Generally known for her brooding songs couched in bittersweet instrumentation, Aimee Mann's lighter side can be seen on a regular basis at Largo, a small dimly lit club in Los Angeles' Fairfax district that acts as home base for some of the world's finest songwriters. Between jam sessions, and a neo-vaudevillian showcase of comedy, poetry and music, for years the revolving house band has included Fiona Apple, David Garza, John Doe, Grant Lee Phillips, Jon Brion, Mann and her husband Michael Penn.
Mann had been playing in a punk band, Young Snakes, in the '80s when she met Michael Hausman while both were attending Berklee College of Music in Boston. The duo embraced the poppier side of New Wave with 'Til Tuesday, which became a darling of the new video channel MTV. They released three albums, all of which featured Mann's haunting vocals and her developing craft as an exceptional songwriter. The band, which featured Brion in its final moments, split apart in 1990. Subsequently, Mann suffered through a series of miserable solo record label deals, but in 1999 her significant contribution to the soundtrack of the Paul Thomas Anderson-directed film Magnolia gained her a well-deserved rush of attention, as well as an Academy Award nomination.
Since then, she struck out on her own, self-releasing a series of recordings including the in-search-of-salvation Lost In Space and the Joe Henry-produced concept album The Forgotten Arm. Acutely aware of publishing and copyright issues after her tangles with the music business, Mann, Brion and Hausman (now her manager) created the United Musicians organization in 2000 to help artists retain their copyrights and sustain themselves without the help of major label infrastructure.
Provenance: Richmond, Virginia
Latest Release: @#%&*! Smilers (2008)
© 2008 Nigel Music Media LLC. Used by permission.
Aimee Mann
