New Music: CocoRosie, Deerhunter

CocoRosie - Japan (removed by request) (Touch and Go 2007)

CocoRosie – The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn / Touch and Go

To me at least, the immediate popularity of CocoRosie is somewhat of an anomaly. Sprung on to our ears out of nowhere in 2003, and on Touch and Go nonetheless, the sisters Casady dropped one of the weirdest and surprisingly infectious debuts in years with La Maison de Mon Rêve, and fans reacted accordingly. Utilizing a wavering combination of quirky folk, bedroom psychedelia, found sound, mutated hip-hop and the epic nature and slight characteristics of opera, to say CocoRosie is an individualistic group is an vast understatement. But then again, with our current New Weird America obsession where similar oddballs Joanna and Antony reign as queen and king (gender specification used loosely) respectively, I guess it’s not that much out of the ordinary. Their amazingly quick rise to fame is baffling but warranted, and they’ve got most of indie-America, including myself, picking up each concurrent album just to see what they pull out of their androgynous top hat next. And while I’d call 2005’s sophomore album Noah’s Ark somewhat of a misstep, their footing is as solid as ever with the this latest disc, The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn (see, even the album title has peaked your curiosity… well done ladies).

The back-story of the duo is somewhat confusing, mostly because of their penchant for all things French. Sierra and Bianca Casady are actually not French at all, but they did reunite in Paris after a decade of separation while the former was studying opera at the Paris Conservatory. They are in fact half-Cherokee with the older sibling, Sierra, being born in Iowa and Bianca born a couple years later in Hawaii. The moniker stems from childhood when their mother nicknamed them Coco (Bianca) and Rosie (Sierra), and their estranged father was/is(?) involved with Shamanism and the Peyote religion, which certainly has an influence on their music. After Bianca grew tired of Brooklyn in 2003, she unexpectedly showed up at Sierra’s apartment in Paris and the sisters immediately began tinkering with music. The results were a hip-hip album supposedly called “word to the crow,” which has never been released, and La Maison de Mon Rêve, their debut for Touch and Go. This album took indie-rock by storm with its oddball bedroom psychedelia and elevated them to underground stardom. Noah’s Ark, which was much more influenced by their contemporaries and friends, Devendra Banhart and Antony Hegarty, received mixed reactions; I heavily prefer the former.

The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn finds the sisters returning somewhat to the initial sound they purveyed, especially the hip-hop influence. I would detail the album’s overarching storyline, but I’ll be damned if I can decipher all of the fantasy-inspired parallels. The press release rambles on with lines like “It’s a cruel circus, like hunting unicorns or killing My Little Pony” and “From her humble beginnings in the South of France, the saga sailed the Seven Seas all the way to that icy crack in the Earth’s crust just outside Reykjavik.” I don’t know if this will help the context either, but apparently while Noah’s Ark was inspired by infamous French writer and political activist Jean Genet, this album is guided spiritually by the Scottish nursery rhyme character Wee Willie Winkie, who refused to go to sleep at bedtime until he was hauled off to jail… at least I think. Anyways, as I mentioned earlier, the album is much more in the vein of La Maison de Mon Rêve with a heavy hip-hop influence along with their continued musical maturity. “Rainbowarriors” features a pretty damn catchy, found-soundish beat accentuated with rain sticks and a high-pitched synth yelp while Sierra sings/raps overtop. Like most of La Maison, it’s surprisingly and confusingly catchy. “Japan” is probably next in line of noteworthiness; it builds off of light harp plucks and a thick bass line with scream-along choruses. Sierra’s child-like croon is doubled with a Boba Fett-like processor and about three-fourths way through, the driving song deconstructs into an operatic bridge before returning full-force. Tracks like “Werewolf,” “Animals” and “Raphael” follow suit with patient, pieced-together beats and sometimes lush and beautiful, sometimes awkward and weird musical accompaniment. Where Noah’s Ark blindly meandered in the latter, The Adventures balances both approaches with a good degree of success. While I don’t see it credited anywhere, the unmistakable voice of Antony shows up on a few occasions, most apparent on the lullaby closer “Miracle.”

While The Adventures maybe the most accessible album yet by CocoRosie, they haven’t even begun to approach any kind of crossover success. But the sisters Casady sound very comfortable in their individual and strangely effective niche, so why venture away from what’s working? I know I keeping emphasizing how surprised I am at their success, but c’mon, you have to admit that this is some wacky music, no matter how infectious it may be. Go play this for your mom and see how she reacts. Nonetheless, I have to give CocoRosie all the props in the world because they are truly carving out their own individual path and their unrestrained creativity has to be respected.







Deerhunter - Fluorescent Grey (Kranky 2007)

Deerhunter – Fluorescent Grey EP / Kranky

Remember Deerhunter? I know we have to reach way back to January to revisit this one, which is like twenty-one years in blogosphere time (that I've calculated to something like one month equals seven years of pre-internet time), but if you check the archives, their sophomore album took us all by storm. Hopefully not forgotten by the time we get around to December's year-end list frenzy, Cryptograms was a swirling, raucous, hypnotic mess of 60s psyche-pop and 80s post-punk that lifted the Atlanta quintet into the upper stratosphere of indie respect, at least for the month of January. And the tumultuous back-story (oh the back-story!) of nearly throwing in the towel after a death in the band, recording the entire breakthrough album in just two epiphanic afternoons, a made-for-the-stage lead singer who looks like he's coked-out but actually suffers from a genetic disorder that causes his limbs to be awkwardly elongated, and a MySpace page that proudly displays disgusted anti-fan letters. I mean what else do you need!? Deerhunter became the toast of the forever fickle underground music town, loved by the masses of heavily opinionated, unpaid writers (including ourselves, but surprisingly not AMG… maybe they are actually paid) and poised for the inevitable backlash. But I have yet to come across any said backlash, which is impressive in its own right, and the always strategic brains of Kranky are masterfully stringing us along with a brand new EP of unreleased material along with releasing Cryptograms for the first time on wax accompanied by these new songs. Deerhunter may just live to be thirty-five (which translates to early June if you weren't paying attention earlier) with this new momentum.

So now we get back to the music. The Fluorescent Grey EP was recorded while Cryptograms was being mixed, which is a very important aspect when digesting this new music. These four songs are pre-popularity explosion, so they were NOT recorded in reaction to their newfound fame. I emphasize this just in case you come across any ill-informed critic ranting nonsensical about the band selling out or something equally ridiculous, but hopefully that won't be an issue. What you do get though is a sort of epilogue to Cryptograms; a few extra songs to try and fill that void left when the tape ran out on "Heatherwood." Like their Kranky debut, this EP features an urgent swirl of clamoring psychedelic rock that's been dragged through a muggy bog of reverb and feedback. I want to say it's more akin to the sunnier, latter half of Cryptograms, but it actually very much stands on its own. The opening title track builds from a simple, mellow piano melody into a cyclical array of screaming electric guitars, post-punky bass lines, chugging drums and singer Bradford Cox's inviting, rhythmic vocals, which really acts as its own instrument after being strung through a number of hazy processors by the song's end. And most surprisingly, he's counteracted with both a higher-pitched female voice and a gruff croak of which he contributes a very comfortable mid-point. The uncredited female vocals return for "Dr. Glass" which grooves along on an awkward organ melody and infectious rhythm section of sleigh bells and handclaps. I'm digging the dual vocalists; it significantly warms the Deerhunter sound. The brief "Like New" follows and is probably the most forgettable of the bunch though not bad by any means. And finally, "Wash Off" rounds out the 15-minute EP with the same driving psyche-out explosion that made Cryptograms so invigorating. All four songs are worth your time, and it's an essential augmentation if you are like me and already sitting in the front row of the Deerhunter bandwagon. It will be very exciting to hear the material they record next though in the wake of their warranted popularity.