maps is one of my fav songs ever!

Unknown said...

Wow, u had such great taste at 12! I actually heard about her then too, but i was still in the midst of an embarassing wannabee-punk phase, which- shudder- involved less Buzzcocks and more Kelly Osbourne's first album :S

Thanks for the nostalgia trip!

Sister Libby said...

She really is like, a badass. I mean, the fact that her last name is abbreviated makes her cool to begin with.

Unknown said...

I've been browsing your site and I just wanted to let you know I think it's AMAZING and also that I'm incredibly happy that I stumbled upon it. Sometimes I feel like it's me blogging b/c you share the exact same fashion taste (and music taste as well, now that I've discovered our shared "obsession" with Karen O, although that may be more on my part than yours lol-i LOVE karen!!). I notice you do a lot more androgyny than mainstream in terms of style, but always retaining a feminine quality-that's exactly the look I always go for. ANYWAYS, just wanted to share that with you cuz I couldn't keep it in how freaky (but nice!) it is that there's someone else out there so much like me!

L said...

i just dont like 1 song.
i LOVE the hwole package,
and Karen is like my idol!
she is not amazing,
but more than that!


ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh xD