Interview with Mirah

Mirah and I chatted on the phone, then a tiny bit in person after her show at Trinosophes this week. Listen to the phone interview (plus my whole radio show, even):

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The audio includes my two-hour radio show, plus a smidgen of the next DJ’s. Mirah stars for the first 1.5 hours, and the interview begins about 30 minutes in.

Click to READ the interview with Mirah

Playlist
Artist = “Song title”, Album title. [Notes.]

1. Mirah = “Take me out riding”, The old days feeling
2. Mirah = “Gone are all the days”, (A)Spera
3. Mirah with the Black Cat Orchestra = “The light”, To all we stretch the open arm
4. Mirah YomTov Zeitlyn/Ginger Brooks Takahashi & Friends = “Pure”, Songs from the Black Mountain Music Project
5. Thao & Mirah = “How dare you”, Thao & Mirah
6. Mirah YomTov Zeitlyn/Ginger Brooks Takahashi & Friends = “Oh! September”, Songs from the Black Mountain Music Project
7. Mirah feat. Tender Forever = “Low self control”. [video]
[The interview]
8. Mirah = “1982 (atari)” Storageland
9. Mirah = “La familia”, You think it’s like this but really it’s like this
10. Mirah and Spectratone International = “Community”, Share this place
11. Thao & Mirah = “Rubies and rocks”, Thao & Mirah
12. Mirah = “No direction home”, Changing light [video]
13. Mirah = “I am the garden”, Changing light
14. Mirah = “Pollen”, You think it’s like this but really it’s like this
15. Mirah = “Cold cold water”, Cold cold water EP
16. Thao & Mirah = “Sugar and plastic”, Thao & Mirah
17. Santigold + Diplo = “Icarus”, [Some sorta exclusive album]
18. Tune-Yards = “Little tiger”, Bird-brains
19. Kate Bush = “Army dreamers”, The whole story
20. Suzanne Vega = “Pilgrimage”, Days of open hand
21. Gaze = “Static”, Shake the pounce
22. Enon = “Daughter in the house of fools”, Hocus-pocus
23. Belly = “It’s not unusual (the usual mix)”, Moon
24. Envelopes = “I don’t even know”, Demon [which is Swedish for “demos”]

25. FKA Twigs = “Two weeks”, LP1
26. Xeno & Oaklander = “Jasmine nights”, Par avion
27. Actress = “Towers”, Ghettoville
28. Santigold = “Disparate youth”, Master of my make-believe
29. Dr. Science [the science of shampoo]

March 14: HAPPY LADIES’ DAY

Happy Ladies’ Day to EVERYONE! (especially to John M from Sarah B.)

To preempt your question, No. Today is not an “official” ladies holiday. What would that mean, anyway? Can’t every day be Ladies’ Day? That’s our easy challenge for our coming lifetime! to make every day Ladies’ Day. Remember that goal actively, if you have to, until it becomes a habit.

I felt it was due time for another full hour of female musicians. I’d forgotten what a joy it is to play so much of the ladies, and it felt bittersweet when, after an hour, I had so very many ladies who did not hit the airwaves today. They’re on the hotplate, and they shall bubble until the next time I decide to celebrate women artists for the entirety of a show. Who’m I kidding? You’ll hear them soon enough, just interspersed with the other half of the population.

And a BONUS comes after our scheduled hour of Break Your Radio. Our friend Freedom the DJ began her show with an especially apropos track.

Apologies for the unfulfilled request, by the way. I’ll get better at that; I promise.

ohthankyousomuch, speakerphoneman, for making my day. I love that you were inspired to buy flowers for your woman after listening to this show. I think that’s sweet.

(1 hour)
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P.S. A suggestion made during this show likely typifies sexual harassment in the workplace, so I hope you did not follow my advice. Let’s both of us be more prudent in the future.

P.P.S. There’s more where this came from. Click here and here and here for more ladies! Like you could ever get enough…

August 24: Ladies!

Another show that’s chock-full of ladies only! These ladies are sweet, creepy, kitschy, silly, hilarious, operatic, earnest, and they rock.

The opening act, My Brightest Diamond, happens to be from nearby Ypsilanti and presses her albums with Asthmatic Kitty Records. She’s an inspiration to us all.

May I be so forward as to state the facts here? Inara George has the best voice in the world. Her many projects speak to that fact: Lode (brilliance from the early ’90s), the bird and the bee, The Living Sisters, her collaboration with Van Dyke Parks…Are there any more truffles in the wilderness that my nose hasn’t sniffed out? Lord, I hope so.

Ruth Wallis’s “Boobs” is always a hit, while Yma Sumac is indispensable.

And here’s the kicker. It just so happened that the DJ following my set, the venerable Reverend Andrew, was able to lure a real, live, French pianist into the studio for an interview! How very appropriate. Furthermore, Lise planned to perform for free at a metal workshop (replete with LATHE!) in Kerrytown, using a piano that Metal co-owner Claudette purchased especially for Lise’s phalanges. It was fantastic to hear about the show firsthand–I made sure to be there, as performances in nontraditional venues really blast my caps. The setup on Friday night was beautiful, along with the performance. You won’t hear Lise in the recording below (look for her here, instead), but two hours of other ladies surely will make up for that.

(2 hours)
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If you like this episode, you’ll looove the first-ever Woman Show on Break Your Radio.

You can’t stop, can you? Here’s yet another.

April 6: the Woman Show

Anyone can listen, but only ladies can perform.
J-pop of the female persuasion, musicians who menstruate, vocalists with vaginas…From Ani Difranco to Zap Mama, ladies are all you’re gonna hear, and you’ll love it.

The inspiration for this show came from the slits. The Slits were a British punk-reggae-riot grrrl-ish band that formed in 1976 and had the boobballs to create an album cover like this. at age 14, no less, in the case of frontwoman Ari Up. The Slits open the show.

(2 hours)
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This one’s listener-approved.

Check out other Ladies Only shows here and here and here.

January 20: Women in Blues hour

Soulful women, that’s all.

The station IDs at the beginning? Those are all Kristin and me. We let loose with a microphone the other night, so that we could have a variety of messages to intersperse throughout a preset remote broadcast.

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Check out other Ladies Only shows here and here. Also here!