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Sarah Dooley Releases Debut Album 'Stupid Things'

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)

SARAH DOOLEY: (Singing) If it snows and school is canceled, do not fret. You can come over to my house, watch "Goonies" at my house...

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

This is the voice of Sarah Dooley. We're introducing you to her music this morning. She became a campus celebrity as an undergraduate at Columbia University. She won over Internet critics with a comedy Web series called "And Sarah." Her debut album is just out now. It's called "Stupid Things."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)

DOOLEY: (Singing) You sit there. I'll sit here. Can you see I'm so happy you're watching "Goonies" at my house. It's just that I have been waiting ...

GREENE: Sarah's sensibility combines sweetness and irony with some irreverent lyrics. She lives in Brooklyn now, but was raised in Indiana on a steady diet of comedy.

DOOLEY: We used to listen to Steve Martin's comedy album on road trips. And we also - (Laughing) typical Midwestern fashion - would pull the TV around for dinner time and watch "The Simpsons" or, you know, "Seinfeld."

GREENE: Her Midwestern childhood, which she describes as idyllic, figures heavily on the album.

DOOLEY: Like a group by a cornfield, and there was a 24-hour diner on the corner.

GREENE: And that meant when she moved to New York City at age 19, it was a bit of a wake-up call. Her song "Willow Tree" plays on some of that disillusionment.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG "WILLOW TREE")

DOOLEY: (Singing) Peter Pan is all grown up. He's a dentist in downtown Chicago. And the Tooth Fairy OD'd on noxious fumes. The mocking bird is Argon material, and where shadows sleep in a separate room...

I think I find inspiration in the transition between childhood and adulthood.

GREENE: That's Sarah Dooley. Her new album, "Stupid Things," is out now.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)

DOOLEY: (Singing) Riding on the subway, there's no room for us. Riding on the subway, make some room for me and my friends. Trying another car, try another car, there's no room.... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.