Vanessa's third album, "57 Suspect Words", was released on February 3, 2004. This time out Vanessa employs the talents of her band, Bug Eyed Sprite, as well as gifted guest appearences by Myles Boisen and Roger Linn.
Here are your usual song-snippet suspects, in downloadable mp3 format.
Vanessa's second album, "Barnacles of Joy", was released on June 18, 2002. The CD features a collection of songs both new and old, and was recorded in the living room during breaks between live performances in 2001 and early 2002.
There are 14 tracks on "Barnacles of Joy", half of which feature Adrian West on violin, and Tobias Hawkins on percussion. Other guest performers include Ron Crotty on acoustic bass, Mario DeSio on guitar, and producer Kent Sparling on ukulele, melodica, percussion and backing vocals. "Barnacles" was mixed at George Lucas' Skywalker Sound, with the rattle and hum of lightsabers shaking the wall late into the evening.
Here are a few mp3 downloadable snippets for your enjoyment.
The landscape of "Barnacles" evokes feelings of bittersweet longing mixed with long-awaited contentment. In talking about the album Vanessa says, ”The world of these songs is about standing very still and almost holding your breath – waiting and watching to see what’s going to creep out at you and whether it will be good or bad. It’s like blending into the bark of tree, or stepping back into a dark alley as the dervish blows by, as mystery and danger swirl about, both internally and on the outside”.
The album is built around exclusively acoustic instruments, and documents the simple and haunting arrangements heard in her recent trio and solo performances, and Vanessa is quick to point out that it marks then end of her purely acoustic work: "The album we're recording in the fall, "57 Suspect Words", will be a completely different beast, with everything from hacked electronics and drum machines, through to strings, horns, keyboards and electric guitars. This is the last of my simple records for a while."
That being said, there are some wayward songs recorded for the "Barnacles" CD that didn't make the final cut, which you can expect to see surface on a CD EP sometime in the future; this mystery EP will feature three out-takes from "Barnacles", one or two remixes of "My Venom Lover", and the missing title "Barnacles" song itself. Then there are those songs recorded for "57 Suspect Words" that are on the cutting room floor...
We love those hard to find collectable records; check back here for updates.
Yes, oh impatient ones, Vanessa is still in the midst of the debut recordings with Caption [...], the experipop group she has formed with Kent Sparling and a wandering cast of characters. We still have plans to release "Fuel" as a 7" single, and have been cooking up more good Caption goodies for a later album release; ah, but there are so many distractions - KS spent the late summer mixing Spike Jonez's new film "Adaptation" - why not go see that? It's a great little movie. We'll make a Caption record soon, promise!
Of course, Vanessa's debut CD, "Her House of Sin", is still available. Here are snippets from 1999.
Finally, as the first of a planned series, you can download an mp3 of Vanessa's song "Red Habits", based on "The Handmaid's Tale", by Margaret Atwood. "Red Habits" was previously available as a free single, and won't appear on any album. The lyrics can be found here. Enjoy!