The Set List

Kimya Dawson Birthing Songs For Kids While 'Juno' Keeps On Growing

No matter how much the “Juno” soundtrack raises her profile, Kimya Dawson is determined to keep her life simple and grounded.
The anti-folk progenitor is a road warrior, a woman who loves to be on tour and avidly chronicles her journeys on the web. She’s a one-woman operation, selling crafts and art pieces on line, CDs and T-shirts at shows; she keeps her recordings simple and sparse and is beginning a write songs and a book for children. At home, where her baby is now 18 months old, she’s been spending a lot of time painting, less time writing music.
Her bio notes: “she is on a mission to embrace the whole world” and she seems more than happy to play to just about any crowd. Mixed among her current collection of in-stores and club gigs on the East Coast is a show at a hippie commune in rural Virginia. Dawson’s payment? A hammock to sleep in.
“And I hope they'll take me on a tour of their tofu-making operation,” she adds, pointing up her interest in self-sustaining environments and the people who live in them.
Her own home environment is in Olympia, Wash., where she lives with her musician husband Angelo Spencer and daughter Panda. It’s where she created Moldy Peaches with Adam Green and sparked a groundswell of interest in primitive, confessional folk songs and remains committed to the people who have been supporting her all along.
“It's a matter of figuring out how to maintain a sense of community,” she says, appearing uncomfortable forecasting any sort of change now that her music is reaching a far larger audience thanks to “Juno.” The soundtrack was No. 3 in the U.S. last week, selling 68,000 copies and is expected to vie for the top of the chart next week.
It’s a distant commercial cry from the response her fifth album, the acclaimed “Remember That I Love You” (K Records), received when it was released in May 2006 on K Records.

Feist On Grammy Day: 'I Live In A Bubble'

Leslie Feist’s impressive year hit another high note Thursday when she was nominated for four Grammy Awards, including new artist and pop vocal album.
The night before, she had delivered a gig in London, Ontario, the last of a 25-concert fall tour. She has only two gigs left on this year’s calendar — KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas Show on Sunday and homecoming gig in Toronto on the 18th.
After that, she says, it’s “stringing popcorn and cranberries with my nieces” for most of December, which will also find her shooting a video for “I Feel It All” with director of her “1234” video, Patrick Daughters. He also received a Grammy nom for what is probably 2007’s most seen vid clip.
“We came together with the same spirit - the video was a compete joy to make because I was with people who I felt were at the same point in their lives as I was in mine,” Feist says of the “1234” shoot. “We went into it playdate style, making  two videos in three days. I thought ‘My Moon My Man’ was the winner but then Apple wanted (‘1234’). TV wasn’t playing it and I felt like here’s this other station called Apple and they want to air one video and it’s mine. I had no idea what could happen – I knew none of the logistics other than it was (to be aired) for three months maximum.”
Apple picked up the “1234” video, used it in the iTunes ad and breathed new life into her album “Reminder,” which has now sold nearly 400,000 copies. Since the ad broke, she has shared a co-headliner concert tour with Spoon, received expanded airplay and started to appear on year-end critical lists; her calendar for 2008 is fast filling up with tours that will take her to Australia, Japan, Canada and the U.S.
“I live in a bubble,” she says, trying to clarify how the past year has affected her. “(I see life) in the context of gigs , the size of venues and the quality of the mood in a room. My awareness (of success) is statistical; my day to day is on the frontlines.”

Beasties on 'Paul's Boutique': Don't Try This At Home

A dozen journos attended a 45-minute Q&A Monday with the Beastie Boys at the Capitol Tower (which frustratingly worked out to one question to a customer) and were told not to ask the three Beasties (Adam “Ad Rock” Horovitz, Adam “MCA” Yauch, and Michael “Mike D” Diamond) why “The Mix Up,” their just released album, is instrumental.
More importantly, we were told don’t ask if they feel they still have to “fight for their right to party” (they’re tired of answering that, the Capitol press rep said, adding that at the NYC session, someone asked if after playing Brooklyn’s McCarran Pool, the band now felt they could sleep).
None of those questions were put to the often bored looking trio (Mike D spent much of his time text messaging), but they were asked to respond to some truly inane questions, including the name of their favorite album (Elvis Costello’s “My Aim Is True,” Ad Rock deadpanned, demurring when told the questioner meant which is his favorite Beastie Boys album), if they would rather be turned into action figures or teddy bears (Ad Rock: “I’m not a plushie, if that’s what you’re asking”) and if they liked traveling (the answer to that was, unsurprisingly, yes).
On a more serious note, MCA expanded on the endorsement he gave “The Eleventh Hour,” the Leonardo DiCaprio toplined eco-doc from the stage Monday night. “It’s an important movie,” he said, adding that it “explains our current situation, including the structure of our government, better than I ever could.”
They also dispensed fashion advice (there’s no reason you can’t wear Wallabees with a suit), insisted that 40-something musicians can still be a legit hip hop act (“well, the kids do like the rappin’,” Ad Rock said, with Mike D adding that there’s “no reason innovation can’t come from someone with decades in the game”). Significantly, they suggested that a layered, sample-heavy album like 1989’s landmark “Paul’s Boutique” would be a daunting, expensive proposition, and could not be made today. (Steve Mirkin)