Seriously, the Johnny Foreigner news is coming fast and furious these days. And while there is as yet no American Tour News Explosion Of Death Forever, there is plenty of interest. Like, for example, the band's completely haunted lo-fi rendering of Sparklehorse's "The Most Beautiful Widow In Town." With which, we should add, Johnny Foreigner's new label Alcopop! delivers on its promise of a free welcome-to-the-label-let's-give-away-a-song song. For those of you not hip to the jive, Sparklehorse mastermind Mark Linkous ended his life earlier this year, a tragic move that leaves a legacy of beautiful music, and Johnny Foreigner's tender take certainly does the song justice. Fans will recall the tune follows right on the heels of the epic "Hammering The Cramps" on Sparklehorse's brilliant 1995 set Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. Johnny Foreigner's take swirls into a beautiful denoument of ukelele and violin and is completely entrancing. Have a listen below.
Johnny Foreigner's "The Most Beautiful Widow In Town (Sparklehorse Cover)"
We're learning more about There When You Need It, the tentatively titled, six-song Johnny Foreigner EP that Alcopop! will release November 11 (or November 18, we're told; just write it big in your calendar so it fills up both squares, yeh). According to a presser circulated Monday, There When You Need It "is not just business as usual, with Alexei Berrow, Kelly Southern and Junior Elvis Washington Laidley busy exploring new sounds on some of these tracks whilst still keeping faithful to that signature JoFo ethos." We don't normally quote from press materials, but based on the mind-blowingly different and beautiful style the trio displays on The Exorcism Project track "199x," it seems like an accurate assessment. And what else? We now know the titles of two more tracks that will appear on the short set: "Robert Scargill Wins The Prize," which apparently is crafted with ukelele and organ, and "Yr. Loved," which is "mostly whispered vocals and harmonics loops." For those of you not glued to Johnny Foreigner's highly informative Formspring, the titular Robert Scargill is some lucky kid who asked that his name get used in a Johnny Foreigner song. So they did it. At the risk of sounding like John S. Hall in "Jesus Was Way Cool," how cool is that?!
Finally, a new Bloggy Foreigner post pegged to the Internet this evening (early morning U.K. time, like, so early, do you guys sleep?) reports that the trio will head to Leeds next week to record a couple songs with Whiskas from !Forward Russia! No word what those recordings will be for, but one has to assume that the band is beginning to demo tracks for Album No. 3 at some point, yeah? Anyway, all terribly exciting.
