Mann attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but dropped out to sing with her first punk rock band, the Young Snakes; the band released the EP Bark Along with the Young Snakes in 1982, and a compilation album was issued in 2004. In 1983, seeking a return to "sweetness and melody", she co-founded with Berklee classmate and boyfriend Michael Hausman the new wave band 'Til Tuesday, which achieved minor success in 1985 with its first album, Voices Carry. The title song is said to be inspired by Hausman and Mann's breakup; the video became an MTV staple, winning the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist, though Mann's signature spiky hair would lead some to dismiss the group. Mann performed with the rock band Rush on the song "Time Stand Still" (from Hold Your Fire, 1987), singing backup vocals and appearing in the music video. With Mann playing an increasingly important role in songwriting, 'Til Tuesday released two more albums, Welcome Home and Everything's Different Now. On the final album and tour, musician Jon Brion joined the band, which broke up in 1990 when Mann left to start her solo career.
Around the time of the first album's release, Mann began a romantic relationship with Jules Shear; they broke up before the final 'Til Tuesday album, which contained the song "J For Jules". Professional relationships from the band would continue: Hausman later became Mann's manager, and Brion produced her first two solo albums.
Solo career
In 1993, Mann released Whatever, her first solo album. Promotion suffered due to the collapse of her label, Imago. While only a small hit, the album was critically praised, and paved the way for her next release, 1995's I'm with Stupid, through Geffen Records. Again, reviews were positive, but sales were weak.
Mann had met musician Michael Penn in the 1980s and with comparable songwriting styles and record-industry woes to share, they struck up a friendship during the recording of Stupid, which blossomed into romance and their 1997 marriage. Around this time Brion produced her album Bachelor No. 2, but Geffen saw no hit singles in the material and ordered her back to the studio. The album languished while Mann and the label fought.
Meanwhile, iconoclastic film auteur Paul Thomas Anderson, for whom Penn and Brion had composed a soundtrack, became a close friend. Mann gained greater public recognition in 1999 — indeed, more than anything else since "Voices Carry" — when she contributed eight songs to the soundtrack of Anderson's Magnolia, including the Academy Award-nominated song, "Save Me". Anderson deliberately worked from Mann's lyrics to create the film's characters and situations. Due to this exposure, Mann became sought after to contribute to soundtracks, a success made ironic by the music industry's indifference.
Independence
Fed up with both ineffectual promotion and artistic meddling by her record label, an experience documented in her song "Calling It Quits", she struck out on her own and founded SuperEgo Records in 1999. Mann self-released Bachelor No. 2 in 2000 (see 2000 in music), having negotiated a contract release from Geffen, and though initially only sold at concerts and via her website, the album became successful, allowing her to secure retail distribution through SuperEgo. The album, which included some songs from Magnolia and new material, was widely admired and Mann's "more indie than indie" success was carefully noted by other musicians.
Mann, Penn, Brion, Fiona Apple, and other musicians had by this time developed a subculture around the Largo nightclub in L.A. Penn and Mann formed a concept called Acoustic Vaudeville to recreate it on tour in California and eventually on an irregular, ongoing national tour. The Acoustic Vaudeville shows intermix music and stand-up comedy; among the comedians joining them for individual shows were Janeane Garofalo, Patton Oswalt, and David Cross.
Aimee continued her solo career with Lost in Space (2002), a somewhat more sombre album in the same vein as Bachelor No. 2. In 2004 her website released the Lost in Space Special Edition, which featured a second disc containing six live recordings, as well two B-sides and two previously unreleased songs. In November of that year Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, a live album and DVD recorded at a series of July 2004 shows in Brooklyn, came out; the two discs were sold packaged together in either a CD jewel case or a DVD case.
Mann described her next album, The Forgotten Arm (2005) as a concept album set in the '70s about two lovers who meet at the Virginia state fair and are now on the run. The Joe Henry-produced album, which was recorded mostly live and has few overdubs, was released May 3, 2005. The album reflects Mann's interest in boxing in its illustrations as well as its title, derived from a boxing move in which one arm is used to hit the opponent, causing him to "forget" about the other arm, which is then used to deliver a harsher blow. The album received weaker reviews overall, with critics impressed at the totality but unimpressed with any individual songs.
In October 2006 Aimee released 'One More Drifter in The Snow', an album of Christmas songs. All bar one of the songs, 'Calling on Mary' were covers of holiday classics.
Mann's independence from the industry led her to more explicit political stances. She joined Artists Against Piracy, a group formed to act against the illegal downloading and file sharing of copyrighted music from the Internet. Mann, Penn and Hausman took their experience with SuperEgo to found the independent music collective United Musicians, which is based on the principle that every artist should be able to retain copyright ownership of the work he or she has created, in contrast to normal music industry contracts.
June 2008 brought the release of '@#%&*! Smilers,' a collection of songs featuring greater use of keyboards. Aimee's set at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in the same month featured a number of selections from the new album as well as a number of her concert standards. Aimee and her band covered Elton John's 'My Father's Gun' as part of the set.
It's Not
Aimee Mann Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
A wire travels underground to a vacant lot.
Where something I can't see interrupts the current.
And shrinks the picture down to a tiny dot.
And from behind the screen, it can look so perfect.
But it's not.
So here I'm sitting in my car at the same old stop light.
So red turns into green, turning into yellow.
But I'm just frozen here on the same old spot.
And all I have to do is press the pedal.
But I'm not. No I'm not.
Well people are tricky,
You can't afford to show,
Anything risky, anything they don't know.
The moment you try, well kiss it goodbye.
So baby kiss me like a drug, like a respirator.
And let me fall into the dream of the astronaut.
Where I get lost in space that goes on forever.
And you make all the rest just an after thought.
And I believe it's you who could make it better.
But it's not. No it's not
In "It's Not," Aimee Mann explores the feeling of being stuck in a cycle, unable to break free and make a change. The first verse compares this feeling to a wire traveling underground, with something unknown interrupting the current and shrinking the picture down to a tiny dot. While from behind the screen, the situation may look perfect, in reality, it is not.
The second verse takes place at a stoplight, where the singer is waiting for a change, but they don't know what that change should be. The stoplight turns from red to green to yellow, but they are still frozen in the same old spot, unable to press the pedal and move forward. Mann suggests that people are tricky and that one cannot afford to reveal anything risky or unknown, as it will be immediately rejected.
In the final verse, Mann's protagonist longs to escape from the cycle and be lost in space like an astronaut, with her partner as her guiding force. She believes that her partner could make things better, but ultimately, it is not up to them. The song's overall message seems to be that we often feel stuck and unable to make changes in our lives, and while we may look to external sources for solutions, ultimately we are the only ones who can break the cycle and move forward.
Line by Line Meaning
I keep going round and round on the same old circuit.
I feel like I'm stuck in a cycle of repeating the same actions again and again.
A wire travels underground to a vacant lot.
An unseen force affects my life and interrupts my plans without my knowledge.
Where something I can't see interrupts the current.
I know that something is wrong, but I can't quite put my finger on it because it's not visible to me.
And shrinks the picture down to a tiny dot.
It feels like my problems are overwhelming me and causing me to focus on one small aspect instead of the bigger picture.
And from behind the screen, it can look so perfect.
When I'm looking at my life from an outside perspective, it may appear to be perfect or put together, but that's not the reality.
But it's not.
The reality is that my life is not as perfect as it may seem on the surface.
So here I'm sitting in my car at the same old stop light.
I feel like I'm stuck in one place and unable to move forward in my life.
I keep waiting for a change, but I don't know what.
I want something to be different, but I'm not sure what needs to change in order for that to happen.
So red turns into green, turning into yellow.
Time keeps passing, but I'm not taking any action to change my situation.
But I'm just frozen here on the same old spot.
I feel like I'm stuck and can't move forward in my life, despite wanting to.
And all I have to do is press the pedal.
There are steps I could take to change my situation, but I'm not taking action.
But I'm not.
Despite knowing what I should do, I'm not taking action to change my situation.
Well people are tricky,
People are complicated and not always easy to understand or predict.
You can't afford to show,
It's not always safe to express your true feelings or intentions, especially when dealing with complex and unpredictable people.
Anything risky, anything they don't know.
When dealing with other people, it's best to avoid behaving in a way that could be interpreted as risky or unknown.
The moment you try, well kiss it goodbye.
If you make a move that is deemed risky or unknown, you risk losing everything you worked hard for.
So baby kiss me like a drug, like a respirator.
I want my partner to make me feel alive and give me a reason to keep going.
And let me fall into the dream of the astronaut.
I want to escape my current reality and experience something new and exciting that feels out of this world.
Where I get lost in space that goes on forever.
I want to get lost in a new and exciting experience that feels like it could go on forever.
And you make all the rest just an after thought.
When I'm with my partner, everything else in my life fades into the background and becomes less important.
And I believe it's you who could make it better.
I believe that my relationship has the potential to make my life better and help me escape my current cycle.
But it's not. No it's not.
Unfortunately, my relationship is not enough to fix all of the problems in my life and help me escape the cycle I feel stuck in.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA/AMCOS
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