Piglet Photo Sows More Mockery

Tori’s famous Pele piglet photo was recently spied hamming it up in the January issue of the UK’s Uncut magazine. Unfortunately, the “Rock Follies” item also included its fair share of hogwash, identifying Tori as Canadian and claiming that she “hasn’t much of a gap between thought and expression.”

Barbara, hogs and kisses for sending us this.

Tori Featured in Sound on Sound

The February 2007 issue of Sound on Sound includes a lengthy feature article on Tori and Martian Studios. There’s a preview on the site, but folks will have to subscribe to read the full article, which includes gems like this advice from Peter Gabriel:

“Peter said to me, ‘You’ve made some successful records, but I want to know where you’re going to be in 10 years’ time. There will be good times and bad times with your record label, and to develop your music you need a workshop, a place to experiment.’ I had no idea how right he was going to be. Had I not listened to him, I don’t think I would have survived the war with Atlantic Records. But we were here in Martian Engineering, and we were in control and in command of the music and the record company only had access to the master tapes that I gave them. I’ve heard stories of artists standing outside and banging on doors, screaming ‘Give me my fucking masters!’”

Sarah and menju56 are the ones with the sharp eyes who sent this in.

Smells Like The Best

Tori’s cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” came in at number 31 on BBC6’s top 40 best covers list. Listeners picked the winners, which included Johnny Cash’s cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” (number 1), Nirvana’s cover of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World” (number 13) and two Kate Bush songs—China Drum’s rendition of “Wuthering Heights” and Futureheads’ take on “Hounds of Love” (numbers 20 and 4, respectively). William Shatner’s “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” was voted among the worst. We can’t argue with that.

Thanks to sender-inners Melissa and Matt!

Incidental New Album News: Mastering!

A Lighting & Sound International article about Close To The Edge Studios mastering engineer Jon Astley’s new AML1 studio monitors includes a statement that he will be taking them out to Martian Engineering “for use in the on going project with Tori Amos.” Considering his capacity as a mastering engineer and history with Tori—he has mastered all of her records since From The Choirgirl Hotel—it’s safe to assume that the new record is approaching or in the mastering phase now. (The meat of the story on LS&I is pretty interesting too—at least to gearheads like me—but I suspect that most Undented visitors are most interested in that one sentence!)

Speaking of Martian, their latest news item effuses love for the new Korby KAT microphone system that they are using. Since the only project being worked on at Martian is Tori’s next record, it’s pretty clear that this system is being used for it. (Saar’s eagle eyes caught this one.)

BBC 6 Music Best/Worst Covers Vote

BBC 6 Music is conducting a vote on the best and worst covers of all time. Tori’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” has already been added to the list, but it you can also make new suggestions when you submit your vote.

The on-air countdown of the Top 40 best and worst covers takes place from 10am-1pm GMT (11:00-14:00 UTC) on Saturday, January 27th.

Thanks to melissa (deadcanary) for telling us about this.

Tori On Mary and Ahmet

While Tori’s been busy working on her new album, she’s also been busy contributing essays and quotes on some of her favorite topics: religion and Atlantic Records.

A new book, The Secrets of the Mary Magdalene, edited by Dan Burstein and Arne J. De Keijzer, includes a passage by Tori focusing on “sinsuality” and Mary and the Muse. The passage is taken from the section on Mary Magdalene in Piece by Piece.

In Rolling Stone issue 1018 (James Brown on the cover), Tori is quoted talking about the late Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records:

“He would say, ‘just because you’ve sold millions of records doesn’t mean you’re good. McDonald’s sells a lot of hamburgers.’”

Roxanne, Richard and Kendra, you’re the bomb.

"Real Men" in Q's "Lost Songs"

Britain’s Q Magazine features Tori in its February 2007 issue, which lists the “best 500 lost songs.” Tori’s cover of “Real Men,” originally written by Joe Jackson, comes in at 331, and the item is accompanied by a Tales of a Librarian-era photo. The text claims, “Only the most devoted Tori Amos fans bothered to explore her 2001 covers album, but it was full of startling reinventions, including this haunting take on Joe Jackson.” Many thanks to Saar, Philippe, and Rudy for filling us in.

Musicians, Others Offer New Takes on Tori Songs

Musicians around the world seem to like covering Tori’s songs just as much as she likes performing others’ music!

In France, singer Domy Fidanza recorded a cover of Tori’s “Conflake Girl.” Fidanza, originally from Italy, came to France to launch her music career as a finalist on Star Academy, an American-Idol-esque French TV show. She recorded “Cornflake Girl” for a collection called Star Academy: Leurs Singles, but you can hear it on iTunes and at E-Compil. Thanks to Elizabeth and Stephane for the tip!

Meanwhile, Native American singer Pura Fe performed a unique cover of “Scarlet’s Walk” at a recent Tori tribute. You can check it out over on YouTube. Thanks, Dane, for letting us know!

Playwright Katie Kring created The Pearl, a musical loosely based on The Scarlet Letter that initially featured a version of “Winter.” Her production was recently featured in a Connecticut newspaper, The Day. In it, Kring explains:

“The assignment was to choose a pop song she thought would fit into that source material and write a scene around that song. Then, though, she would write her own song to sub in where the pop song was. Kring chose Tori Amos’ “Winter,” which is about searching for a father, and wrote a scene around it between Hester and Pearl. Then she wrote her own song, “Icicle Skies,” that could slip into “Winter’s” spot.

“It was at that point I realized you could do ‘The Scarlet Letter,’ and you could give it that sort of girl-piano-rock feel and it somehow works. I don’t know exactly why that is, but it does. At that point, it became clear to me that you could actually do this.”

Billboard Lists An April Release

Billboard has posted an article listing release dates for albums in 2007 and while no exact date or album title is given, it does indicate Tori’s next studio album will be released in April! (No foolin’!) Tori has said several times that the next record would be out in the Spring, so this makes sense and, one would hope, Billboard should have some concrete basis for stating this. Hopefully, there will be new information about the next record to share soon.

Thanks to Nancy for bringing this to our attention!

BFBS Radio 1 Interview Transcription

Thanks to Katran_sama for sending us a transcript of the BFBS Radio 1 interview broadcast on Thursday, December 14th (and apologies to him and everyone else for being such a stick-in-the-mud about getting this on the site). During the interview, Tori confirmed that the new album would released in the Spring and that she would be starting a world tour with Matt Chamberlain and Jon Evans in May of 2007.

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