Ropes of Sand

Protest Singer

I recently asked someone who has been a long-time Dixie Chicks fan if she had their new album because I wanted to hear it. She said, "You don't even like the Dixie Chicks. What, now that they're voicing political views that are similar to yours, now they're cool?" My response was basically, "Well...yeah." She didn't have it and I still haven't heard it.

Most music with political tendencies to it, I don't especially like. I appreciate the existence of it, but what I've heard is usually the old alt.country business, which I can only take in small doses. This is why it pisses me off that the bands I do like (yes, "indie rock" bands) seem to avoid political discussion, at least overtly. Perhaps this is a holdover from the 90's, when "college rock" became "indie rock," when it moved out of Mom's garage and lost the wonderful arrogance of youth. Have the bands now not realized that apathy is so 15 1/2 years ago?

Anyway, I was happy to be introduced recently to the music of Kimya Dawson, formerly of The Moldy Peaches. A self-described "anti-folk" singer, she is actually pretty damn pro-folk, in that she sings mostly acoustically about politics and love (romantic, familial, platonic), about giving her friends hugs and flowers, and giving Bush the finger. Her ultra positive, bordering-on-naive attitude can get a bit grating at times (she's kind of that girl in the dorm down the hall who has good weed but won't shut up about the time she met Ani), but this is tempered by acknowledgements of the dark side (her song "12-26" is a brutal fictional account of a tsunami victim) and by frequent references to poop, which is nice. Her website (www.kimyadawson.com/) has a few MP3's you can download. I recommend checking them out.

Is there anything you've heard that is worth a listen? Is there someone out there taking it to the Man with guitar in hand? Is that Dixie Chicks album any good?

posted by Ian @ Thursday, June 22, 2006