Mar 052012
 

Laura Marling

Pixel 51′s Laura Marling Pages contain the words to 44 Marling songs. It is interesting to note which are the most popular among visitors to the site.

It’s not even close.

REST IN THE BED, written for one of the Twilight films, is most popular, although it is in a virtual tie with two others, DON’T ASK ME WHY, and NIGHT AFTER NIGHT.

This is true even though all these songs are from the latest album, A CREATURE I DON’T KNOW, and have only been on the site since last September.

Before the release of ACIDK, the most popular lyric was GOODBYE ENGLAND (COVERED IN SNOW).

Sep 132011
 

Sarah Michelle Gellar on the beach in RINGER

Ignore the triskaidekaphobes, Tuesday the 13th is turning out to be a pretty good day. Sarah Michelle Gellar‘s new show RINGER premieres on the CW at 8pm. Jane Espenson‘s new webseries HUSBANDS launches. And, in the US, Laura Marling‘s new album, A CREATURE I DON’T KNOW is released.

I’m not sure which of those is most important.

Sean Hemeon and Cheeks are HUSBANDS

Espenson’s webseries stars Alessandra Torresani, Cheeks, and Sean Hemeon. It is about newlyweds who happen to both be of the same sex.

The British just do music better. Just to name a few recent examples: Lily Allen, Laura Marling, Joanna Newsom, and the late Amy Winehouse. Not sure why, but the Brits do music better. All sorts of it. So the new Marling album is an exciting event. Sort of like what a new Bob Dylan record was like, say, 35 years ago.

Zoey Deutch as Juliet, Siobhan's stepdaughter, in Episode One of RINGER. No idea who the guy is.

Then there’s RINGER. Look, it’s the CW. I don’t expect high art. But Gellar is one of the best actors in the US, and, while I’d certainly rather see her in a serious film by a major director, one has to take what’s available. RINGER has a great cast (including Ioan Gruffudd, Tara Summers, and Zoey Deutch) and should be way better than most of the stuff currently on American television, especially on the broadcast networks.

Why doesn’t Tara Summers have a website?

Sep 112011
 

Laura Marling - new album out in US and Canada Tuesday

Laura Marling has been influenced in a major way by Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, two rather famous Canadians. And I have suspected for a long time that Margaret Atwood has had some influence on the songwriter as well (see my earlier post). Make way for another Canadian influence. It turns out that one of Robertson Davies’ lesser known works, REBEL ANGELS, which is the first book in the Cornish Trilogy.

She told Mark Butler of FMV Magazine that the song SOPHIA was inspired by the book

Laura Marling's influences from the Great White North

“…which is about God’s female counterpart. In the book She was this nagging figure, God’s guilt, basically, keeping him on his toes, and I thought that was absolutely brilliant. So it’s an homage to Sophia, and to the idea of the feminine divine — which comes up in The Beast too. And it’s kind of two fingers up, and meant to be funny.”

Sophia means “wisdom”. Marling’s third album, A CREATURE I DON’T KNOW, will be released in the UK on 12 September, in the US 13 September, and is already out in Australia. ‘Sophia’ is the next to last track on the album.

Jun 132011
 

This photo of Laura Marling was originally posted on Tumbler by Scarlet. Marling had a dog named Skippy when she was growing up but Skippy died in 2008 at the age of 13. It is unknown if the cat in the photo belongs to Marling.

Laura Marling with Unknown Feline

Tomorrow night (14 June) she will play a sold out solo show at New York’s Housing Works at 126 Crosby St. Then on the 18th she will be in London for the SUMMER BALL 2011.