Lady Bitness

"Now won't you run and tell your boyfriend? Tell him don't hold his breath for me" quips Santigold on I'm A Lady. Equal parts David Bowie, MIA, and with a Cranberries-esque snarl on this track especially, Philly-born Santigold still possesses a style all her own, and is just one of a growing number of the femmes fatales in today's music industry. (Of course, who can forget the beehive that paved the way for countless outrageous acts, Ms. Winehouse....see Fuck Me Pumps, He Can Only Hold Her, Valerie...where have you been all my life??) Nevertheless, there has never been a shortage of badass lady acts, only times when they were more appreciated than others. I can only hope 2010 has ushered in an era that continues to applaud fabulous women like these.

I'm A Lady - Santigold

Now won't you run and tell your boyfriend
Tell him don't hold his breath for me
I've got some money I was saving
Got some hearts that I'll be breaking
Know someday they'll make a martyr out of me

And I like sometimes to wave it high
Up where everyone can see
I'm a lady
Got my mind made up


Little Bit - Lykke Li
Hands down, I'm too proud for love
But with eyes shut it's you I'm thinking of
But how do we move from A to B?
It can't be up to me cause you don't know
Eye to eye, thigh to thigh, I let go
And for you I keep my legs apart
And forget about my tainted heart


Hurricane Drunk - Florence + The Machine

I hope that you see me cause I'm starin at you
But when you look over, you look right through
Then you lean and kiss her on the head
And I never felt so alive, and so dead

And you can't hold me down, cause I belong to the hurricane

Hysteric - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

No wonder, no wonder
Other half
Strange steps
Heels turn black
The cinders, they splinter
And light the path
And these strange steps
Trace us back

Reality Check

Whether its pure hip hop (no watered down club hits, please) or some raw indie rock from the late 90s, check these three for some instant gratification.

1. Reality Check - Binary Star
Introduced by a friend (shoutout to Cappuccio), this one got me on the intro alone. I miss multi-genre fused hip hop, and what this track lacks in bells and whistles it makes up for in originality.


2. Puppet On A String - Detroit Cobras
Raw rugged and with that grunge-girl-growl you already know I can't resist, Detroit Cobras will always have a place in my heart, and this song is too perfect to pass up.


3. Incinerate - Sonic Youth
Still sonic after all these years. This one instantly brings me back to driving through Venice Beach with the windows down. That guitar is eternal.

The Ghost Who Walks

If her otherwordly beauty doesn't already spark your interest, Karen Elson's The Ghost Who Walks is equally curious and spell-binding. As Jack White's model-turned-musician wife, it would be easy to write Elson off for jumping on the JW bandwagon, but this track and many others off her debut by the same name boldly speak for themselves. Eery and dream-like in its quality, The Ghost Who Walks is a rich sample of the kind of vintage flavor missing from too many records.

Happy Mess

Delight in whatever state you are in. Never mind what you should be doing, how you should be feeling, never mind the unanswered questions, the daily imaginings. Roll down your windows and drive somewhere new. Rock a barely-there skirt and some six inch heels. Kiss a baby, your dog, your mom. Put on these tunes and rejoice in the moment, rejoice in all the little things you think you have to solve and just live the questions, live the unanswerable joy.

Go Do - Jonsi

I Am Not A Robot - Marina & The Diamonds

Bright As Yellow - The Innocence Mission

Living Stone

Living Stone, the debut track from Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, is one of my favorite picks to kick start your summer. Recorded partly in Sierra Leone and also in New Orleans, their latest album, Rise and Shine proudly represents elements of world music and reggae at its finest. Straightforward in its message and instantly catchy in its delivery, wake up to this track and start that summer day right. Get your paws on the track for free right here.

Fierce, Flawless

A few songs unafraid to face reality with unwavering beauty and depth:
An elaborate songstress, poet, and lyrical superwoman, Ani Difranco is a master at making the ugliest of human experiences intrinsically beautiful and accessible. One of my favorite tracks, Fierce and Flawless, encompasses the courage that lies within expressing unspeakable truths.

She was cuffed to the truth
Like the truth was a chair
Bright interrogation light in her eyes
And her conscious lit a cigarette and just stood there
Waiting for her to crack
And his face scampered through her mind
Like a roach across a wall
And it made her soar
It made her skin crawl
They said: we got this confession, we just need you to sign
Why don't you just cooperate
And make this easier on us all?

There was light and there was darkness
But there was no line in between
And asking my heart for guidance
Was like pleading with a machine
You see joy has its own justice
And my dreams are languid and lawless
And everything bows to beauty;
When it is fierce, it is flawless

On the table were two zip-loc baggies
Containing her eyes and her smile
They said we're keeping these as evidence
Until this thing goes to trial
Meanwhile anguish was fingering solace
In another room down the hall
Both were love's accomplices but solace took the fall
Now look at her book of days
It's the same on every page
She's got a little tin cup with her heart in it
To bang along the bars of her rib cage


Similarly, looking at the lyrics to "Fistful of Love" by Anthony and the Johnsons is a bit like looking at an abject* piece of art from the 1970s. You can't explain it immediately, if at all, and it may initially make you uncomfortable but curious. It is certainly not clean, it is not pure, it is not a pretty little piece of work. But it is nothing if not beautiful. And that, in its most simplistic form, deserves the kind of recognition overlooked by mainstream art/music critics. In what way do glossed-over declarations of beauty and love represent sincere human experiences? Nothing is perfect, and without including what I personally attribute to its significance, I think everyone has a unique reaction to this piece. Listening to the song in its entirety is a better way to experience it, and the vocals are nothing if not haunting in their delivery.

We live together in a photograph of time
I look into your eyes
And the seas open up to me
I tell you I love you
And I always will
And I know you can't tell me
I know you can't tell me

So I'm left to pick up
The hints, the little symbols of your devotion
So I'm left to pick up
The hints, the little symbols of your devotion

And I feel your burning eyes burning holes
Straight through my heart
It's out of love

I accept and I collect upon my body
The memories of your devotion
I accept and I collect upon my body
The memories of your devotion

*To be abject in terms of artwork often means to be graphic or illicit a knee-jerk reaction in order to posit something larger about society; (i.e: domestic violence, crime, etc). Abject art in all forms tends to make people instantly uncomfortable but curious.

Rambling [Wo]man

It's almost unreal that Laura Marling has just celebrated her 20th birthday. The London Native, who used to play with Noah and The Whale, is gifted with the old soul of a poet and the hauntingly raw voice of a folk prodigy. With sounds reminiscent of Joni Mitchell or Alexi Murdoch, Marling's latest album I Speak Because I Can is gently woven with semblances of 1960s folk and at times Celtic-sounding vocal arrangements. Marling has said the album deals with the "responsibility of womanhood" - something she seems to possess an incredible wisdom of; each song carrying with it the complexities of love, choice, and self-expression universal to womankind.

Ghosts
Lover please do not
Fall to your knees, it's not
Like I believe
In everlasting love
These are just ghosts
That broke my heart
Before I met you

Rambling Man
But give me to a rambling man
Let it always be known
That I was who I am

Blackberry Stone
Well I own this field
And I wrote this sky
And I have no reason, to reason with you
And you never did learn to let the little things go
And you never did learn to let me be
And you never did learn to let little people grow
And you never did learn how to see

Goodbye England
I wrote an epic letter to you
And it's 22 pages front and back
And it's too good to be used
And I tried to be a girl who likes to be used
I'm too good for that
There's a mind under this hat and
I Called them all and told them I've got to move