Sharon Van Etten Interview: Tramp

You might remember TOW catching up with Brooklyn’s Sharon Van Etten at the beginning of the year. She was on tour with The National and riding high on the critical acclaim of her first album proper Epic. Here us catch up with Sharon here.

Well now almost a year later, the singer songwriter has announced details of her forthcoming album, Tramp, which will be out on her new label home Jagjaguwar in the new year (February 6 2012).

Van Etten worked with Aaron Dessner from The National on this record, working from his home studio in a leafy part of Brooklyn. Guests on the record include Jenn Wasner from Baltimore duo Wye Oak and the wonderfully ethereal Julianna Barwick... TOW caught up with SVE in a pub near Hyde Park on her recent brief trip through London to talk about conquering this filthy great city, working with Aaron and finally finding a home.

  


LISTEN AND DOWNLOAD 'SERPENTS':

   Sharon Van Etten - Serpents by Pretty Much Amazing

6 Music picks: Two Wings and Hollows

Every week we get to play two tracks for Tom Robinson on his excellent BBC 6 Music Introducing show... you can listen again here.   

Two Wings - Eikon


 
A chance encounter with Two Wings supporting Essie Jain at Cafe Oto last year led TOW to fall head over heels. Hanna Tuulikki and Ben Reynolds and their merry band make such joyous music, it's hard not to grin stupidly whilst listening. Hanna is no stranger to us, having already got into her solo project Nalle - there's plenty more going on in her musical world too and the same can be said for Ben. But it seems they've found their true home together now, with Two Wings - channeling the greats like The Band, Richard Thompson and other seventies era folk Americana greats, but with Hanna's haunting, inimitable vocal setting this band stand leagues apart from their contemporaries of a similar ilk.


Catch them live at Cafe Oto on 9 December.


Hollows - Shapeshifter

   

Hollows are a five piece girl band from Chicago (well, there's an honorary boy on drums ;) who found each other through a Craigslist add that included the phrases "60s, funeral, girl group, Shangri-Las," - 'nuff said! The Chicago Tribune recently said of this band: "No band is currently making better use of the Farfisa-like Gibson G101 combo organ than Hollows." Agreed! We think... Either way we're smitten with this infectious, tight and flawless band. More please.

Hot Sand/ Shapeshifter is out now on Soft Power Records.
 

6 Music picks: Chapter 24 & Mari Kvien Brunvoll

Every week we get to play two tracks for Tom Robinson on his excellent BBC 6 Music Introducing show... you can listen again here.  

CHAPTER 24 - Spindle

Spindle is out on Odd Box Records on November 28 - and it's a stormer! This Corby four piece have come into their own and are currently on a Stateside tour, wowing the Yanks as only a Corby band could. Spindle is short and sweet but really sums up what this band are about: riotous, melodic, punk pop with Claire Smith's deep, layered and distorted vocal taking it stratospheric every time. TOW met the band at 6 Music last year and what a charming bunch they are, all set for success!

Marie Kvien Brunvoll - Everywhere You Go


What is it with jazz musicians and terrible online profiles? Norwegian artist Mari has a dodgy myspace and a Facebook profile - set up by a fan. Come on Mari, get it together! This Molde-born singer and multi-instrumentalist has already made her mark on the burgeoning Norwegian jazz scene and is threatening to do the same outside of her home country. Using loops, pedals, zithers (!) and that stunning voice of hers she makes haunting, beautiful music that captivates the listener. There's a blues sensibility in there too and her music boarders on folk and acoustic too, it's a shame she's been pigeon-holed as a jazz artist as this can put *some* people off. Not the open-minded readers of TOW though ;)

The Other Woman Podcast with Tom Robinson

In this edition the gals snuck into a fancy studio with our guests - music legend, indie champ and all round DUDE Tom Robinson and Piney Gir's drummer and musician David Fisher. They were our choices as 'Menimists' which we thought we coined as a kind of fun way of saying they're Better Feminists Than We Are... only to have Dave knock that on the head during the interview, turns out Menimists exist and aren't very nice! Journalist Jude Rogers is at the table, along with musician Piney Gir and our vodka swigging showbiz expert Stef Schadenfreude...  Our discussion with Tom and Dave looks at Feminism from a male perspective, oh and Tinkerbell gets it .

http://theotherwomanpodcast.podbean.com/

6 Music picks: The Van Allen Belt & Silvermoths

Every week we get to play two tracks for Tom Robinson on his excellent BBC 6 Music Introducing show... you can listen again here.  

*The Van Allen Belt - Out To Lunch

 
Hailing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this band have been described as making music that's: “soaringly epiphanic and euphoric post-everything meditations on 21st century America" by none other than Julian Cope! We kinda can't compete with that can we? But we LOVE this track... the soaring chorus of backing vocals, big cymbal crashes and strong vocals from frontwoman Tamar Kamin. It's a power ballad for the indie generation. The album Superpowerfragilis: Or How I Learned To Stop Caring And Love The Drug is out now and you can buy it at the Bandcamp above.


*Silvermoths - Superhero

   

 
Then we come to this beautiful wee ditty. Silvermoths are a west London band. That's Emma Churchly on the soft whispery vocals and various instruments partnered with guitarist and songwriter Kaziu Gill... both make up the flame around which the Silvermoths fly. Sorry that's super cheesey but we couldn't help ourselves! If you can't be cheesey on your own blog then when can you be?! Either way there's something seriously magical about this band, we look forward to more.

6 Music picks: Bambikill & Novella

Every week we get to play two tracks for Tom Robinson on his excellent BBC 6 Music Introducing show... you can listen again here.   

*Bambikill - Forever Will Burn

   Forever will burn by bambikill


Interesting soundscape noodlings from this Bristol lass have caught our attention this week. A solo artist who makes emotional soundscapes that are inspired by 'the unseen world, dreams and visions, feeling lost and lonely sometimes and trying to find some meaning in being a living human being and in death...' she tells us. Bambikill's next album will be dedicated to Joey Chainsaw, her ex collaborator and fiancee who passed away earlier this year. Influences come in the shape of Kurt Cobain, Fursaxa, Bardo Pond and Grouper. We're expecting soft, sad, melodic sounds...



*Novella - The Things You Do


Novella - The Things You Do from Novella Novella on Vimeo.

 
We announced our new show on Amazing Radio today and we're chuffed to be joining a fine stable of presenters... including Mark Ryan who helms the brilliant Amazing Beats show every Friday. Mark is also a good one for tips and he tipped us this little gem from London's lo-fi pop scene. Mark says: 'Really nice almost Riot girl with a dark dark grunge element. Guitars that never give up'. We say, hell yes! 

Marissa Nadler interview: making music and performing strictly on her own terms

  

TOW met Boston guitarist and singer songwriter Marissa Nadler ahead of a show at London's Bush Hall. Armed with guitars and a weighty transistor, she plays solo and after years of struggling with stage fright, she says: 'It's worth getting over it'.

We talk about breaking out on her own with this eponymous album on her Box of Cedar Records, the joy of 'getting' finger-picking right for the first time, her unique sound and, like everyone, having ups and downs along the way.

Unsure about continuing with touring after years of traipsing the globe, Marissa Nadler said she may consider this her last. But then in a tweet after the show at Bush Hall, she says, scrap that - the audience were so lovely, she'll definitely be back. Gotta love London audiences - you guys did good!

Oh, and check out this gorgeous version and free download of Leonard Cohen's Winter Lady which popped up on her soundcloud recently: