Filed under: news, trouser press | Tags: alan pedder, beth orton, cat power, frazey ford, gossip, heart, kate nash, la roux, lilith fair 2010, lissie, loretta lynn, marina and the diamonds, missy higgins, norah jones, rosie thomas, sia, the be good tanyas
Lilith Fair organisers today announced a second wave of artists who have signed on to take part in this year’s revival of the all-female travelling festival. These include Cat Power, Beth Orton, Sia, Gossip, Norah Jones, Rosie Thomas, Frazey Ford of The Be Good Tanyas, Lissie, Missy Higgins, ’80s rockers Heart and the legendary Loretta Lynn. UK pop acts Kate Nash, La Roux and Marina & The Diamonds will also perform at select dates, which have yet to be announced.
Filed under: feature, special | Tags: bertie blackman, christina amphlett, clare bowditch, dannii minogue, delta goodrem, divinyls, gabriella cilmi, holly throsby, holly valance, howling bells, kasey chambers, kate miller-heidke, katy steele, kylie minogue, lenka, lisa mitchell, little birdy, marcia hines, missy higgins, natalie imbruglia, olivia newton-john, operator please, sarah blasko, sia, the veronicas
australia week: a loud call from down under
It’s 1981. Olivia Newton-John, already a household name thanks to her performance opposite John Travolta in ‘Grease’, spends 10 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with the suggestive pop anthem ‘Physical’. The album of the same name peaks at #6 on the Billboard 200 and is later certified double platinum. Six years later, in Olivia’s native Australia, a popular young soap star named Kylie Minogue is coaxed into a rendition of the Little Eve classic ‘The Loco-motion’ at a charity benefit with her fellow ‘Neighbours’ cast members. Her recording of the song becomes the highest-selling single of the ’80s in Australia and spawns a recording career which has seen her thus far sell over 60 million records, a large chunk of those sold throughout the UK and Europe.
Newton-John and Minogue are no doubt two of Australia’s biggest musical exports, but they do not even begin to scratch the surface in terms of the breadth and depth of female talent currently on offer from those distant shores. Sarah Blasko, Holly Throsby, Lenka Kripac, Sia Furler, Kasey Chambers, Missy Higgins and Lisa Mitchell are just a few of the names who have made or are beginning to make an impact both in Australia and overseas; some of them criminally overlooked by the Australian media (Furler), others earning their place among the most sought-after live acts (Blasko). Perhaps now more than ever independent Aussie females are making their mark on the international circuit, and making the Australian music industry sit up and take notice.
Filed under: news, trouser press | Tags: 2009, alan pedder, ambrosia parsley, cy coleman, fiona apple, jill sobule, julianna raye, madeleine peyroux, missy higgins, music, nickel creek, nikka costa, patty griffin, perla batalla, sam phillips, sara watkins, sarabeth tucek, shivaree
All-female line-up cover Cy Coleman’s showtunes on new compilation
Our hearts were set all aflutter a couple of months back when a new Fiona Apple recording surfaced on YouTube – classy, jazzy and rich as treacle, it turned out not to be a new direction for the long-absent singer but a cover of theatre giant Cy Coleman’s ballad ‘Why Try To Change Me Now’, originally recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1952. Fiona’s cover, we were told, was to feature on an upcoming tribute album to the late composer, and we finally have the full details of that. Even better, it turns out that Fiona has recorded two tracks for the album, also contributing a cover of ‘I Walk A Little Faster’, famously recorded by the dearly departed Blossom Dearie. Not only that, but the entire cast for the album are people Wears The Trousers loves!
A 3-track digital taster of the album, which goes by the name of Witchcraft: The Songs Of Cy Coleman, will be available exclusively from iTunes from July 14th, featuring Fiona’s ‘Why Try To Change Me Now’, Patty Griffin’s cover of ‘The Best Is Yet To Come’, and a Missy Higgins version of ‘I’m In Love Again’, a track co-written by Coleman and Peggy Lee. The full album will be released in CD, double vinyl and download formats on September 15th via New West Records (in the US at least), with additional contributions from the likes of Jill Sobule, Madeleine Peyroux, Shivaree’s Ambrosia Parsley, Julianna Raye, Sam Phillips, Sarabeth Tucek and Nikka Costa. Hear clips of all 11 tracks here.
Filed under: news, trouser shorts, video | Tags: 2008, alanis morissette, alicia keys, clyde petersen, deerhoof, free MP3, imani coppola, jack white, james bond, kate miller-heidke, little jackie, missy higgins, music, news, quantum of solace, your heart breaks
Proving yet again that you can’t put your arms around a memory but you can go back and alter your songs so that radio will play them, here’s the new Alanis Morissette video for break-up ballad ‘Not As We’. Alanis walks alone on a beach, overfills her bath, writes in her journal and drinks coffee earnestly. You’ll probably want to give her a hug.
* * *
Directed by Clyde Petersen, frontwoman of Seattle-based collective Your Heart Breaks, here’s the new video from Deerhoof, ‘Chandelier Spotlight’, taken from their new album Offend Maggie, out this week. Like it? Then download the song for free here. Sorted.
* * *
We love Imani Coppola here at Wears The Trousers. Always have, always will. Okay, so her new project Little Jackie doesn’t quite scale the heights of brilliance like last year’s The Black & White Album or her enduring debut Chupacabra, but it’s nice to see her burning up the charts after paying her dues for all these years. The next Little Jackie single will be the title track of their debut album The Stoop, but the video for it has been taken down from YouTube. Rats. Instead, here’s Imani and Adam’s recent appearance on ‘Later…with Jools Holland’.
* * *
This isn’t as good as we’d hoped. Oh well. It’s still better than this. And a vast improvement on this. Best post-millennial Bond theme in the bag then.
* * *
other videos we’ve been watching this week (Australian edition):
a new promo (the second) for the brilliant ‘Where I Stood’ by Aussie singer-songwriter Missy Higgins
‘Can’t Shake It’, the first single from wacky Aussie Kate Miller-Heidke’s new album Curiouser. “I execute the moonwalk like I stepped in shit”? Now that’s what we call a lyric.
* * *
Alan Pedder
wears the trousers magazine 