How could I not post this?

Kanye West takes one of my favorite Bon Iver songs and messes with it. It'll wake up your Sunday.

Bon Iver's lyrics: bent and beautiful

Who else can pack so much into two virtually senseless stanzas? Bon Iver, that's who. Here's the video, lyrics below.

Beach Baby

When you're out,
Tell your lucky one to know that you'll leave.
Don't you lock when you're fleeing
I'd like not to hear keys.

Only hold till your coffee warms,
But don't hurry, speed.

Once a time put a tongue
In your ear on the beach.
And you clutched
Clinging heels.

My fave from the new Bon Iver album

What can I say? I love this guy. Don't give up on the song if you don't like the open. It changes. You'll find the video below, and here are the lyrics. As always, Justin Vernon give us word soup, a side-stream of sound and disjointed meaning to accompany his melody. For this reason, the lyrics below are just a guesstimate.

Minnesota, WI

Armour let it through, borne the arboretic truth you kept posing

sat down in the suit, fixed on up it wasn’t you by finished closing

ramble in the roots, had the marvel, moved the proof be kneeled fine’s glowing

storing up the clues, it had its sullen blue bruised through by showing

settle past a patience where wishes and your will are spilling pictures

water’s running through in the valley where we grew to write this scripture:

never gonna break

never gonna break

never gonna break

never gonna break

not for a part in any gamut of the dark

doubled in the toes annex it, it minute closed in the morning

did not lose it in the stack’s stow, imma lay that call back on ya

you know it won’t beseech you, we’re laying in an open field

I will let you grow, no need to know this

so carry on my dear, what is clear up in the daylight is we’re hung here

fall is coming soon, a new year for the moon and the Hmong here

never gonna break

never gonna break

never gonna break

never gonna break

all that it seems

bellows tracing through the streams

never gonna break

never gonna break

never gonna break

never gonna break

all at its seams

swallows swelling for the beams

Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) on the Colbert Report

I missed this when it aired. Bon Iver on Colbert! This is the same song I posted last week, the first single off Bon Iver's new album, but here he's performing it live. (I think it's live, despite all the effects; it's not the same as the album version.)

But who cares? It's Justin Vernon, a man I can legally wed in New York 30 days from now. I'd watch him recite the alphabet -- and I'll bet he'd do it creatively. None of this set letter-order stuff or nuthin'. Anyway, check this out.

New Bon Iver song: Calgary

First, here are the lyrics to Bon Iver's new song, Calgary:

Don’t you cherish me to sleep

Never keep your eyelids clipped

Hold me for the pops and clicks

I was only for the father’s crib

Hair, old, long along

Your neck onto your shoulder blades

Always keep that message taped

Cross your breasts you won’t erase

I was only for your very space

Hip, under nothing

Propped up by your other one, face ‘way from the sun

Just have to keep a dialogue

Teach our bodies: haunt the cause

I was only trying to spell a loss

Joy, it’s all founded

Pincher with the skin inside

You pinned me with your black sphere eyes

You know that all the rope’s untied

I was only for to die beside

So itʼs storming on the lake

Little waves our bodies break

There’s a fire going out,

But there’s really nothing to the south

Swollen orange and light let through

Your one piece swimmer stuck to you

Sold, I’m Ever

Open ears and open eyes

Wake up to your starboard bride

Who goes in and then stays inside

Oh the demons come, they can subside

As usual: what the?  Word soup, yet again. But I don't care. I love the guy. Here's the video.

New Bon Iver album coming soon

Justin Vernon, Bon Iver

I just saw a notice in the NY Times that Bon Iver's next album will be out on June 21st. Woot! I love this guy.

If you'd like to hear the album now, there's a preview on the Times site. Here's the link.

I cannot wait! Oh, and the album is called "Bon Iver, Bon Iver".

OMG! I found another Bon Iver song!

I was shocked to find this song on YouTube. I had no idea it existed.  Here's the video and below it you'll find the lyrics. They actually (sort of) make sense. Amazing! The song is simple and way too short but it's lovely.



Redemption 1: (An Army Man and His Self-Discovery)

We built a wall
Standing there, so big and tall
Keeping us
From the rust of what's hurting us all
To feel a spark
Hope in the dark, no matter what the cost
To know that nothing
Ever will be completely lost

I'm at the wall
Staring, looking up at the names
Mistakes we've made
Broken families, no, these aren't just little games
Hand the torch
To the man who is looking for his blood
The warmth of searching
For the blood just might be enough

I am stable, I am breakable
I am boarded up and begging you
I am hoping, I am coping
It is storming out here
I am broken, I am stolen
I am chained up and begging you
I am bolder, I am older
I am just a brother, babe
I am spinning, I am hitting
I am loved but not gone
I am open, it is pouring in
Gonna make you love him more than you even can
The kid says mia, I say my-a
They freed us, no matter what I say
I am bolder, I am older
I am just a sister, babe
I am older, I am bolder
I am just a mother, babe
I am older, I am bolder
I am just a father, babe

Surely someone out there knows how I can get this guy to marry me. Surely.

"Bon Iver blew my mind," says old hippie.

Justin Vernon/Bon Iver

I've posted Bon Iver video here before. I adore this man and find him to be unlike anyone else in music. The video to the song, Lump Sum, is below -- but first check out his lyrics.

Bon Iver (Justin Vernon) uses words like paint, without letting their meaning get in his way. There is little logic to the lyrics he sings. Each word seems to exist in its own universe, hinting at a ghostly meaning while providing a hook for his voice. Take this song, for instance.

Lump Sum

Sold my cold knot

A heavy stone

Sold my red horse for a venture home

To vanish on the bow --

Settling slow

Fit it all, fit it in the doldrums

So the story goes

Color the era

Film it, it's historical

My mile could not

Pump the plum

In my arbor 'till my ardor

Trumped every inner inertia

Lump sum

All at once

Rushing from the sub-pump

So the story goes

Balance we won't know

We will see when it gets warm

How can you not love a guy who writes lyrics like that? You gotta. Words, schmerds! Now, here's the video but it isn't the official, full orchestra version. Instead, it's Justin all alone in a recording studio, singing the song and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. It's one track to the song, in other words. And oh, yeah. I want to marry this guy.

PS: After listening to the video, you might want to hear the full version he released. You'll find it here. And by the way, who knows if these are the lyrics? It's hard to tell -- and he's very vague when you question him about anything. He's not even sure how to pronounce "Bon Iver". Andy Warhol would have loved this guy.

Bon Iver is creativity writ large

I'm amazed by Bon Iver's creativity, just gobsmacked. I only found the group last year but apparently this song came out in 2007.

Justin Vernon is Bon Iver. He's an amazing artist who combines everything from the past in his songs. They're smart. This particular song, called "Woods" is from the first Bon Iver album, For Emma, Forever Ago.

That's one of Vernon's things: his lyrics, like that album title, are evocative while at the same time, they elude common sense. If you look up the lyrics of a song, you'll find they make little sense. I think he treats words like notes, and uses them how he sees fit. I love this guy. Here's the song: