Video: Wild Beasts Live at Some Fancy Place in London
- story Matthew Schnipper
We imagine the audience is sitting down. The lights behind the band scream “plush velvet seats” and “intermission with dry martinis and cappuccino.” That is, in ways we have not realized until watching this full live set, a very appropriate way to watch Wild Beasts, a band whose considered rock appeal is not dissimilar to that of theater. There are many moving parts, some close vocal interactions and lot of feelings being exposed. We recently found out Wild Beats are much younger than we realized, as we’d given them credit for having knowledge from the experiences of long life(like at least 30 years) —their songs always seem so wizened. But they’re babyfaced and newly traversing the world of adulthood, which leaves their appearance at Hoxton Hall (it sounds so important) all the more intimidating. Though it’s clearly been finished for some time, we’re still nervous for them. Go gently into the night, young lads. Like night club, not like a death metaphor. Check out Wild Beasts playing “Hooting and Howling” above and the rest of the set on their site.
Video: Wild Beasts, “All the King’s Men”
- story Sam Hockley-Smith
Imagine stumbling upon the filming of this video. You’d find the dudes from Wild Beasts in hoods standing around a fire and howling at the sky, their stuttered oohs and ahhs transforming from something nice to wash dishes to on a foggy Sunday afternoon to some crazy druid/werewolf Morrissey-influenced magic of nature shit. Believe it or not, this song is an ode to various girls from various towns we’ve never been to—a simultaneously bouncy and somewhat dour version of this. Kind of.
Wild Beasts Daytrotter Session MP3
- story Matthew Schnipper
- photo Venetia Dearden (F45)
Though it’s possibly cruel to write it, it is unbelievable that Wild Beasts will ever surpass “The Devil’s Crayon,” because that shit is perfect bliss. Hey, the rest of that album is stellar, as is their new one, Two Dancers, but “The Devil’s Crayon” is like eating an egg cooked by Wylie Dufresne, every other song is like eating eggs you cooked at home. Maybe you even took egg cooking classes and your over easy game is running shit, but it’s not the same sublimity you get from a perfect expert. The Daytrotter version of the song, which you can hear below, is a warm reminder of its place in the cannon of all things unfadeable. The other tracks are good, too, but the heart wants what it wants.
Download: Wild Beasts, Daytrotter Session
Freeload: Stag & Dagger Festival MP3 Bonanza
- story THE FADER
In our newest issue—available on paper or magic PDF paper—we chose Micachu & The Shapes to represent cover icon David Byrne’s tendency to be in the thick of things yet totally out of it. Cool, yet not cool. Micachu is right in the middle of the UK pop scene but is nowhere near anyone else, as you can hear on this cover of Toddla T’s “Backchatter” with Miss Bienek. Micachu will be playing Vice’s gigantic UK festival Stag & Dagger this Thursday at the London venue, and subsequent days will host every other band we’ve liked over the last year or so. So, go buckwild on free songs from a few of our favorites from the lineup and pick up Stag & Dagger tickets here.
LONDON 5/21:
Download: Micachu & The Shapes, “Backchatter”
Download: Abe Vigoda, “Don’t Lie”
Download: White Denim, “Mirrored and Reversed”
Download: Wild Beasts, “The Devil’s Crayon (Acoustic Version)”
LEEDS, 5/22:
Download: Vivian Girls, “Lake House”
Download: Telepathe, “Heater”
Download: Wavves, “Friends Were Gone”
GLASGOW 5/23:
Download: Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, “Buriedfed”
Download: Black Lips, “I’ll Be With You”
Download: Mika Miko, “I Got A Lot”
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posted on May 19, 2009 in MP3 / STREAMS tags Abe Vigoda, Black Lips, freeload, Micachu & The Shapes, Mika Miko, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, MUSIC-MP3/STREAMS, rock, Stag & Dagger, Telepathe, Vivian Girls, Wavves, White Denim, Wild Beasts
Schnipper’s Slept On
- story THE FADER
Each Tuesday, FADER editor Matthew Schnipper highlights an underappreciated recent release he thinks we need to know about. This week it’s Wild Beasts’ Limbo, Panto. Download an acoustic version of “The Devil’s Crayon” below (but make sure you check the regular version, too, Freeloader), buy the record and read Schnipper’s thoughts on it after the jump.
Download: Wild Beasts, “The Devil’s Crayon (Acoustic Version)”
Video: Wild Beasts, “Brave Bulging Bouyant Clairvoyants”
- story THE FADER
Back in 6th grade, we fixated on our Escher calendars just like everyone else (right?), but we never bothered to delve into the mathematics behind the art, especially since Gödel, Escher and Bach is over 800 pages and we have RSS feeds to read. However, the video directing team OneInThree, also responsible for The Teenagers’ “Make It Happen”, embraced the “strange loop” and turned it into a case study of Hayden Thorpe’s mustache. And it is way more complicated than the original video for the song which was actually the Wild Beasts’ debut single in 2006 and is now being rereleased off Limbo, Panto, making it a sort of discographical strange loop in itself.
Video: Wild Beasts, “The Devil’s Crayon”
- story THE FADER
A couple weeks ago in his Dollars To Pounds column, Sam Richards gushed over the new Wild Beasts album Limbo, Panto but didn’t mention “The Devil’s Crayon”, which puts the kid who looks like a young, brunette Spike Jonze (Tom Fleming) on the mic. We can never decide which we like more, his girlish falsetto or Hayden’s girlish vibrato, but the songs are always great. If you’re in the UK, these characters are playing a rash of shows in the next couple weeks, so make sure to check them out.
Dollar To Pounds: Unleash The Beasts
- story THE FADER
Everyone’s been swooning over that Last Shadow Puppets album recently, and with good reason. Alex Turner’s knavish tales go well with a dollop of orchestral elan, plus he and Miles look dashing in turtlenecks. However, the boys would be the first to admit that their record’s a fairly considered Scott Walker/ Jimmy Webb homage, albeit a handsome and effective one. Whereas the amazing debut album from the Lake District’s Wild Beasts, which dropped into my lap yesterday, bars no holds whatsoever in its mad, quixotic pursuit of a bawdy English kind of melodrama, making the Last Shadow Puppets seem a bit tame and calculating by comparison.
Video: Wild Beasts, “Sylvia, A Melodrama”
- story THE FADER
Excusing the fact that there is a scene in this video where someone does one of those weird somehow simultaneously ravey and hippyish hand dances that a lot of girls we knew in middle school would walk around doing for no reason we are still into it. Maybe it’s the harmonized Arthur Russell ululations, or maybe it’s just the overexposed film shots that make the whole thing seem kinda quaint and nice. Check out Sam Richards’ Gen F on Wild Beasts from F45 after the jump.
