...it's hot."
~ Nellie McKay, Mother of Pearl
My first introduction to Nellie McKay's music was thanks to a TED Talk performance (the one above, actually) of Mother of Pearl. The first time I watched it I thought, "Jesus Christ, is she serious?" and it left me with that feeling where you're not sure if you should laugh or swear. So I watched it again, and then I got it. I think. It was a list of feminist issues reduced to little more than stereotypes. I'm not sure that's all it is, though. Is she implying we take it all too seriously and should, really, lighten up a little? It makes me want to babble incoherently about misogyny and satire and irony and lots of other words along those lines. It grew on me. So much so that I looked up more of her stuff and came across a piece that she did for NPR Music's Project Song where artists are given two days to write and record an original song. Fascinating process watching McKay work her way from music to lyrics to recording. It kinda made me fall in like with her work, and her style, a little bit more. Have requested anything/everything we have of hers at work, most of which are contributions to concept albums.
The clip below is the Project Song. That bit where she rings her mother to talk over a part of the song she isn't so sure about? Love that.
Ok, you can go away now *makes shooing motions*
2 comments
I love her politics. I enjoyed her performance. I'm absorbing her composition.
by Anonymous on April 18, 2012 at 9:04 PM. #
hey there
you might also like Kimya Dawson, not so overtly humourous but folksy with acoustic sound and quite poltical in what she sings about..
She was mentioned in a teen book I read.
have a great day
by Anonymous on May 11, 2012 at 12:03 PM. #