Jenny Lewis is a musician and songwriter from Los Angeles, CA, who is characterized by her sweet, torch-like voice, her dry sense of humor, and her ability to write a perfect pop song. She has been a part of the songwriting team behind Rilo Kiley along with Blake Sennett since 1998, and she has put out two solo efforts. Lewis currently performs under the moniker Jenny & Johnny with boyfriend Johnathan Rice, which draws on 90s slacker rock and boy-girl harmonies. Her lyrics are heartbreakingly honest, bittersweet and on-point, she knows how to knock out a hook, and she always balances between the dark and the heartbreaking. If you like ice cream, rainbows, puppies, music or basically life itself, listen to this woman.

Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat (2006)
1. The Big Guns
2. Rise Up With Fists!!!
3. Melt Your Heart
4. You Are What You Love
5. Born Secular

Acid Tongue (2008)
1. The Next Messiah
2. See Fernando
3. Jack Killed Mom
4. Acid Tongue
5. Pretty Bird

Jenny & Johnny - I’m Having Fun Now (2010)
1. Big Wave
2. My Pet Snakes
3. Switchblade
4. Just Like Zeus
5. Scissor Runner

A few B-sides and rarities
1. Barking at the Moon
2. Little Boxes (with Johnathan Rice)
3. Love Hurts (with Johnathan Rice)
4. Pelican Bay
5. The Highs and Lows of Being #1
6. Silver Lining (Acoustic)
7. Hard Enough (with Brandon Flowers)
8. Dorothy’s Song
9. Nothing Better (with The Postal Service, live on KCRW)
10. Paradise
11. Roll On (with Dntel)
12. Long Black Dress (live at the 9:30 Club)

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Grizzly Bear began as Ed Droste’s bedroom project, and has evolved into a four-piece outfit from Brooklyn, NY who play lush, melodic songs characterised by their use of vocal harmonies and the incredible sense of detail that is employed in the production. Their music lies just between the warm, etheral and romantic and the bitter and wary, which makes them both a challenge to listen to at times, and incredibly fresh and rewarding. (Plus, they are Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead fame’s favourite band, and Jay-Z is a fan. And they make hilarious videos with impressions of how José González would cover “Knife”. What’s your excuse?)

Horn of Plenty (2004)
1. La Duchess Anne
2. Don’t Ask
3. Shift

Yellow House (2006)
1. Knife
2. On a Neck, On a Spit
3. Marla
4. Little Brother
5. Easier
6. Reprise

Sorry for the Delay (2006)
1. Particular to What?
2. August March

Friend EP (2007)
1. He Hit Me (And it Felt Like a Kiss) - The Crystals cover
2. Little Brother (Electric Version)
3. Granny Diner

Veckatimest (2009)
1. Two Weeks
2. Cheerleader
3. Ready, Able
4. While You Wait For the Others
5. Fine For Now
6. Southern Point

Blue Valentine soundtrack (2010)
1. Lullabye (Instrumental)
2. Alligator (Choir Version)
3. Foreground (Instrumental)
4. Dory (Instrumental)

B-sides and rarities
1. Deep Blue Sea (on Dark Was the Night)
2. Service Bell (with Feist)
3. Too Little Too Late (JoJo cover by Daniel Rossen)
4. Slow Life (with Victoria Legrand)
5. Blackcurrant Jam
6. Possibly Maybe (Björk cover) - Ed Droste & Owen Pallett
7. Waterfall (Judee Sill cover) - Daniel Rossen, whom we should clone and make the world’s greatest choir

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“I try not to dwell too much on my sense of impending doom and keep myself focused on the world I can control. It’s the world at my fingertips, at the piano.”

Emily Haines is an artist from Ontario, Canada, who has enjoyed a substantial career as the frontwoman and prime songwriting force behind the new-wave pop band Metric, being a sometimes-member of the ever-expanding Broken Social Scene, and releasing material under her own name. Her main instrument is the piano, and her songs are lush, sombre and darkly introspective. What is most striking about Haines’ music is her ability to write intensely personal, vulnerable lyrics that simultaneously display a quiet strength and unwavering determination.

Cut in Half and Also Double (1996):
1. Pretty Head
2. Eden
3. Eau de Toilette
4. Carpet

Knives Don’t Have Your Back (2006):
1. Our Hell
2. Crowd Surf Off A Cliff
3. Nothing & Nowhere
4. Reading in Bed
5. Winning
6. Doctor Blind

What Is Free To a Good Home? (2007):
1. Telethon
2. Rowboat
3. Bottom of the World

B-sides, rarities & collaborations:
1. Shrine to Fast Goodbyes
2. Expecting to Fly (Neil Young cover)
3. Come Back Clean (with The Crystal Method)
4. Carpe Diem (with Todor Kobakov)
5. Hangover Days (with Jason Collett)
6. Knock You Out (with Tïesto)
7. Them (Pop Song #3333) (with K.C. Accidental)
8. Going, Going Gone (with Stars)

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Mainstream EP (1998)
1. The People
2. Butcher

Static Anonymity EP (2001):
1. Siamese Cities
2. Grow Up & Blow Away
3. Down

Grow Up And Blow Away (2002):
1. Raw Sugar
2. On the Sly
3. Soft Rock Star
4. London Halflife
5. Hardwire
6. The Twist

Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? (2003):
1. IOU
2. Hustle Rose
3. Dead Disco
4. The List
5. Calculation Theme
6. Combat Baby

Live It Out (2005):
1. Too Little Too Late
2. Poster of a Girl
3. Live It Out
4. Empty
5. Monster Hospital
6. The Police and the Private

Fantasies (2009):
1. Help I’m Alive
2. Collect Call
3. Stadium Love
4. Sick Muse
5. Twilight Galaxy
6. Gimme Sympathy

Plug In, Plug Out EP (2009)
1. Help I’m Alive (Acoustic)
2. Gold Guns Girls (Acoustic)
3. Satellite Mind (Acoustic)

B-sides and rarities:
1. Waves
2. Black Sheep
3. The Gates
4. Expecting to Fly (iTunes session)
5. Eclipse (All Yours)
6. Joyride (Myspace sessions)
7. The End Has No End (The Strokes cover)
8. Dr. Blind
9. Between the Bars (Elliott Smith cover)
10. Don’t Think Twice it’s Alright (Bob Dylan cover)

Annie Clark goes under the moniker St. Vincent, and is a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter hailing from Dallas, TX. She is a guitar virtuoso who started playing the instrument at age 12, and started releasing her own albums after stints in both The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Steven’s backing band. Annie’s music is rich and layered, and veers between the dizzyingly beautiful and the dark and unsettling.

Paris Is Burning (2006):
1. Paris is Burning
2. These Days

Marry Me (2007):
1. Now, Now
2. All My Stars Aligned
3. Your Lips Are Red
4. Marry Me
5. Jesus Saves, I Spend
6. The Apocalypse Song

Actor (2009):
1. Black Rainbow
2. Marrow
3. The Strangers
4. Laughing with a Mouth of Blood
5. Just the Same but Brand New
6. Actor Out of Work

Rarities:
1. Sleep All Summer (Crooked Fingers cover) - with the National
2. Roslyn with Bon Iver
3. Never Tear Us Apart (INXS cover) - with Beck, Liars + Os Mutantes
4. Bicycle
5. Black Rainbow - with Andrew Bird

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Settle Down, My Desire: a Joanna Newsom primer

Joanna Newsom is a songwriter from Nevada City, California, defined by the complexity of her lyrics, her absolute mastery of her chosen instrument (the harp) and the versatility of her unique voice. Her music is influenced by West African harp music and Andean folk, but it remains very much a brand of her own - and combined with her fastidious, poetic lyrics she takes her place as one of the decade’s most interesting writers and performers.

Walnut Whales (2002):
1. Erin
2. Flying a Kite

Yarn and Glue (2003):
1. What We Have Known
2. Bridges and Balloons

The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004):
1. Sadie
2. Inflammatory Writ
3. Peach, Plum, Pear
4. The Book of Right-On
5. ‘En Gallop’

Ys (2006):
1. Emily
2. Sawdust & Diamonds
3. Cosmia

The Ys Street Band EP (2007):
1. Colleen
2. Clam, Crab, Cockle Cowrie

Have One On Me (2010):
1. Have One On Me
2. Kingfisher
3. Baby Birch
4. In California
5. Go Long
6. Soft as Chalk

Rarities:
1. Ca’ the Yowes to the Knowes (a Robert Burns poem)
2. Man’s Road (America cover from The Last Unicorn)
3. Early version of Only Skin (Be A Woman!)
4. Esme (early live version)

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