m-flo is set to release its first new album in three years on May 26. After the departure of vocalist Lisa in 2001, m-flo recruited a number of guest vocalists to collaborate on new singles. The first of these collaborations was released in 2003, with Crystal Kay providing vocals on “Reeewind!” The new album titled Astromantic features contributions from melody., Yamamoto Ryouhei, Chemistry, Bloodset Saxophone, Dragon Ash, Crazy Ken Band, Nomiya Maki, BoA, Boy-Ken, Heartsdale, Double, Hinouchi Emi and Sakamoto Ryuichi.
Indie avant-rock trio eX-Girl releases its second album in the US on April 13. Titled Endangered Species, the album will be released by San Francisco label Alternative Tentacles. According to the band’s relaunched website (www.exgirl-kero.com), eX-Girl embarks on a US tour starting May 11.
eX-Girl released its debut album in the US three years ago on Ipecac Records, run by ex-Faith No More singer Mike Patton. Since the album’s release, eX-Girl’s line-up has changed. Original guitarist Chihiro was replaced by Keiko, formerly of Super Junky Monkey. Keiko, however, left the band in 2003, being replaced by Zoren. Original drummer Fuzuki left the band in 2002 and was replaced by current drummer Chapple.
The following tour dates were published on eX-Girl’s website.
Niriglis will release its second album, titled New Standard, on May 26. The band worked with such producers as Ken Ishii and Hoppy Kamiyama on the album, and members of Art-School appear as guest musicians. The sleeve design will be done by Groovision, who also did the design for Nirgilis’ single, “Mayonaka no Schneider”.
Bonnie Pink is set to release her next album on May 12. Pink once again works with Swedish producer Tore Johansson, with whom she’s collaborated since 1998’s Evil and Flowers. Johansson also produced Pink’s most recent singles, “Private Laughter” and “Last Kiss”, which sees an April 7 release.
Nananine will release its second album Fake Book on April 22. The album — Nananine’s first in a year and a nine months — is expected to contain 12 songs. The Fukuoka City quartet also released a new single, “Stranger Paradise”, on its own 9-Tone label in February.
brilliant green guitarist Matsui Ryo debuts his solo project meister with an album release in April. According to the brilliant green’s official site, Matsui has been recording in London with a number of UK musicians, including Kajagoogoo’s Nick Beggs, Ride’s Loz Colbert, bis’ Manda Rin and Boo Radleys’ Sice. Details of the album have not yet been determined.
Supercar will release a new maxi-single, Wonder Word EP, on April 28. Aside from a single mix of the title track, the single will include four new songs. According to the official site, Supercar calls the single “the Answer to Answer“, referring to the group’s recently released seventh album. Tanami Keiichi and Ugawa Naohiro will also do the jacket design for a limited edition first pressing. The band’s web site also announced a vinyl version of Answer will also be released on April 28.
Make no mistake — Audra McDonald has one of those sweet, theatrical voices that doesn’t wear on repeated listens.
In fact, her voice is divine. Clear, strong, practically flawless. It’s the voice of a professional.
Which is why it doesn’t quite work for Happy Songs, a collection of Depression-era music by the likes of Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin and Richard Rodgers.
McDonald is a veteran stage performer with a few Tony Awards under her belt, which means she’s had some training. (Some place called Julliard, wherever that is.)
On her previous solo album, How Glory Goes, McDonald sang individual songs from musicals without sacrificing their dramatic contexts. You didn’t need to know the whole story to get it, and she made sure you got it.
Somehow, that dramatic sensibility doesn’t translate on Happy Songs.
It’s not that she delivers a bad performance — quite frankly, it’s difficult to imagine she could. It’s not that she interprets these songs insensitively. She sings the hell out of them.
No — these songs need swing.
And swing isn’t something a classical training encourages.
It’s apparent right from the first track, “Ain’t It the Truth”. The song calls for a voice as rough as the muted trumpet blaring in the introduction, but McDonald just doesn’t have that kind of gravel.
“Beat My Dog” finds McDonald close to the kind of grit the album needs, but for the most part, the album is mismatch of message and messenger.
The lustre of McDonald’s voice, unfortunately, is not enough to bridge this disparity. In other words, her training got in the way of her interpretation.
Still, McDonald could sing a phone book and blah to the blah to the blah …
Even if Happy Songs doesn’t quite suite her, it’s still a setting nice enough for her to try.
But not in the way her fans nor her record company would like to think.
A young, black girl from Canada, Dobson offers up a bratty snarl that draws inevitable comparrisons to her fellow countrywoman, Avril Lavigne.
Her self-titled debut is an exercise of commercial pandering, a vertible checklist of sonic wizardry geared to milk the lunch money of unsuspecting adolescents everywhere.
Watered-down punk riffs — check. Nasal vocals — check. Token ballads — check. Simplistic assertions of feminine strength — check.
Fefe Dobson is the stuff from which indier-than-thou record store employees have nightmares.
And the world needs her.
The world needs her in the same way it needs asexual gay men on network television, in the same way it needs Japanese girls in dread locks, in the same way it needs Latino guys digging Morrissey.
The world needs her because there just aren’t any black women singing in front of electric guitars. (And what about Res? She hasn’t done anything since her debut in 2001.)
Why does the world need black women singing in front of guitars? Well, why the hell not?
Why shouldn’t one of the best reggae bands in the world come from Japan? Why shouldn’t some white trash dude from Detriot be hip-hop’s most scrutinized star?
Why shouldn’t Ravi Shankar’s daughter scoop up eight Grammys for a lethargic album of countrified jazz? And what’s to stop another cello player from transcribing Jimi Hendrix’s performance of the “Star Spangled-Banner”?
Just because the brand of rock Dobson performs is as disposable as next year’s trend among 15-year-olds doesn’t mean the idea of her is without merit.
Picture it — the screech of guitars, the scream of fans, and above it all, a woman, exploiting her femininity as a weapon in a battle of the sexes, cutting clueless men down to size in the process1.
And she is black.
This color-blind dream could extend to a point where a group of young black men can find themselves tourmates with Death Cab for Cutie.
The world may not be ready for a black woman slinging a guitar. Hell, the world can’t accomodate more than one Living Colour, let alone another Pansy Division.
But what the world is ready for doesn’t reflect what it needs.
Pop singer Hitoto You releases her second album, Hitoto Omoi, on April 7. The album is expected to contain the singles “Kingyo Sukui” and “Edo Polka”, plus the theme song to the Asano Chuushin movie, “Koohii Tokimitsu”. Inoue Akemi collaborates with Hitoto on the song. A first-run limited edition pressing of the album will also include a DVD of five video clips, including “Morai Naki” and “Hanamizuki”.