International Women's Day: Jessica Dobson of Deep Sea Diver on Some of Her Favorite Female Artists

KEXP is honoring International Women's Day by highlighting just a few musical accomplishments by women, women-identifying, and non-binary folx. And at 4 PM PST, the Afternoon Show welcomes Jessica Dobson of Deep Sea Diver who will be performing a very special set, covering some of her favorite female frontwomen, including the 1963 Lesley Gore classic "You Don't Own Me."

KEXP is excited to announce that Deep Sea Diver recorded a cover of this song for International Women's Day. Purchase the track via Bandcamp, and all of the proceeds will be donated to the Women’s S.H.E. Clinic (safe, healthy, empowered) at the non-profit organization Aurora Commons. The S.H.E. Clinic is a mobile service that provides quality, trauma-informed and non-judgmental health care for women along Aurora Avenue who are unhoused and marginalized in Seattle.

Dobson shared the statement: "I chose this song to release around international women’s day because though it was recorded in the '60s, it’s relevance in terms of what it’s message is shouting — still remains. In the music industry (and everywhere), there is still an ongoing battle with toxic masculinity and the abuse of power towards women. The more we can shed light on this issue and seek to eradicate it, the better off the world will be. More freedom, more beauty, more equality, now."

Last year, we were lucky to have Jessica share some more of her favorite songs on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole. Check out her picks below, and listen worldwide at 4:30 PM PST.

"Cranes in the Sky" by Solange

Solange is the epitome of a strong female who is decidedly in control of every aspect of her work. The songs are so stunning and the visuals that came with it are immaculate and so cohesive with the theme of the album. I can't say enough about it. I've always been really intrigued by the way Solange has carved your own path and not try to bask in the light of her sister Beyonce's fame. Her influences kind-of struck me as a bit more left of center than her sister's. She digs Minnie Riperton, whom I also love. She's collaborated with Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor and Dev Hynes from Blood Orange. So on so forth. And she just kind of plays by her own rules and there's a very fierce determination and a powerful spirit behind her vocal delivery on A Seat at the Table. I chose "Cranes in the Sky" because I fell in love with the imagery and the music right away. It's the same continuous beat throughout the song and two chords, so it sets you up to just kind of sink into the song and really listen without distraction. There's no real lyrical resolution to the song as well. I know she was going through a pretty hard time. She had a son with this man and they were breaking up and she's kind of just dealing with it through song. And so, no real lyrical resolution to the song, just kind of observation of what she's done and going through and to try to make her situation bearable. Sometimes you just need to sing about what's going on and that's good enough.  

"Criminals of the Dream" by Deerhoof

So, Deerhoof is one of Deep Sea Diver's favorite bands. They're often referred to — I think kind of unfairly — as a band only musicians love. And that is true: they are all indeed musical savants and just incredible performers. But I think there's so much more that they have to offer to listeners who might not be musicians. There's an infinite amount of ear candy and hooks and sonic landscapes to discover. Many of my favorite bands and Deep Sea Diver's favorite bands who also like Deerhoof are: Wilco, St Vincent, Dave Bazan, Sufjan Stevens, I know they've all been influenced by Deerhoof. The lead singer of Deerhoof is Satomi Matsuzaki. She's this very tiny Japanese woman who has this incredible childlike passion onstage and on record and her intensity is contagious and infectious when she performs. She is a really, really good bass player, and I'm sure she probably plays other instruments too but mainly she plays bass live. And she often does these really spontaneous or quite possibly choreographed dance movements on stage that never seem contrived or out of place. And in this song "Criminals of the Dream", I love how many of the instruments follow her vocal melodies. They often do that in Deerhoof songs where a guitar will follow the vocal line or whatever and when the outro hits that's like — you have to be patient — and when it hits, that's the dreamiest part of the song. And she sings: "Dream / you can dream / you can dream / I know you can dream / Things aren't as bad as they seem." And it's kind of put over this cloud-like landscape. The most nostalgic idyllic and dreamy sounding chords I've ever heard and it kind of makes me want to cry. It's very hopeful.

"Army of Me" by Björk

Björk has one of the most arresting voices of all time, in my opinion. The first time I heard Björk sing was on MTV as a young junior high'er. I was convinced that she was from a different planet: so ethereal and so connected to nature and just so unique. Her voice is truly, truly, truly a unique instrument in and of itself. What she does with it, I don't think anyone has been able to copy. I try, but I can't. It's soaring and mystical and heavy hitting. There is actually one time where I got to take vocal lessons from somebody who then later informed me that he had given Björk vocal lessons before — I don't know how many times — but I just about died when I found out and tried to learn some of her tricks. I chose "Army of Me" because it's a song that still to this day sounds so very futuristic and at the same time very primal and intensely driving with its beats and with what she's singing about. You don't mess with Björk or you will meet an army of her and she's such a force to be reckoned with. And on the album Post, which the song is on, you can very much hear like, she moved to London from Iceland around the time, the early '90s, when the techno scene was going full force and you could hear that influence on the record. I think she took techno and electronic music to the next level and made it more interesting and palatable, for at least me, who wasn't really into techno at the time.

"Limit to Your Love" by Feist

I wanted to pick a deep cut of Feist's but in the end, I couldn't resist picking "Limit to Your Love." So many people know how amazing this song is. James Blake covered it, for goodness sakes. And I find myself sound-checking the song pretty much every night at Deep Sea Diver shows. There's a very timeless quality to Leslie Feist's music. She has this kind of the softness to her voice that's croony and delicate but it's still the same at the same time very fierce. And it's tinged with the most heartbreaking vibrato in the way she carries out her notes and her way of drawing out certain words like, for example, in this song she sings "like a waterfall in slow motion" and she probably draws it out much longer than that and it's so gorgeous. When I listen to this song I feel the weight of relationships that have been stretched to the max but at the same time a calm and collected hope that things can be mended. So thanks, Leslie. 

"Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac

I've yet to meet any of my friends' parents who bought vinyl in the '70s who do not own a copy of Rumors. It's one of the most famous albums of all time and one of the greatest and I love — I mean, it's sad — but I love that it was born out of a very tumultuous period of time where everybody in Fleetwood Mac was either having affairs or breaking up, and oftentimes that makes for great art. So when Stevie Nicks wrote this song in the studio, I think she had like a little time to sneak away. She went downstairs and recorded on, I think, a tape recorder on a Rhodes piano. In ten minutes, she wrote this song. And when she first brought it to the band, they weren't very impressed and they said they were actually kind of bored. And I think it's the hardest thing for musicians to hear a simple song because the song's only two chords and it's so simple and it feels like it has different parts but it really is just two chords. And it's very hard for musicians to kind-of accept that and not want to over clutter a song. I think to keep a song simple, trust that if it has a great melody, it's already there. All you have to do is get out of the way and allow for space and to fill in the gaps when necessary. So Stevie Nicks, obviously one of the most beautiful voices. It's kind of gritty but then floaty and feathery, and Christine McVie did a wonderful job providing harmonies on this song and it's one of my favorite songs of all time. 

"You Don't Own Me" by Lesley Gore

For those of you who aren't familiar with Lesley Gore, she was an American singer from New Jersey who recorded the song that goes, "It's my party / I can cry if I want to." You probably heard that one before. And that was in 1963 when she was just a mere 16-years-old. That song blew up and sold millions of copies and then her next biggest Top 10 hit was the song "You Don't Own Me." And I chose that song for today because I feel like it's the perfect anthem for the times right now. What a trailblazer. I would have to imagine in the mid -60s hearing a young woman saying:

You don't own me
Don't try to change me in any way
You don't own me
Don't tie me down 'cause I'd never stay

I don't tell you what to say
I don't tell you what to do
So just let me be myself
That's all I ask of you

It was probably kind of an "in your face" kind of pill to swallow for those who are still stuck in their rigid patriarchal ways and obviously right now there's a lot of turmoil happening in America. I just went to the women's march in San Luis Obispo and the last few months and it was a very life-changing experience for me. So, "You Don't Own Me" is a fantastic song for the times.