MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS | THE HERETHEREAFTER

THE HERETHEREAFTER

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The Beginner

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The Long Goodbye

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Folkin' Hell

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Right Now

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I Know What It's Like

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Ella

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Last Solstice of the 70's

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Dandelion

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Beauty Queen

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Seven Hours

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The Landscape

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When We Go Walkin' (Japanese B Side)

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Interview Magazine:

Billy Bob Flails, Ben Folds Fails, and Miranda Lee Sails

R. Crumb goddaughter Miranda Lee Richards tosses up a recipe for mescaline salad that calls for tape- looped guitars, sitars, Beatles-esque strings, some Stones psychedelia and a sprig of French romantic decadence (Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil). Given time and a taste for sin, she might well be the Marianne Faithfull for a new millennium.

--Henry Cobot Beck

Blender:

Once an underground rocker, Richards turns now to psychedelic pop for her solo debut

One might expect a singer formerly associated with the obscure 60's inspired San Francisco rock band Brian Jonestown Massacre to release a debut full of crazy underground rock and roll. Instead, Miranda Lee Richards has crafted a rapturously tuneful album of soothing '60's pop melancholia, merging breathy melodies and richly orchestrated arrangements into moments of quiet, hypnotic intensity. On some of the songs, (notably "The Long Goodbye" and her creamy cover of the Stone's "Dandelion"), she gets by with a little help from friends Jon Brion, who produces Aimee Mann, and That Dog drummer Joey Waronker. With a mildly psychedelic sound rooted in strings, shimmering keyboards, and softly shifting drums, The Herethereafter is a stunning debut from one of pop's prettiest voices.

--Michael Moses

Paper Magazine:

Miranda Lee Richards is Ready to Rock

Miranda Lee Richards is ready to rock. After supporting herself modeling for 10 years, she has recorded her first album. Due in May, The Herethereafter (Virgin), is a trippy mixture of what she calls "pure psychedelic country-pop." Raised in San Francisco, she began modeling when she was just 14. "I tried to keep a low profile, but I ended up posted on every bus bench in L.A," says Richards, who began writing songs with her guitar, piano, and harmonica in her spare time. She also found time to star in America Year Zero, a movie shot at Burning Man last September, in which she plays a somber young woman whose life is overflowing with messy drama. It sounds far from her reality---these days, she's pretty happy about her new career---and her life in L.A. "I love it, a lot of very creative people have moved here," she says. "You only see the boobs and blonde hair in the summer."

--Jason Sellards

Pulse:

Just as John Lennon did with his 1971 classic Imagine, Miranda Lee Richards wanted "to make the most beautiful music in the world." The 25-year old singer/songwriter achieves what she calls her "original vision" with her resplendent-sounding debut, The Herethereafter (Virgin).

Richards was born and raised in one of the Bay Area's more ultra-liberal environments and it was that hippie-esque carryover that afforded the 26-year-old the wherewithal to live in a tent upon her arrival in Los Angeles six years ago. "I was pissed about that," Richards calmly reflects about the situation brought on because of her then-boyfriend. "We were having problems in our relationship and that intensified it. Yes, it was an issue."

After moving out of the tent, and into her own apartment, she soon began modeling for Calvin Klein, but it was playing "soft" music that would ultimately prevail. "That’s what gave me focus in Los Angeles," she explains, "and made modeling bearable." Needless to say, with her first single, "The Beginner," and her debut effort raising more than a few eyebrows, the sacrifices have obviously paid off. "It took a little longer than I thought, but I also got lucky. It can be very hard in L.A.," exclaims Richards.

--Keith Ryan Cartwright

Arts and Entertainment Preview:

Psychedelic Heaven

Miranda Lee Richards, an alumna of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, has a winning cross-generational appeal on her solo debut, The Herethereafter (Virgin). Baby boomers who haven't given up on the sixties will be thrilled with her gentle but authoritative command of melodic psychedelia. (If you thought the Beatles had it right with "Strawberry Fields" and the Stones had it right with "Dandelion," wonderfully updated here, you'll want to smoke a bongful of dried banana peels and stare at the sun.) Non-baby boomers will simply groove on the arrangements and marvel at her songwriting. She never lets the weirdness get in the way of the melodies, which is a miracle of taste in this Digital Age of Unlimited Noises. Lyrically, Richards manages to be personal without descending into the narcissism and excruciating relationship analysis that has flawed the work of many of her peers. Again, it's the sixties influence, the hippie vibe of freedom over societal constrictions. She's also been influenced by that master of nineteenth-century French psychedelia, Charles Baudelaire, whose poem "The Landscape" she adapts for a song. Baudelaire and Richards both are concerned with the transitory nature of beauty and life ("Seasons will pass 'til Autumn fades the rose"), and both believe in compensating with "the sinless Idyll of innocent words." Not a bad description of the Herethereafter.

--C.M.Y.

Music News of the World :

Getting to Know Miranda Lee Richards

The folks at the Red Devil bar in San Francisco were chattering away Wednesday night when L. A.-based folk-rocker Miranda Richards took the stage. But as soon as they got a glimpse of the stunning young singer/songwriter, and heard her sing, the talking stopped. Richards, who said she's been in the studio cutting demos with her band, sounds a bit like Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval, and writes sad-core songs that Mark Eitzel would appreciate. Her cover of Bob Dylan's 'She Belongs to Me' was a stunner, but even more impressive was an original called 'Vagabond Angel.' Catch her now, so you can say you saw her when....

--Michael Goldberg

The Portable Infinite :

"I met the very beautiful Miranda Lee Richards years ago in the Lower Haight section on San Francisco. She seemed to be destined to have great things happen to her whatever she did. I didn't see her around for many years, and then I heard she had a record coming out this summer. Her album, The Herethereafter, is a perfect reflection of her own aesthetic. It's a mix of a poetic sensibility and pop music. The songs are very well written, full of great melodies and harmonies, just like her 60's heroes, The Rolling Stones and Gram Parsons. I remember Miranda as this poet and artist who was looking for her own voice. I didn't know what to expect.
I saw her play a few weeks later in San Francisco. Her sound was impressive. Songs like "The Beginner" and "Beauty Queen" seem like instant classics. With her partner, Rick Parker, they were able to blend rock and country, and alternative music and hip-hop, into a new cool hybrid form. I talked to both of them after the show, and they both seemed very down the earth and talk about the record they have spent the past year making. They seemed very excited to meet people and to present their music.

Miranda has been known in the past as a model. She is known also for her work with Brian Jonestown Massacre. But now she has her own record out and is scheduled to play a bunch of live shows this fall. We hung out at her sound check at The Bottom of The Hill. A film crew was filming us during our chat..."

-Alexander Laurence

The Herethereafter Top Ten:

* The Herethereafter #7 on Rolling Stone.com in 2001 Richard Skanse critic’s pick

* The Herethereafter in Gazette, The Colorado Springs Bill Reeds’ top ten