trouser press: emiliana torrini, inara george and more

- listen to the new Emiliana Torrini single
- Inara George teams up with Van Dyke Parks for new album
- Juliana Hatfield preps ninth solo album and autobiography
- Holly Throsby coming to the UK, new album
- HK119, Rose Kemp and Land Of Talk feature on free album
- new Ida EP details
- new Jennifer O’Connor album details
- All Girl Summer Fun Band return after four-year absence
- Lily Allen rumoured to be working with Lindsay Lohan

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Wears The Trousers favourite Emiliana Torrini releases her third international album, Me & Armini, on September 8th. Produced by long-time collaborator Dan Carey, the album is said to be “a hugely ambitious and aspirational pop record” (so presumably miles away from 2005’s hushed and intimate Fisherman’s Woman).

The album’s first single, the summery title track, will be released on August 18th, followed shortly after by ‘Jungle Drum’, a “surging, breathless” beast of a song, on September 29th. That’s all we know so far, but you can listen to ‘Me & Armini’ on Emiliana’s Myspace RIGHT NOW.

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Inara George has teamed up with the legendary Van Dyke Parks, strings arranger to the stars, for her second solo album, An Invitation, released next month. The two share a connection that goes right back to the day Inara was born as Parks was close friends with her father Lowell George, frontman of rockers Little Feat, who died in 1979 aged 32. That connection runs so deep Inara has even managed to persuade the usually reluctant Parks to join her on stage for some live previews of the new material. Three of the albums 13 songs are currently streaming from George’s Myspace. 

Though she’s perhaps best known for her role as the twittering half of The Bird & The Bee, Inara has also been keeping busy as one-third of informal trio The Living Sisters with Eleni Mandell and Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark. Their collaboration with DJs Greyboy Allstars on a cover of Nancy Wilson’s ‘How Glad I Am’ can be heard on the Sisters’ Myspace. 

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The prolific Juliana Hatfield releases her ninth solo album, How To Walk Away, through her own Ye Olde Records on August 19th. Produced by Ivy’s Andy Chase and featuring Tracy Bonham on violin as well as members of Psychedelic Furs, Nada Surf and Fountains Of Wayne, the album was partially funded by a pay-what-you-want scheme that Hatfield set up for people wanting to investigate her vast back catalogue. In addition to the new album, a 20-song bonus CD of demos made for the album is available in a limited edition of 1000 copies. Pre-order the album here.

Hatfield is also in the process of finishing up an autobiography that chronicles her 20+ years in the business. The book is due to be published next year.

How To Walk Away

01 The Fact Remains
02 Shining On
03 This Lonely Love
04 My Baby…
05 Just Lust
06 Now I’m Gone
07 Remember November
08 So Alone
09 Such A Beautiful Girl
10 Law Of Nature

Demos

01 A Beer & A Shot
02 My Baby…
03 Shining On
04 Don’t Wanna Be The One
05 Just Lust
06 Hold The Line
07 Not Enough
08 Cry Out Loud
09 Such A Beautiful Girl
10 The Rising Tide
11 Law Of Nature
12 So Alone
13 On Your Mind
14 Five Miles Wide
15 Kitten
16 If Only We Were Dogs
17 The Fact Remains
18 Back To Freedom
19 Remember November
20 Nights Like These

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Giving Julia Stone and Missy Higgins a run for their money as our favourite Australian singer, the poetically inclined Holly Throsby releases her third international album, A Loud Call, on July 14th. We couldn’t find any specific information about a UK release, but with Holly making a promotional trip to these shores in August it can’t be too far off. Anyway, the new album was mostly recorded in Nashville with Lambchop and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy producer Mark Nevers, with additional bits and bobs added by long-time producer Tony Dupé back in Kangaroo Valley.

A Loud Call
01 Warm Jets
02 A Heart Divided
03 Now I Love Someone
04 On The Wharf
05 The Time It Takes
06 Would You
07 One Of You For Me
08 We Carry
09 And Then We’re Gone
10 Widow’s Song
11 To Begin With

Watch the video for the album’s first single, ‘A Heart Divided’:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzR_MlSk2_s]

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HK119, Rose Kemp and Land Of Talk are giving away free songs as part of a special compilation of artists signed to the One Little Indian label. Serving as tasters for their brand new albums, HK119’s ‘Mind’ and Kemp’s ‘Nanny’s World’ are previously unreleased, whereas Canadian trio Land Of Talk’s ‘Summer Special’ is taken from last year’s excellent debut, Applause Cheer Boo Hiss.

Other artists featured on the free download include Stalkers, Underground Railroad, The All New Adventures Of Us, Chris Bathgate, Jesse Malin, Matthew Ryan and Shelleyan Orphan. Download it here. 

Rose Kemp’s Unholy Majesty is released on September 1st and HK119’s Fast, Cheap & Out Of Control on September 29th.

Watch the video for ‘Mind’:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6Hgwfyq5hg]

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Hot on the heels of their most recent album Lovers Prayers, released in January, entrancing New York collective Ida issue a new EP, My Fair, My Dark, next month. Produced by frequent Ida collaborator Warn Defever of His Names Is Alive and featuring artwork by Tara Jane O’Neil, the EP sees Elizabeth Mitchell and co. interpret the likes of Dolly Parton, Anne Briggs, John & Beverley Martyn, and David Schickele, the late uncle of Ida’s Karla Schickele. Two new originals and a live version of ‘Late Blues’ are also thrown in for good measure. Rounding out the special guest list are Michael Hurley on fiddle and Levon Helm of The Band on mandolin and drums.

My Fair, My Dark

01 My Fair, My Dark [David Schickele cover]
02 Don’t Wreck It
03 Road To Ruin [John & Beverley Martyn cover]
04 The Pain Of Loving You [Dolly Parton cover]
05 Late Blues [live]
06 Still Life
07 Time Has Come [Anne Briggs cover]

The vinyl version of the EP, unlikely to be available over here, has an additional cover of Warn Defever’s ‘Darkness Night’.

Reliably, Pitchfork have been hosting an MP3 of ‘The Pain Of Loving You’ for a while now. Listen and love.

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Jennifer O’Connor releases her fourth album, Here With Me, on Matador Records next month. Featuring members of The Hold Steady and Ben Folds Five, the album was produced, recorded and mixed over a 12-day period by Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr collaborator John Agnello at Headgear studios in Brooklyn. Matador reckon she’d be a contender for the Nobel Prize for Witty Pop Songs with Heart, if such a thing existed. Listen to ‘Valley Road ‘86′ for free and judge for yourself.

Here With Me
01 The Church & The River
02 Always In Your Mind
03 Daylight Out
04 Valley Road ‘86
05 Here With Me
06 Credit In The Cost
07 Highway Miles
08 Landmine
09 Days Become Months
10 End Of The Hall
11 Xmas Party
12 Next To Mine

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With the weather in the UK as unpredictable for the season as ever, rest assured that a certain trio of ladies are Looking Into It. After four long years, Portland’s sunniest and most aptly named export All Girl Summer Fun Band return at the end of September with their third album. They may have lost their bassist Ari Douangpayna along the way (not, thankfully, to anything untoward) but the band have forged ahead without her to make Looking Into It as good as anything they’ve done to date. Or so we read in an early review; there’s not much info out there yet for this release. Watch this space.

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Having almost completed her second album, tentatively titled Stuck On The Naughty Step, Lily Allen is rumoured to be working with Lindsay Lohan. OK! Magazine claims the two collaborated on a song called ‘Wherever You Go’ at a studio in Los Angeles. Allen’s response? The default photo on her Myspace player is now a pic of Lohan.

Anyway, if true, Allen may join Pharrell Williams, Akon, Ne-Yo and Snoop Dogg as guests on Lohan’s upcoming third album (possibly called Spirit In The Dark, possibly not). It’s allegedly the best thing she’s ever done, which, given the consistent mediocrity of her recorded output to date, shouldn’t be too taxing.

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Alan Pedder

Written by: Wears The Trousers magazine

Tags: all girl summer fun band, emiliana torrini, HK119, holly throsby, ida, inara george, jennifer o'connor, juliana hatfield, land of talk, lily allen, lindsay lohan, news, rose kemp, the bird and the bee, van dyke parks

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 1:58 am and is filed under news, the inside leg. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.