Corook

One Liner:  Fascinating - incredibly sad, hilariously funny - and damn weird alt pop

Wikipedia Genre:  Alternative pop, indie pop, pop rock

Home: Nashville

Poster Position: 5 (24)
Weekend Two Only.
Sunday at 1:30

Thoughts:  First impression is that this is based on that Kimya Dawson/Moldy Peaches group who had several songs on the Juno Soundtrack.  Remember the Juno Soundtrack?  Kinda cutesy, oddball, goofy little tunes.  Well, her top streamer (by a lot), which is likely some dumbass TikTok thing where you act like a fish for the camera or something, is "if I were a fish" with 13.4 million streams.

Their voices sound really good together.  "why's everybody on the Internet so mean?  Woohoo!"  Silly stuff, but also I like the idea of the sock being happier in a pair.  But I think it is great!  Totally weird artist for other reasons though as well, being that you get super oddball songs like that one, or "Snakes," followed up with a deeply lovely and super personal song like "i'm not doing well."  Such a sad tune.  Which makes it even stranger to have her also doing goofball stuff.  "it's ok!" is another that is wild - goofy-sounding, but also stepping through her experience as she spirals into anxiety, and then self-soothing herself.  Never heard anything like it.  And then "CGI" sounds funky and more like a normal pop banger.  And a "Stacy's Mom" cover that is earnest and kind of lovely.  Just all over the place here.

That "i'm not doing well" song just came on again, and it reminded me of the amazing part of that Shrinking show.  Have you seen this show?  There is an amazing part that I randomly quote with some regularity where the main character is riding his bike, bawling his eyes out, listening to Phoebe Bridgers, and yells out "fuck you Phoebe Bridgers!" as he forces himself to suffer.

Well, that is what I feel when I listen to "i'm not doing well."

Found the Wikipedia, and I was correct that they were viral for those two songs - "it's ok!" and "if i were a fish."  They grew up in Pittsburg, but ended up at the Berklee College of Music studying songwriting and contemporary writing and production.  Their real name is Corinne Savage, and the stage name apparently came from their girlfriend jokingly nicknaming them "Corook Skoovage," which honestly doesn't make much sense.  Apparently, the fish song took off on TikTok before Corook had ever released any music at all.  After that blew up, they released the full single via Atlantic Records, and it did really well.  Since then, 2022's EP achoo!, 2022's best of corook (so far), and 2023's serious person (part 1) have been released along with many singles.  The second-most streamed tune is "it's ok!," wo we'll do that one next.

You hear that Kimya Dawson cadence there?  And a good message as well.  We do all feel kinda weird somedays.  I also want to give you "snakes" just because it is freaking funny.

If that doesn't make you laugh then you need to relax a little in life.  Goofy and awesome.

I don't expect to be at the Fest on second Sunday at 1:30, but if I were, this could be worth it just for the funny parts.