Tori debuts new tunes at SXSW

Tori fans were on pins and needles waiting to see/hear the new material Tori was rumored to play at SXSW. It was her first time playing the festival, and reviews indicate she did not disappoint.

After an online storm dealing with leaked songs from her upcoming album, “Abnormally Attracted to Sin” (May 19, Universal republic), many were concerned for the direction of the album (don’t get me started, I will rant about annoying Tori fans until her next album rolls around if you do).

However, based on the solo performances of three new songs, the excitement for the new album seems to remain. Check out some photos and videos of the new songs, including “Curtain Call” and “Lady in Blue.”

And the videos:

Curtain Call, credit to KMRO620 on Youtube.

Lady In Blue, credit to sakreh on Youtube.
“Curtain Call” sounds ferocious. Her delivery is intense and vulnerable all at once. Fantastic piano work that recalls the amazing playing in Marianne and her other more intricate songs. “Lady In Blue” has a smokey, jazzy quality not often found in her work. The closest comparison I have is Purple People, but this is even more on the jazz side. It will make a fitting closer to the album. Cannot wait to hear them in studio format! I hope they don’t differ too much.

Regina Spektor to go Far

Regina Spektor sat down with Pitchfork.com to discuss her upcoming new album “Far.” Check out the interivew here:

On the quirky scale, Regina Spektor makes Zooey Deschanel look like Jennifer Aniston. Everything about the Russian-born singer-songwriter is a little bit skewed– her accent, phrasing, pronunciation, hooks. So, after toiling in the downtown NYC scene for the first half of the decade, it was a pleasant surprise when her 2006 album Begin to Hope cracked Billboard‘s Top 20 on the strength of bittersweet pop bites like “Fidelity” and “Better”. Based on an advance listen to some of the tracks from her follow-up, Far (due in June via Sire), we can happily report that success hasn’t spoiled Spektor’s oddball charisma.

For Far, the singer enlisted a quartet of hit-making producers: Begin to Hope‘s David Kahne, Mike Elizondo (Fiona Apple, Maroon 5), Garret “Jacknife” Lee (U2, R.E.M.), and– most surprisingly– ELO frontman/Paul McCartney and George Harrison collaborator/Traveling Wilburys member/overall rock’n'roll institution Jeff Lynne.

Though her production collaborators come from a wide range of backgrounds, it’s tough to mistake Spektor for anyone else. Among the songs that may be included on the record (the tracklist has yet to be set), there are dark narratives (“Genius Next Door”), sprightly sure-to-be hits (“The Calculation”), and some trademark goofiness (“Folding Chair”, which features Spektor doing an uncanny dolphin imitation). As she gets ready to work on the final mixes for Far, Spektor took some time out to talk to us about her creative process, working with Jeff Lynne, and her sci-fi prediction for the year 2309.

Pitchfork: On the record, you worked with four producers with pretty different styles: Jeff Lynne, Mike Elizondo, “Jacknife” Lee, and David Kahne. Were you worried about creating a cohesive sound?

Regina Spektor: That question never entered my mind. I just thought, “I’ll work with a few producers, learn from each one, and I’ll have a record.” I’m pretty much stuck sounding like myself so it’s going to be cohesive in a way. And matching producers with songs was done kind of thoughtlessly– it wasn’t like I was sitting there thinking, “Well, this person would make more sense with this song.” I didn’t do research or anything like that. It’s almost like throwing stuff on the floor and seeing how it lands, you know?

Pitchfork: So you didn’t have any sort of grand scheme in mind, necessarily.

RS: I’d like to say I did but I really didn’t. With novels or operas or other grand works of art I’m like, “Wow, how the fuck did you do that?” I’m much more on the level of understanding how someone can draw a picture or write a poem or short story. I’m into immediate gratification. I have enough of an attention span to follow through on one concept…and then I’m bored. If artists were machines, then I’m just a different kind of machine.

Pitchfork: So if you were a machine you’d be, like, a toaster?

RS: [makes ding sound] Yeah, I’d probably be a toaster [laughs]. Actually, I’d be a toaster oven because they’re more versatile. And I like making grilled cheese.

Pitchfork: Jeff Lynne is a real old-school rock’n'roll great, how did you hook up with him? Were you a big fan of his before you guys started working together?

RS: It’s kind of funny. Actually, it’s kind of sad– I didn’t know who he was or what he had done when I asked him if he’d like to produce some songs. I’m the opposite of a knowledgeable music aficionado; tomorrow, I could discover an amazing artist that people have been listening to for the past 60 years and be, like, “wow.”

The reason I asked to contact Jeff was because I saw he produced the last Tom Petty record, Highway Companion, which I really loved. I noted him down so next time I did a record I could actually tell people, like, “I have a few producers I’d like to check out.” I remember the silence on the phone when I said the name “Jeff Lynne” to Tom Whalley, the president of Warner Bros. But Tom was really positive about it.

By the time I was about to meet Jeff I was sufficiently nervous. But he’s really sweet. We drank a lot of tea. And after I worked with him, I started to understand, like, “Oh yeah! That’s Jeff– I know that song.” Sometimes you know the song or voice but you have no idea who sings it. But Jeff’s definitely in the world of legends. He had these banjoleles– a mix between a banjo and a ukulele– and I picked one up and he was like, “Yeah, George [Harrison] gave that to me.” I was like, “Oh my god,” and then put it down.

Pitchfork: After you learned more about his background, did you think, “Oh, he probably won’t work with me”?

RS: No. The myth of rock’n'roll doesn’t weigh heavily on me. If, god forbid, he wasn’t cool and didn’t do good stuff with my music, I wouldn’t have been thinking about what he’s done in the past or who he is. I mean, I didn’t even know any Traveling Wilburys stuff until after I worked with him. I think the exciting thing about Jeff is that he made amazing stuff just recently. I feel like he was really inspiring when I was working with him and wasn’t just resting on his laurels.

Pitchfork: One of the Jeff Lynne-produced songs is called “The Wallet” and it’s about finding someone else’s wallet, then finding a Blockbuster card in the wallet, and then returning the wallet back to a Blockbuster. It’s great. But, listening to it, I couldn’t help but think: “Who goes to Blockbuster anymore?”

RS: That’s funny because I wrote that song a bunch of years ago and I remember playing it on tour and thinking, “Do they even know what Blockbuster is in other countries?” Now I might need to change it to Netflix. [laughs]

It’s like one of those songs that you listen to from the 20s and ask, “What’s a kaputnik?” It’s this thing that was obviously very important because they’re singing about it, but it just doesn’t exist anymore. That’s why Bach and Mozart had it right by not putting in any words and making timeless instrumental music. In 300 years, when our great-great-great-grandchildren are checking out music by putting their finger into entertainment sockets, they’re not going to know what “Blockbuster” or “Netflix” or “Juicy Fruit” are. They’ll be like, “What’s fruit?” They’ll probably be living in a cement pod and eating food through intravenous tubes. They’re not going to know any of this shit.

Pitchfork: Wow, I didn’t think about it that way.

RS: [laughs] Maybe there is a grand scheme in me somewhere.

Posted by Ryan Dombal on March 16, 2009 at 12:10 a.m.

Sick.

The lack of updates stem from being sick for about 2 weeks now… sick with a sore throat, recovered, then was hit with this new sickness over the past 2 days.
Once I recover, I’ll have posts on THREE LEAKED TORI AMOS songs from her new album, news on the new Regina Spektor album, and more.

<3 Jake

Montage of Sara Bareilles clips from March 3 Chicago show!

After some playing around in iMovie, I’ve created this little montage of clips from the Sara Bareilles show I attedned at Schubas in Chicago on March 3, 2009.

Middle Cyclone Storms to #3 on Billboard’s Top 200 album!

Congrats to Miss Neko Case for an AMAZING debut on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart, coming in at #3!

This is Neko’s highest debut on the chart. Middle Cyclone sold over 44,000 copies in its first week. Her previous album, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, reached #54 and to date has sold over 200,00 copies.

Tori reveals album art/tracklist for “Abnormally Attracted to Sin”

The moment where Tori Amos fans spend their day ripping apart, analyzing, and guessing for the duration of their day came early yesterday morning.

Spinner.com revealed Tori’s new cover art and tracklist for her 10th studio album, “Abnormally Attracted to Sin.”

Here is the cover:

And *drumroll* The tracklist!:

1. ‘Give’
2. ‘Welcome to England’
3. ‘Strong Black Vine’
4. ‘Flavor’
5. ‘Not Dying Today’
6. ‘Maybe California’
7. ‘Curtain Call’
8. ‘Fire to Your Plain’
9. ‘Police Me’
10. ‘That Guy’
11. ‘Abnormally Attracted to Sin’
12. ’500 Miles’
13. ‘Mary Jane’
14. ‘Starling’
15. ‘Fast Horse’
16. ‘Ophelia’
17. ‘Lady in Blue’

Some very interesting titles… and 17 tracks makes the record shorter in track number than her previous album, “American Doll Posse,” and shorter than her critically acclaimed and well-received 2002 album, “Scarlet’s Walk” as well her divisive 2005 album, “The Beekeeper.” I hope this means for a more cohesive album in the vein of “Scarlet’s Walk.” That was the last record from Tori I truly fell in love with, and rank among the best of her strong back catalog.

Finally, here is the interview from Spinner in which Tori talks about what the album will tackle thematically:
The new album, ‘Abnormally Attracted to Sin,’ takes its name from a line in ‘Guys and Dolls,’ said by the character Sarah Brown. Do you feel a kinship with her in any way?

No, because I’m not torn by my religious beliefs. A lot of the problems we have right now in our world are because of intolerance dictated by the big religions.

Do you feel it’s your duty or obligation to expose these truths in your work?

I find that right now, in this turbulent time where there’s so much strife all around the world, there is an opportunity for religions to open their doors and their hearts — to become compassionate for someone else’s beliefs instead of intolerant. That’s always really disappointed me about people who talk about being religious, and yet they’re the most judgemental, usually. Right now, we’re at war, and I wrote quite a lot of this album while I was on tour last time. I traveled the world, I played in Israel, I traveled through countries where the major religions exist — and the one thing that I started to do more than ever was to really ask questions about “What do I believe in?” Traveling and seeing how women see themselves in different cultures … how the community thinks of them becomes so important for some of them, more than how than how they even feel about themselves. And some of them are dying — they’re dying in their lives. You might be approved of in your community, but your heart is completely breaking. And I don’t find that a tolerant society — that is not the compassionate Christ path to me. I began to see that kindness and tolerance were not found in institutions, but found in individuals who seemed to be breaking away from the old patriarchal viewpoint.

Did you have a similar experience growing up in a Christian household?

I was brought up in a home that was … we were brought up in the Christian doctrine, and that’s just what it was. We believed in it, and I think the question is: What is that doctrine? Because it’s not about the open heart. Maybe it takes times like we have right now, times of so much upheaval, where you allow yourself to really find out what it is that you feel about something. My daughter has all kinds of questions all the time, and if she were brought up in a less tolerant household, she would be broken, no question about it. But she has a grandfather who was a Methodist minister and she has a part of her family who are very much practicing Christians, yet she loves them. But she is not interested if they agree with what she thinks because she is allowed to believe in what she wants.

One of the current arguments at large in America is whether or not gays should have the right to marry. Religion is often used in the argument against gay marriage. Why do you think that union is so threatening?

We go back to that word — intolerance. That, to me, isn’t what America ever was. It wasn’t about telling another person how to live their life. I always said in a perfect world, you keep the Democrats out of your bank account and the Republicans out of your bedroom. But in life, why do you have to have anybody else in your bedroom if you’re a consenting adult? That is the need people have right now, it seems, to dictate to another person how they should live there life. I find that the greatest sin of all. The record explores all kinds of feelings and depending on your state of mind, your set of circumstances could result in a very different outcome.

What can you tell me about the visuals that will be accompanying each of the songs on this album?

I’m calling them “vignettes” because it’s more akin to a mini-film. This all started on tour last time, when we were filming the live shows. The director was putting together montages, and as I saw the montages, new music was already coming. I started to put the new music to the mini-films that were being made out on the road.

When I travel I get all kinds of ideas. I’m forced to see things that I wouldn’t and question. When you asked me about ‘Guys and Dolls,’ I guess I was never a Bible-thumping Christian; I was always trying to question because I had so much religion in my upbringing. I was drawn to those people and those ideas that weren’t accepted necessarily, and it’s not because these ideas in reality are “evil” — that’s just the perception that’s being given. The reality I was brought up in was, “Anything that doesn’t work within the Christian doctrine is sinful.” And that’s a lot of stuff.

“Abnormally Attracted to Sin” hits stores MAY 19!! Save the date!

Sia to release new DVD

The amazingly talented and adorably Australian Sia will release her first DVD in mid-May titled “TV is My Parent.” The DVD features a full concert, as well as all of her music videos from her recent album, “some people have REAL problems.”

Here is some more info:

http://www.musicnewsnet.com/2009/03/…-from-sia.html

If you’ve seen Sia live on tour you’ll be thrilled to hear that she is releasing a live DVD in May! That’s right, you’ll be able to watch Sia on stage, any time, any day of the week.

Her debut DVD, called TV Is My Parent, captures her live performance at New York’s intimate Hiro Ballroom in all its enchanting glory. Performing tracks from her solo albums (some people have REAL problems and Colour The Small One) and collaborations with Zero 7, the video is shot in High Definition for pin-sharp, picture-perfect quality and mixed in 5:1 channel surround sound. It has to be seen and heard to be believed – you’re going to love it!

Other lovely goodies on the DVD include music videos for Sia’s beautiful tracks Buttons, Day Too Soon, The Girl You Lost To Cocaine and Soon We’ll Be Found, all taken from her current album some people have REAL problems, plus behind the scenes footage shot by Sia and her friends whilst on tour, and a selection of hidden clips.

TV Is My Parent is released on 18th May in Europe and 19th May in US.