Amy Annelle is the primary member and songwriter of The Places, she will be releasing her third official full-length, Songs for Creeps on her own High Plains Sigh label this October, and will be touring the US for most of the fall. High Plains Sigh will be the new home base for all things Places related and there are also several collaborative projects in the works between Annelle and some of her favorite musicians.
True to her vagabond ways, Annelle began the Songs for Creeps album alone, with 4-track cassette recordings made in shacks and attics across the US. During recording sessions with Okkervil River in Austin (as guest vocalist on the band’s Black Sheep Boy), Annelle found a kindred spirit in producer Brian Beattie (Okkervil River, Daniel Johnston). She and Beattie went on to record the bulk of Songs For Creeps in his garage studio full of cantankerous vintage gear. A few tracks from a marathon recording session with Jay Pellicci (Deerhoof, Erase Errata) at John Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone studio in San Francisco completes the album’s eleven cuts. This misfit’s tale is raw, potent and direct: the antidote to the eerie, calm-before-the-storm acrimony and improvisation explored on the Places’ last studio album, Call It Sleep.
Songs For Creeps builds on Annelle’s acclaimed songwriting, studio-as-science-lab aesthetic and fondness for field recordings and sound collage. But the large ensemble approach of past Places albums is gone—Annelle is joined by a few very special guests–and she did most of the arranging and playing herself. Album art is by Erik Mast, AKA E*Rock (The Planet The, Beck), who created the lucid bad-dream cover for The Places’ well-loved 2000 debut, The Autopilot Knows You Best. The Places will be touring as a full band to support Songs For Creeps this fall in the US and beyond.
Also available through High Plains Sigh is a covers album by The Places, FAWNS WITH FANGS: Selections From the Dark Heart of the Thicket which digs deep into the hallowed underground of British and American folk and psychedelic rock, with a few wild cards mixed in. Not the usual premeditated studio covers album, Fawns With Fangs is more of an accidental self-portrait, drawn from a wealth of home four-track sessions and recent live performances. The CD covers are limited edition, hand-made, and numbered.
Upcoming Tour Dates
Sat. Aug 26: Centennial, WY Upland Breakdown at the Bear Tree Tavern w/ Michael Hurley and friends
US Fall Tour, dates TBA soon
Full bio, press and exclusive MP3s: www.highplainssigh.com
also visit: myspace.com/theplacesamyannelle
The Places Songs For Creeps track list
MINERS LIE!
BLESSED SPEED
THE LION’S SHARE
MY WEARY EYE
MERCY ME
GOLD TO GREEN
THE DAMN INSANE ASYLUM
THE NATURAL ARC
I’M A-GONE DOWN TO THE GREEN FIELDS
SUCH AS THE EARTH
WORSE & WISE
The Places Fawns With Fangs: Selections From the Dark Heart of the Thicket track list
JUST A BUM (Michael Hurley)
SICKLE CLOWNS (The Pretty Things)
ONE MORNING IN MAY (Traditional)
FRIENDS (Led Zeppelin)
HALF RIGHT (Heatmiser)
BIG LOG (Robert Plant)
LATE NIGHT (Syd Barrett)
IT’S ALL OVER NOW, BABY BLUE (Bob Dylan)
OH, DEED I DO (Bert Jansch)
ANYMORE FOR ANYMORE (Ronnie Lane)
ANOTHER SLEEP SONG (Graham Nash)
DON’T SING LOVE SONGS (Traditional)
NO NAME #3 (Elliott Smith)
DISCOGRAPHY
**October, 2006** The Places, Songs For Creeps (High Plains Sigh)
2005 The Places, Fawns With Fangs: Seclctions from the Dark Heart of the Thicket (High Plains Sigh)
2005 The Places, I Eat Records Austin, TX Compilation (I Eat Records)
2004 The Places, Call It Sleep (Hush)
2002 The Places, Pop Life Vol. 9 Compilation (Contact Records Japan)
2001 Amy Annelle, A School of Secret Dangers (Hush)
2000 The Places, The Autopilot Knows You Best (Absolutely Kosher)
1999 Amy Annelle, Which One’s You? (Hush)
1998 Amy Annelle (as Underwater Salvage Partners), Fuel Compilation (Arena Rock)