FMD 7-28-2017: More Females Please

I figured we should continue the female artists conversation that got started earlier this week, maybe branching away from albums and talking more about songs, particular artists, performances, etc. Just broadening (eh? eh?) the conversation a bit.

I have to confess that I haven't gotten all the way through the list (I started at #1 and worked backward) of top albums by women, but I'm suspecting that two of my favorite artists don't appear: Jenny Lewis and Niko Case. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Both of them were very influential in my introduction to independent music, and so I have a soft spot in my heart for both of them.

I also once wore a t-shirt to a Rilo Kiley concert that said "Jenny, I get married in a week; this is your last chance!" I've worn more effect shirts before.

33 thoughts on “FMD 7-28-2017: More Females Please”

      1. That's one of the main ones (especially in March). Someone raised some reservations before, and I thought it a good point, so I've pretty much stopped using any of the "Gurl/Girl" tags.

    1. Towards the subject of the post, some recent additions to the joePod: Big Thief, Sylvan Esso, Nicotine's Famous Honey, Screaming Females, Aye Nako, Jay Som, Vagabon, Priests, Jamila Woods.

      1. Was Whitney Houston on the list? (I don't remember seeing her.)
        I listen to Shannon Stephens, Hello Saferide, Katy B, and Nissenenmondai a lot, but I'd never expect to see them on such a list.

            1. Looks like it's N. And that's why I never listen to it: it's on my work phone (along with Dots And Loops; I should really port those over to the main phone).

              1. Ah... great tunes there, like "A", "B-1", and "B-2".
                Actually... that's all there is. I'm partial to "B-1" (I think).

  1. I decided to do an all female Random 10, however the list filled out so quickly (lotta ladies on the joePod) that I extended it to a Random 20.

    “Whip-Smart” – Liz PhairWhip-Smart
    “David” – Nellie McKayGet Away From Me
    “Trouble Found Me” – Hop AlongGet Disowned
    “Hey” – The BlowThe Blow
    “Don’t Touch My Hair” – SolangeA Seat At The Table
    “Moment Of Guilt” – Le ButcherettesCry Is For The Flies
    “Over” – PortisheadRoseland NYC
    “Let Me Go” – HaimDays Are Gone
    “Be Mine” – Alabama ShakesBoys & Girls
    “Somedays” – Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch 
    “Joyful Girl” – Ani DiFrancoDilate
    “Violet Stars Happy Hunting!” – Janelle MonáeMetropolis: Suite I (The Chase)
    “The Circle Married The Line” – FiestMetals
    “I Will” – MitskiBury Me At Makeout Creek
    “I Fold” – Sharon Van EttenBecause I Can
    “Take It” – Southside DesireSouthside Desire
    “Birth In Reverse” – St. VincentSt. Vincent
    “Black Diamond” – JlinDark Energy
    “Watch The Dog That Bring The Bone” – Sandy GayeEccentric Soul: The Tragar & Note Labels
    “Dig” – Perfect PussySay Yes To Love

    1. Enough Japanese and House artists where I don't know the sex of the artist at all.
      I mean, I assume Blawan is one or more males, but I don't know that (though I might have, and if it was a woman or two, I think that might have stuck with me).
      I recently learned that Porter Ricks is not the artists' name... it's two males.

      1. I just now remembered that Nissenenmondai is a band of three women... it's such deeply impersonal music that the identity of the producers doesn't occur to me.
        Like Plastikman if his name wasn't Plastikman and he didn't do the album with vox and I didn't know his story of being denied entry to the US following 9/11.

    2. you have a category on the joePod for female musicians? If so, that's cool. I can't think of an easy way to isolate gender on mine.

      1. Just keep hitting next until the artists fit the bill?
        It's how I don't have ten bird songs between each real song on my list.

          1. It took me a lot longer to get to 10 in this manner ... and I had to do two bonus songs due to some questions:
            1. Let It DieFeist
            2. LightsEllie Goulding
            3. Interlude: PledgeJanet Jackson
            4. It’s Raining on Prom Night (from ‘Grease’)Cidney Bullens*
            5. Gold Dust WomanFleetwood Mac**

            6. Sand In My ShoesDido
            7. I Will Not Forget YouSarah McLachlan
            8. The Small DeathsWye Oak
            9. Do You Want to Build a Snowman?Kristen Bell, Agatha Lee Monn & Katie Lopez
            10. ToruniquetEvanescence***

            B1. Rescue MeMadonna
            B2. Nothing Out There for MeMissy Elliot

            *Not a typo, but it felt somewhat offensive to correct it. Recorded for the soundtrack in 1977, when he still publicly identified as a female.

            In 2012, Bullens came out as transsexual and changed his name from Cindy Bullens to Cidny Bullens.
            link

            **Written and sung by Stevie Nicks … not sure if this meets the ‘criteria’
            ***Co-written and sung by Amy Lee … also not sure if this meets the ‘criteria’

  2. 1. Roger Knox &Euraba “Koorie Rose” Buried Country 1.5: The Story of Aboriginal Country Music
        a. Carolina Wren “'Dearsweetheart, Dearsweetheart' Song” (Cornell Master Set)
    2. Warumpi Band “Animal Song” Big Name, No Blankets
    3. Aphex Twin “Afx237 V.7”
        b. American Pipit “Contact Calls” (Cornell Master Set)
    4. Nadia Reid “No Good Talking Man” Letters I Wrote and Never Sent
    5. Fovea Hex “Fall Calling”* Three Beams*

        c. Broad-winged Hawk “Calls” (Cornell Master Set)
    6. Hiroyuki Sawano “Guren no Yumiya (Metal Version)”* Attack on Titan
    7. Current 93 “Black Ships Ate the Sky (Matmos)” Black Ships Heat the Dancefloor
    8. Eric Copeland “Osni” Alien in a Garbage Dump EP
    9. Björk “I Miss You” Post*
    T. Katy B “Disappear” On a Mission
    B. Einstürzende Neubauten “The Willy-Nicky Telegrams”* Lament

    *Notes:
    5. Remix by Michael Begg. Three Beams is a bonus disc that came with Here Is Where We Used to Sing with three "remixes": ambient pieces made from the source material of the album.

    6. Notes to Cheaptoy: the instruments are all orchestral metal that I think you might like, but the vox aren't metal but similar to the show:

    9. On the NPR Top 150! (IIRC, it was in the top 30, well ahead of Journey in Satchidananda but behind Lemonade.)

    B. I've been on an EN kick this week, and listening with new ears to their latest album (2014), which I did not get into when it was new. The album's release was timed with the century anniversary of the outbreak of WWI. This song is heavily vocodered, with the text from Willy (the Kaiser) and Nicky (the Czar); the effect is quite jarring, particularly when paired with EN's typical improvised-instrument clatter.

  3. 1. RamshackleBeck
    2. Licking CreamSevendust
    3. Don’t Know MuchLinda Ronstadt feat. Aaron Neville
    4. Over NowAlice in Chains
    5. 17Smashing Pumpkins

    6. Master of PuppetsMetallica
    7. Futterman’s RuleBeastie Boys
    8. Adding To The NoiseSwitchfoot
    9. W.M.A.Pearl Jam
    10. Warm LoveVan Morrison

    B1. RippleGrateful Dead*

    *h/t to free – I own this album because of this Classic Album Review** and (apparently) the prior weeks' FMD discussion.
    **Holy crap! That was more than 5 years ago!!!?!

  4. Mrs. Hayes introduced me to Cesária Évora, whose voice wrings more pathos out of a song than just about anyone, while relying on zero over-the-top vocal fireworks.

    Mary Lou Williams might be the greatest underappreciated American composer ever; Black Christ of the Andes, released almost a decade after she walked away from performing, brings jazz into liturgical music.

    I love Maghrebian music, much of which is imbued with struggle. Two of my favorite living musicians have been deeply influenced by the turmoil in their homelands. Aziza Brahim is a Sahrawi refugee living in Spain, Souad Massi a Berber Algerian political refugee living in Paris.

    Cécile McLorin Salvant is coming to town next spring. There's no way I'm missing her concert.

    Abbey Lincoln had a hell of a voice and wasn't afraid to use it; she recorded We Insist! with her future husband, Max Roach, to mark the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation.

    Carla Bley's gorgeous music defies classification; there's something there for just about anyone.

  5. This is my last day in the office before a week off and I don't have time to contribute to this discussion, but I just want to note that I appreciate its existence.

    1. (Even if it took me a minute to realize that the featured images are guitar picks and not birth control pill containers.)

      1. They don't really look like that, do they?...
        "Slap a pink "Venus" on there! It's for women!"

        1. Eh, kind of. I read an article a while back that the apps for women's health tracking were all pink and purple until a woman developer came along and created one that used other colors. REVOLUTIONARY!

          (Note, this isn't meant as a criticism of the featured image. It is meant as criticism of the assumption that all things associated with women should be pink.)

  6. Everything by Amanda Palmer including her previous work as The Dresden Dolls and her random side work with Ben Folds, Neil Gaiman, and...well, basically anything by Amanda Palmer.

    I also see Nicki Minaj woefully under-represented. I have a massive girl crush on Nicki and demand retribution.

    Classic Linda Rondstadt is always a must, so you could just go with a "greatest hits" set for her.

    Tori Amos's Boys For Pele for classic angry girl 90s torch music. Which reminds me: Poe's Haunted also makes my inner (former) sad teenager happy.

    And one of my favorite album's of all time: Shakira's Donde Estan Los Ladrones. Though Pies Descalzados is also lovely.

    1. I never got into that second Poe album. I tried repeatedly. Maybe it hurts that I was in my 20s?
      I like her first album a lot more than someone with my street cred levels should have though. (Based on E-6's past comments.)

      1. It's one of my "trapped on a desert island with only 5 albums" albums. Have you read House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski? One, if you haven't, you must immediately do so. Two, if you have, it adds more depth to the Poe album.

        1. Whichever album has 'Angry Johnny' is the one I own. Love that tune.
          Tori's just released the first single from her new album out this fall.
          In the spirit of today's FMD theme, how about some Tori covering P.J. Harvey?

          1. Yes! 17 year old Melissa thanks you. As does the older "seen Tori in concert 6 times and she's coming back to the Cities again soon" version of Melissa.

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