recording moniker of New York, USA-based singer-songwriter. After an
itinerant childhood in the American south the newly-named Chan
Marshall began performing with friends as Cat Power.
She relocated to New York where she issued 1993's "Headlights"
single on God Is My Co-Pilot's The Making Of Americans label. Sonic
Youth's Steve Shelley and Two Dollar Guitar's Tim Foljahn offered to
record with her after they saw her opening for Liz Phair. The trio
recorded two raw indie-rock albums in one day in December 1994, which
were subsequently released in October 1995 on Italian label Runt
(Dear Sir) and March 1996 on Shelley's Smells Like Records (Myra
Lee). Marshall signed to Matador Records for What Would The Community
Think, an album which managed to fashion a more suitable musical
backing for her highly personal lyrics. Moon Pix was recorded in
Australia with backing provided by Mick Turner and Jim White of the
Dirty Three. Turner's subtle guitar work and White's restrained
percussion were a marked improvement on the overbearing rock
accompaniment that made Cat Power's early records difficult to love.
Her vocals demonstrated a new maturity on stand-out tracks such
as "Cross Bones Style", "Say" and "He Turns Down", and a superb
reading of the traditional "Moonshiner". The follow-up was a sparse
solo recording comprising radical reworkings of material such as the
Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", Nina Simone's "Wild
Is The Wind", and Moby Grape's "Naked, If I Want To". The album also
included a completely revamped version of her own "In This Hole",
which originally appeared on What Would The Community Think.
some girls are bigger than others
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