Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Chick Singers on Super Tuesday

Today half of the women in America will make or break the General Election as part of Super Tuesday. They can choose to vote smart or vote along gender lines. It is my hope, for the future of everyone involved, they do the right thing and vote smart.

As a tribute to the women voting today, I would like to offer up the best "Chick Singers" I have stumbled across in quite a while. The past couple of years have been very good for female singer songwriters. M.I.A. is blowing the roof off the joint, while Jenny Lewis is reminding us that music is always better when a bit caustic. Regina Spektor is a revelation and Feist is supremely cool. Aimee Mann continues to make great music and Cat Power, while overrated still makes very solid records. If Amy Winehouse can get off the pipe, we will enjoy her voice for years to come and Neko Case is still reinventing county music.

So, who is next?

Here are two nominees for best new female artist (singer/ songwriter category).

First of all we have Basia Bulat from Canada (yes, another Canadian). What a voice and what sweet (yet, substantial) music. Check out her video (gotta love the autoharp and band of bear percussionists)*



I also recommend Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton (even more Canadians). Emily is from Broken Social Scene and Metric (2 great bands). This is spooky, deceptively simple music reminiscent of Over the Rhine and good Cat Power (the old stuff) with some Indie Pop flourishes. The video for Our Hell is yet another disturbing animal video. Watch it here.



* corrected

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

first band is from Canada, not california. and she plays the autoharp, not the harpsichord! but great video though!

DJ Word said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
DJ Word said...

sorry for the mistake. It has been corrected. next time I will multitask less while writing.

Anonymous said...

don't forget ingrid michaelson. i told you about her at chadwick's or whatever that burger place was called.

Anonymous said...

Jenny Lewis's Rabbit fur Coat is great and it was announced today she is working on a new record right now.

DJ Word said...

Josh,

I listened to Ingrid. it was nice. My wife really dug it so I bought it. She reminds me a lot of Regina Spektor, but not as instantly in my head. I don't think I will like her that much, but maybe she could more into the Feist category (not sure).

Even better, I found a guy she sings with named William Fitzsimmons on her myspace page. He is refreshing. he is in the Elliot Smith, Iron and Wine, Sufjan camp, but has his own flavor.