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Miss Murgatroid & Petra
Haden
Hearts & Daggers
The New Album - Coming Soon!
The love affair
continues. Like two schoolgirls living
richly in a self devised world of cave trolls and tormented princesses, Miss
Murgatroid (aka Alicia J. Rose) and Petra Haden mesh their
collective imaginations to deliver majestic themes culled from the ether
itself. Reuniting after more than a
four year hiatus, Miss M and Miss Haden convene anew for another bout of
ebullient sonic symbiosis.
Their last
effort, Bella Neurox, met with critical acclaim and delighted fan
frenzy. Their simple but unique
combination of accordion, violin and voice delved into waters deep and strange,
with a mix of vocals and instrumentals that transported the listener to eerie
dark alleys, lush Italian seasides and to the false bottoms of haunted
toychests.
Their newest
effort Hearts & Daggers, offers 9 new tracks of absolute symphonic
loveliness. But it’s the story behind
this new recording that gives it such heart.
In 2000 Petra Haden was the victim of a brutal car accident, winding up
in a coma and with major injuries. Without any medical insurance, the music
community on both coasts banded together to perform a string of benefits to
help her with her recovery and her bills.
These benefits included performances by Beck, Tenacious D,
her brother Josh Haden (Spain), Stephen Perkins, The
GoGo’s, Vincent Gallo, Sean Lennon, Miss Murgatroid and many
more. With the love and support of her
friends and family, Petra made an astonishing recovery and by 2003 was back at
work creating her own music and collaborating again - her talents only
strengthened by her fateful and trying past. Remaining good friends throughout
this tragedy, Miss M and Petra talked often about reuniting, but distance
(Petra lives in Los Angeles, Miss M in Portland), circumstance and finance made
this less than simple.
In 2003 a
mysterious and anonymous benefactor approached Miss Murgatroid about reuniting
with Petra for a follow up to Bella Neurox. Apparently he had written
his last 2 books while listening to their collaboration as well as to Petra’s
fantastic solo disc Imaginaryland and to Miss M’s spooky and surreal Through
Alien Empires. He offered to help
the duo make their next record with the honest motivation of simply wanting
another one. The girls agreed, and now
they are sitting on 9 new gems of fanciful delight. Fueled by mutual heartache, spectral visions, grandiose baroque
fantasies and their undying fondness for one another’s brains, Miss M and Petra
have truly outdone themselves. Layering
vocals, violin, viola and accordion in ways that will utterly enchant and
intrigue the listener, this is a true labor of love that defies as many genres
as it is influenced by.
Daughter of
legendary jazz bassist Charlie Haden, Petra was formerly in girl pop
sensations that dog and has worked with many fancily panted superstars -
Beck, Luscious Jackson, The Rentals, Cibo Matto, Sean
Lennon, Foo Fighters, Spain, Victoria Williams and Better
Midler amongst others. Most
recently she released a duet record with jazz great Bill Frisell and is
working on a vocal trio with her 2 triplet sisters Rachel (also of that dog)
and Tanya called The Haden Sisters.
Miss M has spent many years berating innocent bystanders with her
accordion and her acerbic wit, releasing 4 albums and charming the pants off of
accordion naysayers everywhere - though recently she has taken to scoring films
and writing avant-rock operas. She is
out of reclusion. Finally.
Due to the
generosity of their mysterious benefactor, they have made this record but have
yet to choose a label to release it.
Suitors are welcome to court these winsome ladies. Email duoneurox@aol.com
if you are interested in such a thing.
This reunion of
sorts is unbelievably epochal to both of them and the release of Hearts
& Daggers is almost upon us.
Currently Bella Neurox cover artist Christine Shields is hard
at work crafting a fabulous painting that involves an army of angry princesses
storming a flaming castle. Oh what a
delight!
Press quotes:
“Petra Haden's uncanny vocal harmonies and graceful violin are two
of the best about That Dog, a Los Angeles pop combo also featuring her twin
sister Rachel. On her first solo project Petra loops together interlocked vocal
strings that "ahh," "la-aa" and "tra-la-la" in
such a childishly engaging manner that it'll melt years of cynicism off your
slimy trunk. Primarily an a capella venture, Imaginaryland pops in a few
numbers where Petra plays violin and viola, as on her father's slippery
composition "Song for the Whales" and on a cover of Enya's
"Watermark." Even though most of the album has the feel of a
hypercreative kid bubbling away into a tape recorder between classes, Petra is
obviously well-schooled (her father is Ornette Coleman bassist Charlie
Haden), as her take on a Bach choral piece and the transformation of her
bouncing-ball vocalese into alluring and hypnotic madrigals ably demonstrate.
If your eardrums (and patience) wear thin from too many guys with guitars, Imaginaryland
could be the aesthetic panacea you've been looking for.” --John
Chandler, Amazon.com
“Portland's Miss
Murgatroid sings in a low, lush keen, and plays cryptic melodies on her
accordion. Her instrument sounds modern and artistic as it crackles through her
amplifier, but also channels magical mystery and musty witchery, as if the
instrument itself has an historic memory. Bella Neurox, her 1999 record
with immensely talented violinist Petra Haden, is still one of my favorite
albums of all time.” - Portland Mercury
“Violinist Petra Haden and accordionist Miss Murgatroid (née
Alicia Rose) make a startling duo. Rose's accordion sounds church-organ big in
some parts and then like the fiercest '60s-era electric keyboard in others,
while Haden, formerly of That Dog (and the daughter of jazz bass virtuoso Charlie), wields a
beautiful tone, terse but rich. Certainly some of the unrest originates in
Rose's unorthodox take on her instrument, which she plays with a touch of Pauline
Oliveros' sense of tuning and intonation but a far larger sense of volume
and intensity. Her sounds, elongated or clipped, gritty or soaringly clear, are
aided by an array of pedals and effects. It's far more than intriguing and much
more intense than intimate. This is a wonderful recording.” --Andrew
Bartlett, Amazon.com
Email: duoneurox@aol.com