On a recent family holiday I found myself at the beginning of a 3 hour car ride. To my left sat my 2 year old brother, his hand reaching out eager to share his half eaten tiny teddies. Behind me my 6 year old brother, a constant murmur “How much longer?” coming from his direction. Brothers’ aside, my iPod was my preferred choice of company and despite a rather large catalogue of songs I was replaying 3 songs by Melbourne’s Kate McMahon.

Upon my return it became apparent 3 songs was not enough, fast forward a few weeks and Kate McMahon’s self titled EP had a new home in my CD player; its envelope (as the case) just one of the charms. 

Although she lists influences such as Holly Throsby, Regina Spektor and Fiona Apple, Kate McMahon creates her own style of indie/folk/pop as proved by the 6 songs on the EP; which take “you on a journey through her private fantasy world of six-car pile-ups, playdough, sleazy boys and snow-frosted toes.” Standouts include Six-Storey Caryard Apartment Block and Girls Like Sleaze. Kate’s honest and somewhat quirky lyrics bring to mind Lily Allen and Kate Miller-Heidke comparisons (it’s no wonder she was shortlisted for the Vanda & Young Songwriting Competition) while her piano compositions prove she’s a talented musician. This self titled EP is one that is sure to grow on you, you may find yourself relating to the lyrics, or at least find yourself remembering them.  

Her bio states ”(Kate McMahon) can now be found playing around small bars in North Melbourne and in her bedroom” lets hope she plays more gigs than those in her bedroom, as these songs are too good to be kept inside.

For a sample of Kate McMahon’s tunes head to her Triple J Unearthed page and if you want a copy of the EP contact her on Myspace. Catch her live at the Big Night For A Big Cause on Thursday 26th November.

Ladyhawke and Lisa Mitchell do rather nicely too

Nominations for the annual Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Awards were announced today, with many of the artists we featured in our Australia Week back in July stepping up to the plate with several nods across the event’s 28 categories. Sarah Blasko, Kate Miller-Heidke and Lisa Mitchell receive three nominations each, all competing for Best Female Artist alongside New Zealander Ladyhawke (nominated five times in total) and Australian Idol alumna Jessica Mauboy (the real surprise with a whopping seven nods). Sarah and Kate are both up for Best Pop Release with their albums As Day Follows Night [review], also up for Album Of The Year, and Curiouser [review] respectively. In addition, Kate’s smash hit single ‘The Last Day On Earth’, popularised by a dramatic episode of ‘Neighbours’, is up for Single Of The Year, while Lisa’s enchanting ‘Coin Laundry’ is among the nominees for Breakthrough Artist – Single.

Other nominees with female vocals include The Waifs, Little Birdy, Bertie Blackman, Sneaky Sound System and Zoe Badwi. No love for Holly Throsby this year? Very disappointing! The 2009 ARIA Awards will be held on November 26th at the Sydney Olympic Park. To view the full list of nominees, visit the official ARIA website.

Alan Pedder

Lisa Mitchell, ‘Coin Laundry’

Kate Miller-Heidke, ‘The Last Day On Earth’

I’d only got into The Tallest Man On Earth (TTMOE from now on out of sheer laziness) a few months before this gig after a few friends had been talking about how much they were looking forward to the show. So I took a bit of a punt and got myself a ticket to the show and a copy of his album from last year “Shallow Graves” which has subsequently become one of my most played albums since I first got it as I fell in love with it almost immediately; the brilliant lyrics sung with a slightly different voice and amazing guitarwork to go with it. As such, I’d been looking forward to the show and was very pleased with the decision to have got a ticket to see him on his first UK tour.

Barden’s Boudoir, on Stoke Newington Road, was yet another little venue I’d yet to frequent. After making the trip up North from London Bridge (after a slight kerfuffle with the bus driver closing the doors on me after my friend had already jumped off) we got to the venue via the pub and the first 30 minutes of the England match. Now Barden’s Boudoir wasn’t the most conspicuous of venues with just the door to the venue coming off the road. However, we finally found it and made our way in.

Now the inside of the venue itself was peculiar to say the least and incorporated possibly the worst layout of any venue I’ve been to with the stage not at one end of the venue but was in the middle and pressed up against one of the walls meaning that very few people could actually stand in front of the stage  and had to instead stand around the sides. This worked on one level as it meant the stage was surrounded with people but just felt strange. The venue was also one of the darkest I’ve ever been to and for ‘atmosphere’ I’m sure some of the halogen lights in the ceiling just had bits of coloured plastic covering them.

Anyhoo, after ariving a little bit late, we got there part way through the first support act, Holly Throsby. Sadly, with the stage layout and my being ‘vertically challenged’ I could see sweet FA of what was actually going on on stage (and as such got no pics) but her music was rather wonderful with gentle, minimalist, finger picked guitars underlying some beautiful, fragile vocals and all this was backed up with some low key drums/accordian/xylophones. I’d never heard of her before and was rather impressed but this was sadly spoilt by the fact that almost three quarters of the crowd talked the way through the entire set. This was a real shame as, from what I heard, it was a great little opening set but the talking spoilt it for those of us trying to listen to it but also for Holly herself.

After her set, and a quick change of place in the crowd from myself, the second support band took to the stage in the form of This Frontier Needs Heroes, a brother and sister act from the States. They had a very simple sound with just an acoustic guitar, a bit of hand clapping and some nice vocals and it all started out quite nicely and promising. After two or three songs, however, I suddenly realised that all the songs sounded pretty much the same and were all a little bit boring. The extended chats between tracks also got a little tedious and a little bit sickly and disturbing for a brother/sister act.

After all this though, the main act of TTMOE (otherwise known as Kristian Matsson) took to the stage to raptuous applause before receving silence from the crowd (at last!) as he launched into his first number. Despite all the problems with the venue, it’s fair to say that on the night, Kristian owned it. Bar a few people, the crowd could only stand there mesmerised by the performance and it’s easy to see why.

TTMOE was another of the guitarists I’ve seen over the last six months where his pure technical ability as a guitarist completely blew me away as he made playing look so so easy. At times, thanks to the tunings he used, he even managed to play one handed and all of this while singing in his rather distinct voice which, it should be said, sounded much better live than on any of his records. He also had a very unusual way of performing in that he would seemingly sing to just person in the crowd as he would make eye contact with you and carry on performing. He would also play up to anyone with a camera occasionally ‘posing’ for them as he carried on playing.

The setlist itself was a good mix of ‘older’ songs from his original EP, such as ‘It Will Follow The Rain’ and songs of his album such as my favourites ‘Where Do My Bluebirds Fly?’, ‘The Sparrow And The Medicine’ and (what turned out to be the crowd singalong) ‘The Gardener’ and on top of this, there were a few new tracks (or ones I didn’t recognise anyway!).

I thought this was an incredible set as I’ve not seen a solo artist have a crowd hooked quite like Kristian did and there really isn’t a better word to describe the set than mesmerising. It was a shame the supports were spoilt/weren’t great and that the venue itself wasn’t all that good but TTMOE himself definitely made it all worth it in the end. I can only hope that he comes back soon!

“The Gardener” (live)

“You’re Going Back” (live) – guessed title

“The Sparrow And The Medicine” (live)

Hey guys. I made an extra special Mixtape this week featuring music from bands that are a part of my favourite non-profit organization The Yellow Bird Project. Check it out!

Oh and here’s the tracklist:

1. Stars – Division (B-Side from In Our Bedroom After The War)

2. Of Montreal – “Alter Eagle” (From ID Engager Single)

3. Uninhabitable Mansions – “Do You Have A Strategy?”

4. Broken Social Scene – “Needle In The Head”

5. k-os (feat. Murray Lightburn and Emily Haines) – “Uptown Girl”

6. Holly Throsby – “A Heart Divided”

7. Elvis Perkins In Dearland – “Slow Doomsday”

8. The National (feat. St Vincent) – “Sleep All Summer” (Crooked Fingers Cover)

9. King Creosote – “Camels Swapped For Wives”

10. The Tallest Man On Earth – “A Field Of Birds”

Click here to listen!

A nice little precursor to the Splendour bender which wasn’t a bender at all, was a nice little showcase Spunk Records put on at the Byron Bay Community Centre. Nicely attended, it was a more subdued warm up to the weekend as opposed as to what you’d get in The Beach Hotel or The Great Northern Hotel. What we got here were three extraordinary artists in a theatre styled setting playing some music in a much more toned downed setting.

First off was Leader Cheetah and this band have gone steps and bounds from when I saw them last. They really look on the ball and their indie songs of lost beauty. The Sunspot Letters album was crafted to perfection live and in a way, was perfect to sit and bounce the head too with an ale in hand. “Straight To The Bone” kicked the setlist off perfectly and we were set into a great evening of music.

The Middle East are probably more exponentially on their way up with their beautiful sounds of their folk. I watched in bewilderment and wondered how a band like this could be hidden in one of Australia’s hidden corners of Townsville. The musicianship was brilliant and vocal stylings of the two lead singers were basically reminiscent of Jeff Buckley, without the wailing aspect really. “Blood” especially was just an awe inspired moment in the set and it seriously took me to dizzy heights.

Holly Throsby has been around a little bit more than those aforementioned bands, and she did have a bit more of a repitoire to draw from, which made for a set of some pretty and sparkling folk. Holly’s drummer Bree Van Reyk is also a wonder to watch with her massive talents on display playing sometimes 4 instruments in one song. Holly’s vocals were on song as well and were sounding as sweet as ever. She seems to be also gaining a bit of stage presence as well, as I could remember last time that I saw Holly – she was a little stagnant and still on stage, which is really nice to see.

Some beautiful music put on by a brilliant label who really know talent when they see it. Watch these three artists grow into blossoming careers.

Leader Cheetah myspace
The Middle East myspace
Holly Throsby myspace
Spunk Records website myspace

A rather belated conclusion to our Australia Week!
Read the rest of our special features here.

interrupting yr broadcast: holly throsby

Australia’s best kept secret isn’t that the Aussies covertly talk in received pronunciation, it’s one Holly Throsby, esteemed creator of some of the most unassuming, quietly startling music ever to come out of the Antipodes. Her third album, the somewhat daringly named A Loud Call, was released a year ago down under but has only just received a domestic release in the UK – a delay that has caused much consternation in the Wears The Trousers office, not least because we’ve been sitting on an interview with Holly since she toured here last September. Now, at last, we’ve shifted our backsides and dusted off the tapes.

Meeting Holly Throsby in the dimly lit basement of one of London’s many rite-of-passage venues, at its worst a dank little sweatbox, it quickly becomes apparent that our conversation will be forced to compete with the loud intrusion of someone else’s soundcheck – not an ideal situation for two individuals whose naturally comfortable speaking volume lies somewhere between a cat’s purr and a 4am phonecall. Determined to persevere, we huddle in close to the microphone and get to chatting.

Holly has been in London for a couple of weeks. It’s her fifth visit to the city. Her first was back in the autumn of 1997, on the day that Diana, Princess of Wales, had an unfortunate encounter with a Parisian underpass. Today she has been to see the Tate Modern and especially enjoyed the Kandinskys. She’s been to Topshop, mooched around Shoreditch and Soho, and ridden on some double-decker buses. “Lots of very London things,” she shrugs. But mostly she’s just been missing her dog Jones, her much loved chocolate Labrador.

Despite her owner’s many lengthy and far-flung travels, it seems that Jones has got it good with what Holly describes as “a complex series of dog-sitters.” “I’d wanted a dog for years and years, ever since my last dog died. But before I got one I had to make sure that I would be able to tour and it wouldn’t be a problem. It’s something a lot of musicians find they can’t really have, but I have lots of friends and family that I have booked,” she explains.

Anyone who has paid close attention to Holly’s lyrics will notice that (wo)man’s best friends are not infrequently referenced. Crowd-pleaser ‘Don’t Be Howling’ starts out with the memorable lyric, “I get home after one and the dog looks drunk / He should walk it off with that little strut he does,” while the touching dissection of ‘We’re Good People So Why Don’t We Show It?’ ends with Holly’s blunt assertion that she wants “to raise dogs; dogs and money.”

But none of her songs are really about her canine companions. Holly is lyrically fixated on relationships, and, like Nina Nastasia (who, incidentally, named her debut album Dogs), often constructs her songs around snatches of conversations and small, specific scenarios that lurch out of the pulsating giant macrocosm we like to call love. These snapshots might almost seem mundane if it weren’t for Holly’s beautifully poetic, economic turns of phrase delivered in a sometimes ironic, sometimes oppressive hush. Inside, is she laughing or crying? It’s not always easy to tell.

Holly was surrounded by music from a very early age (her mother is a radio presenter, her stepdad a big Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen fan), and while she put time and effort into learning guitar, it was films that really captured her imagination at first. After finishing high school, she spent 8 years working in a cult video store in downtown Sydney (“I loved it! I still go there!”) and would often write film reviews for local magazines.

At the same time she was studying for a double major in English and international politics, but her teenage experimentation with writing and recording songs eventually took over. She laughs at the inevitability of it. “When I look back now I realise that my entire teenage years were taken up by a complete kind of obsession with music. I did that more than I did anything else, but I still never took it seriously. I always wanted to go to university and I fancied myself as some kind of academic, which I did not end up being!”

Even from her earliest release, 2004’s On Night, Holly’s knowledge of obscure cinema and the intricacies of narrative modulation has fed into her songwriting. “I feel like I think in images more than words,” she muses, which leads into a discussion of the comics she penned and sketched as companions to both On Night and its 2006 follow-up Under The Town. I really wanted to see one after reading about them on the web (“Isn’t Wikipedia a strange phenomenon?” she grins) but alas she’d already sold her last copy back in Australia.

“They are incredibly lo-fi,” she explains. “In fact, they are more like a zine than anything else. They are kind of vague surrealist fantasies.” Oddly enough, Holly says she’s not particularly into comics on a wider level, though she does enjoy Jeffrey Lewis’s efforts. “When I say ‘comic book’, I use the term liberally!” she laughs. “Mine are really not that funny, but I enjoy doing them.”

The word of mouth success of On Night saw Holly take up several prestigious support slots for the likes of Joanna Newsom, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Devendra Banhart and Smog, though it seems that no one was tempted to slap her with the tag of ‘New Weird Australia’ (“I don’t really think that would apply to me,” she shrugs). The release of Under The Town cemented her growing reputation with an ARIA award nomination for Best Female, but the biggest development was in Holly’s own belief in her voice.

“I really did almost talk my way through my first album,” she laughs. “When I was recording Under The Town, I felt like I was enjoying singing a lot more, and for this new record I really grew to love it. It was liberating! I always felt like a songwriter but feeling like a singer is a different thing to me. Now I feel like that is a very important part of a song – it doesn’t just sing itself!”

A Loud Call is indeed a marked progression for Holly, not only because she really opens up her voice, but also in that it exudes a sense of optimism lacking from its predecessors. “It’s not as deathly as the first two albums, which is really nice for me,” Holly says with a smile. “There is something about the production that is very lush and full sounding. We used a lot of organs and drone instruments, but in a very beautiful way, which I think helped with the romantic feel to the record. Plus I felt a lot more optimistic this time while writing the songs.”

Unlike some other artists, Holly plays fast and loose with her songs before entering the studio, preferring to let a lot of the magic happen organically during the sessions rather than rehearsing everything down to the last note beforehand. She openly admits that a lot of her ideas for the album went out of the window when she got into the studio. “I was mainly wrong in terms of what I thought might work,” she laughs. “I like to keep the recording process full of surprises. I was still writing a couple of songs when we were there. Luckily I had good people around me.”

Those good people included studio whizz Mark Nevers, whose involvement in the record marked the first time that Holly had worked with a producer outside of Australia, plus accomplished musicians from Lambchop and Silver Jews. The bulk of the album was recorded at Mark’s studio in Nashville, Tennessee in just over 2 weeks, during which Holly was treated to a tour of the local attractions (including a trip out to Memphis) and dinner at a different restaurant each night. “His choices were really fun. One day we had fried chicken that was recommended by a Yo La Tengo record sleeve!”

One of the highlights of the sessions arose when Holly asked Mark if he knew anyone locally who could provide a strong male vocal for the song ‘Would You’, which she describes as “a very traditional sort of call and response duet.” As it happened, Mark had only just completed work on Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s Lie Down In The Light, and champion crooner Will Oldham was still in town. One phonecall later and he was in the studio with Holly, singing into the same microphone. “I was so honoured!” she gushes. “It was a very intimate experience. I think he did an absolutely perfect job.”

The critics think so too, it seems, as A Loud Call has been hailed as Holly’s finest work to date. It may not be the roof-raising experience the title at first might suggest, but there’s a real sense of the artist blooming out from the metaphorical wall her first two albums sidled along. “I felt the title was wildly appropriate to me,” she explains. “On Night had a real nocturnal feel and so that title felt very appropriate, and Under The Town really seemed to fit. This one I did think about for a long time before I settled on it.

“There’s lots of yells and screams and calls on the album, in the lyrics, but also it just sort of felt like it was about the romance of it, as though that was the loudest call of all.”

Alan Pedder

Holly Throsby plays End Of The Road Festival in September, so expect a few more UK dates to crop up around that time.

‘Would You’

‘Now I Love Someone’ [live]

australia week: a loud call from down under

It’s 1981. Olivia Newton-John, already a household name thanks to her performance opposite John Travolta in ‘Grease’, spends 10 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with the suggestive pop anthem ‘Physical’. The album of the same name peaks at #6 on the Billboard 200 and is later certified double platinum. Six years later, in Olivia’s native Australia, a popular young soap star named Kylie Minogue is coaxed into a rendition of the Little Eve classic ‘The Loco-motion’ at a charity benefit with her fellow ‘Neighbours’ cast members. Her recording of the song becomes the highest-selling single of the ’80s in Australia and spawns a recording career which has seen her thus far sell over 60 million records, a large chunk of those sold throughout the UK and Europe.

Newton-John and Minogue are no doubt two of Australia’s biggest musical exports, but they do not even begin to scratch the surface in terms of the breadth and depth of female talent currently on offer from those distant shores. Sarah Blasko, Holly Throsby, Lenka Kripac, Sia Furler, Kasey Chambers, Missy Higgins and Lisa Mitchell are just a few of the names who have made or are beginning to make an impact both in Australia and overseas; some of them criminally overlooked by the Australian media (Furler), others earning their place among the most sought-after live acts (Blasko). Perhaps now more than ever independent Aussie females are making their mark on the international circuit, and making the Australian music industry sit up and take notice.

Within the mainstream, too, things are looking promising. The Veronicas have just earned a number one single in Ireland with their electro-pop swinger ‘Untouched’ (having already hit the top 10 in the UK and top 20 in the States), Kylie is about to embark on her first ever US tour, and then there’s young Gabriella Cilmi. In spite of criticisms that her sound was largely an imitation of Amy Winehouse, Cilmi last year hit the upper reaches of the UK charts with her irresistibly catchy debut single ‘Sweet About Me’ and subsequent album Lessons To Be Learned. She was rewarded for her efforts with six Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) awards, including nods for Best Female Artist and Single of the Year – a phenomenal achievement for a 17 year old.

Without belittling Cilmi’s success or doubting her talent, her ARIA wins follow a disturbing trend within the Australian music industry of rewarding its female musicians only once they achieve international acclaim. It is worth noting that Cilmi won the accolade for Best Female Artist over Holly Throsby and Clare Bowditch, both of whom, from a critical perspective, offered more established albums last year, and that Adelaide-born Sia, whose third album Some People Have Real Problems (deemed “[2008's] first great pop album” by Slant Magazine), wasn’t even nominated. The industry’s indifference towards Furler is somewhat baffling, given her continuing critical and commercial success in the US in particular. But it seems even there the tide is turning; Sia’s recent Australian tour was a big success, suggesting there is hope for her to gain the hometown recognition she deserves yet. 

The icons: Olivia Newton-John, Christina Amphlett, Marcia Hines, Kylie Minogue

The soap stars: Dannii Minogue, Natalie Imbruglia, Delta Goodrem, Holly Valance

The new visionaries: Sarah Blasko, Holly Throsby, Sia Furler, Kate Miller-Heidke

Indeed, female artists are becoming much more of a drawcard for Australian audiences than they have in the past; in 2007, the organisers of the prestigious Homebake festival bravely marketed the year’s festival as the ‘Ladies Domain’. Headlined by the irrepressible Christina Amphlett of the Divinyls, along with Sarah Blasko, Missy Higgins, Operator Please and others, the event was an unprecedented sell-out, proving that Australian audiences were just as interested in their female charges as they were in AC/DC, INXS and Silverchair. Amphlett is often credited with leading the way for Australian female artists who did not fit the passive, safe, pop prototype. In an era where the two most popular Australian females were Newton-John and disco diva Marcia Hines, who was voted ‘Queen Of Pop’ for three successive years in the mid-1970s, Amphlett broke the mould with her aggressive, sexually charged performances and intimidating stage persona.

Despite the controversy surrounding ‘Physical’ and its accompanying video, Newton-John’s image was ultimately wholesome and clean-cut, as was Hines’s; Amphlett’s was anything but. Her howling vocal style was hardly technically sound and her wild stage shows became notorious – she is reported to have urinated on stage several times in the band’s early tours. (No footage of this has been produced, although when asked about the claims years later, Amphlett conceded that it was possible given the intensity with which she performed). As the frontwoman of Divinyls, one of Australia’s premier rock bands, Amphlett enjoyed considerable success on the domestic front, earning four top 10 albums and several hit singles. The band would later find success internationally with their ode to female masturbation ‘I Touch Myself’, which hit the top 10 in the UK and top 5 Stateside. Their reformation for Homebake 2007 was one of the biggest musical events of the decade.

In the wake of Kylie Minogue’s success, a host of Australian television personalities tried their hand at a music career, with varying degrees of success. Few have been able to replicate Minogue’s career path, though Holly Valance managed to score a #1 hit in the UK with the ridiculous ‘Kiss Kiss’, and Minogue’s younger sister Dannii, who appeared on rival soap ‘Home & Away’, has impressively had more consecutive #1 hits on the UK dance chart than any other artist – including, surprisingly enough, her sister. It came as quite a surprise, then, when Natalie Imbruglia hit the top of the charts around the globe with her cover of little-known band Ednaswap’s song ‘Torn’. Imbruglia’s sound owed more to the confessional singer-songwriter stylings of Alanis Morissette than it did to Kylie’s dance-pop, but for a while Imbruglia was the bigger star, a favourite among critics and fans alike, and winner of the 1996 ARIA award for Album of the Year. While her subsequent releases have not had quite the same level of commercial success, they have been relatively well received by critics. A new album from Imbruglia is reportedly due later this year.

Fellow ‘Neighbours’ graduate Delta Goodrem has also enjoyed considerable success since pursuing a recording career. Signed to Sony Music at the tender age of 15, Goodrem received a lukewarm reaction from Australian audiences for her debut single ‘I Don’t Care’. A few years later, having taken control of songwriting responsibilities and built up her profile through ‘Neighbours’, Goodrem achieved phenomenal success with her debut album Innocent Eyes. The album sold a staggering one million copies in Australia and would later make its mark in the UK charts, peaking at #2. While Goodrem was plagued with negative media coverage in Britain following her romance with Brian McFadden, ex-flame of Atomic Kitten’s Kerry Katona, in Australia she quickly became a media darling. Her girl-next-door image ensured universal appeal, and when she was tragically diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma shortly after the album’s release, the public support for her was overwhelming. She has since recovered from the illness and continues to achieve multi-platinum sales. While her attempts at cracking the US market have thus far proved fruitless, this has perhaps been more a result of record label hesitation than the quality of her music.

The personalities: Lenka, Clare Bowditch, Butterfly Boucher, Kasey Chambers

The young guns: Missy Higgins, Gabriella Cilmi, Lisa Mitchell, Bertie Blackman

The bands: Little Birdy, The Grates, The Veronicas, Spinnerette

In terms of the current musical landscape, the two most exciting Australian female vocalists are arguably Sarah Blasko and Holly Throsby. Blasko released her third album As Day Follows Night only 10 days ago, debuting at #5 in the ARIA album charts – her highest charting release to date. Recorded in Stockholm, Sweden with Bjorn Yttling of Peter, Bjorn & John fame, it’s her first album to be entirely recorded overseas and we can only hope that exploring her range with European producers could provide the quirky songstress with an opportunity to crack the elusive international market. Throsby also recorded her third and most recent album A Loud Call overseas – this time in Nashville with producer and engineer Mark Nevers of Lambchop. Complete with a Will Oldham duet, the album sounds more accomplished and confident than Throsby’s earlier work, with Nevers’ production adding an extra dimension to Throsby’s sweet, melodic songs. Like Blasko, Throsby’s determination to experiment with and expand her sound could pay dividends around the world.

And Blasko and Throsby are not the only promising young women flying the Aussie flag. Ex-’Australian Idol’ contestant Lisa Mitchell has also been working with a host of songwriters in the UK and released her debut album Wonder in the UK last week. Butterfly Boucher finally overcame contract wranglings with Geffen Records to release her long-awaited second album Scary Fragile at the beginning of June. Former Decoder Ring singer turned solo artist Lenka has been making waves in the US and Europe with recent single ‘The Show’ and self-titled album, and has become a favourite and fixture on the schedule of Hollywood’s influential Hotel Café. And on the band front, Brisbane trio The Grates are about to release their second album Teeth Lost, Hearts Won in the UK in September, followed by The Veronicas’ Hook Me Up in early October. A fourth album is expected from Architecture In Helsinki by the end of the year. Howling Bells are about to release their second album Radio Wars in the US. And let’s not forget the true nationality of Spinnerette’s Brody Dalle – her music may be as American as you can get, but she’s a Melbourne girl at heart.

Waiting in the wings for their international breakthrough moment are Western Australian rock outfit Little Birdy, fronted by gifted singer-songwriter Katy Steele (sister of Luke Steele from The Sleepy Jackson and, latterly, Empire Of The Sun). The Perth-based band has been scoring rave reviews for their latest effort Confetti, an album which flirts with folk and even country, but at its heart is simply Australian rock at its best. Meanwhile, Sydney’s Bertie Blackman has scored universal critical acclaim with her recently released third album Secrets & Lies, on which she boldly traded her love of guitars for a more electronic sound. Once again, her bravery could see her earn the overseas recognition she deserves. A host of others, such as the fearsomely talented, Christina Amphlett-influenced, opera-trained Kate Miller-Heidke, are also preparing their work for international release. Judging from the huge success of Miller-Heidke’s recent UK tour, labels will be scrambling to add her latest album Curiouser to their schedules.

The Australian music industry has come a long way since the 1980s, when Kylie and Olivia helped to generate international interest in Australian culture. The ladies making their mark on the international scene today are indebted to Minogue and Newton-John, but also have their own distinct sounds which have won them legions of fans both in Australia and overseas. As the first decade of the new millennium draws to a close, it will be interesting to see how Blasko, Throsby and their all-female army fare in the overseas market, but only the harshest critic would doubt their potential to achieve success. After all, these women represent a new generation of Australian female artists; aware of what has become before them, but consistently looking toward the future.

Dane Hodges

Cricket cricket cricket. That’s all we ever hear about these days as the biannual ordeal of the Ashes rumbles mind-numbingly onwards ’til September. Do we really care who wins? We’ve misplaced our national pride and haven’t bothered looking for it. We couldn’t tell an LBW from an ODI, much less explain the mathematical intricacies of the Duckworth-Lewis method, but we do know good music when we hear it, and Australia is full of it. In fact, there’s never been a more exciting time for Australian music than the here and now. Over the course of this week, Wears The Trousers will be bringing you reviews, interviews and other features on the wealth of female talent roaring out of the outback and from all corners of the country.

* * *

Day 1

[feature] A Loud Call From Down Under
[interview] Butterfly Boucher: Happening All Over Again [free MP3]
[review] Sarah Blasko: As Day Follows Night [free MP3]

Day 2

[interview] Lenka: The Woman With The Child In Her Eyes
[review] Little Birdy: Confetti
[review] Bertie Blackman: Secrets & Lies

Day 3

[interview] Kate Miller-Heidke: God’s Gift To Britain
[review] The Grates: Teeth Lost, Hearts Won

Day 4

[interview] Kylie Auldist: Funk Soul Mother
[competition] win CDs from Lisa Mitchell, Kate Miller-Heidke and Howling Bells

Day 5

[interview] Lisa Mitchell: Dream Of Life
[review] Rachael Brady: Somewhere Sunshine

Day 6

[review] Kate Miller-Heidke: Curiouser
[review] Tara Simmons: Spilt Milk

Day 7

[interview] Sarah Blasko: Architect Of A New Dawn
[interview] Holly Throsby: No Need To Shout

* * *

photo: Sarah Blasko by Warwick Baker

Holly Throsby
A Loud Call ••••
SRD / Woo Me! 

A Loud Call is a nicely ironic album title for Holly Throsby, creator of some of the quietest, gentlest, least assertive music of recent years. The Sydney singer-songwriter’s two previous albums, 2004’s On Night and 2006’s Under The Town were both spare, low-key, unassuming affairs, steeped in rural imagery and sensitive observations and crowned by Throsby’s distinctive warm and sleepy vocals. The title of A Loud Call does not, as it turns out, presage any major developments in Throsby’s signature style. The atmosphere remains mostly hushed and intimate, the instrumentation acoustic, with Throsby’s sensuous voice (sounding better than ever) right up front. Nonetheless, Throsby expands her palette subtly on this, her most collaborative record.

Recorded in Nashville with engineer and producer Mark Nevers, the album features members of Lambchop and Silver Jews, plus a duet with Will Oldham, and boasts a somewhat fuller, more textured sound. (String and horn arrangements were recorded in Australia by her regular collaborator Tony Dupe.) The result is Throsby’s most confident album yet, an assured and engaging set of songs on which quality control is sustained throughout. Among the gems are the enticing opener ‘Warm Jets’, the infectious single ‘A Heart Divided’, the evocative ‘On The Wharf’, Oldham’s effective cameo on ‘Would You?’ and the delicious ‘The Time It Takes’, with its burbling brass and honky-tonk piano (plus bicycle wheel and playing card).

Eschewing some of the twee-er tendencies of her first two albums, Throsby is maturing into a songwriter of considerable skill. Whenever you think one of her songs is going to turn slushy or banal – and the opening verses of ‘Now I Love Someone’ come pretty close – it’s rescued by an odd image or a surprising detail. As usual, there’s darkness within the delicacy of her compositions. “How’re we gonna meet our ends?” wonders the narrator of ‘And Then We’re Gone’, while the closing ode to transience ‘To Begin With’ finds that “we’re only a shell in the end / and only an egg to begin with.” But there’s also warmth and hope in her work, a generous-spirited openness. The mix of melancholy and optimism that characterises her music is beguiling and, like its predecessors, A Loud Call is a charmer.

Alex Ramon
UK release date: 01/06/09; www.myspace.com/hollythrosby

‘Would You?’ [feat. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy]

A Loud Call EPK

The Woodlands are a husband and wife duo from Portland, Oregon. Alleged long nights at wooden desks and pillow forts resulted in the delightful folky ditty “Summerland”. Think Holly Throsby meets She and Him. Or envision bouncy cups of tea running through fields of flowers. We like.

Find out more about The Woodlands at their Myspace – and make sure you listen “Can We Stay” while you’re there.

If I was riding a horse I'd want a lamp-hat too.

Oh Yeah! Look at that image! And no my latest mixtape isn’t all black metal! Click here to listen…

This Week’s Mixtape:

1. Chris Garneau – “No More Pirates”

2. Dan Deacon – “Snookered”

3. Friendly Fires – “Skeleton Boy”

4. Devendra Banhart – “(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady”

5. Antlers – “Two”

6. Lullatone – “A Mobile Over Your Bed”

7. Hayden – “Let It Last” (Feat. Holly Throsby)

8. The Sounds – “No One Sleeps When I’m Awake”

9. Perhapst – “Incense Cone”

10. Gregory and the Hawk – “Grey Weather”

Oh my gosh, could you imagine a nicer thing to do on a cold winter’s (close enough!) night than being entertained by the likes of Holly Throsby and Little Scout, all the while being served tasty food and drink (the ‘Vanguard Affogato’ was especially tasty)? No, because I don’t know that you could get any better!

I’d never been to the Vanguard before (sadly I missed Andrew Bird last year), and was eager to see what it was like. I was not to be disappointed, with a lovely atmosphere and, as mentioned, tasty food and beverages. That said, I would not recommend general admission tickets, as the view and comfort level is nowhere near as good, as far as I could tell.

From what I’d heard, I thought there were two supports – Little Scout and Deep Sea Arcade – but only Little Scout played, and there was no mention of Deep Sea Arcade not being able to make it, so I can only assume that they were supporting one night each. If that’s the case, boy am I glad we went last night, because I simply adore Little Scout. (Note: Just check Holly’s MySpace and it confirmed that one of them supported each night, which was planned).

Their lineup had changed a bit since last time – their keyboardist / backup singer / hand clapper has been replaced, although I couldn’t really tell the difference too much. Despite some initial cabling problems, they put on a really lovely set of their cute little brand of indie/pop/folk/country/icantclassifymusic, and the crowd adored them. Hopefully they make the trip down from Brisbane more often in the future!

You know, apparently Holly Throsby usually plays with like some sort of a proper band and stuff, but I’ll be darned if I’ve ever seen it happen. Well, out of the two times I’ve now seen her, they’ve both been more or less solo, anyway. I think she works like that, though. But by ‘more or less solo’, I mean last time was solo but this time she had oh my gosh all of Sydney’s music scene come and help her out at times.

Lemme see… There was Bree van Reyk, her usual drummer, who did some backup vocals and played accordion and some other things. Then there was Aidan Roberts of Belles Will Ring playing some extra guitar, including a supermarket ‘kit’ guitar, and another girl, Caitlin Park, playing a mini guitar. Then there was, oh my, Mr Jack Ladder! Which makes this the second time I’ve seen them together, although this time Jack played with Holly, and was also considerably less inebriated. He is so tall! And has an awesome voice and guitar skills and stuff. Seeing him last night probably made me want to listen to some of his own stuff more than his solo show, if only because the heavy drunkenness rather put me off last time. Hrm.

Last of all, on came (holy moly!) Sarah Blasko! I mean, who said anything about me having a certain poster of a certain somebody in my room? Ahem. But it was pretty much the best thing ever. They sung the last song before the encore. It was a cover. Guess what it was? Eleanor Rigby! Best. Night. Ever.

Holly Throsby MySpace
Little Scout MySpace

I’ve been keeping an eye on the Sydney Festival Secret Shows, and while there’s been a few that sounded interesting, I hadn’t been motivated enough to actually go and see one. That was, until last night. I should explain the deal with Secret Shows, actually: some time during the day, subscribers get a text or email (both, in my case) saying what the secret show for that night is. Tickets are always $20, and the show is at the tiny Bosco Theatre at 11:30pm. Anyway, I deemed this a ‘must see’ show, and I was lucky enough to have a friend able to get tickets, so off we went.

I’ve never heard much stuff by either Holly Throsby or Jack Ladder, but I’ve heard excellent things about both, and they didn’t disappoint. Holly Throsby’s mellow, engaging show suited the venue perfectly. We were in the front row, in the middle, right in front of her and her guitar, and the whole thing was entrancing. It was actually a strange feeling; at one point, she asked the audience a question (“What are you all doing here so late?”). I felt almost compelled to answer her, in just normal conversation, she was so… Nice, and inviting. I didn’t, of course, but yeah. I think I have a new crush?

Jack Ladder’s set was, well, completely different. Electric guitar plus drummer in such a small venue equals a lot of noise, which was a big shock after Holly Throsby. He played some catchy tunes though (and even threw a little bit of a Ramones cover at the end). The only problem I really had was his stage presence. He was pretty drunk, in a bad way, and he was pretty uncommunicative and boring. I usually wouldn’t mind so much, but being such an intimate venue, you kind of expect the performers to go along with it. So, nice performance, but quite unengaging.

An excellent unplanned night out. Thankyou, Spunk Records!

I linked this ages ago, but I’ve been listening to it a bit lately, and it remains just a beautiful, beautiful song.

A little sip of the divine Liz Stringer…

Oh so divine.

… a small bite of Laura Jean…

Oh so sombre.

… and a nice side of Holly Throsby…

Dat gals got da books!

We’ll be serving lunch soon, so stay seated and don’t push that… button. Sigh.

jeg har en hjerne som akkurat nå føles tung og tom samtidig. det er disse fem oppgavene, fem essayene, som er årsaken. essay, og sikkert en anelse sult også. jeg må dra en plass og finne middag.

og det er så himla mye anna jeg heller vil enn å sitte inne denne lørdagskvelden, men jeg var ute igår og hadde det gøy, så ikveld, ikveld, ikveld må jeg nesten få gjort noe. om så bare ei side, ei lusen lita side om Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby og dens historiske verdi og samfunnsinformasjon, det er alt jeg ber om, da kan jeg legge meg med om ikke god, så i alle fall ok samvittighet.

det er problematisk å ikke klare å tenke på de rette tingene når man virkelig må. jeg kommer til å lide for dette om ikke så lenge, mark my words, det kommer til å være smertefullt og jeg kommer til å sutre og forbanne min hele eksistens (sånn ca). jeg kommer til å grine. ha det kjipt.

men det fine med at vi lever i en verden der det finnes tid, er at det faktisk en gang er historie, og da betyr det ikke noe lenger. når det er over er det over, og alle hjerter kan glede seg.

imens gleder mitt hjerte seg over denne lille perla fra australske Holly Throsby:

Tropic Thunder. (Last month’s, but I missed including it). One of those movies I can’t enjoy for a few reasons, but much of which I enjoyed. Most of that enjoyment centred around Robert Downey Jr – I love seeing actors playing “serious” characters mocking themselves (Extras has redeemed a few in my eyes), and it cracked me up watching him overdo the facial tics and movements I had noticed over several watchings of Iron Man.

Not Quite Hollywood. Well. The first fifth was sex scenes from ’70s movies and I didn’t actually look at the screen much. I am glad I stayed though, because the rest was brilliant, one of those generous, outrageous documentaries rich with clips and anecdotes and glimpses of pulp Australian movies I would really like to see (especially The Howling III: The Marsupials heheh), and “Quentin Tarantino: Fan” waxing lyrical over them. I can’t recommend the documentary, thanks to the first part, but I wouldn’t mind having a movie night based on some of the contents.

In Bruge. My sister said the language in this one didn’t count because of the accents. And it was a beautiful, bizarre, hilarious little movie – like Lock, Stock etc, but pretty.

Son of Rambow. A lovely, funny movie about two primary school boys, one raised strictly and without television (Plymouth Brethren) and one a delinquent who decide to film a sequel to Rambo. It was full of adventure, strange French exchange students and flying guide dogs, and felt in some respects like remembered children’s novels, but never like a children’s movie. It was set in the ’80s, too, and the best scene takes place in the senior common-room: it is shot just like all those parties to which previously uncool kids get invited and initiated into drugs and alcohol and tattoos, except the drugs were popping gum and scented erasers and the tattoos were temporary, and the dancing was to Michael Jackson. I would watch the movie again anyway, but also for this scene.

Picasso and His Collection. I went to see this on its last day, and am glad I did. I am less of a Picasso fan than an appreciator, but seeing influences and cross-references and sketches and exchanges between dozens of artists was fabulous. My favourite was the Bakst costume sketch (top left):

The Mummy 3. One good thing: Michelle Yeoh. Awesome, awesome fighting clothes. I want to have greying hair and take on zombie hordes and wear green silk culottes. The rest was dreadful. Oh, except the Yetis. They were unexpectedly kind of cool.

Wall-E. Really, really frustrating movie because I keep wanting to quote it and can’t. There was barely any dialogue! But intelligent (if occasionally problematic) and sweet and lovingly detailed: my favourite feature of Pixar films are the tiny surprises, Wall-E’s collections, the details of mechanisation, the beauty in small and ugly things.

Tattersalls Landscape Art Exhibition. This is on annually in the foyer of our  building and RachelT came over to spend a lunch hour wandering around with me, critiquing and admiring and getting lost in paintings and speculating what we would buy if we had a spare $10k, and what sort of architecture you would need to carry them off.

Holly Throsby Concert. Here are Deb and I – I was not quite as awake as I may seem in this picture. I do not have the constitution for concerts, and it was very nice that Holly Throsby told everyone to sit back down on the floor once she finally got on stage, so we could stay on our sofa and watch and I could try to stay awake by only closing one eye at a time, because it was very enjoyable and I like her music and it was a good concert.

A nice little treat arrived in the inblx this morning in the shape of the first batch of acts coming for the Laneway Festival.

The lineup is as follows:

GIRL TALK, STEREOLAB, ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI, THE HOLD STEADY, THE DRONES, CUT OFF YOUR HANDS, FOUR TET, TAME IMPALA, EL GUINCHO, JAY REATARD, BURAKA SOM SISTEMA DJ/MC SET, THE TEMPER TRAP, NO AGE, JOHN STEEL SINGERS, CANYONS, PIVOT, PORT O’BRIEN, HOLLY THROSBY, BORN RUFFIANS, MOUNTAINS IN THE SKY, TIM FITE, STILL FLYIN , DAEDELUS…plus more to be announced.

Saturday, 31 January 2009 BRISBANE Alexandria St off St Paul’s Terrace, Fortitude Valley

Sunday, 1 February 2009 MELBOURNE Lonsdale St, Caledonian Lane and Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne

Friday, 6 February 2009 PERTH Perth Cultural Centre, Northbridge

Saturday, 7 February 2009 ADELAIDE Fowler’s Live, Northern Terrace

Sunday, 8 February 2009 SYDNEY The Basement, Macquarie Park & Reiby Place, Circular Quay

Tickets are onsale Monday, 27 October 2008 from Moshtix.

I’ll be particularly keen to check out No Age, Four Tet and Girl Talk.  Here is a teaser of what you can expect from No Age…

Holly Throsby, an Australian musician, has recently released her third studio album “A Loud Call”.

I’m disappointed I hadn’t gotten into her before. Her music now, as one would expect, is a little different from her earlier efforts. Or, in her own words “[Her band has] gone all pop. But don’t worry, we’re still depressed as ever.”

To me, “A Loud Call” is like a hug, not only to my ears but my heart too.

On another note, Holly Throsby describes her earlier album “On Night” as one that isn’t “a slit-your-wrists album [because] all the sadness on there is tempered”. She believes “an awareness of sadness makes sadness a little less sad”.

However her words and chords may be interpreted, I do think there is a truth in this.

“I wish I’d been at this performance” or, “I wish I was 18 in June”.

“The Age” interview

“SMH” interview

Above image from Ennaland

in today’s trouser press:

- Sarah McLachlan splits with husband, writes new songs about it
- Shirley Manson debuts in Terminator spinoff, records new songs
- Tori Amos writes foreword for Nemi comic anthology
- newly curated all-female Christmas album out next month 
- Nicole Atkins covers Mama Cass, The Doors and more
- former Sneaker Pimps singer Kelli Ali returns
- Beyoncé announces release date for third solo album
- Barbra Streisand and Gina Gershon take on Sarah Palin
- Gabriella Cilmi dominates ARIA nominations
- Estelle up for five MOBOs 

* * *

Sarah McLachlan has revealed that she is separating from her husband of 11 years, Ashwin Sood, with whom she has two daughters. Talking to Billboard.com she said, “I wasn’t planning on saying anything, but it’s gonna come out at some point. I haven’t said anything about it because I’ve been terrified to, but I figure…there’s no good time to say it, so I just said it.”

She also revealed that the two new songs on her upcoming greatest hits album, Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan, directly relate to the separation. New single ‘U Want Me 2′ she says is “about that really uncertain, confusing place at the end of a relationship when there’s no communication or closure, everything’s still up in the air and there’s a lot of anger and sadness. It’s sort of that working through ‘How do we move forward…with some dignity and grace.” The other new song, ‘Don’t Give Up’, she describes as “pretty self-explanatory, basically just a plea to give it another chance and keep trying.”

Closer is released on October 6th in single-disc and 2CD deluxe versions and Sarah hopes to have an album of new material out within the next 2 years.

‘U Want Me 2′

* * *

Fresh from her largely well-received debut in ‘The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ as Catherine Weaver, high-powered CEO by day, Terminator by night, Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson is heading back into the recording studio next month to continue working on her debut solo album. “I’ve got a lot of material,” she told Billboard.com, adding “we’ll see if I manage to pull it off.”

Shirley has already put one new song out there. Her cover of the traditional number ‘Samson & Delilah’, as made famous by the Grateful Dead, played over the opening scenes of her first episode in her new role. Watch it here:

Talking about Garbage’s indefinite hiatus, Shirley said “I wouldn’t say it was boring, but it didn’t frighten me any more. [On screen] I’m scared and it’s a challenge and it feels good.”

See what all the fuss is about with this compilation of four scenes from the episode:

Or just cut to the good bit…when she morphs out of a men’s urinal! What were the lyrics to ‘Androgyny’ again? “Girls in the men’s room…”

* * *

Fresh from unveiling her ‘Comic Book Tattoo’ Tori Amos has hooked up with cult cartoon heroine Nemi Montoya (or, more specifically, with her creator Lise Myhre) to pen the foreword for the upcoming second Nemi comic strip compilation, to be released through Titan Books. Readers of London’s free, 1.35-million circulation newspaper Metro will be aware of Nemi’s frank and funny ways, if not of her often declared love for Tori’s music. The book is out on September 28th.

* * *

Tori’s former label Epic have teamed up with the organisers of the Hotel Café live sessions to compile Hotel Café Presents Winter Songs, an all-female seasonal collection featuring classic covers and original recordings. Fiona Apple, Nicole Atkins, Brandi Carlile, Sara Bareilles, the newly-married KT Tunstall, and former Wears The Trousers interviewee Catherine Feeny are just some of the artists taking part. The album ends with an exclusive medley of the traditional New Year’s anthem ‘Auld Lang Syne’, from which all proceeds will go to breast cancer charity Susan G Komen For The Cure. The album is released in the US on October 14th and it doesn’t look like we’ll get a domestic release.

Hotel Café Winter Songs
01 Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson, ‘Winter Song’
02 Brandi Carlile, ‘The Heartache Can Wait’
03 Lenka, ‘All My Bells Are Ringing’
04 KT Tunstall, ‘Sleigh Ride’
05 Alice Smith, ‘Silver Bells’
06 Nicole Atkins, ‘Blue Christmas’
07 Fiona Apple, ‘Frosty The Snowman’
08 Meiko, ‘Maybe Next Year (X-mas Song)’
09 Holly Conlan, ‘I’ll Be Home For Christmas’
10 Katy Perry, ‘White Christmas’
11 Colbie Caillat, ‘Mistletoe’
12 Priscilla Ahn, ‘Silent Night’
13 Kate Havnevik, ‘Winter Wonderland’
14 Catherine Feeny, ‘Christmas Song’
15 Hotel Café Medley, ‘Auld Lang Syne’

* * *

Speaking of Nicole Atkins, and of things you can’t easily get in this country, our favourite New Jersey native released a brand new covers EP (digital-only) this week in the US. Depicted on the retro-style sleeve with a shovel, Nicole Atkins Digs Other People’s Songs features four interpretations of some disparate tunes, from ‘Mama’ Cass Elliot’s star-making ‘Dream A Little Dream Of Me’ to The Doors’ ‘Crystal Ship’ with tunes by Nada Surf and The Church thrown in for good measure. As Nicole herself puts it, “Basically, they’re all really rockin’ love songs that I enjoy and think you will too.”

You can listen to The Church’s ‘Under The Milky Way’ (“my favourite song in high school”) on her Myspace.

Nicole is in the UK next week filming an appearance on ‘Later…with Jools Holland’. Writing on her Myspace blog she wrote: “I’ve been watching that show forever and I couldn’t be more excited. Not sure yet who else is playing the show but I guess that’s part of the fun.”

She also revealed that she’s in the middle of putting together her second album. “I’ve got about 35 ideas and a few finished songs I’ll be demoing with The Sea all fall. It feels like its been so long since I’ve done this and I’m willing and ready…I’m looking forward to taking it into a bit of a heavier territory. Riffs son!”

The album is expected to be out next year.

* * *

After four years of being as quiet as a mouse, former Sneaker Pimps singer Kelli Ali has announced that she will release a brand new album on November 24th. And what’s more, that it’ll be a complete departure from her trip hop and electronic past. Produced by none other than FatCat Records artist Max Richter, the man who put together Vashti Bunyan’s Lookaftering, Rocking Horse promises to be a golden nugget of whimsical folk with baroque and medieval influences. Recorded this spring after Kelli returned from travelling through California and Mexico, the songs are heavily influenced by the weird and wonderful people and places she encountered along the way. One song (‘Urique’), for instance, was “written in a sacred canyon in Mexico after hitching a ride with a meth-addicted truck driver”.

The singer is planning to publish journal entries written during the recording process on her new website. You can hear new song ‘One Day At A Time’ on her Myspace.

Kelli currently has two live dates planned, both in London, with more to be added soon.

15.09.08 The Source Below, London [with Jess Morgan]
15.10.08 The Slaughtered Lamb, London [with Chris Bathgate]

* * *

Less than a week after complaining to Marie Claire that she was “over” being a popstar and a “hot girl” and that she wants to be “iconic”, Beyoncé has announced she will release her as-yet-untitled third solo album on November 17th. In the US, the as-yet-untitled album will be preceded by two singles – ‘If I Were A Boy’ and ‘Single Ladies’ – to be released simultaneously on October 7th. Hang on. If Beyoncé was a boy that would at least take care of not wanting to be a hot girl. Maybe that’s what it’s about.

Anyway, Beyoncé says that this is her “most personal, reflective and revelatory collection to date”, and that she co-wrote and co-produced every song.

The singer recently confirmed that Destiny’s Child would be getting back together later this year to record their 5th studio album proper, the follow-up to their 2004 ’swansong’ Destiny Fulfilled.

* * *

Barbra Streisand has dug her claws into controversial Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin, accusing John McCain of choosing the Alaskan governor as his co-runner in order to win over women who were planning to vote for Hillary Clinton. A message on her website reads: “I believe John McCain chose Gov. Palin because he truly believes that women who supported Hillary – an experienced, brilliant, life-long public servant – would vote for him because his vice president has two X chromosomes…McCain’s selection of Gov. Palin is a transparent and irresponsible decision all in the name of trying to win this election.”

Occasional rockstar Gina Gershon is also on Palin’s case, filming this sketch for FunnyorDie.com. 

* * *

With the Mercury Music Prize over for another year it’s time for the rest of the award ceremonies to take their turn in the spotlight. This week the Australian equivalent of the Brits announced their shortlisted nominees. In the Female Artist of the Year are Kylie Minogue, Gabriella Cilmi, Missy Higgins, Clare Bowditch and Holly Throsby. Kylie and Gabriella are also up for Best Pop Release, alongside Operator Please and The Veronicas. Cilmi is also up for four other awards.

Sibling duo Angus & Julia Stone are up for Best Group and three other awards, while Kasey Chambers carries the flag for Album of the Year and Best Country Album for Rattlin’ Bones, her duets album with husband Shane Nicholson. Other female nominees include Katie Noonan, Mia Dyson, The Waifs, The Audreys, The McClymonts, Catherine Britt, Melinda Schneider, Sara Storer, Delta Goodrem and Tina Arena. Phew.

The full list of nominees is here. The winners will be announced on October 19th. Look out for our interview with Holly Throsby, coming soon.

* * *

And, finally, to the MOBOs. Estelle leads the charge for the women, having been shortlisted for five awards – Best UK Female, Best Song, Best R&B Soul, Best Video and Best Album – followed by Leona Lewis with three nominations, including Best UK Female. The other candidates for that award are Adele, Duffy and MIA, while Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, Mary J Blige and Rihanna battle it out with the boys for Best International Act. Alicia Keys is also up for Best Album alongside Estelle and Leona, while Lizz Wright and Yolanda Brown are in the running for Best Jazz Act.

This year’s MOBOs take place at Wembley Arena on October 15th and will be co-hosted by Mel B.

* * *

Alan Pedder