Michele Ari 

"Keep an eye out for this lady; she's going places!"

Karla Ash, The Wig Fits All Heads, Seattle

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I get a fair few new bands and singers wanting me to be their myspace friend. Every so often, swayed by an interesting name or an intriguing picture or half a listen to half a song, I hit the 'accept' button. But more often than not, I opt to 'deny'.

It wasn't like that with Michele Ari, though. For one thing, it was me who asked her to be my friend.

I can't remember how I first landed on Michele Ari's myspace page, but it took me an eternity to get off it again. After hearing the opening bars of My Sleeping Beauty, a great example of Michele’s snaky and spiky guitar-fuelled pop, I knew I wasn’t going anywhere for a while. To be honest, I initially thought that the song was a cover. It sounded like a 1960s classic given a 21st Century flip.

The parallel lines that have been drawn between Michele’s vibrant vocals and those of Debbie Harry make a lot of sense, but the comparisons with Natalie Merchant seem to me to be even more on the mark. There is a bewitching, almost mesmeric quality to her voice. She’s a southern charmer and no mistake. But there are the occasional hints of darker tones mixed in there, too. I get the feeling Miss Ari might be a bit dangerous, albeit in the nicest possible way.

I’ve been back to Michele Ari's myspace page many times. And I’ve bought 85th And Nowhere, her six-track mini-album, which is really quite something. The album is really quite something, that is. Mind you, now I come to think of it, it’s also really quite something that I shelled out hard cash for it. I mean, bloody hell, I am a bitter and twisted old music journo, I don't pay for any damn thing.

Maybe I’m going soft. Or maybe it’s Michele Ari and her  witchy doings. That’ll teach me to make friends with strangers on the internet.

Push
Former Melody Maker and Muzik journalist, and author of Rat Scabies And The Holy Grail