Monday, June 08, 2009

I’ll suffer death a thousand times


Clearly, the greatest thing to come out of Baltimore is this, but apparently there are other worthy things coming out of Hamsterdam.

Wye Oak

Whilst downloading the SpliceToday compilation the other day (in order to get at the Christian Kiefer track that I posted here), I came across a few other good songs, one of them by this band.

Wye Oak come from the aforementioned troubled city and are chiefly the work of Andy Stack and Jen Wasner, writing rather dark and dense folk songs, draped in feedback and special effects. They’re signed to Merge Records and you can read more about them here. (Reassuringly for fans of Stringer, Wee-Bey and Slim Charles, they do talk in their blog about waking up one morning to find a dead body dumped behind their house. It’s a rough town.)

Their song on the compilation is a cover of a traditional folk song called “Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair”, made famous by Nina Simone and also covered by the late troubled Davy Graham. I really like their version, with its slightly drone-y toneless style, which makes it sound rather hostile and dark. I also like the way they’ve played fast and loose with the lyrics – all in the spirit, I think.

Wye Oak’s second album, The Knot, will be available from Merge in July. I’ve dug around and found three tracks available, and I think you’ll rather like them…

I Don’t Feel Young

Take It In

Black is the Colour of my True Love’s Hair

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