Due to overwhelming response to a summer tour that included a appearances on Jimmy Kimmel’s show, Bristol’s trip hop kings Massive Attack and honey-voiced chanteuse Martina Topley-Bird will be returning for a string of US dates this October on a marquee with Thievery Corp. In parallel with the tour, Topley Bird will be releasing her latest album – Some Place Simple – on Ipecac Recordings on October 26.
Martina Topley-Bird
Although best known for her contribution to Tricky’s breakout debut Maxinquaye, Topley Bird’s songbook is also rich with material from her solo albums, the Mercury-nominated Quixotic and Danger Mouse-produced, The Blue God.
Recorded over a week with NinJa sidekick at Damon Albarn’s Studio 13, Some Place Simple features selections from those previous albums, reworked, along with four new songs. Sparse, stripped down and raw, Some Place Simple showcases Topley Bird’s trademark winsome but sultry vocal in a deceptively simple oozy milieu that belies traces of 50’s crooner influence, an un-mappable yet familiar place, like a Twin Peaks experience – inviting your secrets to come out and play.
That mysterious allure is what has made Topley Bird the definitive post-modern torch singer of her generation and caused so many artists, including David Holmes, Common, Gorillaz, Diplo, Roots Manuva and Massive Attack, as well as fans the world over to seek her out.
Seemingly fearless in her selection of sources, Topley Bird has incorporated everything from pilfered Mexican chords and Cambodian melodies, to harpsichords, ukeleles, tablas, xylophones, a loop station pedal for live vocal sampling and classic Wurlitzers, singing about the viscous grit in life as well as its transcendent beauty.
Selected cities will be lucky enough to enjoy Martina Topley Bird live when she joins Massive Attack on their tour with Thievery Corporation this October/November; as well as select solo performances on similar routes. But everyone can soak in her sublime blues when Some Place Simple is released this fall. From singing on a cemetery wall at age 15 to touring the world and thrilling music lovers for well over a decade, Martina Topley Bird has proven her staying potential.
Martina Topley Bird w/ Massive Attack + Thievery Corp Fall North American Tour Dates
- 10/18 – Bell Centre, Montreal, QC
- 10/19 – Orpheum Theatre, Boston, MA
- 10/21 – Beacon Theatre, NY
- 10/22 – Beacon Theatre, NY
- 10/23 – Borgata Hotel, Atlantic City, NJ
- 10/26 – Bayfront Park Amphitheater, Miami FL
- 10/27 – Hard Rock Live, Orlando, FL
- 10/29 – Fox Theatre, Atlanta GA
- 10/30 – MOOGfest at Asheville Civic Center, Asheville NC
- 11/01 – Palladium Ballroom, Dallas, TX
- 11/04 – RIMAC Arena, San Diego CA
- 11/05 – Santa Barbara Bowl, Santa Barbara CA
- 11/06 – Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA
- 11/07 Gibson Amphitheater, Los Angeles, CA
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