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wednesday, march 10, 2010, 6:32 am saving the world from bad music since last wednesday. WEDNESDAY | ARCHIVE | PEP SQUAD | MAILING LIST | GEAR | REQUEST LINE | ROCK DOC | CONNECT |
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ambient pop duo broken bells
features brian burton (producer, organ, drums, piano, synths, bass) and james
mercer (vocals, guitar). outside of their context these names may not mean a
lot, but what if i were to tell you that brian is better known as danger mouse?
yes, that danger mouse.; of gnarls barkley and producer for gorillaz;
the black
keys; beck; the good, the bad and the queen; the rapture; and the
late sparklehorse
among others. you can find james while on his day job as lead vocalist and
guitarist for another great band,
the shins. not a bad combo who both agree that this is not a one-off thing; they are in it for the long run. according to spin’s kevin bronson, “broken bells' broad sonic palette yields an arrestingly cinematic and choral take on guitar balladry, electro-pop, and white soul.” he went on to describe broken bells to another super talented collaboration, the postal service. except he said, “what ben gibbard and jimmy tamborello were to your bedroom, [brian] and [james] are to the heavens.” the two met while at a danish music festival in 2004, after realizing they were fans of each other’s work. they began working on "melodic, but experimental" material at brian’s l.a. studio in march 2008. they announced the project september 29, 2009. on december 14 they emailed to fans a binary-coded message stating “the ‘high road’ is hard to find” with a link to their website. we learned later that “high road” referred to a free single download available on their site. (much like the binary-coded wednesday blast i sent years earlier, back in july of 2008!) anyway, todd martens of the los angeles times described broken bells’ debut live performance as creating “slow, trippy…background harmonies” and managing “to sound familiar yet contemporary, like the uncovering of a vintage album given some modern electronic flourishes. or, to use a musical reference point, a more soulful take on the folksy-electro sound used to great effect by the beta band.” their self-titled debut album was released march 09, 2010. click here for part one and here for part two of an nme interview on youtube. don't forget, the album cover image always links to sample songs and the band's image to their website. check here to see if broken bells has any gigs scheduled near you. as always, please buy this album from your local independent music store by people who know and love music and not from retailers like wal-mart (soulless, globally-homogenizing, community-killers) or i-tunes (albums should be listened to as an entire composition with album cover and liner notes in hand). incidentally, these two companies sell more music than any other retailer in the united states. that my friend, bites. broken bells is perfect. if you agree, please spread the word (about the band and this site). don't worry if you missed the bear in heaven profile from last week: here it is.
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