by Hilary Stohs-Krause
It's not a true X-Rated podcast unless I have technical difficulties.
Thankfully, Meaner Pencil, aka Lenna Pierce on cello and voice, was there to play some of her dark, melancholy "sea shanties" while I tried to figure out why my MacBook Pro couldn't play music and record through a soundboard at the same time ... I never did figure that out.
Pierce, a classically trained cellist who guest hosts for KZUM's "The Wimmin's Show," was gracious and understanding as I frantically changed settings and preferences on both my laptop and the mixer to no avail. In the end, we went old-school: recording on a desktop computer via boombox.
You might recognize Pierce's work from her time with Rachel West as Das Hoboerotica. She described her music as dark, warm, wordy, mouthfeel, intuitive, insightful, female, acoustic, rich and soup.
"It just feels so right," she says of the cello. "You know, it's big and warm, but it's dark, too. It's not a simple instrument, but it is a beautiful one. And it's nice for me because I have a really high voice most of the time, and the cello can give me all those low, rich tones that I can't produce on my own."
She also occasionally lends her talents to Lincoln band The Golden Hour, with whom she recently toured for a month.
"Touring is the weirdest thing in the world," she says with a laugh. "I've been reading a book on the touring life, and (the author) was like, 'The conditions necessary for brainwashing are: unstructured time, overexposure to certain individuals, etc. etc. etc. Does this sound familiar, touring musician?'"
Pierce laughs frequently, but she quickly becomes serious when the topic of women and music comes up. To hear her views on ladies and musicmaking, libraries and Nirvana's Nevermind, listen to the podcast below, recorded Thursday, April 7 at the KZUM studios in the Terminal Building at 10th and O in Lincoln.
(Photo taken by Hilary Stohs-Krause at Goblin House, Goodhue Blvd. and F Street on Jan. 29)
Podcast song order:
"Demeter's Song"
"Wane the Moon"
"In Your Silent Years"
"Prairie Kids"
Meaner Pencil recommends:
Nationally: Dark Dark Dark, Joanna Newsom, Tori Amos
Locally: Ember Schrag, Hana Kornbluh, Amy Gordon (of Two Black Cats)
Connect with Meaner Pencil:
For more, tune into the "X-Rated: Women in Music" radio show every Thursday from 1:05 to 3 p.m. CST at 89.3FM KZUM in Lincoln or streaming live at http://kzum.org. Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/xmusicnebraska. Or, if tumblr is more your style, check out xmusic.tumblr.com.
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