Self proclaimed “noir-pop” songstress Nicole Atkins has officially said goodbye to the not-so-comfy confines of Columbia Records. The label released her last LP, Neptune City, but somehow screwed up the marketing behind two outstanding EPs and also completely alienated the 31-year-old Brooklyn bombshell when they asked her to abandon the eclectic nature of her music for her second full-length.
“The wanted to push me into a more commercial things,” Atkins told the Pittsburgh Tribune, “I really wanted to explore more psychedelia and blues, but they weren’t into that, so I wasn’t into them.”
Instead, the Brooklyn-based Atkins holed up in Brooklyn’s Seaside Studios to record a disc of what she is calling “psychedelic-funk.” New York City’s Razor & Tie will have the privilege of releasing the new album – Mondo Amore – and the label’s VP of A&R and Music Publishing, Beka Tishker, couldn’t be happier. “This is one of those moments when the fan inside of me gets to work with one of my favorite artists,” she said in a press release.
Mondo is in the final stages of recording with producer Phil Palazzolo. He told SonicScoop that he wanted to showcase what Atkins could do beyond the “brooding Dusty Springfield-revamp type of sound” and that “there are moments on [the new] record where her vocal will be totally brash like Karen O, but she’s still this amazing singer underneath – it sounds really cool.”
The album will then get mixed at the Carriage House in Stamford, Connecticut, where Palazzolo also mixed the latest records from The New Pornographers and Ted Leo. Atkins then heads out on a European tour opening for CoS fav Regina Spektor, and stateside fans can catch Atkins in September at NYC’s City Winery or on one of her west coast dates supporting the Black Keys. Tickets for select dates are available via Ticketmaster.com.
Nicole Atkins 2010 Tour Dates:l
07/20 – Newcastle, UK @ The Sage *
07/21 – Leeds, UK @ Academy *
07/22 – Cambridge, UK @ Corn Exchange *
08/07 – New York, NY @ City Winery
09/25 – San Diego, CA @ Soma ^
09/27 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Paladium ^
10/02 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre ^
10/03 – Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum ^
10/04 – Portland, OR @ McMenamins Crystal Ballroom ^
10/10 – Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom ^
* = w/ Regina Spektor
^ = w/ The Black Keys