There have been many occasions since we started HT that we’ve written about an artist cancelling/postponing a tour and most of the time the “official” excuse is lame. This article however is not about one of those times. Fiona Apple has postponed a South American tour that was set to begin on Nov. 27th in Brazil and run through a Mexico City date on Dec. 9th. Apple has explained her decision to postpone the tour with a hand-written letter that brought us to the verge of tears.
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Apple’s 14-year-old pitbull, Janet, which she rescued from a terrible life getting mauled by other dogs, is very sick and may be on the verge of dying. In the beautiful heart-felt letter, Fifi explains just how strong of a force Janet has been in her life since she rescued the dog. If after reading the letter you don’t feel Apple was justified in delaying the tour, you probably don’t have a heart. As dog lovers, we wish Janet the best and hope there’s a miracle out there with her name on it.
It being Friday, and just shy of half-way through the ninth month of the year, this morning I (@andykahn) decided on a whim to tweet out my Top 9 Albums of 2012 (so far). Along with the nine I chose, I also added a handful of, “Honorable Mentions,” that didn’t quite make the cut. With a quarter of the year left, 2012 has thus far proven to be another impressive year of album releases.
Fiona Apple returned to TV for the first time since 2006 last night, when the 34-year-old singer/songwriter visited old friend Jimmy Fallon. Fallon and Fiona have a history that dates back to 1999 when Jimmy opened for Apple at NYC’s Roseland for an evening that went south shortly after she took the stage and started crying. The pair reminisced about that show during a brief interview before Fiona performed Anything We Want from her fantastic new album backed by The Roots.
However, we want to share the other song she recorded with The Roots yesterday. Apple paired up with Fallon’s house band and Jimmy himself to pay tribute to Paul McCartney, who turned 70 yesterday, to cover Macca’s slow-burning classic Let Me Roll It as a web exclusive. Check it out…
And here’s Fiona Apple’s take on Anything We Want and her interview with Fallon…
It’s been roughly seven years since we’ve heard any new music from Fiona Apple, not that the tempestuous singer-songwriter hasn’t been trying her hardest to get it released; her feuds with her longtime label Epic Records have been well documented. After sitting on the shelf for well over a year, Apple will finally see her fourth studio album be released on June 19, which she has christened with another lengthy and poetic title – The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do. How about for now and forever we just let it be known as The Idler Wheel?
While Apple has just posted the album on NPR for our streaming enjoyment, she’s also put out a music video for the record’s lead single Every Single Night, whose lyrics are posted on Apple’s website, and seem to be about Fiona fighting her inner demons. The bizarre clip features a rather gaunt looking Apple wearing an octopus as a hat, covered in snails and well…just check it out for yourself:
Fiona Apple will kick off her first extensive North American tour since 2007, with a gig at the State Theatre in Ithaca, New York, which will also include a high profile appearance at the second annual Governor’s Ball Music Festival on New York City’s Randall’s Island this June 24.
Last month we mentioned that after sitting on a shelf for well over a year, Epic Records was finally going to release Fiona Apple’s first album of new material since 2005′s Extraordinary Machine. While we still await an official release date, the singer-songwriter has announced a short tour, her first since 2007, that will kick off on March 15 with an appearance at Pitchfork’s official SXSW showcase in Austin. Apple’s six-date tour will include stops in Chicago, DC, Atlantic City, Boston and two NYC shows at the Bowery Ballroom and Music Hall Of Williamsburg on March 23 and 26 respectively. Tickets for the entire run will go on sale this Friday, February 24.
If you’re not into a night with Fiona Apple, then maybe you’ll be interested in hitting one of these recently announced tours…
Over the last few years HT faves Wilco have launched their own music festival, started their own label, played innovative tours in their hometown of Chicago and even sold their own brand of coffee, but the one thing that they haven’t done, at least since 1999, is make a music video. That changed yesterday as Jeff Tweedy & Co. released a new animated video for the tune Dawned On Me, but this isn’t your straight up clip. For their first video in over a decade the band teamed up with the folks at King Features for an animated video that features not only the band as cartoon characters, but also the studio’s iconic characters Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto, Whimpy and Swee’ Pea in their first hand-drawn, frame-by-frame rendering for Popeye cell animation since the Popeye and Son series from 1987.
In addition to the video, Wilco and Kings Features also launched a full on interactive website, which features links to a live version of Dawned On Me, their iTunes session and more. Let’s check it out…
Finally, to say that Fiona Apple has had a rocky relationship with her record label might be a bit of an understatement, as the singer-songwriter has seemed to consistently battle with her bosses at Epic over the last decade to get her music released. The tempestuous Apple, who has only released three studio albums since 1996, her last being 2005′s Extraordinary Machine, has reportedly been finished with her latest for well over a year. Well earlier this week Epic Records head honcho L.A. Reid tweeted the following, “Lots of good music coming from @Epic_Records in the next few weeks. Stay tuned music fans. Welcome back Fiona!” A spokesperson for Epic confirmed to Time that Apple’s new album would indeed be released, but an exact date had yet to be determined.
. How about for now and forever we just let it be known as The Idler Wheel?
. While we still await an official release date, the 
