An Angel For Melanie

As I mentioned in the below post, Melanie Brown was not present at the Christening of Geri Halliwell's little girl. That is because the former Scary Spice was busy with her own new bundle of joy. On April 3rd Melanie gave birth to her second daughter, she already has an 8 year old daughter, Phoenix Chi from her previous marriage to former Spice Girl back up dancer Jimmy Gulzar. She has named her new little one Angel Iris Murphy Brown. She weighed in at 5 lbs. 4 oz., and her publicist stated ...

" The baby is completely healthy with a good head of hair."

During her press release Melanie stated her reasons behind the name she chose.

"Angel, as she was my little angel through my pregnancy; Iris, as it's my Grandma's name, Murphy (as in Eddie) because he's the Dad and Brown, because I'm the Mum!"

Mel hooked up with Eddie Murphy last year, he in turn dumped her and denied that this child was his. He still refuses to acknowledge any paternal rights, but Mel stands her ground on the matter.

Congratulations Melanie!

Reunion Spice

Last Sunday, marked one of the first times that as many as four of the Spice Girls have appeared together in public since their split in 2001. The reason for this get together, was to celebrate the Christening of Geri Halliwell's 11 month old daughter Bluebell Madonna Halliwell. On hand for the occasion were Melanie C (in a very lovely dress, and workin' the bangs), Emma Bunton (who is expecting her first child with long time boyfriend Jade Jones this summer), and Victoria Beckham, whom Geri named as Bluebell's Godmother.

Melanie Brown was not present....and I'll get to that later. Bluebell who looked adorable in her white christening gown, and bouquet of Bluebell flowers, looks so much like her (newly svelte) mother.

The girls have repeatedly shot down rumours that they will be doing a reunion performance of any kind. But with the near happening during Live 8 that sadly never came to be, people cannot let go of the dream. Denial is a good thing.

Sexy Santa

American Doll Posse is set to be released on Tuesday. I've already heard the whole album, and I think it's simply fantastic. I can't wait to actually have it in my hot little hand. In the meantime, may I introduce to you the fourth member of the Posse, the silver haired, glam girl, Santa.

Tori describes Santa as follows...

"Santa relates to Aphrodite (Greek Goddess of Love and Beauty) and is the sensualist of the quintet. Through songs like the shimmery pop of "Secret Spell" or the wonderfully wicked "You Can Bring Your Dog" or the delightfully retro "Programmable Soda", Santa is somebody who's a girl's girl. She understands her fellow sisters and she believes that there is enough love and passion out there for everyone. But she won't accept that there is something perverted about being very sensual and she won't drink shame with her sensuality."

To get to know Santa a bit more before she appears on stage (possibly at a venue near you) with Tori during the tour, you can read her official blog. As an added bonus, Tori is now streaming the entire album on her myspace site, so for those of you who can't wait a few more days (and haven't downloaded it already), go take a free listen. Buy the album when it comes out though, support the artists.

Bjork - Wanderlust (Live on SNL)

This is the second of the two songs from Volta that Bjork premiered on Saturday Night Live last night. She has stated that after doing a few serious albums all in a row, all she wanted to do for this album was to have fun and do something that was full bodied and really up. Mission Accomplished I would say.

Bjork - Earth Intruders (Live on SNL)

As quickly as the official video for Earth Intruders made it onto Youtube, it was removed by Warner Music. Let's hope that NBC doesn't catch on as quickly. This song was produced by Bjork and Timbaland. She looks gorgeous, and after two albums of soft beats (2001's celestus inspired Vespertine and 2004's all vocal Medulla), Bjork is rocking it up. The military/tribal beats and brass instrumentation is so energetic and transfixing, it almost takes one back to the Human Behaviour era.

Patty Griffin - I Don't Ever Give Up

In two days I am finally going to see the spectacular Patty Griffin in concert. I figured, what better way to celebrate this wonderous occassion than by posting Patty's performance of I Don't Ever Give Up on Jay Leno. Enjoy.

Pip

The third member of the American Doll Posse is the sexy rock chick (and my personal favorite of the bunch) Pip. Here is Tori's description of Pip...

"Pip represents Athena (the Greek Goddess of wisdom), and swaggers her way through the driving "Teenage Hustling" and duets with Santa on the rollicking "Body and Soul". Pip, being the warrior that she is, does confront issues and sometimes it's explosive, but I really love her energy and her casual approach to leather."

To listen to a clip of Teenage Hustling click here, and if you would like to see the official video for the first single Big Wheel click here. For more information on Pip and her views on the world visit her official blog.

Does It Really Matter?

I wasn't going to comment on the whole Virginia Tech School shooting, mainly because it's too horrid to think/write about. I would however like to address the fact that whenever tragedies like this happen, everyone and their mother tries to find someone to throw the blame on, other than the people who did it. They want to psychologise everything, in order to understand why the person did what they did. So they over investigate every little detail and find someone or something in the media to pin it on. For instance, with the Columbine shootings, they blamed Marilyn Manson, because people who listen to his music become homicidal maniacs apparently, The Matrix, because they wore trench coats......(as we all know, fashion kills), and cult movie classic Heathers, because it depicted two high school students going around killing their classmates.

Now they are trying to blame the Virginia shooting on a Japanese movie called "Oldboy". The premise of the movie is that a man is unjustly imprisoned for 15 years, and when he gets out he goes on a rampage against his captor. In one scene he subdues a gang of henchmen with only a hammer. One of the pictures that the shooter sent to the NBC building, was of him holding a hammer in the same pose as the character in this film. So, even though this man didn't do anything to these poor people with a hammer.....this movie is to be blamed because of one picture......

Do we really need a reason for why this man did this horrible thing so badly, that we have to blame the tiniest and most insignificant things for his choice and his behaviour? Isn't it bad enough that he did it? Blame his mental instability if you have to blame something.

Isabel

The second Doll Posse member to be introduced to the masses through tori's official website is the Political, photogenic freelance photographer, Isabel

Isabel is described as follows.

"Isabel, a photographer, is a reflection of Artemis (the Greek goddess of light and protector of the vulnerable) and is the most outwardly political of the bunch. She opens the album with "Yo George", a shout-out to our commander in chief, questioning what horribly dark road we've been led down and closes the CD with the anti-war anthem "Dark Side Of The Sun".

Listen to Isabel's "Yo George" here. For more insight from Isabel, visit her official blog .

Volta

I was in HMV the other day, just walking around and taking in the sights and what should attract my attention but a little canary yellow card informing me that Bjork's new album "Volta" will be released on May 7th. I know....I was as excited as you are now. Since then I have been watching her concert/video DVDs and imagining what the new music will sound like.

From what I've read, the album has been entirely produced by Bjork herself and will feature 10 new tracks featuring input from the likes of Timbaland (ya, I thought it was strange too), Antony Hegarty (Antony and The Johnsons), and Mark Bell (who had a big hand in creating Bjork's album Homogenic).

The first single which was supposed to be released on April 9th (I haven't heard it yet) is called "Earth Intruders". She will be promoting the album with an 18 month world tour that should be announced in the next week or so. Bjork's record label "One Little Indian" has been describing her new tunes as the most commercial sounding work she's ever done. That kind of sentence kinda makes me worry, but Bjork has never let me down before so why would she now? Just look at the album cover.....she looks like a huge gum drop with feet.

I hope I don't have to share the concert hall with people who have only heard one album of material by her. I was kind of pissed off that people started loving her after the whole swan dress thing, but they still didn't really listen to her music. Tour details state that she will be doing a month-on, month-off schedule (I'm assuming because she has a little girl to raise too), and she will be joined on stage by 30 musicians.

Hello Clyde!

In the next few weeks leading up to the arrival of her 9th studio album, Tori Amos will be introducing the Doll Posse one by one and giving backgrounds on each of the girls, discussing their roles in creating the music and revealing the addresses for their official blogs in case you haven't already found them. The first of the five to be introduced, is Clyde (the mousy looking member with the orange eye shadow).

Clyde has been described as follows...

"Clyde, who draws from Persephone (the Greek goddess of spring and rebirth), wears her emotional wounds on her sleeve, but remains idealistic. She is looking at the effects of not being a whole person. She is trying to figure out what she believes in and she is dealing with having been disappointed in her life. Clyde is a little girl lost on the string-laden, gorgeous "Girl Disappearing", and on the heartfelt ballad "Roosterspur Bridge"."

Clyde is also to thank for the gorgeous "Bouncing Off Clouds" which can be heard here . For more information on Clyde, visit her official blog .