Susanna Hoffs lands a new record

Susanna Hoffs never really went away, though you may have lost track of her. She's back to touring with the Bangles, the 1980s girl band that formed in her Brentwood garage after college at Berkeley, just in time for MTV to come along. (They perform in Pershing Square the night of August 4, for Downtown Stage, then head out on tour.) She's been in the Austin Powers movies that her husband, Jay Roach, directed. She's working on her third album of oldies covers with indie musician Matthew Sweet. And she's been writing a lot of songs with a friend from Nashville, Andrew Brazzell, while raising two teenage sons (now 13 and 17) here in LA. And last night she packed the Clive Davis Auditorium at the Grammy Museum in Downtown to talk about her musical origins and influences. For her it started with the Beatles and includes the roster of 1960s female singing stars, from Dionne Warwick and Linda Ronstadt to Petula Clark and Jackie DeShannon.

Hoffs, who is now 53 according to Wikipedia, also played a few songs from a new album she is releasing today. The new record, Someday, was produced by Mitchell Froom and is going out under her own label. Hoffs was on Fox 11's "Good Day LA" this morning to do a song with Brazzell and chat with the hosts. Check out the video below: If you remember her from the Bangles 25 years ago, the voice might just blow you away. Familiar, but richer. It's also worth sticking around for the chit-chat and the gushing over how she looks. (Hoffs says she walks and uses moisturizer.) If anyone puts up the Grammys conversation, I'll post that too.

Photo: Screen grab from Good Day LA