Tagged: catpower + topstories

Writing is about myth making. Taking the true aspects of yourself and defining them so clearly that they become you. Marginal personality tics explode into full character traits, sadness becomes a vehicle for personal exploration, happiness, when you can pull it off, becomes euphoric. Chan Marshall, as Cat Power, is great at this sort of storytelling. By using very real moments in her life as a platform, she's able to make music that transcends the world she occupies. She writes sadness as a vehicle for life change, drinking as a solution to nothing, relationships as spiritual awakenings, [...]

You know how I've been threatening to get weird with this column, to start including late-night performances and whatever other random bits of music-related video that might find their way on this site? This is the week the universe decided to call my bluff, since the one of the best pieces of music-related video, if not the best, was Deerhunter's broken-down and instantly iconic performance of "Monomania" on Fallon , a performance piece done with more flair and attention to detail than most music videos. But I still made a list of five music videos. Inertia [...]

To a cynic, 2012 might have looked a lot like the Year Of The Bellyache. With musicians from Jana Hunter to John Mellencamp candidly addressing their personal economic realities in blog posts and articles, Rihanna, Katy Perry and Billy Joel rallying to contest Pandora's attempt to lower their artist royalty rate, and record stores, print magazines, and indie labels closing their doors in record numbers, the music business seemed to have everything on its mind in 2012 except music. As Michael noted in our list of 20122s Biggest Band Beefs , the music [...]

"Don't call it a comeback" is usually a phrase uttered self-protectively by musicians who are very much coming back from some degree of obscurity. Dr. Dre wasn't exactly absent during the seven-year stretch between his first and second albums ("California Love," anybody?), but his 1999 sophomore release 2001 is littered with lines like "Ladies pay homage, but haters say Dre fell off/ How, nigga? My last album was The Chronic ." If he ever gets around to releasing Detox , it'll surely be stacked with similar "I never went away" rhetoric (and, undoubtedly, lyrics about headphones.) [...]

Summer is ending! And you have some work to do. Did you experience that season-defining moment? That rooftop conversation, that carefree weekend of intense interpersonal bonding? Did you find the person who'll keep you warm all winter? If you've answered negatively to even one of these, you have some work to do. And so we have generated your season-ending soundtrack. It's a deluxe-sized monthly mix, spanning 20 songs and all your moods, courtesy of Black Hippy, Swans, Cat Power, Nicolas Jaar, and some smaller names leaving equally lasting impressions. Save your summer: Read More...

If you're an indie rock fan of a certain vintage, then the phrase "Cat Power breakup record" might inspire a certain dread in your heart. You might have uncomfortable memories of watching Chan Marshall only barely gutting her way through solo performances, hiding behind her hair, sheepishly stuttering between songs, while the audience made encouraging noises at her on like supportive parents watching a preschool play. You might remember wondering how many of those audience members were vampirically hoping that she'd flame out, which she sometimes did onstage. You probably remember hearing "I Don't Blame You" for the first time [...]

• Cat Power - Cherokee
• Cat Power - Cherokee (Nicolas Jaar Remix)

Last month, Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, released her first single since 2006, "Ruin." The track comes from her forthcoming Matador long-player, Sun , which is Marshall's first album of entirely original material since 20062s The Greatest . In her 17 years of recording music as Cat Power, Marshall has evolved from a neurotically nervous confessional songwriter - one who embraced minimalism, worked closely with Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley, recording quickly to get out of the studio as soon as possible; she would play shows with her back to the audience, with a reputation for [...]

Stereogum Last month, Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, released her first single since 2006, "Ruin." The track comes from her forthcoming Matador long-player, Sun , which is Marshall's first album of entirely original material since 20062s The Greatest . In her 17 years of recording music as Cat Power, Marshall has evolved from a neurotically nervous confessional songwriter - one who embraced minimalism, worked closely with Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley, recording quickly to get out of the studio as soon as possible; she [...]

It's our first mixtape of summer! Accordingly, you should probably just act first and think later and just download it with reckless abandon, as you should do absolutely everything now that it is the season of impulsive behavior. But if you are incapable of such youthful indiscretion without examining the fine print/weighing every possible life consequence, then a) we have a lot in common and b) this mixtape will still please. It opens with Cat Power, so already, pretty good. It also features bona fide summer jams like "Pyramids" by Frank Ocean and "Fineshrine" by Purity Ring, alongside recently released [...]

Stereogum It's our first mixtape of summer! Accordingly, you should probably just act first and think later and just download it with reckless abandon, as you should do absolutely everything now that it is the season of impulsive behavior. But if you are incapable of such youthful indiscretion without examining the fine print/weighing every possible life consequence, then a) we have a lot in common and b) this mixtape will still please. It opens with Cat Power, so already, pretty good. It also features bona fide summer jams [...]

Last week we heard " Ruin ," a strikingly upbeat number from Cat Power's new album Sun . Today, NPR's All Songs Considered debuted another track, the album opener "Cherokee." It's a percussive, uptempo beauty that bounces Chan Marshall's vocals off of each other. Hear it at NPR ; it happens at about 17:00 into the program. Sun is out 9/4 on Matador .

Stereogum Last week we heard " Ruin ," a strikingly upbeat number from Cat Power's new album Sun . Today, NPR's All Songs Considered debuted another track, the album opener "Cherokee." It's a percussive, uptempo beauty that bounces Chan Marshall's vocals off of each other. Hear it at NPR ; it happens at about 17:00 into the program. Sun is out 9/4 on Matador . [...]

Chan Marshall hasn't released a new Cat Power album since the 2008 covers collection Jukebox , but she'll return to the game in September with the new LP Sun , an album that she recorded around the same time that she went through a bad breakup with the actor Giovanni Ribisi. The first single is "Ruin," and it has unexpectedly Latin-tinged piano and a vocal way more sprightly than anything you'd expect to hear on a Cat Power breakup album. It's a sharp, spacious, almost buoyant pop song about traveling the world, and we've got a download of [...]

• Cat Power - Ruin

Stereogum Chan Marshall hasn't released a new Cat Power album since the 2008 covers collection Jukebox , but she'll return to the game in September with the new LP Sun , an album that she recorded around the same time that she went through a bad breakup with the actor Giovanni Ribisi. The first single is "Ruin," and it has unexpectedly Latin-tinged piano and a vocal way more sprightly than anything you'd expect to hear on a Cat Power breakup album. It's a sharp, spacious, almost [...]

Tonight, as anyone who's been near a TV in the past month already knows, the much-hyped Fox singing-competition show The X Factor makes its debut. The Americanized version of the hit British show might be new to us, but then again, it's not really new to us. Simon Cowell is the man responsible for putting the show together, and he's brought back his former American Idol colleague Paula Abdul. As someone who's spent a shameful amount of time watching (and writing about ) American Idol and its imitators, I'm way more excited than [...]

Folk-rock chickie, Ash Reiter , shines with sweet simplicity in this long take video for her new song "Paper Diamonds", from her album of the same name. The sun strewn clip highlights the grainy textures and washed out images of a bright San Francisco day, stripping the song of all the pretense and glitter that could obstruct some the beauty of Ash's voice and soulful singing. It's a cute tune that only gets better with each listen. Check out the video and more "after the jump" [...]

• Ash Reiter - Paper Diamonds