Dream Girl is the latest collection of songs by Charleston’s own Ann Magnuson. Extrapolating on themes explored in her one-woman show, An Evening of SuRURALism™, which debuted during FestivAll in 2015, Ann explores the mysteries of dreams, what they mean, and the world in which they happen.
This is a great gift for any fan of Ann’s work, any person interested in the dream world and anyone who likes music that has its roots here in the Mountain State, no matter how surreal it is. Dream Girl is a surreal dreamscape of spoken word and song. Spoken word has its roots in poetry and theater as well as the talking blues and rock music. Magnuson turned the genre truly psychedelic with brilliant and subversive dream-based lyrics in her band, Bongwater in the 1990s.
With the exception of two cover songs (a moving rendition of the 1968 Glen Campbell hit, “Dreams of the Everyday Housewife” and a wistful take on HEART’S “Dreamboat Annie”), the 50-minute album features brand new original material that plumbs the depths of Magnuson’s fertile imagination.
You can order Dream Girl and many other works by Ann at her new webstore, where you will also find special bundles and autograph options.
The track listing for Dream Girl:
1 – We’re All Mad
2 – Be a Satyr
3 – Bromance Nightmare
4 – Cat in the Sun
5 – The Enchanted Forest
6 – Dreams of the Everyday Housewife
7 – Cobras in Love
8 – Dreamboat Annie
9 – Ayahuasca the Movie
10 – Relieved to Be Irrelevant
In case you don’t know already, Ann Magnuson is a writer/actress/singer/musician/performer whose eclectic resume traverses the entertainment landscape like few others. She has acted in Hollywood blockbusters, Off-Broadway plays, TV sitcoms and indie films, fronted various bands, written for numerous publications and has presented her original performance art pieces at several major museums.
We go to her PR for the rest of her bio:
Born and raised in Charleston, West Virginia Ann went to New York City in 1978 (after a junior year abroad in London during the punk heyday of ’76-‘77) and soon became part of the seminal art, music and performance scene that exploded in downtown New York City in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. There she managed the now-infamous neo-Dada cabaret and art space, Club 57; was president of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Lower East Side and started the all-girl percussive ‘orchestra’ Pulsallama. She performed regularly in downtown theaters, galleries and clubs including The Kitchen, The Mudd Club, Danceteria, The Pyramid Club and CBGB. In addition to her many bands and solo work, Ann collaborated with performers Eric Bogosian, Kestutis Nakas, John Sex and Joey Arias in numerous shows including performing and writing songs with the legendary John Cale for his performance piece “Life Underwater.” She also directed The New Wave Vaudeville show that launched the career of New Wave operatic icon Klaus Nomi.
As a singer and songwriter, she has been in several bands including the sardonic folk trio Bleaker Street Incident, her heavy metal band, Vulcan Death Grip and the psycho-psychedelic band, Bongwater with whom she released five albums and gained an international cult following that remains rabid today. Magnuson has also released two solo albums, The Luv Show released (Geffen 1995) and Pretty Songs & Ugly Stories (Asphodel 2007). Her EP, The Jobriath Medley, was released in 2012.
Ann has appeared as a guest vocalist on The Tindersticks album Curtains (singing with Stuart Staples in the duet “Buried Bones”). She has also appeared as an actress in music videos, most notably as the crazed Annie in the Redd Kross video “Annie’s Gone” and as the mysterious Goth chick tormenting Alice in Chain’s Jerry Cantrell in his video for “My Song”.
As a film actress, Magnuson has appeared in a wild variety of roles in major Hollywood films such as The Hunger (with David Bowie), Clear and Present Danger, Making Mr. Right, Panic Room, Desperately Seeking Susan and the cult classic Cabin Boy. She has acted in many independent films, recently co-starring opposite Christopher Walken and Amber Heard in One More Time (which premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival under the original title When I Live My Life Over Again.)
Magnuson was also a regular cast member of the early 1990s ABC-TV sitcom Anything But Love (opposite Jaimie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis) and has appeared in numerous TV shows including Modern Family, Frasier, CSI:Miami, The Drew Carey Show, the HBO series From the Earth to the Moon and Looking among others. Off Broadway credits include The Vagina Monologues, John Patrick Shanley’s Four Dogs and a Bone as well as her own one-woman show You Could Be Home Now.
Magnuson also starred in the LA premiere of Amy and David Sedaris’ play The Book of Liz and her show Rave Mom played P.S.122 in 2001. Magnuson also co-wrote and starred in Vandemonium (1987), a surreally comic special for Cinemax.
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