Shiny and New: now available on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, etc.
Happy 11.11.11 !
The circumstances surrounding the original EP were hazy. Kinda like living in what you later realized was a powder keg. I was drinking hard on the upper end of “Social”, smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day (for a champ weighing in at a tad over 100lbs, that was what you’d call a commitment), and living in Brooklyn, New York. I used to get into fights in bars if I drank enough. And that was me coming down from a chaotic time. That was me five years ago.
I miss that gal. She was one heck of a lady.
But I sure don’t miss being that gal.
So yeah, before going solo I had this band called Xtatika in New York. It was an ever-transforming project which spanned genres and lineups with which I released a couple of albums over the years and toured internationally. But when the label/distribution company that originally released My Heart Is A Knife went under last year, I hardly batted an eyelash. I had other things on my mind, other songs. The fact that the EP was taken offline and off the shelves was a tad bothersome… It was material I was proud of, but it wasn’t exactly paying my bills. Then interest began sparking up. This led me to wonder whether to re-release the album. After dragging our feet for a bit, we decided sure why not, let’s re-release it, along with a bonus track from that era. Wouldn’t that be cool.
After all, people always requested that song and sang along when we performed it live. In New York, in Europe… Sean Lennon even said his favorite song was “Hydroplaning” when we appeared on the same bill together…
Then there was “All I Wanted”, a song that was recorded in one howling take at 2am, with more attention given to the distilled moment, and less regard to pitch, tone and accuracy. I remember saying to my bandmates, “Guys, don’t touch anything. Don’t fix anything. The mistakes make it what it is.” It’s a statement track that is also the roughest composed track I’ve ever recorded…that I’ve let out to the public, that is….
Of course, “Last Kiss” was the noir-wave fave, and “My Heart Is A Knife” is about as dark as I ever wanted to get… which was my Normal, back then.
Now, forward a few months from the yeah-why-not moment, and we have all newly remastered tracks on our hands, the bonus remastered track, plus shiny new cover art! Which was a photo taken nearly a year ago, soon after I landed in LA, during a somewhat nefarious but fun evening in the Valley.
It turned out that was the only way this collection would ever meet the light of day again: Reincarnated. And I’m quite happy with the result.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/my-heart-is-a-knife-remastered/id474083006
My Heart Is A Knife Remastered by Xtatika is available on iTunes, Spotify, eMusic, Rhapsody, Amazon mp3, and many, many more outlets online.
Having not lost my soul to Hollywood and forsaken singing for acting, I’m excited to announce that I’ll be among the featured singers at The Other Side Piano Bar in Silver Lake this Friday, Oct 21. Usually a landscape of mostly showtunes and cabaret classics, it will be a special night because, well, I’ll be there! I’ll be singing selections from the Great American Rock Songbook, staying true to my colors and letting my Tora-flag fly with the prodigiously talented James Lent on piano. I shall also mention The Other Side was recently endorsed by LA Weekly in their “2011 Best of LA” list. It’s deserving as a lovely place brimming with the friendliest crowd and drinks so generous you could almost call them pious.
The weekend ball drops at 9:30pm but it gets crowded early. See you there!!
The Other Side
2538 Hyperion Ave, Los Angeles CA 90027
“I Do This Everyday” by Crystal Fighters.
These guys are doing with Spanish Basque sound and dance music what I’ve endeavored with Korean Samulnori and rock music. Ever since my first album with Xtatika, I’ve obsessed over how to create a new sound I hadn’t heard before. So it’s always a boon when I come across an album I can really listen to from first cut to closing beat without getting tired of what I hear. This band did it.
