Out There :: Pop Music Appeal

Out There receives an insane number of pitches, releases and swag from record companies, and we're not really sure why. We do have favorite recording artists, but we don't listen to that much recorded music because there's so much live music available in the Bay Area that transcends the simplicity of the latest pop hook. But there are a few new albums out, or soon to be released, that caught the attention of our ever-thirsty ears.

The Wainwright Sisters, aka Martha Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche, will release their new album "Songs in the Dark" on Nov. 13 via PIAS. Here's the PR backstory: "Although they're sisters, Martha Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche didn't grow up together. Aside from genetic, their true bond was a musical one, both growing up in families steeped in songwriting. Both their mothers would sing them lullabies, Kate McGarrigle to Martha and Suzzy Roche to Lucy. Now, 30 years later, Martha and Lucy are singing many of these same songs, penned by their mothers and father [Loudon Wainwright III] on Songs in the Dark.

"The record features songs that shaped their childhoods, made famous by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Jimmie Rogers . When Martha and Lucy grew up and become songwriters of their own, they discovered their physical separation was trumped by their shared musical DNA. On Songs in the Dark, this is captured in its elemental essence: dark, mysterious, and beautiful."

Terre Roche's poignant confessional "Runs in the Family": "All the boys could've gone to school,/All the girls were pretty enough to play the fool./Something about the danger zone/Wouldn't leave the bunch of us alone." They're true heirs to the Roches, Wainwrights and McGarrigles.

Duncan Sheik has a new album out, "Legerdemain," released last week on Kobalt Music. It's his first production of original material not attached to a theatrical production since 2006's White Limousine. (He wrote the music for Spring Awakening.) The songs vary from layers of electronic accompaniment to minimal acoustic textures. Sheik will play the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on Nov. 5 & 6.

New Order's new album "Music Complete" is available now on CD, download, black vinyl and limited-edition clear vinyl. An exclusive eight-piece deluxe vinyl collection that includes the album plus extended versions of all 11 tracks is also available on colored vinyl, on Mute. Here's a new wave band with staying power.

Even that elder statesman of pop music, David Bowie, has new music out. Bowie just released "Blackstar,"?a new original song written for the British TV crime drama "The Last Panthers," starring Samantha Morton, John Hurt, and Tahir Rahim. This is icing on the cake of "David Bowie Five Years 1969-1973" (Parlophone Records), first in a series of boxed sets spanning Bowie's career. The 10-album/12-CD box ($149.98), 10-album/13-LP vinyl set ($249.98) and digital download feature all of the material Bowie released from those fertile early years of his career.

Lupino Rules

Contemporary directors like Angelina Jolie , Natalie Portman and Elizabeth Banks owe a debt to Ida Lupino, the first Hollywood actress to step behind the camera to make a movie. Lupino went on to direct seven feature films and more than 100 TV episodes between 1949 and 1968, yet her accomplishments are hardly remembered today.

"Ida Lupino: Forgotten Pioneer" is an opportunity to redress this oversight. This mini film series will screen two of her signature movies: "The Bigamist," starring Edmond O'Brien in the title role, and Joan Fontaine and Lupino (the only time she put herself in a film) as his two wives; and "The Hitch-Hiker," which is still the only film noir to be directed by a woman. O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy co-star as friends on a fishing trip who make a disastrous mistake in giving a ride to a cold-blooded killer escaping from the police.

"The Bigamist" screens on Sun., Nov. 22, 11 a.m., at the Balboa Theater, 3630 Balboa St. in San Francisco, followed by "The Hitch-Hiker" at 12:30 p.m. Both films will be introduced by San Francisco Chronicle movie correspondent Ruthe Stein, who has researched Lupino's directing career for a story in the Sunday Pink. The program is free, but you must e-mail your request to [email protected]. There is a two-ticket limit per request. Go, Ida!