Kimya Dawson

Kimya Dawson
11" x 8.5"
watercolor, 2013

Here's the fifth and last Kimya Dawson of the Top 100 2012. But don't worry she'll be back in 2013. My good friend Jake Hand, who introduced me to her music just bought her newest CD Thunder Thighs of 2011. What I like about Kimya Dawson, besides the fact that she's a great songwriter, is the realism of her songs. She writes about her coming of age as a teenager and then into adult life and motherhood, all in a straightforward down to earth fashion. Sometimes she serious, sometimes happy, sometimes depressed, and sometimes goofy. Like in this song Nothing Came Out, a Moldy Peaches song elsewhere in the 100, in which she effortlessly rhymes humanity with a huge manatee. The song illustrated here is Chemistry, the opening track of her third solo album My Cute Friend Sweet Princess of 2004, a song sad and sweet. I guess what I like in her music is the same quality I find in Daniel Johnston's, of whom I am a huge fan. Unlike Daniel Johnston though, she's less obsessive, more what we could call normal, maybe a bit geeky. And unlike Daniel Johnston too, she's a woman, which makes a huge difference if it comes to writing about the experiences of coming of age.