Posted on: July 18, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Check Out Joan As Police Woman‘s “To Be Loved” Video Here

Joan heads to Europe for club and festival dates this summer. US dates announced soon!

World Wide Press LOVE for Joan!
NY Times
“Joan as Police Woman, creates dizzying, jazz-steeped rock music.”

The London Observer
“Maybe this is what Chopin would have sounded like had he been a modern-day multi-instrumentalist with a passion for Al Green and a voice like Roberta Flack.”

Rolling Stone- Italy
5 Star Review
“One can not ask more than this from an album of pop music. Joan As Police Woman said that she makes music to dig deep into emotions, distill the authenticity and present it in the form of songs. After listening to ‘To Survive’, one can say that she has discovered how to do this”

Blackbook
Even if you haven’t heard Joan “As Police Woman” Wasser, chances are you have listened to records she’s appeared on. On her spare second solo album, her many former colleagues and influences are present, particularly Antony and the Johnsons. But this is her record and it is Wasser’s lone, tender voice that cossets tracks such as the wrenching title song, “To Be Loved,” and its emotional doppelganger, “To Be Lonely.” Recalling the more rueful sides of Feist, Roberta Flack, and a smidgen of Cat Power, To Survive is not an album for the noonday sun. But, oh, night never felt so sweet.

Word
Joan Wasser, the police woman in question, is a huge talent - a first call session violinist, pianist and guitarist of huge charachter,
the owner of a husky powerful voice and a masterful songwriter and arranger.

Venus
“Loaded with guitar, violin and keyboard infused torch songs that channel Heart’s Dreamboat Annie one moment and Nina Simone the next.
Hear “To Be Loved”

Uncut
To Survive”,  is an enormously involving and impressive record; a slow and emotional set that builds and builds until it struts out….”

New Album To Survive Out June 10th On Cheap Lullaby Records
Features A Duet With Rufus Wainwright

At this years SXSW keynote speech, Lou Reed professed his love for Joan to Hal Wilner : “I look to a young group for energy. They all have energy.”

Press For Last’s Year’s Critically Acclaimed Real Life:

Rolling Stone, David Fricke – She is ready for prime time here.”

Pitchfork, 8.1 – “Emerging from grief, stepping into the light, …a wonderfully fresh start

Venus, Juliette Lewis- “Her voice gives me goose bumps, her lyrics are like poetry…”

Magnet -  “…Creating lush, cabaret style pieces awash with opulent orchestration”

Village Voice – “..fluttery soft pop blooms wonderfully”

A year since this critical and commercial success of her universally acclaimed Real Life, comes the much anticipated follow-up, To Survive. Real Life brought Joan Wasser out of the shadows and established her as that rare thing, a truly unique and original voice. Songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist, Joan has bewitched fans across Europe and the US over the last two years and is set to garner a wealth of new devotees with To Survive. An album of unashamedly heartfelt songs, in Joan’s  words, “I am always trying to dig deeper into the emotional experience. I want to access the most honest place I can, distill it and present it in a way that makes sense musically.”

Her stage name is arresting, but for those unfamiliar with the gorgeous intimacy of her music, it is slightly misleading. When Joan Wasser re-invented herself as a solo artist, after a life spent playing in bands or on the records of more famous people, she listened to a friend who said she looked like Angie Dickinson, the star of the American 70’s TV cop show Policewoman. “Like Charlie’s Angels, but grittier, less pink fluff” Wasser explains. “..And yeah, at a certain point, when I challenged myself do music on my own, I felt ready to take on anything.”

Tough cop in spirit maybe, but not in the way she sounds. The multi-skilled musical phenomenon that is Joan Wasser – classically trained violin player, street taught punk rocker, old soul aficionado, vocal diva – does not play the conventional tough guy. Or conventional anything for that matter. Like the slogan on her website says, ‘Beauty is the new punk rock.’ Policewoman Joan’s mission is to find original and ever more striking ways into our collective heart. “ I am always trying to dig deeper into the emotional experience,” she says, “I want to access the most honest place I can, distill it and present it in a way that makes sense musically.”

The distance between JAPW’s first album Real Life, and her second, To Survive, represents just such a distillation. A collection of songs she wrote mostly in the shadow of her mother’s battle with cancer, which ended in her death last year, To Survive centres on Joan as piano player and singer. The guitars are mixed way back and the pop hooks are seamlessly bedded into the idiosyncratic flow of the melodies. “I’ve become obsessed with taking stuff out, leaving only the most potent elements in place,” says Wasser. “I got more into blending and integration and subtlety. I just want to be courageous enough to feel and express as much as possible and that means ALL the emotions. True integration”


Joan As Police Woman is: Joan Wasser (vocals, guitar, piano, violin), Rainy Orteca (bass), Parker Kindred (drums)

www.joanaspolicewoman.com
www.myspace.com/joanaspolicewoman

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