Date: Sat, 2 Nov 1996 09:44:27 EST From: Dez (100702.123@COMPUSERVE.COM) Subject: Tanya Donnelly Tanya Donnelly - Human / Bum (12" Promo T1) I got this promo of two tracks from 'Sliding and Diving', the forthcoming TD ep, today. 'Human' is pretty disappointing. It's just a bog-standard alternative rock track of the kind that you might find buried on the b side of a Belly single. There's a tune, but it's really predictable stuff. 'Bum' is different. It has strangely treated vocals, and a buzzsaw guitar. It's quite shrill, abrupt and certainly not commercial. It's not brilliant, but it's promising, and it doesn't sound like Belly which is a good thing. (not that I've got anything against Belly, but to split a band and then make records that sound the same is pretty pointless). The choice of 'Human' as a first track, though, is bizarre. Either it indicates that the new material is really weak, or that it's defiantly un-pop and that this song is the easiest entry point. I really hope that the latter scenario is the case. - Dez Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 18:56:11 +0000 From: Andrew Norman Subject: Re: News: Miller; Reviews: Donnely, Raymonde, Pixies, Seely, David Thorpe: > New Tanya Donelly record was given a "Mediocre" rating by Caroline > Sullivan in yesterday's Guardian - CS complained that whilst it was rather > nice pop, it was far from groundbreaking songwriting. Which is a fair comment. None of it really sticks in my mind in the way that (say) "White Belly" or "Judas My Heart" did. Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 18:25:35 -0400 From: Jeff Keibel Subject: Tanya Donelly CMJ New Music Monthly (Oct. 97) Tanya Donelly: Simplify by Glen Sansons Tanya Donelly is pacing around a posh, well-decorated apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side on a sweltering summer day. Her husband, former Juliana Hatfield bassist Dean Fisher, is close by, looking less preoccupied, but his posture reflects his wife's concern. He's by her side, like a personal assistant, as she sorts out her agenda surrounding the release of "Lovesongs For Underdogs", her solo debut and her first record since the breakup of Belly. Donelly politely asks her husband to vanish as she sits down, large coffee in tow, on a big sofa. She looks as though she's just landed in a dentist's chair and is awaiting surgery. It's hardly a secret that Donelly is no fan of the interview process. She's slow to open her heart, disinterested in stardom and perplexed by fans who idolize the singer instead of the songs; obscure and imagistic, each one like a Rubik's Cube of personal references, dreams and observations, keeping listensers at arm's length. "Sometimes I'm not even talking about myself, which should always be kept in mind," she says, "Sometimes it's coming from a perspective that has nothing to do with me and it's coming from something I read." "I'd like to be [more direct]," she continues. "I'm trying to simplify my life in many ways. And that's one area that I do concentrate on... and it does concern me sometimes. Part of the problem is I'll forfeit the story for the sound of the words, for the way the actual vowels and consonants move. I always envy those people that get the stories in those vowels and consonants. There are people that do it so well - it's not abstract at all, and it sounds so perfect." Donelly is at a crossroads in her recording career. After only two records - the gold selling "Star" and the star-crossed "King" - Belly had suddenly lost its way. "We had always said that this isn't a permanent situation, we're not a U2-type band or an R.E.M.-type band. There's gonna come a point, because our tastes are so divergent, that it's gonna stop being healthy and start being unhealthy - we knew it when the tour started... It didn't have anything to do with the failure of "King". I think that if "King" had done really well, we would have broken up sooner," she notes. "I cope by avoiding everybody!" Donelly says, perking up. "'OK, bye, I'm invisible now! I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you!'... We fought. There were fights. When I'm in one, I definitely contribute to it. I can scream, that's for sure," she laughs. "The way we dealt with it was to just let everything fall apart. And then once it had, we realized it. Now we have rubble." Emerging from the rubble, Donelly recorded her solo debut in small batches last year, co-producing it with Wally Gagel (Folk Implosion) and her manager Gary Smith. She assembled a cast of new musicians, including her former Throwing Muses bandmate David Narcizo on drums. During the recording of the spazzy "Landspeed Song", shre notes, "Gary said, 'Um, don't you think that sounds too much like Throwing Muses?' And David and I were like, 'Well, I was IN Throwing Muses, and so was he! We're allowed to sound like that for a SECOND!'" "Lovesongs For Underdogs" is, at first listen, noticeably different from Donelly's earlier records. New sound sources, arrangements and textures, including tasteful touches of strings, all flatter the album's varied mix of songs. Her voice is more expressive and dynamic than ever before; her lyrics are still deliciously obscure and dusky, but you can sense a stronger personality behind them. And, though Donelly has said in the past that she hasn't written a perfect love song, the album's title suggests that she's tackled that dilemma. Not so. "It's funny - there are only two love songs on there," she says, "I like the title just because it just sounds good. I think it's sweet and sad, but it's funny, too." Still, she's not all happy. "All your heroes are whores", the mantra of the bittersweet "Mysteries Of The Unexplained", suggests she that she's opening the scars left from Belly's end. "When I wrote that song, I was very aware of that was probably going to be the perception," she notes, "and, unfortunately, it's bad timing for me to start complaining about radio butt-kissing, because it didn't work out last time. It sounds like sour grapes, which is not really the point. That song is more about American media in general, and how filthy it can be. But in the chorus I'm saying other stuff - images of fish raining from the sky (an actual natural phenomenon) and crying statues, classic Donelly fare. "[You have to] remember the world is not solely pop culture, especially when you're part of the problem, like I am to a certain extent," she says. "You do have to really make sure you don't let your mind atrophy. There are other things going on outside of pop culture." CMJ ...in the same issue of CMJ, "Lovesongs For Underdogs" is reviewed and "Pretty Deep" is included on the free CD that comes with it... JEFF KEIBEL SCARBOROUGH, ONTARIO CANADA E MAIL: redshift@interlog.com Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 19:45:24 -0400 From: Robert Betley Subject: In Tanya's Corner- I'm going to strike a positive note for Tanya's new disc as well- Admittedly, it didn't blow me away at first & Sliders & Divers spent way less time in my player than I would have guessed when I first got it-but King (one of my all time favorite discs) didn't knock my socks off at first either. Part of it is that Lovesongs is not King (just as King was not Star)-I do miss Tom Gorman-the new songs have fewer dynamics, less tension & release, which I think he added, but this is a fine set of songs. The first four are as good as anything Tanya has done-mysteries of the unexplained really grows on you & I love the part in Pretty Deep about the body on the beach- Acrobat is good, hearing Bum on the disc has sentme back to Sliders and it has taken it's rightful place in my disc player. Goat Girl is fun and the final (as is traditional) heavy ballad that ends the disc, Swoon, is right up there with Judas My Heart, Dream On Me & Dream On Me. The other few songs just haven't settled into my subconscious yet. The music is as good as any of the Belly material-it just takes some getting used to. Belly wasnt ever just Tanya-so her solo disc would have to be different. But it's good- real good. Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 12:25:26 -0400 From: Jeff Keibel Subject: The stigma of ill-repute TANYA DONELLY "The Bright Light" EP 7" AD 7012 CD Part ONE BAD 7012 CD CD Part TWO BAD D 7012 CD UK: Nov. 24th (UK only) Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 15:32:51 -0400 From: Jeff Keibel Subject: Tayna's sexual surrender Culled from Request line, http://www.requestline.com/index.shtml : Tanya Donelly "Lovesongs for Underdogs" (4AD/Reprise) If Tanya Donelly writes love songs for underdogs, she's the leader of the pack. The first solo album from the Throwing Muses alumna and former Belly frontwoman revels in romantic misadventure and sexual surrender. Human frailty brings out Donelly's strength; you can hear it in the album's pealing guitars, the gentle bellow of a cello, and most of all in that unabashedly sweet and pretty voice, which she seems to trust more and more with each album. No longer concerned with giving her band equal time, Donelly assigns tasks to notable hired guns (a trio of drummers--ex-Pixie David Lovering, Throwing Muse David Narcizo, and Veruca Salt's Stacy Jones--plus multi-instrumentalist Rich Gilbert and Donelly's husband, bassist Dean Fisher) and easily whizzes from giddy rockers to acoustic laments. She tartly teases in the T Rex-y "Lantern," struts a bit in "Breathe Around You," and warbles, wails, stretches, soars, and harmonizes with confidence throughout. Choices of the heart may keep Donelly among the misbegotten, but her instincts as a singer/songwriter are right on target. -- Nina Malkin JEFF KEIBEL SCARBOROUGH, ONTARIO CANADA E MAIL: redshift@interlog.com Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 12:34:11 -0500 From: Jeff Keibel Subject: Tanya Donelly - Toronto 10/25/97 Tanya - electric/acoustic guitars Dean Fisher - bass, moog Rich Gilbert - lap steel, guitar Elizabeth Steen - keyboards, accordian David Narcizo - drums (used to be in one of Tanya's old bands, right?) Here is an egg-cert from the local music rag called Eye: By Cindy McGlynn: One of the niftier things I've discovered since growing up is that life doesn't stop at 25. I've never had a five-year plan, but always imagined that at 25 or so, you'd basically be who you are, live your life accordingly, breed, I suppose, and eventually kick the bucket peacefully in your sleep. The 'be who you are' part is what we're focusing on here, even though it's not true. It turns out, as I discussed with Tanya Donelly recently, over Perrier and hotel-lounge spicy nut mix (soooo 80's!), that you just keep right on changing. Which is not news to the woman who started playing with half-sister Kristin Hersh in the Throwing Muses when she was only 16 and has since been in The Breeders and Belly. For those keeping score, recent changes for Donelly include getting married, amicably ditching her band Belly and releasing her first solo record. "I was talking to a friend of mine today about how people expect and even aspire to reach this static state or something," she says. "This static state of adulthood or of having reached your goals -- that to me just seems like death, you know? It's relieving to know that doesn't really happen. I'm sure some people are crushed to know that it doesn't." Out of Donelly's list of recent changes, it's the 'solo' stuff that might most strike fans since she has always been one to sing the praises of bands. "There are different perks," she explains. "It's nice to be in a band because there's a familial sort of feeling. When a song really comes together in a band's context, it feels like nothing else in the world. Having said that, I also feel that music is something that needs to live and breathe and move and change. And within the constraints of a band that eventually stops happening... in my experience anyway." Donelly calls her CD Lovesongs For Underdogs (she and her husband came up with it while tipsy) a transitional record. For those familiar with her easy way with a melody and deceptively simple girl-woman lyrics, there are few surprises on Underdogs -- just lots of what she's good at. It's all melancholy, hopeful, searching and confused. "That's pretty much it," she says. "Actually, that's pretty much me in a nutshell." Donelly adds that with this record she tips her hat to her influences, and bids the past adieu making ready to really move on. "There's a direction that I'm sort of going in that's only hinted at on the record. It starts with ground I've covered before and moves into my new shtick. The stuff that I've been writing more recently is very ambient. Not guitars strumming through the whole thing. More using noises that aren't instrument-specific. You can't really tell what they are." Donelly's demeanor is laid back, though there's a quickness to her conversation that hints at an inner-disciplinarian. Anyhow, it doesn't seem surprising that she's as comfortable listening to her ambient muses as she is taking control. Apparently being the boss can be a lot easier than being in a band, which is sometimes a "weird pseudo-democratic situation, where you are the leader but you're not the leader." How does it all feel? "There's always certain amount of introspection and suffering, I hate to say that because it sounds so melodramatic, but it has to happen to make music interesting to a certain extent. I am very grateful for my life. I'm very happy. Well, I'm not happy with a capital-H -- nobody is, really. But the conditions of your life can be completely separate from your internal landscape sometimes. I don't know... "It doesn't mean that I'm tortured, by any means." Just rolling with the punches, so to speak. Mellow and tanned, with feet dangling what I swear are the same red Gucci platform sandals Meg Ryan wore recently in Vanity Fair... from where I sit, whether Donelly is Happy or not, change looks pretty good. Photo of Tanya by Andrew Caitlin and visible briefly at this addy: http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_10.23.97/music/photos/donnelly23.jpg JEFF "we missed ya, Damion" KEIBEL SCARBOROUGH, ONTARIO CANADA Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 19:56:36 +0100 From: Emiel Efdee Subject: 7012 X 2 + 1... Because of the stupid chart-system in the UK... again two CD-singles from 4AD today. Tanya D's "The Bright Light". Nice b-sides (even some jazz). Both about eleven minutes. The two versions of the a-side are the same... should have been one disc, damned! Donelly is selling her body on the sleeves again... 4AD: Why are you playing this 3-part-single-game?? Do you really think it's going to be a No.1 hit?;-) You're ripping off the fans! Still have to order the 7" with the vinyl-only-b-side... (or shall I skip this one?) Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1998 15:56:55 -0700 From: redbear Subject: japanese for underdogs i seem to recall that someone asked about the bonus tracks on the japanese release of tanya d's "lovesongs for underdogs"... if the question hasn't been answered yet, the answer (according to ICE) is: "bury my heart" and "life on sirius" (two of the singles b-sides).