Kimya Dawson
(born November 17 1972) is an American singer-songwriter, best known as a solo performer and as one half of The Moldy Peaches. In Swahili, "Kimya" (?????) means "silence" [1] or "silent".
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KIMYA DAWSON TICKETS
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Career
Dawson became well known as the female counterpart to
Adam Green in the band
The Moldy Peaches.
[2] Since the Moldy Peaches went on hiatus in 2004 Dawson has released a string of
lo-fi homemade albums and toured widely in North America and Europe.
Dawson recently finished work on
Alphabutt
, a new album of children's music that was released September 9, 2008. Song titles include "The Alphabutt Song," "Seven Hungry Tigers," "Little Monster Babies," "Wiggle My Tooth" and "Pee Pee in the Potty," and collaborators include former
Third Eye Blind guitarist Kevin Cadogan and a number of Dawson's other musical friends and their children. She has also been invited to participate in the
Sesame Street
television program.
[3]
Soundtrack work
Dawson's songs are featured in the films
The Guatemalan Handshake
and
Glue
, both of which were shown at the Olympia Film Festival in November 2007.
[4]
In 2008 Dawson contributed the song "Anthrax" — about
9/11 — to the soundtrack of the
Body of War
documentary.
"
Anyone Else But You", a song she recorded with
The Moldy Peaches was used in the film
Murderball
, about a team of wheelchair rugby players. This song was also used in the movie
Juno
. The melody of this song, with new lyrics, was used in a commercial for Atlantis.com.
Five of Dawson's solo songs, two from
Antsy Pants, as well as one from the Moldy Peaches, are included on the
Juno
soundtrack, released in December 2007.
[5] [6] [7] Composer
Mateo Messina also based the film's score on Dawson's music.
[8]
The soundtrack album, after two weeks topping Billboard's Digital Albums chart, reached #8 on the
Billboard 200, in its first week of release.
[9] In its first full week of physical release the album sold 68,000 copies, reaching #3 on the
Soundscan album chart. It missed out on the #1 spot by only 2,600 copies.
[10] The following week it jumped to #2, while selling 15% fewer copies (58,000), just 2,000 copies behind first place.
[11] In the album's third week of physical release it finally made the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 and Soundscan charts, selling 65,000 copies.
[12]
Dawson has two new songs that were released on April 8 on a follow-up album
Juno B-Sides: Almost Adopted Songs
that is available exclusively on
iTunes.
Other collaborations
Dawson performs on recordings by
Ben Kweller,
[13] They Might Be Giants,
[14] The Mountain Goats,
[15] John Wayne Shot Me [16],
Your Heart Breaks, and The Terrordactyls.
[17] The
Third Eye Blind track "Self-Righteous" on their album,
Out of the Vein
features a duet with Dawson and Third Eye Blind's lead singer
Stephan Jenkins.
[18] Dawson is also slated to appear on the new Third Eye Blind record,
Ursa Major due out in August of 2009, on the track "Why Can't You Be".
Regina Spektor collaborated with Dawson on the song "Fire" on the
Hidden Vagenda
album. Kimya Dawson also collaborated with fellow antifolk
Jeffrey Lewis. They made a band called 'The Bundles,' with Jack Lewis and drummer, Anders Griffen, though released the songs under the name Kimya Dawson and Jeffrey Lewis, on a split with Jeffrey Lewis and Diane Cluck.
Personal life
A sometime resident of
Bedford Hills, New York, Dawson moved in December 2005 — with her mother, father, brother, Akida Junglefoot Dawson (Akida means "chief" in
Swahili), and nephew — to
Seattle, Washington. She is married to a musician named
Angelo Spencer and, on
July 28,
2006, Kimya gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Panda Delilah, and moved with her new family to
Olympia, Washington in November, 2006. After Panda was born, Dawson and Spencer took a break from touring for a few months, playing only occasional local shows. However, they now tour together with the baby.
Dawson has knuckle tattoos which read "LAFF LOUD". She also has a freebird tattoo on her left calf.
Dawson once started a rumour that she was a cousin of
The Strokes' drummer
Fabrizio Moretti.
[19]
Discography
Before The Moldy Peaches Rough Trade releases there were several homemade CDRs.
With The Moldy Peaches
- The Moldy Peaches
- Released September 11, 2001 by Rough Trade Records
- County Fair/Rainbows - A single released in 2002
- Moldy Peaches 2000: Unreleased Cutz and Live Jamz 1994-2002
- Released March 18, 2003 by Rough Trade Records
Solo albums
- I'm Sorry That Sometimes I'm Mean
- released November 5, 2002 by Rough Trade Records
- Knock Knock Who?
- released August 3, 2004 by Important Records
- My Cute Fiend Sweet Princess
- released August 3, 2004 by Important Records
- Hidden Vagenda
- released October 5, 2004 by K Records
- Remember That I Love You
- released May 9 2006 by K Records
- Alphabutt
- released September 2008 by K Records
With Antsy Pants
- Antsy Pants
- released 2006 by Plan It X Records
Compilations
- Third Eye Blind's 2009 album:
Ursa Major [Bonus Track Version]'' - "Why Can't You Be (With Kimya Dawson) [Bonus Track]"
- Antifolk Vol. 1
- "I'm Fine"
- Anticomp Folkilation
- "Will You Be Me" (Live)
- Afro-Punk Compilation Record Vol. 1
- "Loose Lips"
- AFNY Collaborations. Volume 1
- Kimya Dawson and Jeff Lewis
- Titanium Heart and Chains of Love
- Kimya Dawson and Matt Rouse EP (collaboration) Unicorn Sounds
- A.K.A.
- smooth jams e.p. with Adam Green and Akida Junglefoot Dawson
- The Art Star Sounds Compilation
February 2005 - "Velvet Rabbit" (Live)
- No Parachute. Vol. 1.
A compilation of indie music videos. (DVD) - "Lullaby For The Taken" (video directed by Ted Passon). 2005, Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records.
- Robot Boy
DVD. Compilation of short films and videos by Ted Passon. - "Lullaby For The Taken". 2005, K Records/Secretly Canadian.
- I Killed the Monster: 21 Artists Performings the Songs of Daniel Johnston
- "Follow That Dream" 2006, Second Shimmy
- Juno
Soundtrack - Rhino Records 2008
- Body of War: Songs that Inspired an Iraq War Veteran
- "Anthrax". Sire Records March 18, 2008