Kimya Dawson

Kimya Dawson (born November 17, 1972) is an American folk singer-songwriter, one half of the anti-folk duo the Moldy Peaches.

Dawson's work with the Moldy Peaches earned them a cult following and critical acclaim, with their 2001 song "Anyone Else But You" landing a spot in multiple acclaimed indie film soundtracks.

Since the Moldy Peaches went on hiatus in 2004 Dawson has released a string of lo-fi homemade albums and toured widely in North America and Europe.

"Anyone Else But You" as performed by Michael Cera and Elliot Page charted on the Billboard Hot 100 after its prominent inclusion in the 2007 film Juno, the soundtrack of which includes several songs by Dawson and her associated musical acts.

The song remains Dawson's highest charting single to date.

In addition to their work with the Moldy Peaches, Dawson has released seven solo studio albums and collaborated with various other artists from a diverse range of genres, including Aesop Rock, They Might Be Giants, The Mountain Goats, and Third Eye Blind.

Dawson became well known as co-founder of the Moldy Peaches alongside Adam Green.

Dawson's songs are featured in the films The Guatemalan Handshake and Glue, both of which were shown at the Olympia Film Festival in November 2007.

Five of Dawson's solo songs, two from Antsy Pants, as well as one from the Moldy Peaches, are included on the Juno soundtrack, released in December 2007.

Composer Mateo Messina also based the film's score on Dawson's music.

The soundtrack album, after two weeks topping Billboard's Digital Albums chart, reached No. 8 on the Billboard 200, in its first week of release.

In its first full week of physical release the album sold 68,000 copies, reaching No. 3 on the Soundscan album chart.

It missed out on the No. 1 spot by only 2,600 copies.

The following week it jumped to #2, while selling 15% fewer copies (58,000), just 2,000 copies behind first place.

In the album's third week of physical release it finally made the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 and Soundscan charts, selling 65,000 copies.

Dawson's children's album, Alphabutt, was released on September 10, 2008.

Song titles include "The Alphabutt Song," "Seven Hungry Tigers," "Little Monster Babies," "Wiggle My Tooth" and "Pee Pee in the Potty," and collaborators include former Third Eye Blind guitarist Kevin Cadogan and a number of Dawson's other musical friends and their children.

She has also been invited to participate in the Sesame Street television program.

In 2008 Dawson contributed the song "Anthrax"—about 9/11—to the soundtrack of the Body of War documentary.

"Anyone Else But You", a song they recorded with the Moldy Peaches, was used in the documentary Murderball, about a team of wheelchair rugby players.

This song was also used in the film Juno.

The melody of this song, with new lyrics, was used in a commercial for Atlantis.com.

Critics warmly received the music in Juno, where Dawson's "sweetly melancholic acoustic-strummed tunes" helped define the character of a pregnant young teenager who decides to have her baby.

Dawson helped choose many of the songs for the Juno film, helping to set the film's mood.

The soundtrack was voted by NPR listeners as the 14th best of the year in a listener poll for 2008.

Dawson sings about diverse topics:

"And there on the soundtrack ... is Kimya Dawson, her primal, primitive odes to tire swings and vampires and roller coasters goosing us along, her wobbly voice and furtively chicken-scratched double-time guitar like a terrified little kid who just ditched the training wheels and is now somehow barreling down a mountain."

Dawson's authentic persona has a demeanor which is "sheepish and guileless and awkward in a way that you really can't fake" and who sometimes looks "legitimately terrified" during performances, according to Village Voice music critic Rob Harvilla.

The soundtrack for Juno won a Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack in 2009, beating out American Gangster, August Rush, Mamma Mia and Sweeney Todd.

Two songs were also included in the soundtrack to Unmade Beds.

Dawson performs on recordings by Ben Kweller, They Might Be Giants, the Mountain Goats, John Wayne Shot Me, Your Heart Breaks, and the Terrordactyls.

The Third Eye Blind track "Self-Righteous" on their album Out of the Vein features a duet with Dawson and Third Eye Blind's lead singer Stephan Jenkins.

Dawson also appears on the Third Eye Blind album, Ursa Major, on the track "Why Can't You Be".

This song was available as a bonus track on the iTunes Store download.

Regina Spektor collaborated with Dawson on the song "Fire" on the Hidden Vagenda album.

Dawson also collaborated with fellow antifolk Jeffrey Lewis.

They made a band called 'The Bundles,' with Jack Lewis and drummer, Anders Griffen, though released the songs under the name "Kimya Dawson and Jeffrey Lewis", on a split with Jeffrey Lewis and Diane Cluck.

Under the name Geniusis, Dawson released the free album Holiday Rampage alongside Aesop Rock, Johnny Druelinger, Jason Carmer and Quinn Tuffinuff.

In February 2011, Dawson recorded a Daytrotter session with Aesop Rock, in which they performed three songs together.

In September 2012, they appeared in a campaign called "30 Songs / 30 Days" to support Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, a multi-platform media project inspired by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's book.