Filed under: news, trouser press | Tags: alan pedder, mary j blige, sinead o'connor
Following on from her involvement in the ActionAid 6 Degrees recording of ‘I’m Every Woman’ earlier this year, Sinéad O’Connor has re-recorded one of her own songs in aid of anti sex trafficking organisation GEMS (Girls Education and Mentoring Services) to raise awareness about the rising incidence of child prostitution in the United States. The new version of ballad ‘This Is To Mother You’, originally from her 1997 EP Gospel Oak, was recorded over the summer at Dublin’s legendary Windmill Lane Studios. Headed up by production team Doc McKinney (Santigold, Esthero) and Ali Shaheed Muhammad (A Tribe Called Quest, Lucy Pearl), it also features Mary J Blige and GEMS member Martha B on backing vocals, recorded separately at a studio in New York. “It’s a song about survival,” she told journalists at a press conference. “I myself am a survivor, not of sex trafficking but of severe child abuse. So this is obviously a subject that I can identify with when it comes to young girls trying to get out of bad situations and make a good life for themselves. To me, the song was a part of me talking to me.”
Marissa Nadler had a nasty interruption to her current American tour with Alela Diane on Friday when the car in which she and her band were travelling was hit by a driver who ran a red light in Birmingham, Alabama. Although Marissa’s car was written off, no one was seriously hurt and the tour continues.
As an ex-Mormon former childminder for Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, Jesca Hoop can claim to have one of the most unusual backgrounds in contemporary music. And, as her second album Hunting My Dress so beautifully attests, she can also claim to have one of the most striking voices in the same field. Released on November 30, it’s her first full-length release in the UK and looks set to capitalise on the wave of buzz she’s still riding on the back of last November’s well received Kismet Acoustic EP and some jaw-dropping live shows.
Having inked a new deal with Rykodisc, country singer Allison Moorer will release her seventh album Crows on February 9th, her first collection of original material since 2006’s Getting Somewhere. Perhaps influenced by the research involved in making her 2008 covers album Mockingbird, for which she recorded several covers of songs written by women (Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith and June Carter Cash to name but a few), Crows finds Allison departing from her usual country stylings with more emphasis on sophisticated pop arrangements, many of which were written and performed on piano. She’s also made a conscious effort to inject a greater poeticism into her lyrics.
Filed under: news, trouser press | Tags: charlotte richardson andrews, rachael dadd
To celebrate their release of Rachael Dadd’s upcoming EP, Moth In The Motor, boutique indie label Broken Sound have launched an arts project of the same name in which aspiring artists are encouraged to submit their own sleeve designs. A number of the submitted pieces will go on display at during an unplugged event headlined by Rachael and friends in February, and every artist who creates a sleeve will be granted the rather fabulous reward of a permanent profile, including a biography and links to their other works, on the Broken Sound website.
Lovable Swedish sister act First Aid Kit have announced full details of their much anticipated debut album, The Big Black & The Blue. Released through Wichita Recordings on January 25th, the album includes recent single ‘Hard Believer’ and its B-side ‘Waltz For Richard’ along with nine brand new songs. Johanna and Klara will spend the end of November and beginning of December on tour across Europe with Port O’Brien, but will make a very special visit to London on December 7th for an intimate show at The Old Queen’s Head, Islington, where they will play the album it its entirety. Additional shows will be announced for January to support the release.
Having lately become much more vocal in her support of women who suffer in violent relationships, Mary J Blige has taken things to the next level by teaming up with Frida Giannini, Creative Director at Gucci, and several New York-based organisations to open a new women’s refuge in Yonkers, NY. The new centre is the latest development in her campaigning for better service provision to victims of domestic abuse and follows the establishment of her Foundation For The Advancement Of Women Now last year. Speaking to CNN about new venture, she said: “All age ranges will be able to come to this centre. Women from all walks of life, not just women from poverty-stricken areas. Whatever it is, they’ll be able to come here. There are gonna be psychologists here, doctors here, day care centres here. Anything that you need or they need to be able to better themselves is here for them.”
Filed under: news, trouser press, where's the gigs | Tags: charlotte richardson andrews, slow club
Following on from the success of last year’s free download single ‘Christmas TV’, the ever-likable Sheffield duo Slow Club have announced a shiny new, ribbon-wrapped Yuletide offering. The five-track EP, Christmas, Thanks For Nothing, out December 14 through Moshi Moshi, includes two new originals, two Darlene Love covers and, of course, the brilliant ‘Christmas TV’, which has quite deservedly gone on to be a year-round favourite at gigs. Charles and Rebecca take turns to have fun with the covers; Rebecca sings the Phil Spector-penned ‘Christmas (Please Come Home)’ from the mighty perennial A Christmas Gift For You, while Charles heads up a stripped down version of ‘All Alone On Christmas’, as featured on the soundtrack to ‘Home Alone 2′. The two new songs are the title track and ‘It’s Christmas & You Are Boring Me’.
Filed under: news, trouser press | Tags: charlotte richardson andrews, katiejane garside, ruby throat
Out Of A Black Cloud Came A Bird inspired by plane crash horror
News of fresh Ruby Throat material has come as a pleasantly unexpected surprise today as we were under the impression that all they had in the works was a re-release of their exquisitely crepuscular debut The Ventriloquist. Released on November 12th to coincide with their gig at Madame Jojo’s in London the same day, Out Of A Black Cloud Came A Bird will initially be available as a run of 500 limited edition ‘art packages’, with a standard(ish) gatefold package coming later. The evocative title seems to be a reference to the plane crash that Garside witnessed last year while hiking through the Himalayas, a traumatic experience she described to us back in September saying, “Everything I’ve done since has been infused with that experience. I’m trying to work with it; it’s given me a sense of urgency that I haven’t had for a long time.”
Filed under: news, trouser press | Tags: 2009, barbra streisand, charlotte richardson andrews, cyndi lauper, debbie harry, joan jett, music
Icons turned into tiny-waisted toys
Mattel, the brand behind anorexia’s poster girl Barbie, have recently announced their latest disempowering line, Ladies Of The ’80s. Released just in time to hit those Christmas shopping baskets, the range includes Debbie Harry and Joan Jett, who go on sale in December, and Cyndi Lauper who goes out in January, presumably because she’s ‘Good Enough’ to compete with all January sales items. Barbra Streisand will also have a mini-me doll out in November, though she’s not officially part of the range. True to form, Mattel have managed to turn these beautiful, iconic women into unrealistically proportioned, inert lumps of vinyl, a process that reduces their careers and achievements to disposable playthings in one fell swoop, undoubtedly aimed at young girls who would benefit more from the gift of a real guitar rather than the miniature, plastic one that Jett’s emaciated figure is accessorised with.
