Mike Patton is the male _____?

April 4, 2009 11:36 AM

Who is the female Mike Patton?

She must meet some or all of the following criteria:

- Interesting voice, used with a wide variety of vocal techniques (singing, screaming, speaking, etc).

- Collaborates well with others, does so (semi)frequently

- She is not Bjork

- Maybe she is Maja Ratkje?

- Engaged with many different genres/tendencies of music (especially extremist rock styles and the avant-weird)

- Her recordings are available for purchase over the intertubes

Thank you.

posted by sleevener to media & arts (42 comments total)

8-10 years ago, I would have said Meg Lee Chin. I think all of the women that have been involved with Pigface or any other Martin Atkins/Invisible project would fit the bill.
posted by zerokey at 11:43 AM on April 4

Jarboe? Lydia Lunch?
posted by box at 11:46 AM on April 4

Lori Carson? Diamanda Galas?
posted by box at 11:49 AM on April 4 [1 favorite]

Diamanda Galas.
posted by Sticherbeast at 11:54 AM on April 4

Ann Magnuson.
posted by dydecker at 12:08 PM on April 4

I don't really know that much about Mike Patton post-Faith No More, but I always thought Poe didn't get enough credit for being cool and smart, and seems to fit your criteria.

I wonder about Diamanda Galas and Lydia Lunch. I mean, going the other way, would you say Mike Patton is a male Diamanda Galas or Lydia Lunch? (see previous disclaimer.)
posted by theefixedstars at 12:16 PM on April 4

Anna Homler is great for weird vocal techniques — whispering, babbling, chanting, shrieking, giggling, etc. And she's definitely a frequent collaborator. She doesn't go in for hard/noisy rock the way Patton does, though.

Similarly, if the "extremist rock" thing isn't a requirement, check out Meredith Monk. (No audio samples that I can find on her website, but a lot of snippets seem to be on YouTube.)
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:28 PM on April 4

Sherry Fraser of Two Ton Boa meets a couple of those criteria.
posted by equalpants at 12:33 PM on April 4

I don't know Mike Patton at all, so this may be way off base, but your bullet list makes it sound like Iva Bittová might be appropriate: 1 2 3
posted by ook at 12:35 PM on April 4

Also, I don't know much about Regina Spektor except for her collaboration with Ben Folds, but there's a couple of your criteria right there: cool voice, and plays well with other.
posted by lblair at 12:41 PM on April 4

Sainkho Namchauk collaborates extensively in the jazz / free jazz / free improv world, and has an impressive range of extended vocal technique.

Joan La Barbara is an innovator in extended vocal technique, and has been collaborating with experimental composers since the early '70s. She also had a column in Music America / High Fidelity magazine which did much to introduce me to the world of experimental music.

Neither of these women are in the post hardcore / noise / math rock boys club that Patton frequents, so they would me more along the lines of a female Phil Minton or Trevor Wishart, and sadly woman are not especially comfortable in Mike Patton's niche (whose fault that is is of course another conversation entirely).

Also, I am surprised nobody has mentioned Yoko Ono yet, I just thought of her as I was finishing this reply, and she may be your best answer for a direct female analogue to Mike Patton.
posted by idiopath at 12:46 PM on April 4

Why exactly is Bjork not Mike Patton?
posted by Pronoiac at 12:51 PM on April 4

Maybe not quite what you're looking for, but Carla Kihlstedt comes to mind.

I also think of Yoshimi P-We and Yuka Honda. Both have worked with a pretty diverse group of musicians and are pretty experimental in their output. Yuka Honda's not really a vocalist, though.
posted by darksong at 12:53 PM on April 4

Georgia Anne Muldrow? Leena Conquest?
posted by box at 12:54 PM on April 4

Nina Hagen?
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 12:57 PM on April 4

Ua?
posted by box at 1:02 PM on April 4

PJ Harvey
posted by mkultra at 1:04 PM on April 4 [2 favorites]

I came in here to say PJ Harvey.
posted by gergtreble at 1:17 PM on April 4

Kevin Blechdom - great voice, avantweirdexperimental for sure, some collaboration, mostly reminds me of Patton's "I like it so let's do it" attitude towards music.

Neko Case - Collaborator (New Pornographers, Sadies, Cornflower Girls), exquisitely unique voice, Not Bjork, goes more towards country/folk from the standard rock perspective.

Emmylou Harris - Again going away from experimental/electronica, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a better collaborator than Emmylou. Two of her projects you might enjoy, Return of the Grievous Angel (Gram Parsons tribute) and Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions (with Linda Ronstadt, featuring plenty of genre-jumping cover songs).
posted by carsonb at 1:20 PM on April 4

Meshell Ndegeocello? Bonus point for them being the same age?
posted by quarterframer at 1:31 PM on April 4 [1 favorite]

Carla Bozulich!
posted by runtina at 1:36 PM on April 4

A tricky one... Best I can come up with is either to second Iva Bittová, who does use her voice in some really interesting ways, or possibly Camille, if talking about her second (I think) album, Le Fil, inwhich most of the music is comprised of samples of her voice. An album I really, really like, but unfortunately the stuff she's done since has really disappointed me.

I'd add that P.J. Harvey fulfills the request if the criteria is someone whose voice is just always incredible, but she doesn't do as many interesting things with it as Mike Patton would tend to.
posted by opsin at 2:15 PM on April 4

Pronoiac: Why exactly is Bjork not Mike Patton?

Because Bjork is (a) not very collaborative with others, (b) not very eclectic or experimental in terms of style, (c) not very eclectic or experimental in terms of vocal technique, and (d) really just ripping off Ari Upp, anyway?

Anyhow, Lydia Lunch fits the bill. I was listening to this yesterday - awesome, and totally unexpected. Teenage Jesus and the Jerks is one of the unheralded great bands of the 80s.
posted by koeselitz at 2:15 PM on April 4

Also, please let me know when you find the female Mike Patton so that I can marry her.
posted by koeselitz at 2:20 PM on April 4

Amanda Palmer? An unusual voice with incredible range provides unexpected verbal twists and turns. She's collaborated with a few people on her latest album, "Who Killed Amanda Palmer?" -- folks like Ben Folds and Zoë Keating -- and had members of Estradasphere join her on tour to support the album.

Leeds United
The Point of It All
posted by parilous at 3:53 PM on April 4

I agree with anyone who suggested Jarboe. She's got a wildly eclectic voice, she's a frequent collaborator with everyone from industrial and noise artists to metal acts to psychedelic acts, she's extremely prolific, and she's got her own intensely focused areas of interest.
posted by infinitywaltz at 4:23 PM on April 4

Awesome. You all have my gratitude. Please chime in with more if you want, but this already gives me a lot to follow up on.
posted by sleevener at 4:49 PM on April 4

Betty Hutton, but she's dead.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 5:06 PM on April 4

Jun Togawa
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 5:23 PM on April 4

Definitely Carla Bozulich.
posted by mr_roboto at 6:02 PM on April 4

Azita of Scissor Girls

Oh, duh. Karin Dreijer Andersson of The Knife and, lately, Fever Ray. pretty much everything she does is doing crazy stuff with her voice (w/use of technology of course).. she's great.

Fever Ray - If I Had a Heart
posted by citron at 6:04 PM on April 4

Wow, this thread is a goldmine for new music to listen to. I am bumping some Kevin Blechdom at the moment, wonderful stuff.
posted by idiopath at 9:14 PM on April 4

I'll second citron; Karin Dreijer Andersson is in the beginning stages of Mike Pattonhood. I look forward to watching her evolve over the next couple of decades.
posted by lekvar at 12:55 AM on April 5

One that hasn't been mentioned yet is Nellie McKay
posted by hydropsyche at 3:56 AM on April 5

Mike Patton would be furious with many of these suggestions.
posted by poppo at 4:39 AM on April 5

Leslie Feist
posted by jbickers at 7:09 PM on April 5

What Idiopath said. Sainkho Namtchylak
posted by billtron at 8:09 AM on April 6

This is the second thread I've responded to to rec her, but it's much less tenuous this time: Kristeen Young. Her first album, Meet Miss Young And Her All Boy Band, and her latest, Music For Strippers, Hookers and the Odd On-Looker (have the longest titles and are also) her best, I think. The former is more varied in terms of what the voice does (mix of relative calm and various hysteria), the latter is the most focused and cohesive and piercing.

She's somewhere between Case/Palmer and Hagen on the experimental-axis.

Anyway, her voice is not for all, but it's very wide-ranging and technically strong; it can do whatever she wants it to do. And she's a fairly enthusiastic collaborator, though I do not always get or enjoy her duets. Some that I really love, however, are "That's What It Takes, Dear" (with, of all human people alive, Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy) and Morrissey's "Sweetie-Pie," where she contributes an operatic background vocal.
posted by thesmallmachine at 7:33 PM on April 7

I don't know Patton though. I will soon, though, along with many others on this thread.
posted by thesmallmachine at 7:33 PM on April 7

Yeah, I kind of had the suspicion that many replies here were not thinking along the lines of "OK, Mike is a peculiar and too most ears, obnoxious vocalist who takes lots of risks and isn't afraid to fall flat on his face artistically in front of an audience; who are the female vocalists that are this extreme?" but rather "Huh, who is this Mike Patton guy? Anyway I like this woman's singing". Regardless, the thread is full of great suggestions for music to listen to.
posted by idiopath at 10:33 AM on April 8 [1 favorite]

idiopath, you've pretty much described the (unfortunate) lifecycle of every "Recommend me X based on Y" in AskMe, which typically devolves into "Let me tell you about some X I like".
posted by mkultra at 10:47 AM on April 8

Well, if that's what he's like, I want to know him even more now, and feel somewhat more confident in my rec. If there's anything I've been told about Young, it's that she's "peculiar and, to most ears, obnoxious."

There's also Mary Margaret O'Hara, Kate Bush and Lene Lovich, a trio who are perpetually rec'd to me but can never really worm their way into my affection (though I am at least consistently impressed with Lovich's styling and intent and New Wave hiccuping, and Bush's raw songwriting skill). I feel like all three fit most of these criteria, though none are enthusiastic collaborators, Lovich orbits a narrower range of styles than you ask for, and all of them are semi-active at best these days.

Nina Hagen was mentioned above. For her, so far as I'm concerned, it begins and ends with "Naturtrane," but mileage varies. She is certainly a vocal talent to be reckoned with.

THE Lovich track, "Lucky Number"

Young is sadly under-Youtubed (most of what's up is low-quality live videos) so I hesitate to send you there for her. Her MySpace might be a better stop.

And oh, right, Marnie Stern, who's mostly known as a guitar player, but is also a neat weirdo vocalist (albeit non-collaborator/non-genre-swapper/not-massively-range-and-style-switcher, vocally speaking). Link is to "Every Single Line Means Something" which if you like it, probably you like her, and if you don't, it's no use, because it is all sort of like that.

This is the kind of question where being asked for the *female* version of someone seems an interesting reversal in itself.
posted by thesmallmachine at 8:06 PM on April 8