wears the trousers magazine

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Fursaxa
Kobold Moon •••
Sylph 

Sharron Kraus
The Fox’s Wedding ••••
Durtro/Jnana 

Tau Emerald
Travellers Two •••½
Important

I have no doubt at all that you, dear reader, are looking at that triple header with a smile on your face, gasping at the sheer audacity and grinning at ambition that isn’t just naked, it’s naked with balloons tied to its rude bits and sprinting across the Lord’s turf while being projected onto the side of the Houses of Parliament at state opening, buttocks streaming through the windows and glinting off the Queen’s crown, blinding the mindless puppets pretending to run the country…what’s that? The screens? Of course, nurse, sorry about that.

Connections and collaborations, interactions and entanglements: Fursaxa is Tara Burke and she and Sharron Kraus are Tau Emerald, hence today’s three-way tag tussle. Fursaxa produce what might be best described as folk music, albeit of a distinctly dark and eerie vein, while Kraus - not to be confused with bluegrass heroine Alison - purveys creepy, moonlit music that falls most easily into the folk category. So dark folk + folky darkness = the bleeding obvious? Well, let’s see.

Substrates first. The Fursaxa album follows fairly hot on the heels of last year’s Alone In The Dark Wood, a record which, like this one, saw Burke largely forego lengthy explorations of her craft in favour of more concise statements. Followers may or may not be relieved to hear that she hasn’t chosen to revise her MO, either: Kobold Moon is stacked to the gills with Fursaxa’s layered, wordless vocal chants, underpinned by rattling percussion and minimal instrumentation. While this approach is always spookily evocative of arboreal rituals being enacted in some nameless otherworld, there’s not much new here.

There’s an occasional Eastern drift, such that songs like ‘Kokopelli’ or ‘Nakondisi’ evoke a lo-fi Dead Can Dance; ‘Saxalainen’ pits a backwards vocal against a cavernous organ drone and is unsettling even for Fursaxa; and ‘Song Of The Spindle Berry’ sounds like the narcotized murmurings of Beauty before her fall into oblivion. Oddly, a vocal loop from ‘…Berry’ reappears on the closing ‘Cornus Of Florida’, which is too redolent of a kid testing echoes at the mouth of a cave to be truly successful. Especially as it lasts for 12 minutes.

Compared with Kobold Moon’s abstractions, The Fox’s Wedding is a comfortable cloth woven from familiar material. Kraus employs traditional folk instruments - flute, mandolin, guitar, piano and the like - and her clear British tones to produce music of a distinctly more pastoral nature than Burke’s, albeit with a constant undercurrent of unease. The album gets off to a flying start with ‘Brigid’, a tale of winter’s warming into spring that continues the Nature imagery of the album’s title with a population of gliding swans and galloping white horses. After ‘Green Man’ - “Everything you touch blooms, and everything touches you” - it’s becoming clear that Kraus may well be something of a hippy.

But while folk music certainly isn’t short of a flower maiden or twenty, Kraus sets herself apart by making truly lovely music: the aforementioned duo and ‘In The Middle Of Summer’ are clear and tuneful as a mountain stream, sparse and near-perfect in their instrumental settings of her crystalline voice. Fortunately, the rest of the album largely maintains the same standard, with only an occasional hey nonny nonnyness - ‘Robin Is Dead’, for example - to put off the casual listener. Really, though, a casual listen would be an injustice for an album of such depth, craft and poetry: The Fox’s Wedding deserves, and will repay, your undivided attention. Good work, that hippy!

So, what could we possibly expect to be formed in the creative crucible of two such singular talents? To be fair, it probably wasn’t this. And confounding expectations is all very well, but when an album’s title track opens proceedings with rudimentary recorder playing and ramshackle harmonising straight out of school band practice, the shoulders do start to tense a little. They relax toward the end of the song as vocal overdubs and accordion swells expand the sound to completion, and the minimal ‘Evening Wings’ - nothing more than a two-chord strum from one Traveller, a fractured string melody from the other, and distant, buried gongs - conjures up a wordless stillness of its own. ‘Stoikite’ simply shimmers, and ‘Barrowlands’ is an escalating pixie dance at midnight.

It’s quickly apparent that Burke and Kraus are trying something new here: there are very few vocals for a start, and neither the almost pointillist perfection of Kraus’s musical landscape nor the grimy drones that are Burke’s trademark make an appearance. Instead, Travellers Two trades in what may best be termed sound pictures, which are occasionally reminiscent of No Neck Blues Band in their obliqueness. ‘Full Moon’ is suitably silvered, and ‘Henbane’ is a chant to accompany tossing diced frog into a bubbling cauldron; ‘Water Divining’ is oddly motionless and, yes, liquid; while Google informs me that ‘Bani Caapi’ is the Latin name for ayahuasca, which again is fairly appropriate for the fevered sounds within. A brave departure for both artists, then, and while not entirely successful, it’s a collaboration that should definitely be repeated.

Adam Smith
UK release dates: 17/03/08 (F) 10/03/08 (SK) 21/01/08 (TT) 

Russian Red
I Love Your Glasses ••••½
Eureka/PIAS

Little is known outside of her native Spain of Lourdes Hernández. With the recent release of her debut album I Love Your Glasses on Spanish label Eureka Records, that is likely to change. Choosing (quite astutely) to sing in English, the songstress who performs under the moniker Russian Red has drawn comparisons with Joanna Newsom and Feist, among others, and it will be a wonder if she isn’t pulled in to be the next voice of car and iPod commercials across the globe.

There is a rich goldmine of music here, filled out by an exquisitely haunting voice and crafty musicianship. Starting the album is ‘Cigarettes’, a quietly strummed acoustic number that could easily have come from any folk singer over the last 30 years, until the vocals kick in that is. Sung with a lilting vocal reminiscent of Dolly Parton circa ‘Jolene’, ‘Cigarettes’ generates a sense of regret and nostalgia that makes it difficult to believe Hernández is only 22 years old.

Just as you are getting comfortable with the guitar ballads, she throws a pop song curveball with first single, ‘They Don’t Believe’. Plucked right from the musical lexicon of artists such as Regina Spektor, Hernández sings with an upbeat fervour, complete with staccato snare drums and harmonising vocals that make you want to jump up and dance. Ah, but the musical surprises don’t stop there. The desperate howling of ‘Hold It Inside’ hints at the angst and vocal prowess of Boys For Pele-era Tori Amos, and a subject matter to match.

Elsewhere, ‘Kiss My Elbow’ and ‘Take Me Home’ push the steel guitar folk boundaries into the twangy smoky barrooms and jazz clubs frequented by the likes of Neko Case and Hem’s Sally Ellyson. Yet Hernández is comfortable in all of these genres, effortlessly switching instruments and sounding completely at ease. Even in the album closer, a slow acoustic cover of ’80s classic ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’, she takes a song so a part of musical history and manages to spin it in a new light, weaving new meaning into Cyndi Lauper’s lyrics.

For all its charms, I Love Your Glasses has minor flaws. Some of the songs beckon you in…and then end far too quickly. ‘Gone, Play On’, distressingly short at just over two minutes, is a prime example. By the end, when her voice echoes, the music long gone, you expect it to rise up and take over again, only to have the next song rush in to take its place. Also, although undeniably a wise marketing move to sing in English, Hernández often slurs her words, making them unclear and difficult to grasp. Despite this, however, Russian Red’s delicate emoting and passion overcome these flaws, making I Love Your Glasses a must.

Loria Near
UK release date: 28/06/08 (digital)

‘They Don’t Believe’

‘Just Like A Wall’

live performance of ‘Cigarettes’

Tori Amos will be conducting a live video webchat on her website on July 23rd, ahead of the release of ‘Comic Book Tattoo’, a 400-page anthology of comic strips based on writers’ and artists’ interpretations of her lyrics. The chat starts at 4pm PST, which is 8am UK time. Tori is currently in California promoting the anthology with an appearance at this year’s Comic-Con. Read all about ‘Comic Book Tattoo’ over at Spinner.

* * *

Regina Spektor has recorded a duet with piano man Ben Folds who releases his new album, Way To Normal, on September 29th. The song, ‘You Don’t Know Me’ will be the album’s first single so we can expect to hear it soon! Folds, of course, has recently worked with Dresden Dolls singer Amanda Palmer, producing her debut solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer?, out September 15th.

* * *

In other duet news, Lancashire’s finest export Nancy Elizabeth guests on the upcoming James Yorkston album, When The Haar Rolls In, released on September 1st. Nancy and James duet on the song, ‘Tortoise Regrets Hare’, a gently rolling allegory for a love gone wrong. It’s the first new material from Nancy Elizabeth since last year’s gorgeous debut album Battle & Victory.

* * *

The $550,000 indecency fine levied against the US television network that broadcast Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction” at the 2004 Super Bowl has been overturned, with the US Court of Appeal saying that the Federal Communications Commission “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” in their litigation. Clearly, the whole thing should have been nipped in the bud.

* * *

Goldfrapp become the latest act to release an iTunes Originals session on August 12th. The 25-track set includes album songs, interviews and new recordings of ‘Paper Bag’, ‘Strict Machine’, ‘You Never Know’, ‘Ooh La La’, ‘Eat Yourself’, ‘Road To Somewhere’ and ‘Little Bird’.

* * *

The tracklist for the previously reported Sarah McLachlan greatest hits collection has been revealed. It now has a name, too, and that is Closer. The two new songs are called ‘Don’t Give Up On Us’ and the uncharacteristically titled ‘U Want Me 2 Don’t U’. The album is currently scheduled for release on October 6th.

* * *

Some videos we’ve been enjoying this week:

Róisín Murphy camping it up with ‘Movie Star’…

‘Movie Star’ was supposed to be out this week but hasn’t surfaced anywhere we know of.

* * *

Ida Maria performing an acoustic version of ‘I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked’…

Ida Maria releases her debut album Fortress Round My Heart on September 29th with an in-store performance at London’s only surviving Fopp store in Covent Garden the same day. 

* * *

An old clip of Marianne Faithfull singing ‘As Time Goes By’…

Marianne Faithfull’s Live At The BBC was released last week.

* * *

Alan Pedder

Leni Ward
Body ••••
Tunica Adventitia

Turning the tables on the critical faculty, Leni Ward has unknowingly set Wears The Trousers a challenge: to appraise her album Body without imposing the shackles of comparison. You see, Ms Ward is keeping a public tally on her website of artists she is likened to. Currently in the lead is…oh wait, I can’t say. That might count. This is going to be tough.

That Body has merits enough to sprint towards the word count without dropping names is something of a relief. Ah, but wait, the first song seems to be about Madonna, the Madonna! No getting around that. “Mary had a baby and doomed the world” must rank up there with the Pope’s least favourite opening salvos, but it’s certainly effective in securing the listener’s attention. But the range of Ward’s barb outstretches faith alone; her question is whether the great women of religion and mythology are great only through their ability to act as progenitors of even greater men - as she rightly points out, it’s not like Mary was given a choice in the matter - and whether a woman who chooses to go against the female’s basic biological purpose is valid in the eyes of others.

Body, then, is a concept album of sorts. Our individual anatomy can be our temple, our obsession, our persecutor, our prison, both enemy and friend in our daily conflict against extinction. Ward’s turbulent relationship with her own mortal form has been going on for a little over 23 years now, many of which were spent struggling to come to terms with a mystery childhood illness. This is most transparently chronicled in ‘Can’t Be, Won’t Be’, an appealing mix of harsh beats, piano and strings both plucked and bowed that phase in and out beneath Ward’s plaintive singing. The disturbing reference to beetles eating her face aside - nightmares were a side effect of the medications she was on - this is Body’s most accessible moment, distilling the album’s imaginative use of the organic and the inorganic into a satisfying standout.

The injustice of our physicality often engenders an externalised rage, and Ward doesn’t shy away from those feelings either. As ‘Mary’ fades she switches archetypes, to the Dark Mother from the Divine, for the oppressive, rumbling ‘Burn’, a clear and present threat to a female adversary. But it’s not all bleak. Even love gets a look in on ‘Blank Space’. Sort of. In a biological way. Leni calls it “the epiphany of blood”, recognising again a lack of choice, this time over who and what we find ourselves attracted to. It’s these internal wrangles that Ward excels at, and ultimately Body’s finest moments come with her claustrophobic analyses of major depression. If ‘Heroism’ seems to be contemplative of suicide (”If I dived into this, I would have said it all”), the emotionally charged ‘These Are My Catechisms’ outright dismisses the notion. Music alone is worth being alive for.

The most impressive of Body’s several impressive facets is that Ward wrote, played and engineered everything herself, showing multi-instrumental prowess even on less common instruments like the array mbira. Given how lushly orchestrated, atmospheric (alright, occasionally downright creepy) and professional sounding the outcome, her talent is not in short supply. A world - if not several galaxies - away from the acoustic demo she sent us in 2005, Body sinks its wind-up teeth into the complexities and the underbelly of what it means to be a woman, to be human, both honoured and doomed to be corporeal.

And as for those pesky comparisons, well, only the naggingly familiar digitally altered a cappella of ‘These Are My Catechisms’ really insists upon it. But I’ll play your game, Leni. Hide and seek is fun.

Alan Pedder
UK release date: 04/08/08

‘My Heart’

‘Can’t Be, Won’t Be’

The Subways
All Or Nothing ••••
Infectious

The Subways’ ascent from playing the back rooms of pubs to firing up stadiums was a swift escalation, boosted by a whirlwind of media buzz and the golden hand of Michael Eavis who raised the band’s profile through the Glastonbury Festival Unsigned Performers competition. Not bad for two teenage brothers and a girlfriend, and all this before an album.

The 2005 Ian Broudie-produced debut Young For Eternity did nothing to slow down or dispel the hype, and it wasn’t long before the band were featured on ‘The OC’ and reaching high in the mainstream charts. The fresh, raw punk-pop of their debut is so catchy, so perfectly formed and energy-filled that expectations for a follow-up must have been a huge pressure. And, indeed, the band had a lot to contend with during the making of All Or Nothing. Billy Lunn suffered nodules on his vocal cords requiring surgery and a four-month rehabilitation period, and he and co-vocalist/bassist Charlotte Cooper broke off their five-year relationship. For the band to even survive at all was a miracle, and so All Or Nothing became an apt title for their make-or-break sophomore effort.

Happily, The Subways seem to have weathered it all magnificently, and the album barely seems to reflect the bad times. In fact, it is as positive, fresh and powerful as its predecessor, while simultaneously displaying a new level of maturity. And proven success means bigger record label financing – this time around the band were dispatched to California to record with producer Butch Vig, whose style perfectly complements the heavy rock guitar sounds and melodic vocals. 

The aggressive first single ‘Girls & Boys’ is an excellent choice to announce without hesitation that the trio have not softened in the three years between albums. Subtlety and posturing isn’t the order of the day, thankfully, and tracks like ‘Shake! Shake!’ honestly embrace a great pop sound, while ‘Obsession’ is a genuinely emotional post-breakup song without pretence.

Whether the sound is rocky (‘I Won’t Let You Down’), upbeat and poppy (‘Kalifornia’) or heartfelt (‘Strawberry Blonde’), the one thing all the tracks have in common is passion. The Subways really mean what they are doing, and that this sense remains despite what they’ve been through is a testament to how important the band and music is to them. Their return is just what the music scene needs: confidence without swagger, maturity with a garage ethos, and a genuine passion for life.

Stephanie Heney
UK release date: 30/06/08

‘Girls & Boys’

in today’s trouser press:

- Ani’s new album makes 20
- China still mad at Björk
- Karen O unveils new side project
- Bebo soap opera to star Amy Winehouse and Girls Aloud?
- new album from Land Of Talk in October
- another tribute to The Cure on the way 

* * *

If your life is in need of a righteous shot in the arm, perk up, Ani’s back! And she’s gone all funky again! The wee workaholic releases her latest album – her 20th since 1990 – Red Letter Year on September 29th with the promise of much exuberance and cheer. After opening with a double helping of political rallying to get her into her stride, DiFranco inevitably has more personal matters to attend to with songs like ‘Present/Infant’ and ‘Landing Gear’ referring to her young daughter. ‘Way Tight’, a staple of recent live shows, also makes an appearance, as do horns, synths, piano and strings (possibly not all on the same song). Ani comes to Europe at the end of October.

Red Letter Year
01 Red Letter Year
02 Alla This
03 Present/Infant
04 Smiling Underneath
05 Way Tight
06 Emancipated Minor
07 Good Luck
08 The Atom
09 Round A Pole
10 Landing Gear
11 Star Matter
12 Red Letter Year (reprise) 

* * *

Making the Dixie Chicks backlash look like a playground spat, the Björk vs. The People’s Republic of China uproar that happened in March has taken a dramatic twist with the Chinese Ministry of Culture imposing tough new restrictions on foreign performers. Reuters report that a statement on the Ministry’s website effectively warns that any outburst that threatens China’s sovereignty will result in the culprit being slapped with an outright ban from performing in the country. Firmer still, anyone known to have engaged in such activities in the past is unlikely to be allowed to cross Chinese borders. Even people who are allowed to perform will need approval for everything they do – even encores must be predetermined.

The Chinese government had threatened these drastic steps to silence would-be political protesters in the immediate aftermath of Björk’s concert in Shanghai where her brief chant of “Tibet! Tibet!” at the end of ‘Declare Independence’ was said to have “broken Chinese law and hurt Chinese people’s feelings”. She refused to apologise, saying that the song was “about humanity”. 

A passing monk had this to say: “om mani padme hum”.

* * *

From one Far Eastern country to another, Karen O has announced she is to unveil her new side project, Native Korean Rock & The Fishnets, at two intimate performances in Brooklyn on Monday. Writing on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs website, Karen describes the project as “a body of love songs written over the last two years” and is quick to dispel any doubt that this is something quite separate from both the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the so-called K.O. At Home solo demos leaked to file sharers in 2006. Hark at five of K.O.’s new songs over on Myspace. While you’re there, get wiggy with the babytoupee.com link (or just click here for literally minutes of fun).

* * *

Amy Winehouse and Girls Aloud are rumoured to be among a host of big name acts set to appear in a brand new online soap opera, ‘The Secret World Of Sam King’, that will air on social networking site Bebo. Apparently Bebo members will get to influence the plot, which has the central premise of a teenager (Sam King) secretly setting up his own record label he runs from a stationery cupboard at the offices of Universal Records. Other Universal artists set to make a cameo appearance include Razorlight and Bloc Party. As if that’s not enough of a disincentive, you’ll have to sign up to Bebo to watch it too.

* * *

Having spent what seems like forever on the road touring behind their critically acclaimed debut Applause, Cheer, Boo, Hiss, One Little Indian signings Land Of Talk will release their second album proper on October 6th. Recorded in Montreal with man-of-the-moment Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, Some Are Lakes plugs back in after last year’s acoustic detour with Lizzie Powell’s “raspy coo and vocal conviction” jostling with “roaring guitars” to bring you “a warm, bracing and assured second album”. The album will be preceded by a single of the same name.

Some Are Lakes
01 Yuppy Flu
02 Death By Fire
03 The Man Who Breaks Things (Dark Shuffle)
04 Some Are Lakes
05 Give Me Back My Heart Attack
06 It’s Okay
07 Young Bridge
08 Corner Phone
09 Got A Call
10 Troubled

* * *

A second mostly-star tribute to The Cure is being compiled by American Laundromat Records, the company who brought us the amazing High School Reunion tribute to 1980s teen flicks and the all-female Neil Young tribute Cinnamon Girl, due for release early next year. Participants look set to include Tanya Donelly, Dévics, Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, The Brunettes, The Rosebuds, The Submarines, Elizabeth Harper and Joy Zipper among many others. Donelly’s doing ‘Love Cats’! Amazing. The full current tracklist for Just Like Heaven: A Tribute To The Cure is up on the project’s Myspace page.

The equally amazing sounding Perfect As Cats tribute, featuring Bat For Lashes, Mariee Sioux, Sarabeth Tucek, Kaki King, Rio En Medio, Tara Busch and Caroline Weeks (among many many others), is released through Manimal Vinyl at the end of October. All profits will go to Invisible Children, a charity that raises awareness about child soldiers in Uganda. More info here.

Speaking of Rio En Medio, aka Danielle Stech-Homsy, her second album Frontier is released through Manimal Vinyl in September. A seven-song EP by Caroline Weeks (a member of the Bat For Lashes live band) called Songs For Edna is also forthcoming from the label.

* * *

Alan Pedder

voice on the verge #11: katy carr

listen to Katy on Myspace

With two critically lauded albums under her belt and occasional forays into writing for Wears The Trousers, to call Katy Carr a fresh discovery would be a big fib. So we won’t. But what we will say is that the depth of thought and attention to exquisite detail that has gone into the making of her upcoming concept album, set in war-torn Britain in the 1930s and ’40s, sets her even further apart from the crowd. Tapping into the inherent duality of her English-Polish heritage and the stories of her maternal grandmother, Katy embodies both the liberator and the liberated. Coquette is a fearlessly dramatic suite of songs with a very British feel that could only have come from such a unique individual. Get a taster for it tomorrow night when she appears at the Royal Opera House with her 12-piece band The Aviators as part of the annual Voices Across The World event. Here’s an entrée…

* * *

What’s your middle name(s)?
Anne

What’s your earliest memory?
Kissing my mother goodbye in the garden and her singing ‘Save Your Kisses for Me’, which was the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 1976, performed for the United Kingdom by Brotherhood Of Man.

What did you listen to when you were growing up?
I listened to Polish singers like Anna Jantar, Edyta Bartosiewicz, and 1960s music like The Beatles, Diana Ross & The Supremes and Elvis. I was also a huge fan of Chopin, Mozart and Abba.

Who was your childhood idol?
Pippi Longstocking

If you could star in any TV show, past or current, which would it be and what kind of character would you play?
I would love to be cast as Christina Parsons in the 1978 popular British television series called ‘Flambards.’ Set just before, during and after WW1 this story, a novel by KM Peyton tells how the teenaged heroine, orphaned heiress Christina Parsons, comes to live at Flambards, the impoverished Essex estate owned by her crippled and tyrannical uncle, William Russell, and his two sons, Mark and Will. She falls in love with one of her cousins and, later, with the family’s former stablelad.

What was the last good book you read and how did it affect you?
I read a book called ‘Piaf’ by David Bret about the life of Edith Piaf. What a life she had, and what a voice! A truly remarkable force of nature and one person I hugely admire both in spirit and creative perseverance. I was affected by reading this book because it reminded me how important it is for me to do my musical work in this world and persevere with singing and entertaining my audiences. Also, to carry on regardless even when you are taking a nosedive.

What is your most loved item of clothing and why is it so treasured?
I love my green 1930s/1940s tilt hat. I bought it in a vintage clothing store in central Prague over a year ago and it has accompanied me to many gigs and photoshoots. It is such a unique hat and I feel very special wearing it. I was not immediately drawn to it in the shop as it didn’t look exciting lying on the shelf, but as soon as I put it on it transformed itself and it fits like a glove!

What’s your top household tip?
A little toothpaste on the toe plate of your shoes gives that extra shine!

What did you want to be until you decided to become a musician…if you ever did ‘decide’ that is!
A fighter pilot for the Royal Air Force.

What’s the worst job you’ve ever worked and what was so bad about it?
Selling windows. The cold-calling was soul destroying.

What are your pet hates?
Red Marlboro cigarette smoke.

What’s your favourite quote?
“Never interupt someone doing something you said couldn’t be done” – Amelia Earhart

Tell us about your favourite instrument…
I could not say as my other instruments would kill me; however, a new member of my clan is Winny from Wisconsin - my 1920s banjolele. He came to me via eBay and has made a great impression so far!

Do you have an instrument you’d still like to learn? What’s stopping you?
Violin. I have my great granddad’s violin but I just can’t seem to connect with it!

If you had to pick one song from your repertoire to represent your entire body of work, which one would you choose and why?
‘Turpin’…this song is about having a sexual fantasy with a real yet mythical character from history, Dick Turpin. It is known that Turpin was in fact a terrible rogue from the 18th Century; however, the image of him riding with a long black cloak and his black horse Bess have certainly evoked many exciting ideas about his life over the years. This story is rooted in England and I love British history and being inspired to write my own music.

Which female musicians have most inspired you?
I love hearing the female voice, per se; however, my favourite ladies are those that have already passed away or in their late 80s. Edith Piaf, Marlene Dietrich, La Lupe, Billie Holiday, Dame Vera Lynn, Gracie Fields. I have to add George Formby because he is a hero of mine too as well as Al Bowlly, Flanagan and Allen, Noel Coward. 

Which artist would you most like to work with - your dream collaboration?
Scott Walker

How would you describe your new album in 10 words or less?
A sensual series of songs encompassing dark emotion, wit and humour.

What kind of person would have sex to your music?
A highly charged, sensual and erotic person.

What’s the biggest problem facing the world today and do you have any ideas on how it could be addressed?
Ignorance. Ignorance towards understanding ourselves, ignorance towards understanding the people around us, ignorance towards understanding the world at large, ignorance towards our environment and global warming. Education is the only key to create a world that creates solutions and a way in which people of the world can unite and become strong through knowledge, discourse and tolerance.

Would you rather see a ghost or simply have a piece of toast and watch the evening news?
A ghost, preferably of George Formby so I could have a sing with him on my banjolele.

If you chanced upon Aladdin’s lamp what three things would you wish for?
Good health, happiness, and a Spitfire airplane.

What have you done today to make you feel proud?
I made a rhubarb crumble.

* * *

Alan Pedder

in today’s trousers press:
- Jenny Lewis cuts loose her Acid Tongue in September
- Julie Doiron to release collaborative album with Phil Elvrum
- is Miley Cyrus a Britney in waiting?
- ‘Heroes’ actress to release an album
- Joan Osborne gets wild on new album
- Natalie Cole reveals she has Hepatitis C

* * *

After a brief return to the Rilo Kiley fold for last year’s Under The Blacklight, Jenny Lewis releases her second solo album, Acid Tongue, in September through major label Warner Bros. In place of The Watson Twins, Lewis has recruited the likes of Elvis Costello (who duets on ‘Carpetbaggers’), Zooey Deschanel and M Ward (aka She & Him), Johnathan Rice and various members of The Black Crowes, Beachwood Sparks, A Perfect Circle and Elvis Costello’s Imposters, as well as her own sister and her dad. If the quality of songs is anything like fan favourite ‘Jack Killed Mom’, Acid Tongue looks likely to be an unanticipated addition to this year’s best.

Acid Tongue
01 Black Sand
02 Pretty Bird
03 The Next Messiah
04 Bad Man’s World
05 Acid Tongue
06 See Fernando
07 Godspeed
08 Carpetbaggers
09 Trying My Best To Love You
10 Jack Killed Mom
11 Sing A Song for Them

* * *

Canadian indie-rock icon Julie Doiron has teamed up with her good friend Phil Elvrum of Mount Eerie for an off-the-cuff collaborative album due out in early October. Recorded virtually live in just a few days, Lost Wisdom comprises ten Elvrum-penned songs, mostly duets but two or three feature only Julie’s vocals. Meanwhile, Jagjagwar celebrate the tenth anniversary of Doiron’s brilliant album Loneliest In The Morning (originally released on Sub Pop) by reissuing the disc on July 21st. If you haven’t heard it, get it!

In other collaboration news, Neko Case, Cat Power and Exene Cervenka have all signed on to feature on former Flat Duo Jets frontman Dexter Romweber’s next album, as yet untitled and unrecorded, due for release in 2009.

* * *

It seems that barely a week goes by without some new Disney child star turns their tiny hands to music and now, with a nagging sense of déjà vu, we hear that Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana) has been proclaiming her intention to stay a virgin until after marriage. Added to her recent controversial photo shoot for Vanity Fair in which the 15-year old was pictured wearing just a satin sheet for modesty, not to mention the internet leak of photos allegedly taken of herself in the shower, alarm bells must be ringing for dad Billy Ray. “I like to think of myself as the girl that no one can get, that no one can keep in their hand,” says Miley. Woah. She’s out of control.

Meanwhile, former virginity fibber Britney Spears is apparently back in the studio working on the follow-up to last year’s Blackout. We’re told that “a team of top-notch producers and songwriters” are involved, but only rumours abound. These feature recent Alanis cohort Guy Sigsworth, as well as JR Rotem, Sean Garrett and Danja. Britney’s label Jive expects to release the album in early 2009.

* * *

Another actress-turned-singer you almost certainly won’t be able to ignore for the next 12 months is Hayden Panettiere, most famous for playing the role of indestructible Claire in TV series ‘Heroes’. Her debut singe, ‘Wake Up Call’ is released next month with the as-yet-untitled album following in early 2009.

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Joan Osborne has reunited with the band who helped to make her multi million-selling breakthrough Relish for her upcoming album, Little Wild One, due out in early September on Womanly Records. The dream team of Joan, Eric Bazilian, Rick Chertoff and Rob Hyman were responsible for the globe-slaying single ‘One Of Us’. You can hear the first fruit of their latest venture, ‘Hallelujah In The City’, on Osborne’s Myspace.

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Soul singer Natalie Cole has revealed she is being treated for Hepatitis C after the disease was diagnosed during a routine examination. The 58-year old, who kicked a heroin addiction in 1984, is quoted as saying “I am committed to my belief in myself and in my abiding faith to meet this challenge with a heartfelt optimism and determination. This is how I intend to deal with this current challenge in my life.”

Although doctors say she has responded well to antiviral treatment, the side effects of the drugs have been significant. Hepatitis C is often a silent disease, not becoming symptomatic until extensive damage has already been done to the liver. In 2007, Body Shop founder Dame Anita Roddick died of the infection several years after receiving a contaminated blood transfusion after childbirth.

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Alan Pedder

voice on the verge #10: jo gabriel

listen to Jo on Myspace

It’s not often Wears The Trousers only discovers an artist when they’re seven albums into their career, but better late to the party than stuck in a perpetual ditch, eh? And what a party it is! Jo Gabriel’s latest opus may stick closer to the 1970s singer-songwriter tradition in its overall tone than the gothic-tinted esoterica of previous releases, but her wonderfully mercurial voice remains the focal point, at times rivalling even the Protean raptures of early Kate Bush. Fools & Orphans is as elegantly restrained as a masked ball set in a meadow under milkwood, at dusk, most likely on the vernal equinox. Not a shrieking mandrake or unexpected clatter in earshot, just the soft footfalls of kaleidoscopic maidens gracefully dancing to sad, diaphanous melodies. Flowery, then, but gorgeously poetic, bursting with imagination and, just like its creator, a fascinating find. As soon as my eMusic subscription renews I’m downloading some more of Jo’s back catalogue – I’ve got some serious catching up to do! Meanwhile, the lady herself can fill in some of the blanks…

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What’s your earliest memory?
I can recall lying awake in my crib as an infant and still have the blissful sensory impression of how the curtains of my bedroom window puffed in and out from the calm breath of the night air. There was a perfume of a night-veiled mystery. The fragrance of the beginning of my life~ the air was rich with possibility. Even as a tiny little thing laying there, it felt so profound to me this feeling of the unexplored air moving about my room.

If you could star in any TV show, past or current, which would it be and what kind of character would you play?
I would love to be a sympathetic murderer on ‘Columbo’. Some of my most favorite episodes were where he not only liked his suspect prey but truly respected the person and the game of cat and mouse that would ensue. It would be fabulous to have the opportunity to spend time with Lieutenant Columbo trying to elude him, throw him off the scent and listen to the little tiny details that torment him like an incessant marble banging around inside his head. “Oh just one more thing!”

What was the last good book you read and how did it affect you?
‘My Cousin Rachel’ by Daphne Du Maurier. Aside from the fact that Du Maurier is one of the most descriptive and compelling storytellers, she, much like myself, had spent a good deal of her writing purging the ghost of her heart that was her muse. The unrequited love of her life, which manifested itself in many incarnations/characters throughout her work. In particular, ‘My Cousin Rachel’ really leaves you wondering if Rachel was a murderous or just a compulsive personality with a spending problem, who happened to know intimately her way around poisonous herbs. The outcome was still the same, in the end, love dies a painfully drawn out death.

And, like Daphne and myself, we’re at the mercy of the duality of love and of never truly knowing the truth or having that love fully realised. Much like my own experience. I, too, have a muse who has haunted my music through out my creative process. Also, as synchronicity would have it, reading ‘My Cousin Rachel’ coincides with having just finished Fools & Orphans which deals with many of the same themes that ‘My Cousin Rachel’ does. Madness, obsession, longing, unrequited love, that spiralling out of control feeling. 

Although I have never chosen to kill off my muse in any of my songs, I think both Du Maurier and I systematically exorcise the demons of our hearts in quite the same manner.

What is your most loved item of clothing and why is it so treasured?
My brown leather Grinder boots with the inner steel tips. I would sleep in them if I could. Oddly enough whenever I’ve chosen to walk around without them, I’ve broken my toes. I dropped a weighted keyboard on my foot a few years ago the day before my performance at Café Vivaldi in NYC and it was me’ Grinders that prevented my entire foot from being completely crushed. I only broke a few toes instead! I love them…!

What’s your tipple?
To me coffee is the nectar of the gods, but since we’re talking spirits here, I’d have to say that the Belgian beer Chimay sends me off into the ether like nothing else!

What’s your favourite quote?
“I am myself Heaven and Hell” ~ Rubyat.
We are what ever we create for ourselves after all!

What’s the biggest guilty pleasure in your record collection?
The Carpenters and plenty of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musicals!

What did you want to be until you decided to become a musician…if you ever did ‘decide’ that is!
True, I think that it had been chosen for me to follow a musical pathway, I had originally started out wanting to be an artist. I used to paint and draw very well as a child. I used to draw things so well that the drawing look like a photograph and I would often copy comic book superheroes perfectly. I would have a fortune today if I had held onto my original collection of DC and Marvel comics, instead of having systematically sold them off on my neighbourhood street corner for 25 cents a copy! But once my love of playing piano and creating music was awakened, it would eventually set free all the real passion and authentic satisfaction in my soul, and so I abandoned my art for songwriting. It’s been a very sacred avatar in my life.

What would you be if you weren’t a musician?
A professional boxer. I think boxing is a very beautiful art form~
I have a speed bag named Bertha~!

Tell us about your favourite instrument…
My very first piano, which I still have. It’s an upright Kawai. She still has the most resonant sound. My parents gave it to me on my 8th birthday, her name is Kwi and I often refer to her as my ‘dear machine’ in Italian: ‘caramacchioni’.

Do you have an instrument you’d still like to learn? What’s stopping you?
I’d love to play the harmonium. But I want to find the right one with the perfect sound. I am waiting for it to find me.

If you had to pick one song from your repertoire to represent your entire body of work, which one would you choose and why?
I consider ‘Give It Back’ to be my personal anthem of a sort~ there is a line from that song, “I am clenching both my fists, waving them to heaven”…it sums up how I am forever on my knees metaphorically looking upward at that unknown place where heaven might be, and paying reverence to the things in my life that I am blessed with, either cursed or kissed~ both have given me wisdom and my strength.

What kind of person would have sex to your music?
Well let’s see, off the top of my head I think~ belly dancers, snake charmers, Magus’s and High Priestess’ lion trainers, ghost hunters, beekeepers, sheep and goat herds, ventriloquists, aging movie starlets, fortune tellers~ sunflower farmers, hypnotists, costume designers, bread makers, heretic nuns and monks, glass blowers, painters, hookers/loomers of rugs and tapestry, puppet makers, whirling dervishes, tree huggers, method actors, volcanologists (they call it the “eye of the furnace”, love that!), moon and star gazers, people who were raised by wolves, film noir characters, carnival folk, torch singers, fiddlers, gypsies (since I have it in my blood as well) and, of course, cat worshipers.

Anyone kind and/or creative, exquisitely tormented or unique in their own way.

How would you describe your new album in 10 words or less?
Fools & Orphans is: Madness, longing, obsession, torment, bewilderment, requiem, melodramatic, intoxicating, whimsical, awakening.

What’s been the best moment of your career so far?
Recently Lisa Germano wrote back to me after listening to Fools & Orphans and told me that she thinks I’m wonderful and that ‘How The Devil Falls In Love’ and ‘Firefly’ made her cry. Somehow knowing this makes me feel like I’ve conquered the realm!

Which artist would you most like to work with - your dream collaboration?
Most of all, Lisa Germano. She is one of the most original, brilliant, gracious and gentle souls. I would die to do a project with her. I’d also like to do an album with Tom Waits and I would love to work/sing with Eddie Vedder.

What’s your biggest fear?
Flying, deathly afraid of getting back on an airplane. I can’t even be inside an airport without having a panic. I sometimes dream of crashing~ it’s awful.
And also fire. I have a horrid fear of fire~ I think I might have been burned as a witch in a past life~ I’ve been told that by a psychic as well.

If you chanced upon Aladdin’s lamp what three things would you wish for?
(1) To be able to communicate with all animals and insects
(2) To have the power to heal and protect
(3) To always be able to manifest what is needed at the time, like the episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’ where that adorable old man and his odd little suitcase which seemed to hold anything that someone might need at any given moment~ like Felix’s magic bag of tricks!

What’s your top household tip?
Seeing that I cleaned houses professionally for years I could talk about a lot of things. In particular, always use natural-based cleansers and keeping nothing toxic in the house. But, as a cat person, one tip that I would share vehemently in keeping the house more dust free, better on your respiratory system, as well as being better for the health of your cat, try to use corn-based cat litter. It’s perhaps a little more costly but you use less than the conventional crystal or clay litter and, in the end, the money you save not taking your beloved feline to the vet because of kidney and liver problems associated with long-term exposure to the toxins in those commercial litters, outweighs the extra money spent.

Also~ Watch BBC’s Kim and Aggy’s ‘How Clean is Your House?’. It’s fabulous viewing. Those gals are a hoot!

Do you have a tattoo?
I have several. The moon on my left shoulder and the sun on my right. I have a few runes on my fingers, a Celtic bracelet on my right wrist and a sort of primal doodle that I designed as an arm band on my left forearm~

But I plan on adding a dragonfly this year, across my breastbone, and on my right calf I would like to have a Magus holding an open jar in one hand and a firefly in the other, as testament that my heart and soul shall never be put in a bottle again~! By no one or nothing.

If you were the answer to a crossword puzzle, what would be your clue?
A Crazy Cat Lady who is best known for her nickname ‘Monster Girl’?

Would you rather see a ghost or simply have a piece of toast and watch the evening news?
I’d like to share a piece of toast with a ghost! Strawberry and apricot jam on toast, with coffee. An afternoon’s foray into trading old creepy stories, me there sitting with the ghosts of Boris Karloff and Vincent Price~ while they regale me with sinister and ghostly tales of the macabre in their inimitable style! Delicious!

Tick tock, tick tock. What you waiting, what you waiting for?
A streetcar named desire! Of course~

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Alan Pedder

Sharleen Spiteri
Melody •••½
Mercury

It’s human nature that we reject few things more vehemently than something we have fallen out of love with. Relationships, religions, political ideals: when the revolution comes, outright dismissal is often easier than facing the difficult questions that life has a sadistic tendency to pose. Sharleen Spiteri hasn’t become a Buddhist or joined the BNP, but someone’s sure got her back up. Melody, her first solo outing after more than two decades in the business, is an album informed almost wholly by the dissolution of her 10-year relationship with magazine editor Ashley Heath in late 2004; that it’s taken her this long to air her feelings on the matter is partly a reflection of how deep her hurt ran and partly of her conflicting feelings about writing such personal songs, songs she didn’t feel able to release under the umbrella of her long-time sonic conduit Texas.

Spiteri may look demure peering out from beneath that trademark dark fringe, her face half covered by a hand, but lyrically she’s pulling no punches. For all its pretty retro stylings, Melody bristles with the subverted promise of a Glasgow kiss if Spiteri doesn’t get her way. In the same manner as Nancy Sinatra expressed her reclamation of self through those famous down-treading boots, Spiteri declares her independence through song after song of mature, slinky, feminine soul. This is, of course, hardly what the charts are in want for more of, but Melody plays so much less like an exercise in marketing than it does the sound of a woman following her heart. White soul may have been the stock trade of Texas in their heyday - their urban flirtations rarely sounded comfortable - but on her own Spiteri has swapped her detached, tomboyish cool for a warm, viraginous strength.

Opening up her voice in a way we haven’t heard for years, Spiteri is at her most effective on first track ‘It Was You’, belting out the ultimate in kiss-offs - “something inside just died…it was you” - ouch! If only Duffy’s ubiquitous ‘Mercy’ hadn’t got there first, this could be a killer single. The transparency of involving Duffy mentors Bernard Butler and David McAlmont is unfortunate, but Spiteri wears their mantle well. While tasty first single ‘All The Times I Cried’ provides a prime 1960s flashback, ‘Melody’ goes one step further and leans so heavily on Serge Gainsbourg’s ‘Jane B’ he gets a co-write credit. This elegant weepie was the first song Spiteri wrote for the album and perfectly suits her dusky tones; that it could easily have slotted into Texas album The Hush is but a minor quibble.

As a lifelong fan of Tamla Motown - revisit the excellent Texas cover of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s ‘You’re All I Need To Get By’ for proof - Spiteri pays homage to its biggest-selling group The Supremes for the punchy ‘Stop, I Don’t Love You Anymore’, a finger-clicking, tambourine-tastic slice of deliciousness, and the seductive, brass-led ‘Day Tripping’. The Shangri-Las also get a look in (‘Don’t Keep Me Waiting’) and the Sinatra influence is most keenly felt on the playful ‘I’m Going To Haunt You’. Here, Spiteri just about manages to stick to the right side of pastiche, only slightly risking a Geri Halliwell-style embarrassment.

Had this album been made any sooner, it would surely have attracted more attention than it is likely to get. What it loses in the element of surprise, however, it gains in hard-won perspective and a lived-in authenticity that Duffy just can’t match. Still, with Rockferry shifting millions all over the world and showing no signs of slowing down, it’s hard to see Spiteri competing on that level. Honestly though, I doubt she’ll care. After all, she’s played the Next Big Thing role before and, 23 years later, is still here making the music she loves. And in such a fickle, trend-driven business you can’t do much better than that.

Alan Pedder
UK release date: 14/07/08 

‘All The Times I Cried’