Elizabeth Cotten - "Freight Train"
Elizabeth Cotten plays slow, deep, aching guitar and squawks her crude and creaking vocal line expressing her inane world view (what does this song mean?).
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Destroyer with Frog Eyes - "New Ways of Living"
It took me a few listens, but I've come to embrace Your Blues, Destroyer’s latest album, as if it was my own child. The album’s synth sounds, mostly bad imitations of other instruments, initially come off as corny, but as you explore the fragile melodies (preferably with headphones on) you come to realize that the synth soundscapes create their own fairy tale world, a perfect location for the set of songs.
I saw Bejar (Destroyer’s front and sometimes only man) play in support of the album in Ottawa with Vancouver’s Frog Eyes as his backing band. The synths were replaced by a full rock band and Carey Mercer’s (from Frog Eyes) wild hooting back-up vocals and sharp, loud leads. The latter of which I found overpowering and distracting (though when I mentioned it afterwards, I was jeered out of the room, a social pariah).
This version of “New Ways Of Living” (recorded with Frog Eyes as part of Destroyer’s CBC studio sessions), (however), outdoes the Your Blues version by a mile. Frog Eyes knits a tight weave of frenetic pop around Destroyer’s camp. The song’s a sustained sprint with Mercer crowding Bejar, pushing him, breathing down his neck. Then at 1:49 Mercer sets in with the perfectly surreal yodel of an undead little girl and the guitars pick themselves up into a wave propelling the song to its anthemic climax.