SONG OF THE DAY
“Madder Red” by Yeasayer (Odd Blood, Secretly Canadian Records, 2010)
WHERE I HEARD IT
On this season of NBC’s Parenthood, the episode titled “If This Boat Is A ‘Rockin’ “.
INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)
– Yeasayer (pronounced /ˈjeɪseɪər/) is an experimental rock band based in Brooklyn, New York.
– The band’s three core members, Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and Anand Wilder, first came to attention after appearing at the SXSW festival in early 2007.
– Live performances often include psychedelic visuals.
– In 2008, Yeasayer toured with MGMT and Man Man and supported Beck.
– The same year, a public a cappella concert, “Take Away Show”, was performed on the Paris metro.
– The band has also played at Lollapalooza, the Pitchfork Music Festival, the Austin City Limits Festival, Bonnaroo, Coachella, the Reading and Leeds Festivals, the Dutch Pinkpop and Lowlands festival, and the Australian music festival Splendour In The Grass.
– Backed by labels Secretly Canadian and Mute Records, Yeasayer released their second studio album, Odd Blood, in February 2010, featuring more pop music influences than earlier work.
– In July 2010 they appeared at Latitude Festival in England at the Word Tent where they also completed a signing session.
– In 2010, the band did a remix for Florence and the Machine’s hit single “Dog Days Are Over” which was released on October 12th, via iTunes.
– Odd Blood was recorded in the state of New York during 2009, it was released on February 8, 2010 in Europe and a day later in North America, with Secretly Canadian as the primary label.
– The band traveled to Woodstock in upstate New York and rented the country home of percussionist Jerry Marotta, converted into Jersville Studio.
– The album received largely positive reviews from critics. Praise centered on its cohesive merging of genres, especially the pop-influenced rhythms.
– Yeasayer’s acclaimed debut studio album, All Hour Cymbals, was released in 2007 by independent label We Are Free.
– According to a Rolling Stone article, Odd Blood was inspired by a trip to New Zealand, where Yeasayer experimented with LSD.
– Keating has pointed out that the aim was to “sonically challenge Rihanna in the clubs”, with an emphasis on bass, while Wilder has said that the band tried to make “a poppier album”.
– On November 3, 2009, Yeasayer previewed material from the album at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, while single “Ambling Alp” was released as a promotional single digitally and on a limited 12″ vinyl edition.
– Acknowledging the full album’s Internet leak, Yeasayer posted a Twitter status on December 10 that read “Presents are always spoiled for those who open them before they are supposed to”.
– The cover art for Odd Blood was revealed the following day, a stylized bust design by artist Benjamin Phelan based on the vision of “a future with a distorted biology”; the chest portion is “sculpted from virtual clay” with a force feedback motion-capture device. The back cover features another Phelan work, a human head with no features apart from two computer nodes as eyes, while the gatefold sleeve and the inserted booklet and CD contain other designs and light sculpture photographs from the artist.
– The album cover was voted as one of Pitchfork Media’s worst album covers of 2010.
– On January 15–16, Odd Blood preview listening parties were organized across selected U.S. independent record stores, where promotional vinyl copies could be purchased.
– The first pre-orders of Odd Blood were taken on January 29, which included a free exclusive package of a “die cut pin and shirt”.
– On February 2, the album was posted in its entirety as a stream on Yeasayer’s MySpace page, while the band’s February 5 concert at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles was webcast live.
– Yeasayer just recently ended an extensive tour of Europe and North America with the last concert ending European tour on 2nd November in Warsaw, Poland.
– Yeasayer’s two main lyricists, Keating and Wilder, shared writing duties for the 10 songs on Odd Blood.
– Inspired by John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy”, “Madder Red” is about a weak man who likes to gamble. The track was created by Wilder as an acoustic folk lullaby, to which Keating added a prominent beat. The first lines which begin with “Even when my luck is down” are borrowed from a Celtic book of verse.
– Odd Blood is built around sonic experimentation with different genres and synthetic musical elements. Yeasayer tried to commit to certain styles for an entire song and “not jump around”.
– Media response to Odd Blood was generally favorable; aggregating website Metacritic reports a normalized rating of 78% based on 36 critical reviews.
– Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune described Yeasayer’s new material as a consolidation of the work on All Hour Cymbals into “a series of shapely pop songs”; he stated, “The album aims for pleasure rather than introspection, and most of the time, it hits the mark.”
– Summing it up as “both odd and bloody marvelous”, Will Dean of The Guardian labeled Odd Blood “a masterclass in modern, multicultural, weirdo pop music”.
– Will Hermes of Rolling Stone commented that, like fellow Brooklyn bands Dirty Projectors and Animal Collective, Yeasayer are “pioneers of a scene that refuses to choose between a sense of experimental adventure and pure pop pleasure”, while Allmusic’s Andrew Leahey noted that the record is “a thinking man’s album, one that requires its listeners to put on their thinking caps as well as their dancing shoes”.
– Josh Modell of Spin concluded, “So, two exciting questions: Where did this come from, and what’s coming next?”
– Todd Martens of Los Angeles Times stated that Odd Blood “ultimately reveals that beneath all the weird sounds, tribal harmonies and otherworldly textures, Yeasayer are still a bunch of indie-rock sentimentalists”, while Tim Chester of NME wrote that the album is “a musical package holiday you can take vicariously”.
– Although conceding that it “should appeal to a lot of people”, Pitchfork Media’s Scott Plagenhoef was less receptive and suggested that the “overfed production and search for direction” often lead to “a bit too much of not enough”.
– Amanda Farah of Clash explained that Odd Blood is “an unabashed pop record that anyone should be proud to play at full volume”, while Paul Terefenko of NOW concluded, “Who’d have thought the psych-folk pile, already teetering on the brink of over-saturation, would peak with Yeasayer’s second album?”
VIDEO OF THE DAY
WARNING: THIS IS THE WEIRDEST VIDEO I’VE EVER SEEN.