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Neko Case is a American singer and songwriter. Her music is frequently called alternative country, though Case tends to shy away from the label. She recorded and toured as Neko Case & Her Boyfriends before switching to her own name.
She's also a member of Canadian power pop supergroup The New Pornographers, and lived in Vancouver, British Columbia for several years, playing with a variety of local punk bands. Additionally, she was still living in Vancouver when she released her first country album. As a result, she is sometimes also referred to as Canadian.
Case both writes her own material and performs cover versions of songs by artists such as Loretta Lynn, Bob Dylan, and Hank Williams. She is protective of her artistic independence, combining punk's "do it yourself" aesthetic, a strong business sense, and clear opinions about her artistic goals. She has spurned offers from major record labels because they don't offer her enough control of her music.
"I hope I can comfort people a bit ? maybe show people that making music is fun and accessible to them as well. I'm not out to become Faith Hill, I never want to play an arena, and I never want to be on the MTV Video Music Awards, much less make a video with me in it. I would like to reach a larger audience and see the state of music change in favor of musicians and music fans in my lifetime. I care very much about that."
Case was born September 8, 1970 in Alexandria, Virginia to parents of Ukrainian ancestry. Her family traveled around while she was young before settling in Tacoma, Washington, the place she considers her hometown. She left home when she was 15.
In 1994, Case moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to attend the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. While attending school she played drums in several local bands, including the Del Logs, the Propanes, the Weasles, Cub and Maow. All of these bands were local punk groups except for the Weasles, which Case described as a "country music super group."
Case fully embraced country music on her 1997 solo album, The Virginian. The album contained original compositions as well as covers of songs by Ernest Tubb and Loretta Lynn. When the album was released, critics compared Case to honky-tonk singers like Lynn and Patsy Cline. Like the rest of her full-length albums, The Virginian was released by Mint Records (Maow's label) in Canada and Bloodshot Records in the United States.
In 1998, Case graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, which meant the loss of her student visa eligibility. She left Canada for Seattle, Washington. Before leaving, however, Case recorded vocals for a few songs that ended up on Mass Romantic, The New Pornographers' first album. Her lead vocals on songs like "Letter from an Occupant" are straightforward, full-volume power-pop performances, entirely shedding any country elements. Once the album was released on November 28, 2000, Mass Romantic became a surprise success. Originally conceived as a side project by its members, The New Pornographers decided to tour together and eventually to record a second album.
On February 22, 2000, Case released her second solo album with Her Boyfriends, Furnace Room Lullaby. A full set of 12 original songs, Lullaby introduced the "country noir" elements that have defined Case's subsequent solo career. That tone was evident even from the cover photo, featuring Case sprawled out corpse-like on a cement floor. On the album itself, her vocal style moves away from outright honky-tonk but retains her twang, garnering her comparisons to musicians such as Cline, Lynn, Hazel Dickens, Tanya Tucker, and Dolly Parton. The title track was included on the soundtrack to Sam Raimi's film The Gift, and "Porchlight" was featured on the soundtrack to The Slaughter Rule.
Case sometimes tours with her friend Carolyn Mark, a Canadian singer and songwriter, as The Corn Sisters. One of their performances, at Seattle's Hattie's Hat restaurant, was recorded and released as an album, The Other Women, on November 28, 2000.
At about the time Lullaby was released, Case left Seattle for Chicago, Illinois, because she felt that Seattle wasn't hospitable to its local artists.
Case's first work in Chicago was an 8-song EP that she recorded in her kitchen. Canadian Amp, her first recording without Her Boyfriends, was released on her own Lady Pilot label in 2001. She wrote two of the tracks. Six tracks are covers, including Neil Young's "Dreaming Man" and Hank Williams's "Alone and Forsaken." Four of the covers were written by Canadian artists. The EP was initially available only at Case's live shows, but was eventually released
Case recorded her third full-length album, Blacklisted, in Tucson, Arizona, which was released on August 20, 2002. Most of the songs are originals, except for covers of "Running Out of Fools," previously a hit for Aretha Franklin, and "Look for Me (I'll Be Around)." Blacklisted furthers Case's "country noir" mood, and was described by critics as lush, bleak, and atmospheric. Case cited filmmaker David Lynch, composer Angelo Badalamenti and Neil Young's soundtrack to the film Dead Man as influences. One track, "Deep Red Bells," was inspired by Case's memories of being a vulnerable young woman in the Seattle area while the Green River Killer was at large.
In April 2003, Case was voted the "Sexiest Babe of Indie Rock" in a Playboy.com Internet poll, receiving 32% of the vote. Playboy asked her to pose nude for the magazine, but she declined their offer. She told Entertainment Weekly magazine that "I didn't want to be the girl who posed in Playboy and then -- by the way -- made some music. I would be really fucking irritated if after a show somebody came up to me and handed me some naked picture of myself and wanted me to sign it instead of my CD." In more recent interviews she's declined to discuss the survey at all. (In the late '90s, Case did pose for cheesecake-style photos published in the Seattle magazine Kutie.)
The New Pornographers' second album, Electric Version, was released on May 6, 2003. Case performed lead vocals on even more of the songs on this album, and toured with the group again.
On April 3 and April 4, 2004, Case performed two shows with longtime collaborators The Sadies at Lee's Palace in Toronto, which were recorded for release as a live album later in 2004.
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