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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 3, 2010
Cinematic Siren Reinvents 16 Unusual Songs From Memory On 'It's A Shame About Gemma Ray'
Gemma Ray "has a truly impressive feel for vintage pop flourishes" (Spin). Which may be why, on May 18, she's releasing 'It's A Shame About Gemma Ray' (Bronzerat), an all-covers album that includes unusual selections by composers from George and Ira Gershwin to Lee Hazlewood to The Gun Club. Ray's versions often bear little resemblance to the originals. Instead, they're reinventions of songs, taken from her memory.
"I deliberately avoided going back and listening to the original versions," says the "playful but smoky" (NPR) British artist. "I chose songs that, for better or worse, implanted themselves in my head at different periods in my life. "
While some may be reminded of Dirty Projectors' 'Rise Above' and its rethinking of Black Flag, 'It's A Shame About Gemma Ray,' recorded by Matt Verta-Ray (Heavy Trash) in a spontaneous, whirlwind three day session at his N.Y. Hed studios in New York City, takes on the different and more delicate task of filtering a wide range of styles through Ray's unique sensibilities.
"Rosemary's Baby vs. Drunken Butterfly," for instance, is a haunting one-woman mashup, in which Gemma takes the movie's theme and adds the lyrics from Sonic Youth's "Drunken Butterfly"; "Hey Big Spender" is a tribute to the signature song of Ray's late best friend (a "vivacious, tongue-in-cheek man-eater"), which "was played during her cremation, so it stuck in my head in a very odd way." And "Bei Mir Bistu Shein" is her take on a flirtatious Yiddish song (best known in the U.S. for its interpretation by the Andrews Sisters), which was endorsed by the Nazis in its German interpretation - until they realized it was originally in Yiddish.
Ray didn't original intend to make a covers record, she was actually in NYC to record for a different project with Verta-Ray, but after putting a few of the covers down, the pair determined that a Ray covers album needed to happen. "It was an accident!", says Ray. That's also a reason why Ray tried to recreate songs from her head, because a lot of the cover ideas came about on the spot. It's also why the inspiration behind the songs on the record aren't necessarily the originals, but the one's that made the biggest impression on her.
The Wall Street Journal praised Gemma Ray's award-winning 2009 album 'Lights Out Zoltar!' as "an eerie aural kaleidoscope that conjures up thoughts of what an album by Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las produced by David Lynch would have sounded like."
Paste dubbed her "the best of what's next."
NPR said: "Without sounding overwrought or arch on her new album, Ray
finds a winning way to warmly blend a lot of disparate pop styles."
RCRDLBL.com called her "a mink stole in a contemporary cut... some
sort of fame should follow close behind."
Jimmy Page says Gemma Ray is "not to be missed!"
It's A Shame About Gemma Ray' will once again prove all those
comments accurate.
'It's A Shame About Gemma Ray' Track Listing (with artists version that inspired Gemma):
"Ghost on the Highway" - Gun Club
"Bei Mir Bistu Shein" - The Andrews Sisters
"Swamp Snake" - The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
"SUD" - Obits
"Only To Other People" - The Cookies
"Lock My Heart" - Jimmy Eaton and Terry Shand
"Rosemary's Baby vs. Drunken Butterfly" - Kryzstof Komeda & Sonic Youth
"Rather Be Your Enemy" - Lee Hazlewood
"Touch Me I'm Sick" - Sonic Youth
"Just Because" - Lloyd Price
"Looking the World Over" - Memphis Minnie
"Everyday (Rollercoaster)" - Buddy Holly (Hardin/Petty)
"I'd Rather Go Blind" - Ellington Jordan, & lyrics by Etta James but
credited to her partner Billy Foster (for tax reasons).
"Crush on You" - George and Ira Gershwin
"Bolt on the Door" - Gallon Drunk
"Hey Big Spender" - Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields
Gemma Ray SXSW Shows:
Friday, March 19 - Performance for Justin.tv at 3pm, location tba
Saturday, March 20 - Mojo Bootleg BBQ at the Mean Eyed Cat at 2:15pm
Saturday, March 20 - Blurt showcase at the Tap Room at 9pm
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