Chanteuse dons a different type of 'Glitter'

As if L.A. fixture Abby Travis didn't come off as restless enough on her last album, 2002's "Cutthroat Standards & Black Pop," the chanteuse/actress/provocateur/sidewoman branches out even further on her new "Glitter Mouth."

To her stylish pop and loungey cabaret stylings, Travis has added excursions into trip-hop (Dr. Dre studio man Lamont Hyde is among "Glitter Mouth's" many collaborators), fashioning an album that is alternately brainy and sensual, and consistently engaging.

"I guess I have genre ADD," she says, "but a lot of my records are like that. It's good to present different sides of our personality or artistic vision…. The last record was very piano-driven and pretty intellectual in that way. But this is more bass-driven and sexy."

No surprise Travis would matriculate in that direction, given her history. She started in the late '80s as bassist for the teen queens the Love Dolls and performed that duty for a host of top-drawer acts in the ensuing years. Her own work often lands on the back burner.

"There's only so much you can do when you're on tour with other bands," she says. "The problem is not so much writing the material; the hard part is getting it recorded."

To that end, "Glitter Mouth" took a village. Longtime Travis collaborators Kristian Hoffman and Dave Bongiovanni were on board, joined by an army of talent including Simon Raymonde (Cocteau Twins), Curt Kirkwood (Meat Puppets) and Donita Sparks (L7).

Travis will celebrate this week's release of "Glitter Mouth" with a free show Sunday night at El Cid in Silver Lake, with DJs Clem Burke and Kevin Fitzgerald spinning.

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