What the label has to say about it: Lovely. Sparse. Melodic. Intimate. Secrets. The Girl. The Long Drive. Subtle. Hushed. Enveloping. Movement. Building. Cathartic. All of the emotion and spirit that made you fall in love with The Butchies and Team Dresch, hushed and distilled down into this collection of 14 songs. It\'s the narrative of a girl being in love with a girl. Never hitting you over the head, merely giving you enough to imagine the rest of the story. It\'s presented to us on deceptively simple acoustic guitars, a few electric guitars, some keyboards and beautiful building vocal harmonies. Acoustic pop songs, country ballads, atmospheric anthems. The mood is up and then down, sly then serious, confessional then playful. Kaia has been telling us about various aspects of her life for about 15 years now, creating a long string of stunning vignettes. Godmakesmonkeys is closest she\'s gotten to writing a complete novel, and it was well worth the wait. This album comes with a coupon for a digital download of a 2nd ablums worth of demos, outtakes, comp tracks, covers and potentially embarassing moments called \"I Think I\'m Alone Now\" What Kaia has to say for herself: I wrote my first song in 1983, at age 9, “You make me cry that special way”. I have written bunches of songs since, in the bands that I’ve been in: Adickdid (1991-1993), Team Dresch (1993-1996 and again 2005-present) and The Butchies (1998-2005), and with my solo music project, though none can match the coolness of my 9 year old angst. Godmakesmonkeys is my 4th solo record, the content of which is (guess what?!) love songs, some of them with undertones of loss and grief, the mixture of excitement and guardedness we have when falling in love. Or you know, “falling in love”, whatever that really means. Trying to write about something so visceral as sound/songs, it’s next to impossible, the songs on the record are mostly acoustic, mostly sparse, pretty tender or emo, some have clear stories to tell and some veer down paths of obscurity and abstract sentimentality. Once, my band the Butchies, opened for Cheap Trick – and because of this, I think you should at LEAST give this record a quick listen through. Come on! And once, Beck opened for my band Adickdid when we played with the Spinanes at Jabberjaw in los angeles 1992. And once, I met “Jo” from “the Facts of Life” in San Francisco, when I was like 13. By the way, if you go online and download my digital album, you will have the distinct pleasure/horror of getting to hear some rare and effed up tracks, like one I wrote/recorded on my boombox in the late 80’s that is totally OOC and then a few songs from the early 90’s when I had a “flange problem”. There are also some cool live performances and a cover of the Elliott Smith song \"Angeles\" that does its best to pay proper tribute to this most beautiful song ever. Kaia’s list of acomplishments: Kaia (1974-present) – I have 3 other records, Oregon (2001), Ladyman (1997) and my first s/t (1996). My first s/t record was a big hit with the kids in the mid 90’s, the song “16” still can get the kids in a sort of acoustic ballad nostalgic frenzy of sing-a-long enthusiasm. Team Dresch (1993-1996, 2005-present) – Thought of by many as the best and most influential queercore band, our first record “Personal Best” helped many a tiny gay come out, and our punk/hardcore/emo edge crossed us over into the straight fans too. We had lots of fun. The Butchies (1998-2005) – Certainly equally as politico/queer The Butchies (aside from opening for Cheap Trick once) music ventured into a more eclectic style, from full on ballads to sorta metal parts to pop-punk with minor chords/drop d tunings, and even dabbled a bit in polka. Well, I guess maybe more like a classic rock-ish waltz. Adickdid (1991-1993) – Ha ha ha ha ha! We seriously should have been awarded a prize for best worst band name, although it was early 90’s Northwest grunge hayday. We were super grunge meets a little sweet pop all in the same song. Mr. Lady Records (1996-2003) – Record label that I started with then partner Tammy Rae Carland, in operation from 1996-2003. Released records by The Butchies, Kaia, Le Tigre, Sarah Dougher, Tami Hart, the Haggard, the Moves and more.