Aimee Mann
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| Aimee Mann | ||
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 Aimee Mann in concert on 15 October 2005.
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| Background information | ||
| Born | September 8, 1960 | |
| Origin |  Richmond, Virginia, USA |
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| Genre(s) | Rock | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter | |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar Bass guitar |
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| Years active | 1982–present | |
| Label(s) | SuperEgo Records | |
| Website | Official website | |
Aimee Mann (born September 8, 1960) is an American rock guitarist, bassist, singer, and songwriter.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Aimee Mann was born in Richmond, Virginia, graduated from Open High School and attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but dropped out to sing with her first punk rock band, the Young Snakes; the band released the EP Bark Along with the Young Snakes in 1982, and a compilation album was issued in 2004.
In 1983, seeking a return to "sweetness and melody", she co-founded with Berklee classmate and boyfriend Michael Hausman the new wave band 'Til Tuesday, which achieved success in 1985 with its first album, Voices Carry. The title song is said to be inspired by Hausman and Mann's breakup; the video became an MTV staple, winning the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist, although Mann's then-signature spiky hair would lead some to dismiss the group. Mann performed with the rock band Rush on the song "Time Stand Still" (from Hold Your Fire, 1987), singing backup vocals and appearing in the music video. With Mann playing an increasingly important role in songwriting, 'Til Tuesday released two more albums, Welcome Home and Everything's Different Now. On the final album and tour, musician Jon Brion joined the band, which broke up in 1990 when Mann left to start her solo career.
Around the time of the first album's release, Mann began a romantic relationship with Jules Shear; they broke up before the final 'Til Tuesday album, which contained the song "J For Jules." Professional relationships from the band would continue: Hausman later became Mann's manager, and Brion produced her first two solo albums, along with the Magnolia soundtrack.
[edit] Solo career
In 1993 Mann released Whatever, her first solo album. Promotion suffered due to the collapse of her label, Imago. While only a small hit, the album was critically praised, and paved the way for her next release, 1995's I'm with Stupid, through Geffen Records. Again, reviews were positive, but sales were weak.
Mann met fellow singer-songwriter Michael Penn in the late 1980s and with comparable songwriting styles and record-industry woes to share, they struck up a friendship during the recording of Stupid (to which Penn contributed vocals), which blossomed into romance and their 1997 marriage. Penn and Mann live in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. They have no children, but Penn has a son from a previous marriage.
Mann recorded Bachelor No. 2, but Geffen saw no hit singles in the material and ordered her back to the studio. The album languished while Mann and the label fought.
Meanwhile, film director Paul Thomas Anderson, for whom Penn and Brion had composed a soundtrack, became a close friend. Mann gained greater public recognition in 1999 — indeed, more than anything else since "Voices Carry" — when she contributed eight songs to the soundtrack of Anderson's Magnolia, including the Academy Award-nominated song, "Save Me." Anderson deliberately worked from Mann's lyrics to create the film's characters and situations. Mann soon became sought after as a soundtrack contributor.
[edit] Independence
Disillusioned with both the ineffectual promotion and artistic meddling by her record label, an experience documented in her song "Calling It Quits", she struck out on her own and founded SuperEgo Records in 1999. Mann self-released Bachelor No. 2 in 2000, having negotiated a contract release from Geffen, and though initially only sold at concerts and via her website, the album became successful, allowing her to secure retail distribution through SuperEgo. The album, which included some songs from Magnolia and new material, was widely admired and Mann's "more indie than indie" success was carefully noted by other musicians.
Mann, Penn, Brion, Fiona Apple, and other musicians had by this time developed a subculture around the Largo nightclub in L.A. Penn and Mann formed a concept called Acoustic Vaudeville to recreate it on tour in California and eventually on an irregular, ongoing national tour. The Acoustic Vaudeville shows intermix music and stand-up comedy; among the comedians joining them for individual shows were Janeane Garofalo, Patton Oswalt, and David Cross.
Mann continued her solo career with Lost in Space (2002), a somewhat more sombre album in the same vein as Bachelor No. 2. In 2003 her website released the Lost in Space Special Edition, which featured a second disc containing six live recordings, as well two B-sides and two previously unreleased songs. In November of the following year Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, a live album and DVD recorded at a series of June 2004 shows in Brooklyn, came out; the two discs were sold packaged together in either a CD jewel case or a DVD case.
Mann described her next album, The Forgotten Arm (2005), as a concept album set in the '70s about two lovers who meet at the Virginia state fair and go on the run. The Joe Henry-produced album, which was recorded mostly live with few overdubs, was released May 3, 2005. The album's illustrations and title reflect Mann's interest in boxing. The album title derives from a boxing move in which one arm is used to hit the opponent, causing him to "forget" about the other arm, which is then used to deliver a harsher blow. The album received weaker reviews overall, with critics impressed at the totality but unimpressed with any individual songs.
Mann also released an EP for Christmas in 2005 as a cover single of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" for sale through her website and iTunes. It also included "Christmastime", the 1996 duet she recorded with Penn for the Hard Eight soundtrack, and a cover of "The Christmas Song". The iTunes version replaced "Christmastime" with a cover of Joni Mitchell's "River" and "I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up for Christmas" from The Forgotten Arm.
Mann's independence from the industry led to more overt political stances. She joined Artists Against Piracy, a group formed to act against the illegal downloading and file sharing of copyrighted music from the Internet. Mann, Penn and Hausman took their experience with SuperEgo to found the independent music collective United Musicians, which is based on the principle that every artist should be able to retain copyright ownership of the work he or she has created, in contrast to normal music industry contracts.
In July 2006, Mann announced that she would be releasing One More Drifter in the Snow, a full-length Christmas album. The album featured primarily covers of Christmas standards, as well as "Christmastime" and an original song, called "Calling On Mary", written by Mann and bassist Paul Bryan, who produced the record. It was released on October 31 in the US, and late November in the UK. [1]
[edit] Discography
[edit] With The Young Snakes
- 1982 - Bark Along with the Young Snakes (EP)
- 2004 - Aimee Mann & the Young Snakes (compilation)
[edit] With 'Til Tuesday
- 1985 - Voices Carry
- 1986 - Welcome Home
- 1988 - Everything's Different Now
- 1996 - Coming Up Close: A Retrospective (compilation)
[edit] Solo
- 1993 - Whatever
- 1995 - I'm with Stupid
- 1999 - Magnolia: Music from the Motion Picture (soundtrack)
- 2000 - Bachelor No. 2
- 2000 - Ultimate Collection (compilation)
- 2002 - Lost in Space
- 2005 - The Forgotten Arm
- 2006 - One More Drifter in the Snow (christmas album)
[edit] Virtual albums
- iTunes Originals - Aimee Mann
[edit] Guest appearances and covers
- 1987 - "The Faraway Nearby" by Cyndi Lauper (backing vocals) on the album, True Colors.
- 1987 - "Time Stand Still" by Rush (backing vocals) on their album, Hold Your Fire
- 1995 - "One", a Harry Nilsson cover for the "For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson" tribute album. Later appears on the "Magnolia" soundtrack.
- 1996 - "Christmastime" with Michael Penn, played over the credits for the film, Hard Eight
- 1996 - "Christmastime" with Michael Penn, appears on the holiday compilation album "Just Say Noel."
- 1996 - "Baby Blue", a Badfinger cover, appears on the tribute compilation, Come and Get It: A Tribute to Badfinger
- 1997 - "Nobody Does It Better", a cover of the Carly Simon theme for The Spy Who Loved Me on the compilation, Shaken & Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project
- 1999 - "The Christmas Song," a cover of the Mel Torme/Robert Wells song popularized by Nat "King" Cole, appears on the holiday compilation "Viva Noel: Q Division Christmas."
- 2000 - "Reason to Believe" with Michael Penn, a Bruce Springsteen cover on the tribute album, Badlands: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska
- 2002 - "Two of Us", a Beatles cover with Michael Penn for the I Am Sam soundtrack
- 2002 - "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", a Beatles cover for the I Am Sam soundtrack, European Edition
- 2004 - "What the World Needs Now", a Burt Bacharach cover. First appeared in a Calvin Klein commercial, and was later available on a Starbucks compilation titled Sweetheart Love Songs.
- 2004 - "The Scientist", a Coldplay cover, appears on the second disc for the Lost in Space Special Edition
- 2004 - "Static on the Radio" with Jim White on his album Drill a Hole in That Substrate and Tell Me What You See
- 2004 - "That's Me Trying" by William Shatner (backing vocals) on his album, Has Been
[edit] Promos
(directors in parenthesis)
- Stupid Thing (1993)
- I Should've Known (Katherine Dieckmann) (1993)
- Say Anything (1993)
- That's Just What You Are (1995)
- Amateur (Bobby Woods) (1995)
- Save Me (Paul Thomas Anderson) (1999)
- Ghost World (Michael Panes) (2000)
- Calling It Quits (Robert Cohen) (2000)
- Red Vines (Evan Mather) (spec video) (2001)
- Pavlov's Bell (James Frost) (2002)
- How Am I Different (Naoki Mitsuse) (2002) (in fact a short film called "Joe's Story 01")
- Pavlov's Bell (Evan Mather) (spec video) (2003)
- Video (James Frost) (spec video) (2005)
[edit] Acting
- Mann played the role of a German nihilist who sacrificed her green nail polished little right toe in the movie The Big Lebowski (1998).
- Mann and her band appear as themselves in the 2002 Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Sleeper", performing the songs "This Is How It Goes" and "Pavlov's Bell" at The Bronze. She has one line in the episode: "Man, I hate playing vampire towns." She is the only musical guest to have a speaking role. "Pavlov's Bell" also appears on the Buffy soundtrack album Radio Sunnydale.
- She and her band also play themselves in a 2002 episode of The West Wing, performing a cover of James Taylor's "Shed a Little Light" at a Rock the Vote concert.
- In 2006, Mann guest-starred as herself on an episode of Love Monkey, "The One Who Got Away".
[edit] Trivia
- Mann is a fan of the comic book writer Seth who drew the cover for her album Lost in Space.
- She has a tattoo of a large anchor on her right upper arm as a tribute to her father, who was a member of the United States Navy.
[edit] External links
