Apple-Obsessed Author Fella

The Music Of Miriam Black: Songs For The Songbird

Been a lot of folks asking me about music lately.

What music I like, love, favorite artists, albums, songs.

And in interviews — like this one here at Amberkatze’s blog, where she is giving away a copy of Blackbirds — they ask me about the soundtrack to the book(s).

So, I thought, fuck it. You want a playlist for both Blackbirds and Mockingbird?

Done and done.

Before I do, I’ll remind you that there exists a fan-art contest running where you can win a copy of a huge poster of either the Blackbirds or Mockingbird cover, and at the same time pre-ordering the book and mailing me the pre-order proof puts you in the running to get a big ol’ package of my physical books, signed. Details here, so make with the clicky-clicky.

Now, on with the music.

ARTIFICIAL NOCTURNE: Metric (listen)

LIFE IS SHORT: Butterfly Boucher (listen)

CONTROL: Poe (listen)

HUSTLE & CUSS: The Dead Weather (listen)

BLACK TONGUE: Yeah Yeah Yeahs (listen)

THE NURSE: White Stripes (listen)

ACID TONGUE: Jenny Lewis (listen)

DAREDEVIL: Fiona Apple (listen)

WALKING ZERO: Sneaker Pimps (listen)

ANOTHER WHITE DASH: Butterfly Boucher (listen)

FASTER, FASTER: Bree Sharp (listen)

POT KETTLE BLACK: Tilly and the Wall (listen)

WHAT’S MINE IS YOURS: Sleater-Kinney (listen)

INERTIA CREEPS: Massive Attack (listen)

PHENOMENA: Yeah Yeah Yeahs (listen)

SCUMBAG BLUES: Them Crooked Vultures (listen)

BAD GIRLS: M.I.A. (listen)

BLACK SHEEP: Metric (listen)

MAN: Yeah Yeah Yeahs (listen)

LET IT DIE: Foo Fighters (listen)

GUTTERMOUTH: Bree Sharp (listen)

EVERYBODY KNOWS: Concrete Blonde (orig. Leonard Cohen) (listen)

PRETTY BIRD: Jenny Lewis (listen)

FOOL’S GOLD: Bree Sharp (listen)

TAKE ME HOME: Concrete Blonde (listen)

Sidenote: some of these directly inspired Miriam Black as a character. The Butterfly Boucher tunes, so too with Bree Sharp and the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s. Actually, a lot of the character’s origins beyond, well, me, come from those two Boucher songs: “Life is Short” and “Another White Dash,” then grow further out of “Guttermouth,” “Faster, Faster,” and “Fool’s Gold.” Miriam’s DNA is in those songs. (And her attitude is all Yeah Yeah Yeahs.)

If you’ve read the books, sound off —

What songs make you think of Miriam Black, and vice versa?

[link to playlist in iTunes]