Mirah

All Music Guide:

Mirah (pronounced mear-rah) -- full name Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn -- was born on her mother's kitchen table. The daughter of artistic parents, the singer/songwriter had a passion for music from early childhood. While fronting the jazz band the Hot Set in Olympia, WA, playing wedding parties and bar mitzvahs to earn extra cash, Mirah began writing her own brand of lo-fi, slice-of-life indie pop, a style later compared to that of grrrl rocker Liz Phair. Powered only by her guitar and standout singing voice -- known around small-town Olympia as the sexiest voice in rock -- Mirah performed her own songs under her own name and people took notice. Phil Elvrum of the psychedelic pop group the Microphones invited Mirah to lend her lilting voice and guitar playing to the Microphones' albums Don't Wake Me Up and Window. She later toured with the band across North America and Canada. Mirah's first full-length solo album, You Think It's Like This But Really It's Like This, was released in June 2000 by the K label. Elvrum produced the freshman record, assisting with much of the instrumentation. Yo Yo Recordings released her single-sided album Storageland in 2001. In 2002, Mirah returned to K with the breathtaking Advisory Committee and, with collaborator Ginger Brooks Takahashi, released Songs from the Black Mountain Music Project in summer 2003. The following year was also busy for Mirah: To All We Stretch the Open Arm (which also featured the Black Cat Orchestra) and C'mon Miracle both arrived in 2004. The remix collection Joyride appeared in late 2006, while Share This Place, a concept album about the lives of insects featuring Spectratone International, was released in summer 2007. The following year The Old Days Feeling, a collection of pre-You Think It's Like This But Really It's Like This songs with liner notes courtesy of Calvin Johnson, arrived, and Mirah's fourth solo album, (A)spera, which featured production by Elvrum, Tucker Martine, and Adam Selzer, appeared in 2009. In 2011, Mirah teamed up with her friend Thao for the simply named Thao & Mirah.

Wikipedia:

Mirah (born Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn, September 17, 1974, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), is an American musician based in Brooklyn, New York. She has released five albums under the K Records label.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Background[edit]

Mirah was born the youngest of three children. Most of her childhood was spent in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. She started writing music from a very young age, with her first song at four years old. When she was twelve, Mirah appeared on Double Dare, a television game show. "I actually used the money that I won on Double Dare to pay for the time I spent on the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament." She began performing at 18 when she moved to Olympia, Washington and attended Evergreen State College.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Music career[edit]

Mirah released her first album, Storageland on Yoyo Recordings in 1997, and joined K records in 1999.

Mirah was previously a member of The Drivers, an all-female Olympia band. Mirah's music is featured in the documentary, Young, Jewish, and Left. In 2006, K Records released Joyride: Remixes, a re-mix album of other artists covering Mirah's songs. It features revisited versions by Guy Sigsworth, Electrosexual, Yacht... In July 2008, her song "The Garden" was featured in the TV show "So You Think You Can Dance". In October 2011, her song "Special Death" was featured in the TV show American Horror Story. Her latest album, (a)spera, was released on March 10, 2009.

In early 2010, Mirah performed with Thao Nguyen at the Noise Pop Festival in San Francisco. The two later announced a 2010 North American tour, billed under the name Thao and Mirah With The Most of All. Mirah and Thao performed a collaborative set and shared vocal duties on each artist's respective songs. The two artists subsequently recorded and released a collaborative album entitled Thao and Mirah April 26, 2011 on Kill Rock Stars with production by Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards. The two toured in support of the album while working with Air Traffic Control, an organization that provides artists a platform for social activism.

She has also collaborated with Phil Elvrum of The Microphones, Tune-Yards, and the Black Cat Orchestra.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Personal[edit]

Mirah identifies as queer. Her sister is Emily Ana Zeitlyn of The Weeds.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).