Some girls' journals are, as one might expect in the classic "Dear Diary" style, fairly calm and romantically aspirational. Others, though, are wildly fantastical and unhinged, not just chronicling the frustrations of life but inventing a "me-centric" universe in which to retreat. I'm pitching that theory in order to try to explain what's going on with the Tune-Yards album, but hey, your guess is as good as mine. Quite frankly, Bird-Brains is 100% bonkers.
Take News, for example. This is a relatively straight-forward song with a traditional song structure and hummable chorus. And it happens to be performed on ukelele and ping-pong paddles. Oh, and there's a glassware solo.
It's not quite as impressive these days when one person cooks up an entire album of music, but the inventiveness of Bird-Brains still blows me away. Honestly, even though the sonics of the two records are worlds apart, I keep thinking about Remain In Light when I listen to Tune-Yards. Think about it, though. Tricky rhythms, chanting and call & response vocals, big bumpin' bass lines, and a gleeful round of noise making to augment the songs. (Sunlight is a great example of the weird sinuous funk.) They said Byrne and Eno were nuts, too.
But there's definitely something brilliant in that madness. My guess is that the only person who even halfway understands it is Merrill Garbus... she who is Tune-Yards. (By the way, I'm not doing the official spelling of tUnE-yArDs. It hurts my brain more than the record does.)
And if you like this, you should definitely check out Micachu and the Shapes. Golden Phone is another home-brewed party jam.
Yeah, weird rhythms on this one. Just try to tap your foot to some of the (african type beats?). How strange to start the record off with your toddler talking about fresh blueberries.
ReplyDeleteOne of the amazing things about the first couple of Throwing Muses records is that Kristen and Tanya didn't know how to play, but they knew what they wanted to hear. The result was made-up chords and non-rhythmic rhythms... but of course, that added up to some memorable greatness. Not sure if Tune-Yards is there yet, but being a crazy chick on 4AD will draw a comparison like that!
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