As Cool As She Is

I’ve been listening to this song for the past 12 years. It’s funny and angry and a total staple for your classic Boys Suck mix. So imagine my delight when this afternoon Dar Williams performed “As Cool As I Am” right in the middle of eMusic’s kitchen! At my request (in a round about way)! Rapturous sigh.

Dar stopped by the office to promote her latest album, Promised Land, and her new stuff is just as gripping as the songs I played countless times as a teenager. She kicked off her eMusic mini-set with “It’s Alright”, the jangly first single off the new record. If you want a good sampling of Dar’s emotionally perceptive songwriting, “It’s Alright” is a great place to start. (”The Easy Way” and “The Business of Things” are also worth checking out.) Dar also played “Buzzer”, an entirely chilling song about a participant in an obedience experiment who is supposed to follow a simple directive, even if it causes another person a great deal of pain: “I pushed the buzzer, I pushed the buzzer.” How is it possible that Dar can make Fascism sound kinda adorable? A killer performance, overall!