SUMMER 2006 a women in music compendium wears the trousers thea gilmoreon making her marx plus: lisa germano, juana molina, the dresden dolls, the cardigans, joan as policeman, wopsapp, broadcast & lots more wears the trousers ust when you thought that magazine summer had pretty much gone and shoved its head under a www.thetrousers.co.uk www.myspace.com/wearsthetrousers blanket of cloud for another ten J months, here’s something that will 17B Church Crescent Muswell Hill hopefully warm your hearts and London N10 3NA minds – the very sorrily delayed, +44 (0)20 8444 1853 so-called ‘summer’ issue of Wears [email protected] The Trousers. Yay! We haven’t just been twiddling our collective thumbs, Editor Alan Pedder in case you were wondering. This issue comes with a distinctly British flavour as we went undercover to seek Deputy Editor out interviews with some of the UK’s brightest songwri- Trevor Raggatt ting talent. There’s so much out there! Singer-songwriter Associate Editors showcases are springing up all over the country and the Clare Byrne, Stephen Collings sheer volume of activity at grass roots level is astonishing. & Rod Thomas A quick scan through the London listings papers shows that the scene is thriving at a rate perhaps not seen since Wears The Trousers magazine is a completely free, not-for-profit, blood, the big ol’ folk club boom of the mid-Sixties. Of course, sweat and tears included resource those rare little diamonds will insist on sitting in amongst for all that is new, essential and downright exciting about the the rough, but you’re in the best place to get your heels contribution of women worldwide pointed in the general direction of rightness. to the music industry. All written content is copyright of the credited As you’ve probably noticed, our cover star this issue author. Picture credits are given is the fantastic Thea Gilmore, who, to my mind at least, where known. If we have used one of your photos without crediting is one of our all-time greatest homegrown talents. you, please inform the editor via With her seventh album, Harpo’s Ghost, just out to rave [email protected] reviews (again) and her first baby due in November, 2006 is turning out to be a landmark year for her. Somehow I Contributors doubt she’s going to take it any easier next year so you Angelina Adsmill, Aaron Alper, Emily Anderson, Russell Barker, can reasonably expect her to be back within our pages in Ian Buchan, Anna Claxton, Tiffany the not too distant future! Daniels, Robbie de Santos, Alex Doak,Matthew Hall, Jo Harrison, The Brit remit doesn’t stop at singer-songwriters, Stephanie Heney, Lisa Komorowska, however, and we’ve tucked in a few of our favourite Andrzej Lukowski, Jean Lynch, Anja McCloskey, Scott Millar, bands, including Psapp, Tender Trap and the always Gary Munday, Loria Near, Helen brilliant Broadcast. Elsewhere in the issue, we go truly Ogden, Alex Ramon, David Renshaw, international with interviews from Canada (Emily Lynn Roberts, Adam Smith, Marc Soucy, Danny Weddup, Bryn Haines), Argentina (Juana Molina) and Sweden (The Williams and Paul Woodgate Cardigans), as well as a clutch of US folk we just couldn’t Design & Typesetting say no to – Lisa Germano, The Dresden Dolls, Joan As Alan Pedder, Thea Raggatt Police Woman and more. Illustrations Eliza Lazy, Trevor Raggatt Hope you enjoy it. We’ll try not to be quite so tardy next time. Special thanks to Michael Banna, Gillian Masland ALAN PEDDER, Editor wears the trousers is proud to be involved in the digital preservation work of the UK Web Archiving Consortium [email protected] in association with The British Library & The Women’s Library contents interviews 04 the cardigans 07 emily haines 08 rainer maria 10 the dresden dolls 14 inara george 16 joan as police woman 19 mia doi todd 22 tender trap 24 psapp 26 lisa germano 30 juana molina 32 the puppini sisters 36 broadcast 41 lou rhodes 42 thea gilmore 48 nerina pallot 50 astrid williamson 54 amy wadge 57 stephanie kirkham features 13 can men be feminists? 34 so long sleater-kinney 60 a buyer’s guide to aimee mann reviews 63 new albums 84 reissues 86 imports 88 film & DVD 90 live lisa germano page 26 the Cardigans the yells like teen spirit h, the fickle world of fashion. You’ve been playing lots of festivals this believe you’re the best band in space. So we Back in 1998, when wearing a summer – including one in Moscow and think that everybody else is fucking stupid! button-up cardie down the local one in Serbia. You’ve even got one coming You have to think like that to be able to Ashops was likely to get a man pelted with up in Belarus! Is it exciting going to places work like we do. Werthers Originals and cries of ‘grandpa’, slightly off the beaten tourpath? How Swedish band The Cardigans were riding do you think the crowds will compare to I saw you at T In The Park in 2003 and you a wave of critical acclaim and hurtling Europe and America? didn’t play Lovefool and you made fun of down a US interstate in an open-top We’ve been several times to nearly the guitar sound in My Favourite Game. Do convertible with one mother of a death everywhere, but not to the former you still feel like that about the old stuff? wish and scant regard for the safety of Yugoslavia or Russia, so it’s great! It’s still No, I don’t actually anymore. I made fun others. OK, so that last bit didn’t really a little shaky and always such a hassle. of that guitar sound – it is quite fucking happen but that was a good video, and, Twice we’ve planned to go to Russia but it annoying, isn’t it? – but it works! I like more importantly, a damn good song. hasn’t worked out. There are visas and the music when it’s sort of verging on being And the public agreed, giving the band equipment might not get in – it’s a gamble, irritating. But these days to play Lovefool their longest run of hit singles to date but it’s always beautiful to play that kind would be like playing a cover. It’s actually and catapulting them to the levels of of place because the people who arrange ten years old and we’ve made so much international success that their opinion- the festivals and all the people trying to music after it. It would make such a break splitting, faux-cutesy 1996 single Lovefool get a scene going are so determined and in the set, it would be awkward. And had previously hinted at. working so hard and it feels great to take actually we’ve made experiments almost Fast forward to 2006, however, and part in them. to see if people would miss it and people things couldn’t be more different. The don’t, you see. People notice it’s not there, garment is back in a big way while The You finally came back to play headline but they don’t really miss it. So I think Cardigans themselves can hardly get dates in Britain earlier this year. Did you everybody’s happy this way. arrested. Super Extra Gravity, their latest enjoy being back? opus, peaked a whopping seventy places Yeah, it was about time really. I think we You’ve described Super Extra Gravity as an below Gran Turismo’s #8 high on the UK could have with the last album [2003’s “obnoxious teenager”. After thirteen years album charts, despite an equally killer Long Gone Before Daylight] as well. It’s together, do you think the band has finally single in the shape of I Need Some Fine frustrating to have had such commercial hit puberty? Wine & You, You Need To Be Nicer and a success on a major label, then just because [laughs] Yeah, I guess so! Thirteen years… dazzling array of moody, petulant tunes we are not selling the same amounts [people that’s when you’re at your height of your full of surprises and curious twists. What in the UK] think we’re gone. And judging obnoxious puberty, right? the hell is wrong with people’s ears? by our website activity, we’re not! We’ve Oh well, consider the UK a write-off played for such a long time that we’ve got Do you feel obnoxious now? for now, but with the long-delayed North a fanbase who’ll come anyway. The British Kind of, I don’t know what it is. I’m afraid American release of Super Extra Gravity market is very novelty based, that’s what it it’s some sort of late thirties crisis, the last just around the corner, there’s a chance seems like to me. I feel bad for those bands glances of youth, you know. that this neat little album might just find that get hyped. It doesn’t really annoy me, the international audience it deserves. because I know by now that’s how the So do you feel like you were looking to the In honour of this, Robbie de Santos industry works, but it’s frustrating in a way. future and the past for this album? It does caught up with singer Nina Persson for a We feel like we’ve come such a long way seem to hark back to the harder-edged brief chat whilst on a recent promo trip and it hasn’t worked commercially for us sounds of Gran Turismo whilst keeping the to the UK where the band right heartily for some reason.