Pretenders tease new album on Yahoo!

Anyone who thinks the hottest thing about the Pretenders circa 2008 is the video of Chrissie Hynde’s provocative yet silly duet with Dave Navarro at the Viper Room needs to do three things: Wipe off the goofy grin. Think again. Be patient.

Because come October, fans can call up a fiery performance the group turned in last week for the "Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo! Music" series highlighting several songs from the forthcoming album “Break Up the Concrete,” also due in October.

 

Hynde and original drummer Martin Chambers are now joined by guitarist James Walbourne, bassist Nick Wilkinson and steel guitarist Eric Heywood for the first new Pretenders album in six years.

 

Yes, a steel guitarist.

 

The new material has a back-to-the-roots forcefulness along with bits of country twang, from the runaway-train punked-up blues of “Boots of Chinese Plastic” to the Stones-Gram Parsons country rock of  “Love’s a Mystery.”

 

Just shy of turning 57, Hynde remains one of the Seven Wonders of the Rock World. The band, which suffered not so gladly through the Q&A portion of the Yahoo! taping -- Hynde was asked what advice she might offer Britney and Lindsay -- is making a different song from the album available as a free download each week through a rotating group of partner websites. More details at the Pretenders’ website.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo by Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Brien Comerford]

Thank you for this Pretenders revelation. Chrissie Hynde is a dynamic vocalist whose voice can roar like a lion or be as tender as an angel. The Pretenders last three albums have been excellent. Chrissie is arguably the music industry's most ardent animal rights activist. She recently opened a vegetarian eatery in her home state of Ohio.