| CocoRosie — Heartache City (September 22nd, 2015) |
CocoRosie — Heartache City (September 22nd, 2015) 
≈♠≈ Rozkošné album. Poezie doprovázena cinkáním, citlivě naprogramovanými bubínky, hravým jeskynním zvukem, kde není radno zesilovat přespříliš. Letadlo společnosti Air France s nima spadlo v džungli na Nové Guinei a sestry si potřebují hrát i v této situaci. Je to beatnická hudba pro muže od křehkých přírodních stvoření. Něco jako aborigin. V návaznosti na základní hudební pole nastupuje celý bufet podivných nástrojů, éterické zvuky prochází záznamem jako ostrý nůž skrz máslo. Co z letadla zbylo, se dá použít k hudbě. Psychedelické hudební podivnosti, tajemné pop vokály a často se opakující témata ztrát a nálezů přírody, vytvářejí jiho–gothický pocit z každé písně. Všechno, co jsi se naučil v civilizaci, je ti k ničemu, když ztroskotáš v džungli. Přehlídka jungle slam poetry. Zde není žádný terorista; základní plarformou kapely je teze, že “Svobodná společnost ochrání planetu před korozivními účinky patriarchálními systémy víry”. Ani samy nevědí, jak brzy se jim to splní... 
© Author: Rodrigo Jardon
Location: Hawaii, California, New Mexico, Arizona, New York ~~ Paris, France
Album release: September 22nd, 2015
Record Label: City Slang
Duration: 44:30
Tracks:
01. Forget Me Not 5:30
02. Un Beso 4:18
03. Lost Girls 5:20
04. Heartache City 3:14
05. The Tower of Pisa 3:20
06. Bed Bugs 3:47
07. Tim and Tina 4:14
08. Big and Black 5:54
09. Lucky Clover 5:24
10. No One Knows 3:29
Review
Len Lukowski
• Whilst they have undoubtedly produced many a moment of weird beauty over the last decade or so, CocoRosie are rarely a cosy listening experience. Sisters Bianca and Sierra Casady have a history of tapping into the uncomfortable, taboo and offbeat, both musically and lyrically. Sixth album Heartache City continues the CR lineage of both beauty and discomfort. Whilst not as overtly provocative as some of CocoRosie’s early work, there is still a raw creeping darkness to the melodies. Even during its most beautiful glimmers the album is not a relaxing experience. But neither is it an unrewarding one.
• The record begins with the sound of a wind–up music box on ‘Forget Me Not’. Spoken word vocals are laden over the top, sounding at first like nonsense rhymes, gradually gaining coherence, conjuring melancholic, naturalistic imagery (“Wounded stag/Limp your way to paradise”), building to a soulful song of loss. The lost howl of “If only I could remember you” is the repeated, weary refrain.
• Following the music box, a smorgasbord of strange instruments and ethereal sounds run through the record. The psychedelic musical weirdness, eerie pop vocals and frequently recurring themes of loss and nature, create a southern gothic feel to the record.
• There are moments when Heartache City has the ability to make hairs stand on end, such as the surprisingly earwormy chorus to ‘Lost Girls’. After spoken word rhyming, which is in danger of sounding a bit twee, the track comes into its own as the instrumental textures build and the gorgeous chorus is sung. Maybe the lines "stick out your thumb and lift up your skirt/someone’s gonna stop here soon" shouldn’t sound so beautiful, but they do.
• ‘Big and Black’ is the most disturbing song on the album, reminiscent of a demented ‘Unchained Melody’, with drunk–sounding vocals that nod towards Billie Holiday. It begins by building a picture of dead–end small town life: “white trash Sunday…telephone wires the way they go into the distance…the wicked tree branches…try to catch a dream passing by/like a cloud in the sky”. It ends in what sounds like a horribly matter–of–fact account of racism and murder, sung with child–like naivety.
• ‘Tower of Pisa’ is one of the rare ‘straightforward’ tracks of the album — it feels more clear what the track is about than most of the others. A pained account of maternal loss with the haunting, desperate refrain of “Excuse me mister, have you seen my daughter? I’m her only mother”.
• Heartache City is a record perfectly surmised by its title, but I’ll try to expand. It’s the often uneasy, sometimes beautiful, sometimes disturbing sound of dreams and landscapes vividly conjured and then equally vividly crumbled to dust. At times the sheer weirdness and creepiness of the record can be a bit much, but that’s also what makes CocoRosie so great. There are diamonds in the roughness and a world to get lost in; your heart will ache before you leave.
© Author: Rodrigo Jardon
Biography by Heather Phares
• The luminously lovely indie folk–tronic duo CocoRosie consists of the Casady sisters, vocalist/guitarist/harpist Sierra and vocalist/percussionist Bianca.
• Both sisters had an early love of music that they pursued as they grew up, albeit in different ways: Sierra began operatic vocal training while she was in high school, while Bianca sang and wrote songs but kept them to herself. That is, until she reconnected with Sierra, who joined Bianca at her Paris apartment, and they started playing and recording songs together. The fruits of their labor, La Maison de Mon Reve, was released in spring 2004 by Touch & Go and was predated by a string of dates in New York with Devendra Banhart, the Gena Rowlands Band, Battles, and Ratatat. Their second album, Noah's Ark, which featured cameos by Devendra Banhart and Antony of Antony & the Johnsons, arrived in fall 2005. 2007's The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn was a more polished but still eclectic effort. The following year they released the single God Has a Voice, She Speaks Through Me, which also appeared on 2010's Grey Oceans. Inspired by the sisters' travels through Europe, Australia, and South America, the album was released by Sub Pop. In 2012, CocoRosie choreographed a dance production, Nightshift, and an opera, Soul Life, for the Donau Festival in Krems, and performed at the Meltdown Festival curated by their longtime friend Antony. For 2013's Tales of a Grass Widow, one of the duo's most focused set of songs, the Casadys worked with producer Valgeir Sigurðsson and collaborators including Antony. 
© Author: Rodrigo Jardon
BIO from City Slang Records:
• CocoRosie is the potently poetic music–based project of American cross–disciplinary performance artists Sierra and Bianca Casady. They sing eye–opening accounts of unsayable things, yet their music ultimately celebrates a spiritual freedom attainable in the purely natural world. Their songs blend a myriad of styles and references, from hip–hop and reggae through to folk and opera, shaping the most painful of experiences into memorable and evocative pop songs. Taken as a whole, CocoRosie’s music is an ongoing psychologically intimate dialogue between the siblings. Each sister has her own persona and vocal delivery; Bianca delivers hard–hitting truths in a childlike voice whilst Sierra responds in pure open tones, playing a range of instruments including the harp, flute, piano, and guitar.
• CocoRosie now introduce their fifth album, Tales Of A GrassWidow, produced in collaboration with Icelandic composer Valgeir Sigurðsson and enriched by a whole host of guest performances. It’s a brave record, synthesizing electronic and organic sound to convey a futuristic, back–to–nature feeling. The sisters boldly tackle topics most wouldn’t dare including child abuse, drawing parallels between the treatment of children, especially girls, as disposable and the destruction of the earth’s resources.
• Amongst the 11 tracks that weave together to create Tales of a GrassWidow is ‘Gravediggress,’ whose recent release to the web saw CocoRosie warmly welcomed back by fans and critics alike. It’s a foreboding track, representative of the album’s overarching theme, the tale of an imagined conversation between an abandoned child and an outcast old woman. The young girl asks the Gravediggress to bury her love in the ground for safekeeping. With a wistful pump organ introduction, Bianca imparts the entreating child’s words, and Sierra, in haltering, but clear tones sings for the old woman. Their voices blend and overlap, suggesting the woman and child are the same person. Simple piano chords accompany their vocals, with chimes and a marching drum rhythm composed of beat box from CocoRosie’s longtime collaborator, Tez.
• Friend and sometime collaborator Antony Hegarty, evoking the voice of Mother Nature, sings on the record’s second track, “Tears for Animals” and the album closer, “Poison.” “Child Bride” awakens the image of grass blowing outside the window soothing a five–year–old girl given away by her family; In “After the Afterlife” the narrator recalls details from the physical world now out of reach; wet snails, moth wings and ashes from a day lit fire. ‘Roots Of My Hair’ describes a solitary child happy with the company of a sparrow.
• In their ten years as CocoRosie, the sisters have released four albums: Grey Oceans (2010), The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn (2007), Noah’s Ark (2005), and their first album “La maison de mon rêve” (2004) — each one inspiring controversy and debate in equal amounts to praise, such is their fearlessness and willingness to take risks with their art. This strong creative vision runs through every aspect of their work — from videos to live performance utilizing theatrical costumes and make up which they create alongside each new body of songs.
• Finding expression for their ideas in other disciplines beyond the traditional musical parameters is paramount to the sisters — and often a source of inspiration for their songwriting. In addition to their album tours and festival performances worldwide, Sierra has arranged and performed operas in collaboration with the likes of the Symphony Orchestra of Amsterdam, The ICA in London and The Sydney Opera House. Bianca has had exhibitions in both alternative and established fine art venues all around the world. She’s hosted informal fashion shows, artist salons, book clubs, and taught and given poetry readings.
• In 2012, CocoRosie choreographed “Nightshift,” a dance production and “Soul Life,” an opera both staged at the Donau Festival in Krems. Bianca held a solo exhibition of her artwork in NYC and the sisters performed at London’s Meltdown Festival curated by their longtime friend Antony Hegarty.
• This spring, along with theatre director Robert Wilson the duo unveil their work on a production of “Peter Pan” by the Berliner Ensemble and will be perform in Paris under the curation of Laurie Anderson.
• Later this year Bianca will launch with artist Anne Sherwood Pundyk ‘Girls Against God’ — an arts and letters print publication. Linked to this project, Bianca and Sierra Casady have founded the Future Feminists with Antony Hegarty and performance artists Kembra Pfahler and Johanna Constantine. The group’s platform is to “free society and protect the planet from the corrosive effects of patriarchal belief systems”. The songs in “Tales of a GrassWidow,” touch on CocoRosie’s personal response to the group’s feminist mission.
• On top of all of this, they will be touring extensively across the world. For now, however, we leave you this, their fifth musical offering; one which showcases the Casady sisters at their most inspired, creative and fearless; Tales of a GrassWidow.
Discography:
• La maison de mon rêve (2004, Touch and Go/Quarterstick Records)
• Noah’s Ark (2005, Touch and Go/Quarterstick Records)
• The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn (2007, Touch and Go)
• Grey Oceans (2010, Sub Pop Records)
• Tales of a GrassWidow (2013, City Slang)
• Heartache City (2015, City Slang)
EPs:
• 2004: Beautiful Boyz (EP, Touch and Go/Quarterstick Records)
• 2009: Coconuts, Plenty of Junk Food (EP, self–released)
Singles:
• 2008: "God Has a Voice, She Speaks Through Me"
• 2010: "Lemonade"
Other singles:
• 2012: "We Are On Fire / Tearz for Animals" (7" and digital single)
• 2013: "Gravediggress" (City Slang)
Music videos:
• "Noah's Ark"
• "Rainbowarriors"
• "God Has a Voice, She Speaks Through Me"
• "Lemonade"
• "Gallows"
• "We Are On Fire"
• "After The Afterlife"
• "Child Bride"
• "Gravediggress"
Notes:
• City Slang now has offices in Berlin, London, Paris... and as of 1st September 2015, City Slang Music USA Inc. opened its doors in Bloomington, Indiana, where we have hired the incredible Kevin Duneman as General Manager throughout the Americas. Duneman, former GM and Marketing Director of Secretly Group comments, “I’ve long admired the art–first, truly artist–friendly approach propagated from City Slang in Berlin. I couldn’t be more pleased to be presented with the opportunity and responsibility of cultivating the same path for our artists in the Americas.“
• Ellinghaus continues, “I can’t believe we didn’t do this much earlier. If only Kevin had been available to us ten years ago, we would be sitting on a mountain of Grammys and returns by now.“
Website: http://www.cocorosiemusic.com/
MySpace: https://myspace.com/cocorosie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CocoRosie-6762792489/timeline/
Valgeir Sigurðsson: http://valgeir.net/
_____________________________________________________________
| CocoRosie — Heartache City (September 22nd, 2015) |
Location: Hawaii, California, New Mexico, Arizona, New York ~~ Paris, France
Album release: September 22nd, 2015
Record Label: City Slang
Duration: 44:30
Tracks:
01. Forget Me Not 5:30
02. Un Beso 4:18
03. Lost Girls 5:20
04. Heartache City 3:14
05. The Tower of Pisa 3:20
06. Bed Bugs 3:47
07. Tim and Tina 4:14
08. Big and Black 5:54
09. Lucky Clover 5:24
10. No One Knows 3:29
Review
Len Lukowski
• Whilst they have undoubtedly produced many a moment of weird beauty over the last decade or so, CocoRosie are rarely a cosy listening experience. Sisters Bianca and Sierra Casady have a history of tapping into the uncomfortable, taboo and offbeat, both musically and lyrically. Sixth album Heartache City continues the CR lineage of both beauty and discomfort. Whilst not as overtly provocative as some of CocoRosie’s early work, there is still a raw creeping darkness to the melodies. Even during its most beautiful glimmers the album is not a relaxing experience. But neither is it an unrewarding one.
• The record begins with the sound of a wind–up music box on ‘Forget Me Not’. Spoken word vocals are laden over the top, sounding at first like nonsense rhymes, gradually gaining coherence, conjuring melancholic, naturalistic imagery (“Wounded stag/Limp your way to paradise”), building to a soulful song of loss. The lost howl of “If only I could remember you” is the repeated, weary refrain.
• Following the music box, a smorgasbord of strange instruments and ethereal sounds run through the record. The psychedelic musical weirdness, eerie pop vocals and frequently recurring themes of loss and nature, create a southern gothic feel to the record.
• There are moments when Heartache City has the ability to make hairs stand on end, such as the surprisingly earwormy chorus to ‘Lost Girls’. After spoken word rhyming, which is in danger of sounding a bit twee, the track comes into its own as the instrumental textures build and the gorgeous chorus is sung. Maybe the lines "stick out your thumb and lift up your skirt/someone’s gonna stop here soon" shouldn’t sound so beautiful, but they do.
• ‘Big and Black’ is the most disturbing song on the album, reminiscent of a demented ‘Unchained Melody’, with drunk–sounding vocals that nod towards Billie Holiday. It begins by building a picture of dead–end small town life: “white trash Sunday…telephone wires the way they go into the distance…the wicked tree branches…try to catch a dream passing by/like a cloud in the sky”. It ends in what sounds like a horribly matter–of–fact account of racism and murder, sung with child–like naivety.
• ‘Tower of Pisa’ is one of the rare ‘straightforward’ tracks of the album — it feels more clear what the track is about than most of the others. A pained account of maternal loss with the haunting, desperate refrain of “Excuse me mister, have you seen my daughter? I’m her only mother”.
• Heartache City is a record perfectly surmised by its title, but I’ll try to expand. It’s the often uneasy, sometimes beautiful, sometimes disturbing sound of dreams and landscapes vividly conjured and then equally vividly crumbled to dust. At times the sheer weirdness and creepiness of the record can be a bit much, but that’s also what makes CocoRosie so great. There are diamonds in the roughness and a world to get lost in; your heart will ache before you leave.
Biography by Heather Phares
• The luminously lovely indie folk–tronic duo CocoRosie consists of the Casady sisters, vocalist/guitarist/harpist Sierra and vocalist/percussionist Bianca.
• Both sisters had an early love of music that they pursued as they grew up, albeit in different ways: Sierra began operatic vocal training while she was in high school, while Bianca sang and wrote songs but kept them to herself. That is, until she reconnected with Sierra, who joined Bianca at her Paris apartment, and they started playing and recording songs together. The fruits of their labor, La Maison de Mon Reve, was released in spring 2004 by Touch & Go and was predated by a string of dates in New York with Devendra Banhart, the Gena Rowlands Band, Battles, and Ratatat. Their second album, Noah's Ark, which featured cameos by Devendra Banhart and Antony of Antony & the Johnsons, arrived in fall 2005. 2007's The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn was a more polished but still eclectic effort. The following year they released the single God Has a Voice, She Speaks Through Me, which also appeared on 2010's Grey Oceans. Inspired by the sisters' travels through Europe, Australia, and South America, the album was released by Sub Pop. In 2012, CocoRosie choreographed a dance production, Nightshift, and an opera, Soul Life, for the Donau Festival in Krems, and performed at the Meltdown Festival curated by their longtime friend Antony. For 2013's Tales of a Grass Widow, one of the duo's most focused set of songs, the Casadys worked with producer Valgeir Sigurðsson and collaborators including Antony.
BIO from City Slang Records:
• CocoRosie is the potently poetic music–based project of American cross–disciplinary performance artists Sierra and Bianca Casady. They sing eye–opening accounts of unsayable things, yet their music ultimately celebrates a spiritual freedom attainable in the purely natural world. Their songs blend a myriad of styles and references, from hip–hop and reggae through to folk and opera, shaping the most painful of experiences into memorable and evocative pop songs. Taken as a whole, CocoRosie’s music is an ongoing psychologically intimate dialogue between the siblings. Each sister has her own persona and vocal delivery; Bianca delivers hard–hitting truths in a childlike voice whilst Sierra responds in pure open tones, playing a range of instruments including the harp, flute, piano, and guitar.
• CocoRosie now introduce their fifth album, Tales Of A GrassWidow, produced in collaboration with Icelandic composer Valgeir Sigurðsson and enriched by a whole host of guest performances. It’s a brave record, synthesizing electronic and organic sound to convey a futuristic, back–to–nature feeling. The sisters boldly tackle topics most wouldn’t dare including child abuse, drawing parallels between the treatment of children, especially girls, as disposable and the destruction of the earth’s resources.
• Amongst the 11 tracks that weave together to create Tales of a GrassWidow is ‘Gravediggress,’ whose recent release to the web saw CocoRosie warmly welcomed back by fans and critics alike. It’s a foreboding track, representative of the album’s overarching theme, the tale of an imagined conversation between an abandoned child and an outcast old woman. The young girl asks the Gravediggress to bury her love in the ground for safekeeping. With a wistful pump organ introduction, Bianca imparts the entreating child’s words, and Sierra, in haltering, but clear tones sings for the old woman. Their voices blend and overlap, suggesting the woman and child are the same person. Simple piano chords accompany their vocals, with chimes and a marching drum rhythm composed of beat box from CocoRosie’s longtime collaborator, Tez.
• Friend and sometime collaborator Antony Hegarty, evoking the voice of Mother Nature, sings on the record’s second track, “Tears for Animals” and the album closer, “Poison.” “Child Bride” awakens the image of grass blowing outside the window soothing a five–year–old girl given away by her family; In “After the Afterlife” the narrator recalls details from the physical world now out of reach; wet snails, moth wings and ashes from a day lit fire. ‘Roots Of My Hair’ describes a solitary child happy with the company of a sparrow.
• In their ten years as CocoRosie, the sisters have released four albums: Grey Oceans (2010), The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn (2007), Noah’s Ark (2005), and their first album “La maison de mon rêve” (2004) — each one inspiring controversy and debate in equal amounts to praise, such is their fearlessness and willingness to take risks with their art. This strong creative vision runs through every aspect of their work — from videos to live performance utilizing theatrical costumes and make up which they create alongside each new body of songs.
• Finding expression for their ideas in other disciplines beyond the traditional musical parameters is paramount to the sisters — and often a source of inspiration for their songwriting. In addition to their album tours and festival performances worldwide, Sierra has arranged and performed operas in collaboration with the likes of the Symphony Orchestra of Amsterdam, The ICA in London and The Sydney Opera House. Bianca has had exhibitions in both alternative and established fine art venues all around the world. She’s hosted informal fashion shows, artist salons, book clubs, and taught and given poetry readings.
• In 2012, CocoRosie choreographed “Nightshift,” a dance production and “Soul Life,” an opera both staged at the Donau Festival in Krems. Bianca held a solo exhibition of her artwork in NYC and the sisters performed at London’s Meltdown Festival curated by their longtime friend Antony Hegarty.
• This spring, along with theatre director Robert Wilson the duo unveil their work on a production of “Peter Pan” by the Berliner Ensemble and will be perform in Paris under the curation of Laurie Anderson.
• Later this year Bianca will launch with artist Anne Sherwood Pundyk ‘Girls Against God’ — an arts and letters print publication. Linked to this project, Bianca and Sierra Casady have founded the Future Feminists with Antony Hegarty and performance artists Kembra Pfahler and Johanna Constantine. The group’s platform is to “free society and protect the planet from the corrosive effects of patriarchal belief systems”. The songs in “Tales of a GrassWidow,” touch on CocoRosie’s personal response to the group’s feminist mission.
• On top of all of this, they will be touring extensively across the world. For now, however, we leave you this, their fifth musical offering; one which showcases the Casady sisters at their most inspired, creative and fearless; Tales of a GrassWidow.
Discography:
• La maison de mon rêve (2004, Touch and Go/Quarterstick Records)
• Noah’s Ark (2005, Touch and Go/Quarterstick Records)
• The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn (2007, Touch and Go)
• Grey Oceans (2010, Sub Pop Records)
• Tales of a GrassWidow (2013, City Slang)
• Heartache City (2015, City Slang)
EPs:
• 2004: Beautiful Boyz (EP, Touch and Go/Quarterstick Records)
• 2009: Coconuts, Plenty of Junk Food (EP, self–released)
Singles:
• 2008: "God Has a Voice, She Speaks Through Me"
• 2010: "Lemonade"
Other singles:
• 2012: "We Are On Fire / Tearz for Animals" (7" and digital single)
• 2013: "Gravediggress" (City Slang)
Music videos:
• "Noah's Ark"
• "Rainbowarriors"
• "God Has a Voice, She Speaks Through Me"
• "Lemonade"
• "Gallows"
• "We Are On Fire"
• "After The Afterlife"
• "Child Bride"
• "Gravediggress"
Notes:
• City Slang now has offices in Berlin, London, Paris... and as of 1st September 2015, City Slang Music USA Inc. opened its doors in Bloomington, Indiana, where we have hired the incredible Kevin Duneman as General Manager throughout the Americas. Duneman, former GM and Marketing Director of Secretly Group comments, “I’ve long admired the art–first, truly artist–friendly approach propagated from City Slang in Berlin. I couldn’t be more pleased to be presented with the opportunity and responsibility of cultivating the same path for our artists in the Americas.“
• Ellinghaus continues, “I can’t believe we didn’t do this much earlier. If only Kevin had been available to us ten years ago, we would be sitting on a mountain of Grammys and returns by now.“
Website: http://www.cocorosiemusic.com/
MySpace: https://myspace.com/cocorosie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CocoRosie-6762792489/timeline/
Valgeir Sigurðsson: http://valgeir.net/