Thao & the Get Down Stay Down is the kind of band that forces your body to move, even when you are listening to heartbreak and devastating loss and grief and death. Example: try not to tap your toes to this funky single, “Nobody Dies,” from their new album A Man Alive. In it, a woman remembers watching her father leave as a girl. “You made a cruel kid, come look what you did.” But the buoyant rhythm of the bass, guitar, and drums gives the song a gutsy, bright sound at odds with the lyrics, which lament the force of human denial. We act like nobody dies You act like…
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“A Pin-Light Bent” by Joanna Newsom
If your idea of badass indie rock doesn’t include a harp, take a listen to Joanna Newsom’s fourth album, Divers. Like her first three albums (The Milk-Eyed Mender, 2004; Ys, 2006; and Have One On Me, 2010), Newsom brings the angelic instrument down to earth, grounding it with guitars, banjo, bass, keyboard, and drums. Although Newsom’s music is often described as ethereal, otherworldly, or even precious, it has always struck me as decidedly earthy. She is often lusty, even bawdy or coarse. But on “A Pin-Light Bent,” it’s just Newsom’s sinewy voice and lavish harp. Just two notes, at…
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Hi! I’m Theresa.
And I’m your newest contributor to Women in Rock. I was born during a fierce Cleveland blizzard, but I came out of my mother’s body silent as church, and staring. Found my way out like I was supposed to, easily, headfirst, right into the cold. No problem. I was just over six pounds, exactly the length of a Kleenex box. The doctor expected me to cry; I waited him out. Or perhaps I was just listening, waiting to hear what life was all about, already attuned to the music of the world. I’ve been listening all my life. I grew up during the ‘80s and ‘90s. My first 45 record…