A Random Mp3 Trilogy: Bon Iver, My Brightest Diamond, AC Newman

I think this new EP from Bon Iver called Blood Bank is good, but I think it is definitely several notches below the quality of For Emma. It feels like the songs are b-sides that didn’t make it on the album. Well, all of the songs except the last one, “Woods”. I know I have been bemoaning the use of the vocoder autotuner vocal trick constantly, but I actually enjoy its implementation here. Rather than someone with a lack of vocal talents using it to make up for their inability, here Justin Vernon is doing interesting things with it that accentuate his skills. Make sure to jam this one on headphones because the panning is the best part:

Bon Iver : Woods

Buy Blood Bank

Bon Iver myspace





photo by Chad Wadsworth

Most remixes of songs usually involve simply putting a danceable backbeat behind the track and a lack of imagination (ie all of the remixes I’ve heard of Animal Collective‘s “My Girls”), but this new collection of songs from My Brightest Diamond‘s A Thousand Shark’s Teeth reworked by Son Lux is the polar opposite to the typical, boring remix. The songs are entirely transformed, and the results are both artful and booty shaking. This is truly one of the best remix EPs I have ever heard.

My Brightest Diamond : Apples

Buy Shark Remixes Vol. 2: Son Lux

My Brightest Diamond myspace




Every time I have given a listen to The New Pornographers, it had be a casual affair like hearing a few tracks in a friend’s car. And every time I had heard it, it just didn’t impress me enough to really dig in. So I decided with this new solo record from Pornographers‘ AC Newman that i would give it a lot of listens and try to get into his stuff more, and the more I listen to it, the more I like it. I don’t know if it will be a top 50 or anything, but there are some really good songs on this thing, especially the closer:

A.C. Newman : All of My Days and All of My Days Off

Buy Get Guilty

A.C. Newman myspace

Live Videos: My Brightest Diamond, Clare & The Reasons @ The Earl (12/07/08)

This was such a fun, incredible concert. Clare & The Reasons were the perfect openers for this show. I had had low expectations for My Brightest Diamond as a 4-piece being able to do the studio recordings justice, but it sounded breathtakingly flawless even with all of Shara Worden’s many guitar pedals broken. She combined extremely beautiful sounds with such an endearing personality for probably one of my favourite shows of the year. She is just one hell of a musician. Also, the crowd at The Earl was uncharacteristically hushed up for the quietest parts, although you’ll notice in the second MBD video the douchiest photographer in the city try his best to spoil things for everyone:

Clare & The Reasons:

My Brightest Diamond:

What Up In The ATL?

Best shows in Atlanta December 1 – 7:

Monday:

The Rosebuds, The Love Language, The Preakness @ The Earl

Tuesday:

The Subliminator, Adrien Barbobott, Jesse Langdale, Unit Shifters, Self Inflict, Khovicoobah (NOIZE) @ Lenny’s Bar

Wednesday:

No Face, Genital Sherman, Fashion Knee High @ Drunken Unicorn

Thursday:

Untied States, Hollow Stars, A Fight To The Death, Carnivores, Glen iris, Model T Ford @ Star Bar

Le Castle Vania, RRRump, Prince Presto (Fuck Yesss) @ Drunken Unicorn

Friday:

Polvo, Highland Space, The Liverhearts @ The Earl

Sonn Av Krusher, The Subliminator, The Sunglasses, The Doppel Gang @ WonderRoot

Saturday:

Can Can, Tenth To The Moon, The Swear, Trial By Fire @ Drunken Unicorn

Sunday:

My Brightest Diamond @ The Earl


The Love Language : Lalita
No Face : Siuil a Ruin
Polvo : Tragic Carpet Ride
My Brightest Diamond : Inside A Boy
Adrien Barbobottt : Cholza

Live Show: My Brightest Diamond (10/14/2008)


Photo by Julien Bourgeois

MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND live in Paris on oct 14th 2008.
Live BLACK SESSION #291 on FM FRANCE INTER

01 Intro
02 Golden Star
03 If I Were Queen
04 Apples
05 To Pluto’s Moon

Click here to read the entire post…

The Unhip Hotness: My Brightest Diamond


Photo by Matt Wignall

Over the last month or so, I’ve been totally obsessed with the new My Brightest Diamond album, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth. The attention to detail on this masterpiece is amazing. While listening to it, there are so many moments where I think to myself things like “wow, the tone and placement of that one drum hit was perfect.” And while I’ve been jamming this relentlessly, the album has had a rather quiet and uninterested reception in the blogosphere.

My Brightest Diamond is the moniker for Shara Worden, a multi-instrumental singer songwriter that is most notably known for being part of Sufjan Stevens‘ band (Remember when he was the hottness? Seems like ages ago). Her debut album, Bring Me The Workhorse, dropped back in 2006, but while she had been writing that, she was also writing Shark’s Teeth. In fact, this sophomore release as My Brightest Diamond had taken about 6 years to create, as it was originally intended to be a string quartet piece. Here’s a video where she talks about it:


Shark’s Teeth – Part I from My Brightest Diamond on Vimeo.

So you know I’m love with it, but why isn’t anyone else? Almost all the reviews I have read for this just don’t know what to make of it, give it their par score, and move on. There are a few reasons why this gem is sliding under the radar. First, it’s because she is a woman. Seriously, if you can think of a female artist or female fronted band that is respected in the indie music world, someone paralled them to Worden in a review somewhere on the Internet. That’s really impressive to be able to sound like every single other female musician on the planet all at the same time.

Most commonly she is compared to St. Vincent, which is extremely ridiculous considering the only thing their music has in common is they both sing and use lots of instrumentation. I went back to listen to Marry Me after reading review after review complaining that she sounded too much like her fellow Sufjan Stevens alumni, and other than both of these albums being great, there is almost no similarity. St. Vincent is light and upbeat, Shark’s Teeth is lush, serious, and downbeat. They couldn’t be any different. And anyone who would mistake their voices for the other needs to get their ears checked out.

The music journalist world is still greatly dominated by dudes, and most just don’t really “get” the female music aesthetic. There are so many terrible pop female vocalists that exist, that it can be easy to tune out anything that sounds similar. Also, the pop music world is still greatly dominated by guitars, and other than a few rare cases like Carrie Brownstein and Marnie Stern, there aren’t exactly a ton of chicks who can shred. So music created by women on the whole is regarded to be on a lower level by most. Ok, enough feminism class.

The other problem for this album to catch fire across the interwebs is that it implements too much classical artillery. Timelessness and orchestration are two concepts that just aren’t in fashion these days, but that doesn’t make them any less impressive. I’m always a fan of doing more with less, but there’s nothing wrong with using every possible resource to achieve perfection. The meticulous nature of this album is just breathtaking to me, and I can’t think of another LP to come out this year that seems so purposeful and so on the mark at the same time. Get hip to it:

My Brightest Diamond : Ice And The Storm

My Brightest Diamond : To Pluto’s Moon

Buy A Thousand Shark’s Teeth here

My Brightest Diamond myspace


Disappear (Live on City Centre Social) from My Brightest Diamond on Vimeo.


Apples (Live at Tonic) from My Brightest Diamond on Vimeo.