Filed under: feature, words in edgeways | Tags: hugh armitage, meg baird, interview, music
words in edgeways with meg baird
It’s immediately clear upon meeting Meg Baird that she lacks a musician’s typically inflated ego. Her rider was clear enough evidence of this – bread, houmous, donuts and bottled water. There was no expensive alcohol or rare sweets – the usual diva-like demands - to be seen.
A folk singer from Philadelphia, where she grew up and lives to this day, Meg is as mild and well-mannered as any journo could desire. Evidently nervous, in soft tones she expresses concerns that she might be too quiet. “I’m not so good at interviews,” she says, her laughter containing an uncomfortable edge. She is wrong on this point. She might find interviews uncomfortable, but she puts a lot of effort into them. She is open and engaged. Every question is given due thought, even the ones she finds difficult to answer. Her earnestness is apparent in every reply.
Filed under: feature, interrupting yr broadcast | Tags: rod thomas, interview, sarabeth tucek, music
interrupting yr broadcast: sarabeth tucek
Sarabeth Tucek is one of the most refreshingly unpretentious artists you could hope to meet. Despite growing up in Manhattan (not exactly renowned for its easygoing nature), working with a host of incredible artists including Bill Callahan (aka Smog) and Anton Newcombe (The Brian Jonestown Massacre), appearing in infamous rockumentary ‘Dig!’, and being handpicked to support her long-time idol Bob Dylan, around Sarabeth is an air of modesty and togetherness.
Her first single ‘Something For You’ emerged on tiny indie label Sonic Cathedral but had a monumental impact on her future career. “It got a lot of radio play,” she explains – including the title of Record of the Week on Steve Lamacq’s 6Music show – “which really forged the way for the record to be made. The climate here musically is very different from the States, people are so excited about music. There are a lot of music lovers, guys running little labels. Sonic Cathedral’s essentially one guy who contacted me when he heard me through The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and it went from there.”
Wears The Trousers is returning to regular publication.
Bear with us while first we stock up this here blog with all our old features and reviews, and the lost issue five!
Issue six coming in September x
Filed under: feature, special | Tags: chris mccrudden, interview, music, siouxsie
Alienation is the stuff of adolescence. Immaterial of whether it inspires the Columbine massacre or ‘Bonjour Tristesse’, the energies of youth are marked out by their sense of dislocation; of not quite belonging. They are also fleeting. It takes a special kind of grit to retain that uncompromising, often grim self-determination of a 17 year old into middle age. Yet somehow Siouxsie Sioux has managed it.
Her own sense of otherness as Susan Ballion, the teenager stuck in ultra-suburban Bromley with a working mother and a French father, was part of what inspired her to create the aloof, otherworldly persona of Siouxsie Sioux. Fast forward 30 years and remarkably little has changed. She’s an older, wiser woman than the teenager Bill Grundy chatted up on-air, inspiring Steve Jones’s infamous outburst of swearing, yet the fuck-you mentality that kept Siouxsie & The Banshees going as their peers disintegrated, self-destructed or sold out is intact. She may be the female face of punk, but she would sooner poke your eye out with a safety pin than put it through her nose.
Filed under: feature, interrupting yr broadcast | Tags: interview, stephanie dosen, thomas atkinson, music
interrupting yr broadcast: stephanie dosen
Dressed like the spirit of Cyndi Lauper circa 1988, Stephanie Dosen cuts quite the spooky figure as she floats past startled diners in a flowing white lace gown to join Wears The Trousers for a wee chat about the year that was 2007. First off she’s pretty chuffed with living in London, having moved here from Wisconsin (”that state that looks like a mitten”) in February. England certainly seems to be agreeing with her; she good-naturedly attempts both Brummie and Scouse accents before being overcome with the giggles. She’s also pretty happy with how A Lily For The Spectre, her first album to get an international release, has gone down with the great British public, not to mention the often hard-nosed press.
Filed under: feature, interrupting yr broadcast | Tags: anja mccloskey, the last town chorus, interview, megan hickey, music
interrupting yr broadcast: the last town chorus
Megan Hickey has a lot riding on Wire Waltz, the second Last Town Chorus album, a slow and thoughtful lap-steel extravaganza. As the only constant member of an ever-evolving ensemble – Megan has fronted the Brooklyn-based band since its inception in 2001 – she’s taken full control since co-founder Matt Guy moved to Japan in 2005. Heavy touring behind their eponymous debut, which, though decidedly sleepy, was a hit with UK critics, appeared to have taken its toll on the partnership.
Since Matt’s departure, Megan has seized the opportunity to perfect the art of collaboration. “Making this album felt a bit like being a divorcée,” she laughs. “But it’s stunning to hear my songs through other peoples’ hands and minds and mouths. I love it. Being the only fixed entity in the project also means I can move freely in terms of recording and touring and the business side of the project.”
Filed under: feature, voice on the verge | Tags: alan pedder, edwina hayes, hummingbird, interview, music
voice on the verge #5: edwina hayes
Having proven herself with debut album Out On My Own, Edwina Hayes is now one-third of up-and-coming trio Hummingbird with Amy Wadge and Cathy Burton. While we had the band’s attention (see our other interview), we got Edwina to complete our questionnaire during an idle moment. Over to you Eds…
Filed under: feature, interrupting yr broadcast | Tags: amy wadge, cathy burton, edwina hayes, hummingbird, interview, music, trevor raggatt
interrupting yr broadcast: hummingbird
The life of a lone troubadouress pounding the miles between gigs up and down the nation’s motorways is a solitary one. It’s hardly surprising that three singers who have experienced that life over the years might seek safety in numbers. However, the combination of Amy Wadge, Edwina Hayes and Cathy Burton – the triumvirate that makes up Hummingbird – is anything but a good few women huddling in a corner; it’s three talented singers pooling their collective experience, entertaining audiences across the country and having a blast in the process. Trevor Raggatt caught up with them to hear their thoughts on the viable alterative to “girl bands”.
Filed under: feature, voice on the verge | Tags: alan pedder, interview, jessica grace, music
voice on the verge #4: jessica grace
It’s not every day you get to release your debut album, let alone a Friday (such things usually happen on a Monday round these parts), but for the dazzlingly talented Jessica Grace today is that day. Operating with perhaps an unprecedented level of mystery and intrigue, Ms. Grace has yet to reveal said album’s title* or artwork but Wears The Trousers is perfectly assured by those in the know that it’s brilliant. From what we’ve heard, both live and on 2005’s intense and dramatic Strange Machines EP, we’re all in for a real treat. There’s a launch party tonight at St Mary Le Bow Church, which can be found along the London street they charmingly call Cheapside. For now, read on and find out more about Edmonton’s funniest and most likely to succeed…
Filed under: feature, words in edgeways | Tags: clare byrne, interview, music, my brightest diamond, shara worden
words in edgeways with my brightest diamond
If you were lucky enough to see Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoise tour in 2005 then you will almost certainly have had an experience much like this: the incomparable Mr Stevens will have come on stage and personally introduced the opening act as My Brightest Diamond. He will then have left you peering quizzically at a tiny person alone on a huge stage. Said tiny person will have then knocked the breath from your body with the biggest voice you have ever heard outside of an opera house. After the show, you will have been desperate to possess this voice on a compact disc of your very own, only to find out that said disc does not exist. You will then have been very sad. Until now…
Despite having been available in the US for almost a year, and during that year having racked up an enviable array of plaudits and gushing critical swoons, My Brightest Diamond’s debut album, Bring Me The Workhorse had not been officially released on these shores until last week. Having toured relentlessly with Sufjan as herself and as part of his own all-singing, all-dancing band the Illinoisemakers, and then with The Decemberists earlier this year, Shara Worden has more than paid her dues and refined her dramatic live persona into something quite unique and unmissable. Clare Byrne grabbed a chat with Shara ahead of her latest UK dates, including an appearance at this weekend’s End Of The Road festival.
