It's no secret that women can rock just as hard, if not harder, than men. But there seems to be a disparity when it comes to their representation in the music industry. They are topping the charts but barely getting any slots at big name festivals (this years Coachella lineup is 90 percent male). To do what we can to celebrate these women and give them the positive recognition they deserve, each week Music Times will introduce you to a female in the music industry whom we love.
Singer-songwriters, rappers, DJs, producers, filmmakers, and any woman who is part of the music industry is fair game for this segment. So read on, and get to know the women who continue to wow us. This week we'd like to show off ...
Name: Neko Case
Age: 43
Profession: Musician, Songwriter, member of The New Pornographers
From: Alexandria, Virginia (but grew up in Tacoma, Washington)
Why We Love Her: It's no mystery when you listen to Case's lyrics that she has dealt with a lot of sadness in her life. But she is a great example of what it means to step up and embrace that, expressing herself and sharing her talent with the world. She's a strong woman on her own, and she is a great addition to any other project she takes part in. Most of all, she wants to be known as a strong female musician, and that was very apparent with her response to Entertainment Weekly after being invited to pose nude in Playboy when in 2003 they named her "Sexiest Babe of Indie Rock."
"I didn't want to be the girl who posed in Playboy and then-by the way-made some music," she said. "I would be really f--king irritated if after a show somebody came up to me and handed me some naked picture of myself and wanted me to sign it instead of my CD."
Background: Case embraced her independence as a woman at a very young age when she left her parents at 15. Her family had moved around quite a bit, mostly living in Tacoma, Washington. She started drumming in local punk bands and singing country music and moved up to Vancouver, British Columbia to attend the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. Since then she has been hard at work with many musical projects, including nine solo albums, two of which are accompanied by Her Boyfriends, and she's contributed to five albums with supergroup The New Pornographers. In between all of that, she's collaborated with many other musicians including The Sadies and with songwriter Carolyn Mark as The Corn Sisters.
Fun Fact: She loves bats! She mentioned this in a list of things she loves for Paste in 2009. "There's a bridge by my house under which live trillions of Mexican free-tailed bats," said Case. "I walk my dogs down there a lot and visit them. If you stand still with a flashlight, they fly really close all around you and make excellent squeaking noises. Sometimes they'll graze my arm with a damp little wing."
What Now: Her most recent album, The Worse Things Get The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You has been nominated for a 2014 Grammy Award in the Best Alternative Music Album category. The Awards will take place on Jan. 26.
Check out the video for "Calling Cards" from The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You below.
