Thanks to a movie about a smartass, cynical 16-year-old Minneapolis white kid who is pregnant and wants to give her baby to an even whiter couple, the rest of the world who comfortably lived above the music underground now know who this female Seattle cat named Kimya Dawson who sings about love and being awkward. If you hadn't noticed by a) my blog title and b) my constant blabbings, I'm a huge fan of the K! Records posse, even those who aren't on the label. The Microphones, Mount Eerie, Karl Blau, Laura Veirs (on Nonesuch, actually, but are part of the posse), Modest Mouse during their youth, Mirah and Dawson are all wonderful people who provide wonderful music to me.
Funny story about Dawson. After I graduated college in May Oh-Six I went to meet up with my friend Mai in Seattle for our Northwestern excursion. Instead of getting a hotel, Mai thought it'd be a genius idea for me to shack up with a chick named Tiffany I never met who likes to have shows in her living room every Friday and was tight with some K! Records cats, Blau and Dawson included.
Anyway, the first thing she asks me when we talk about music is, "Do you know who Kimya Dawson is?" I said no, but I bet she's good if you like her. For some reason, Tiffany was shocked I didn't know her, but not in a judgmental way. Then later on into my stay somehow the fact that I'm black and like indie music is brought up (sigh--this topic is mentioned a lot, actually) and she laughs and says, "Yeah, that's why I was so shocked you didn't know who Kimya Dawson was, because she's black." I guess her point was that I needed to know every black musician involved with indie rock.
Well, it took me another two years to get into her stuff, and I'll say, why I do like it, I can't listen to it on a regular basis. Kinda like how I feel about the Silver Jews and Papa M. I dunno, the whole "words and acoustic guitar" vibe can be a little much at times, where you just focus solely on what the person's saying. I need distractions, which is why I'm not against solo artists working with several musicians, i.e. Phil Elvrum. But this all has a lot to do with my very short attention span.
ANYWAY, so long story short, I'm really happy Dawson's getting her due. She's a talented kid, that woman.
Listen:
Kimya Dawson - Loose Lips
Kimya Dawson - My Mom
1 comment:
I'd always heard good stuff about 'Juno' but because I don't watch that many movies, I never really bothered checking it out. I watched it last month and oh my, what a great movie! What I loved though were the songs, esp the Moldy Pitches, esp Kimya.
And then today I found out she's black; makes her cooler. Well, you love Indie and you are black; kind of doesn't connect. But fancy me, an African!
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