Vanessa and the O's

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Vanessa and the O's formed in 2003 when James Iha (former guitarist and co-founding member of The Smashing Pumpkins) met Vanessa Contenay-Quinones (Espiritu) and Swedes Andreas Mattson (Popsicle) and Niclas Frisk (Atomic Swing) in New York in 2003.

They recorded the album La Ballade d'O over the next 18 months or so in between Iha's tour with A Perfect Circle. Meanwhile Quinones went into the studio with Lou Reed to cut an Anglo/French version of "Sunday Morning" while also working on new songs with Frisk and Mattson. The album was finally finished 2005. Pelle Gunnerfeldt who had just completed The Hives album was brought in to do the final mixdown alongside The O's. The album was released by EMI Sweden May 25th 2005 in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway. The band played their first live dates in Sweden on the 13/14/15/16th of July 2005. In September the album was 'Album Of The Week' in influential British record store Rough Trade who described it as "...a fantastic album of ‘european cool’ with breathy vocals over music which sounds like The Concretes, Stereolab or a modern take on the Velvet Underground…we're sure you will fall in love with this album like we have." In 2006 the album was released by the bands own label Rushmore Recordings in France [Pias] and Japan {StrangeDaysRecords] to great critical acclaim earning a 'Disque Du Mois' from influential rock mag 'Rock & Folk' Paris. Also in 2006 Vanessa was invited to guest vocal on the legendary Scott Walkers first album in 11 years 'The Drift'. The O's played shows in Paris and London through 2006 and the band penetrated more territories with the album released in Portugal and Thailand. 2007 see's Vanessa & The O's kick off the new year as the only new artiste invited to participate in the all star musical tribute to Ennio Morricone 'We All Love Ennio Morricone' with a gorgeous rendition of the Francoise Hardy classic 'Je Changerais d'Avis'..alongside legendary artistes like Bruce Springsteen, Metallica, YoYoMa, Quincy Jones, Celine Dion, Herbie Hancock, Andrea Boccelli, Reynee Fleming and the Maestro himself. In 2007 Venessa & The O's Preformed On Mtv's Bam's Unholy Union.