Latest news with #ThusSpokeZarathustra
Scoop
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Wet Kiss Share Piano Ballad-Turn-Rock Saloon Single, 'Chick From Nowhere'
[Friday, June 6, 2025] Rising queer punk outfit Wet Kiss share 'Chick From Nowhere', the latest single from their upcoming album Thus Spoke the Broken Chanteuse, out June 27 on limited-edition lipstick-smacked vinyl via Dinosaur City. The new single comes alongside the announcement of an album tour this August, with stops in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. 'Chick from Nowhere' is a janky piano ballad (of pianist Aldo, who Brenna affectionately calls "the Barry Manilow to my Bette Midler'), that descends into a full-blown rock opera. It's about picking up lovers in the early morning, relishing the freedom of being an unknown entity in an unknown city. The melody was written back in Melbourne, the band high on ecstasy and suddenly eager to write a really tight pop song. 'It's not really a standard pop song at all,' laughs Brenna, 'it's more of a rock saloon song.' Thus Spoke the Broken Chanteuse is exactly what the title suggests. Our chanteuse here is the sensational jezebel Brenna O: Part Factory Girl, part Fassbinder heroine, all peroxide locks and shiny, skin-tight '$2 dresses', sneering and growling across the stage, mixing greasy punk with cabaret excess. What is she saying? Well, a few things. Produced by Andrew Huhtanen McEwan, Thus Spoke the Broken Chanteuse is about the grubby pleasures of hopping on the Melbourne-to-Berlin artist pipeline. It's about 'daddy at the abattoir,' slaughtering piggies. It's about gloomy waits at the gender clinic so you can get your estrogen. It's about dingy, crap clubs, desolate glamour, strutting down the street with your dignity in tatters, upskirting, indulgence and the glory of turning fantasy into reality. The album name is also something of a joke, melding a music journalist's snide comment about the band ('broken chanteuse') with a nod to Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The story of Wet Kiss is the story of myth-turned-real. Brenna knew what she wanted — glam-rock mutated for the adderall age — she just needed to find the players. So she put out ads in local rock magazines and found them: daniel dog (they/them - guitar), Al Amour (he/him - piano), Ben Addiction (he/they - bass), Ju Sugar (he/they - lead guitar), Ruby Rabbit (they/them - drums) and Agnes Wailin' (they/them - dubbed 'Screamin'' for their tenacious vocal belts). The band quickly moved in together, quickly put out their beguiling debut record She's So Cool, and quickly built a live reputation. Their performances left crowds gobsmacked: there were floppy bunny ears and buckets of sweat; costume changes and clothes ripped to smithereens; ecstatic howls and hilarious antagonism. Plenty of Thus Spoke the Broken Chanteuse is brimming with this tension – between the hedonistic triumph of inventing oneself, and the dreary texture of modern life. Brenna became well acquainted with this conflict during a long stint in Berlin. Much of the record was written there, and as such, many of the songs are slathered in a thick glob of Weimar decadence. 'I want to carry on that spirit of dirty street decadence, but also the great tradition of self-invention,' says Brenna. Wet Kiss catapulted onto the scene with the release of their debut album She's So Cool via Dero Arcade (cumgirl8, Divide & Dissolve) in 2022. In a somewhat shock move, Olver and daniel dog relocated to Berlin just a month after the album dropped. When plans of their 2024 return became public (alongside whispers of a new record), a frenzy was ignited with fans and media alike. In the nine months since, Wet Kiss have played Melbourne Town Hall for RISING's sold-out DAY TRIPPER festival alongside Bar Italia and HTRK, showcased at SXSW Sydney and made their 'Sup debut for Golden Plains alongside PJ Harvey and Fontaines D.C. On top of that, they've scored support slots with Amyl & the Sniffers, RVG, Spike F*ck, CIVIC, Floodlights and Private Function. This momentum has been bolstered by critical acclaim from influential outlets like Bandcamp, Beat Magazine, Rolling Stone, Gusher Magazine, BBC 6, WFMU, 3RRR, PBS and among others. You can dunk yourself in Wet Kiss' filthy, lavish depths this August as they tour the album across Australia's east coast. Ticket links and more information below. Upcoming Shows
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Korea Herald
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
[Exclusive] Questions raised over G-Dragon's 'Ubermensch' title
Some international fans question G-Dragon's use of 'Ubermensch,' citing its historical ties to Nazi ideology G-Dragon's third solo studio album, 'Ubermensch,' released Tuesday, has raised questions both at home and abroad over the historical implications of the title and the sexually suggestive lyrics. The album title originates from the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, introduced in his 1883-1885 work 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra.' The concept of the Ubermensch, or "Overman," describes an idealized individual who transcends societal norms and creates their own values. However, the term has faced scrutiny due to its historical misuse. In the 20th century, the Nazi regime distorted Nietzsche's concept to justify Aryan supremacy, despite the philosopher's rejection of racism. While modern interpretations of Ubermensch generally focus on self-transcendence and ambition, some international listeners have questioned G-Dragon's choice of title. 'It is important to acknowledge this historical context, as language carries the weight of its past. While the philosophical meaning intended by Nietzsche is distinct from the ideological appropriation by the Nazis, the term itself cannot be entirely separated from its historical misuse,' one social media user wrote on The Korea Herald's account, Wednesday. Another international fan shared mixed feelings, writing, 'As an Austrian, the album name still doesn't sit right with me. But I don't blame him, I'm sure it wasn't his intention.'
CBC
28-01-2025
- General
- CBC
Polarizing times call for Nietzsche's practice of 'passing by'
*Originally published on Jan. 20, 2025. Existentialist German philosopher Friedrick Nietzsche is most popularly known for his declaration that 'God is dead' and for his wrestling with nihilism. But political theorist Shalini Satkunanandan argues that Nietzsche offers us a method that can help us navigate the highly polarizing discourse that's afflicting our democracies today. "I would say that we are almost talking too much. There's this constant need to correct, refute, criticize," said Satkunanandan. "It's not clear that our constant need to engage is helping us move forward in any way. If anything it is making partisan divides even more pronounced." Nietzsche's work was largely unknown during the course of his short life. He died in 1900 at the age of 55 after suffering a degenerative brain disease. He published Thus Spoke Zarathustra between 1883 and 1885 and in it he explores some of the core tenets of his philosophy through the book's main character — a fictional wandering prophet called Zarathustra. "There's a really key line in the book that reads: 'Where one can no longer love, there one should pass by,'" said Satkunanandan, who is working on a book about the practice of 'passing by.' "It's about making us more hesitant about engagement and antagonistic contest…Before any engagement it's worthwhile asking what its effects are going to be," she said. "I don't know if we always ask that because we see engagement as a good in itself, and as a sign of caring about shared life." She says that sometimes caring for shared life means it's okay to not engage, and adds that 'passing by' should never be confused for disengagement. "You are paying attention, but you're being extremely hesitant and minimalistic about direct participation." How to engage within 'politics of resentment' 'Passing by' can be misread as resignation, being lazy, or apathetic. But veering away is not any of these things, argues Satkunanandan. "Participation may actually aggravate a particular passional situation." It was no surprise that the Merriam-Webster dictionary crowned "polarization" as its word of the year in 2024. Jeffrey Church, chair of the political science department at University of Texas, Houston, has written books on Nietzsche. He also sees the value in Nietzsche's lesson of 'passing by.' "When we're constantly engaged in a struggle for revenge, that we're essentially chaining ourselves to the conditions of the world around us, to reacting to the conditions of the world around us, and not engaging in creating something new or transcending it," said Church. That doesn't mean Nietzsche is suggesting to ignore injustices and problems, says Church, it's more about understanding the way "becoming obsessed with the ills or problems in the world can never allow us to be free." "If you pass over or transcend a lot of the minor ills or minor problems that you see, it allows you to get an intellectual space and a moral space where you can be free, where you're indeed not obsessed with every cabinet pick that Trump is making today," Church said. "That you can in fact free that space in your mind where you're obsessed with all those names and devote that space and time to something that's distinctively for you, and that's distinctively an expression of who you are rather than a reaction to someone else." The value of 'passing by' Satkunanandan emphazises the space for creativity that opens up when we 'pass by.' "When you pass by, it's almost like you're making it possible that you might sort of tap into or come to new languages for, for engaging with other people, new languages, for describing the world. It's almost like when you're constantly participating, you're always speaking to other people within received frames and received ways of seeing the world." She explains that part of what Nietzsche was trying to get at with 'passing by' is the creation of new values — a way of fundamentally changing how we live to focus on meaning in our lives. "If you want to really change the ultimate commitments that give meaning to our lives and thereby to help transform the world, then you actually need to be really careful about constant participation in public debate because you become incapable of speaking in other than the terms of received public debate," Satkunanandan said. "And really creating new values requires you to give yourself the opportunity to sort of come to new ways of speaking and being in the world."
