WHY? Appreciation Post

Credit is due to my boyfriend for introducing me to this band, thus sparking yet another musical obsession of mine.

WHY? is absolutely unclassifiable. Sometimes hip-hop, sometimes folk pop... but really the only way to describe them is that they're unlike anyone else.  They're just plain weird.  

WHY?

The thing that keeps me coming back to WHY? is lead singer Yoni Wolf's lyrics.  They're expressive and imaginative... laden with imagery, metaphors, and double entendres.


There's no way I could do this band more justice than simply listing off some of my favorite Yoni-isms.  It took me actually reading the written verses to realize just how many themes he has incorporated into their work.  Love, history, death, adolescence, sex, violence, drugs, religion... just a small list of Yoni's lyrical musings.

Here's a taste (warning, some are NSFW):

i thought i had a pebble in my sock

i pulled it off and shook out a wasp

it stumbled out lost, and without a pause

unstung as i was, still i stomped it

even though i haven't seen you in years,

yours is a funeral i'd fly to from anywhere.

what, does it make me evil?  am i a feeble deranged fuck?

cause jesus would and i would not drive the needle exchange truck?

if you grew up with white boys

who only look at black and puerto rican porno

cause they want something that their dad don't got

then you know where you're at

then i wept with my face in your night shirt

trying hard as hell to say 'until death separates us,'

loosening the skin on your breastbone

i painted your nails and you sleep while i write all this down

when i got better from the mumps

yes, my swollen nut and neck shrunk

i sleep on my back cause it's good for the spine and coffin rehearsal

your mom she sits while her hair is in curlers

smokes weed and listens to garrison keillor

that's how i'll live when i quit my rap career

let her laughter pass the rafters and go out into the atmosphere

And here's a few favorite tracks with accompanying lyrics:

Song of the Sad Assassin

Alopecia (2008)

'i'll suck the marrow out and rape your hollow bones, yoni'

Berkeley by Hearseback

Eskimo Snow (2009)

'these tits not filled with milk, these cold bones wrapped in hunger

like a bundle of sticks in a fire so slow it leaves them unburned, black and yearning'

St. Vincent

Been listening to St. Vincent for quite some time, but I've never liked her stuff more than I do now.  

Annie Clark's progression as an artist has been fascinating.  She started out wearing butterfly wings and providing gentle background vocals for another one of my favorite musicians, Sufjan Stevens.  She broke out as an individual artist with her first studio album in 2007, entitled "Marry Me."  In 7 years, she has broken her own mold.  Though there was always a hint of edginess in her work, her early LP's brought more melody and timidity to the table than fierceness.  That couldn't be more opposite than her newest self-titled album... she has never sounded more confident.  The evolution of her cover art says it all:

Innocent Annie Clark (2007)

Fearless Annie Clark (2014)

Her time spent on tour with David Byrne had a profound impact on her recent material.  This is most obvious on the track "Digital Witness," which is Annie's commentary on the technology of today, posing the question "If I can't show it, if you can't see me... what's the point of doing anything?"

There's no arguing that her new work is both daring and just plain weird at times.  She's definitely a polarizing artist... especially when you watch her live.  Her concerts not only showcase her musicianship, but also serve as a medium to convey her newfound persona. She's perfected the use of her voice, her body and her facial expressions to transport you to what feels like a different time, and perhaps even a different world.  Personally, I find it mesmerizing, and I'll keep watching her.  Especially if she keeps ripping guitar solos like the one that starts at 4:06 in the video below: