Handsome Furs & St. Vincent Review
Husband and wife electro-pop duo Handsome Furs perform live in the studio.
Music News
Even decades after their heyday, there continues to be new, fun factoids in Beatles history. One of their old concert contracts from 1965 recently sold at auction for $23,000. But the contents were even more amazing. The Fab Four state that they will "not be required to perform in front of a segregated audience." That was pretty radical for the time, and confirms the band's feelings about civil rights. Incidentally, Ringo also was contractually obligated to receive a special drumming platform.
In other Beatles news, Abbey Road, the famed British studio where they recorded, is making attempts to stay vital in this age of laptop studios. For $800 you can send your own tracks into Abbey Road to have them mixed by professionals. All they require is a little guidance - are you going for The Clash? Or Barbra Streisand? In addition, they've launched an Abbey Road board game centered around the iconic zebra stripe road crossing.
Handsome Furs
Sound Opinions continues its run with husband and wife duos. We've had Low, Damon & Naomi and now Handsome Furs. The Montreal electro-pop act consists of Wolf Parade guitarist Dan Boeckner and his wife Alexei Perry. As they explain, the musical pairing came out of necessity more than anything. They just had no space to do their own solo projects. Now they're on their third album called Sound Kapital, which was inspired by Dan and Alexei's travels to Eastern Europe and Asia. There they discovered a vital underground music scene and a new brand of protest music. Those sounds and messages informed the tracks on Sound Kapital. Check out video of Handsome Furs live in the studio.
Strange Mercy St. Vincent
St. Vincent has a new album out called Strange Mercy. The singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, also known as Annie Clark, visited Sound Opinions upon the release of her second album Actor. That ended up Greg's top album of 2009. He's equally impressed with this effort, noting that she's blowing out the dynamics mix to a greater degree. The same goes for her guitar playing, which is at times unrecognizable. He loves the layers and the complicated storytelling and gives the record a Buy It. Jim couldn't disagree more. He admits St. Vincent is unique and talented, but totally doesn't buy "the schtick." He finds her characters inauthentic and pretentious and says Trash It.
Featured Songs
- The Beatles, "Blackbird," The White Album, Apple, 1968
- The Beatles, "You Never Give Me Your Money," Abbey Road, EMI, 1969
- Handsome Furs, "When I Get Back," Sound Kapital, Sub Pop, 2011
- Wolf Parade, "Shine a Light," Apologies to the Queen Mary, Sub Pop, 2005
- Handsome Furs, "Dumb Animals," Plague Park, Sub Pop, 2007
- Handsome Furs, "Memories of the Future (Live on Sound Opinions)," Sound Kapital, Sub Pop, 2011
- Handsome Furs, "I'm Confused," Face Control, Sub Pop, 2009
- Handsome Furs, "Serve the People," Sound Kapital, Sub Pop, 2011
- Handsome Furs, "Bury Me Standing (Live on Sound Opinions)," Sound Kapital, Sub Pop, 2011
- Handsome Furs, "Cheap Music," Sound Kapital, Sub Pop, 2011
- Wolf Parade, "Palm Road," Expo 86, Sub Pop, 2010
- Handsome Furs, "All We Want, Baby, is Everything," Face Control, Sub Pop, 2009
- Handsome Furs, "What About Us? (Live on Sound Opinions)," Sound Kapital, Sub Pop, 2011
- Handsome Furs, "No Feelings," Sound Kapital, Sub Pop, 2011
- St. Vincent, "Cruel," Strange Mercy, 4AD, 2011
- St. Vincent, "Northern Lights," Strange Mercy, 4AD, 2011
- St. Vincent, "Surgeon," Strange Mercy, 4AD, 2011
- St. Vincent, "Chloe in the Afternoon," Strange Mercy, 4AD, 2011
- Atlas Sound, "Te Amo," Parallax, 4AD, 2011
- New Edition, "Mr. Telephone Man," New Edition, Geffen, 1987
- The Meters, "Cissy Strut," Meters, Sundazed Music, 1999
- Parliament, "Flash Light," The Best of Parliament: Give Up the Funk, Island Def Jam, 1995
- Art Blakey, "Moose the Mooche," Drums Around the Corner, Blue Note, 1958
- Cameo, "Rigor Mortis," Gold, Island/Mercury, 2005
- Brass Construction, "Get Up to Get Down," The Best of Brass Construction: Movin' & Changin', EMI, 1998
Dear Listeners,
For more than 15 years, Sound Opinions was a production of WBEZ, Chicago's public radio station. Now that the show is independent, we're inviting you to join the band and lend a hand! We need your support more than ever because now we have to do all the behind-the-scenes work that WBEZ handled before (like buying insurance and paying for podcast hosting, ugh). Plus, we have some exciting ideas we'd like to try now that there's no one to tell us no!