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Regina Spektor Covers Radiohead’s “No Surprises” For Haiti, Chile

Sara Harowitz — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 14:22:43 +0000

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Quirky pop singer Regina Spektor has covered Radiohead’s “No Surprises” off of their hit OK Computer with all proceeds going to relief efforts in Haiti and Chile, reports Stereogum.

Her haunting take on the song is definitely worth a listen, which you can do here.

Spektor blogged, “i LOVE [Radiohead], and thank them for donating their proceeds too!!! they are the best!”

The song can be bought on iTunes. All proceeds will go to Doctors Without Borders, who will then distribute the money to various aid projects for the earthquake victims in Chile and Haiti. On March 23, Spektor played at New York City’s Irving Plaza for a special Doctors Without Borders benefit concert.

Three For One: Albums Of The Summer So Far

Emma Renda — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:02:53 +0000

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It’s been a long time since I’ve purchased a brand new album on a whim. As a student, I have little disposable income so you had better believe I expect purchases such as this to pay off.

Well, my friends, I may have hit the proverbial jackpot. In the last two weeks or so, I’ve been carelessly shelling out my rent money for records, yet the return turned out to mean more to me than a roof over my head.

My purchases?

Regina Spektor’s Far. Manchester Orchestra’s Everything to Nothing. Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest.

It wasn’t planned in advance, I didn’t wait in line outside the doors of HMV the day Grizzly Bear’s third album was released, and I actually didn’t even know Regina had been in the studio. As for Manchester Orchestra, it was more peer pressure that led me to buy it. Peer pressure and a steal of a deal at Sonic Boom.

The moral of the story, though, is the pleasant surprise that quickly followed the first few listens of each.

In a bold move, I declare Far my album of 2009. It is everything Regina Spektor has made herself – quirky, mouthy, melodramatic – but with the solemn edge that briefly reared its head on “Begin To Hope”, now fully-formed and reckoned with. “Laughing With” is an interesting choice for a single – a friend of mine has tried to call it her “What If God Was One of Us” – yet the lyrics miss soppy altogether. Its Regina’s artistic accuracy that take her piano pop to a different stratosphere than the Vanessa Carlton’s of the world. Like Ben Folds, this generation’s piano man, Regina has lip and a throat to back it up.

But before this blog turns to an album review, or an all-out love fest for my favourite Soviet songstress, let’s move on.

To the next big thing in scene-rock, a genre from which I had distanced myself after The Format broke up and phrase band names came in vogue. Listening to Manchester Orchestra, though, I was reminded of all the reasons I became a scenester in the first place.

Not only is this record positively drenched with angst, vocalist Andy Hull gets the point across without shredding his vocal chords. His pleading wail gives them an indie tinge, reminiscent of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, probably due in part to producer Brad Fisher who has been in the studio with ambient rockers The Shins and My Morning Jacket.

The album flits between dance-rock and epic ballads, all the time grungy but delicately so. (See “I Can Feel a Hot One”, almost a capella complete with an obo’s mourn drifting behind the sluggish tempo.)

It’s a rounded listen, addictive from front to back with lulls in all the right places.

And there is Grizzly Bear, almost all lull but a captivating kind of quiet. I hadn’t heard of this band until reviews for their latest album speckled every inch of my computer screen and magazines. When it was finally released, I was drawn like a moth to the beautiful flame of the album cover. Of course, I had heard “Two Weeks” and was totally enraptured by the percussive hook, which is incidentally the best example of the band’s penchant for genius rhythm, even if it’s not always danceable.

Now, I can’t say I actually love this album. It has its moments, “Two Weeks” is undoubtedly my song of the summer. And sure, there are other single potentials, but I prefer to listen to it in one sitting, allowing my imagination and attention to wander through its hazy soundscape. It’s the kind of album you would enjoy on a rooftop patio in mid-afternoon, possibly sitting next to a four-hosed hookah pipe and weaving a hemp bracelet. And while I can’t say that opportunity has yet presented itself, I’ve been enjoying Veckatimest all the same.

Obviously these albums are worlds apart from one another, but they share a common thread of roundedness – from front to back they flow, unwavering in each of their respective traits.

Maybe I’m only getting this impression because it’s the summer and I have the time to sit around and appreciate whole albums at a time. But I think even if it were the dead of winter and the very real potential of sleeping in the snowy streets of Ottawa lay before me, I would still have handed over my hard-earned pennies for all three of these albums.

Regina Spektor Returns With New Album In June

Eva Lam — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 02:11:32 +0000

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Piano songstress Regina Spektor is set to release her third major-label album, “Far,” early this summer.

The 13-track album, the follow-up to 2006′s “Begin To Hope,” will hit store shelves on June 23 via Sire Records. The first single will be a track called “Laughing With.”

Spektor sought the talents of four different producers for the new album: Jeff Lynne (ELO, The Traveling Wilburys), Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre, Eminem), David Kahne (Paul McCartney, The Strokes) and Garret “Jacknife” Lee (Weezer, REM). In a recent interview with Pitchfork, the singer/songwriter/pianist was asked if she was worried about creating a cohesive sound with such varied producers.

“I’m pretty much stuck sounding like myself so it’s going to be cohesive, in a way,” she said. “And matching producers with songs was done kind of thoughtlessly – it wasn’t like I was sitting there thinking, ‘Well, this person would make more sense with this song.’ I didn’t do research or anything like that. It’s almost like throwing stuff on the floor and seeing how it lands, you know?”

Spektor plans to launch a worldwide tour in support of “Far,” though dates have yet to be announced.

Since the breakout success of ”Begin To Hope,” Spektor has contributed songs to several projects, including the compilation album “Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur” and the 2008 film “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.”

Interview: Regina Spektor Says Don’t Mess With Art!

andPOP Staff — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 00:47:02 +0000

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Regina Spektor used to reply when people left comments on her MySpace page. Now, with a busy touring schedule, she barely has time to write e-mails to her good friends. She doesn’t even have time to approve her ongoing friend requests. “Now my dad checks them in. He’s on there up to three hours a day,” Spektor said during a recent stop in Toronto.

She now has over 118,000 MySpace friends. To put things in perspective, Alanis Morissette has about 58,000 and Jay-Z has less than 15,000. “To see such a response is encouraging. It makes musicians happy to know their music is being listened to,” she said. And people are definitely listening.

Spektor’s most recent album, “Begin to Hope,” released in June, is still gaining a lot of attention. Her music has recently appeared on the hit shows “Grey’s Anatomy” and “CSI,” her music videos are in rotation on MTV, and VH1 labelled her an “artist on the rise.”

Because of the recent attention, you may have just heard of her. But don’t think for a second that she’s an overnight success.

Spektor’s music career started in the Bronx, New York, after moving from Russia when she was nine. She spent years self-promoting and playing small venues in what some have called the “anti-folk” scene of New York City.

“I used to just give out burned CDs to whoever was at the bar that night, and they would give it to their friends,” she said in her quiet, innocent voice.

Although she’s signed to a large label now (Sire), she is a musician who resists conforming under industry pressure. Before leaving her days of playing coffee houses and being her own manager, she stepped lightly into the music industry. “It feels good to work hard for a long time and have it slowly come together… not being pimped out or manufactured,” she said.

Spektor brags about having a great lawyer in her corner when it came time to signing the big record deal. “My lawyer is one of a small group of lawyers that really cares for the artist,” she said, explaining how she “tortured” the label executives before signing anything. “I kept saying, ‘I’m an artist! I’m an artist!’” she said, painting a portrait of her views on artistic control. “If you’re doing it [making music] for the money, you might as well open a store. You shouldn’t bother with art. You don’t fuck around with that stuff, it’s sacred,” she said in a miniature outburst, before ending her rant with a gentle giggle, something she tends to do when speaking about her music.

Her particular brand of art — at times comparable to Feist and Joni Mitchell — is based around her soft voice and piano playing. On this album, she experiments with genre and with degrees of instrumentation. One of the most effective tracks on the album is “Samson,” a track with little more than Spektor’s piano and her voice. Other tracks use drums and other instruments for depth and variety.

“Every song on this album has been my favourite at some time,” she said, comparing the difficult task to choosing one’s favourite child. She likes them all, which comes out in her live performances. A show back in New York reportedly went on for more than three hours.

For the next few months, her life is on the road, finishing up her North American tour.

You can hear some of Regina Spektor’s music, watch music videos or become her friend at myspace.com/reginaspektor

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