It's been almost a year since I posted "5 Girlie Bands You Should Know About" and it's time to share the love of ladies making new music once again. Here's 5 More Girlie Bands You Should Know About (this time with video):
1. Amanda Palmer (of The Dresden Dolls)
Frontwoman for Boston based duo The Dresden Dolls, AFP (Amanda F-ing Palmer...yes that's what she goes by) released a solo album this year that not only blows away many recent albums in terms of songwriting and production value, it might actually be better than anything the Dresden Dolls have done. Production value on this album is incredible thanks to Ben Folds (The story of how they got together is quite interesting- you can find it on her blog). She worked with Neil Gaiman on a coffee table book about the album, and has become a darling of the celebrity Twitter world. I saw her a few months back at the Culture Room in Ft Lauderdale, and one of the first things she said was how Trent Reznor just tweeted her "whats up" or something like that. Kinda dorky, kind of cool. She is truly one of the most talented female artists out there today: she's punk rock with a piano and covers Radiohead's Creep on a ukulele. You can't say that about any other artists.
Standout lyric: "Who needs love when the sandwiches are wicked and they know you at the Mac store." - Leeds United
Here's "Runs In The Family":
2. The Gossip
http://www.thegossipmusic.com/
The Gossip frontwoman Beth Ditto is notorious for stripping down to her underwear at shows and for that reason alone she's garnered alot of attention. She doesn't seem to care about what you think about how much clothing she is or isn't wearing onstage since it's all about the music, man. And holy crapola is her voice amazing. She's got such a powerful voice, good thing the band (it's a trio...see pic above) is tight enough to back her up. The Gossip is very well written rock music but it's Beth Ditto's voice that's gotten this band noticed, signed, featured on perezhilton.com, etc etc etc. If you dont know them, you should. And now you do. Their new album "Music for Men" is out now. Check it out, you'll be glad you did.
Standout lyric: "I don't want the world, I only want what I deserve." -Yr Mangled Heart
Here's "Heavy Cross" off of the new album:
3. The Submarines
You've actually already heard this band, on the new iPhone commerical that's been playing on TV for months now. If you don't watch TV and don't know what I'm talking about, props for not watching TV. So, The Submarines...they're bright, they're poppy, they're good. They're also married. Story goes like this: they were together, broke up, both started writing songs about each other, figured that out, got back together, wrote better songs, released an album, got royalties from Apple. They must be annoyed telling that story over and over again because I've seen/heard the story multiple times now and it's annoying. Don't they have anything else to say? Well, at least the music is good (actually, don't bother with the first album...that's the breakup/get back together album. Just get Honeysuckle Weeks.) The Submarines is another example of male/female duo bands that are able to write better music than most 4+ pieces. (See: The White Stripes, The Bird and The Bee, The Ting Tings, etc.) Oh yeah, she plays the xylophone live....nice.
Interesting side fact: Frontwoman Blake Hazard is the great-granddaughter of American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Standout lyric: "And all we ever want is to be loved, whether sun or stars above. All our trouble, all our toil is towards no greater earthly goal."- Swimming Pool
Here's "You, Me and the Bourgeoisie" (the iPhone song):
4. Stars
Stars....how did I just find out about Stars recently, having listened to Metric for years? Rosstonfail. So anyways Stars is a group from the smorgasboard of bands that make up Canada's Broken Social Scene. There's actually two singers in Stars, a guy and a girl, and the way they switch parts in their songs is great. This is an amazing indie band, the music is great (think Metric meets Death Cab for Cutie...or something), the lyrics are good and you should listen to this band. Even if you're not one of those music people*. Their arrangements are superb, and I hope I can see them live one day. Yes, the name is a little cocky, but it's tongue in cheek....I think.
Standout lyric: "Life was supposed to be a film, was supposed to be a thriller, was supposed to end in tears. But life, could be nothing but a joke, could be nothing but a con. Where's my unhappy ending gone?"- Life 2: The Unhappy Ending
Here's "Your Ex-Lover is Dead", possibly their best song:
5. Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton (Metric frontwoman)
While I featured Metric on the first post in this series, "5 Girlie Bands You Should Know About ", at that time I didn't know about lead singer Emily Haines' side project Emily Haines and The Soft Skeleton. Much more depressing than Metric, this totally doesn't rock at all, but she sure can write a good lyric. A friend's brother saw her play a show and said that it was "the most depressing thing he's ever paid for." But she's one of the biggest indie rock stars out there, so she can pretty much do anything she wants and people are going to like it. In this case, it's good.
Standout lyric: "Whatever it is spit it into a bottle and sell it to me. I'm looking to buy freedom from my sobriety." - The Bank
Here is "Our Hell" (awesome negative film effect):
Thanks for reading this blog post, I hope you learned something that you can share with others, and as always I appreciate your comments and suggestions on other bands.
*: Yes, somebody actually said that to me.
