Mundane Turbulence

I…really like female vocalists.

Any time I try to answer that “who are your favorite musicians” question, the quick review of my top however many invariably ends up being very woman-heavy. So this is going to be the post in which I put up really great music by ladies-that-you-may-not-have-heard-of for everyone to enjoy!

The band I’ve been pretty much listening to non-stop over the last few weeks is The Long Blondes. I hardly knew they existed until my buddy Justin (Lacasse) invited me to catch them at Great Scott (thanks to our friend Josh), and their lead singer, Kate Jackson, immediately blew me away with her stage presence. She’s absolutely gorgeous, not just because she’s physically attractive, but because she owns that beauty in that oh-so-rockstar of ways. It’s a five-piece band, but she shares the stage with no one. They’ve got a couple albums, both of which are great, so it was pretty hard to choose one song to put up. So here’re two, which I think do a good job of showing some of the band’s range:

The Couples — the lyric of the chorus is “people have the nerve to tell me that they’re lonely.” I [heart] bitterness!

Erin O’Connor — this song is about two lovers deluding themselves into enjoying sleeping together. And actually, most of this album, “Couples”, seems to be about cheating on people. Which is awesome?

Every few weeks or so, I like to check in on my favorite band blog ever — as if I have a group of them that I read or something — that of Giant Drag‘s (sorry Roger…but everyone should check out her blog, it’s hilarious). This was another band that I had never heard of, but for which immediately fell. Yet again I was with Justin L, this time catching Pretty Girls Make Graves (great band, female vocalist — duh), when we saw what looked like two fourteen year-olds walk on stage, a boy and a girl. Cynical Bostonians that we-the-crowd were, looks of puzzlement were exchanged over the gall that these kids had for daring to play for us. We came to see rock. Not pigtails. But then, with the first words out of Annie Hardy‘s mouth, I knew I’d be in love forever: “this song is called You Fuck Like My Dad.” Brilliant. Another two:

YFLMD — the change of the drumbeat at the end is absolutely brilliant, I think.

Wicked Game — this version is better than the original.

And just for the heck of it, my favorite PGMG song:

Blue Lights — neurosis made sexy!

One of my favorite bands of all time is Metric. Having a full awareness of my predilection towards lady-singers, I’d actually found out about them by hunting through forums with the search term “female lead singers.” I happened upon a recommendation, and I will forever indebted to the mysterious stranger who posted it…I wept the first time I grasped the lyrics of this song:

I.O.U. — Emily Haines, Metric’s lead singer, writes many songs with political/cultural/philosophical messages…but she allows for subtlety, and she doesn’t forget that her first job is to bring teh rock.

I also discovered The Blow through the same method:

Come on Pauline — Khaela Maricich’s music is ALL OVER THE PLACE, and it’s awesome. She can’t be pinned down to one genre…I can’t think of any other track of hers that’s like this one (see my thirty-third post for a taste of how disparate her flavors are).

I think I’ll throw in one last artist here…Mirah. One of the great things about Mirah is that she can seamlessly alternate between vastly epic pieces and deeply personal ones. Case in point:

Cold Cold Water — desert journey.

Make it Hot — confession.

I left out many other favorites of mine, but I think this is a good sampling!