Annie (From Norway)

She's pretty hot.

Still want this to happen.

Oh, 'Love Machine' is alright from what I heard on the top 40. Not essential and definitely not better than our lovely Annie!
-- B.A.R.M.S. (b4rim4_...), September 12th, 2004.

I'd like to take this back. I haven't been able to listen to Anniemal in full since December and only 'Me Plus One' has retained any genuine replay value, including my gleeful dancing to it in Camden last month. That, like 'The Greatest Hit', is better than 'Love Machine' and all 3 are easily the best of their respective (overrated) albums.

who's heard her dj?

This new unreleased song was recorded in NYC right around the time Annie and her band were in town for their show at the Tribeca Grand. "The Wedding" bodes well for Annie's eventual second album, boasting a bouncy and immediately catchy synth funk track that sounds like early Tom Tom Club or mid-period Talking Heads, and coy, spunky vocals reminiscent of Cristina on Sleep It Off in place of the wispiness that characterized most of Anniemal.

01 Toy - "Rabbit Pushing Mover"
02 La Bionda - "I Wanna Be Your Lover"
03 Alan Vega - "Jukebox Babe"
04 Le Tigre - "Nanny Nanny Boo Boo (Junior Senior Mix)"
05 Zongamin - "Bongo Song"
06 Liquid Liquid - "Flextone (DJ Twitch Optimo Edit)"
07 Annie - "Wedding" (Live Mix)
08 Death From Above 1979 - "Black History Month (Alan Braxe & Fred Falke Remix)"
09 Motiivi - "1939"
10 Christer Audio - "TBA"
11 Bumblebee Unlimited - "Lady Bug (I Just Wanna Be Your)"
12 Annie - "Gimme Your Money"
13 Bow Wow Wow - "I Want Candy"
14 ESG - "My Love For You"
15 Gucci Crew II - "Sally (That Girl)"
16 Mu - "Paris Hilton"
17 Datarock - "Fa-Fa-Fa"

oh, and i have just (like 4 minutes ago !) turned down the chance to speak to annie on the phone. am i totally mad ? well i never do well with phoners it has to be said .. and its v.short notice and so i'm unprepared ..

unless there are a few q's ILM would like answered ?

well there is that and the fact that i managed an email interview .. dont want her thinking i am some freaky net stalker ..

Firstly, hardly anyone had ever heard of her, and the place doesn't really lend itself to live performances. The sound wasn't working properly, so you could hardly hear her - I mean she has a fragile enough voice at best, but over the buzzing of a malfunctioning sound desk, she was virtually inaudible.

She soldiered on through the sound problems and general indifference and the K'd guys staggering against the DJ booth, poor thing. But I don't think she won over any new converts. I'd hyped her to my friends as Norway's answer to Kylie, and they remained unconvinced.

Her sound guy was very annoying, making (hopefully) ironic RAWK gestures while fiddling with loose wires and only succeeding in making the sound worse.

She did six or seven of her own songs, alternating them with the sort of records you'll find on her DJ Kicks album.

I doubt she'll be rushing back to perform there, but she did stay and have a couple of drinks and a dance afterwards, so perhaps she enjoyed herself after all.

her "band", which consisted of a tall euro dude with dreads playing "percussion" [a really simple kit that only had snare and a couple cymbals] and guitar; the other guy was twiddling away on knobs and laptops.

everything worked perfectly, except at the beginning of "come together" where she had monitor issues and you could see how easily things fell apart; by the time the intro of the song was over, she was back in business. regardless of whatever technical issue she was having, the most amazing thing happened -- the audience was cheering her on to get it fixed. i dont think ive *ever* encountered that at a show in this city. if a band's having problems, the audience will more or less make fun of them as they try to tackle it.

i liked that the live performance treated the record as a guideline but didnt stray so far off the mark that the songs were unrecognizable. everything had this great party vibe that was accented by the crowd, who just wanted to have a good time.

and though i am a fan of "gimmick rock" the openers were these two hipster bands that were so not good for the billing. the only musically suitable local support i could think of is res -- its a shame they didnt try to get her. that would have been AWESOME.

Who will you work with for your next album then?
I'm looking out for new people. I've already done three new songs with Richard X. We did one cover of a song called Two Of Hearts, a cover of that Status Quo record.

What's that like?
It's a dance version, quite poppy, definitely different. I'm not a big fan of Status Quo, but always liked that song -- it's great. (We think Annie actually means Two Of Hearts by 80s New York club ingenue Stacy Q -- silly cow! Ed)

What are the other two songs you did with Richard X like?
One is quite poppy -- a bit like what I've done before.

Did you ask to work with him?
He asked me actually.