Kim Bingham, also known by her stage names Mudgirl and The Kim Band, is a Canadian singer and musician. She is also known for collaborations with

Nelly Furtado Nelly Kim Furtado (; ; born December 2, 1978) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. Furtado has sold over 40 million records worldwide making her one of the most successful Canadian artists. She first gained fame with her trip hop-inspired deb ...

Bran Van 3000 Bran Van 3000 (also known as BV3) is a Canadian alternative rock and hip hop collective from Montreal, Quebec. Founded by James Di Salvio and E.P. Bergen, they collaborated on a number of songs with Stéphane Moraille, Sara Johnston, Steve "Liqui ...

and

David Usher David Usher (born April 24, 1966) is a British-born Canadian musician, best-selling author, keynote speaker, and activist best known as the front man for the band Moist. He has also released a number of solo albums. He is the founder of Reimagin ...

Career

1990–1994: Me Mom and Morgentaler

Bingham began her career in music as a member of the

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, Quebec

third-wave ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

band Me Mom and Morgentaler formed in 1990. The band became known for elaborate live performances, spectacles of

vaudevillian Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

-styled performance art. With the band, Bingham recorded three works: ''Clown Heaven and Hell'' EP (1991), ''Shiva Space Machine'' (1993) and Live ''We Are Revolting: Live & Obscure 1990–1994'' (1994).

1994–1999: Mudgirl

In 1994, Bingham left Me, Mom and Morgentaler and moved to

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

where she formed the project Mudgirl with drummer/vocalist Glenn Kruger (

Carly Rae Jepsen Carly Rae Jepsen (born November 21, 1985) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After studying musical theatre for most of her school life and while in university, Jepsen garnered mainstream attention after placing third on the fifth season of ...

the Paperboys The Paperboys (sometimes billed and credited as Tom Landa and the Paperboys) are a Canadian folk music band from Vancouver that formed in 1991. The Paperboys blend Celtic folk with bluegrass, Mexican, Eastern European, African, zydeco, soul a ...

, Bloody Chicletts), bassist/vocalist Russell Less (Innocents Abroad, the Ground), & guitarist Lucas Truman. Her moniker "Mudgirl" was chosen based on ''"the title of a short story she wrote about a waif made of mud"'' intended for children. She stated, "Mudgirl is an extension of myself where I get to be cartoony and a bit surreal." In 1996, Mudgirl released their debut five-song EP "First Book" which included three Canadian radio hits "This Day", "Adjusted" and "Contact" (written by Russell Less). She also produced a handful of popular videos featured on

MuchMusic Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. MuchMusic launched on August 31 ...

, and performed on some dates in the U.S., including a July 1996 performance with Mudgirl at

Lilith Fair Lilith Fair was a concert tour and travelling music festival, founded by Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan, Nettwerk Music Group's Dan Fraser and Terry McBride, and New York talent agent Marty Diamond. It took place during the summers of 1997 ...

1999–2006: The Kim Band

After five years as Mudgirl, Bingham decided to change the name of her collective to "The Kim Band". Under this moniker, she released the album "Girlology" (2001) produced by Steven Drake (The Odds, The Tragically Hip). The album featured the radio singles "What A Drag", "Valentine's Day" and "Quel Dommage", her French version of "What A Drag" that reached No.1 on French-Canadian radio charts.

Collaborations with David Usher, Nelly Furtado and Bran Van 3000. 2000–2003: Touring, bands

From 2001 until 2003, Bingham worked with Canadian singer

as a guitarist and backing vocalist. " Black Black Heart" is a song written by Usher and Jeff Pearce and for which the operatic female vocal is provided by Bingham, while the chorus samples ''

The Flower Duet The "Flower Duet" is a duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano in the first act of Léo Delibes' opera ''Lakmé'', premiered in Paris in 1883. It is sung by the characters Lakmé, daughter of a Brahmin priest, and her servant Mallika, as they go t ...

'' (Sous le dôme épais), a duet for sopranos from

Léo Delibes Clément Philibert Léo Delibes (; 21 February 1836 – 16 January 1891) was a French Romantic composer, best known for his ballets and operas. His works include the ballets ''Coppélia'' (1870) and '' Sylvia'' (1876) and the opera ''Lakm� ...

' opera

Lakmé ''Lakmé'' is an opera in three acts by Léo Delibes to a French libretto by Edmond Gondinet and Philippe Gille. The score, written from 1881 to 1882, was first performed on 14 April 1883 by the Opéra-Comique at the (second) Salle Favart in P ...

, as a hook. "Black Black Heart" won two

MuchMusic Video Awards The iHeartRadio MMVAs were an annual awards show broadcast on Much to honour the year's best music videos that was last held in 2018. Originally debuting in 1990 as the Canadian Music Video Awards, the awards were renamed in 1995 to the MuchMu ...

for Best Post-Production and Best Pop Video in 2002. In 2003 and early 2004, Bingham toured Europe and the U.S. with pop singer

as a guitarist and backing vocalist in Furtado's band. Bingham collaborated, also, with

and is featured on the albums "

Rosé A rosé () is a type of wine that incorporates some of the color from the grape skins, but not enough to qualify it as a red wine. It may be the oldest known type of wine, as it is the most straightforward to make with the skin contact method. ...

" and "The Garden". Bingham also toured in Canada as part of Bran Van 3000, including a concert as the main act at the

Montreal Jazz Festival The Festival International de Jazz de Montréal ( en, Montreal International Jazz Festival) is an annual jazz festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Jazz Fest holds the 2004 Guinness World Record as the world's largest jazz fest ...

in 2008.

Les Invincibles 2005–2009

From 2005 to 2009, Bingham composed the soundtrack for the TV trilogy ''

Les Invincibles ''Les Invincibles'' is a comedy/drama television series from Radio-Canada produced by Casablanca Productions and Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm. The story is about four men in their early thirties signing a pact ordaining the simultaneous break-up o ...

'' with three seasons on the original Canadian TV production (broadcast on

Radio Canada The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government ...

) and two seasons on the reprised European versions, a Franco-Belgian-German production (broadcast on

Arte Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plus ...

). In 2007, Bingham's original music for the Canadian series was nominated as Best Original Score at the

Prix Gémeaux The Prix Gémeaux () or Gémeaux Awards honour achievements in Canadian television and digital media that is broadcast in French. It has been sponsored by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television since 1987. Introduced as a French-language equ ...

television award; Bingham won the Best Theme Song award with the theme song "The Heroes Take", shared with co-writer and show creator Jean-Francois Rivard. Also in 2007, at the request of fans of the Canadian TV show, Bingham performed and produced the soundtrack album "Les Invincibles" with the support of

Warner Music Canada Warner Music Canada is the Canadian division of Warner Music Group. The label previously operated as WEA Music of Canada, Ltd. (French: ''WEA Musique du Canada, Ltée''), often shortened to WEA Canada, the Canadian subsidiary of WEA Internationa ...

UP! and single releases 2010–2020

Bingham's next work, the full-length album "UP!", was recorded in Los Angeles with co-producer

John Kastner Jean-Guy "John" Kastner (born 12 August 1969) is a Canadian musician and composer born in Beaconsfield, Quebec. He is the singer for Montreal hardcore punk band the Asexuals as well as singer-guitarist for Montreal alternative band Doughboys an ...

(

Doughboys Doughboy was a popular nickname for the American Infantry, infantryman World War I#Entry of the United States, during World War I. Though the origins of the term are not certain, the nickname was still in use as of the early 1940s. Examples inclu ...

, All Systems Go) and with members of super bands such as

Queens Of the Stone Age Queens of the Stone Age (commonly abbreviated QOTSA) is an American rock band formed in 1996 in Palm Desert, California. The band was founded by vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme, who has been the only constant member throughout multiple line- ...

Jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella- ...

Blind Melon Blind Melon is an American rock band formed in 1990 in Los Angeles by five musicians: three from Mississippi, one from Pennsylvania and one from Indiana. The band currently consists of guitarists Rogers Stevens and Christopher Thorn, drummer G ...

and

Masters of Reality Masters of Reality is an American rock band formed in 1981 by frontman Chris Goss and guitarist Tim Harrington in Syracuse, New York, United States. They took the name for the band from a misprinted label of the third Black Sabbath album. Goss ...

over the summer of 2010. The album was released in May 2012 under Bingham's longstanding indie label Mudgirl Music Group, with distribution by Distribution Select across Canada. The stop-motion animation video for the album single "Up!" won the Best Video award at the 2013 edition of the Independent Music Awards USA. The French version of the song "UP!" and the sole French single on the album, a song called "Party Girl", were once again radio hits for Bingham in French-speaking parts of Canada. In January 2019, the song "Bel Ami" from Bingham's album "UP!" was chosen as the theme song for the US TV series " Good Trouble". In summer 2019, Bingham released her first single performed in both English and Italian, the upbeat pop song "Beppe Green".

Style

According to ''

The Spokesman-Review ''The Spokesman-Review'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Spokane, Washington, the city's sole remaining daily publication. It has the third-highest readership among daily newspapers in the state, with most of its readership base in ...

'', Bingham "plays a musical style modeled after the eclectic pop of

The The () are an English post-punk band. They have been active in various forms since 1979, with singer-songwriter Matt Johnson being the only constant band member. achieved critical acclaim and commercial success in the UK, with 15 chart singles ...

Personal life

Bingham was raised in

, Canada and presently lives in France.

Awards

Discography

With Me Mom and Morgentaler

;Albums *1991: '' Clown Heaven and Hell EP'' *1993: '' Shiva Space Machine'' *1994: '' We Are Revolting: Live & Obscure 1990–1994'' (

live Live may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film * ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film *'' ''Live'' (Apocalyptica DVD) Music *Live (band), American alternative rock band * List of albums ...

)

Solo material

Albums

Singles

TV scores

*2005–09: ''

'' (Canada) – composer *2008–10: ''

'' (France-Germany) – composer *2019: Song "Bel Ami" used as theme music for '' Good Trouble'' (US) – composer

Guest appearances

References

External links

KimBingham.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bingham, Kim Canadian singer-songwriters Singers from Montreal French-language singers of Canada Living people Canadian alternative rock musicians Canadian women rock singers Canadian women pop singers 21st-century Canadian women singers 1969 births