trouser press: portishead, juana molina and more

- Portishead in working-on-new-album shocker
- Juana Molina to release her fifth album in October
- Polaris Music Prize shortlisted nominees announced
- All-star tribute to Judy Collins out in August
- Leonard Cohen’s touring partner Sharon Robinson to release debut album
- Ladyfest Manchester 2008 fundraising compilation goes on sale
- Joanna Newsom and Feist immortalised in a children’s activity book

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Perhaps buoyed by the astonishingly positive reception afforded to their comeback album, Third, Portishead have reportedly begun working on a follow-up. Speaking to BBC 6Music, guitarist Adrian Utley said the band were already “getting a bit of a plan together,” adding that the limited touring behind Third was so that the band could focus on other projects and spend more time with their young families. His bandmate Geoff Barrow had already expressed a desire to write some new tunes in a blog posting in May; Beth Gibbons, as ever, has maintained a dignified silence on the matter.

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Our favourite Argentinian Juana Molina has announced details of her upcoming fifth album, Un Dia, due for release on October 6th through Domino Recordings. The album is said to forego the meandering field recordings of the brilliant Son for more rhythmic fare. Fans should get a taste of the new material when Molina heads over to the UK for the Electric Picnic festival in Ireland on August 30th and a special show at the Regents Park Open Air Theatre in London on August 31st.

Un Dia
01 Un Dia
02 Vive Solo
03 Lo Dejamos
04 Los Hongos de Marosa
05 Quien (Suite)
06 El Vestido
07 No Llama
08 Dar (Que Dificil)

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Basia Bulat, Stars, Kathleen Edwards and Black Mountain are among the ten Canadian acts shortlisted for the third annual Polaris Music Prize, the equivalent of our Mercury. The winner of the $20,000 prize money will be announced on September 29th. Caribou, Holy Fuck, Plants & Animals, Shad, Two Hours Traffic and The Weakerthans make up the rest of the numbers.

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Dolly Parton, Joan Baez, Chrissie Hynde, Shawn Colvin, Dar Williams, Amy Speace and The Webb Sisters and are among the 15 artists contributing to a new tribute to folk legend Judy Collins. Inspired by a casual compliment from Chrissie Hynde in which she revealed that Collins’s ‘My Father’ was among her top ten favourite songs, independent label Wildflower Records set about crafting the all-star tribute due out August 5th in the US. Leonard Cohen, an old friend of Collins, also makes an appearance, reciting the lyrics of her early song ‘Since You’ve Asked’. The full list of contributors looks a bit like this:

Born To The Breed: A Tribute To Judy Collins
01 Joan Baez – Since You’ve Asked
02 Jim Lauderdale – Easy Times
03 Dolly Parton – Fisherman Song
04 Chrissie Hynde – My Father
05 Shawn Colvin – Secret Gardens
06 Kenny White – Song For Martin
07 Amy Speace – Born To the Breed
08 Rufus Wainwright – Albatross
09 The Webb Sisters – Fortune Of Soldiers
10 Jimmy Webb – Fallow Way
11 Bernadette Peters – Trust Your Heart
12 Dar Williams – Holly Ann (The Weaver Song)
13 Ali Eskandarian – Song For Sarajevo
14 James Mudriczki (Puressence) – Che
15 Leonard Cohen – Since You’ve Asked (reprise/dialogue)

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Speaking of Leonard Cohen, his longtime musical partner Sharon Robinson is set to release her debut solo album, Everybody Knows, once she finishes touring with the venerable Mr Cohen at the end of November. Well, it may be sooner, we haven’t quite been able to figure that out. As it happens the album is already available in the US, having been released at the beginning of June, but this isn’t the US so this is still news, right?

Anyway, three of the songs were co-written with Leonard, including the title track (from his classic 1971 album I’m Your Man), ‘Summertime’ (later recorded by both Diana Ross and Roberta Flack) and ‘Alexandra Leaving’ from Robinson and Cohen’s collaborative album Ten New Songs. Also included is Sharon’s version of ‘The High Road’, covered by Bettye Lavette on her brilliant album I’ve Got My Own Hell To Raise.

Everybody Knows
01 Invisible Tattoo
02 Party For The Lonely
03 Everybody Knows
04 The Train
05 Secondhand
06 Forever In A Kiss
07 The High Road
08 Sustenance
09 Alexandra Leaving
10 Summertime

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Bearsuit, Vile Vile Creatures, Penny Broadhurst and The Bobby McGees are among the acts featured on a new compilation released through Cherryade Music to raise funds for Ladyfest Manchester 2008. The three-day festival takes place at the Zion Arts Centre in Hulme at the beginning of November. Find out more here.

The tracklist in full:
01 Bearsuit – Chargr
02 Das Wanderlust – It’ll Never Be Yours
03 Shrag – New Favourites
04 The Bobby McGees – Bumhead
05 Town Bike – Trouble Fuckin Rocks
06 The Lovely Eggs – I’m In Your Scene
07 Amy Pennington – Dirty L’il Secret
08 Blockshot – GPS
09 Penny Broadhurst – Team Leader [MinuteToWinIt edit]
10 Hotpants Romance – We Used To Meet
11 Kids Love Lies – Hex
12 Vile Vile Creatures – Break Like Bones
13 Violent Vickie – Knock You Out
14 The Seven Inches – Cashback
15 STeLLa PaCe – Luv Yr Self
16 Pianofingers – The Bone Palace

Available now at the Cherryade online shop for a mere £5.

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A design student from Huddersfield University has come up with a novel colouring/activity book based on images from the songs of some of our favourite indie rock stars, including Feist and the inimitable Joanna Newsom. Andy J Miller created the book as a potential fundraising idea for the HIV/AIDS charity (Red). At the moment these little beauties are prototypes only, i.e. you can’t buy one, sorry. Pitchfork have some great scans though, if you want to take a closer look.

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Alan Pedder 

Written by: Wears The Trousers magazine

Tags: alan pedder, amy speace, basia bulat, bearsuit, beth gibbons, black mountain, chrissie hynde, dar williams, dolly parton, feist, joan baez, joanna newsom, juana molina, kathleen edwards, ladyfest manchester, leonard cohen, news, penny broadhurst, portishead, sharon robinson, shawn colvin, stars, the bobby mcgees, the webb sisters, vile vile creatures

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 11:38 pm 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.