trouser press: amanda palmer, the bird & the bee and more

in today’s trouser press:

- Amanda Palmer gets run over in Belfast, plays on
- the future of The Bird & The Bee is not just about Ray Guns
- indie rock royalty auction off signage for charity
- big band singer Connie Haines dies
- Polaris Prize goes to none of the people we wanted to win
- new Serena Ryder album details
- Madonna fined £135k for being tardy
- Mindy McCready starts 60-day jail sentence
- three decades on, Labelle are back!
- Lederhosen Lucil is… Krista Muir
- Enya to release “a broader seasonal album”
- Céline gets the essential and ultimate essential treatment

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Who killed Amanda Palmer? No one, but if you’ve ever doubted that she’s one tough cookie then cease your disbelief now. The punk cabaret artist went ahead and played a gig for young fans in Belfast on Sunday night despite having a rather nasty accident with a moving car earlier in the day that left her with a broken toe and three broken metatarsals in her right foot. After spending the afternoon in Belfast City Hospital she hobbled over to Auntie Annie’s on crutches so as not to disappoint her fans.

“I had an accident today,” she said while on stage at the venue. “I did what most stupid Americans do and walked on the wrong side of the road and ended up getting run over…I have to say I’m very grateful for the free healthcare that you have in Northern Ireland. This is the first show I’ve played where I’m completely on drugs.”

The accident wraps up a week full of dramas for the singer after her Dresden Dolls bandmate Brian Viglione confirmed the band’s ‘demise’ through a posting on their official forum. Apparently she wasn’t expecting that. Amanda’s post on the whole mess makes for insightful and thought-provoking reading. 

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That Inara George just can’t sit still for a minute. In the 18 months since the first Bird & The Bee album, her ongoing collaboration with in-demand songwriter/producer Greg Kurstin has sprouted two EPs of all-new songs – 2007’s Please Clap Your Hands and this year’s One Too Many Hearts - and she’s only just released her second solo album, An Invitation, a richly orchestrated collaboration with family friend Van Dyke Parks. As someone who has been known to work on three different releases at once we shouldn’t be surprised to hear that there’s a new Bird & The Bee album coming out in the not too distant future (January, to be precise). It’s called Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future, for reasons I am sure will become perfectly clear at some point. Is it me or are they slowly morphing into The Avengers? Anyway, the 14-song album only pinches two EP songs (‘Birthday’ and ‘Polite Dance Song’); the rest are brand new.

Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future
01 Fanfare
02 My Love
03 Diamond Dave
04 What’s In The Middle
05 Ray Gun
06 Love Letter To Japan
07 Meteor
08 Baby
09 Phil
10 Polite Dance Song
11 You’re A Cad
12 Witch
13 Birthday
14 Lifespan Of A Fly

* * *

More music meets War Child news. Following on from last week’s announcement of the new Heroes compilation, today sees the beginning of a week-long auction of protest signs handmade by a huge array of indie-rock royalty in support of the charity. Organised by Under The Radar magazine, the protest signs featured in a recent issue in which musicians were invited to share their thoughts on today’s political climate and get it all out on paper to boot. Stars, Metric, Rilo Kiley, The Dresden Dolls, St Vincent, Sharon Jones and The Duke Spirit join the likes of REM, Modest Mouse, Spoon, Death Cab For Cutie, Jarvis Cocker, The Flaming Lips, The Decemberists, Public Enemy, Rage Against The Machine, Fleet Foxes and more in flogging their one-of-a-kind artistic creations for a worthwhile cause. Get bidding here.

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Big band singer Connie Haines has died from a neuromuscular disease at the age of 87. Born Yvonne Marie Antoinette JaMais, she began singing at the age of 5, and at the age of 9 had her own radio show. By her 18th birthday, she was already working with Frank Sinatra and establishing herself as one of the top female singers of the big band era. Once the fashion for big band waned, she became a solo artist and released more than 200 recordings, becoming the first white artist to record for Motown in the process. She also appeared in several films in the 1940s and ‘50s, and also touring with comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. She is survived by her 109 year old mother Mildred, a son, a daughter, and three grandchildren.

* * *

We were rooting for Basia Bulat, Stars, Kathleen Edwards and Black Mountain, but the Polaris Prize – the Canadian equivalent of the Mercury – was last night awarded to Caribou for their album Andorra. The band take away CA$20,000, which I’m sure will come in handy. Here’s a recent performance from Basia anyway, because she’s lovely.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mnsMebEbCk]

* * *

On the subject of Canadian award ceremonies, the winner of this year’s best newcomer Juno, Serena Ryder, has announced the release of her third album proper in November, in Canada, and elsewhere next year. Is It OK was recorded at the same studio Serena’s favourite album, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, in Santa Monica, California, with producer John Alagia (Liz Phair, Rachael Yamagata).

“I was in Stevie Nicks’s vocal booth with candles all around and stained-glass windows and mirrors everywhere,” Ryder told ChartAttack.com. “It was totally fabulous. I definitely felt the energy. I wanted to tap my veins into the walls, you know?”

Outside of Canada, the album will be preceded by a digital EP, Sweeping The Ashes, featuring three songs from the album. The EP will hit music download outlets from mid-October.

Is It OK
01 Sweeping The Ashes
02 Little Bit Of Red
03 Brand New Love
04 Hiding Place
05 Blown Like The Wind
06 All For Love
07 Weak In The Knees
08 Stumbling Over You
09 Why Can’t I Love You
10 When The Truth Just Walks Away
11 Is It OK
12 What I Wanna Know
13 Dark As The Black

* * *

It seems that not even Madonna can get away with nearly stranding thousands of fans by taking too long to get her muscly behind in gear. Despite her agent’s claims that she wouldn’t be fined for allowing her Wembley Stadium gig on September 11th to overrun by nearly 40 minutes, venue authorities have reportedly ordered the star to pay up £135,000 – £50,000 for every 15 minutes she exceeded the 10:30 pm curfew – as punishment for causing a number of traffic problems as gig goers tried to scramble home before public transport seized up for the evening. She’s not the first person to be hit with such a huge levy; according to The Sun, George Michael was fined nearly £130,000 last year when his Wembley gig also overran.

* * *

It seems like forever ago when we were reporting on country singer Mindy McCready’s several run-ins with the police following a 2004 drugs charge. So why mention it now? Because the singer begins a 60-day prison sentence in Tennessee today after being charged with violating her probation by falsifying her community service records. “I am working very hard to put all of this behind me as quickly as possible so I can get back to what I love to do most: sing, write songs and entertain,” she said in a statement.

* * *

Its been 30 years since the last Labelle album but the formidable trio return in October with new album Back To Now. Most famous for ‘Lady Marmalade’, Patti Labelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash attempt to deliver a contemporary update of the winning formula through working with Wyclef Jean (‘Roll Out’), Lenny Kravitz (‘Candlelight’) and “Masters of Philly Soul” Kenneth Gamble and Leon A Huff. And in case you dare forget their history, the album finishes with a bonus 1970 live recording of Cole Porter’s ‘Miss Otis Regrets’ with pianist Nicky Hopkins and Keith Moon on drums. Listen to clips from each song here.

Back To Now
01 Candlelight
02 Roll Out
03 Superlover
04 System
05 The Truth Will Set You Free
06 Without You In My Life
07 Tears For The World
08 Dear Rosa
09 How Long
10 Miss Otis Regrets [live]

* * *

The artist formerly unknown as Lederhosen Lucil (at least, I’d never heard of her before), Krista Muir will release her third album under her real name next month in her native Canada. Accidental Railway was recorded in Montreal and was inspired by her travels around the US and Europe, so much so that it even comes packaged with a pullout map of her journey. Listen some of the songs on her Myspace.

Accidental Railway
01 When You Were Mine
02 Summer Eyes
03 The Ride
04 Les Ouaouarons
05 Kuss
06 Take Me
07 Leave Alight
08 Concrete Lovesong
09 Drugging The Drain
10 Letters
11 Heart Of Drawers
12 Officers
13 Dharma Talk

* * *

Since her 1989 single ‘Oíche Chiúin (Silent Night)’ Enya has been threatening to make a full Christmas album. She came close in 2006 with the bonus EP that came with Amarantine, and this time too she narrowly avoids making good on that threat. And Winter Came, her upcoming seventh studio album, is billed as “a broader seasonal album” than was originally conceived. Says Enya, “I always wanted to do a Christmas album, but as we began recording, I didn’t feel it was right to impose a Christmas theme on certain songs.”

The album was recorded in Dublin with her usual team of producer/arranger Nicky Ryan and lyricist Roma Ryan, and features ten original songs alongside two holiday classics: ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel’ and a new choral version of Oíche Chiúin’. The first single, ‘Trains & Winter Rains’, was sent to radio this week. The album is out on November 10th.

01 And Winter Came
02 Journey Of The Angels
03 White Is In The Winter Night
04 O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
05 Trains & Winter Rains
06 Dreams Are More Precious
07 Last Time By Moonlight
08 One Toy Soldier
09 Stars & Midnight Blue
10 The Spirit Of Christmas Past
11 My! My! Time Flies!
12 Oíche Chiúin (chorale)

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Finally, there are some who would argue that an essential collection of Céline Dion songs would be a very slim volume indeed, but obviously those dollar-loving folks at Columbia Records don’t agree. Next month sees the release of not just the 17-song Essential Collection but also the 26-song Ultimate Essential Collection, presumably for only the hardcore masochists among us. Both sets include new song ‘There Comes A Time’ and a new live recording of the Linda Perry-penned ‘My Love’. I know what I’m getting you for Christmas.

* * *

Alan Pedder

Written by: Wears The Trousers magazine

Tags: alan pedder, amanda palmer, basia bulat, black mountain, caribou, celine dion, connie haines, enya, fleetwood mac, greg kurstin, inara george, kathleen edwards, keith moon, krista muir, labelle, lederhosen lucil, lenny kravitz, madonna, metric, mindy mccready, motown, news, rilo kiley, serena ryder, sharon jones, st vincent, stars, the bird and the bee, the dresden dolls, the duke spirit, wyclef jean

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