Letters to Cleo "Here and Now"

What was it about '90s rock music that lent itself so easily to female-fronted rock groups? How many times did you turn on MTV to see a cute girl sporting a dress she probably stole from her grandma and a hair color not found in nature standing in front of a wall of Marshall stacks singing about how much guys suck? They certainly weren't invented in the '90s. Janis Joplin, Patti Smith and Debbie Harry had held their own as the only girl in serious rock bands decades earlier, and certainly the '80s had their share with Chrissy Hynde of The Pretenders leading the way.

To look at it from an academic point of view, perhaps it was inspired by third-wave of feminism, which started in the early '90s and suggested that women's sexuality was a positive thing that could be empowering, challenging earlier views of sexuality as exploitative. It also allowed women the ability to "take back" words such as "bitch" and "whore." But perhaps that's a discussion probably best left for the Meredith Brooks entry...

Whatever it was, it was certainly popular. Besides the ultra-feminist bands of the riot grrrl movement like Bikini Kill and L7 (the latter infamous for an incident at a concert in which the lead singer removed her tampon and tossed it into the crowd, shouting, "Eat my tampon, fuckers!" in response to mud being slung at the stage), popular bands like The Breeders, No Doubt, The Cardigans, Veruca Salt, Hole, Luscious Jackson, and Belly all featured women in prominent roles--usually serving as lead vocalist and songwriter. At this point I could probably use Freudian analysis to dissect why so many of those type of bands--that is to say, bands in which a small, cute female lead singer surrounds herself with an all-male backing band--were so popular with male audiences, but that sounds kinda boring, so instead, I'm just going to talk about Letters to Cleo and how cute Kay Hanley is.

Letters to Cleo was formed by Hanley and guitarist Greg McKenna in Boston in 1988. McKenna had begun another band and drafted Hanley, then a member of a new wave group. When that band dissolved, McKenna and Hanley decided to continue their partnership with a new power-pop based project. With the addition of Mike Eisenstein on guitar, Stacy Jones on drums and Scott Riebling on bass, the project became Letters to Cleo, named for a box of letters from Hanley's childhood pen pal named, er, "Cleo".

LtC spent a few years gaining a following and sharpening their skills in the Boston area before recording their first album, Aurora Gory Alice, released on the local Boston label Cherry Disc Records in 1993. The album was successful enough to gain the attention of major label Giant Records who signed the band and re-released the album in 1994. The band already had another album in the can--Wholesale Meats and Fish--but would have to wait another year to release thanks to the success of an Aurora track that had been included on the soundtrack for Aaron Spelling awesomely cliched and horribly acted prime time soap Melrose Place--"Here and Now."

Besides Hanley's cuteness, not much impressive about the video as evidenced by this video, complete with color commentary by these two dudes from Texas

Thanks to the exposure of the song on the soundtrack (and the show, where it was played during the closing credits) the song went up the charts and the band found themselves playing the single that they'd recorded some three years previous on hip late night shows for young people like Jon Stewart's short-lived talk show and Conan's still-in-its-infancy Late Night program.

Again with the pigtails, Kay? You're making it really hard for me to not go Freudian on you here.

Equal parts hard rocking grunge and power-pop--and buoyed by Hanley's powerhouse vocals-- "Here and Now" showcased the band's sound nicely, and the song turned into a hit on the Modern Rock chart (#10), and even crossed over to the Hot 100 (#56) and Top 40 (#40). Oh, and in case you're wondering, here the really fast lyrics during the chorus...

The comfort of a knowledge and I'll rise above the sky
above I'll never parallel the challenge of an acquisition
In the here and now...here and now

I'm pretty sure we'll all stick with mumbling our way through that part when it comes on the iPod, but thought it would be nice to see, right?

The follow-up, "Awake," came off Wholesale Meats and Fish--the sophomore effort that was finally released after the success of "Here and Now." "Awake," while still poppy, had a harder-edged sound than "Here and Now." With the guitars turned up and the sound a little messier, the band sounds almost Weezer-ish. In fact, one could call Wholesale Meats and Fish the band's Pinkerton, which would make Aurora Gory Alice their Blue Album--only, you know, not quite as good. It's also clear that the sweetness of Hanley's vocals has been toned down a bit--they're less overpowering here.

Letters To Cleo - New Music - More Music Videos

The sweetness of the vocals may be what ultimately kept Letters to Cleo from achieving real success. There's some really great power-pop here, but Hanley's vocals run the risk of being sickly sweet and free of the sort of attitude that would make Gwen Stefani and No Doubt so successful. As good as the melodies and music were, there wasn't a whole lot in this single to separate the band from the other girl-fronted rock bands of the day.

"Awake" went to #17 on the Modern Rock charts and #88 on the Hot 100.

Still riding high on the success of "Here and Now," in 1996 Letters to Cleo turned their attention towards recording cover songs for movie soundtracks, starting with a cover of The Cars' "Dangerous Type" for the soundtrack to the completely boring teen-witch movie The Craft.

While the song failed to chart, it probably went a long way towards getting them the role as themselves in 1999's underrated teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You. In the film--a retelling of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew--Letters to Cleo are mentioned as being the favorite band of Julia Stiles' character (the shrew). Later in the film, the band actually shows up playing a cover of Nick Lowe's "Cruel to Be Kind" alongside '90s ska no-hit wonders Save Ferris:

Caution: Clips include Heath Ledger which might make you sad, and Alex Mack, which might make you aroused

The film also features the band playing a cover of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" on the roof of the high school.

Fast forward to 1:48 to see the band on the roof...on second thought, dont'--this trailer is like a trip back in time. Watch the whole thing.

Letters to Cleo's music was also used in other forgotten teen girl-centric '90s films like Jawbreaker and The Babysitters Club. Kay Hanley also served as the singing voice of "Josie" in the horrific live-action Josie and the Pussycats movie. Sorry, no clip for that one--if you want to burn your retinas, do it on your own time.

A year later--after four albums, including 1997's Go! and 1998's Sister--the band called it quits after a final show in their home town in May of 2000.

Since then, each member has followed his or her own muse, with Kay Hanley releasing two solo albums (Cherry Marmalade in 2002 and Weaponize in 2008), drummer Stacy Jones forming American Hi-Fi and McKenna starting his own side project, Murder Capitol of the World.

But, like many one-hit wonders, the band has had to do some terrible things to make ends meet. I'm sure she's not proud of it, but on the 2007-2008 Hannah Montana tour, Kay Hanley sang back up for Miley Cyrus.

I know, I know. Take a moment. Pull it together. Now, let's move on.

Lucky for us (and for them, it would seem), in September 2008, the band announced their reunion, which kicked off with a series of shows that will continue May 20, 2009, starting with a free show in New Orleans and continuing into Texas. In 2008, the band also released an odds and sods collection, When Did We Do That? Find more info at their Myspace and official site.

Here's the band playing at a Boston club last December, with the band sounding as good as ever and, of course, Hanley looking as cute as ever. Even the evils of Miley Cyrus can't take down this sprightly woman.


Download: Letters to Cleo - Here and Now
Download: Letters to Cleo - Awake
Download: Letters to Cleo - I Want You to Want Me (Cheap Trick cover)

The Cardigans

One-hit wonders come in so many forms. For some, it's the only decent song they ever wrote. For others, it's just the only one that hit big.

But for a band like the Cardigans, it's a different story. The Cardigans are a Swedish band who have been making music since 1992, and have had continual success before and after their big U.S. hit "Lovefool" in the UK and other non-English speaking European countries like Sweden, France, Norway and Germany. We in the U.S. usually measure the success of a band by how big they are in our country, which is hard not to do when you see that, for instance, '80s rockers Night Ranger sell out stadiums in Japan. But that line of thinking causes us to miss out on a lot of great music.

The Cardigans came together when two heavy metal musicians, Peter Svensson and Magnus Sveningsson decided to record a pop demo with singer Nina Persson--who, with her petite frame and steely blue eyes, is/was one of the most beautiful women to emerge in rock n' roll since Deborah Harry. In 1994, the group released their debut, Emmerdale, and their first single "Rise & Shine," which would go on to become a hit on Swedish radio. The group followed it up with Life, which sold over a million copies worldwide and went platinum...in Japan.

Around this time, U.S. labels began to take notice of the international sensation that The Cardigans had become. The group signed to Mercury Records and released 1996's The First Band on the Moon. Persson's lyrics delved into darker places than their previous recordings, dealing with heartbreak and infidelity. Thanks in part to the first single "Lovefool," the album went platinum in Japan in record breaking time and achieved gold status in the U.S.

"Lovefool" is a feather-light pop ditty with a melody and beat so catchy, it has since been used to comedic effect as the prototypical song that can get stuck in your head after uttering only a few lines of its bubblegum chorus (see The Office (US) Season 3, "The Initiation"). Love me, love me, say that you love me...See? it's stuck in your head already.

The song's success was buoyed by its appearence on the highly successful William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet soundtrack. And like so many other one-hit wonders of the '90s, the band appeared on Beverly Hills 90210, all but cementing their status as one-hit wonders.

The song also birthed two different videos--a disturbingly funny and sexual one for European audiences and a more cartoony, MTV friendly one for U.S. audiences. The European version features a group of men (who I assume are the male members of the band) entering a warehouse that turns out to be a brothel offering sometimes garishly made up middle aged prostitutes. The men all look extremely bored as the hookers grind in their face. Off to the side, the video cuts between one of the men is listening to a tape made by Nina Persson, and Persson herself recording the tape (which is made up of the lyrics). At the end of the tape, the man appears to be crying while one of the hookers grinds on him, that is until Persson enters the brothel and the two are reunited at last. It's as weird as it sounds, and probably weirder. This one is superior for many reasons, not the least of which is that Nina Persson looks like some beautiful Nordic pixie goddess that will have you scrambling on Priceline for a ticket to Sweden (not that she looks bad in the U.S. version, but there's just something about her in this one...).


The second one is the one you always saw on TV if you live in America, the band stuck in a bottle that was passed out to sea by a castaway. This one was often shown with clips from Romeo + Juliet interspersed throughout.


"Lovefool" charted in practically every country on God's green goodness:
Sweden - #15
Australia - #11
Austria - #7
France - #31
Germany - #6
Latvia - #2
Switzerland - #22
UK - #21 (rerelease hit #2 in 1997)

And of course, in the U.S. it was #1 on the Billboards with a bullet. And when a band has known that high a level of international fame, it's nearly impossible to follow up--but as usual, they tried.

"Been It" was the follow up single. And what can you say? It's far more in line with the rest of the album and the band's other material than the lite-pop of "Lovefool." It's a beautifully catchy pop-rock song, though admittedly, it isn't as immediately toothache inducing as the hit. It's a little more rockin' (okay a lot more rockin', with a pretty sweet little riff to boot), a little less poppy and the lyrics couldn't have helped:

I've been your mother, I've been your father
who can ask for more
I've been your sister, I've been your mistress
maybe I was your whore
who can ask for more

Not the stuff pop hits are usually made of, Nina.

"Been It" only reached #72 on the Billboards U.S. and #56 in the UK . This is one of those things where there's seemingly no rhyme or reason to it, except that the song was so overplayed at the time that people came to associate The Cardigans with "Lovefool" and only "Lovefool." It was the last Cardigans single to chart on the Hot 100 in the U.S.


No matter though, the band went on to make great music and experienced continued success in Britain, Japan and other countries outside the U.S. (they've charted nearly a dozen times in the UK since "Lovefool"). Their follow up album, 1998's Gran Turismo, outsold First Band on the Moon by a half a million copies, though it only made it to #151 in the US. The album did birth one hit on the Modern Rock charts, "My Favourite game" hit #16 after being included on the video game also titled Gran Turismo. The controversial video didn't hurt either.


That album also features one of the band's best songs, a deep cut introduced to me by a friend on a mixtape--"Junk of the Hearts," an absolutely gorgeous country-ish love song with some lovely pedal steel work and some great rock flourishes.

The Cardigans have released two albums in recent years, 2003's Long Gone Before Daylight and 2005's Super Extra Gravity. While the album sales aren't what they used to be (note: the drop in sales correlates directly to the bands decision to stop including Black Sabbath covers on each album; coincidence, I think not), the band hasn't called it quits just yet. They're currently on hiatus, though there are plans to reunite. And in the meantime, Nina Persson has released two albums with her husband, ex-Shudder to Think member Nathan Larson under the name A Camp. Their new album, Colonia, is to be released February 2, 2009. Persson is currently touring in support of the album.

In 2008, a 2-disc Best Of compilation released in Europe cemented their status as international superstars. Appropriately enough, there are no plans to release the album in the U.S., though it can be purchased as an import. U.S. listeners owe it to themselves to give The Cardigans a chance; they really are better than your average pop band.

Oh, and Nina Persson is still gorgeous.


THE FIRST SINGLE: B+
THE SECOND SINGLE: A-

Download: The Cardigans - Lovefool
Download: The Cardigans - Been It

BONUS Download: The Cardigans - Junk of the Hearts

Buy Cardigans stuff!