Say what you want about her authenticity (whatever that means), her name, her lips, or how, by her own admission, her “pussy tastes like Pepsi,” love her or hater, she is coming to the Skyline Stage @ The Mann Center on May 11th. Resistance is futile. Tickets go on-sale Friday, March 14 at 10am via Ticketmaster.com, 800.745.3000, AEGLive.com, MannCenter.org, or the Mann box office.
PHAWKER: Tell me something nobody knows about Lana Del Rey. Why do you think she is such a polarizing figure?
WOODKID: You’re definitely fishing for the bold headline of this interview!?Lana has an incredible knowledge in cinema, she knows her classics and references them in a pretty precise way; it’s not just random tumblr ideas. I think she is polarizing first of all because she is a woman, but also because she is making beautiful ‘indie’ music but gets ‘mainstream’ success. I don’t really like these words though. As an artist, this frontier is the best place to be, I guess, but living on frontiers is not the most stable and comfortable position to be in. There is something sacrificial about evolving between two worlds. She also plays a lot with the character she created through her life and knows how to play with this ambiguity. I know she hates this buzz around her and doesn’t want to generate this passion around her. MORE
SPIN: This could be the cover Lana Del Rey was meant to sing. The 1959 Disney animated film Sleeping Beauty features “Once Upon a Dream,” an orchestral ballad with a slightly creepy undertone — the two lovers met in a dream? — and a fluttery-voiced throwback heroine. And now it turns out the Tropico star recorded her own take for Angelina Jolie-led Sleeping Beauty villain’s-perspective update Maleficent. Can’t you just hear her acting out the oh-so-innocent intro: “You know, I’m really not supposed to speak to strangers…”? […] Del Rey has an album on the way, though little is known about it besides its A Clockwork Orange-referencing title, Ultraviolence (or Ultra Violence, or Ultra-Violence — little is known!). MORE
PREVIOUSLY: Say what you want about her authenticity (whatever that means), her name, her lips, or how, by her own admission, her “pussy tastes like Pepsi,” this is a soulful and suitably respectful bow before the altar of one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th Century. For the record, that was Janis Joplin “giving [him] head in an unmade bed while the limousines wait in the street.” MORE
PREVIOUSLY: Probably the greatest Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra cover of all time,’ was my first reaction. And my second. And my seventh, etc. More a love letter than a cover song, actually. Outclasses the original in every category but originality, but then again originality is vastly overrated. Dig the retro 60?s home movie filtering and the chill Pacific at twilight vibe, too. Haters gonna hate. F*ck ‘em, more for us. MORE
PREVIOUSLY: Tropico
PREVIOUSLY: California Dreamin’