When she's not playing with New York's favorite indie folksters the Moldy Peaches, Kimya Dawson records her own songs at home on a four-track.

With just her sweet voice, acoustic strumming and random sound effects, Dawson's stripped-bare solo album, I'm Sorry That Sometimes I'm Mean, is beautifully childlike. ("Why do I always pretend I can spoon a guy and still be his friend?" she sings on "Everything's Alright.")

Dawson even works and lives in a day-care center. "For the kids, not holding back means being silly and jumping around," she says. "And for me, it's not being self-conscious about what I'm revealing. That means I'm old."

JENNY ELISCU
(October 16, 2002)