Artist of the Day: Bon Iver
Bon Iver, one of my favorite indie folk bands, rocked the 2012 Grammy Awards and brought home two outstanding awards: Best New Artist and Best Alternative Album for its second album. (It’s actually a sad day for us indie lovers; the mainstream folks are taking over!) But get this: Bon Iver was actually supposed to perform at the Grammys, but they “reportedly declined an invitation…citing Vernon’s (Justin Vernon, Bon Iver’s frontman) discomfort at performing alongside other artists not of his choosing.” Yes. So Steve Jobs and Gregory House. So hey, he’s an indie man through and through, and the Grammys has always been more of a mainstream thing and “have largely been ignored or mocked by the independent community.” So it’s great that he refused to be swallowed up by the mainstream community. Otherwise I’m gonna have to start deleting his songs on iTunes. It would have to be done. And that’s going to be pretty difficult to do since some of his songs are my ultimate favorites, like Creature Fear (which was played on Chuck, when Chuck and Sarah were waking up after sleeping - literally - together):
So many foreign worlds
So relatively fucked
So ready for us
The creature fear
And Skinny Love: (Please also check out Birdy’s cover of this song, which was featured in Vampire Diaries, at the funeral scene after Jenna’s death - yes, it is THAT memorable.)
Come on skinny love just last the year
Pour a little salt we were never here
I tell my love to wreck it all
Cut out all the ropes and let me fall
Right in the moment this order’s tall
And Blood Bank, Re: Stacks, Flume, and so on. Well, actually, all of his songs on his first album, For Emma, Forever Ago. Bon Iver also collaborated with St. Vincent for the song “Roslyn.” If I hadn’t decided to name my kid/s after chocolate bars, I would most definitely use the name “Roslyn,” just because of this song. (HAHA)
And of course, don’t forget to check out Bon Iver’s self-titled new album, which features the song “Holocene,” which was nominated for Record of the Year but lost to Adele’s Rolling in the Deep.
Anyway, I have mixed feelings for Bon Iver’s Grammys thing. As this one YouTube user put it: ”Damn it Grammys! Last year Arcade Fire and now Bon Iver! Don’t you know you’re not supposed to give Grammys to real musicians!?” But still, as another YouTube user said, “Like if you felt like a proud parent when he won Best New Artist.”
So still proud. But post-Grammys, I really hope Bon Iver would continue to be an indie folk band and would not let the mainstream community reform them.
So many territories
Ready to reform
Don’t let it form us
The creature fear