Barbara Manning | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Born | San Diego, California, United States | December 12, 1964
Genres | Indie rock, indie pop, lo fi, folk rock |
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter Science teacher Drama Teacher |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar |
Years active | 1984–present |
Labels | (selected) Heyday, Matador, Innerstate [1] |
Website | Barbara Manning |
Barbara Manning (born December 12, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist whose albums blend elements of rock, folk, pop and proto-punk. She's also known for her cover versions of often obscure pop songs. In addition to an acclaimed solo career, Manning has been active in a number of bands, including 28th Day (with Cole Marquis), World of Pooh, SF Seals, and The Go-Luckys!. [2]
Manning's parents met in high school but split up when she and her younger sister Terri were young. Her mom moved the girls to the Sierra Foothills, settling in a cabin without running water or electricity to live near a religious commune. Manning's early exposure to popular music came from her parents and their friends, who listened to The Beatles, Country Joe & the Fish, The Carpenters, The Moody Blues, Odetta, and Elton John. Manning bought her first guitar at age 14 and, inspired by The Bee Gees, began playing and practicing harmonies with her sister. [3]
While attending Chico State University in 1983, Manning played bass with guitarist/singer Cole Marquis and drummer Michael Cloward in the jangle-pop band 28th Day. They released a self-titled EP on the Enigma label. This was the only recording from the band before it split up in 1986, when Manning moved to San Francisco, but two expanded editions with outtakes and live recordings were re-released in 1992 and 2003. [4] [5]
28th Day's EP was produced by Russ Tolman, guitarist-songwriter of True West. In 1998, Tolman and musician/writer Pat Thomas formed their independent label Innerstate which would go on to release more Manning recordings, including the 28th Day – The Complete Recordings 2003 reissue. [6] A Pitchfork review of this 20-song collection praised the timelessness of the 80s band, saying "...this stuff still sounds as beautiful and rich and satisfying as it ever did. Anthems of heartbreak, odes to inarticulatable sadness, paeans to the dead! Sandy Denny could have sung most of these tunes without breaking a Brit-folk sweat." [7]
In 1986 Manning joined singer-songwriter and bassist Brandan F. Kearney's band World of Pooh. They released their only album The Land of Thirst on Kearney's Nuf Said label in 1989 (now out of print). [8] Manning's own songs included "Scissors" and "Somewhere Soon;" both would be rerecorded for her upcoming solo album. She also shared some songwriting credits with Kearney. [9]
Manning made her first solo album, Lately I Keep Scissors, recorded quickly in 1986 as an 8-track demo, which would eventually be released on Thomas' San Francisco label, Heyday in 1988. [10] [11] Terri Manning recorded some backing vocals and local musician friends pitched in, including drummer/singer Melanie Clarin, who would become a longtime collaborator on future projects. The songs ranged from personal laments to jagged folk-rock and pop, including "Every Pretty Girl," "Scissors," (with a percussive scissors track) and "Mark E. Smith & Brix," which referred to The Fall lead singer-songwriter and his former wife. [12] Trouser Press praised Manning's song-craft, saying her solo work "reveal[s] a songwriter of tremendous lyrical power and breadth of sonic vision." [13]
Rolling Stone took notice of Manning's musical output, calling her one of 1992's most important new artists. [14] The World of Pooh lineup eventually morphed into a new band called The SF Seals with Manning as chief songwriter and singer. Band members included Melanie Clarin, cellist Kim Osterwalder, bassist Margaret Murray, and guitarist Lincoln Allen. [15] Manning, a longtime baseball fan, named the band after the city's former Pacific Coast minor-league team. SF Seals released the EP Baseball Trilogy in 1993, most likely the first baseball-themed release in indie rock (not counting Manning's own 1991 mini-album One Perfect Green Blanket, whose songs are not baseball-themed but whose cover art is of a baseball field; its title refers to a baseball field). The three songs included a cover of Les Brown's "Joltin' Joe DiMaggio," the Mad V. Dog-penned "Ballad of Denny McLain," and Manning's "Dock Ellis," about Ellis' infamous 1970 no-hitter pitched while tripping on acid. [13] [16]
The band released their first album, "Nowhere" on the Matador Records label in 1994 with guitarist Brently Pusser joining in the recording sessions. Their second album, Truth Walks in Sleepy Shadows , came out a year later. It made Spin Magazine's top ten list for 1995 [14] and won a Bay Area Music Award (BAMMY) for best independent rock album. But the SF Seals wouldn't stay together past 1996.
Manning toured the U.S., both solo and with her various bands, throughout the 80s and 90s, opening for such acts as Yo La Tengo, Giant Sand, Pavement, Calexico, the Replacements, Richie Havens, Donovan, Television Personalities, Stuart Moxham (Young Marble Giants), Jon Langford (Mekons), Faust, Urge Overkill, Gary Lucas (Captain Beefheart), and Sonic Youth. [17] [18]
With the encouragement of fellow musician Alastair Galbraith, Manning traveled to New Zealand in 1997, touring with John Convertino and Joey Burns of Giant Sand and Calexico [19] and collaborating with her favorite musicians from the underground scene there. Recording sessions commenced with musicians including David Kilgour of The Clean, Chris Knox of Tall Dwarfs, Graeme Downes of The Verlaines, Robert Scott of The Bats, and David Mitchell and Denise Roughan of The 3Ds. [20] The resulting album, In New Zealand, was released in 1999. [21]
Manning's solo album 1212 was released on Matador in 1997 with Burns and Convertino backing her. The album's 19-minute song cycle, "The Arsonist's Story" was conceived as a rock opera, told from the points of view of a troubled teenager and her equally troubled mother. [22] Aside from the rock-opera aspect, the album paid tribute to Manning's fondness for Krautrock. "Stammtisch" lays lyrics in English and German over a jam based on a riff by German band Neu!, and a cover of Amon Düül's "Marcus Leid" was included as well. [10] Several more diverse cover songs were featured, including Richard Thompson's "End of the Rainbow," The Bevis Frond's "Stain on the Sun," and an obscure Deviants' single from 1969, "First Line (Seven the Row)." A Salon review referred to Manning's ballad “Isn’t Lonely Lovely?” as the album's standout, describing her lyrics as being set to "a majestic, echoing landscape." [23]
With her growing catalog, Option Magazine said she had "helped pioneer the type of lo-fi, post-modern folkstress approach later championed by [songwriters like] Juliana Hatfield and Liz Phair." [24] But despite critical acclaim, Manning was dropped from Matador due to low album sales.
Manning lived in Stuttgart, Germany, where she had a strong fan base, from 1998 to 2001. During that time, she recorded and toured with her band The Go-Luckys!, its rhythm section made up of twin brothers, Flavio and Fabrizio Steinbach. [14] In four years they released four albums, Homeless Is Where the Heart Is (2000), You Should Know by Now (2001), Transatlantic Trips (2002), One Starry Night At The Shop (2003), and one five-song EP, A Mountain. [25] [26]
While working on her degree in biology at California State University, Chico in 2008, Manning fronted a new rock band, The Sleaze Tax (a reference to creatures from the 1970s TV show Land of the Lost ), with drummer Mike Erpino and bassist Jason Wooten. [27] The band recorded some songs and played live on the west coast but no album was forthcoming. She also formed two short-lived bands, Champion, with guitarist Loki Miller and drummer Charles Mohnike, and Fiberglass Jacket, with drummer Justin "Dusty" Evans and guitarist Tom Little. She composed music for the Chico theater group The Blue Room, for a play based on Molière's The Misanthrope , with lyrics by playwright Lauren Goldman Marshall. [28] Manning also hosted a weekly radio program called Radio Detour on listener-supported station KZFR. [29]
In addition to being a highly regarded songwriter, Manning is known as an interpreter of other writers' songs. Artists she's covered include The Bats ("Smoking Her Wings"), Badfinger ("Baby Blue"), Jackson Browne ("These Days"), The Verlaines ("Joed Out"), Portastatic ("Through with People"), Tom Lehrer ("Rickety Tickety Tin"), and Les Paul and Mary Ford ("Blow the Smoke Away"). Manning sings "San Diego Zoo", the opening track on the 1995 album Wasps' Nests by Stephin Merritt's side project The 6ths. Her cover of Marianne Faithfull's "The Shalala Song" can be heard in Jon Moritsugu's 1994 film Mod Fuck Explosion .
Of her penchant for covering such a wide range of songs, she stated: "I listen to a lot of different types of music. I think that's why there's such a diverse bunch of covers...If I fall in love with a song, I'll make a tape of that one song and hear it 50 times in a row without having to rewind. Usually, all the covers I've done are songs that I've obsessed on." [10]
Manning lives with her husband Dan Vargas, a music producer, in Long Beach, California. She teaches science at Hutchinson Middle School in Los Angeles County. [3]
Collections
Singles
Compilations
28th Day
World of Pooh
Barbara Manning & Seymour Glass
Barbara Manning with Flophouse'
SF Seals
SF Seals singles
Glands of External Secretion
The 6ths
Barbara Manning and The Go-Luckys!
Leigh Anne Bingham Nash is an American singer and songwriter who was the lead vocalist for the Christian alternative rock band Sixpence None the Richer and was also a member of Fauxliage. Her debut solo album, Blue on Blue, was released in August 2006. Nash has released two other solo albums in 2011 and 2015. Nash has two Grammy nominations: "Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal" in 1999 and "Best Rock Gospel Album" in 1998. In July 2023, it was announced that Nash would be joining 10,000 Maniacs as their new lead singer.
Charlyn Marie "Chan" Marshall, better known by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and model. Cat Power was originally the name of her first band, but has become her stage name as a solo artist.
Ann Dustin Wilson is an American singer and songwriter best known as the lead singer of the rock band Heart.
Pussy Galore was an American garage rock band formed by students at Brown University in 1984. They had a constantly fluid line-up until their demise in 1990. They took their name from the character in the James Bond film Goldfinger, and their sound was inspired by The Rolling Stones and Einstürzende Neubauten.
Mary Bozana Timony is an American independent singer-songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist, and violist. She has been a member of the bands Helium, Autoclave and Wild Flag, and currently fronts Ex Hex.
Matt Sweeney is an American musician and record producer best known as a guitarist of Skunk, Chavez, and supergroup Zwan.
Nana Kitade is a Japanese singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to being the lead singer of the rock band The Teenage Kissers, she has success as a solo artist, model, actress, and fashion designer. Kitade is particularly known for her songs appearing in various anime, TV shows, doramas and movie opening and endings. Kitade was featured on the cover of the Gothic & Lolita Bible, as well as featured in Neo and Kera magazines. She has toured Asia, Europe, and North America.
Dear Sir is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Chan Marshall, also known as Cat Power, released in October 1995 on Runt Records. Recorded in New York City in December 1994 during studio sessions with Tim Foljahn and Steve Shelley, the album displays Marshall's sparse guitar playing and early lo-fi influence. The album had originally been conceived as an EP, and features covers of songs by Tom Waits and This Kind of Punishment.
Mark Eitzel is an American musician, best known as a songwriter and lead singer of the San Francisco band American Music Club.
James Edward Olliges Jr., professionally known as Jim James or Yim Yames, is an American vocalist, guitarist, producer, and primary songwriter of the rock band My Morning Jacket. He has also released several solo albums.
Juliet Nicole Simms, also known as Lilith Czar, is an American singer and songwriter.
Kurt Samuel Vile is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He is known for his solo work and as the former lead guitarist of rock band the War on Drugs. Both in the studio and during live performances, Vile is accompanied by his backing band, the Violators, which currently includes Jesse Trbovich, Kyle Spence (drums) and Adam Langellotti.
Jennifer O'Connor is an American singer-songwriter. She has released a series of well-regarded solo albums, and has either toured or played with Wilco, the Indigo Girls, Feist, Yo La Tengo, Dump, and the Mountain Goats, among other bands and musicians. Paste magazine has called her a "songwriter's songwriter", describing her albums as "master classes in economy and clarity."
Savages are an English rock band that formed in 2011 in London. Their debut album, Silence Yourself was released on 6 May 2013 via Matador Records. It reached number 19 in the UK Albums Chart in May 2013, and was critically acclaimed. It peaked at number 5 on the Irish and the UK Independent Albums Chart, and at number 13 on the US Billboard Independent Albums chart. The band's second album Adore Life, was released on 22 January 2016. Both albums were nominated for the Mercury Prize, in 2013 and 2016 respectively.
Lene Lovich is an English-American singer, songwriter and musician. She first gained attention in 1979 with the release of her hit single "Lucky Number", which peaked at number 3 on the UK Singles Chart and made her a leading figure of the new wave music scene.
Russ Tolman is a singer-songwriter who came to international attention in the 1980s as guitarist, songwriter, and producer of True West, a band associated with the Paisley Underground.
Chris Price is an American musician, singer and record producer. He has released three albums to date as a solo artist, including Homesick in 2012, Stop Talking in 2017, and Dalmatian, which was released on March 2, 2018. He is also known as the producer of the 2014 album The Soul of All Natural Things by Linda Perhacs and as the producer of the 2016 album Rainbow Ends by Emitt Rhodes. Price is also a member of the bands Taylor Locke and The Roughs and Bebopalula.
Innerstate Records is a San Francisco Bay Area based rock and alternative American record label founded by Russ Tolman and Pat Thomas in 1998.
Julien Rose Baker is an American indie rock singer and guitarist. Her music is noted for its moody quality and confessional lyrical style, as well as frank explorations of issues including Christianity, addiction, mental illness, and human nature.
Elizabeth Gomez, known as Elizabeth Le Fey also known by the stage name Globelamp is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer from California, United States.