RACINE NO.1 DIGITAL DOWNLOAD

Description

RACINE NO.1 DIGITAL DOWNLOAD

Wendy’s first official release since striking out on her own, post Elvis Costello and Transvision Vamp. Having moved to NYC in 2002, Wendy found a studio to record her produced version of her demos from London. The studio was across the Hudson River from Manhattan, in Hoboken New Jersey and the engineer she found was Matt Azzarto. Every day Wendy would take the Path Train under the Hudson, from 9th Street and 6th Avenue across to Hoboken NJ. There she played everything herself, guitar, bass, keyboard, using drum samples or presets on drum machines! Although the finished recording does not contain the myriad samples from the demos, the sound does take on a more lo-fi trippy pop style. It definitely has the sound of D.I.Y. It was released on CD only via the UK label One Little Indian, the run of CD’s sold out and has not been in reprinted in physical copy since its 2004 release. 

One single was released: ‘Grease Monkey’, with a double B-side consisting of a remix of Grease Monkey and a bonus track ‘The Last American Hero’, featuring Grand Prix car racing sounds from the movie ‘Le Mans’ and Nascar racing sounds, telling the story of Junior Johnson, a moonshine runner turned Nascar hero, as told by author Tom Wolfe. 

The release was reviewed incredibly well in The Guardian newspaper and spurred Wendy into performing her first ever shows with new musicians! She played NYC at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, Madame JoJo’s in Soho, London and the Islington Academy. Her co-musicians for the brief outing were Ray Sullivan aka Chip Striker on drums and Singh Birdsong on guitar and bass, with Wendy playing guitar too. 

The artwork is a take on a cover of an obscure 50’s American style magazine called ‘Flair’. A compendium of Flair magazine art and design would provide inspiration in the presentation of Wendy’s tenth album ‘The Shape Of History’. The magazine itself only existed for one year, the details and design of the magazine were so labor intensive and expensive that the editor Fleur Cowles ran out of money to keep it operational. Since then original editions of the magazine has become highly collectable and an icon of style magazines. 

Track List 

The Man – 3.44
Grease Monkey – 2.59
Princess Patience Blues – 3.20
Hip Hop 156 – 3.39
W.13th – 4.45
Blonde Mink Mimi – 4.32
Heavy Metal Dude – 5.14
That’s The Breaks Junior – 3.36
Cakewalk – 4.20
Life Goes On – 4.42
Deluxe – 4.29

*All tracks mastered by Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk, NYC

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