We’re not ones to paint ourselves as something we’re not—you won’t find us using this space today to wax poetic about the grief we feel for those touched by yesterday’s bombing in Boston. Not because it isn’t felt heavily by us and by New Yorkers in general—it is. We simply think that it would be in poor taste to trivialize the very serious nature of what happened yesterday and the inevitable associated repercussions by using a blog that most commonly addresses music, vegan food, and aesthetic culture as a soapbox in this sensitive time. Suffice it to say, then, that our thoughts are with those affected and, Boston, you’re in our hearts.
We will tell you, though, that we were mid-post yesterday, writing up a talented British artist, when we stopped as these much more important, weighty things came to light, making the post both paltry by comparison and—given the artist’s choice to use somewhat violent imagery to get across her point—potentially crass.
But music is an important thing, especially in times like these when many of us may be looking for escape. So we’re thankful that French band Phoenix released today a full stream of their soon-to-be-released fifth album, Bankrupt!, due out proper next Tuesday.
In celebration of the album, this week’s Song is a “remix” of the album’s first single, “Entertainment”, by Dinosaur Jr. We use the quotes around the word remix there as this sounds more like a straight-up cover to us, with frontman J Mascis taking over vocals and the band slowing down the originally upbeat song, adding a familiar alterna-twang to it. They even end it with a ™ Mascis guitar solo.
And yes—J Mascis does look like Saruman these days.
You can listen to the original below. Keep scrolling and you’ll find a video of the band performing an unplugged-ish version of the single. It features a disinterested Shiba Inu! So French…by way of Japan.
The album stream for Bankrupt! is over at iTunes; the digital + hard-copy versions of it can be pre-ordered via the band’s site.
And don’t worry—we’ll be back in two weeks with the song we originally posted and filling you in soon on our recent trip to sunny LA.
Peace.
Photo above—Pascal Teixeira.
