Still Livin' In The Past-2006, that is...

The Awkward Stage-Heaven Is For Easy Girls
So this-(drumroll, please) was my second favourite album of 2006.

Ok, The Awkward Stage (more like the AWESOME stage!)….there seems to be an abundance of adjectives beginning with “A”, that I have the audacity to use in conjunction with The Awkward Stage…astonishing, astounding, amazing, awesome…ok, well, maybe not that many. Bottom line is: I love them-and if YOU love smart, well written, catchy, pop songs without the boring lyrics you’ve heard over and over again, you may love them as I do. Let's start at the beginning-where The Moron's Are Winning (title of first song). The record starts with a chorus…I love when they do that!! Hook you in right away with “There is war on and all of the morons are winning, they are winning year to year”. Every time I hear this song I imagine an american flag swaying slowly in the breeze with George W.'s face super-imposed upon it. Another sparkling moment occurs in the song Sad Girl Radio with the lyric "sad girls hate the mirror for all it shows, and don't show/sad girls find comfort in familiar t.v. shows/sad girls got secrets that nobody else knows." It reminds me of my mother asking me just why I felt the need to watch episode after episode of the O.C. and all I could think of was that it was "comforting".
I talked to Shane Nelken after he played here in London last fall and we became myspace pen-pals, so I asked him a few questions about the album.

Mosey: I'm a little worried about the title of the album. Can I be a feminist and still like an album called Heaven Is For Easy Girls??

Shane:Well, you might say it is a celebration of sorts of female sexuality from a slightly juvenile male P.O.V. I have always hated the stigmatization of sexuality in women. We are going to reclaim the word "slut" then take back the streets. I like to think that there is a special place in heaven reserved for enthusiastic sex positive women who take pity on lonely perverted comic book geeks like me. In a nutshell, the song is a love poem to an adult film star named Janine.

Mosey: And Jeanine also happens to be the name of your keyboard player?

Shane: Coincidence...She thought it was funny that the title song of the album mentioned her name over and over...fate?

Mosey: Definately. What I loved most about the album was that these extremely poppy hooky songs pop out at you first, but after a few listens, you start to really appreciate the hidden gems like Sad Girl Radio and T-Rexia Nervosa...T-Rexia reminded me of the sonic youth song Tunic(song for Karen)which is also about Karen Carpenter. Were you familiar with the Sonic Youth homage when you wrote it?

Shane: I'm glad you liked the song. What I can tell you about it is I saw the Todd Haynes film Superstar the Karen Carpenter story and was really moved. I am a sonic youth fan and of course knew the song tunic but had not made the connection at all until you mentioned it. I guess i didn't realize it was about KC. Been a long time since i heard it.
Her story is very tragic and I'm sure there are plenty more KC inspired songs out there. what's your favourite Carpenters song?

Mosey: I'd have to say "Superstar". Does that make me lame?? I just remember being a teenager and seeing the video of the Sonic Youth cover with Thurston standing there with one of those adorable skinny mics in the video.... Tall and shaggy and dressed up in a suit and tie, I fell in love!! it was so sad and....heartbreaking....and...hot!

Shane:Mine is definitely This Masquerade. which i believe was a
cover but I love her version.

Mosey: Yeah, her voice was so haunting...it could be because we know now that she was going through so much, but it really seems like you can feel the pain in her voice.

Shane: Her story is very tragic and I'm sure there are plenty more KC inspired songs out there.

Mosey: Yours is definately one of my favourites! I loved the sixties soul-type chorus of voices!! it sounds like Karen is singing with all the angels in heaven or something!

Shane: Yeah, I originally had just one female harmony accompaniment and it was my friend Kurt (co-producer/engineer) who deserves all the credit for the choral harmonies. I loved the idea of having a chorus of angels blaspheme.

Mosey: Thanks for answering my dumb questions...by the way, I was checking out your myspace friends, and I couldn't help but steal Borat from your list...

Shane: My Borat is your Borat.

And since I'm not a real music journalist, I'll leave you with this quote from allmusic about the album(in case you weren't already convinced)

"If you can listen to the title track and not end up with the hook stuck in your head all day, you are made of strong stuff indeed. Heaven Is for Easy Girls is the kind of record that will leave you with a warm feeling inside and a goofy grin on your face; it also lends more credence to the belief that Vancouver is the center of the guitar pop universe."