If you were at The National show in the Olympia last night, you will have heard this song serve as the introduction to the band.
Much has been written about Bon Iver’s recording methods of hibernating in a remote cabin in Wisconsin for three months during winter. It’s inevitable because these songs on For Emma, Forever Ago are desolate and brooding, questioning and a little lonely. Iver sounds like a man who hasn’t talked to anyone in a long time. Even his name means “Good Winter”, slightly bastardised from the French version.
FYI: I thought the National were middling and the sound was awful. Thank you. See you guyzes on Monday/Tuesday.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
He (well Justin and 2 others) are playing Crawdaddy on June 2nd I think. Can’t wait I’ve heard a couple of bootlegs of live gigs and they sound great.
You know how I feel about the National in general. I didn’t like it at all.
saw them at ATP last week, and they were great. Will have to pick up a ticket for Crawdaddy…
Looks like I’ll have to give Bon Iver another listen. I’ve been hearing nothing but good things about him lately and yet I wasn’t all that impressed by the album when I first heard it…
You national hater, you.
Where were you for the gig? I was up in the circle and the sound was grand. I think if you’re any further than halfway back downstairs the sound doesn’t travel because of the roof.
Such a beautiful song!
Just a heads up – he’s on jools holland tonight
http://www.bbc.co.uk/later/shows/series32/episode07/boniver/
tut tut tut
The National was fantastic, fake empire with the trumpets was simply fantastic 🙂
sold out 3 nights in the olympia, must be doin something right haha
as for bon iver, ive only heard “flume” but its bloomin’ great i think 🙂
Thanks, I really love this song.
He was great on Jools actually. That show is not as good as it used to be…
Beautiful!
huh, funny, i saw them at the ambassador last year and i thought the olympia gig was alot better. there ya go.
Same here, but then I hate The Ambassador
Just saw Bon Iver play Social (London) and couldn’t recommend highly enough.
skin,
See you this evening. I thought they were fantastic, saw them at ATP and it was a whopper of a performance, Best thing ive seen in a long time. Get a listen to the rekkid, you need to get into the songs, theres a lot going on in there.
C
i love, love love Bon Iver.
i haven’t been this excited about a new album in a long while.
anyone know if crawdaddy is sold out???
ticket master (see how i had the restaint not to call it ticketbastard) is pranking me
It seems to be yeah, I didn’t realise it went on sale so long ago. It’s a pity, it probably won’t be moved now at this late stage.