UPDATE: THIS MP3 IS FAKE. THIS IS NOT JOANNA NEWSOM.
It is, instead, a rather brilliant April Fools Day prank. Unfortunately, not one perpetrated by me. Allow me to take a half moment to explain. An email shows up in my inbox, with the sender being a very reputable PR person I’ve worked with before and who also coincidentally works with Joanna Newsom. There was nothing in the email to suggest anything was fishy, and technically speaking it made it to my inbox after midnight on April 2nd anyways. If you listen to the mp3, it too sounds pretty legit, though the vocals are just a tad too cutesy, even for Joanna Newsom. It sounds like a professionally recorded harp version of the song, which I assume it is by someone other than Joanna Newsom. Are Starlight Girls behind this, hoping to generate some press? Wouldn’t surprise me if they were (see statement from Starlight Girls below). Keep in mind it could also be somebody else, I’ve not yet identified the culprit (and probably never will unless the culprit openly admits to it). There you have it, after playing a poorly received April Fools Day prank of my own and thinking I got away scot free, turns out I got hit on April 2. I have removed the impostor mp3 along with everything else in this post to avoid confusion with the real thing. You may still be able to find it online (at least streaming) if you do some searching.
UPDATE #2: AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM STARLIGHT GIRLS
This is regarding the supposed cover of our song “Gossip” by the folk musician Joanna Newsom. While we are flattered that anyone would put so much effort into covering our song, we assure you that we were not involved and had no foreknowledge of its creation and we would like to clear the air to avoid additional headache and heartache as a result of the dissemination of this video onto the internet.
To clear up any “conspiracy theories” regarding why our music video seems to have “premiered” at the same time we want it to be known that the director uploaded this video publicly without our consent and our lawyer is currently inquiring as to why. The music video for Gossip is neither finished or approved for release and it contains an earlier demo of the song than the one currently available on our FaceBook, which is also a demo. The final version of the video was not planned for release until next month, when our EP gets mastered and the final version of the song is finished.
Any e-mail you receive about this did not come from us, nor was it approved by us. The jokes on us as much as it was on you.
Sincerely,
Starlight Girls